"There's too many. We can't fight them!" Dwalin yelled out as he helped Nori out of the rubble of boards. I looked up and saw thousands of goblins climbing down to us. "Only one thing can save us: daylight." Gandalf said as he helped Oin up. We ran out of the caves as quickly as we could, heading towards the mouth of the cave into sunlight.
We ran down the hill, passing through the forest as quickly as we could, stopping when we were far enough from the cave. I dropped down to that ground, laying on my back as I breathed heavily. Kili did the same, falling next to me on the ground.
"Where's Bilbo?" Gandalf asked glancing at everyone. I sat up and scanned for the Hobbit. Maybe he was just behind someone and Gandalf miscount. "Where is our Hobbit? Where is our Hobbit?!" Gandalf exclaimed as everyone glanced between each other.
"Curse the halfling. Now he's lost." Dwalin said. I jumped up and began to pace around.
"I thought he was with Dori!" Gloin said.
"Don't blame me!" Dori argued.
"Well where did you last see him?" Gandalf asked, stepping towards Dori.
"I think I saw him slip away, when they first collared us." Nori piped up. Everyone turned to Nori. "What happened exactly? Tell me!" Gandalf demanded.
Before Nori could answer, Thorin stepped in the middle of everyone and spoke, "I'll tell you what happened. Master Baggins saw his chance and he took it. He's thought of nothing but his soft bed and his warm hearth since he first stepped out of his door. We will not be seeing our Hobbit again. He is long gone." We all glanced between each other, wondering if the idea was possible.
Bilbo wouldn't have left us, would he? I knew he missed his home, he often told me about the Shire and Bag End, but he wouldn't have abandoned us in the caves.
"No, he isn't."
Bilbo stood behind Thorin and Balin. A sense of relief flooded me as I saw him standing in front of us smiling. "Bilbo Baggins! I've never been so glad to see anyone in my life," Gandalf laughed. Bilbo walked forward into the group, patting Balin on the shoulder. "Bilbo, we'd given you up!" Kili told him as I stood next him. "How on earth did you get past the goblins?" Fili asked, stepping next to me and his brother.
"How, indeed." Dwalin mused. Bilbo glanced at everyone, chuckling nervously before placing his hands on his waist. I watched him as he discreetly placed a ring into his waistcoat pocket. He attempted to come up with an explanation, when I interrupted him. "Well, what does it matter? He's back!" I said stepping over to Bilbo to pat him on the shoulder, side glancing at Gandalf who had seen the ring as well.
"It matters. I want to know: why did you come back?" Thorin asked, probably wondering why his hypothesis on Bilbo proved false. Bilbo stared at Thorin. "Look, I know you doubt me, I know you always have. And you're right, I often think of Bag End. Aurora can attest to that. I miss my books. And my armchair. 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. Home. It was taken from you. But I will help you take it back if I can." Thorin nodded approvingly of Bilbo's answer, while I couldn't help but smile at his answer.
"Good answer." I told him, patting him on the back once more.
Suddenly we heard growling. Wargs. Apparently, the little goblin got the message out. "Out of the frying pan…" Thorin began to say.
"…And into the fire. Run. Run!" Gandalf yelled at us as we all broke off into a sprint. We ran while darkness fell around us. The wargs gaining on us. I jumped off a boulder, followed by a warg that cornered Bilbo and me. Before I could get out my sword, Bilbo pulled his out, stabbing the warg in the head and killing it instantly. Bilbo began to pull out his sword out of the warg while I ran ahead. Except there was nowhere left to go. We stood at the edge of a cliff, at least a hundred foot or more drop to the forest floor below. "We're trapped," I breathed.
"Up into the trees! All of you! Come on, climb! Bilbo, climb!" We began to climb up the last three trees. Bilbo was still trying to get his sword unstuck. Eventually he got his sword unstuck and ran to the trees.
"They're coming!" Thorin yelled as he and I began to climb up the same tree. More wargs ran towards the trees, almost getting Bilbo as he jumped up into the tree. Dozens of wargs surrounded the trees we were in.
The wargs ceased growling, turning to stare at a white warg, with a pale Orc on its back. We looked at the pale Orc in shock. Azog the Defiler was alive.
"Azog?" Thorin whispered. As his warg began to growl, Azog stroked its fur with metal hand. He sniffed into the air before speaking. Balin turned to me for translation. "'Do you smell it? The scent of fear. I remember your father reeked of it, Thorin son of Thrain'." I translated, glancing uneasily at Balin. Thorin looked stricken with pain and grief at the realization that Azog was alive. "It cannot be." He whispered.
Azog turned to the riders that had appeared next to him. Azog pointed his mace at Thorin. "'That one is mine! Kill the others!'" I translated again. At Azog's command, the wargs leaped forward and tried to climb the trees. They began scratching the tree trunk and breaking apart branches in their jaws. The trees began shaking violently as the wargs attacked them. I nearly slipped and fell, if Balin hadn't grabbed my arm just in time.
Azog yelled out something I couldn't catch and the wargs below us went wild. With the weight of the wargs, the furthest tree from the edge of the cliff gets uprooted and begins to crash into the closest tree. A domino effect happens. Each tree crashes into one another, dwarves jumping between branches until finally all of us are sitting in the last tree. Thankfully, the last tree doesn't fall.
Azog laughs at our dilemma.
A fiery pinecone gets thrown from above in the trees landing on the ground, sparking flames in the dry grass. Fili gets ahold of a pinecone, chunking it at a warg. More flaming pinecones gets thrown, sparking the grounds below us on fire and a few wargs on fire as well. The wargs run away from the fire, behind Azog who yells out in fury. We began to cheer out, but we shouldn't have so soon.
Our tree began to uproot itself. We began to fall. The tree came to rest, sticking straight out away from the edge of the cliff. We tried to hang on as well as we would. Ori began to lose his grip on the tree and falls but managed to grab onto Dori's leg.
"Mister Gandalf!" Dori cried out as he began to lose his grip and began to fall. Gandalf quickly swings his staff down and Dori grabbed the end of it. "Hold on, Ori!" he yelled to his brother.
Meanwhile, Thorin had pulled himself up, his sword drawn, and walked down the leaning trunk towards Azog. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me." I groaned as I watched along with everyone else as Thorin ran through the burning ground. Azog spreads his arms wide with a smug grin on his face. The two charged at each other, the warg hitting Thorin in the chest with its forepaw, smashing Thorin to the ground. We looked on in shock. Thorin got back on his feet while Azog and his warg wheel around, charging again at Thorin. Azog swings his mace, hitting Thorin and he is flung to the ground from the impact. Balin cried out, watching in horror.
Azog roared in excitement, his warg clamping its jaws around Thorin who yelled out in pain. Bilbo managed to stand up in the tree. Dwalin tries as well, but the tree branches he's on begins to break, preventing him from assisting. "Thorin! Nooo!" he yells out.
Thorin managed to hit the warg with the pommel of his sword and the warg throws him several feet away onto a flat rock. He landed heavily on the rock, his sword swung out of his hand and he barely moves. "Get up. Com'on get up." I said to myself, my voice barely above a whisper as I watched.
"Bring me the Dwarf's head." Azog tells one of the Orcs. One of the Orcs jumps off his warg and approaches Thorin who hasn't moved. The Orc raises his sword, preparing to decapitate Thorin, when suddenly he is tackled by Bilbo. As they fight, Bilbo manages to stab and kill the orc. No one expected that to happen.
Bilbo stood in front of Thorin, prepared to defend him. He began to swing his sword wildly at the wargs as they inched closer. "Kill him."
I jumped up and sprinted off towards them, jumping onto a warg and stabbing its rider in the neck, killing him instantly. Kili, Fili, and Dwalin followed close behind me, joining the battle. I killed the warg I was on and jumped down to help Bilbo who was tossed towards Thorin by the white warg. We were going to die. The wargs neared the two of us as we readied ourselves.
Eagles appeared from the night sky and began tossing wargs off the cliffs or flapping flames towards them. Others knock down trees, crushing a few wargs, while some Eagles began to pick up the dwarves from the tree. An Eagle gently lifts Thorin off the rock and begins to fly away. Azog roared at the Eagles and jumps back as one flies towards us. The Eagle grabs ahold of me and Bilbo and drops us on the back of a waiting Eagle below the cliff.
"It's the Great Eagles! The Eagles of Manwë!" I exclaimed as we flew off. Bilbo hung on for dear life as I spread my arms out wide.
"Are you insane! You are going to die!" I shook my head at Bilbo as we flew towards the horizon. For Bilbo's sake I did eventually hold onto the Eagle's back. We landed first along with Thorin. I ran over to him and started checking for a pulse.
The Eagles eventually deposit everyone on top of the rock structure known as Carrock. "Thorin! Thorin!" Gandalf yelled out as soon as he landed. "There's no pulse." I told him. I backed away from them as Gandalf placed his hand over Thorin's eyes. He said a prayer and moved his hand away. Thorin's eyes fluttered open.
"Thought you said you weren't a wizard." I looked at Gandalf who said nothing to me.
"The halfling?" Thorin croaked out. "Its alright. Bilbo is here. Quite safe." He turned to face Bilbo while I helped Thorin sit up. I stared at his icy blue eyes before wrapping my arms around his neck and pulling him in for a hug. Fili and Kili stepped over and helped their uncle stand up. Once he was standing, he approached Bilbo. "You! What were you doing? You nearly got yourself killed! Did I not say that you would be a burden? That you would not survive in the wild and that you had no place amongst us?" Thorin advanced towards Bilbo till they were face to face. I stepped next to Bilbo, prepared to defend him. "I've never been so wrong in all my life." He grabbed Bilbo and embraced him. Not what I expected to happen. The dwarves began to laugh and cheer. Bilbo hugged him back, quite shocked at what was happening.
"I am sorry I doubted you," Thorin said stepping back to face Bilbo and I. "Sorry I doubted both of you."
Bilbo shook his head, "no, I would have doubted me too. I'm not a hero or a warrior… not even a cook." Everyone chuckled at his comment. Thorin turned to me. "Hey, I'm just glad my boss isn't dead, because then I wouldn't have gotten a paycheck," I teased as Thorin stepped over to give me a hug as well. As soon as we finished hugging, Thorin glanced up and stepped forward staring at the horizon. We turned to see what he was staring out. "Is that what I think it is?" Bilbo asked.
In the distance, on the horizon, stood a single peak of a mountain. "Erebor- The Lonely Mountain. The last of the great dwarf empires in Middle Earth." Gandalf said as everyone stared at it in the distance. "Our home." Thorin breathed.
"A raven! The birds are going to the mountain!" Oin pointed to a single bird flying above us. "That my dear Oin, is a thrush." Gandalf said.
I watched as the bird flew off into the horizon. "But we'll take it as a sign- a good omen." Thorin declared.
"You're right. I do believe the worst is behind us." We all stared at the Lonely Mountain, as the sun came up behind us.
A good omen.
