And on to another round!
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The company's heads swivelled around in the direction the howl had come from just as another sounded over the mountainside, alerting them to the imminent danger they were in.
"Out of the frying pan…" Thorin muttered with a sour look up the hill.
"… and into the fire!" Gandalf finished for him. "Run! RUN!"
Cinna let out a tired breath, exhaustion clawing at her body as she forced herself to move yet again as the company set out running down the hill as fast as they could. Her feet carried her stumblingly over the grass, between rocks and trees as she jumped over roots that were sticking out of the earth. The sunlight was quickly fading now and it was only moments before the forest was dipped in darkness, making it harder to see where she was stepping as she ran. The fae kept her pace as fast as she could, her breathing laboured and her back aching with every move, when she heard the wargs approaching them rapidly from behind.
It was only a few moments later that the first beast caught up to the group, leaping at Bilbo who was running at the very back of the company. The hobbit ducked behind a rock out of reflex and the warg's jaws snapped in the air over his head. The beast landed in front of him, growling dangerously and baring its fangs at the small hobbit.
"Bilbo!" Cinna called when she realized that the hobbit was being held up and attacked, though she couldn't even try to help him, for as Fili ran past her, he grabbed her roughly by the forearm and pulled her along. For a moment, she had the thought to fight him off and run and help Bilbo, but she didn't have the strength to go against his hold. All of her energy was being used for running.
"Come on!" Fili yelled, dragging her further down the hill as behind them, Bilbo pulled out his sword, holding it in front of him as the warg charged at him, impaling itself on the hobbit's blade and falling down dead. For a second, Bilbo looked at the dead beast in surprise, before a few more wargs caught up to the fleeing dwarves, though the company quickly dispatched them with their weapons. Bilbo hurried after them, however slowing down slightly as they reached a large outcropping of land with a few trees growing on it. They couldn't go any further, for there was no way off the outcropping besides a great fall down the mountain into the valley below. They were trapped, Bilbo realized with a horrified look back over his shoulder, seeing more wargs approach.
"Up into the trees, all of you!" he heard Gandalf call then. "Come on, climb! Bilbo, climb!"
The hobbit was ripped out of his stupor when an axe flew past his head, thrown by Bifur, killing a warg that had been approaching him.
As the dwarves quickly began climbing the trees, Cinna let Fili pull her up onto a branch by her arms, the blond dwarf easily lifting her small weight. Once she was standing more or less steadily on the thick branch, she shot a glance down to the ground, seeing Bilbo still standing by the dead warg with the axe stuck in its head, staring at the beast in shock.
"They're coming!" Thorin yelled from where he was on another tree, seeing more wargs approach, some of them with orc-riders on their backs.
"Bilbo! Run!" Cinna shouted as loud as she could to get the hobbit's attention, successfully ripping him out of his trance. Finally, the Halfling turned and quickly clambered up a tree as the wargs rushed below him. Kili, who was on one branch lower than hers and Fili's, reached down to grab the hobbit by his collar and pull him up to safety just as one of the beasts jumped at his legs, only missing him by a few inches.
The companions held tightly to the branches as dozens of wargs circled the trees in which they were perched. No one saw Gandalf reaching out his staff and picking up a moth sitting in the same tree as him, bringing it close to his face and whispering something before letting it flutter away into the night.
Suddenly, the wargs ceased their growling and stopped their circling momentarily, turning as a white warg with a pale orc on its back approached the outcropping slowly. Cinna's gaze found the big orc after a moment and immediately, she was reminded of the Great Goblin's words only a few hours earlier. Azog, the Defiler. A Pale Orc astride a white warg.
As his white warg growled beneath him, Azog reached out his hand and stroked its fur, talking ominously in a dark language that Cinna didn't understand. Only then did she notice that his right arm had been replaced with a great spiked mace, its end drilled into the flesh of his upper arm.
"Nuzdigid? Nuzdi gast?" the Pale Orc growled lowly and the fae felt a cold shiver run down her spine at the black speech. "Ganzilig-i unarug obod nauzdanish, Thorin undag Thrain-ob."
There were only two words in his speech that the fae understood. Thorin and Thrain. And upon shooting a quick look over to where Thorin was perched in a tree not far from hers, she saw the dwarf-king's face stricken with pain and grief. She felt her heart go out to the dark-haired dwarf as she heard him speak into the night, his voice hoarse.
"It cannot be."
Then suddenly, upon Azog's command, the wargs leapt forward again and tried to climb the trees that the company was on, jumping as high as they could, scrabbling at the tree trunks and breaking apart branches in their jaws in their efforts. Cinna's breathing became a bit harder as she held on to the tree's trunk as tightly as she could and felt its suffering, feeling it shake violently at the beasts' assaults, making the dwarves struggle to hold on.
"Sho gad adol!" Azog shouted, and though Cinna didn't understand a word, it didn't take much for her to gather that it was an order to kill them all. And with the weight of the wargs climbing it, the tree that herself, Bilbo, Fili and Kili were on, furthest from the edge of the cliff, began to lean wildly as it suddenly got uprooted from the ground.
"No," Cinna whispered in horror as she held on to the trunk, the tree tipping over as more wargs grabbed onto it. She didn't have any time to think as she felt Fili grab her hand once more, forcing her to jump from the falling tree to the next one as it landed there. However, it was no use, Cinna knew, for with the weight of the dead tree now on it, this one would fall over as well. And sure enough, the tree groaned and tipped over, causing all the others to fall as well. All the dwarves, Bilbo, Cinna, and Gandalf managed to jump onto the last tree, which was on the very edge of the cliff. The fae quickly shrugged off Fili's grip on her hand then and put both of her hands on the tree's trunk, tightly clenching her eyes shut.
"What are you doing?!" Fili asked loudly, his voice full of panic as the wargs began scrambling at the last tree, as well, causing the trunk to groan beneath their assault, though it didn't fall. Glancing back up at the fae, who was leaning close to the tree, both hands firmly gripping the bark as she murmured something under her breath that he couldn't hear, Fili was suddenly absolutely certain that she had something to do with it not giving in to the wargs' assaults.
Azog laughed from where he was watching the scene atop his warg, and Fili felt his jaw clench in anger at the Pale Orc's joy in his cruelty. That was when he suddenly saw something whip past his head and down onto the ground, and upon taking a closer look, the blond dwarf realized that it was a pinecone that had been set on fire. Gandalf had thrown it down amid the wargs who now retreated from it in fear of the fire. Fili glanced up as Gandalf called his name and he quickly caught the burning pinecone that the wizard tossed down to him in both hands, quickly throwing it from one to the other so as to not burn himself.
He didn't hesitate to throw it at the wargs, while Bilbo and the others now gathered pinecones as well, letting Gandalf set them on fire with his staff. They threw them like missiles at the beasts., causing the area around the tree to catch fire, forcing the wargs to retreat a distance, growling and snarling furiously.
"Stop!" Cinna called desperately from where she was still holding on to the tree, knowing that the fire would cause the it to collapse and the forest around it to die, though no one heard her as Azog roared in anger and frustration while the dwarves cheered. "Stop it!"
Suddenly, the cheers turned into cries of fear, and Cinna clenched her eyes shut once more as the roots of the tree started to give way. However much she tried to give it strength, any last crumb of energy that was left in her, it was not enough anymore now, and with a great groan the tree tipped precariously over the edge of the cliff.
It came to a rest sticking straight out away from the edge, and Cinna put all her effort into giving the tree enough strength to hold its last roots in the earth. The dwarves tried to hold on as they got flung around, but Ori lost his grip on the tree and fell, only just managing to grab onto Dori's leg before he would fall down into the valley.
Cinna heard both brothers scream as they clang on to the tree desperately, calling for Gandalf to help them. Turning her head to look at them, the fae's eyes widened in horror as she saw Dori loosing his grip on the tree as well, and she cried out for him when he fell, though Gandalf quickly swung down his staff. Dori grabbed onto the end of it, dangling precariously in the air.
"Hold on, Ori!" the grey-haired dwarf called down desperately to his little brother.
Cinna could barely concentrate on what she was doing among the noise of the fire, the cries of the dwarves and the growling of wargs and orcs, and the increasing pain in her back as she held on tightly to the tree, trying not to slip and fall.
It was then that she suddenly saw Thorin pull himself up, his sword drawn, walking down the leaning trunk as Bilbo and the others, still hanging from the tree, looked on. The fae's eyes widened in shock as the dwarf began running through the burning ground towards Azog and his white warg, sword lifted in the air as his eyes were filled with hate and fury.
"Thorin!" she heard Dwalin shout but his words were lost in the noise, and the company could only watch as Azog spread his arms wide with a smug grin on his scarred face. The orc crouched as Thorin approached, then roared as his warg leapt at the dwarf-king. The company cried out as Thorin tried to swing his sword, but the warg hit him in the chest with its forepaws, smashing the dark-haired dwarf to the ground roughly.
As Thorin got back on his feet, struggling and panting, Azog and his white warg wheeled around, charging at the dwarf-king again. Cinna could only watch with wide, horrified eyes as Azog swung his mace and smashed Thorin in the face before the dwarf even had the chance to react. Thorin was brutally flung to the ground by the impact, coming to lie motionless on the ground a few metres away from the Pale Orc.
"No," the fae whispered in shock as Balin cried out and Dwalin yelled in horror upon seeing his king so wounded.
Azog roared with excitement, approaching the beaten dwarf slowly on his warg, preparing to kill the dwarf-king slowly and cruelly. It was when the white warg clamped its jaws around Thorin and the dwarf-king yelled out in pain that suddenly, Bilbo stood up on the tree where he had been right next to Cinna. The fae shot him a confused and shocked look as he moved forward at the same time that Dwalin tried to get up, but the branch that the bald dwarf was holding on to broke and swung him precariously over the edge of the cliff, preventing him from reaching Thorin as he had to fight for his own life.
"Bilbo!" Cinna cried out as the hobbit ran down the tree toward the fight and she was about to let go of the trunk to hold him back – or to help him, she wasn't sure – when Gandalf yelled at her.
"Cinna, no!" the wizard called loudly, causing her to quickly put her hands back securely on the bark of the tree as she shot a glance up at him. He shook his head at her, knowing exactly that as soon as the fae were to let go of the trunk, the tree would no longer have enough strength to keep from falling. Cinna obeyed, keeping her hands firmly on the trunk as she shot a worried look after the hobbit.
The white warg had now thrown Thorin several feet away onto a flat rock nearby after the dwarf-king had managed to hit its head with the pommel of his sword. Thorin landed heavily, his sword falling out of his hand. He was almost unconscious when Azog ordered one of his orcs to bring him his head.
The orc approached Thorin slowly, placing its sword against his neck as the dwarf-king unsuccessfully and weakly tried to reach for his sword, which had landed out of his reach. As the orc swung his sword down and Thorin already prepared himself for his imminent end, the creature was suddenly thrown to the side as something smacked into it with full force.
Bilbo had thrown himself at the orc and knocked him over, managing to stab and kill the beast as it tried to fight him off. Pulling his sword from the dead orc's body, Bilbo stood on shaky legs and moved to stand protectively in front of Thorin, who had now fallen unconscious. Raising his sword and waving it wildly at Azog and the other wargs, the Pale Orc smiled in hatred at the small hobbit, saying something in black speech that Bilbo couldn't understand. But he didn't have to, for it became all too clear when several orcs and wargs approached him, snarling.
He raised his sword determinedly, preparing to try and fight them off, when suddenly Fili, Kili and Dwalin ploughed into the wargs from the side, starting to fight them and sending loud battle cries into the air as they slashed and struck them with their weapons. In the confusion, Bilbo managed to leap forward and wound a warg himself. It was just seconds later that the white warg hit Bilbo painfully with its head, sending him flying and landing painfully a few metres away on his back.
Cinna watched in horror from her spot as Azog and his warg approached Bilbo slowly to kill him, the hobbit fumbling around the ground for his sword as he scrambled backwards away from the Pale Orc who just grinned cruelly. Fili, Kili and Dwalin had now been surrounded by wargs, as well, outnumbered and unable to fight them all off as the creatures circled them slowly, snarling and growling dangerously.
"Gandalf!" the fae called out desperately, feeling her energy leave her second by second as she lent any strength she had left to the tree beneath her palms. The problem was that there was not much more she had left to give. The wizard just shot the fae a short, slightly helpless look before suddenly a moth came fluttering in front of his face and his expression turned into relief. Cinna was about to say something, to tell him that she couldn't hold on any longer when suddenly, Dori and Ori slipped from Gandalf's staff and fell toward the ground far below. The fae screamed in horror when they disappeared from her sight, before all of a sudden a tremendous eagle swooped up out of nowhere and toward the sky and Cinna's eyes widened as she saw Dori and Ori sitting safely on its back, though holding on for dear life.
"What…" Cinna started as she looked at Gandalf, but he just smiled as more eagles appeared in the sky and joined the battle, some of them grabbing wargs and orcs with their tremendous claws and tossing them over the cliff. Others knocked down trees, which crushed the wargs below them, while others again fanned the forest flames with their wings, causing an inferno that burned wargs and orcs alike. Cinna could only watch as an eagle gently grabbed Thorin and his sword from the ground in its talons and flying away. Then she saw an alarmed Bilbo gently being picked up by an eagle as well, her vision suddenly beginning to get blurry as her last bit of strength left her.
As the eagles proceeded to snatch the dwarves out of the tree and the battleground and flying away, the fae collapsed and her hands fell away from the trunk. She only faintly noticed as her body was lifted into the air as the roots gave way and the tree fell of the edge of the cliff, her eyes fluttering shut as she fell unconscious.