Sorry it has been so long since the last update, has been so very busy lately, but here it is, a brand New Chapter.

Chapter six: The power of one, the force of many

Yliahr was sneering, she felt utterly disgusted by the monster and she wished she could destroy it utterly but she knew that it was impossible. She couldn't get close enough to the beast and even though her flames did hurt it they could not kill it. It was made to be too tough for that to happen. She wondered what its creator really had had in mind when he made that bizarre creature, he couldn't have been in his right mind at all. She dodged another gust of fire from below and returned the favor with a roar. The ground around the beast was scorched and black and smoldering. Her flames were incredibly hot, not even Ancalagon the black would have been able to match their intensity.

The monster was roaring and screaming in utter anger, it felt that light and desperately wanted it gone and at the same time it did covet it, why it didn't know. Yliahr kept taunting the thing and it almost forgot its initial target but only almost. It did move forth, as stubborn as an old mule and Yliahr could only hope that Morghian and the others were ready for it. She concentrated on staying safe and put her trust in the abilities of her companions.

Morghian and the rest were ready, the mountain had been evacuated by now and there were nobody left inside. Some stubborn old dwarfs had to be literally hauled out of their homes but Dain managed to soothe their injured ego's and convince everybody that it was only temporarily. Everybody would be allowed to return to their homes soon enough. The dwarves and the people of Dale were heading down the valley towards the lake now, they were in a hurry and the elves were doing their best to aid them. Thranduil stood by the group and stared towards the direction from which the monster should appear, he was shivering inside. He felt it, something so awful and unnatural it defied the very laws of nature. It felt like filth, thick and oily and sticky clinging to your very soul and he cringed and hissed. Legolas was with the group helping the people and he was glad that his son wasn't there with him now. He was starting to fear that this could be the end, the thing he felt was just so overwhelming it made him unable to describe it.

Morghian was tired, she felt completely drained and Kheran held her tightly in his arms. He could sense her fatigue and he was worried that she would push herself too far, She had a nasty habit of doing just that and he just prayed that the monster would fall into the trap without causing any further problems. There was a sort of dusk descending, as if the sun lost some of its strength, a dark cloud appeared ahead and they all shivered. It was unlight, not really smoke or vapor, just a complete lack of light and everything good and right.

Morghian had put on a rather stern expression, she stared at the darkness with narrow eyes and Kheran could have sworn she was growling. Yliahr could be seen flying around the monster, she was roaring and spewing flames and the monster tried to reach her again and again. The red she dragon flew towards the mountain, she could sense where the trap was and she guided the monster towards it, slowly and with calm determination. The beast was very frustrated now, it didn't manage to catch the light nor erase it and the need to do just that was so very strong. The people gathered at the hill caught the first glimpse of the monster, the unlight was shielding it but the flames did remove enough of it for the protectors to see some of the beast and the sight made them almost turn away. Wougar and R'enith gasped and moaned and the dwarves went pale.

"That is just….It cannot be described!"

Dain was hoarse and he stared towards the mountain with wide eyes. Thranduil was ready to agree with him, he understood now why Morgoth hadn't unleashed the thing during the war of wrath. It was too unpredictable. It was not a weapon, it was destruction. Morghian groaned and sought the rocks once more, let her energy flow freely through it. She could feel the terrible power of the beast and its weight too. The earth shook underneath it and she wanted to growl and roar at it, to make it be gone.

The monster was at the base of the mountain now, it hesitated. It wanted to get rid of that darn dragon which was teasing it thus. It was primitive in many ways, it didn't really have much of a mind but its maker had used all of his wicked creativity to make it invincible. It tapped into its own unnatural powers and slowly it changed. The unlight was a terrible weapon but it had one weakness, it wasn't effective over a great distance and the dragon managed to stay clear of it. And it did also dodge its flames and whips rather well, it was no way it would get the dragon by using those weapons.

The monster was indeed a shape shifter, Morgoth had probably gotten the idea from the were wolves he and his servants had used with such terrible results and now the thing just let go of the unlight. The weapons adopted from Ungoliant were discarded off and the thing roared in a mixture of confusion and pain and it slowly became something new. It hurt, and the agony only added to its determination and strength. It didn't know defeat, it didn't know fear. It would win for sure.

Thranduil just stared, he had gotten even paler than normal and his mouth was open. It didn't look very regal at all but for the moment he didn't care at all. What was emerging from the darkness was an abomination even worse than the somewhat spider like shape the monster had had until now. It was as if a dragon and a balrog had bred an offspring and the thing was even greater than before. It got up onto its hind legs and roared and Yliahr looked like a sparrow placed next to a great eagle next to it. She saw that this monstrous dragon didn't have wings capable of carrying it, it was too massive. But it had claws and long arms and deadly fire and more than that, it did also spew a sort of acid and Yliahr did manage to get away from the first spurt of the stuff but the next one hit her left wing and she shrieked in pain and spun around, got out of range. She couldn't fight this beast, it would be suicide.

Morghian gasped, she stared at the thing that stood there, enormous and glowing like a creature made with entrails of lava. She took a deep breath of air and felt how the weight of the balrog dragon made the very earth groan. " It is too bloody big!"

Kheran stared at her. " Are you sure?"

She nodded. " It cannot fit down the shaft, it has got hands damn it. It will cling to anything I can grasp onto."

Dain was shivering and Wougar and R'enith stared at her with visible fear. " What do we do?"

Morghian stared at the monster and her mind was racing like crazy, she was shivering and sweat was running off her. She was still connected to the very earth and it drained her, rather rapidly. Then something dawned upon her. " The caves and openings, how did they come to being?"

Thranduil and the dwarf king stared at each other and Dain shrugged. " We think they were dug by some worms, huge creatures that dig through the earth itself. But they haven't been seen for many years and they were ultimately controlled by the dark forces, they served the orcs."

Morghian closed her eyes. " They are just beasts right? Just animals?"

Thranduil nodded. "Yes, not very smart at all"

Qu'ghan grinned from one ear to the other. " You want to use them right?"

Morghian nodded. " People, from now on this has become a joint effort. We have to join our talents and powers in order to conquer this monster. And we have to do it fast."

She turned to Wougar and R'enith. " You two, seek those worms, make them come to us, and do it fast. I will distract the monster again."

She saw that Kheran was getting rather stiff faced and his eyes were dark. " You cannot do it, it will kill you! You are too weak."

Morghian clenched her teeth together." Not if I link my mind with all of you, if I draw strength from everybody."

Thranduil swallowed hard, nobody had ever done something like that before and he realized how truly different these people were. She got onto her feet, her eyes were shining and she smiled, a dark smile. " I cannot truly take my dragonshape, it is lost to me. But I can make the next best thing. I can make my own body."

Kheran gasped and he looked as if he was about to shake her, it was obvious that the prospect scared him. " Morghian, please, listen to reason. It will burn you out."

Morghian shook her head. " No, not if I can join forces with everybody here, every dwarf and elf and human, I am but one but with the force of many I can beat this thing, I know I can."

Thranduil closed his eyes, sought the minds of every elf in the valley and bid them open their souls and allow Morghian to tap into their energy. Dain swore as only a dwarf can and sighed. " Right, when the pointy eared ones can risk their very being then we dwarves cannot be any less brave now can we? Right lass, do it. Let us all do this together."

Morghian nodded and sought outwards, she let her power embrace them all and for a moment Thranduil felt dizzy. He had involuntarily tapped into one of her most powerful memories, of the time when she could fly, cleave the air in her true shape and soar above the ground. It was mind boggling and terrifying and yet a feeling more heady than any brew he had ever tasted and he understood that to her this had to be a loss so devastating he could barely understand it.

Wougar and R'enith had sunken down onto the ground, their eyes closed and their breaths uneven and shallow, they were seeking out through the rock to find the worms and their ability to bond with living creatures should be enough to bring the worms to the mountain. Both were very powerful, and their powers were of the nature itself and thus they were pure and uncorrupted, the worms would not be strong enough to resist their calling even if they still were bound by the dark powers.

Morghian could feel them, every living soul within the valley, it felt like walking through an endless meadow filled with flowers, all of different size and color and she was awe struck by the beauty. She got a hold of herself, focused. The monster was moving towards Yliahr since she still carried the gem and the red dragon couldn't continue this fight much longer, she was wounded and tired and the beast was sort of dragging the very will out of her now, it was just too frightening and overwhelming. Morghian sat down, then she laid herself down onto the very rock itself and allowed her energy to merge with the rock once more, and now to a further degree than before. She let her soul become the rock and she knew that this was dangerous but she didn't have much of a choice. Her soul was at risk here but she couldn't hesitate, not anymore.

A part of the mountain side started to move, to bulge outwards and a shape became visible. Kheran gasped and the others stared at it with awe. This was Morghian as she was in her dragon shape but no dragon of flesh and blood. This was made from rock and still it was moving and the elves stood there in awe and stared at the being that was both beautiful and terrible to behold. She was just as scary as the monster of Morgoth and she was just as big as it too. She had added some details to her exterior, a sort of armor shaped from the sharp volcanic glass she had found deep beneath the mountain. It made the rock dragon look menacing and the monster saw its new opponent and hesitated. Yliahr saw Morghian's new body too and understood her plan. Swiftly she flew towards the huge rock dragon and dropped the bag with the gem into it's outstretched hand.

Morghian felt weird, heavy and slow but she pulled on the energy of many souls, it made her strong, immensely so but even that energy had its limits. She couldn't go on for too long without seriously risking everybody's health and safety. The stone dragon couldn't make any sound, it moved silently and it made it all the more frightening. It was truly a clash of giants, too large to really seem real. The monster was confused, it had fought a small flying menace and now it was faced by another problem, much bigger and so much more like itself. It let out a roar that made the very ground shake and attacked. For a being so huge it was fast, surprisingly so. It rushed towards the stone dragon with a speed that made the spectators just gape and stare. It was so much more agile now than it had been in its initial shape and if it had owned more than just an excuse for a brain it would perhaps have felt a bit annoyed by the fact that it didn't discover its shape shifting abilities before.

The rock dragon was prepared, and Morghian was after all an officer. She had learned how to fight with every weapon available and if there was nothing else present she knew how to use her body as a tool. Kheran had seen her fight several times and he had always been in awe of her controlled cold rage and her precision. It didn't fail her this time, she ducked and a massive stone fist hit the monster straight in its solar plexus. The thing staggered back and heaved for air, stunned by the fact that this dragon fought not with tooth and claw but in an entirely unanticipated fashion. Morghian didn't allow her opponent to gather it's senses, she followed through with a vicious kick that almost broke one of the monsters legs and the thing roared with pain and shock. It had never felt pain before and it didn't particularly like it.

She was way too heavy to fly, and just the idea would have been ridiculous, her wings were made from stone and too stiff for flight. Instead they were like a very heavy backpack and just in her way and she cursed the fact that she couldn't alter her shape more than she already had. She had added the obsidian armor but that was all she could do. The monster let out a huge amount of fire but it didn't hurt the stone dragon at all. Morghian would have laughed if she could.

The others just stood there in awe and disbelief and Kheran was kneeling by Morghian's body, frantically praying that she would make it. He already gave her as much of his energy as he could through their mate bond and he sensed how she drew strength from everybody else there as well. The refugees had stopped moving, they all just stood there staring and many felt faint headed already, some had sat down and a few humans seemed to have passed out. They couldn't really take as much as a dwarf or an elf when it came to energy drainage.

Thranduil was powerful and ancient and his mind a bit different than that of others there, he saw more than they saw and he had a hard time stopping himself from getting too curious and seeing too much. He sensed that Morghian was a very unique creature and he could see a huge ring of erected stones, glowing in a most insane way and in the middle of this circle he felt a sort of presence, benign and yet terrifying. It make him back off immediately for he knew somehow that if he ventured even deeper into her memories it would damage him forever. Kheran sent him a swift glance. " Good choice mellon, getting too close to the core of who she really is would have burned your very being to ash, nobody is strong enough to come in close contact with her mind, not even me."

Thranduil swallowed hard. " I saw a circle of stones, and it was beautiful and yet…"

Kheran got a wry smile on his beautiful face. " Oh that, yes, it is a keypoint, a passage between worlds, connecting them to the great weave of life. We had to awaken it for the forces of light so that the dark powers of our world couldn't claim it. It would have been the end quite literally, creation itself would have been undone and everything would have seized to exist."

The elf shuddered. " Who would want that? Not even Morgoth himself wanted the world to become undone, he just wanted to rule everything"

Kheran smiled again, a sad smile that didn't reach his eyes, they were as flint hard as ever. "The one we feared was a dragon, of the first born race. Immensely powerful but corrupted, pretty much like your Morgoth I think. And he wanted vengeance for having been punished by his brethren so he wanted to ruin everything. A rather immature attitude but dangerous nevertheless."

Thranduil sighed. " I see, childish I would call that."

Kheran just shrugged. " Maybe, Morghian managed to kill the bastard and she rebuilt the city too, a great effort and her name will be forever remembered there."

Wougar and R'enith didn't pay any attention to the conversation of the others, they were busy doing their job now and it wasn't easy at all. The drawback of having powers as their own was that every mind, every soul became visible to them. They had to sort through thousands of minds, more or less complex to be able to find the worms and the trouble was that their minds were pretty similar to those of ordinary earthworms.

Wougar was cursing again, he had called upon something he thought could be one of the huge earth movers but it turned out to be a wild goat with a slight braindamage from too many fights against other rams. He let the animal free and started seeking again, so far he had found a dozen or more so deer, some hawks, hundreds and hundreds of rodents and their minds were so skittish and all over the place at once it gave him a throbbing headache. R'enith wasn't faring much better, she had tried to call upon no less than two wandering wargs, a handful of moles and believe it or not a bear and two geese. The bear had not been very pleased and she had apologized before she let go of it again. They didn't need an angry bear in the middle of this.

Then she found something, something very primitive indeed but also very strong and even though the things she reached didn't have any real thoughts it had plenty of feelings. She reached out to Wougar and made his aware of her findings and they sought it out together. It was indeed a worm, and when they found one they soon found yet another one. It had to be a couple, a male and a female and they were guarding a nest of eggs. R'enith smiled, a rather wicked grin. It was perfect. She implanted a thought into the beasts mind, told it that its eggs were in danger, that there was something there which wanted to devour them. The worms were all instinct and she hadn't misread them at all. They immediately started burrowing, desperate to stop the enemy. There were few left of them now and they didn't want to lose this clutch, each and every egg was precious beyond belief.

Morghian dodged a blow from the monsters arm, the claws hit her rock armor and sparks flew but there was no flesh nor bone which could get injured, she was all stone and she knew that the dwarves probably were going to tell tales of this until the end of time or even longer. The monster had spewed acid onto her and that did in fact damage the rock but since it wasn't alive she didn't feel any pain and the damage was just superficial. It didn't really matter that much. She grasped onto a cliff and tore a huge chunk of it free, used it as a club and smashed it into the monsters shoulder with a boom that was heard for miles. The monster roared, it could in fact get injured and the club had broken several bones in its shoulder. Its creator had made one huge mistake when he designed this thing, he had believed that its sheer size would protect it, that nothing would be bigger or meaner but that was where he now was proven to be very wrong indeed. The monster was flesh and blood, it was alive and as all living creatures it has weaknesses.

Size can be intimidating but it brings with it a whole host of problems of which most never really think. The monster could shift and change its body but since the process had to happen fast it couldn't be complete, it was lacking in many ways. Its lungs were too small and its heart not nowhere near strong enough. It was losing strength fast but it didn't have the mental capability to understand this fact. It was pushing itself without regard for its own well-being and Morghian had fought before. She was a well-trained warrior and she also used the experiences of the souls with which she had bonded. She somehow knew that Morgoth had been a sloppy designer when he constructed many of his ancient horrors. He hadn't thought of longevity and durability at all. His minions were expendable, to be used and discarded off and this beast was no different than the rest of his creations. He had never meant for it to be able to do much real fighting.

She saw the opponent heave for air and the rock dragon would have smiled if it could. She kicked up a huge cloud of dust earth and pulverized rock and the beast did inhale a lot of it. The result was instant, the monster staggered backwards and coughed, it was barely able to get air into its system as it was and this was a bit too much. Morghian didn't underestimate her opponent though, she knew that the monster had a self-preservation instinct, it wanted to live and fight and serve its master and she knew that it was capable of some tricks of its own. She could somehow sense that it was far from harmless even while choking and she was right.

Suddenly the beast sported tentacles again and they wrapped around the rock dragon with ferocious power, tossed it against the side of the mountain and the impact made the ground itself shiver. The dwarves and elves just stared and the humans down the valley moaned and knew that everybody was in peril if the monster won this fight. Morghian groaned, she could feel the impact through her bond with the rock that made up the dragonshape and it hurt her. She bared her teeth, eyes glowing and her mind filled with ferocious will. She wouldn't let it win, never.

The worms were on their way, Wougar and R'enith had managed to convince them of the danger lurking and they had both withdrawn their minds from the rather simple brains of these creatures. Both were drenched in sweat and shivering but they did connect with Morghian again to strengthen her. She was struggling against the beasts, the tentacles were terribly strong and sticky too and she didn't really know how to break free from them. She didn't have the momentum needed to snap them and Wougar realized that she was having trouble. He turned towards Thranduil and there was a silent plea in his eyes. " I need some help, you are the one here with the greatest energy, share it with me."

Thranduil hesitated, then he opened his mind also to the shaman, he did see that R'enith was doing all she could to help Morghian and he sort of anticipated what Wougar wanted to do. The shaman cringed but he pushed forth and found the mind of the beast, it was almost as primitive as that of the worms but it had some complexity to it still. It was furious and wasn't going to back down that easily.

Wougar was shocked, he had hardly ever encountered something that terrible and cold and evil, the master had most certainly managed to create something worthy of him. But the shaman was brave and he was skilled too. The contact was like a feathers touch, barely noticeable for he didn't want to make the beast aware of his presence within its mind. He could feel that the elven king was a very experienced warrior too, and that he had faced dragons before. Now he used also Thranduil's encounters with the fire breathers to his advantage and he realized that within this realm dragons don't go very well together. They loathe each other and meet only to mate and Wougar grinned, a rather devilish grin. He created an illusion, a fake image of another huge dragon, rapidly approaching and ready for attack.

The beast roared, it was getting confused. It didn't feel another dragon there but it did see it and it turned its attention away from the rock dragon. It wasn't capable of staying focused on more than one thing at a time. That was what Morghian had been waiting for, the tentacles went limp and she ripped herself free, the rock dragon was back onto its legs and she knew that this was it. She had to complete her task soon, before she got too drained of strength. The trap was not far away now and she moved towards it. The earth shook and the worms suddenly shot out through the ground, the huge flat heads with multiple rows of teeth swinging around, searching for their enemy.

The beast wasn't prepared for this, not at all. The fake dragon disappeared and it roared in confusion and turned towards these two new enemies. The worms were digging through the very earth itself, and the monster of Morgoth was made from flesh and blood. Tough yes, but still nowhere near as hard as the very bones of the earth. The first worm attacked and the mouth tore a huge gash in the beast's abdomen. The monster shrieked and struck the worm with a huge clawed hand. Everybody could hear the sound of the impact and the worm was made from tough material too but the strength of the beast was great. The claws cut through the thick hide and went deep into the body of the animal, it almost cut the front part off the body. But the worm was primitive and that also means that it was less vulnerable than more evolved and specialized beings. It managed to pull back and its mouth locked itself onto the flank of the monster, teeth sank deep into the flesh as hot blood poured from the worm's wounds and it's jaw locked itself as it died slowly in violent spasms. The other worm couldn't really tell that its mate was dying, it was not able to wrap its mind around such complex concepts as that but it did sense danger and it attacked too.

The teeth were made to crush rock, it didn't really have much problems with crushing a leg. And it did, it ripped a leg off the monster with ease and the beast roared and grasped a huge rock and crushed the worms head with it. The already dead worm hung onto it and the movement caused a huge chunk of tissue to be torn out of it, the agony confused the monster and it didn't see that the rock dragon was close now. Too close.

Morghian tossed the bag with the fake silmaril at the monster, and it lodged itself onto one of the horns on its grotesque head. The monster shrieked again and everybody had to cover their ears, the fire burned it, the light was too strong, it had to get away from it. Morghian felt how she was unable to maintain the dragon shape, she had reached the end of her endurance and her heart was beating irregularly and so terribly fast. She let go of the other souls with a shiver, many passed out or felt terribly sick and barely anyone was able to remain standing. Being able to control the stone dragon had required so much power it was a miracle anybody had been able to endure it.

Wougar had let go of the monster and he stood there panting and Thranduil had to sit down, he was shivering too and since he had sensed what the shaman had he now knew what the mind of the beast was like. It had been terrible. He stared at the monster, the rock dragon was now just rock, like a huge statue but Morghian had known what she was doing, she had left it unbalanced and it tilted forward, crashed into the monster and it reared back, stepped onto the top of the shaft. The cover of rock broke, the monster didn't understand as the ground seemed to disappear underneath it and it clawed at the rock surrounding it to stay above the ground. That was what Morghian had anticipated, what she had waited for. The obsidian armor of the rock dragon was not to protect her creation, it was a trick. Suddenly the black rock became a liquid and it slid across the ground and surrounded the struggling monster in a thick layer of slick black oil-like goo. It encased the monster, brought its arms down along its flanks and the blood from its wounds and the two worms did make the shaft even more slippery than before. Gravity kicked in, more powerful than any magic.

The monster roared, legs kicking but they were deep inside of the mountain now and the black rock had become a solid mass again, it was like a suit made just to turn the monster into a streamlined object perfectly fitting through the shaft. Morghian was panting and her eyes were glowing in a very sinister way now. She let the monster fall, and it was so heavy it fell without much resistance and deep within the mountain the huge cave awaited it. She sneered, teeth bared and body tense, her connection with the rocks were stronger than ever before even if it now was only her own energy supporting the process.

The beast shrieked, thrashed around but the fall could not be stopped, it reached the cave and the black rock disappeared as if it never had been there. The monster tried to turn around but it was too late. It fell onto the spikes like a rock and was impaled by several dozen of them. It was unable to move, unable to do much. Morghian had planned for this, the fake silmaril was a weapon in itself, its power was unleashed and suddenly a light was unleashed so bright it burned everything within the cave, it was hotter than the sun itself, a glowing burning ball of pure energy and it burned its way through the skin and meat of the beast, heading towards its very brain.

The beast roared in agony and rage, it was defeated, it was dying, it wouldn't please its master at all. But it had one last trick up its sleeve, one last ingenious thing it could do. It opened a gland in its skin next to its neck and a thick fog seemed to spread through the air and up the shaft. At the same time hundreds of small creatures seemed to burst forth from its skin everywhere, they were parasites and like rats they were abandoning the sinking ship.

The shaft was soon teeming with them and Morghian was struggling to find the strength to close it off and seal the chamber when one of the dwarves shouted. " Look, what the heck is that?"

She moaned, too dizzy and confused to really manage to see much, she had used all her power and wanted to rest. The ground around the shaft was being covered by something that was moving? What could that be? Wougar hissed. " Damn it, the thing had lice, or something like it. Close the shaft Morghian, do it now!"

The lice or whatever it was had to be the size of a bull and they were moving around rather fast too, they were probably insects and the shaman could sense them, they were irritated and hungry and the valley was filled with people. He cursed and Morghian was pale and grey and sweating. She let the rock turn into a liquid once more, entombed the monster in it before she let it go solid again and the shaft disappeared as if it never had been there. But the new danger was there and it was like watching an anthill from above, the ground was moving everywhere. Dain blinked in disbelief. " Has got to be several hundred of the things, what are we to do?"

Thranduil was staring at the smaller but probably no less lethal beasts with wide eyes. " We have to stop them somehow, everybody is too weak now to fight."

Dain shook his head. "No they are not, my warriors are never too weak to fight, we are not such sassy faced wimps as yer so called warriors, we are ready."

He ran over to the edge of the cliff and pulled out a horn, blew it a few times. " Now my folk knows what to do."

Thranduil was seriously offended by the dwarf's words but he didn't show it, it was just the way Dain was and there was no time to waste. He quickly sought the minds of his elves, most were armed with bows and arrows and now the plain was swiftly being transformed into a defense zone. The elves gathered in a line and the dwarves made a living wall in front of the archers, wielding hammers and axes and everything else they had. Dain made a wry grin. " I will join my men now. Good luck everybody."

The dwarf king just ran down the hill towards the upcoming battle and Thranduil sighed. " I feel like shit, honestly. I am shivering like a leaf and my legs feels like jelly, she drained us all completely."

Wougar nodded. " She had to, the effort would have killed her otherwise. We should leave though, I don't think this is a very safe place for much longer."

The huge mass of creatures were steadily approaching and now they could see that they did resemble a sort of long legged mite with a rather nasty head with long jaws. Kheran picked up Morghian and they ran down from the hill as fast as they could. Abry and Qu'ghan helped Thranduil and when they reached the plain they all got onto their horses, if it came to it they all had to flee once more. The beasts were indeed the size of a buffalo bull and moving rather fast and Wougar hissed. "Unnatural, they are too big. Should have been crushed by their own weight."

R'enith nodded. " You are right, magic sustains them. Can we disrupt it?"

Wougar nodded. " We can try, but still there will be a fight."

Kheran had gotten Morghian onto her horse, she was able to sit there on her own and he had gotten a very determined look upon his face. " I can try to do some damage, Arazz is still in the area, he is no huge dragon but he can fight."

Morghian moaned. " Yliahr?"

Kheran shook his head. " Too injured, her wing got hit. She cannot fly."

Morghian nodded. " I know, but she is just as lethal on the ground. Where is she?"

Kheran frowned. " I don't know, I didn't see where she landed."

R'enith pointed towards a cliff near the entrance to Erebor." There, behind that cliff, she is apparently just laying there waiting for them"

Morghian grinned, it was a stiff smile. " Good, she can really cause some mayhem when she wants too, even if she isn't capable of flying."

Kheran looked at her with a pleading expression on his face. " Will Arazz accept me?"

Morghian smiled, a very loving smile. " Of course, he has carried you before hasn't he? I will call him down, and bring a good bow dear."

Thranduil was shouting orders to his warriors, they all looked pale and rather shaken but they were ready. Centuries of training had prepared them for anything, even this. He was as regal as ever but they could see that he was shivering and his eyes were hazy. Legolas had joined the other archers and he too looked weak, he did not back down though and Thranduil shouted something to one of the officers. The elf immediately came with a bow and a full quiver and Kheran tested it and found it to be very good.

He smiled and Arazz came flying and landed right in front of them. He petted the dragon on its neck and Arazz squeaked and accepted his touch. Morghian whispered something to the animal and it crouched down and let Kheran climb onto its back. He attached himself to the saddle using a special harness and then the smaller dragon took off. The monsters were getting closer by now, and they were terrifying. They didn't appear to have eyes so they probably hunted by using heat or scent and they were crawling down the mountainsides like an army of overgrown bed mites.

The dwarves were shouting battle cries to gather courage and the elves did join inn, some humans had also found weapons and were ready to protect their families. Wougar tried to seek out the minds of these new horrors and he let out a faint cry and stumbled back, had to hold onto the side of his strange steed not to topple over. R'enith looked shocked. "What is it?"

Wougar grasped a hold of himself again. " They want blood, they feed upon blood. And they have caught the scent of everybody down here. This is an even worse enemy than the great monster, it was just one. These are hundreds"

Morghian was terrified, she was no longer capable of doing any fighting at all, her strength utterly spent and she could do nothing more. But she wanted to, she wanted to fight and Kheran smiled at her and nodded his head. " Remember your training starry eyes, you are a capable warrior even as a human."

Morghian nodded and pulled her sword. Adhriat was a rare blade capable of cutting through any know substance and she felt how her self-confidence returned with it in her hands. " I know, I will fight."

Abry had shed most of her clothes and many of the males there were staring at her with wide eyes, she was a spectacular sight. She nodded to Morghian. " I will fight by your side my lady."

Qu'ghan had discarded his skittish colt, instead he mounted Bloodjaw. The S'haga was big enough to carry him easily and with two swords they made a formidable team. Morghian closed her eyes and knew that this was a fight she had to get through as a human, not as a dragon. It would be tough but not impossible. She sneered and let out a howl, a challenge. Dain had taken up a position at the front of the three lines of dwarves and he was grinning like crazy. " Ah come on ye ugly bastards, let me axe caress yer ugly faces."

Thranduil had also gotten his swords and even though he was feeling weak he was ready to fight, they couldn't let these new monstrosities get to the women and children. Arazz shrieked and kicked off and was in the air and Kheran knew that he could signal where they ought to put their attention. From above he had a perfect view of the battle ground, and he intended to use it. The smaller beasts were rushing ahead, they made no sound for they were probably not capable of it but the sound of hundreds of legs was deafening. They sounded like a stampeding herd of cattle and the moment they got within range the elves let loose a swarm of deadly arrows. Morghian held her breath, the beasts were insects and they had an exoskeleton and she had no idea of how thick it was. It all depended on that one factor now.

The arrows reached the approaching swarm and Thranduil groaned. Most arrows just ricocheted off the thick hide of the beasts but some did damage the target. The joints were vulnerable and so was the underside of the beasts and the flexible neck area. He roared an order and the archers started aiming for individual beasts, they shot in an almost mechanical rhythm. The beasts fell, or at least some did and Abry changed into her were form and growled. She was magnificent as a were cat and her long claws were razor sharp.

The beasts reached the first line of dwarves and Dain roared orders and the dwarves were indeed just as tough and ferocious as Morghian had guessed that they were. The front line were battle hardened veterans and they went for the legs. That was a very wise move for whence the beasts were crippled they were easy to shoot for the elves.

Wougar and R'enith had gotten their weapons and rode into the melè and Qu'ghan and Abry joined them, the few riders there rode forth and Morghian was among them. The huge mite like monsters were terrifying up close with snapping jaws and they did stink too. But she forgot that when the battle fever took her and above them Kheran was firing down at the beasts and shouting warnings if they seemed to break through the lines.

Thranduil was fighting like demon, he had forgotten his fatigue and the blades were sharp enough to penetrate even the thick shielding skin of these beasts. He saw that the mites or whatever they were had managed to overpower a few dwarves and they had transformed the poor fellows to mummies by sucking the very juices out of them, and all within minutes. It made him shiver.

Arrows were flying and axes and hammers and swords did their job well, Abry were tearing the monsters apart and Qu'ghan and Bloodjaw were also rather efficient. The giant cat simply pounced and hit the mites in the head with its massive paw and that knocked them out so the blue haired elf could use his elven blade with deadly precision. They had soon discovered that the fragile point was the joint between the head and the thorax and now everybody went for it. Arazz added some fire to the mix, he could breathe flames but he was first and foremost just a mount and his best weapon was his maneuverability and speed. The dragon flew low and let its strong hind legs with claws swipe across the beasts and topple them.

They were not very agile and their center of gravity low, since the bodies were wide and the legs shorts they couldn't turn themselves over again if they ended up on their backs. They were like turtles.

Then Yliahr struck, she had waited until the majority of the flock had passed her by and since she was so huge she wasn't very warm, the mites didn't sense her. Now she ran forth, she was injured and in pain but that didn't stop her. She didn't need her wings to be lethal, she just ran and her massive feet crushed mites. She had a set of very powerful jaws and her long teeth sank through the exoskeletons like a knife through warm butter, the tail with spikes on it did swipe across the ground and she was indeed a most terrifying and yet beautiful sight. Every now and then she did let out a burst of flames and the heat attracted the mites which then got within her reach. Morghian was rather proud of the red she dragon, she was a formidable ally and Thranduil was in awe, they should have had a dragon like that in the previous wars, everything would have been different.

The battle seemed to be won when a rider approached from behind, riding very hard, he was obviously very scared. " People are getting sick, very sick. Please, we need help."

Everybody was staring at each other and Morghian moaned, the dark mist she had seen leave the shaft before it was closed, the monster was seeking its vengeance from beyond the grave. What now?