Disclaimer: Un-hu still have no claim what so ever to The Hobbit. Enjoy!

Chapter 11

Sophie P.O.V

There I was just being taught swordplay by Fili when suddenly I hear Caroline's shouts of warning and BAM a gigantic wolf comes barreling down the hill. Fili acted immediately pulling me behind him and pointing his twin swords out at the wolf. I shirked a bit when the wolf landed in the fray of dwarves when Thorin struck out at the wolf, striking at its head causing it to stop and drop dead.

Another growl brought my attention to the other side where yet another wolf was standing, its haunches bent ready to spring forward with hundreds of pounds of muscle behind it. The creature began bounding down the slope when an arrow hissed through the air piercing it just below its shoulder blade. It stumbled and rolled over its top-heavy body to land on the ground only to be met with one of Dwalin's great iron war hammers.

The whole ordeal passed in a blur as Gandalf yelled at Thorin only to have Thorin yell back at Gandalf. Suddenly Radagast was smirking and ran off to jump aboard his rabbit sled. I felt Fili grab my hand and tug on it. My mind was still in a haze, wolves had just attacked us and I had just stood there holding a lethal elvish sword in my hands, and I had done nothing. Not that I would have been any use but I could have at least held up my sword or done something not just stand there.

Fili continued to drag me along, the company surrounding us as we followed Radagast as best we could, but those bunnies could really move so we soon fell behind. I felt a hand on my shoulder and I slowly turned m head to see a familiar blonde facing me with a worried expression. The hand shook me, hard, bringing me out of my trance like state.

My vision cleared from its previous blurry state and focused on Caroline's striking green eyes.

"Sophie!" She hissed quietly, "Snap out of it, you know get 'cha head in the game?" she said snapping her fingers at me making a very good Troy Bolton reference whether or not she even realized it.

"Ya hearts in the song Care." I smiled back giving her a thumbs up.

"Hush you two!" Fili shushed in a serious tone, a foreboding look in his eyes, his hand still wrapped tight around mine.

"Or do you wish to draw them straight to us?" I heard Kili add running up from behind us to catch the rest of the company.

Caroline pursed her lips tightly and held her hand up in defeat.

From up ahead I heard the shuffling of leaved and a very loud 'come and get me! Ha Ha!' followed by a chorus of howls. Fili gave my hand a squeeze and tugged to let me know it was time to move. We ran through the remaining bits of forest that naturally got thinner and thinner as we ran. Soon the forest disappeared completely behind us and we were left running through a field of yellow grass dotted extensively with a variety of large and small boulders jutting out at random from the uneven hilly ground. Sudden we stopped behind an especially large boulder.

"Come on!" Gandalf whispered harshly back to all of us and darted out from behind the boulder. Beyond us I could hear the feint barking and howling of the massive wolves.

We were quick to follow and Fili continued to hold my hand tightly as we ran from boulder to boulder, trying to stay out of sight of the wolves and the grey human like figures riding them. Beside me Caroline took long even strides as she glanced over and raised an eyebrow at Fili and me. I gave a small grin and shrugged at her, continuing to let Fili tug me along at his surprisingly quick pace.

Caroline easily matched his stride at my side while Kili ran slightly in front of us, keeping me inside the middle most part of the company. From behind us I heard stifled chuckling obviously coming from some of the dwarves behind up when Thorin suddenly sprinted past us, making his way to the front, giving Fili a stern look that made him drop my hand. I frowned at the back of our leaders head and was tempted to make a face at him but I restrained myself. Caroline however didn't hesitate to scowl at him despite them having saved each other only a few hours ago.

Gandalf led us across the rough and rocky terrain from rock to rock until we came to a long strip of field with no cover in sight. The wizard hesitated only for a second before bolting into the wide-open field. We were barley half way when the pack tore over the ridge maybe two hundred feet away, probably less.

"Stay together!" Gandalf called from up ahead making a sharp turn to head in the opposite direction of the pack.

"Move!" Thorin roared swinging his sword to urge us to run faster. He waited until Caroline and I had passed him before starting off again after Gandalf. The dwarf easily caught back up to the front and led us through more of the rocks.

We were running along a large flat rock when Thorin suddenly yelled at Nori, his voice laced with concern. He pulled the young dwarf back and we all stopped behind him, waiting for the signal to continue moving. Thorin looked back to Gandalf who nodded.

"Come on! Come on! Quick!" The wizard called quietly, allowing the dwarves behind him to pass by.

Caroline nudged my arm with hers and followed after the dwarves.

"Where are you leading us?" I heard Thorin ask Gandalf as we passed the two, I glanced back to see Gandalf give the dwarf a look that clearly said 'not now'. I gave a slight chuckle at that and continued after the dwarves, Thorin again passing us to get to the front. Either he had a leader complex and absolutely had to be at the front, or wanted to be there to protect the company should the pack find us.

Again we sprinted through the rocks only to be cut off by the wolf pack once more. I huffed out a breath and quickly changed directions to stay with the company as we veered off to hide behind more rocks. I wasn't by any means out of shape, but I also wasn't in shape either a few more minutes of this and I was going to throw up I just knew it. Caroline seemed to sense this and clapped a hand on my shoulder.

"Can't stop now Sophie, we gota' keep up." She whispered to me encouragingly, her breath only slightly burdened from the running while mine was beginning to get haggard and uneven. Curse her and her in shapeless I nodded and smiled nonetheless and tried to take deeper breaths to calm my body, which was screaming for me to stop.

I leaned against the rock face and held a hand against my stomach to try and relaxed my body and take in this moments rest, beside me Caroline was pressed against the rock with Gandalf on her right. The dwarves and Bilbo had gathered at the base of a large rock just a few more feet to our right. Just as Gandalf was opening his mouth to tell us to keep moving a horrifying sight crept into my line of sight. Right on top of the rock the dwarves were hiding behind was the ugliest creature I think I had ever seen. Its skin was a decaying grey color and the clothes it wore, if you could even call them that, looked as if they were made from rotting animal skins and bones. This must be an orc. The thing was riding one of the massive wolves that had been barking and howling after us. I felt Caroline tense up beside me and glanced down to see her hand tighten around the handle of her bow.

Looking back to the orc I saw it had drawn a very long, very sharp, wicked looking blade, certainly meant for killing. Its mount sniffed the air and turned in circles atop the rock, searching the air for some sent of the dwarves. Looking down at the dwarves, most of whom were looking up as if they could sense the things movements, I saw Thorin turn to glance at Kili and nod down to his bow. Kili looked mortified at the motion, but slowly brought his hand up to carefully draw a yellow fletched arrow and nock it onto the string of his bow. Caroline mirrored his movements and drew back her bow as well with a lethal looking arrow complete with black feathers and a slim pointed tip. She did have a better angle on the beast and if they shot just right they could take out the orc and the wolf in one fell swoop. Thorin's eyes flashed over to Caroline and gave her a stern almost displeased look. The corner of Caroline's mouth twitched up in a smirk and I knew she had seen the dwarves look as well.

Kili glanced over to see Caroline's drawn arrow and the look of mortification on his face slightly melted away as he suddenly gained the courage to jerk back and away from the rock. His movements were quick and as soon as the creatures were in his sights he loosed his arrow. As soon as he did that the wolf reacted to the sudden movement and began lunging towards him, only to be struck in the chest by Kili's arrow. I heard a sharp thwish and a fairly longer arrow with black fletching's pierced the exposed flesh of the mounted creatures neck just as it was raising a horn to its lips to call for aid. I jumped slightly and pumped my fists by my sides, Caroline hit it!

Suddenly both the orc and its wolf started to shriek and bark as loudly as they could manage. If the thing couldn't call with its horn it was going to make as much noise as it could to still bring the pack to us!

"It's calling for help!" I whispered harshly to Caroline.

The blonde nodded and clenched her teeth, reaching back to draw another arrow from her quiver, but the dwarves had beaten her to the punch. Dwalin had brought his iron hammer down onto the head of the grey creature. More of the dwarves stepped up to batter at the orc and its mount trying to silence their screams. I cringed at the violence of it all, and at the fact that the pack had more than likely heard the commotion and were soon to be at our heels.

"Gandalf?" I called to the wizard as he stepped out from behind the rock to look across the landscape. More barks and shrieks sounded from the direction he was looking and I saw his shoulders tense as he sharply turned back to us.

"Move. Run." He shouted to us and took off running in the opposite direction the shrieks and howls were coming from.

Caroline shot me an exasperated look and jerked her head in the direction the wizard was currently running. I gave her a weak shrug and sighed as I started to run again. The rest of the company wasted no more time with the corpse of the wolf and orc and followed after the wizard and us.

Gandalf led us through the rocks for a few more minutes until the rocky landscape melted away into the ground and was replaced by miles and miles of rolling hills and golden straw grass. There were still a few rocks jutting out from the ground here and there but none big enough to hide behind anymore. We were on out own from here on out with no natural barriers to protect us from the oncoming pack.

"What's he thinking?" I blurted out to Caroline.

She huffed out a breath and shook her head, "I don't know, but this is how big stamina animals hunt smaller ones on the plains. Run them down until their exhausted then it's an easy kill with no resistance." She said.

The gears in my head were turning faster and faster now. Gandalf wouldn't lead us somewhere we couldn't get out of. So there had to be a plan somewhere in his muddled old man mind.

I sighed and looked down to keep my eyes on the ground, trying to focus on where I was putting my feet instead of the ever-nearing sounds of the pack all around us. Wait? Around us weren't they just behind us?

I shook the thought away and continued following after Gandalf.

"There they are!" Gloin shouted as we crested a large hill.

"This way. Quickly!" Gandalf called changing directions yet again.

I stopped on top of the hill and scanned the area. Sure enough there were two or three hunched wolf forms closing in on our position.

"They're boxing us in." I muttered to myself.

"Come on Soph!" Caroline called to me from the base of the hill, her eyes sharp and filled with awareness.

"Coming!" I yelled back filing in at the back of the group.

Caroline waited form me to pass her then bolted after us to pick up the back. I saw Fili glance over his shoulder and look back at us as a slight smile feathered its way across his lips when he saw we were still with the group. I returned the smile slightly and stumbled slightly on the tip of a small rock jutting out fro the ground.

Suddenly hands were on my right arm keeping me from falling flat on my face. It was Caroline, a still stern look on her face. She was clearly not happy with what was going on and looked down to give me a fierce glare.

I smiled weakly at her and she continued to grasp my arm keeping me balanced on the uneven ground. Suddenly we began to slow as we entered into a small clearing, and then completely stopped.

Caroline releases her hold on my arm and looked to Gandalf presumably for answers on why we stopped. I embrace myself in realization of what is fully going on. We had been led like sheep to slaughter. Every hill had at least one or two dark and menacing figures on top that were creeping closer and closer towards us. My right hand slipped down to hold the handle of my elegant sword. Fili had taught me how to hold it properly and explained blocking slightly before this had all started but none of that would eve be close to being useful. I took a deep breath and realized my body had been shaking in fear. The breath helped me to calm down a bit but the gravity of our situation still gripped at my heart. I could die today.

Caroline P.O.V.

Sophie was shaking like mad beside me, her right hand turning white from gripping her swords handle to tight as her left arm hugged her stomach. The thought of my best friend being scared into silence baffled me, and made me angry. Not only at the orcs and wargs, but at Gandalf for leading us here, for her for making us come on this stupid adventure in the first place, and Thorin because he always seemed make me angry. I huffed out a breath for the thirtieth time that hour, this day sucked.

"There's more coming!" Kili shouted as he ran closer to the center of group, his bow already prepped with an arrow at the string. We had all spread out to cover more of the small clearing but his voice carried and everybody heard his warning.

Thorin turned in a tight circle to get a full perspective of the field, "Kili! Shoot them!" He called to his nephew then looked to me, "What are you waiting for!" He shouted giving me a demanding look.

Gritting my teeth together I nocked an arrow as well then ran closer to the edge of the perimeter we had created, my finger over the arrow to keep it from falling. Just beyond the limit I was prepared to go there was an average sized boulder, it was smaller than the ones we had been running through earlier but it would make a perfect vantage point for shooting down orcs and wargs. I leapt onto the boulder and planted my feet on the jagged surface. My fingers wrapped around the top and bottom of the arrow and I brought my bow arm up to aim at one of the oncoming orcs.

I froze. This thing was practically humanoid. I had shot the one earlier without hesitation but this was somehow different. My bow arm stated to shake. Why couldn't I just shoot the thing? It was coming to kill us so shouldn't I be able to kill it before it could kill us? How was this different from killing deer, pheasant, or anything else I've ever hunted! Just shoot it! Why can't I just shoot it!

"CAROLINE!" Sophie screamed at me.

I turned to see her shakily pulling her sword from its case as her eyes were locked looking ahead of her at the slowly approaching orc pack.

"Were surrounded!" Fili shouted.

I took a breath, relaxed the tension of the string, and shook my right hand out.

"It's just like hunting a deer." I whispered to myself, "Just like a deer."

I repositioned my fingers against the string again and drew the arrow back to rest against my cheek. The black feathers of the arrow tickled my cheek as I lined one of the orcs in my sights. I let out a breath and relaxed my fingers. The familiar twang of my arrow leaving my bow filled my ears followed by a sickening thud. Right before my eyes an orc slid off its warg and dropped to the ground motionless. I could barley make out the thin arrow protruding from its eye socket as it lay on the ground. The warg it had been riding twitched its head to look at its dead rider and let out a threatening growl. The massive beast then lunged forward in my direction as I quickly reached backed and lined up my next shot.

Another twang and thud sounded followed by another dead body on the ground. To my left I saw Kili shoot off an arrow and take down another orc. I pursed my lips and drew another arrow.

"Where's Gandalf?" He shouted back loosing another arrow.

Behind me I chanced a quick glance to see out wizard was indeed, missing. I let out a growl and turned back to finish off the warg Kili had killed the rider of.

"He has abandoned us!" I heard Dwalin roar. I clenched my teeth at that. Gandalf had lead us all this way and then left us to die? Weren't wizards supposed to be the people in story's who swooped in and saved everybody just in the nick of time?

"Some wizard he turned out to be." I grumbled as I drew back another arrow.

"Hold you ground!" Thorin yelled the now familiar shing of a blade being drawn following his words.

I glanced back as I looked my arrow to see him in a grounded fighting stance, both of his hands firmly holding the handle of his sword. He had a stern look about his face; he wasn't going down without a fight. At least that was one thing we could agree on. I also saw that everybody was closing in on each other forming an even tighter perimeter, one of which Kili and I were left out of. That didn't help my growing paranoia or the fact that the wargs and orcs were getting closer and closer. Behind me the dwarves shouted in their own language, probably insults and curses, as they did as Thorin said and held the small amount of ground they had.

"This way you fools!" a raspy voice called.

I turned fully around to see Gandalf poking his head up from a hidden hole in the middle of some rocks. I felt my lips curve up into a smile.

"Well what do you know, right in the nick of time old man." I grinned.

"Come on, move! Quickly, all of you!" Thorin yelled again.

The brief smile quickly disappeared from my lips, "Shoot them, hold your ground, come on move!" I muttered to myself in a mocking tone, "Make up your mind will you."

I rolled my eyes and drew another arrow as I stepped backwards off the rock I had perched myself on, making sure to place my feet on solid holding so I wouldn't fall. Backing off the rock wasn't as hard as I had imagined it would be, but walking backwards to keep my eye on the pack now dangerously close while still trying to accurately shoot orcs was the challenging part.

The orcs were so much closer now I could practically see the yellow decaying teeth in their mouths as the grinned in my direction. I scowled at them and fired another arrow, taking out a particularly disgusting one with what looked like human rib bones as chest armor. That just made the others cackles and grins even more as they crept their wargs closer and closer.

"Kili! Caroline! Run!" Thorin's voice called again.

His voice caused me to turn and see the dwarves filing down the hole; I didn't see a tall brunet in a ponytail so Sophie must have already gone down to safety. To my left I saw Kili shoot one more orc smack in the middle of its forehead then turn to bolt to the safety of the rocks. I reached back to draw one more arrow when a voice in my head said to put it back and seriously book it to the rocks. I released my hold on the arrow, took my inner voices suggestion, and started running for the rocks.

I saw Kili disappear into the hole and Thorin standing on top of some smaller rocks waiting for me to reach the stones. He had a dark look on his face and probably wasn't pleased that out of everybody in the company I was the last one to get to the rocks. I'd most likely get a stern 'you endangered the entire company, what were you thinking' when I got to the hole, and the thought of having pissed him off even over a matter this big that made me smile even if it was just a little.

Quickly that future changed when something wrapped around my legs causing me to trip and fall to the grass covered ground. My arrows clanked around in my quiver and spilled out all around my head and my bow had been thrown out of my hands so I could break my fall. The fall was hard and nearly knocked the wind out of me, but some how I managed to twist my body so I could sit up and see what had caused me to fall. Tangled at the bottom half of my legs was a mess of black rope weighted down with three heavy looking stones that looked like they had dried blood covering parts of their surface. Immediately I reached for one of the fallen arrows and began trying to cut away at the mess of rope around my legs.

Frantically I sawed at the rope trying to cut through it but arrows were meant for piercing things in a straight shot not the sawing motion I was currently trying to use it for. I glanced over my shoulder to look and see I was only about twenty feet from the rocks. I saw Thorin's face turn from darkness to anger, great now not only was I about to be mauled to death by oversized wolves I was going to die with Mr. High and Mighty King of Some Long Lost Mountain staring down at me disappointedly. He then took a step off of the rock and started to run towards me. I couldn't believe it, he was coming to me rescue, he was trying to save me?

A very loud and warm growl brought me back to my predicament; I turned to see the snout of a warg all but a few feet from my face and the cackling of who I assume was the lead orc looking down the mane of his mount. He leaned farther over its shoulder to laugh and say something in a very gross sounding language and cackle harder as the others around him laughed as well. My breath hitched in my throat and I felt the color leave my face. I swallowed dryly and stopped sawing at the rope and turned my head slightly so I could see Thorin making his way to the warg and me.

"Take care of Sophie!" I yelled at him, "Get her to the elves and GET HER HOME!" I screamed at him. Instantly he stopped and stared at me in disbelief. I felt my eyes begin to burn as tears started to make their way down my face. Sophie had to get home she just had to.

"GO!" I screamed looking down to the ground as I closed my eyes and gripped the arrow in my right hand harder.

I heard the sound of blades of grass being crushed and hoped he had turned back around. My eyes flashed open as more tears cascaded down my face. The warg seemed to laugh at me along side it rider and bent down so its hind legs were higher than its fore ones. It released the tension of its muscles and leapt into the air to cover the remaining few feet to my immobilized form.

I brought my hands up to try and shield my body and let out the loudest shrillest scream as the beast toppled down on top of me.

This was a dusey to write let me tell ya! But nonetheless I got it done and here it is! Writing has become more of a back seat thing this year due to my senior year suddenly deciding to end in three months leaving me scrambling to make sure I have everything ready for graduation and...THE FUTURE! However I will not give up on this story it is my baby now and I can't leave it unfinished! Any ways tell me if you liked this chapter, if you didn't, and heck for brownie points the last time you sat down and enjoyed petting a soft puppy. Yay to the first two and if the third exceeds more than two weeks you need to amend some thing in your life pronto. Well until next time my lovelies! Stay Classy.