"AZOG!"
A deafening roar sounded from below the watchtower and mingled with Ella's own cry.
The voice quivered with pain, but also with hatred and a burning rage, and she recognised it at once as Thorin's.
And so did the pale orc. "Oakenshield," he growled with a satisfied grin. "Seems I have his full attention now." He drew his mighty axe and walked towards the stairs. "After me! Time to spill some more dwarf blood and erase Durin's line once and for all."
"What of her?" one of the two orcs who still held Ella in their grip asked.
Azog turned to look at his captive and met her terrified stare with cold, unblinking eyes. "I don't need her any more. Kill her."
Then he turned his back on her and rushed down the stairs to meet his nemesis again, as eager as if he were to reunite with a long lost lover.
Ella mustered her last reserves and tried once more to break free, but she didn't stand the slightest chance.
What little fighting spirit she had still left in her proved no match for creatures so much bigger and stronger than her, and there were two of them.
And still she kept going, determined to at least go down fighting. At least that.
Despite her desperate struggling and kicking her captors had no more trouble to keep her in check than a new- born kitten.
They seemed to enjoy her futile escape attempts, but at last they grew weary of the unequal battle, and one of them drew his sword and brought its blade to her neck.
"I cut your throat now," he informed her with a wicked grin that showed all of what was left of his rotten teeth. "And then we will feast on your warm blood."
A low snarl in his back answered his announcement and Ella's eyes grew wide when she saw Precious standing there with her fangs bared.
The orc with the blade at her throat turned his head. "Wargs, always on time for dinner," he laughed. "No worries, beautiful, you shall get the leftovers. But we're first."
He turned back to his victim and then suddenly, everything happened at once.
With a mighty leap the she-warg crashed into his back and buried her fangs into his sword arm.
The orc gave an angry cry of pain and dropped the weapon, and in his frenzied attempts to shake off the mad beast, he caused his companion who still held Ella in his grip, to lose his balance and fall backwards.
As her captor loosened his grip on her in order to break his fall, Ella spun around so she came to sit on his lap, then pulled the dagger from his belt and jammed it in a blind rage into the vulnerable flesh of his exposed neck, again and again until he longer moved.
Then she rolled off the body, and around on all fours, just in time to see Precious finish the other orc, practically tearing him to pieces with her mighty claws and teeth.
Ella gulped. Dinner time, indeed.
When her bloody work was done, the warg turned around and trotted towards her, panting and visibly out for the deserved praise.
Ella forced her lips into a smile. "Good girl," she croaked weakly.
She would have petted the animal's mangy fur but she could no longer muster the strength to raise her arms, not even when Precious began to lick her bloodied face clean, almost choking her with her bad breath in the process.
"Precious, please" she whimpered. " Stop that, would you? Listen to me."
The animal paused in her loving ministrations and looked at her with her tongue still hanging out of her mouth, making her looking dumber than ever.
"You did that very, very well," Ella assured her. "And I cannot even begin to tell you how proud I am of you- and how grateful. You are a true friend and I'm so happy to have you back. But you see, my friends- my other friends- are down there and they need my help. The only problem is, I don't think I will make it there on my own. Truth be told, right now I'm not sure if I can even get up again. Do you understand?"
The warg eyed her suspiciously, and when it dawned on her what her mistress was trying to tell her, she wrinkled her nose with an unwilling snort.
Ella sighed. "Come now, Precious. I have carried you around for weeks. If you ever considered to return the favour, now would be the time."
Precious hesitated for a moment, but then, to Ella's great relief, she lay down and allowed her to grab the fur in her neck and push herself on her back.
"Good, good girl," Ella repeated and nestled her head against the animal's neck. "Now let's get down there. Just don't throw me, okay?"
Her involuntary mount grunted in reply, got to her paws and made towards the stairs down the watchtower.
When they arrived at the bottom, it was to the sight of a dozen dead orcs scattered about the plateau, and Balin and Dwalin who knelt next to an unmoving figure in the snow before them.
The dwarves spun around and raised their axes as they saw the warg, but when they recognised the rider they dropped their weapons and gaped at her in unanimous surprise.
"Pinch me, brother," Dwalin gasped. "I must be hallucinating. I think I see Ella riding on a warg."
The battle-hardened bald warrior looked so flabbergasted that Ella couldn't suppress a grin. "Well, you got that right." she said. " Remember my pet warg? I told you I would ride her one day but you wouldn't believe me. Say hello, Precious."
The warg grunted.
"A hobbit riding a warg." Balin shook his white head and his lips slowly curled into a broad grin. "Now I've seen it all."
"Ella?" came a weak, third voice, followed by a painful coughing fit as the dwarf on the ground struggled to force himself up into a sitting position.
Within a second, her own exhaustion forgotten, Ella was off her mount's back and on her knees in front of him.
"Fili- you live! How- " her voice cracked and she shook her head in disbelief. "How could you possibly survive this?"
Because it wasn't possible. She had seen Azog thrust his sword right into Fili's chest and then push him over the railing-
The dwarf prince grimaced, a weak parody of his usual mischievous smile. "Well, I could ask you the same. Thought you would never make it down that tower in one piece. What, by Durin's beard, are you doing here any way?"
Ella hung her head. "The plan was to warn you that you were about to walk into a trap. Didn't quite work out as intended."
"I see." Fili nodded. " Reckless as ever aren't you, lass? But as to your question- "
He pulled his armor down his neck so she could see the shining metal beneath it.
"Mithril. " he grinned. " Seems you forgot to put it on when you left the Erebor. Thorin was quite mad when he found out about it. He then insisted that I wear it instead, since I'm his heir and all-"
"And it saved your life." Ella smiled through her tears. "I'm so glad I left it behind!"
"Still the fall earned him a broken rib or two," Dwalin grumbled. "He cannot walk any more now- let alone fight."
"Pshaw! " Fili snorted. "Give me a weapon, old dwarf, and I'll prove you wrong."
He tried to get up, but the moment he put weight on his right leg he gasped in pain and quickly gave up on the endeavour.
"Seems like I have a broken leg as well," he concluded sorrowfully.
"As I said, lad, you're not going anywhere in the near future," Dwalin said softly."Thorin told us to stay here and protect you, and that's exactly what we'll do."
Ella raised her head. "Where is he?" she whispered. "And where's Kili?"
Balin shook his head. "We don't know, lassie. The watchtower seemed suspiciously deserted when we arrived, and Thorin sent his nephews to scout the area. " He gave an unhappy sigh. "Next thing we saw was that the orcs had Fili- and what happened to Kili we don't even know. As for Thorin- we managed to fight off Azog's henchmen but it was him and the pale orc duelling right from the start, and the monster drove him further and further away from the combat. We would have followed him of course, were it not for his command to stay with Fili-"
"To hell with his commands," Fili hissed angrily. "You need to help him, and you need to find my brother. Just leave me a sword. I'll manage."
"I'll find them," Ella said quickly. "I have Precious, so I will be faster. And don't worry."
She forced her lips into a smile. "Help is on the way. Tauriel and Legolas are here somewhere and Gandalf promised reinforcements as well, they should arrive any minute. He is a magician, right? Magicians always have a trick or two up their sleeves."
She wished she were as confident as her words let on. What she deliberately withheld from her friends was that Bolg and his minions might well have stopped the Elves by now, and secondly, that Gandalf's promised support was rather- long in the coming.
But the situation was precarious enough as it was. No need to trouble them even more.
She rose and walked over to the warg and as luck would have it, the animal seemed to have resigned itself in its new role, for it immediately lay down so she could mount it.
"I still can't believe it," Fili said in wonderment. "Is that really your pet warg? Well, she got a whole lot bigger than when I last saw her. Not a bit prettier though, if you ask me."
"But I don't ask you," Ella grinned. "And truth be told, you don't look so good yourself right now."
Her smile vanished. "Hold on just a little longer. I'll find them and I'll bring them back, I promise."
"Good luck lass," Balin said in a serious tone.
"Try not to get yourself killed. " his brother added. "Thorin would never forgive us for that."
From your mouth to Eru's ear, Ella thought once Precious had picked up the pale orc's scent and started running.
Considering their last encounter she had her doubts if Thorin even cared if she was dead or alive. But that didn't mean the same would be true for her.
She would find him, and she would save him, even if it was the last thing she'd do.