Answers to Reviews:

Auguruj: Yeah, everything's getting rather serious now! And that certain thing that Bainor may or may not be gripped with...fun times ahead, I guarantee :D Yep, Damien's making an appearance - can't stop fate, after all - and I promise it's going to be one hell of an appearance. Lots of things coming up that will hopefully have you on the edge of your seat! Aww, don't shield yourself from it! Embrace it! It'll be worth it in the end, even if the end that we all want is a fair way away yet muhahaha!

daughterofthechief: Mmm, but, as always, important things are never said when they should be, and now you'll have to wait to find out if it's what you think it is. And yeah I get where you're coming from...I kinda ship them too, but this is a Thranduil x OC fic, so most ships have to remain on the sidelines unfortunately. Still, though, I'm glad I've got you so invested in them that you're rooting for a pairing other than the one that's in the pairings listings! It means I've (hopefully) done my job as a writer properly!

sylmrp: Aww really! I'm so glad it's been that for you! I know the pain of University and stuff like that - I wrote a fair bit of Guardian during my years there, and it was definitely a safe place for me to just have fun and enjoy myself as well. I hope it continues to be that sort of thing for you, as I know how important it is to have something that keeps the harder parts of life at bay, even if it's just for a few hours. And don't worry about being late! And to paraphrase a certain wizard: you're never late, nor are you early; you arrive precisely when you mean to :D Here's another chapter for you, and I hope you enjoy it (well, maybe enjoy is the wrong word for what's about to happen) as much as the others! And I hope your masters goes well!

GreenEyedSam: Here's the next one for you! Have fun!

MairiMcKennaO'Brian: (your name was so long I had to copy it over and then type it out so I could make sure I got it right lol) Hopefully more goosebumps are incoming for the next few chapters as well!

Guest: Glad you like it! And I'm glad you like Thrandy...he's certainly quite hard to get just right, but I would expect nothing less of such an Elf ^^


Me: Hey guys, again, sorry for being late with the update. Had a few things going on in my personal life that have really thrown me for six recently, so most of my time has been dedicated to sorting them out, and then what little free time I've had has been me just doing some mindless gaming to try and de-stress...so writing has really taken a back seat. Not added anything much to my Guardian file recently either, which is why I haven't updated until now, but I'm planning to try and do some in the next few days and get the ball rolling again, so hopefully I'll be back on track soon enough!

Thranduil: *Sat by a window, watching the latest storm roll through* Take your time. Without you there is no story, and without a story there is no me, and without me there is nothing.

Me: There's plenty of things without you. Peace and quiet, and no clearing up after your drunken escapades for one.

Thranduil: As I said, without me there is nothing.

Me: *sticking my tongue out at Mr. high and mighty* The world doesn't revolve around you, Thrandy...what it does revolve around, however, is the continuation of this story. Have fun with this one guys! *hurries over to Thranduil and hides under his robes in preparation for peoples reactions*


61: Storms Eye

Blood watered the ground like rain around me. Swords and spears and arrows slashed and hacked through the air and through any limbs that happened to stray into their path. I could barely tell which way was which as I fought to keep myself seated on Aeolus's back, fending off every attempt to yank me down with as much ferocity as I could. If I went down, then in these conditions that would be it, either by the hand of my unseater or by the feet of friend or foe, so tight was the fighting around me.

Shit…where the fuck is Damien? I thought, barely ducking under a swipe from a Warg-mounted goblin and managing to return the favour to much greater effect. He should be here at the centre! And where the hell is Thranduil!? After our initial charge and retreat, and after the Dwarves had joined in from the other spur, things had become messy, and before I knew it my pale haired friend was no longer by my side, the great sweep of Rîrandír's antlers nowhere to be seen.

Letting out a cry of pain as something managed to catch me on the unarmoured part of my legs, I whirled Aeolus around, fighting to catch a glimpse of a familiar face within the seething ranks of the armies before I was once more pulled back under the tide of blood and gore. Dear Eru did I hate this. I'd not been expecting it to be all efficient and ordered – I knew what war could be like…well, I'd thought I knew, anyway. However, as the battle raged and as I tried to stay alive, to get to the edge of the fight and regroup my bloodstained and scattered thoughts, I was swiftly learning that that wasn't the case.

Hours, days, even years could have passed around us after that brief moment of breaking the surface and I wouldn't have known. Every thought was forced to focus on what was happening in the here and now, on the slow forwards movement of the enemy army and on the diminishing number of Elves and men and Dwarves around me. Their teeth were bared, swords and spears a blur, but they could do nothing against the superior numbers. We were just too few-

A sound echoed through the valley, rising above the clamour of battle, rising and deepening until the very earth shook around us and, for the tiniest of moment, everything paused.

CCRAAONG! Gold flared like a dying sun at the foot of the Front Gate, swinging up and into the chill winter air and dragging with it chunks of rock and earth and metal. It was a bell. A great, solid gold bell that, last time I'd seen it, had been lying listlessly on its side in the entrance hall, chain slack from disuse.

"To me! To me! Elves and Men! To me! O my kinsfolk!" a voice bellowed, and like the Black Arrow that had felled Smaug Thorin, Fili, Kili and all ten other Dwarves who'd been hiding in Erebor suddenly burst forth from the great rend the bell had made. Armour adorned their limbs, and a fire so bright I could see it even from half the battlefield away burned in their eyes.

Well, that's one way to make an entrance, I thought as the company of thirteen speared through the shocked ranks of the Goblins and Wargs, drawing towards the heart of the enemy with frightening ease. I mean, my 'Leeerooooy Jeeenkins' battle cry was quite the spectacle when we charged in, but this just takes the cake and eats it whole!

Spinning about, ready to charge towards where Thorin and the others were trying to fight their way to the ugly brute called Bolg at the centre of things, I spotted something strange. Something that froze my heart almost as effectively as that horn had. A figure, small spikes sticking out from their blackened armour, slinking along the Southern spur of Erebor, no-one there to stop them, the orcs and Goblins swarming there simply avoiding them.

Damien…and he's heading straight for Ravenhill-

Sky and bodies were all I could suddenly see as I was grabbed by the ankle and yanked from Aeolus. The blood-soaked ground rushed to meet me, but somehow I managed to right myself before the wind could be snatched from me. I whirled, blocking the blade that would have cut my throat with one of my own, and next moment I was forced to fight for my life.

"Oooh, she can fight!" crowed my opponent, raining blows down on me like a multi-armed catapult. I cursed, wasting precious moments showing him just how well I could fight and getting a spray of black blood to the face for my troubles. That bastard Damien's going for Bilbo!

Kicking aside another opponent I put my fingers to my lips and whistled, praying my faithful stallion would hear it and be able to find me – there was no way I was going to be able, or even willing, to stay in one place after what I'd seen. If Damien got to Bilbo and did what I thought he was going to do, then all of us here, Elves, Men and Dwarves, might as well drop dead where we stood.

Soon my blades were carving a path through the ranks of Goblins and Wargs around me. A single minded determination had burst to life in my mind, pushing all thoughts, every moment wondering about where Thranduil was, every worry as to if he and Bainor and everyone else would make it out alive, pushed away until there was nothing but my destination and the obstacles in my path.

I whistled again, louder this time. Where is he? I'm never going to make it out of this blood bath at this rate!

My moonstone necklace flared against my armour, and next moment something had grabbed me by the back of my cuirass and hauled me on to the back of something that stamped and fought along on four legs. Aeolus!

"I believe I told you to stay safe!" a voice called in my ear, and if I hadn't been in the middle of a battle I would have burst into tears from sheer relief. As it was, as the voice added, "As usual, though, it seems you are intent upon going against any advice given to you, no matter who it is from!" I felt tears form at the corners of my eyes. Or it could have been blood, I couldn't really tell the difference any more.

"Bainor-"

"Where do we need to go?" my friend interrupted from his seat behind me, slashing at arms that once more tried to drag me down.

"What? How…bugger it, we need to get to Ravenhill! Damien's there!" I answered, somehow saving the life of a man of the Lake as I stabbed his enemy through the back. My arm was nearly wrenched from its socket as I pulled my blade out, but the look on the man's face as we dashed by and as he found himself still alive…it was worth the pain. Saving these people was worth any pain.

"Then let us go."

Aeolus, his armour covered in rends and dents but still holding strong, barrelled through friends and foes alike at my urging. The edge of the battle was close, tantalizingly close, and yet every time we seemed about to break free another barrage of enemies would appear, or another wave of allies would be pushed back and tangle themselves around us.

Get out of the way! I cried, eyes frantically searching the spur we were heading towards for any black armoured figures and finding none. Move! Move or you'll not live to see another day! There was a flare of blinding white light from my neck, cries of pain, a surge from Aeolus beneath me, and all of a sudden we were galloping over clear ground, the only people in our way the dead or dying.

Not bothering to stop and question what had happened I bent low over Aeolus's neck, Bainor's arms a welcome anchor. Everything was a blur around me, my vision tunnelling towards the former outpost at the end of the Southern spur. I couldn't see anyone but Goblins and Wargs there anymore…but they were enough to cause problems. We'd have to go around and come at the Southern Spur from the end of it, where a set of stairs led up into Ravenhill.

Somehow we managed to skirt most of the battle without incident. The moonstone at my neck pulsed and flared, white light flashing out at every crowd that threatened to drag us down. Our luck didn't last long, however.

There was a howl to our side as the three of us rounded a swell of ground, and before I could even swear a company of nearly forty Goblins leapt from one of the cracks in the land and hurled themselves towards us. Aeolus pinned back his ears and kicked his heels, just about managing to avoid the front runners, but the damage was done. They'd seen us. They'd follow us. They'd-

A weight suddenly lifted from against my back, wind howling to fill the space that was suddenly behind me. What the-

Wheeling Aeolus around I felt my heart leap in my chest as my fears were confirmed. No…he can't!

"Bainor what the hell are you doing!?" I cried as I found my friend standing atop the nearest rise, bow singing as he fired arrow after arrow into the screaming horde charging at us.

"Distracting them!"

"You idiot! There's too many!"

"That is why I am thinning out their numbers…why are you still here!?" Bainor exclaimed, sparing me a glance and somehow manging to send an arrow right through the throat of a goblin at the same time. Aeolus half reared, the stampede heading our way pressing on his natural instincts, telling him to run, but I couldn't let him. I would not -

"Fenna, if we both go to Ravenhill then these Goblins will follow us and likely help Damien kill you!" Bainor snapped, voice more ferocious than I'd ever heard it. His eyes were narrowed, and the corners of his lips were pulled into a vicious snarl. "If I stay here, they will fight with me, and I will keep them from following you so that you may have a chance!" Here was the warrior I rarely saw, the side of Bainor that had gained him a position within Thranduil's personal guards.

"But there-"

"Fenna go! Go, and for once let someone other than yourself help in the matter of saving this world!" Bainor's voice cracked slightly, even as he threw his now empty quiver and useless bow aside and drew his blades. "I will be fine. I have faced odds worse than these."

No…no you haven't, I thought, a lump swelling in my throat as I beheld the gold swathed figure, standing tall and calm against the cloudy sky and the sea of battle below us.

"…See you after all this is done, yeah?" I managed after a moment, and for the smallest of moments Bainor smiled.

"Of course. I have words I must say to you, so I do not intend to…ahh, how did you say it…get my ass handed to me?" I let out a watery snort, shaking my head and begging Aeolus, with a gentle tap of my hand, to stay still for a moment. Just another moment more.

"Yeah, that's the one…Go wipe the floor with them, and come help me kick Damien to Orodruin and back when you're done, ok?"

"As ordered…now, go. Do what you came here to do, mell Fenna."


I'd just about managed to pull myself together by the time we reached the base of the stairs. The lump in my throat was still there, still noticeable, but I could swallow past it, and the ringing in my ears had disappeared enough that I could hear a sudden cry of "The Eagles! The Eagles are coming!" from high above.

Slinging one last thought, one last prayer, to the wind, I brought Aeolus to a stop and slid from his back.

"Good boy, good boy," I murmured, pressing my forehead to his. The stallion's breaths, huffing and puffing from his nostrils in a mix of fear and the same adrenaline flowing through my veins, began to calm, and the trembling of his body stilled. "There we go. Easy now, sweetheart. No need to worry. They won't find us here."

Only when I was sure that Aeolus was calm enough to do as I asked did I pull back, though I kept a light hold of his muzzle and flicked my gaze between his mismatched eyes. "Now, my love, I'm going to need you to stay over by those rocks out of the way there, so no-one can see you if they don't look too hard. I don't want you being k…well, injured. You think you can do that for me?"

Aeolus snorted, bobbing his head and nudging my chest. Of course he can. He always can.

"Oh, and if Bainor or any friends head this way, you show yourself to them, show them where I am if I'm still up there." Again, the stallion bobbed his head, pawing at the ground and nudging me away in a way that said Ok, I get it, now get going! You've got places to be, worlds to save!

"I know…I'll be back down in no time, so don't do anything silly, or no…no sugar lumps," I said with a watery laugh, the lump in my throat growing again. Damn it, now's not the fucking time!

Aeolus, with a reproachful look at me, swung about and headed for the rocks, small scratches and cuts the only damage he'd received. Good…at least one of us is having some luck.

It took all my willpower to turn away from my horse as he disappeared from view, tail swaying high. He'd done his job, so now it was time to do mine. Or try to, anyway.

Eyes flicking up to the looming figure of Ravenhill, I stole a breath that did nothing to help the pounding of my blood and stuttering of my heart. The first step was the hardest to take, and they didn't get any easier after that. They were old, worn by countless years of neglect and scorched by dragonfire – the air still reeked of it, despite the battle trying to fill it with the tang of iron and death – and that foreboding that had settled in my chest every time I looked at the ancient structure only strengthened the nearer I drew to it. Every shadow seemed to reach for me as I drew my blades, every echoing scream taunted and wore on my nerves until I was spooking at anything and everything, even though there was still daylight around me. Same, as always, I thought, eyes flicking this way and that. I knew this place well by now. My nightmares had ensured that.

By the time I reached the top of the stairs things had gone eerily silent. No noise of the war raging below could be heard, unless it was the highest of death cries or the most desperate of war songs. No sound came from inside-

I cursed as I tripped over something, nearly going flying across the rough stone hallway the stairs fed into. What the…shit.

Bilbo. He was curled slackly against a nearby rock, eyes shut and crusting with the blood that leaked from a nasty gash on his head. One hand was held tightly to his chest as if trying to protect something…a something that was no longer anywhere to be seen.

Too late…I'm too late. My stomach dropped, swords falling to my sides as I stared at the prone Hobbit. I'd heard him moments earlier, heard him cry out that the Eagles were at last here…but I was too late. That rock from the story hadn't come crashing down from the sky, but had been brought down upon his head by a greedy, sneaky little bastard who'd once had the gall to call himself my friend-

My fists clenched, blades winking in the stormy light as they rose once more. No. This isn't the end. He's here somewhere, I thought, turning slowly from where Bilbo lay and staring into the darkened ruins behind me. Damien's not the type to take victory and leave it at that…even more so now that he's seen what he can do, and knows what that…thing can do. No, he'd want to have true victory…and that means he's still here.

Sparing Bilbo one last glance I turned away, away from another friend, and slid into a wary crouch, blades wide, waiting as I slunk forwards into the gloom.

Light barely crept through the cracks in the walls and the broken maw of a doorway I'd come through, only just filtering down a wide staircase leading up to my left. Stones littered the floor, pointing the way down the corridors they'd been broken from. So many ways…so many paths…so many places for that worm to hide.

My tongue pressed against my teeth, eager to spit out a taunt, a word, anything to goad Damien into revealing himself. No, you know what happens to people who do that…silent, swift, the hunted becoming the hunter, I told myself, allowing one sword to lead me around a corner, the rest of me following as nothing but air met it.

Every thump of my heart felt like a drum being beaten inside my chest. Every breath I took felt sharp, stifled, burning my lungs as they forced their way out. Every nerve was open, waiting, watching for something to happen.

Another corner passed, another breath released in a near sigh of relief from my lungs, another-

I dove forwards, barely tucking my blades to my sides in time as I rolled and skidded.

"Huh, you've become quite sensitive. Could have sworn you didn't notice me," a voice mused, as if the topic of me barely avoiding an attack was an everyday thing to discuss.

"And I could have sworn that you preferred watching and listening out in the open, rather than skulking around in the shadows like a coward." A figure detached itself from the darkness of an alcove just to the right of where I'd been standing, shadows peeling off of it like a living cloak.

"Oh come now, can we at least be a bit civil to each other? I'd hate to have your last words be so spiteful," Damien asked, a razor smile hitching up one side of his mouth as he stepped into what little light there was, blade hanging nonchalantly at his side. I snorted, eyes narrowed.

"Why should I be civil to someone who's done the things you've done? Who's going to try and ruin this world all for his own gain?" Damien's smile grew, and he took his other hand from behind his back. Gold glinted, and a ribbon of malicious darkness snapped out at my mind, sending me reeling back a few steps even with the barrier around it.

"Perhaps because I'm in possession of this?"


Thranslations:

mell = dear


Next Time...

Me: *from inside the folds of Thranduil's cloak* Muhahahaha, there is no Next Time segment this time, as it would give too much away, so you're all just going to have to wait for the next chapter to see what happens hahahahaha!

Thranduil: *without batting an eyelid* Please tone down your 'evilness' dear, you're going to cause my cloak to catch on fire.

Me: Oh, damn, sorry Thrandy *flaps at the smoke emanating from me* I'll try and keep that at bay...but honestly I can't help it, because this is really getting good now. Can't wait for all of you out there to read what I have in store for you. Definitely going to be worth the wait, for both you and me muhahaha- *is smothered by Thranduil as more smoke begins pouring from me*

Thranduil: I told you to tone it down. I do apologise, dear readers. She just gets...overenthusiastic about torturing...I mean, giving you something to look forward to.

Me: *muffled* iff tourffturee.

Thranduil: Her over-enthusiasmtruly knows no bounds!

Me: *still muffled* tourffturee.