Chapter Twenty-One: Bloody Birds

"Run!"

The dwarves immediately bolted in the opposite direction of the mountain that they had just come from, slipping and skidding on the grassy earth. Emelia bounced roughly in Kili's arms as he slipped and slid down the side of the mountain, his feet catching on the grass occasionally despite his steadiness on his feet. She imagined the whole ordeal would have been substantially easier if they would allow her to walk under her own power. As it were, she felt herself startlingly similar to a child clinging to their parent.

As embarrassing as that was.

Emelia made the rather unfortunate mistake of peering over Kili's bouncing shoulder to see what was chasing them. She had imagined it was the wargs. It was the luck that she was experiencing recently that it would be the wargs again. She immediately regretted her decision to look over his shoulder. The wargs, and their repulsive looking riders, numbered far more than she had ever seen. It looked as if there were thirty of them, each in varying degrees of mess and soil. Some of them were rider less, the more feral ones she assumed, and were moving towards them at a speed so fast she was surprised the company hadn't been set upon already.

The bouncing motion of Kili's running was doing nothing for the stinging in her chest, making her cry out occasionally in pain.

She could hear the scrapping of their paws on the ground, the snapping of their rider's whips cracking onto their mounts backs.

The dwarves around her were panicking, which she deemed to be entirely appropriate, as evidenced by their horrified looks and tense body language. They bobbed and weaved throughout the trees, throwing haphazard glances over their shoulders at the pack advancing on them. They brandished their weapons, gripping them so tightly in their hands their impossibly big knuckles turned white.

"All of you, into the trees!"

Emelia could feel Kili gripping her tighter for a moment before he literally threw her to the nearest dwarf. She watched him as he swung himself up onto a branch rather gracefully, before reaching down to the dwarf, who happened to be a very nervous looking Dori, and scooping her up into the tree next to him. She hissed loudly when she felt the bark of the tree rubbing along her chest, once again reminding her that she hadn't, in fact, managed to do anything about her now throbbing cut.

She felt his hands, which were shaking more than she would have liked, grabbing onto her, pulling her into his side. She felt another pair of hands wrapping around her shoulders, steadying her swaying body. She glanced over, feeling relief wash over her when she saw a shock of blonde hair. The tree swayed horribly beneath her feet, making her heat stop and her chest constrict painfully. She could hear the dwarves around her shouting to each other, encouraging each other, calming each other in desperate tones.

She reached her hands out, grabbing a hold of Kili so tightly she saw him wince slightly. He reached down a hand, releasing the death like grip she had on his wrist before he pulled her hand up to his face, planting a soft kiss to her hand like it was nothing.

"Breath, Emelia." He said looking directly at her. "Everything will be fine."

She nodded blearily, staring at her hand, feeling her face heat up like fire.

"Trust me."

She nodded to him once before she turned her gaze away. He didn't let go of her hand, which was an immense comfort that she didn't realize she needed.

Emelia tried to keep her gaze ahead of her, instead of on the pack of wargs now circling the bottom of the trees like vultures. Their claws made horrible, nauseating sounds as they scrapped along in the dirt, grass, and stone that lined the bottom of the tree line. Their barks and growls filled her mind, tumbling around over and over again until she thought her head might explode.

She had thought, rather briefly that the wargs were the worst to come. It was a rather foolish thought, if she was being perfectly honest with herself. Nothing every stayed vanilla with the dwarves she found herself running around with.

The first glimpse she got of the white warg, she thought she was hallucinating. It was larger than any of the others, with large scratches and a metal collar adoring its neck. Its paws looked as if they were larger than plates and its leg muscles stood out so much, the thick white fur covering its body wasn't enough to cover it up. She followed the line of its side, taking note of the massive rib cage, before she finally settled on the equally white leg that was wrapped around the warg's middle.

The orc riding the white warg made her blood run cold. He was larger than the others and about a million times meaner looking. His body, his massive, muscle bound body, was covered in symmetrical scars that stretched the expanse of his torso and down his arms. His muscles, which bulged so much she was surprised his skin hadn't split from the pressure, moved with fluidity that she wouldn't have thought possible as he moved towards them. His hand, or hook, was covered in blood that she sincerely hoped didn't belong to anything that wasn't supposed to be dead to begin with. His face, which she found was as equally covered in scars. It wasn't the scars, despite their intimidation factor, were not the most alarming part of his face. It was his blue eyes. They shone out brightly, almost too brightly, against his pale skin.

"Is that…" Kili trailed off, pulling Emelia into him tighter.

"It can't…"

"Is he someone you guys know, because if so, you might want to reevaluate your friendships." Emelia said, attempting to move backwards away from him as he moved towards the company trapped up in the tree line.

"Azog." Fili breathed out, his chest shuddering slightly as he did so.

The white orc, or Azog, moved towards them, a sick smile splitting his face. He began to speak in a voice that Emelia was positive was going to be in her nightmares, if she ever managed to fall asleep, for some time to come. He was speaking, like the dwarves so often did, in a language that Emelia couldn't even begin to try and identify. The tone was harsh and grating, but the meaning was clear by the way the rest of the dwarves tensed up around her.

He spoke very briefly before he said something that made all of the wargs circling the trees go into a frenzy. The wargs immediately began to jump at the bottom of the tree, clawing and biting at the branches causing the entire tree to shake and sway uncontrollably. Emelia could hear the groaning of the tree as it moved back and forth. It sounded like it was going to snap more than once, making the familiar dread rise up into her chest so thoroughly it was almost painful. She found, thanks in no small part to the fact that the place she was currently standing was so dangerously close to collapsing, that she wasn't feeling the pain in her chest quite as thoroughly.

They kept going until the integrity of the tree was no longer what she, or anyone for that matter, would even consider remotely safe. It creaked and groaned, reverberating through her completely.

"Fili, it's going to fall." Kili said suddenly, looking down at the wargs that were getting closer and closer to them. The tree was swaying unsteadily beneath them, lurching backwards with each movement from the wargs below their feet. It swayed once more before snapping completely sending it flying towards the nearest tree behind it in a terrifying whirlwind of flying leaves, branches, and pine cones.

"Move!"

Emelia found herself, yet again, being hefted up into a pair of arms so quickly she didn't even realize it was happening. She saw Fili throw himself at the nearest branch in the next tree, wrapping himself around it, clambering with his arms to ensure that he wouldn't go falling to the warg pack below them. She watched for a moment before she was literally thrown through the air towards the dwarves in the other tree. She barely had time to think before she was being wrapped in a pair of impossibly muscular arms, steadying her completely.

"I got you, Lassie."

"Keep moving!"

Emelia felt, at that point in the ordeal, that she was nothing more than a package that was being tossed from dwarf to dwarf. Names were being called back and forth, adding to the confusion of the entire situation. Everything was chaos. The wargs kept moving up the tree, biting, slashing, and clawing to get to the dwarves the best they could. Emelia lost track of which dwarf she was clinging to in the fray, making it almost impossible to focus on anything. The only time she stopped being tossed back and forth was when she finally landed in Dwalin's arms. They teetered on the edge of one of the lower branches, making her stomach queasy as she got a firsthand glimpse at how close she was to the wargs below them. She could have sworn one of them bite off a piece of her hair. Of course she could have just been making that up in one of her more macabre moments.

She heard Gandalf shouting above her, causing all of the dwarves on the various branches to look up at the grey clad man. Emelia managed to peer around from her spot slung over Dwalin's massive shoulder just in time to see the fiery pine cones go flying past her head. They bounced at the wargs, colliding with their furry coats, making them whine out in pain when it began to singe them down to their undoubtedly mottled skin. She could see the dry ground beneath light up like kindling. The smell wafted up to them almost instantly, singing their noses and making sweat spring up on their dirty skin.

They ran, more akin to puppies and full grown wargs, making some of the dwarves cry out in joy at the sight.

The celebration was short lived, however.

They had barely had time to even crack a smile when they felt the tree they were on let out a loud, alarming groan.

It was like a slow motion movie as the tree tipped over the side of the cliff that Emelia hadn't been entirely aware of being so close. Emelia reached her arms around Dwalin, ignoring the way his armor pressed into her cut excruciatingly as they fell. She let out an embarrassingly high pitched scream, gripping onto the burly dwarf even tighter when she got a glimpse at the vast expanse that spread out below her. She couldn't even make out the bottom. The wind whipped at her face, making her eyes water painfully.

By the time the tree snapped to a halt, all of the dwarves were in varying degrees of precarious balance. Some were seated on the branches, others were handing off using their broad shoulders to hold themselves up, and a select few, the lucky ones, were able to support themselves with their legs. The unlucky ones, specifically Emelia, found themselves clinging like a lemur to the lower half of a very annoyed Dwalin.

He swung dangerously, causing her to have to grip to him tighter, pressing herself into him tighter, ignoring the fact that she was now face to crotch with one of the most crotchety, grouchy dwarves in the bunch.

She would have to apologize to him later, if there was a later, for not dropping her.

"Lassie, stop yer squirming!" Dwalin snapped, peering down at her as she attempted to move to where she wasn't wanting to die from the pain on her chest. "You aren't the lightest…" He trailed off; readjusting his grip on the tree branch they were hanging off of.

"I am not fat, Dwalin."

"'S'not the time, Emelia."

She shut her mouth after that. She supposed he was right. It wasn't exactly appropriate to be snarking at him when they were literally hanging over a chasm like Christmas tree ornaments.

"Just…" She paused, trying not to look down while she held onto him. "Just don't drop me."

"I'm not going to drop you…" He trailed off muttering something foul under his breath as he readjusted his grip, causing them both to sway dangerously.

"Oh god." Emelia smashed her eyes shut, willing herself to be anywhere but where she was.

Her arms were starting to lose feeling as she grabbed onto the back of Dwalin's coat, pulling on one of the straps that lined his back. Of all of the ways she had been in danger of dying in the last couple of months, she never imagined she would have plummeted to her death. It seemed like such a trope. Such a cheesy, nauseating, terrifying trope. She had made the mistake of looking down, sending fresh waves of panic coursing through her. It was the whole experience with the stone giants. Again. She pushed the thought that she was currently handing above a thousand foot drop from her mind.

The sounds bounced around in her head.

The laughter from the orcs.

The cries from the company.

The crackling of the fire.

"Thorin! No!"

Emelia chanced a glance up from Dwalin, peering around until she was just able to see the edge of the cliff that their tree was balanced on. She could just barely make out the shapes of the dwarves jumping towards the fire, shouting things to each other, throwing things, dodging straw wargs. Dwalin began to struggle even more, causing her to sway and slip further down, making his pants slip slighting under her weight.

"Dwalin, I swear to god, if you didn't put on underwear…"

"Lassie!" She shut her mouth once again, pulling herself towards him even more.

The cries from the rest of the company got even louder for some reason she couldn't see. Dwalin started to move even more, attempting to pull them both up, only to break the branch they were relying on entirely with a loud, resounding snap. Emelia let out an involuntary scream as her and Dwalin dropped. Her chest felt like it was being split once again as she struggled to maintain her grip on the swinging dwarf. Her legs swung below her, kicking violently as she attempted to push herself up.

"Dwalin!"

"Stop. Moving." Dwalin snarled down at her, struggling to keep his hold on the steadily breaking branch. "I swear to Mahal if you do not stop moving Emelia Montgomery…"

"We're about to die Dwalin!" She was on the verge of tears by that point, using Dwalin's clothes in an attempt to dry her face. "We're about to die. Oh god, I am going to…"

The moment that the branch actually broke was rather anticlimactic if she was being honest. The falling motion, which was her honest to god least favorite thing in life was altogether short lived and brief. One moment she was falling, still clutching onto Dwalin, who would have been embarrassed if the company could have heard him screaming, and the next she was colliding roughly with an oddly solid, oddly soft object. Her breath was knocked out of her so suddenly, she thought she might have blacked out. That thought quickly vanished when she realized it wasn't her own blackness she was seeing. It was the back of Dwalin's clothes that her face was being roughly pushed into.

She was still screaming, despite herself, and only managed to stop when Dwalin shoved her roughly in the side in an attempt to get her to quiet her hysterical self.

She stayed like that for what felt like an eternity before Dwalin finally pushed her off, fixing her with a very wary look. She looked at him for a moment, eyes scanning his tattoo covered face. She could still feel the adrenaline coursing through her from the fall, making her emotions that much more heightened and much more embarrassing. If she had been thinking clearly she wouldn't have ever even considered throwing her arms around his neck, crushing herself into him. Nor would she have even fathomed giving him a solid kiss to the cheek.

The thought would have made her squirm.

As it were they both just had to settle for avoiding eye contact for the remainder of their time together.

She chanced a glance down, just to see if her being alive was real or just a cruel trick.

It was real, it seemed, and very unexpected.

They were not only alive, and relatively well, but they were flying. On birds. Bloody birds.

Bloody, huge birds.

The ridiculousness of everything in this place was astounding, at the best of times.

"Lassie…"

"Dwalin, you didn't drop me." She said suddenly, interrupting him completely, while doing her best to keep her gaze firmly planted on anywhere but the ground slipping below them. She was afraid she would pass out if she looked there for too long.

Dwalin was silent for a moment, shifting uncomfortably in his spot on the bird for a moment before he spoke up in his deep, gravelly voice.

"You stayed silent with the Goblin King, didn't you?" He said, as if it was the simplest thing in the world. "You didn't talk to end the pain."

She wasn't sure how to respond to that. Emelia found that was happening more and more. She was forced to grab a hold of him when the bird took a particularly unplanned dive. She wrapped her arms around his barrel-like middle, squeezing him for dear life.

"It wasn't that big of a deal…"

"It wouldn't be to you, now would it?" He placed a tentative hand on her arm, patting it slowly, awkwardly. "But it was to us. We aren't just going to forget about something like that."

So...yea.

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