Diclaimer: I do not own the Hobbit.
Note: Azog's dialogue is in English for this scene. Feedback is always welcomed, so please review. Thanks guys.
The reunion was cut short by the faint howling coming from the mountain.
It was a howl they had hoped not to hear again.
Wargs.
The company tensed as the howling grew louder. Each of the dwarves tightened their large fingers around each of their weapons.
Marie that the cold that washed over her skin was fear, but soon realised that the sunlight had begun to disappear behind the trees, turning the world violet and blue.
In the dark, the orcs would have the advantage.
Marie could already feel the earth tremble under her feet from the pounding paws of many ... many beasts.
"Out of the frying pan ..." Thorin hissed.
"And into the fire." Gandalf added. "Run!"
Marie's legs were still burning from her long run downhill to catch up with the company, so to have to run again only increased the fire pumping through her.
The company moved swiftly, dodging in and out of the trees as though to chase the fading sunlight. "They're coming!" Bomber yelled.
Marie looked over her shoulder and could see the glowing yellow eyes, even the glint of a fang.
She sucked in hard and pushed herself to go faster, but fatigue was already taking hold of her weak, sleep deprived body and it was taking every ounce of her will not to trip up herself.
But however, she did.
She tried to steady herself by ended up landing on a knee. This ended up saving her life as one of the large wargs that had finally caught up with the company leapt over her and skidded on the dried leaves and rocks. It snapped its jaws at Marie but was swamped by Thorin, Gloin and Dwalin who proceeded to kill it.
Kili stopped running and came back to scoop the hobbit up and back onto her feet. "Come on Marie." He clutched her hand so tight she had to swallow her yelping as he pulled her along.
"It's a dead end!" Nori called from up ahead.
It was ... literally.
The dwarves that had taken the lead came to a halt at a pointed edge of a cliff. They had run themselves into a corner with no way out, and to top it all off the sun had completely set, leaving only the light of a half moon hidden behind clouds.
'What now?' Marie looked up at the tall tree. A thought sprung into mind and she pulled her hand out from Kili's.
"Marie, what are you doing?" He asked as he watched her run to the nearest tree and leap up to the lowest hanging branch. She pulled of an almost graceful somersault around it until she sat firmly on the branch. She ignored the sting of the bark on her wounds and the ach in her back to relish fact she still had it after so many years.
"Well come on then!' She beckoned the young dwarf and his brother before pulling herself up onto the next branch.
"Into the trees. Climb!" Gandalf ordered the rest of the dwarves, "All of you, climb."
The younger dwarves climbed with ease while the older dwarves helped one another up. "Here Balin." Marie held out her hand to him and pulled the dwarf onto the branch. She hopped across to allow him room. Thorin was the last to climb as he stayed to make sure all his men had made it. He just made it up just in time as the rest of the pack swarmed the base of trees.
"How in blazes did they find us here?" He growled, coming up beside Marie.
"I do not know." Balin answered, "They must have been tracked us this whole time from the Valley."
"But there weren't this many before." Marie muttered.
There must have been more than thirty wargs, more than twice the orc pack from the Great East Road. They barked loudly at the company above them, snapping their huge jaws together with a sickening crunch. Marie gripped the branch above to secure herself. These wargs looked even more intimidating in the night, and their beady eyes glowed menacingly in the minimal moonlight. Even the few orc riders she could see looked more threatening than the first time.
'Gandalf I truly hope you a brilliant plan of escape.'
Marie scanned the trees for the wizard. She finally spotted his grey hat at the top of the tree situated right on the cliff's edge. He was holding a large moth close to lips and looked to be whispering to it. With a delicate puff the moth fluttered up into the sky and Gandalf watched it disappear into the night. Marie severely hoped that there was meaning behind his actions and it wasn't just an unfortunate case of slaphappy.
A loud snarl that overrode the other wargs brought Marie back to the present situation. She watched the wargs back down to make way for a large white warg, climbing onto a boulder at the whim of its rider.
The rider was just as large as the beast, in fact it was larger than the other orcs. Even with the moon hidden Maire could see the colour of its skin.
It was white.
Some instinct within Marie already knew who this orc was, even before she heard Thorin whisper it in disbelief.
Azog the Defiler.
He was as just as Balin had described. He was a giant beast, larger than a mortal man, his body and face covered in red scars. In one hand he held a rusted mace and in the other ... twisted pieces of steel stuck out of a gangrenous stump where his other arm should have been.
The Pale Orc sniffed the air long and hard. "Do you smell it?" He said to his minions. His voice slow and dangerously slick, "The scent of fear?"
The orcs hissed and nodded.
Azog locked eyes with his lifelong enemy.
Marie could feel Thorin tense beside her.
"I remember your father reeked of it ... Thorin, son of Thrain."
"It can not be ..."
Marie looked to the dwarf. Azog's words had struck him and she could see the painful emotions on his face.
Azog pointed his mace at Thorin, "That one is mine. Kill the others!" He growled and set his pack on them. The wargs ran at the trees and launched themselves up into the branches, some trying to climb them while others tore at the wood to get to the dwarves. The trees shook violently from the barrage of attacks and all the company could do was hold on for their lives.
"Drink in their blood!" Azog commanded the wargs, his orcs waiting with pointed blades for their share of gore.
One of Marie's feet lost grip on the branch and she felt herself falling backwards. She automatically reached out for something to hold onto to, and the first thing she grabbed was Thorin's arm. Instead of giving her a glare of annoyance like Maire expected, he took hold of her arm and pulled her back up, securing her to the branch once more. He did not let her go, even as the tree began to tilt. The wargs had shaken the tree so hard that its roots had been upturned and the tree began to fall.
Thorin yelled at the hobbit and Balin to jump the next tree at the two collided. More trees fell, forcing the others to leap like squirrels to the next perch, just to escape their fate bellow. Marie would have once found this an exciting game in her youth, now it was terrifying.
The only tree that did not fall was the very last tree on the cliff, and heavens forbid it should tip over and send the company of dwarves, the hobbit and the wizard to their deaths.
The wargs swarmed and one by one stared clawing at the base, digging up the roots.
"Gandalf!" Marie heard Bofur from up above her, "What do we do!?"
Marie looked up since it was better than looking down and watched the wizard pluck a single pine cone from the tree. He brought it close to his staff blew on it, sending tiny flecks of fire flying. The pine cone caught light and Gandalf threw it towards the wargs.
The small fire ball whizzed through the air and landed in the scattered remnants of the destruction the wargs had caused. Fire broke out and consumed the fallen trees, while the wargs howled and ran back to escape the hungry flames.
"Fili, Nori!" Gandalf called and tossed down two red hot pine cones. The dwarves caught them and found more to light. The darkness lifted as the fire grew and grew as more fireballs were thrown down at the enemy. Marie plucked one for herself, "Here Marie." Kili put his to Marie's and the two began to sizzle and crack from the heat. It hurt Marie's hands, so much that she had to toss the flaming cone without looking where it was aimed. It hit a warg on the snout and sent it running with its tail between its legs.
"Nice one Marie!" Kili laughed.
A wall of fire now separated the company from the orc pack, the wargs fearing the heat and flames. Marie could see the scowling face of Azog as the pack retreated.
The dwarves sheered for their victory, but all the shaking from their celebrating was more than the tree could take. The brittle stone of the cliff's edge cracked and the tall pine tipped further and further over and until it was almost horizontal.
The dwarves and Marie dangled helplessly, Ori's branch broke and he was forced to cling to Dori's boot. "Mr Gandalf!" He called out to the wizard. All Gandalf could do was hold out his staff for Dori to take hold of.
Marie tried to pull herself up further onto the trunk, "Balin are you alright?" She looked across at him. He was caught between two smaller branched, one move and they would have snapped.
"Been in worse." He huffed.
"Thorin are you ...?" Marie asked, but when she turned to look at him, she fell into silence.
Thorin was rising up slowly, he gaze fixed on the Pale Orc and his steed. He unsheathed his elvish sword, the blade singing louder and clearer than ever before.
Marie had seen Thorin frustrated, she had seen him angry, even enraged. But never had she seen someone so filled with pure hate, his eyes were no longer the hue of the sky but the colour of the flames. He hooked his oak shield onto his free arm and Marie just knew something horrible was about to take place.
Thorin stood and began a slow decent down the pine trunk. His momentum picked up as he neared the flames and the giant. Azog sat with his arm open, welcoming the challenge with an evil grin.
'What is he doing?' Marie feared for the dwarf king as revenge finally held full sway over him, his sword raised high above him as he launched himself at Azog. 'No Thorin. Don't ... it's not an even fight.'
The orc kicked his white warg and the beast leapt off the boulder. With one massive paw, it knocked Thorin onto his back as it passed over him. Marie felt her chest clench tightly, like she had been the one stuck by the warg.
Thorin was stunned only for a moment, but his struggle to get t his feet proved too long. Azog's beast turned and made for another pass, the giant orc swinging his mace into Thorin's chest. The sound of metal colliding with flesh spurred the company to try and move to held their leader, but the tree shook more and more and branched split left and right.
'Do something.' A voice told Marie. 'But what? What could I do? Anything. Help him. How?'
While she argued with herself, the warg trapped Thorin in its jaw, sinking its teeth further into its prey. Thorin's cries of pain made were like a blade being jammed into Marie's stomach, her breathing quicken with every passing second she watched the warg clamp down harder onto Thorin.
'I can't ... I can't do anything. Mariellena Baggins for once in your life do something!'
Thorin struck the beast's snout, and in return the warg tossed him against the rocks like a discarded doll.
Marie wanted to call out his name, her voice was lost.
"Bring me the dwarf's head." Azog ordered an orc prowling behind him.
'Stand up.'
Marie moved as the orc did, standing tall on the trunk.
'Draw your sword.'
The glowing blade seemed brighter than before as she pulled it free. The orc took its time approaching Thorin, like it was enjoying his inability to move or reach his sword.
'Run ... Run!'
Marie moved one foot, then the other, and she ran. She ran faster than ever before. She passed through flames and did not feel the heat, she trampled through broken branches and cared not for splinters.
Just as the foul creature raised up its curved blade to complete the deed, Marie's tiny body slammed into its side and knocked it clean off its feet. It squealed like a pig and tried to push the hobbit off but Marie held her sword in both hands and proceeded to stab the orc's chest over and over, screaming with every thrust.
Something clicked in Marie's mind, like a rough, primal instinct buried beneath the hobbit she was. All she knew was to kill or be killed.
She finally stopped when the orc no longer moved, the light of her sword could barely be seen under all the blood as she pulled it from the corpse. She stumbled back a little and placed herself between Thorin and the pack. She held out her sword and glared at the orcs.
Azog just laughed at her attempted to scare them.
"Kill her."
The orcs and wargs moved in closer. She beared her teeth and swung her sword like an axe, but the wargs snapped back at her.
Marie braced herself , but aid finally came from the dwarves. Fili, Kili and Dwalin had managed to join the fray and went about hacking up as many wargs as they could. With this new distraction, the only one left facing Marie was Azog. She let out a weak battle cry and tried to stab the white warg, but it not knocked her to the side with one swing of its head.
Marie felt her burst of energy coming to its end, right when she really needed it.
She rolled onto her back and found Azog staring down at her. His eyes when bloodshot and bright.
"Ssssscccrrrreeeeaaaacccchhhhh!"
Marie felt a gush of wind from behind and suddenly two wargs disappeared. It took a moment for Marie's eyes to adjust, for a moment she thought she had seen an eagle.
But it was too big to be an eagle.
But there it was again, swooping down from the heavens. There was another, and another. Giant eagle, wings pounding so hard that the fires swelled beneath, talons plucking up the wargs like field mice. They numbered only ten but the pack scattered once again, fleeing the eagles and the flames.
Were these friends ... or foes?
With Azog distracted, Marie crawled over to Thorin's side.
His eyes were closed and his breaths were few. Deep set cuts marred his jaw and nose, and Marie could see blood on his fur coat. Without thinking she touched the top of his raven head.
"Thorin?" She called gently, "Thorin can you hear me?"
But he gave no answers.
"Ssssscccrrrreeeeaaaacccchhhhh!"
Hair blew across Marie's face and she fell backwards. An eagle had descended upon Thorin, taking hold of him and his blade in its golden claws, but the famed oak shield fell from his limp arm. Marie watch amazed and relieved as the creature took Thorin far from harm.
One by one the dwarves, fighting ot traped on the tree, were carried off on the backs of the eagles.
'Gandalf,' Marie shook her head, 'This was your ..' "BLLAAAAGHHHH"
Marie's thoughts were cut short by a very angry orc, one that was charging at her with the intent to kill. But she too was saved by the great birds, one catching her in its talons before dropping her on the back of another. The feathers helped her have less of a rough landing.
Marie gripped the bird's neck with her free hand good and tight as the aerie of eagles flew off towards into the night, leaving behind the burning pines and defeated orcs.
xxxxxx
Azog screamed out as his prey once again evaded his. He had them in his grasp and they still slipped away.
He almost had his vengeance, the Dwarf King's skull would have completed it.
He would not escape next time.
"Follow them!" He growled in the Black Speech. The remains of his pack meekly nodded and follow their command. His wargs stopped licking their wounds and ran into the night, whimpering like pups. They were wounded from this defeat and lacked any will to question.
"Where would the go Master?" One orc asked.
"East. Send all parties East. I want the dwarf scum alive."
If there was anything Azog had learned from this encounter, it was that Thorin Oakenshield had shown him a weakness.
It came in the form of a tiny creature with emerald eyes.
"Bring them to me alive, the Dwarf King and the Emerald Eyed Whore."
He would make them suffer, Thorin Oakenshield and his woman.