Hola! I'm baaaccckkk, here's chapter 10 hope you like it.

Thorin P.O.V

I was going to plunge my elvish blade deep into the throats of every single one of these forsaken orcs... and thank the Valar for wizards. They were my only thoughts as I sprinted through the dry, rocky field, the company on my heels. Their breaths were already ragged and shaky after only a few minutes of sprinting. I would've cursed them had my own stamina not began to fall, sweat making its way down my back from the harsh rays of the midday sun.

The strange wizard, Radagast, was weaving his way across the grassy, rocky, endless plain. Yelling and whooping as he went. I shouldn't have been surprised that his Rhosgobel rabbits were indeed outrunning the snapping jaws of the Wargs, much to their anger. No ground had been made, however, as our saviour wizard kept on going around and round. Unintentionally trapping us like rats.

My knees groaned as I skid to a halt. The endless pack of Wargs and orcs screamed past in a blur of beige and black, chasing the mad wizard atop his rocketing sleigh. A growl made its way into my throat at the sight. Radagast could not help us for much longer, his sleigh was screeching and groaning at the ferocious speeds, his rabbits powerful legs slowly weakening. Yet the Wargs had been bred for this, the orcs ready for killing. Gandalf swooped past.

"This way, follow me!" He bellowed, the company quick to change direction to follow the wizard. I huffed and leapt once again into a sprint, leaping and lunging over rocks. Panic began to rush through me at the sight of the never-ending landscape. So open, there was no-where to hide except for the mounds of rocks. It would not be enough.

From my new place in the middle of the group I caught a fleeting glimpse of Fili carrying a still unconscious May. I was pleased to see Fili wasn't flagging because of the girl.

My breaths had become ragged, my steps heavier, the hair around my face stuck to my cheeks. I found, in the midst of all the panic, that my attention went to May.

Her slender body was still wrapped in Oin's leather cloak with nothing but her head and her neck showing, which were jolting back and forth from where she hung limp from Fili's arms. I cursed my nephew for being so heavy footed, yet couldn't blame him as a high-pitched howl ripped through the air. Orc pack, Thorin, orc pack, I reminded myself.

The attention I had lost on May was torn back to leaping and sprinting over the seemingly growing flat, like Fili's my feet had become heavier and heavier. It took me less than a minute to get to the front of the group at a sprint with only Ori in front of me. If I could out run them then surely a Warg could. Dread pooled in my stomach.

In all of our haste we didn't see the orc pack still gaining on us. It was almost too late when I whipped Ori back behind another huge grey boulder, his head slamming onto my chest.

"Ori, no!" I yelled. Ori looked up at me apologetically but I was in no mood to reprimand.

The company proceeded to squeeze and shove their way behind the hunk of rock. Not daring to breathe. My lungs screamed from the running, begging me to take a breath. I couldn't, I wouldn't.

And so, when the sound of ragged breathing reached my ears I knew exactly what it was.

Orc.

My expression remained calm as I peeled my body from the rock and looked above me. Not even the leathers smothering my body made a noise. There. Just above was a Warg's black snout, sniffing and snarling and grinning.

This isn't it. I told myself. This is not how we go. My nephew, Kili, caught my fierce stare. I knew immediately what he wanted to do from the determined glint in his eyes. A nod from me was all he needed. He grinned. I sighed and proceeded to raise my sword, ready. Dwalin did the same.

Slowly, calmly, Kili drew his bow, the hiss of the string echoing in the static air. Too loud. We were being too loud. Kili took his shot. It hit directly in the centre of the Warg's unseeing eye and that thing fell. It thudded to the floor in front of me, the shrieks of the rider piercingly loud.

Dwalin and I killed it within seconds.

Yet the damage was done, they had heard us. Those forsaken howls ran clear in the air, followed by a loud command of black speech. The company shifted then looked to me. Waiting for my order.

"Move!" I roared. We sprinted as one, no longer caring about tactics or direction or were the mad wizard had gone. Too late. My feet were loud and my knees groaned as we thundered to a stop. The company, like me, turned and turned looking for a way out of this, there was none.

"We're surrounded!" The rush of my sword through the air was the only thing I heard as I readied myself. Followed by the scratch of steel and twang of a bow as the company did the same. If we were to go down, then we would go down swinging. The Wargs went down on their haunches, saliva dripping from their snarling mouths, the orcs on their backs grinning and swinging their weapons.

"Where's Gandalf?"

"He's abandoned us!" Dwalin bellowed, glaring at an upcoming Warg.

So much for a wizard, I thought. Kili came beside me, the thrill of battle lighting his blue eyes. It hit me that this would be his first battle against an orc. He was a child no longer.

"Shoot them," I ordered, no longer an Uncle, but a king. Kili nodded grimly and pulled back the bow string all the way to his eye, an arrow already in place, and fired. The arrow whooshed past his face. My nephew's aim rang true and hit an oncoming orc directly though the head, sending it flying of the side of a still running Warg. I grinned.

So it begins.

The elvish sword in my hand cleaved through Orcs and their Wargs, splattering blood up my arms. My own blood roared, the sound of my brothers in arms yelling and fighting around me. They were holding the line, but there were so many of them and so little of us who could fight. My hope had just begun to fall when Gandalf boomed.

"This way you fools!" I swung to see Gandalf's hat peeping from a small, rocky opening in the ground. Elation soared through me. Thank the Valar for wizards.

My sword fell against my side as I followed suit of the company and made my way to the opening. One by one the company threw themselves down the hole without hesitation. A growl sounded behind me and I whipped around to swing my blade down and through the Warg's skull as it ran towards were I now stood, just by the entrance of the underground cave.

Fili, slowed by the added weight, was still running to the secret cave, May now swung over his shoulder. He'd sheathed his sword and was pumping his legs hard and fast to escape the snapping jaws and swinging maces. The girl's head slamming against his back as he ran. Kili was not as smart.

"Kili!" I yelled, he turned and, noticing that he was now alone, began sprinting towards us. Yet he'd gotten too many Orc's attention, he had become their target. Every single one began to chase him. Desperation tore at me. I had no daggers, no bow.

So, I lifted my sword. A Warg had gotten too close to him. My legs had begun to crouch when a dagger plunged and crunched into the Warg's snout. The surprise that I felt was reflected in the eyes of Kili as he continued to run towards us, but his eyes were not on me.

I turned, gaping, I saw that it wasn't Fili who'd thrown the dagger, he still faced the cave.

It had been May.

Her eyes were wide, her bare arm was outstretched from the aftermath of the throw, hair falling into her face. Before she thumped once again against Fili's back and was hauled down the hole. I stayed gaping. Kili gripped my arm and yanked me down into the hole after his brother. The jagged rock scraping my leather sleeve.

The next moments were filled with tension and anticipation as we waited for the orcs to find our hiding spot. Yet they never did. For a horn rang clear in the air and the sounds of battle once again rang out. We shifted and I looked over to Balin, seeking wisdom. He shrugged.

The company sprang backwards, Oin dragging May away from what fell down the hole a second later.

An orc, a dead orc.

Relief shattered the tension and I crouched next to the corpse, pulling on the arrow sticking out of his eye. It came free with a loud sucking noise. My grimace turned into a fierce glare when I saw the origin of the well-placed arrow.

"Elves," I spat, throwing the arrow into the pool of blood leaking for the orc. It splashed onto my fur boots. Slowly but surely the noises of death started to die down and orc cries could no longer be heard and the company began to relax, allowing themselves to move and scout the cave. Their murmurs echoing in the empty cave.

I made my way over to Oin who leaned over May. This, the mystery girl who had been through so much, had saved my nephew and ultimately my heir. For I feared that Fili would not survive without his little brother. She looked so fragile wrapped in that cloak and with her hair loose from it's braid. Filthy and bloodied like that first night we met her but… different somehow. Something had changed about the way I saw her, no longer a lamb but a lion. A strange sort of respect for May had surfaced.

My heart jumped when Dwalin shouted from the back of the cave,

"There's a pathway do we follow it?" I looked to see him walking from a small pathway in the back of the cave.

"Follow it of course!" An answering call.

Oin heaved as he attempted to lift May off the floor of the cave. I don't know why but I reached past him and gathered May in my arms, careful to keep the cloak from falling off her small frame. She was so light and delicate in my arms that I was afraid to walk too quickly. My braids brushed her cheeks when I looked down at her sleeping face. It lay against my chest and a strange warm feeling fluttered through me.

Shoving any unnecessary feelings down I adjusted my grip on her shoulders and legs and followed the slouched backs of my company.

May's P.O.V

The darkness surrounded me again. My friend and ally since I can remember, an escape for me to fall into. The black of sleep was different than the smothering emptiness of my old cell which was cold and cruel and merciless. The black of sleep wrapped around me and comforted me, whispering sweet nothings into my ear.

And so, I felt no desire to open my eyes when something nudged my senses. Like a shaft of light piercing through my senses, my thoughts. The light wasn't natural, didn't feel like rays of sun. It called to me. Daring me to open my eyes and see what it was. Something inside of me stirred at the light, as if waking up.

Magic. Magic was the only thing I could think of to describe it. Curiosity heaved me from the comforting shadow of sleep and forced me to peal my eyes open.

I did not see the thing prodding my senses but saw two towering walls of rock coming up close on either side of me. They were swaying and leaning and pulsing. I blinked, once, twice. No not the walls, I was swaying. I was being carried.

My neck groaned as I leaned to see who had a loose grip on my shoulders and legs. First, I saw a deep blue tunic, smothered in blood and grime. Then a fur rimmed cloak. Then dark hair braided and filthy.

Thorin. Thorin Oakenshield, the man who had despised me from the beginning was carrying me. Shock ran through me, so much that I jerked in his arms. He started and looked down to me, features wary and tightened his grip on me. From this close I could see the flecks of ice in his blue eyes. Blue eyes. Kili. The trolls. The dagger. Alarm sprang into my blood.

"Kili," I croaked, still groggy from dehydration and fatigue. Thorin's features softened. Those black locks brushed my cheeks and I flinched away from the touch. He frowned.

"He is fine, thanks to you," He murmured. I sighed, relaxing in his arms. The thing that woke me up began to back off and became no more than a flicker in my mind. Thorin squeezed through a tight gap in the rock and lifted me through sideways, the rock didn't so much as touch me. The leather cloak I was wrapped in stuck to my skin as he brought me back to his chest and said,

"Sleep, mi zharr, you are safe," He looked back in front of him. Case closed.

So, I did. I let the darkness guide me back into the grey city of sleep.

There we go! This update is a bit later than normal but exams have officially crushed my will to live, but I'm back up and running and updates should go back to normal from now on. Hope you guys liked the chapter, let me know what you think!

Thank you to Meldis97 and Kitten of a dragon for following the story, I love you guys!

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Tibblets: Thank you so much for your support, I really appreciate it x

Thank you for reading,

Ellie x