Sorry this one took so long. Between messed up work schedule and the monster known as writes block it took me a while to figure out this chapter. Please let me know what you think.
I reached the bottom of the hill first and leaned against a tree, trying to catch my breath, and waited for the others to catch up. My throat hurt where the Goblin King had gripped it and my head was throbbing. I reached up and found a large lump where the rock had hit me but luckily no blood. Gandalf was one of the first ones to reach me and I leaned back, closed my eyes and listened to him as he counted off each of the company as they arrived. As my breathing finally calmed, I become aware of footsteps approaching, opened my eyes and started at seeing Thorin standing so close.
"How did he walk up so close without me noticing?" I thought as he continued to stare at me. I noticed him look at my throat and knew from the look on his face that some bruises were starting to form.
"Are you alright?" he asked, but before I could answer Gandalf could be heard asking the rest of the company what had happened to Bilbo.
Thorin's jaw clenched and he turned to the company and said, "I will tell you what happened! Master Baggins saw his chance and took it! He has thought of nothing but his soft bed and warm hearth since he stepped out his door! We will not be seeing our hobbit again. He is long gone!"
I wanted to argue about this, but looking around confirmed that Bilbo was not with the company. And since I had witnessed him trying to leave this morning, I knew I had no argument to the contrary.
"No, he isn't." came a quiet voice and suddenly Bilbo stepped out from behind a tree.
I sighed in relief and was about to take Thorin to task for his doubting Bilbo again when he asked Bilbo why he had come back. Bilbo then turned to Thorin, surprisingly with a frustrated look on his face, and said, "Look I know you doubt me. I know you always have. And you are right, I often think about Bag End. I miss my books and my arm chair and my garden. See that's where I belong, that's home. And that's why I came back, because you don't have one. A home. It was taken from you. But I will help you take it back if I can."
I could not stop the wave on emotion that swept over me at this little speech. Home. The reason why we were all doing this and the humbled looks on all of the dwarfs' faces, especially Thorin's, told me that this reminder had struck a chord with everyone. After Bilbo's speech it seemed everyone had started to relax. It was like his declaring his intentions out loud had cleared some horrible tension from the air. I relaxed back against the tree again and closed my eyes, feeling exhaustion sweep over me. But, just seconds later, the peaceful feeling that had settled over the company was ripped away as a blood curdling howl split the still air.
"Oh No!" I thought, as my eyes flew open and I pushed away from the tree.
At the sound the entire company started and looked up hill, back the way we came. "Out of the frying pan…" Thorin started, giving voice to my thoughts.
"And into the fire! Run. RUN!" Gandalf finished, sending us all running through the trees once more.
Any exhaustion I had been feeling moments before was then washed away by a flow of adrenaline and fear. We ran through the forest, dodging boulders and thicker patches of bushes. But soon I began to hear the heavy thud of paws behind us and knew the wargs were catching up. Unfortunately our flight was brought up short when we suddenly came to a sheer cliff face.
"Look out!" someone yelled and I dove behind a large boulder.
Three wargs ran past; two were quickly killed by the dwarves. But the third caught sight of Bilbo, who had hidden behind a tree, and rushed at him. Fortunately he had the presence of mind to draw his small sword and the warg ran itself upon it.
"Into the trees! Climb!" Gandalf ordered.
Quickly I got up and ran for the trees the rest of the company was already climbing. As I ran past the tree Bilbo had been hiding behind, he was still standing there, frozen, staring at the dead warg.
"Bilbo come on!" I yelled and grabbed his arm.
This seemed to shake him out of the trance and he started to follow. He paused momentarily to wrestle his sword from the warg's skull and then ran after me. As we approached the trees I could immediately see that even the lowest branches were going to be too high for him to reach without help. Then, I saw that the tree Bofur had climbed had a small boulder under it and got Bilbo to climb on top of it. Frantically, I looked over my shoulder, as I could hear the wargs getting closer. I pushed Bilbo up into the branches and Bofur pulled him the rest of the way up. As I leapt up to grab a branch to pull myself up, I felt a horrible, stabbing, pain as a warg bit down on the lower part of my left leg. It then gave me a jerk and threw me to the ground. I clenched my jaw to keep from screaming out in pain and looked up to see the warg stalking toward me. My hand automatically went to my belt before remembering that my swords were lashed to my back, under my pack and closed quiver, and therefore out of reach. The only weapons on my belt were my two remaining daggers. Drawing them I forced myself up, ignoring the pain and blood running down my leg. From the amount I was sure the wounds were very deep.
"Farren!" I heard someone yell behind me, but I ignored them.
Needing all my attention on dispatching this warg before others arrived. Finally it rushed at me and I dove to the side, lashing out with a dagger and burying it in the warg's neck. I jerked my arm downward and out, effectively slashing its throat. The warg stumbled and, with a gargled yelp, fell down dead. Then, as fast as I could, I sheathed my daggers and limped back toward the trees when a hand suddenly grabbed my arm. I turned, expecting an orc, unsheathed and raised a dagger. But it was Thorin; I had not noticed that he had climbed down after me and I placed the dagger back on my belt. He gave no notice to my reaction, only pulled me hurriedly over to a tree and grabbed my waist. He literally threw me up into the branches and then climbed up after, just as the wargs reached the trees and started swarming around the bottom. As I pulled myself up, he climbed onto the limb next to me and grabbed my arm again, pulling me higher up the tree next to him. We stopped half way up the tree; I wrapped my arm around the trunk and leaned my head against the tree. I felt Thorin's arm encircle my waist and felt grateful for the support as I had started to feel dizzy from the amount of blood I had lost. Suddenly all the wargs fell silent and backed off, and in the silence I heard a horrible, grating laugh. I felt Thorin go tense beside me and picked up my head to look. Sitting astride an enormous white warg was the most horrible orc I had ever seen. He was tall and pale with tribal scars marking him from shoulder to waist. He was missing an arm and in its place was a terrifying metal claw.
"Azog!" Thorin exclaimed softly.
"Azog the Defiler!" I thought, truly terrified.
I had heard tales about him, none good, he made the Goblin King seem like a woodland sprite! Black speech grated over my ears as Azog began to speak to his followers, obviously taunting Thorin.
"It cannot be!" Thorin whispered, almost to himself.
My breath caught in my throat at seeing the fear in his eyes. Suddenly Azog held up a mace and pointed it at Thorin and said something that needed no translation. He wanted Thorin to himself. Then, on a command he gave, the wargs began attacking the trees. Jumping up and ripping of lower branches and shaking them, trying to get to the dwarves in them. Suddenly I saw the first tree topple in to the next and I knew what was coming.
"We are going to have to jump." Thorin's voice came from right next to my ear.
I turned to look at him and our eyes locked, our faces inches apart. Seeing the strength and determination in his blue eyes gave me the strength to shake off the dizziness that had started to cloud my mind and nod.
"On my word!" he commanded and I looked to see the tree next to ours falling toward us.
When it hit ours, it began to tilt and fall. Thorin's grip on my waist tightened and as our tree fell into the last one, sitting on the edge of the cliff, he yelled "Now!" and I jumped as hard as I could. I slammed hard into a thick branch and started to slip off before I could get the air that had been knocked out of me back. Thorin, who had landed on his stomach and was now straddling the branch, grabbed the back of my cloak and tunic, pulled me up next to him. I rested my head briefly against his shoulder, feeling anger rise in me at the sound of Azog laughing at out predicament. I was looking around, trying to figure out how to get us out of this situation, when suddenly I saw a flaming pine cone fly down at the wargs. They yelped and started running away. I kicked myself mentally.
"Why did I not think of that? What good is it trying to keep my secret if we are all dead?!" I thought chastising myself.
"Farren!" Fili yelled to me and I turned to see another flaming pine cone in his hands.
He gestured to the other cones surrounding us and I grabbed one. He offered to light mine off of his and I accepted even thought I did not need to. I could feel the warmth and power that flowed through me when I had direct contact with my element, making me feel more alert. I channeled a little of my talent into the already burning cone and threw it as the others threw theirs. Mine exploded slightly on contact, helping to spread the barrier of fire that was being created between the wargs and our tree. The company cheered to see them falling back and it seemed like we might actually get out of this. Until, suddenly, the tree we were in lurched to the side and started to fall over. Seconds later we were suspended over the cliff, clinging to the tree. I could hear the groan of the branch I clung to and knew it was close to breaking when Thorin grabbed my collar and pulled me to the trunk of the tree next to him. Again I could hear Azog laughing at us and seeming content to sit and watch until we fell to our deaths. I looked around at the rest of the company, seeing Dori and Ori clinging desperately to the end of Gandalf's staff, and tried to figure how we were going to get out of this. Then I looked at the fire of the cliff and an idea came to me. If I could get to the cliff, I could push the fire back on the orcs and either kill them or chase them off. This would reveal my true self to the dwarves, but at the moment I could care less as we would all be alive! I started to struggle to pull myself up onto the tree, when Thorin took the decision out of my hands. He stood up on the tree and I could see the decision on his face. He would rather die in battle rather than like a trapped rat on this tree. He walked off the tree and strapped his Oakenshield to his arm and raised his sword. "Thorin No!" I yelled but I was either ignored or he did not hear me. He ran down to meet Azog and what followed was one of the most terrible things I had ever witnessed. Thorin was obviously a skilled, seasoned warrior; but he was outmatched having to deal with both Azog and the warg at the same time. I could hear the others yelling for him and continued to struggle to pull myself up. Suddenly I saw the white warg bite down on Thorin's left side. It felt like I had been shot in the heart when I heard his cry of pain and then saw him be tossed in the air. He landed hard and did not move.
"No he cannot be dead!" I thought frantically as I finally got myself up and began to crawl down the tree.
"I will burn all those foul orcs!" was all I could think as I made my way toward the fire.
I had just made it to the cliff and into the deep depression left by the trees roots when I saw Bilbo go running past me. "No! I will not be losing any friends today! I swear by the Valar I will NOT!" I thought as I put my hands into the fire and focused.
As the flames flared higher, I pushed them toward the orcs and did not notice when a few of the other dwarves ran past me. I could hear the yelping and screaming of the orcs as the change fire changing direction and intensity caught them by surprise. They were starting to back away when I suddenly felt a strong wind at my back and looked up to see giant eagles starting to swoop down on them. Seeing the eagles were attacking the orcs gave me an idea. Every time an orc ran one way, I would head them off and send them back toward the eagles. Finally I saw the eagles picking up the dwarves and flying off with them. "Farren! Jump! I heard Gandalf yell and I left the fire and rolled off the cliff and onto the back of an eagle below.