The thunder of swords and axes clashed through the open air, surrounded by the roars of battle cries and screams of failure and death. Large bats dived from above, clawing, clutching and biting furiously at the men, elves and dwarves below, shrieking wildly with what sounded like excitement as they successfully got hold of their targets beneath them.

Fili had his two swords clutched tightly in his hands, swinging and stabbing savagely at orcs, goblins and wargs one by one; whatever came his way first, he was not favouring one over the other.

"Fili!" he heard his brother's voice yell from behind him.

Fili, suddenly overwhelmed with fear, forced his sword down with a striking blow into the warg's head who he'd been struggling to kill. Sharply, he turned to where his brother had called, to find Kili overwhelmed with a group of goblins.

Running as fast as his legs would take him, Fili flew to the goblins, planting deathly blows into their backs as they neared his brother, who was already trying to take on three goblins at once.

"Kili!" Fili yelled as he pulled his sword from one of the goblin's back and kicking him to the floor. Kili had managed to take down one of the goblins by himself, but was still struggling with the remaining two, the battle evidently taking its toll on the young dwarf.

Fili grabbed one of his smaller knives from his belt and threw it at one of the goblins attacking Kili, planting it directly into the side of the goblin's head, who fell to its knees with a painful shriek and unnatural squirm.

Kili, now with much less pressure on him, swung his sword at the goblin that in sync raised its own, blocking the dwarf's heavy blow. Kili pushed his sword against the goblins; its arms were raised high as they pushed against each other. Kili watched as suddenly its eyes widened and a gargling noise fell from the goblins mouth. He looked down to see a blade, plummet through the goblins chest, black blood staining the sword.

The sword retracted from the goblins body, and it fell down to its knees, revealing Fili.

"Are you OK?" Fili asked quickly, grabbing his brother's arm in fear.

"I'm fine," Kili said, his tone of voice sounded perplexed, like he was surprised that he was indeed fine. "I'm fine, thank you."

Fili nodded sternly and turned to look around where they stood. They stood on what appeard to be part of a ledge of the mountain, which trailed off down two slopes towards the lower ground where most of the battle seemed to have unfolded. Fili on looked in horror at the men, elves and dwarves who fought furiously below, slaying the enemy or falling tragically to their feet.

"We must find Uncle," Fili ordered, "and the rest of the company."

Kili nodded his head in agreement quickly, following behind his brother who strode down to the right side of the slope, running over what could scarcely be called a pathway to find the others; praying silently they were not dead.

"Kili! Fili!" a voice cried from above them as they ran down the pathway.

They looked up to find Dwalin stood, looking over the edge of another ledge on the mountain few feet above them. Kili and Fili looked panicked as they saw a large bat swoop down from the sky above Dwalin, its claws viciously spread out and pointed, ready to grasp the dwarf.

"Watch out!" Kili shouted, pointing upwards.

Dwalin scarcely turned, just in time to raise his large axe into the bats stomach, sending it flying down over the mountain side with a haunting shriek.

"Get up here now!" Dwalin ordered, before moving away from the edge of where he stood and disappearing.

Fili and Kili took no time in running up a separate pathway (and in some cases climbing large slopes) to get to where Dwalin stood moments ago.

As they reached where Dwalin had called them, they stood breathlessly at a larger ledge which once stood as a guard point and pathway down to the front gates of Erebor.

Fili immediately found Dwalin, Oin, Gloin and Thorin battling a large number of orcs and wargs, with the aid of a handful of men from Laketown.

Kili reached to grab his bow from his back, but panic struck his face when he realised he had lost it on the smaller ledge before Fili had come to his rescue.

"Come on," Fili said, throwing a look of encouragement his way before clutching his swords tightly and running towards the small battle ahead of them.

Fili and Kili ran towards their friend's aid with their weapons raised, crashing them down on the unsuspecting orcs who had been too busy focused on Dwalin, Thorin, Oin, Gloin and the men to notice their appearance.

Throwing his sword into his enemy with a more powerful blow with each swing, Fili pushed through the crowd and towards his surrounded friends who fought hard, despite the looks of exhaustion upon their faces.

"Fili! Kili!" Thorin yelled happily as he saw his nephews push forward, striking down orc after orc; the grin on his lips was short lived as he merely dodged the blade of an orc, before plunging his own blade into the orcs chest.

"I feared for the worst," Thorin called to them as he turned his attention to a second orc.

"You needn't worry for us, Uncle," Kili said cockily as his own blade reached the throat of a roaring warg.

"Enough of the cockiness, laddie," Gloin grunted from nearby, "before it gets you killed."

"He needs balls like that if he's going to survive," Dwalin retorted whilst bringing his axe to the neck of one orc, then swinging it ferociously at a second, letting out an angry cry as they fell.

"Balls or not, he's doing just –"

Fili could not help but panic as Thorin's voice came swiftly to an end. He could only wait to find out why as he fought an orc much larger than himself.

"Thorin!" a broken voice screamed.

Fili could hear the sound of a blade retreat from flesh, but did not dare to turn his head.

Fili cried out angrily, raising his two swords and moving hastily to bury them into the larger orcs sides. The orc yelped out and fell to its knees, clutching helplessly at its wounds.

Reluctantly, Fili turned his head to find Thorin on his knees, his hands rested over his stomach; blood ran through the dwarf's fingers and down the front of his armour, the King's face slowly turning a sick grey.

Behind Thorin stood an orc, larger than Fili had ever seen. He grinned victoriously at the back of Thorin's head, with his sword proudly raised in his large hand.

"NO!" Fili screamed loudly, his voice cracking. "THORIN!"

Thorin looked up from his deathly wound at his nephew, his eyes wide with short, shaky breaths escaping his lips.

Kili had been the first to run at the large orc, breathing heavily and screaming out loudly with every step. Fili followed shortly behind him, his head pounding heavily and his heart now beating so furiously he could hear it clearly pulsing in his ears.

Kili had just reached the orc in time, blocking the blade that was aimed for Thorin's neck. The large orc glared viciously at Kili, then strode up to the helpless dwarf, punching him in the chest and throwing him backwards against a rock.

Fili reached the orc just as he had hit his brother. He raised his sword and swung at it, digging one of his swords sideways into the orcs right leg.

The orc gave a yelp in pain and turned to Fili, who raised another sword and brought it down upon the orc a second time. Unfortunately this time, the orc had just managed to lift its heavy arm in defence, taking the blade to his forearm and earning a large, but not life threatening, wound.

The orc stood straight in a flash, and kicked Fili directly in the chest, causing him to fly backwards like Kili had done, this time however, falling beside his Uncle.

Fili's body skidded along the rough ground and he landed with a thud. He gasped and breathed harshly in pain, winded by the orcs large boot. He scrabbled around him as best he could, watching as the orc made its way fiercely towards them.

His heart fell into his stomach as he watched the orc kick both his swords that he had dropped aside and away from him.

"Fili," Thorin barely muttered.

Fili turned to his Uncle, who continued to stare down at the wound in his stomach, visibly shaking as the life slowly began to leave his body.

"No," Fili gasped. "No! We need to get you out of here!"

He looked around helplessly as the orc slowly and dauntingly approached them. He could see Dwalin nearby panic, trying his hardest to help Thorin, but was to overwhelmed with orcs to do anything.

Oin and Glon were in similar situations, helping each other slaughter the wargs that dived at them from every angle.

The large orc grinned down at Thorin and Fili, his sword lamely hanging by his side.

He hissed something in Black Speech that Fili could not understand. Although he did not understand it, it still sent a haunting shiver down his spine.

"Fili," Thorin whispered again.

"I won't let you die!" Fili cried, his throat hurt as he swallowed hard, refusing to let tears fall from his eyes. "I will not let you die here!"

Fili got to his feet with all the power left in his body and ran at the orc, only to halt and fall as an arrow dug itself into the back of his leg, and then another into the back of his shoulder.

The large orc let out a laugh at the dwarfs attempt to protect his kin, and merely walked past him as he helplessly fell to the floor in defeat.

Pain swarmed Fili's body as the arrows sharply planted themselves into his skin, tearing at it and ripping it apart.

With the rest of his strength, Fili turned to look at his uncle, who remained knelt on the floor, gasping for air.

Thorin looked back at Fili with his last few breaths, his eyes broken and strained.

His lips were moving slowly as he tried to speak. A fear fell upon his face that Fili had never seen as the large orc stood behind Thorin, grinning viciously.

"Uncle," Fili weakly mumbled, trying to stand but falling as the arrow dug further into his leg. "NO."

The large orc raised his sword high above his head, then yelled out once more in Black Speech, a disgusting grin swimming upon its face.

Thorin finally closed his eyes and flared his nostrils, waiting for his impending end.

"NO!" Fili screamed as the sword rose to the air, trying his best once more to stand. "THORIN, NO!"

Fili sat upright in his bed with a load gasp, clutching his pounding chest as sweat rolled down his forehead; waking from his dream.

"Thorin."