Chapter 7: The storm

The company began to cheer. Even Dru felt something tug at her chest. She recognised that army as belonging to someone she hadn't seen in so long.

Thranduil, obviously displeased and distracted by the oncoming army galloped away. He quickly directed his army to face the oncoming one on the hill.

"Hey, Thorin!" A familiar voice yelled out and waved his weapon high.

Dru, feeling that she might as well make the best of a bad situation, hurried to the side and called out.

"Uncle Dain!" She smiled and whilst it was forced, she still felt better after doing it. She was still glad to see him. Not so much the massive army he'd brought with him, but definitely him.

"How's my favourite niece?!" He yelled at her as if they were merely meeting at another family gathering, "how many hearts have you broken now?"

"None, I've been breaking mostly kneecaps!"

"That's my girl! Put the tea on, we'll be done soon!"

"Bollocks to that! You can sod off if you think I'm waiting on you hand and foot!" She felt a smile tug at her lips as he cackled back at her.

She didn't care about the audience they had. She also didn't care for the looks she was getting. She was just enjoying the common banter between her and Dain.

'Normalcy. Something was normal. Oh, Mahal.'

Dain, having calmly approached the awaiting armies of both elves and humans, didn't seem to mind all the weapons pointed at him.

"Good Morning," his voice rang out for all to hear, even the Dwarves on the balcony, "How are we all?"

"I have a wee proposition if you wouldn't mind giving me a few moments of your time," Dru could hear his polite tones but knew exactly where this was going.

"Would ye' consider," he paused and Druili prepared herself as his sudden shout went out, "JUST SODDING OFF?!"

She laughed. She couldn't help it. In all that they had been through, in all that had just happened, it had taken Dain to make her laugh.

She collapsed on her knees and clutched at her stomach, not caring at the others who looked at her. She was giggling hysterically and snorts escaped from her nose. It had been a while since she'd just laughed and laughed and it wasn't helping that Dain kept speaking.

"All of ye! Right now!"

"Up lass," she felt arms encircle her waist and hoist her up onto unsteady feet, "this is no time for laughter."

Dwalin did not let her go. She turned around and, still laughing, buried her face into his chest to quench her humour. He hadn't bathed in days and the smell alone quickly quenched her humour.

"Oh Dwa," She pulled back with tears in her eyes, "you need a bath, BADLY."

He didn't look down at her, but she felt the slight ripple in his chest as he restrained his laughter. She took a couple of deep breaths and turned back to the events on the ground below.

"Come now, Lord Dain!" Gandalf stepped forward, away from the elves and humans among him.

"Gandalf the Grey," the distaste in his tone was palpable, "tell this rabble to leave, or I'll water the ground their blood!"

"There is no need for war!" Gandalf approached Dain, "between Dwarves, Men and Elves. A legion of Orcs march on the Mountain. Stand your army down!"

Dru upon hearing this turned to the others.

"Orcs?! There are bloody Orcs coming now?!"

"He's mistaken," Thorin sounded unconvinced and uncaring, "or lying. Word would have been spread and quickly."

She rolled her eyes and turned away, knowing not to argue with him at that moment. Least she returned the hit he had given her.

"If he chooses to stand between me and my kin, I'll split his pretty head open!" Dain continued and Dru remembered part of the reason why she didn't like talking to him all the time. Sometimes, he could be TOO much of-...well, Dain.

"See if he's still smirking then!"

The company cheered in response and Dru with her back to them, scoffed.

"Oh...if mother was here, she'd bloody sort this out, I tell you," she realised that she wasn't addressing anyone now, but shrugged her shoulders, "talking to yourself? Well, it's the only reasonable conversation you're going to bloody get now, isn't it?!"

"He's clearly mad, like his cousin." Was Thranduil's drool response.

"You hear that, lads? We're on!" Dain turned his pig back to face his army, "Let's give these bastards a good hammering!"

The Dwarves cried out in response.

The Elven army without being told began their formation for the attack. Just as Dain commanded his army to ride on their mighty goats, Thranduil's readied their bows again. And this time, he gave the command.

Dru watched in fascinated horror as thousands of arrows flew loose from the bows, towards the Dwarven army that approached them. And then Dain shouted a command and she remembered that Dwarves also had their own secrets. The giant projectiles they fired were shields for the Dwarves as well as an attack. Their projectiles landed and took out a small wave of Elves.

For some reason, just watching them get hurt made her stomach turn and it was suddenly too much. She pushed away from the wall and flew into a corner where she emptied the contents of her stomach. She was glad it was mostly water she lost.

"Dru?" A soothing hand appeared at her back and waited for her to stop vomiting to respond, "Dru, you can still go inside and-"

"Just bloody hold my hair back!" She managed to get out as she retched again and Fili obeyed her, scooping as much hair away from her face as he could hold. She could hear the sounds of the battle outside and whilst she knew this was what war was like, the idea of so many of her kin and Elves dying...and the people of Lake-town...she retched again and felt like sobbing when she finally got a break.

"Death. Fighting and death," she turned her head to Fili and felt her jaw tighten, "all because of a bloody stone."

She pulled herself up and wiped the remnants of the water on the back of her gloved hand, wincing as it caught her sore cheek.

Fili didn't reach out to hold her. Nor did he pull away to let her by. She suddenly realised they were standing together, apart from the others, with his hand still against her back and his arm around her.

"I won't ask you again. But," he leant in closer and placed his forehead against hers, "if you want to go back inside and wait, no one would blame you. It wouldn't be cowardly or whatever it is you'd call it: it'd just be keeping yourself safe."

She would have kissed it had it not been for the fact she had just vomited and probably smelt awful.

She shook her head.

"I'm staying with you. Until this is over."

He finally released her with a small, sad nod and backed away. They both went back over to the wall, and whilst there was only a few people in between them, she'd never felt as far from him as she did right now. Chaos and destruction still reigned below. She tried to shut herself off from it all, but new that if they joined the fight, they're be no shutting off for what was to come.

Dru didn't know whether to watch or not. Luckily, a sudden and loud rumble broke through.

"WHAT NOW?!" She slapped her hands down on the rough edges of the balcony and looked into the distance.

From the Mountains, small speckles could be seen. They were moving and coming closer to the waiting Armies outside the entrance to Erebor. And then, the rumbling turned to growls. Deep and guttural, inhuman growls and louder than any creature she'd heard before.

"What...what is that?!" She turned to the others briefly, not daring to keep her eyes off of the mountains for long, "What's making that noise?!"

Someone's voice told her. She heard it and she heard the name. But the terror that gripped her heart at the name had deafened her to who said it.

"Were-worms."

In the distance on the mountainsides, the ground suddenly exploded in a flurry of dirt and rock. Large worms broke through the surface and their bodies reared back and forth as if smelling the blood on the air.

The blood that pumped in the veins of every living creature that stared at them. The blood that it was so eager to spill.

Dru clutched at her stomach impulsively and felt her dinner move. Her entire being felt cold.

"How do we fight those?" She whispered and shook, feeling no comfort at the presence of her friends behind her, "How do we KILL those?!"

Suddenly just as they had burst from the ground, they retreated when a distinctive howl broke through the air. The howl of an Orc army.

"I'm going over the wall. Who's coming with me?"

Dru turned to her brother, seeing his determination set and the words stuck in her throat. He looked at her and she nodded. The company around began to cheer and all piped up loudly at the same time, agreeing to help.

"Come on, let's go!" Dwalin called, eager to join his kin on the battlefield.

"Stand down."

The company turned to Thorin in shock.

"What?" Ori said, his voice speaking for everyone, "Are we to do nothing?"

"I said, stand down!" Thorin began to descend the staircase, leaving them and the conversation.

"Don't you dare."

Thorin stopped briefly to look over his shoulder. Dru was standing at the top, looking at him and allowing all her rage to take over.

"Don't you DARE turn away from your kin!"

He sneered at her and turned some more to face her.

"You have no right to talk to me-"

"I HAVE ALL THE BLOODY RIGHT!" She screamed at him and watched his face flicker with more recognition, "YOU WILL BLOODY LISTEN TO ME!"

She descended the steps as she spoke, getting closer and closer to him.

"Uncle Thorin," she tried to keep her voice steady as she looked at him, "stop it. You will STOP this behaviour once and for all. You're not acting like a King. You're acting like a fucking madman! Let us fight with our Kin, please!"

She ignored the gasp behind her and stood now on the step above his, looking at him. He leant in, threateningly and they were level for the first time in her life.

"I would have your head for the way you spoke-"

"Then bloody take it."

Silence. She was nose to nose with him now and wanted nothing more to reach out and touch him. Though she was having a hard time deciding on whether or not to throttle him, hug him or punch him. So she waited. She waited for him to come back to her.

But he didn't. He instead looked away first and turned his back to her, continuing on down the staircase. She felt all her energy dissipate from within her.

"Don't turn away. You promised. You promised and you gave your word you wouldn't turn away anymore," her voice shook and her anger began to fade, "you-you're still Thorin Oakenshield. You're still needed and wanted. Give the word, let us fight!"

Even if he didn't give the word, she would have clambered over the rocks and gone down to fight herself. But there would be no good comeuppance from it. Before her still, lay an army of Elves who may still attack. And she was a good fighter and she was strong, but without her friends and family fighting with her, she didn't know if she could do anything. She would be too afraid.

He didn't stop. He carried on walking until he disappeared from her view. The tears fell from her eyes and she didn't stop them. A hand came onto her shoulder and she turned to look up at Dwalin.

"I'll go," he moved around her though squeezed her shoulder briefly in the only tender show of emotion he could muster, "stay with your brothers."

She didn't watch him leave. But she didn't turn back. Instead, she sat herself down on the steps and covered her face with her gloved hands.

'Breathe. Keep breathing.'

She didn't know how quickly time had passed, but suddenly the company gave a smaller cheer. She turned back around and called to them.

"What's happening?!"

Kili turned to her with a small smile.

"The Elves...they're fighting with us."

She couldn't smile. She couldn't seem to muster up the strength to do anything positive at all. She thought he'd suddenly break out and say, 'Thorin's back and he gave the command, everything is ok!'

But that was truly wishful thinking. That type of thing only happened in the books their mother had read to them as children. She thought of Dis. She managed to stand herself up and quickly scramble back up the steps and run to the balcony.

The horn blared again. Another front appeared. And this time, they were heading into Dale.

"Gods, they're outnumbering us," a sudden chill went down her spine as she watched the horde slip into the town, "No...Tilda!"

She pushed away from the balcony and took deep breaths.

"We have to help! And someone has GOT to talk some sense into that man!"

Kili watched the change on her face. Dru was lost in her thoughts and then something happened. She suddenly straightened up and turned away from them.

"What do you plan to do?!" Fili was actually concerned at her behaviour.

"I plan to talk to him," she stopped briefly on one of the steps to look back at him, "Just like mother would. Remember the birthday incident?"

Both Fili and Kili's eyes widened in horror at the smirk that appeared on her face as she turned away and quickly marched off in the direction that Thorin and Dwalin had both left.

"Oh...oh that can't be good," Fili gulped and for a mad moment, wondered what was worse: The battle below them or what Dru had planned for their Uncle Thorin. The battle was winning, just. But the rage he'd seen behind Dru's eyes had even him scared.