Hello everybody! So this is the part where I break the bad news. This is the last chapter for now. I will not continue writing this until I see the second movie because I've gotten to the ending for the first movie.
Fangirlatyourservice, thank you very much!
Sprinklingstardust0596, you will have to read this chapter to see what happens to your "baby" Kili. ;)
The goblins attached Kili's wrists to cuffs hanging from one of the contraptions they had brought out. His feet were still flat on the ground, so when his strength gave way he would still anchor himself by his legs, instead of spinning around in the air. They had removed his coat earlier and they now tore his shirt off. His muscles were tense and flexed from stress and anticipation of the leather splitting his skin. He tried to relax, knowing it would only make things worse. He had never been tortured before, but Dwalin had reluctantly given the trio a lesson once at Thorin's request. None of them wanted to think it was necessary, but once again their uncle proved smarter than they were.
Kili was not going to give anything up. He had set his mind on that early on. He would make Thorin, Fili, and Brynn proud – even if it hurt them to watch. He turned to Brynn's cage so he could see his little sister before his mind was occupied with other things. The expression on her face was a sorrowful mix of anger and fear. He smiled at her, hoping to ease her mind a bit. He then faced Fili and Thorin. Fili was still fighting but stopped when he saw Kili looking at him. They nodded to each other, knowing there was nothing that could be done. Thorin was spewing every bit of strength he had to his nephew through his eyes, and Kili decided that he would only look to his uncle when the whipping started. He needed some source of strength, and he knew Thorin would give it to him, even if it hurt to meet his nephews eyes.
"Give him five." The goblin king said. "To start."
The whip cracked on Kilis back, bringing searing pain. He hadn't expected it to be so numbing. It hadn't broken through the skin, but it was only a matter of time. He could hear Brynn kicking the bars to her cage, trying to break free. He knew her well enough that she didn't have a plan for if she actually did get out, but she simply had to try. Fili was still fighting, probably earning himself a good beating as well. He would want to suffer with his brother. And, above all the other noise, were the goblins laughing.
Another crack, and more pain. Where could Gandalf be? He was supposed to meet them. Would he find them down here? And if he did, would it be too late for him and Brynn?
Another strike, and Kili grunted in pain. It had cut this time. He could feel the warmth of his blood dripping down his back. He found Thorin's eyes, trying to keep strong, trying to distract himself.
Another strike, and he cried out against his will.
"Kili!" Brynn screamed.
The last one came down, and Kili could breathe again. He had tried so hard to hold the pain in, because he knew how much it would hurt Brynn to hear. He couldn't.
"Would anyone like to speak now?" The goblin king asked, scanning the Company.
Nobody answered. They hated seeing Kili beaten, but they couldn't speak. To speak would put a quick end to the quest, and probably their lives, and Kili would be mad at them forever. Thorin swayed every so slightly, and Dwalin put a hand to his shoulder.
"Five more."
Kili had known it was coming, but part of him hoped they would give up. His heart sunk.
Two more strikes, and a muffled scream escaped his clenched teeth.
"Please, stop!" Brynn cried. "You'll kill him!"
The goblin king turned toward her. "That's the idea, my pretty."
Another strike, and Kili couldn't dampen the scream this time. It escaped his lungs, his body crying out in defiance against the harm being done to it. Brynn covered her ears. She wouldn't – oh, Mahal, she couldn't – listen to those screams. It would kill her. The goblin doing the whipping got ready for another crack. Brynn cursed it under her breath, watching the whip arc up and over it's head.
There was a blinding flash of light, and Brynn closed her eyes to protect them. When she opened them again, the goblins were stunned, and Gandalf was there.
"Take up your arms! Fight!" He shouted, swinging his sword at the recovering goblins.
The dwarves quickly started fighting, but Fili, after reclaiming his weapons, went to break Brynn out, as Nori was already working on unlocking Kili. Brynn, when set free, grabbed her and Kili's weapons, and Fili got his brother's coat. The shirt was too damaged to be worth salvaging.
Finally Nori successfully picked the locks. Kili could no longer hold himself up, but fell out of his restraints, so Brynn and Fili slipped his arms around their shoulders and half dragged, have carried their brother along the wooden platforms of Goblin Town.
They met goblins at every turn but the company fought them off. They jumped from one platform to the next, following Gandalf wherever he led. They were part way across a bridge with the goblin king jumped down and intercepted them. The rest of the goblins chasing them congregated on the other side. They were stuck.
"What are you going to do now, wizard?" The king asked slyly, thinking he had caught them.
Gandalf had had enough. He poked the king in the eye, then cut a long slit right across his throat and belly with his sword. The goblin king fell, hard. Soon, the bridge they stood on trembled. There was a large crack and then they began to fall. Down, down they went until they hit the hard bottom, the structure collapsing in a heap of wood and dust. The dwarves groaned as they wrestled themselves free. Brynn and Fili lifted Kili once more, and then they were following Gandalf again, what seemed to be the entire goblin army chasing after them.
Finally they made it out of the mountain. The goblins dared not follow out there, not until night had fallen. Daylight was their enemy, and it was a blessing at the moment. The company stopped part way down the hill to catch their breath and count numbers. Brynn and Fili put Kili into a sitting position against a rock and immediately began to check him over.
"Are you hurt? Did those things hurt you?" Kili asked her, his words hushed as if they took effort to speak.
"A bit. Not as much as they hurt you though." She answered, catching a canteen Thorin threw at her and lifting it to Kili's lips.
"Tis alright, darling. As long as you're safe." He gave her a weak smile.
Brynn smiled. Classic Kili. Always worrying about her, even while his back was laced with long cuts and welts.
"Where's Bilbo?" Gandalf demanded, sounding fearful for the first time since they had started the journey.
Brynn took her attention off Kili for a minute, looking around. Bilbo was not among them. Heavens, had they left him behind? She couldn't imagine what would happen to the poor hobbit all alone in a goblin domain. But wait.
"He wasn't with the Company before the king." Brynn spoke up. "I looked at you all a dozen times. He wasn't there."
"I think I saw him slip away when we first landed in the caves." Nori said, nodding at Brynn.
"What happened exactly? Tell me!" Gandalf demanded.
"I'll tell you what happened." Thorin stepped up, tussled and annoyed. "Master Baggins saw his chance and he took it. He's though of nothing but his soft bed and his warm hearth since first he stepped out his door. We will not be seeing out hobbit again. He is long gone."
Brynn could hardly believe that, and was about to tell her uncle so. Their hobbit was not like that, she was certain. And besides that, he never would have been able to escape the goblin tunnels and end up on the right side of the mountain to go home. Goblin tunnels were mazes.
"No, he isn't." Bilbo stepped out from behind a tree, joining their circle.
"Bilbo Baggins! I've never been so glad to see anyone in my life!" Gandalf exclaimed.
Bilbo nodded at him and came forward, patting Balin on the back and smiling at Brynn.
"Bilbo, we had given up on you!" Brynn said, shaking her head in amazement. "We thought you were in some goblins belly by now!"
"How on earth did you get past the goblins?" Fili asked.
Bilbo paused, apparently trying to put it into words. He laughed nervously and patted his pockets. Brynn wondered if he was somehow traumatized from the ordeal.
"Well, what does it matter?" Gandalf asked, eyeing Bilbo. "He's back!"
"It matters. I want to know – why did you come back?" Thorin asked, genuinely confused. He had been proven wrong, and that didn't often happen.
The Company looked expectantly at Bilbo, and he stammered into a beginning. "Look, I know you doubt me. I know you always have. And you're right; I often think of Bag End. I miss my books. And my armchair. And my garden. See, that's where I belong. That's home. And that's why I came back – cause you don't have one. A home. It was taken from you. But I will help you take it back, if I can."
There was silence as the dwarves pondered that. Brynn's heart welled with warmness at Bilbo's words. It hurt, remembering that she did not have a home like he did, but she so appreciated Bilbo's willingness to risk everything to help them get theirs back when he really didn't have a reason to.
Howls pierced the night. Not wolf howls, but those from a warg. Brynn froze as she finished tying off the bandages she helped Oin put around Kili, chills running up her back.
"Out of the frying pan…" Thorin sighed.
"And into the fire!" Gandalf finished. "Run! Run!"
The Company jumped to their feet and charged down the mountain, Fili and Brynn once again helping Kili. The wargs soon caught up to them, and they were forced to dispatch them before continuing. Brynn saw Bilbo skewer one on his new sword, and felt pride – even if she was sure it had been accidental.
A large outcropping opened up in front of them, with very few trees on it. It dropped off to a great fall. The ground was so far one couldn't make out what was at the bottom. There was no escape. They were trapped.
"Up into the trees, all of you!" Gandalf ordered, watching the approaching enemy. "Come on, climb!"
The dwarves all swung into various trees, climbing as high as the branches would allow. Brynn hoisted herself up after Fili helped Kili climb up. With the adrenaline and Oin's care, Kili was functioning much better, but his siblings were still cautious.
Dozens of wargs scampered onto the outcropping, surrounding the trees and pawing at the ground around them. They sniffed the air, eager to feast on dwarf flesh. But they stopped their growling when a white warg slowly approached, a massive pale orc upon it's back.
"Azog?" Thorin whispered, shocked.
Brynn looked from her uncle to the orc. It wasn't possible. Her uncle had killed him. But she remembered his story. Azog had been dragged back into the mines, and everyone had simply assumed he passed from his injuries. No one had ever confirmed his death.
Azog stroked his mount as he spoke in orchish. Brynn pieced together enough to make out that he spoke of the scent of fear, and how Thrain, Thorin's father, had reeked of it. Brynn shivered. She knew that Thorin had not known his father had been captured by Azog, and she also knew that it would be tearing him apart now.
"It cannot be." Thorin groaned.
"That one is mine. Kill the others!" Azog ordered, and his wargs and riders leapt into action.
The wargs tried to climb the trees, jumping as high as they could and breaking apart branches with their strong jaws in their efforts. The trees shook violently, and the dwarves struggled to hold on. With the weight of the wargs trying to climb up, the trees began to lean. The wargs were smart, and started to push and pull them more. The trees tipped into each other, knocking down one after the other. The dwarves jumped from one tree to the next as theirs fell down, but soon they ended up on the last one, at the very edge of the cliff.
Gandalf looked around and grabbed a pinecone. He set it on fire with his staff and threw it among the wargs, and they stumbled in fear. They had a weakness, and it was flame. Gandalf continued to send the projectiles, dropping them down for the dwarves to throw as well. The area all around the tree was set in flames, forcing the wargs to retreat a distance. One warg was even caught by the flames, and ran away in a panic.
The dwarves cheered at their small victory, but were struck silent when their tree began to tip. They held on tightly, but when it fell over, sticking straight out over open air, they struggled to hold on. Ori slipped from his branch completely, but managed to catch Dori's leg. The two of them cried out in fear and effort as they struggled to hold on. Dori, with the extra weight, lost his grip on the tree and fell, but Gandalf swung his staff down and Dori managed to grab the end of it.
Azog watched the dwarves, patiently waiting for them to die by falling or come to him so he could kill them. Brynn watched as Thorin set his gaze on the orc. He hauled himself up and pulled his sword. He began to walk down the tree trunk.
"Uncle, no!" Brynn yelled, scrambling to pull herself up but slipping again.
Thorin began to run, his sword up and his shield in front of him. Azog and his warg leapt at Thorin, who dropped down a slid under them. He had tried to swing his sword at them but had been forced to miss, keeping himself alive instead. The dwarf and the orc whirled around to meet each other again. Azog lifted his mace and smashed Thorin in the face before he could react, sending him hard into the ground.
Brynn yelped as she saw her uncle being hurt so badly. With all her strength she hauled herself onto the tree trunk, drawing her sword and charging down to the solid ground. She saw Thorin in the wargs mouth, saw him hit it with his sword, saw it throw him into a rock. She heard his body smack against it painfully, and Azog command one of his minions to bring him Thorin's head. The orc stood over Thorin's body, grabbing his hair and lifting his head off the ground. It placed it's blade upon his neck. Brynn growled with anger, at seeing the filthy creature touch her uncle and king and knowing that she would not make it in time.
But she didn't need to. Bilbo appeared from nowhere, diving on the orc about to detach Thorin's head from his body. He killed it successfully and then stood between the Azog and his wargs and Thorin, waving his little sword with what he must have thought was ferocity.
A couple of the warg riders approached Bilbo, snarling, at Azog's command to kill him. But they did not count on Brynn. She gave a mighty battle cry, and to her surprise it was taken up behind her. Fili, and Dwalin had joined her, and even Kili, though he was weak, was not going to let his uncle go unaided. They passed Bilbo and plowed into the orcs and wargs. Fili had his twin swords singing, rage written upon his face. Kili stayed slightly out of reach from them, using his sword when necessary but mainly using his bow, as he knew he was too weak to last long in a sword fight. Dwalin was a terrifying force to be reckoned with, and Brynn marveled at it. She had never seen him in a real battle like this one. And Brynn – Brynn fought with everything inside her. She fought for her uncle. He was safe for now, behind them. They wouldn't let anything get to him. That is, if he was still alive.
Something awoke deep within her, and she set her sights on Azog. She was a fool, she knew, and her family would scold her nonstop in the afterlife about what she had in her mind. But that was just it. The afterlife. She wasn't going to get out of this alive – none of them were – so what did it matter the manner of her death?
She saw Azog a distance off, watching her and the rest fight his warriors. He was a coward. He was afraid of the Durin line – Brynn could see it. He had good reason to be. She ran at him. He smiled at her – a vicious, horrid smile.
And then something grabbed Brynn and flung her over the side of the cliff. She gasped, too startled to scream, as she fell through open air. And then she landed on something soft. Still she soared through the air, but she was on the back of a massive eagle. She was flying again, but this time was real. She could see the rest of the Company getting rescued in a similar way, and one picked up Thorin gently in it's claws. Her eyes watered from the wind, but also from seeing her uncle incapacitated.
Fili and Kili were on a different eagle, and she raised her arm to them to let them know she was okay. They did the same for her sake. But they all turned back to watch the eagle that held Thorin.
They soon landed on the Carrock, a massive stone structure shaped like a bear. The eagle carrying Thorin laid him gently on the ground, and the Company surrounded him. Gandalf pushed through and knelt beside him.
"He isn't breathing, Gandalf." Brynn whispered, clinging to Fili's arm.
Gandalf looked at her, brow furrowed, and then placed his hand upon Thorin's face, muttering something that sounded like a spell under his breath. There was a seconds pause, and then Thorin gasped for air, his eyes fluttering open.
"The Halfling?" He questioned weakly.
"It's alright, uncle. Bilbo is here, he is safe." Kili said.
Fili and Brynn reached down and helped their uncle up when they saw his desire to stand. Brynn wrapped her arms around him gently, not caring that the rest of the Company surrounded them and Thorin didn't always show so much affection around them. He had almost died. She had the right to hug him. But he hugged her back with one arm, the other grabbing Fili's shoulder.
Brynn pulled away. "And you scolded me for scaring people like that."
Thorin smiled at her. "I know, dear niece. I am sorry."
The Company surrounded Thorin, but his eyes found Bilbo. His face turned from warmth to anger.
"You! What were you doing? You nearly got yourself killed! Did I not say that you would be a burden? That you would not survive in the wild and that you had no place amongst us?" Thorin strode towards Bilbo until they were face to face. Brynn suddenly wondered if Gandalf had sent her uncle insane, for his words were crazy to say to someone who had just saved his life. But Thorin relaxed. "Never have I been so wrong in my entire life." And, to everyone's surprise, he grabbed Bilbo and hugged him. Finally he pulled away. "I am sorry I doubted you."
Bilbo, still stunned, shook his head. "No, I would have doubted me too. I'm not a hero or a warrior… not even a burglar."
Everyone chuckled at Bilbo's words, but Thorin got distracted by something behind Bilbo. He walked forward to the edge of the rock. His niece and nephews followed his gaze next and came to stand beside him, and then the others followed as well. Far in the distance, partly shrouded in mist, stood Erebor.
"Is… is that what I think it is?" Bilbo asked.
"Erebor – The Lonely Mountain." Gandalf nodded. "The last of the great dwarf kingdoms of Middle Earth."
But Thorin described it best. "Our home."
Brynn had never been to Erebor – never seen it. But, now, looking upon it, she knew. That was where she belonged. And she would follow her uncle to the ends of the earth to reclaim it for her people, as would her brothers. They were the dwarves of Durin, and they had come to fight.
We're done! This story will not be looked at again by me until December! But please, if you read it between now and then, still review. I will come and read it. And love it. And be so happy you reviewed. Thank you everyone for reading this!