Out of the Frying Pan and into the Fire

The mountain moved without their knowledge, the rain beating down on them like it was attempting to push them off the already thin ledge. One shake after another had the company grabbing the rocks behind them from dear life. Yet they had no other choice but to push on with their task of scaling the mountain. Edging further and further along the ledge, Phoenix leading the way with Thorin closes behind her. Since their talk back in Rivendell, and the past events, they seemed closer than when they first begun courting, if that was even possible, and it pleased both Fili and Kili to no end. Yet now, there was no time for speech, only to keep each other safe and make sure that none of them fell from the mountain and into the dark chasm below. Suddenly there was a large jolt and everyone gripped the side of the mountain for the only lifeline that they had. When it was over, Phoenix looked behind at the rest of the company and she realised that someone was missing.

"Where's Bilbo?" She shouted.

"Where is the Hobbit?" Bofur shouted and everyone looked around.

"There he is." Fili exclaimed and both he and Bofur dived to their knees as they found Bilbo dangling from the ledge below.

"Bilbo, reach for us!" Bofur shouted trying to reach the small Hobbit.

Everyone watched as the Hobbit reached up but his hand was about to slip and suddenly someone was lifting him up. Looking down, Phoenix saw that Thorin had climbed down to lift him up so that the other dwarves could grab him and pull him back to safety. However as he was about to climb back up onto the ledge the rocks underneath him gave way and thinking fast, Phoenix fell to her knees as she grabbed his hand, wincing in pain as her wrists hit the rock ledge but she got through it.

"Thorin!" She gasped out, struggling to keep a grip on the dwarf and pull him up onto the ledge by herself.

"Phoenix." Thorin shouted up, trying to help his lover and find something to grab on to, but this time there was nothing, and now he was relying on her strength to save him.

At feeling herself slipping towards the edge and about to fall off with him, Phoenix reached out her hand for something to grab hold of and she found a rock, and she looked at who was beside her. "Kili, Dwalin, give me a hand!" She shouted and she soon felt the bodies of the two dwarves grab hold of her and together they lifted Thorin back onto the ledge.

When he was back onto the ledge Thorin looked at Phoenix and he noticed that Phoenix was holding one of her wrists, and though it was hard to see in the dark and through the rain, Thorin could make out a bloody injury. "What have you done?" He asked and looking at her wrist he noticed a cut from where she had hit her wrist on the rocks as she caught him.

"Here let us see lass." Dwalin advised.

"It's fine." Phoenix told them but she had no choice when Dwalin grabbed her wrist and as Kili and Dwalin started to wrap cloth around the wound, Thorin overheard his other dwarves.

"We almost lost our burglar." Bofur mused as he patted Bilbo on the back and no one seemed to notice Phoenix's injury.

"He's been lost ever since he left home." Thorin told them and be sounded annoyed. "He has no place amongst us."

"Uncle, can we argue about this another time?" Kili asked and Phoenix saw where he was looking, the mountain was moving!

"Stone Giants!" Bofur shouted. "Real stone Giants!"

"This isn't a thunder storm!" Balin realised. "It's a thunder battle!"

At his words the mountain that they were on suddenly started moving and across the gorge another giant got up and threw a boulder at the one that they were stood on. As the one they were on got hit, the ledge they were on started to separate and Fili tried to grab his younger brother but had to watch in despair as his brother, Phoenix and Dwalin were lifted away from them.

As they were moved through the air, Phoenix grabbed Kili and Dwalin and pressed them up against the mountain side, and they all held on as their giant started to collapse under the attack of the rock.

"Phoenix..." Kili started.

"Lad if you're about to confess your love to her, now would be the time." Dwalin told him.

"I am not." Kili started.

"There, get ready to jump!" Phoenix shouted and she nodded to the ledge they needed to jump on to. When they saw it, they both readied themselves and when the time came they threw themselves onto the ledge as the giant fell into the chasm below them, Kili landing on hard stone, whilst Dwalin found his landing to be significantly better and softer.

When Fili, Thorin and the rest of the company found them, they found Kili getting to his feet as Dwalin sat up and rubbed his sore bones but no sign of Phoenix.

"Well that was a soft landing." Dwalin told them.

"Dwalin, you're crushing me." A voice coughed out from underneath Dwalin.

Dwalin then looked down and saw that he was actually sitting on top of Phoenix and he abruptly got himself to his feet before he pulled her to hers.

"Are you all alright?" Thorin asked looking his nephew over.

"We are fine." Dwalin told him. "No c'mon let's get out off of this cursed mountain."

They started moving and soon they found a cave and after a quick search by Dwalin and Phoenix they deemed it safe to sleep in.

"Right let's get a fire goin'" Gloin told them as he put down the firewood he had carried. "Phoenix, could you lend a flame?"

"No, no fires get some sleep we leave at first light." Thorin told him as he walked through the crowd of dwarves.

"The plan was to meet Gandalf here." Balin informed him as he rolled out his sleeping mat.

"Plans change." Thorin told he and he threw his sleeping mat and blanket into a corner and he moved to settle down for some sleep as did the rest of his kin. "Bofur take first watch."

The tired dwarf nodded and picked up his weapons moving to sit on a rock near the entrance. Phoenix watched as everyone slowly fell asleep and she found both Kili and Fili had settled their sleeping mats next to her looking for the warmth that was starting to radiate from her skin as her gift attempted to dry herself.

As everyone around her fell asleep, she looked over at Thorin and she found his eyes on her.

"Are you alright?" She mouthed to him.

Thorin somehow understood what she had asked and he nodded in response, before he gestured for her to lay back and sleep, and that was what she did, a soft smile on her lips and soon she too fell asleep feeling Thorin's gaze on her as she did so. Thorin fell asleep not long after, but he was woken up again later in the morning to find Bilbo and Bofur talking and the Hobbit looked like he was abandoning them.

"Oh I get it you're homesick." Bofur whispered to the Hobbit. "I understand."

"No you don't understand." Bilbo whispered. "You're dwarves you're used to all of this, the trekking miles, not belonging anywhere." He stopped when he saw the sadness in Bofur's eyes and he sighed.

"Look I'm sorry..."

"No you're right, we don't belong anywhere." Bofur told him.

"Bofur I'm sorry." Bilbo sighed. "You're right I miss my box."

Thorin felt a small feeling of guilt as he listened to the pair of them and he sighed quietly to himself before he heard Bofur. Bofur had been smiling softly before he looked down at the sword attached to Bilbo's waist. "What's that?" He asked and Bilbo pulled out the sword to notice that the blade was glowing blue.

"Oh no..."

Thorin suddenly looked at the ground and noticed that the rocks were moving away from each other. But before he could warn the others they were all suddenly falling and eventually they hit hard wooden material with a thud. As they scrambled to their feet they were suddenly ambushed by Goblins who took their weapons and suddenly dragged them away, throwing them in front of a fat and ugly creature - the Goblin King.

Thorin looked around at all of his company and he smiled slightly in relief when he saw that his nephews were unharmed and looking at the large and grotesque goblin in front of them with hatred and then he saw that Phoenix was also unharmed and it almost made him beam in happiness until he heard a goblin inform the King of something, whatever it was obviously made his rejoice as he clapped his hands with glee, before he stood up and using the goblins on the floor in front of him, he walked down from his throne.

"You have a maiden in your midst." He crowed gleefully. "Bring her forth!"

Suddenly there was bustling and Thorin watched as the goblins threw Phoenix to land on the floor in front of the King.

"Well well, we've heard a lot about you whores child." The goblin told her and Phoenix kept her head bowed, eyes trained to watch the floor.

"Leave her alone!" Thorin heard Kili shout as he struggled to get to Phoenix.

"Looks like you have someone who wishes to love you whore." The goblin told her as he used his staff to tilts Phoenix's head up to look at him.

"Looks like you're little friends didn't ruin you when they had the chance." He sneered. "Oh well looks like the task has been left to me, and you're little friends can watch."

"No!" Thorin shouted as the Goblin King kicked Phoenix to the floor and he knew exactly what he planned to do as the goblins pinned her to the floor.

"Well who do we have here?" He watched as Thorin walked over, helping Phoenix to her feet and he kept his arms around her to steady her.

"Thorin Oakenshield." The Goblin laughed. "King under the mountain, but wait I forgot you don't have a mountain, do you?" He crowed. "So you're the king of...well...nothing, you're nobody, really."

Phoenix felt Thorin's grip on her tighten in anger but she gently rested her hand over his chest.

"Don't listen to him." She told him, glancing back at his fellow dwarves. "There is a knife in the waistband of my pants."

Thorin glanced at her before he gave her a swift and short nod before he reached for the knife she had told him about. As he reached one of the goblins grabbed his sword from the pile that was their weapons and as they pulled it out of its holster they screamed and threw it back down on the floor causing the King to jolt away and try and climb up the ladder of goblins to his throne away from the sword.

"The goblin cleaver!" He shouted in terror. "Whip them!" He suddenly ordered. "Bring out the bone crusher! The bone mangler!"

At his orders the company was whipped with whips as thick as branches, forcing them all to their knees.

As the whipping continued, the King started to sing a strange yet oddly catchy song at a volume well beyond reasonable.

Bones will be shattered, necks will be wrung

You'll be beaten and battered, from racks you'll be wrung

You will die down here and never be found

Down in the deep of goblin town

Suddenly he stopped singing and he looked right at Phoenix before he spoke again.

"You will be an interesting one, after all, your life span is never ending, who knows, you might not even die from what I'm going to do to you." He told her, using his sceptre to lift Phoenix's head up to look at him. "The Whore's child gets tortured first!" He suddenly shouted.

As the dwarves suddenly started to holler and tried to stop the goblins as they dragged Phoenix towards the Goblin King, there was a flash of light and Gandalf stood before the King, stopping him from reaching Phoenix.

"This stops here!" Gandalf shouted.

"Who are you to give me orders? What power do you possess?" the Goblin King ordered, before he stopped and gave a scream as Gandalf's sword sliced his stomach and face. "Yep that'll do it."

They all watched as the Goblin King fell from the throne and Gandalf looked at them.

"What are you waiting for, fight!" He shouted at them and everyone grabbed their weapons and packs before they started to cut down the onslaught of goblins that came at them. When their way was clear they were suddenly running, slashing at everything in their path to try and get away from the quickly advancing goblins. Gandalf and Phoenix seemed to be moving as one of they both cut down numerous goblins as the group made their way along the wooden paths towards the ground. The dwarves fought like men possessed, cutting down Goblin after goblin racing each other to get out. Suddenly they stopped with no more paths to follow and they looked at each other as the goblins started closing in on them.

"What do we do?" Gloin shouted.

"Hold onto something." Phoenix shouted to them and they watched as she moved her hands away from her body and suddenly there was sizzling sounds coming from around them and then something snapped and they were falling.

With a crash they landed on the rocky floor underneath everything at the very base of the mountain and just as Phoenix and Gandalf got off there was a shattering sound and the body of the Goblin King suddenly landed on the dwarves much to their dismay as they shouted and hollered. Phoenix helped to pull each one of them out and as she got Thorin out, both of them smiling at their fluttering touch, they looked up.

"We need to move." Phoenix told him and Thorin saw the wave of goblins coming their way.

"Only daylight will be able to save us now, run!" Gandalf told them and they were all running towards the exit. They kept running even when they got outside, only stopping for breath once they reached the edges of a cliff. When they had stopped running Thorin made his way to Phoenix's side and he took her hand in his, his eyes full of concern and looking up at her she mirrored his expression perfectly but before he could ask her anything Gandalf spoke.

"Where is your hobbit?" He asked and everyone looked around unable to find the small hobbit.

"Nori had him last!" Bofur shouted.

"Don't look at me!" Nori interjected.

"Well when did you last see him?" Gandalf asked.

"Right before those things grabbed us." Nori told him.

"Our hobbit is gone." Thorin told them. "He has done nothing but miss his little box since he left the Shire." He growled and he failed to notice Phoenix look up, her eyes darting around for a sound.

"No." Everyone looked at the Hobbit who suddenly seemed to appear in front of them. "I'm still here."

Everyone looked at him in surprise except for Phoenix who was trying to get Thorin's attention but he kept brushing her off.

"Right, now he's back." Gandalf told them. "Let us move on."

"Why did you come back?" Thorin asked.

"What does it matter?" Gandalf asked, and he sounded to be impatient right now.

"It matters." Thorin told him and the way he spoke left no room for argument, before he looked at Bilbo. "Why did you come back?"

"Because you are right," Bilbo told him. "I miss the Shire, my box, my home, but that's the reason that I had to come back, because you don't have one." He told them. "A home."

This seemed to pacify Thorin who eventually gave in to the tapping on his shoulder from Phoenix and they all looked at her and noticed that she was almost white in the face.

"Phoenix what is it?" Thorin asked.

"Wargs." She was staring straight back up the hill they had run down and even though none of the others could see what she had seen they heard the ghoulish howl that came afterwards.

"Out of the frying pan..." Thorin started.

"And into the fire..." Gandalf finished. "Run!" He shouted and they were all running again. They soon stopped as the only place that they could get to was the edge of the cliff that they had come onto. They were trapped and in the dying light of day they didn't know what to do.

"Climb the trees!" Phoenix shouted and they all looked at her like she was mad, but hearing the ever growing call of the wargs had them scampering up the trees like squirrels.

Phoenix and Gandalf watched as the dwarves climbed up into the trees and soon the only one left on the ground was Bilbo who had gotten his sword stuck in the head of a warg that had tried to attack him.

"Bilbo, hurry up!" Gandalf shouted down to him and Bilbo tried to climb the tree but kept slipping back down and in his desperation he did not notice that someone was reaching down for him. Suddenly Phoenix had her legs over the branch that she had been stood on and she had swooped down and picked Bilbo up and lifted him up onto the branch and together the two started climbing as wargs jumped at the tree. With each hit of the wolves, the tree started to strain and Phoenix felt it start to give way. Quickly looking up into the tree at the other Dwarves she grabbed Bilbo's shoulder.

"We need to jump." She told him.

"Um, to where exactly?" Bilbo asked.

"The next tree." She told him and as the tree they were stood on started to cave in she and Bilbo threw themselves onto the tree opposite along with the other dwarves. They clung to the branches for dear life as the wargs jumped at the tree trying to tear it down.

Phoenix helped Bilbo to climb the tree to keep away from the growling wargs who were eagerly trying to reach the group. As she pushed Bilbo onto a higher branch, her own branch started to give and just as she felt it collapse a strong grip grabbed her and she looked up see the concerned and worried face that belonged to Kili and she nodded in thanks before they worked together to pull Phoenix back up onto his branch. When they were safe on his branch Phoenix looked around for the other dwarves and she found all of them scattered amongst the branches like baubles on a Christmas tree. Suddenly their tree started to break and Phoenix pushed Kili against the trunk of the tree so at least he would be safe she reached up for a branch but ended up finding pine cones. Suddenly these small wooden cones gave her an idea and she looked up at Gandalf.

"Gandalf, pine cones!" She shouted as loud as she could and she saw the wizard register what she had said before he also grabbed some pine cones and he suddenly had them all aflame, dropping them down to the dwarves near them.

"Kili." Phoenix passed him the cone that she had already set alight and she got another one for Bilbo who was clinging to their branch and she gave another to Dwalin, before she got her own. All of the dwarves seemed confused as to what to do with them, so throwing her arm back as much as possible, Phoenix hurled the pine cone at the wargs below, the flames causing a barrier that the wargs did not dare cross. Soon the dwarves got the idea as Phoenix and Bilbo started hitting wargs with their pine cones, watching some catch fire and others back away. Soon the fire died away and wargs continued to jump at the tree and suddenly the tree caved, all occupants clinging onto their branches for dear life as the tree toppled. Phoenix watched as Ori started to slip from the branch and before she could grab him, he fell, yet managed to cling onto his brother Dori's leg and Gandalf set about helping the pair, but soon her attention was elsewhere, out of the smoke, stood a sight that Phoenix knew too well - Azog the Defiler! He rode on the back of a large white warg that had a face that only a mother could love. Suddenly she saw movement from the corner of her eye and what she saw made her blood freeze. Thorin was back on his feet, his sword in one hand, the other holding an oaken branch as his shield, there was a look in eyes of crazed hatred and it almost scared her. She watched as Thorin started walking towards he white Orc and she was too paralysed to move until she saw him break into a run.

"Thorin!" She screamed. "Thorin stop!"

Her scream alerted the other dwarves and they all watched their King run into battle alone, sword raised and oaken branch ready as his only defence.

Kili and Fili were trying their hardest to throw themselves back up to their feet in order to go to the aid of their uncle, and so was Dwalin. Through the sound of metal hitting together, they all looked up just in time to see the warg that Azog was riding grab Thorin in its jaw and shake him around like a ragdoll and suddenly threw him back down close to the edge.

"No!" Balin shouted as Thorin did not get back up to his feet.

Quickening her pace, Phoenix got out of the mess of tree but as she helped Dwalin pull himself free she saw the Hobbit run at the Orc that was about to take off Thorin's head.

"Phoenix lass, help him!" Dwalin shouted to her and Phoenix abandoned her aid for the dwarf and she pulled out an arrow and drew her bow waiting a second for the warg to get closer to Bilbo and she let the arrow fly straight into the wargs eye, killing it instantly. With a snarl the Orc riding it advanced towards her, its weapon shingling the light of the Flames that danced around them and Phoenix walked towards him her own weapon shining as she held both of her swords tight. Only one warrior would leave the battle this night.

"Kurv dagalush!" The White Orc spat at her and this seemed to ignite something in Phoenix and suddenly the Orc in front of her had been beheaded and she was stood between Bilbo and the White Orc her swords held to fight.

"You will not touch them." She told the Orc who laughed at her.

"Lat nar orca katu!" He snarled. "Vok vadokan!"

Phoenix looked at Bilbo. "Stay with him." When the hobbit nodded she threw herself at the Orc, knocking him off his warg and when the warg went for her, she drove a sword into its skull. With his warg dead, Azog unleashed his fury upon Phoenix and as both of them threw each other around, sounds of breaking bones echoing around the clearing, the dwarves tried to get up. Eventually only Fili, Kili, Gloin and Dwalin could get to their feet and they ran at the Orc army their weapons held high. As everyone fought, none of them noticed a swarm coming towards them, until there were screams and some of the dwarves as they were suddenly pulled from the trees. Phoenix was one of the last to get picked up as she watched Azog and his followers retreat away into the forest, and she gave a short scream as she was picked up from the ground and suddenly dropped from a great height. However, she stopped when she landed on something soft and looking down, she found her hands caught in feathers, and she smiled to herself – they were eagle feathers. The eagles had come to their aid at last. However, the relief she felt was short lived as she heard the curse of Azog's voice in the distance. He wanted Thorin and the Line of Durin vanquished and unless she done something about it, he would have his way. But there was no way she was going to let him get her lover or her friends, not even if it took her last breath.

Translations

Kurv dagalush : Whore's imp

Lat nar orca katu : You have no power here

Vok vadokan : Dwarf is dead