A/N: And chapter 12! Enjoy!
The sunset quickly turned to night as the howling grew closer with each step. Ahead of her was a small outcropping of stone. As Bilbo rounded it, a Warg leaped over the rock, quickly spinning to face the Hobbit.
"No!" Quin yelled, and pumped her legs faster, hoping to save him. The Warg charged the Hobbit, who drew his sword at the last second. The Warg stupidly impaled its head on the blade, falling limply to the side. Quin breathed with relief, which was short lived. Another Warg came towards her, most likely smelling the blood. With Frostfire in hand and no faltering in her pace, she slid to her knees as it leaped for her, striking up and slicing open its underbelly from head to hip. It slammed into a tree, dead.
The other dwarves took out two more Wargs, slicing and hacking until they were silent. Reaching the edge of the cliff, they all realized with dread that there was nowhere to go. It was either death by Warg or death by the fall.
"Up into the trees, all of you! Come on, climb! Bilbo, climb!" Gandalf commanded, shimmying up a tree as best as he could. The others followed suit. Bilbo ran to his sword still stuck in the Warg's skull and was struggling to pull it out.
"Quin! Climb up! Hurry!" Thorin yelled down to her. She reached for a branch and cried out in pain. The wood in her side was too great now. Getting up the tree with the wood still inside her would be impossible. She cursed as she pulled out the shard, dropping the long, bloody piece to the ground. Using whatever strength was in her, she climbed up the tree to join the others. Thorin looked at her and saw her clutching her side where a pool of red was quickly forming. His eyes widened.
"Quin! What happened!?" He stepped down a few branches to join her, staring at the red of her tunic.
"It's nothing, Thorin. Just a small piece of wood. I couldn't climb without getting it out." She explained, wincing.
He was concerned and gripped her arm tightly. "Damn you, woman." He tried to sound playful, but worry laced his tone. She stumbled slightly, and he grabbed hold of her waist, keeping her standing as she paled with the effort.
"I promise if we survive this you can throttle me." She laughed hollowly. Looking down, her face paled even more to see Bilbo still on the ground, attempting to pull out his sword.
"Bilbo! Get your ass up a tree now!" Quin shouted, and his surprise from hearing her tone of voice caused him to turn quickly, actually pulling out the sword in the process. He looked back at the Wargs approaching and scrambled up the nearest tree before they could reach him.
The Wargs came and jumped, snapping their jaws at the company and tearing away all the bottom branches with their sharp teeth. Suddenly, a heavily scarred, pale orc sitting astride a white Warg stepped forward on the stone outcropping, baring his pointed teeth.
Thorin tensed next to Quin as he stared into the eyes of his foe of long past. "Azog." He breathed.
"Do you smell it? The scent of fear?" Azog's voice sounded of pure evil, and Quin realized he was speaking Orkish. The foul words made her want to cover her ears. The orc grinned at them with hatred, particularly at Thorin. "I remember your father reeked of it, Thorin son of Thrain."
Thorin looked to be in anguish as he realized the fate of his father. "It cannot be."
Azog glanced at Quin, and where Thorin had pulled her tightly to his side. "So, this is the dwarf whore I was told of." He licked his teeth as he stared at her. "She will be fun to break. I'm sure her fear tastes as good as it smells." Thorin hissed and Azog just laughed.
He pointed at them. "Those two are mine. Kill the others!" With that command, the Wargs leaped into action, trying harder than ever to climb the trees, which shook beneath the company's feet.
"Drink their blood!" Azog cackled, and one of the trees began uprooting from the weight of the large creatures clawing at it. It tumbled over atop the tree Quin and Thorin were in. The dwarves jumped into their tree to safety. However, that safety was short lived when that tree began to tip.
"Hold on!" Thorin yelled, gripping Quin tighter to him. They both leaped at just the right time, each grabbing a different branch on the last tree before the cliff dropped off into darkness. Fear gripped Quin's heart as they began tipping again, with all the dwarves shouting in terror. Looking up, Quin saw Gandalf light a pinecone on fire, throwing it to the ground beneath them, igniting the dry grass. The Wargs began backing off, not too keen on singeing their fur. Gandalf began lighting more, tossing them down to the dwarves below, who threw them with excellent aim. Quin did her share chucking pinecones, being able to hold them longer in her glowing palm.
The dwarves cheered as the fire created an effective barrier between them and the orcs. But those cheers quickly turned to cries of fear as the tree began moving again, until it was sticking straight out from the cliff. Quin was hanging onto a branch for dear life, the throbbing in her side and lack of blood causing her grip to loosen by the second. She looked over to see Ori lose his grip, only to catch Dori's leg at the last second. They didn't hold on for long, and both lost their grip. Quin cried out as she expected to see them fall to their deaths, but Gandalf's staff saved them. Dori was practically crushing the wood with his hands in his struggle to hold on, his knuckles white.
She looked up to see Azog smiling at Thorin, whose eyes darkened in rage. Thorin stood on the trunk, Orcrist shining in the light of the fire.
"Thorin, no!" Quin yelled. "He'll kill you!" She tried in vain to bring him back to her, but she knew in her heart she couldn't have. He was back in the foggy haze like in Rivendell, listening only to the hatred in his heart for the orc that took his family from him and was now trying to rip this one away. He started forward, walking slowly and surely toward Azog, no longer hearing anything but the blood rushing in his ears. Quin screamed at him over and over to stop. Thorin began running, a thick oak branch his only shield, living up to his name. As Thorin reared back to strike, Azog's Warg leaped at him, hitting him squarely in the chest. Thorin slammed hard into the ground, and Quin screamed for him.
Thorin stood, dazed and shaky. Azog grinned and let out a battle cry as he smashed his mace into Thorin, hitting him squarely in the face. Thorin went down a second time. Balin cried out in anguish. Quin was trying to pull herself up to help him, but her injury was too great. Her arms were shaking violently as she struggled to hold on. She looked up to see Bilbo stand and unsheathe his sword, bravery and fear mixing on his face.
"Not you too." She cried, tears spilling down her face. He looked at her and smiled before rushing forward, despite her shouts for him to stop. Thorin was shouting in pain as the Warg bit into his flesh, shaking him. With one last attempt, the dwarf struck the Warg on the head. The creature threw him to the side, where he lay still. Azog turned to the orc next to him.
"Bring me the dwarf's head."
The orc grinned and jumped off his own Warg, approaching the fallen dwarf. He lifted his sword to decapitate Thorin, but Bilbo attacked him before he could, causing them both to tumble to the ground. Bilbo stabbed the orc until he gave one last squeal, then died. Bilbo stood over Thorin protectively, sword raised high, though it was shaking in his hand.
"Kill him." Azog ordered. The other Wargs raised their heads and snarled as they stalked toward the Hobbit, who was backing away and swinging his sword frantically. Quin couldn't let them both die. She screamed through the pain as she used what seemed like someone else's strength to pull herself up, unsheathing Frostfire as she stood. With a roar of hate she ran at the Wargs, bringing one down with swift strikes. She hardly noticed some of the other dwarves join in, slashing down the orcs and Wargs alongside her.
She saw Bilbo join the fight, before getting thrown to the ground by Azog's Warg. The Hobbit scrambled back on the ground as Azog came closer, smiling at his chance to kill the halfling. Quin ran in between them, holding up Frostfire with a fire of her own blazing in her eyes.
"You want him? Come and claim him." She growled.
Azog had the good sense to seem a little apprehensive, but then grinned sadistically once more. "Your dwarf king is dead, yet you move on to the halfling so quickly. Perhaps you are whoring for him, too?" He laughed.
"Keep laughing, Azog. We'll see who's laughing when I pull out your intestines and feed them to your dog." She hissed, and Azog suddenly became angry. He roared and reared back his mace to strike her, but she made no attempt to move, prepared to take the blow if it meant Bilbo could get away. A loud cawing distracted him, and they both looked to see many large eagles flying towards them. They picked up some of the dwarves, fanned the flames into the Wargs, and were picking up the orcs and dropping them over the cliffside. Azog growled with rage as Bilbo was swept up behind her and dropped onto the back of another eagle. Quin turned to see Thorin gently taken in the talons of another bird, along with Orcrist. She turned to Azog, who bared his teeth at her, and grinned.
At his bellow of anger, she sprinted and jumped off the cliff's edge, free falling for a second before landing on the back of an eagle with a painful grunt. She gripped onto the feathers with dear life, only loosening a bit when the bird looked back at her with pleading eyes. Quin watched Thorin's motionless body lying in an eagle's talons, and tears began running down her face anew. He couldn't be dead. That was not how her vision came to be. He had to be alive. She repeated these words over and over in her mind.
They soared over the Misty Mountains, the sunlight shining over the peaks as the company worried for the life of their leader. Soon, the eagles dropped Thorin off on the top of a tall gathering of rock. He didn't move. Quin jumped off the back of the eagle that carried her, rolling a bit on the hard stone, for the eagle was not yet close enough to let her down gently. She could not wait, and ran immediately to Thorin's side, gripping his hand.
"Thorin! Thorin, please wake up! Please, don't leave me." She pleaded, brushing his hair from his bloody face. She placed her fingers beneath his nostrils and felt no breath. Her tears would not stop. The others were dropped off as well, and began crowding around their fallen king. Gandalf approached her.
"Please help him!" She asked frantically.
Gandalf bent over the dwarf and placed a hand over his face, closing his eyes and whispering a spell. Thorin immediately opened his eyes and began breathing again. He looked over at Quin, who was crying now with relief instead of sorrow.
"Quin." He reached up and brushed a stray strand of hair from her face. He looked around back at Gandalf. "The halfling?" He said quietly.
"It's alright. Bilbo is here. He's quite safe." Gandalf replied, smiling. Dwalin and Kili helped Thorin up, who was grunting with pain. Thorin approached Bilbo with a severe look on his face.
"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?" He began gruffly, his voice raspy and laced with pain.
"Thorin." Quin looked at him, hurt he would say that about the person who just saved his life. Thorin ignored her and stared at Bilbo, who began looking worried and ashamed.
"I've never been so wrong in all my life." Thorin hugged Bilbo fiercely, who stood still looking shocked. Quin grinned at their embrace, and the other dwarves cheered. Thorin pulled away. "I'm sorry I doubted you."
Bilbo nodded and shrugged. "No, I would have doubted me too. I'm not a hero or a warrior… not even a burglar." He muttered that last part, making them laugh.
Thorin turned to look at Quin, who walked up to him. "Don't you ever do that to me again, Thorin Oakenshield." She said sternly, her voice breaking with emotion. He saw her dirty, still swollen face streaked with tears. She quickly hugged him, clutching him to her desperately. He returned the hug with the same fervor.
"I thought I'd lost you." She whispered into his hair.
"I'm not that easy to kill." He whispered back. They let go of each other with grins on their faces.
"You look horrible." She teased, wiping away some of the fresh blood from his face. She sighed as he tenderly ran a finger down the side of her face, the whole left of which was beginning to bruise badly from the Goblin King's strike.
"You don't look so great yourself." He replied. She smiled at the warmth from his hand.
"Is that what I think it is?" Bilbo's voice made them all turn. They gasped as they saw what Bilbo was pointing at.
"Erebor. The Lonely Mountain. The last of the great dwarf kingdoms of Middle Earth." Gandalf supplied.
"Our home." Thorin said, reaching down and gripping Quin's hand. She didn't mind at all. A bird flew by towards the direction of their gaze.
"A raven! The birds are returning to the Mountain!" Óin remarked excitedly. The bird twittered as it flew further away. Quin recognized the bird call, for it was very similar to the one she used to call Alioth.
"It's a thrush." She commented, in awe.
"We'll take it as a sign. A good omen." Thorin looked at her, and she grinned at him.
"You're right. I do believe the worst is behind us." Bilbo said, relieved.
For that solitary moment, everyone believed it.
Then Quin winced, reached down, and gripped her side in pain. She pulled back her hand and looked at it. It was completely covered in blood. Red blood; her own. Thorin looked down and saw it, then looked back up at her in horror. He had forgotten.
"Thorin-," She began, then everything went black.
A/N: Yeah, I know it's a bit of a cliffhanger, but this marks the end of the plot for the first movie! YAY! I feel like it's come so far, and I'm excited for us to see this story through to the end! Please review if you'd like, and I hope you guys have a great rest of your week!
P.s. did you catch the easter egg from the LOTR movies? (hint: Arwen being a badass)
