They all stopped dead in their tracks, and turned around. The drums were coming from up in one of the crumbled towers, which also emitted an eerie, orange glow. They could hear movement. Something, or rather someone was coming.

Azog emerged from the smokey mists- dragging Fili behind him.

Noelle's heart was in her throat as she knew what was coming next.

Azog held up Fili and began hollering in his foul language.

"Go!" Fili gasped. "RUN!"

Noelle looked away as Azog plunged his sword into Fili's back. She couldn't see anyway. Her eyes were blurred with tears.

Fili. Gone. His sense of humor. His eagerness to help. His cheerfulness.

How many more people had to die today?

Azog dropped Fili from the tower. Noelle didn't look to see where he landed. She couldn't see Thorin's face either.

"Kili!" Thorin screamed and took off.

"Thorin! No!" Noelle followed him without thinking, leaving Bilbo and Dwalin in the dust. All she knew was that he was going to get himself killed in one way or the other- and she couldn't let that happen.

She raced down the stone steps and fell at the bottom, sliding on the ice. She forgot about that. Her boots weren't exactly built for winter.

"Thorin! WAIT! Please!"

Thorin did stop, but Noelle crashed into him.

Standing up, she decided to just tell him. That was why things had gone wrong last time, because she had kept her mouth shut.

"Thorin wait! I have to tell you something! I saw-"

"No!" said Thorin. He grabbed her arms. Something in him seemed to have settled down. His eyes looked calmer. "No, Noelle. It's alright." He looked up in the direction Azog had gone. "I know what I must do now."

"But Thorin-"

Thorin shook his head.

"I can't-"

"It's ok," he said softly. "You have your whole life ahead of you, do not waste it for me." He let her go. "Go, find the others. Save them." Then he took off.

Stunned, Noelle just stood there, the tears were gone. How had she let that happen? What did he mean? I know what I must do now. Now what? Should she follow him? Or do as he said? Go back to Dwalin and Bilbo to find Kili?

Save them, he had said.

Noelle turned and ran back the other direction. This time she took care of the slippery ice, before scampering back up the stairs. Bilbo was still standing in the same spot.

"Where's Thorin?"

Noelle shook her head, to which Bilbo frowned.

SWAWK!

Those darned bats were back! A swarm of them swooshed over Noelle and Bilbo's heads as they ducked. Then she heard an unfamiliar voice. Uh oh.

Five or six seven-foot-tall Orcs crawled over the staircase behind Noelle and Bilbo. An Orc who must have been Bolg was shouting at the rest of them.

Bilbo was about to pop on his ring, and Noelle got ready to Force-push the Orcs out of the way when Dwalin jumped in front of them. Noelle and Dwalin slashed at them, while Bilbo on the other hand was chucking large rocks at their heads. Noelle noticed that his aim was actually really good- he didn't miss once -but she wondered why he wasn't fighting with his sword like he had been several hours earlier. Maybe it was because these Orcs were slightly bigger.

"We need to find Thorin and Kili!" Dwalin screamed to Noelle and Bilbo.

"Which means we have to split up!" Bilbo shouted back. "Good idea?"

No it wasn't a good idea. "We don't have a choice!" Noelle yelled.

"You and Bilbo find Kili, I'll find Thorin!"

"No, I'll find Thorin," Noelle found herself saying. Dwalin gave her a hard look. "I know where he is," she said.

Dwalin grudgingly nodded and ran off.

"Go!" Bilbo waved to Noelle. "I'll be right behind you!"

Noelle took off, retracing her steps. There was no obvious sign of Thorin or Azog, which meant the two were most likely clashing. Noelle wondered where Legolas had gone to. He hadn't been that far ahead of her on his bat.

Suddenly she realized that Bilbo was not right behind her. She stopped for a second, debating if she should go back and find him, but there was no time. She kept going. Maybe he had the ring on and was just invisible.

Noelle stopped on the edge of a precipice that was probably around a fifteen-foot fall. The height of a small house. Over the icy plain she spotted Thorin, surrounded by Orcs. They were running towards him. Noelle looked down. Should she jump? It wouldn't be a fatal fall, but she could injure herself. Or she could use the Force.

She jumped and landed on her feet. It hurt, but she could still walk. The Force had somewhat cushioned the impact. Noelle hoped Thorin wasn't mad at her for coming back to help him. She clashed with one Orc, but saw an arrow in his brain before she could finish him.

Noelle and Thorin both looked up. Legolas was perched on top of an old, decaying watchtower, shooting the Orcs with his bow. Noelle smiled.

"That the elf who likes you?" Thorin got out with a grin. He looked weak. There was a huge bloody scar on the side of his head.

Noelle felt her face get hot. "Ha-ha," she answered sarcastically. She should have just ignored his comment, but it made him smile.

"These things don't stop coming," she said trying to change the subject.

"No," he agreed. "Is Kili alright?"

Noelle felt a stab of guilt. "I don't- Dwalin went to find him."

Then Legolas caught her attention, a troll was pounding at the bottom of his tower, making it crack in some spots. But he barely noticed it. Two little figures were toppling down the mountainside. The red-head elf and Bolg. Legolas whipped out Orcrist and leapt off the tower onto the troll. He stabbed it in the head and steered it towards the tower knocking it down with the troll's ginormous head. The tower made a convenient bridge inside the ravine down below them.

Huh.

"Noelle?"

She had been too busy watching Legolas.

"Yeah?"

"Please find Kili. I need for him to be safe."

"I don't want to leave you. Dwalin will find him!" Noelle protested.

"Please go," Thorin said pleadingly. He knew how stubborn she was, and how stubborn she intended to be. "Save them," he repeated.

Shaking her head, Noelle gave up. Thorin. "You'd better be here when I get back!" she said pointing at him.

"You can count on it," Thorin nodded and slashed at an Orc.

Noelle had to run a ways, and she wasn't faster than most of the Orcs. She had to run across the plain, jump to the fifteen feet she had fallen, around a winding corridor of stairs, back to the spot where Fili had died. She choked up and started crying when she saw his body. She passed it, and continued forward.

She paused, out of breath, physically and emotionally exhausted. Saying it had been a long day was an understatement. Today felt like weeks. She was never going to find Kili by running in circles, but she couldn't sense him using the Force either, which was strange, she realized. When she was looking for someone, it seemed to come naturally to her and she knew where to find them. But not Kili. Something was off. Either something was wrong with her, or something was wrong with Kili.

Slumping down next to a staircase, Noelle thought about the red-head elf. She remembered that Bilbo had said that she had 'gotten close' to Kili when they were in prison. And she also remembered how the girl had just disappeared as soon as Bilbo had said that Kili was up on Ravenhill. The pieces were starting to come together. The red-head elf had injured herself fighting Bolg, and Noelle couldn't sense Kili.

Noelle got up. If she didn't find out for herself, Thorin would just send her back to be sure. Noelle followed a long trail of dead Orcs underneath the staircase near Fili's death, and came to what she had suspected:

Kili was dead.