Reaching the light, The company stopped and finally managed to catch their breath outside.
"Kili, Fili." Gandalf muttered, counting the dwarfs. "Fourteen."
"Where's Bilbo?!" Gandalf asked.
The dwarves looked around quickly.
"Bilbo?" Tharwen questioned, her face growing more worried by the second.
Tharwen looked like she'd lost all hope.
As Bofur came up to Gandalf with a worried expression on his face, Thorin answered Gandalfs questions with his own thoughts.
"I'll tell you where he is!" Thorin growled, breaking the chatter amongst the company. "Master Baggins saw his chance and took it. He's thought nothing but of his warm bed and hearth since he walked out his door! We will not be seeing our hobbit again! He is long gone."
Kili and Fili glanced at each other with heartbroken eyes, for they did not believe Bilbo would do such a thing, he proved to them he was loyal, and had saved them from being eaten, they had trust in the hobbit, greatly and were full of disbelief and shock.
"I think Tharwen's sick." Bofur's voice went unheard and he shook his head before looking back at Tharwen, who was glaring daggers into the back of Thorin's head.
"No, he isn't." Bilbo's soft voice was a whisper among the company, fragments of hurt in his voice showed that he had heard all Thorin had said about him, he could not stomach the fact the dwarf king had thought so lowly of him, but it was true that he did.
"Bilbo Baggins, I've never been so glad to see anyone in my life." Gandalf exhaled in relief.
"Bilbo, we've given you up." Kili said, sending a look that mean't he really didn't believe what Thorin had said, before both the brothers enveloped him in a hug.
"Bilbo!" Tharwen breathed, hugging the hobbit and the two dwarf brothers. "You're safe you stubborn arse prat, I was so worried." She scolded.
"How on earth did you get past the goblins?" Fili asked.
"How indeed?" Dwalin wondered.
"What does it matter? He is back." Tharwen was grateful that Gandalf was with them.
"It does matter. I want to know" Thorin said passively. "Why did you come back?" He asked, gazing at Bilbo with a hint of awe in his eyes.
"I know you doubt, I-I-I know you always have, and you're right, I often think of Bag End, I miss my books, and my armchair, and my garden, see, that's where I belong, that's home. " He said. "And that's why I came back. You don't have one, a home, it's was taken from you." He paused. "And I'll help you take it back if I can" He gave Thorin a smile that said 'I ain't going anywhere you stubborn dwarf.'
A growls and howls pierced through the silence of the company and Tharwen pactically smashed her head against a tree, and blanched at the sight of wargs at the top off the very very high slope.
"Out of the frying pan..."
"And into the fire." Gandalf finished, leaving Thorin looking slightly homicidal... Or was it suicidal, either way he looked like he was about to kill something.
"Run! RUN!" He shouted, taking off into the direction of a 140 feet drop.
Wargs and their riders grouped as the company climbed into the trees. Then the parted respectfully as Azog the Defiler came into the clearing upon his white warg
He began taunting Thorin in his own language, spitting the filth at him.
He raised his mace in Thorin and Tharwens direction and said something that Gandalf and Tharwen translated to 'those two are mine' and then the wargs came.
"Gah!" Tharwen yelped as she felt the tree topple under the great weight of the beasts.
The company jumped from tree to tree until they reached Gandalf's tree that had begun to teeter on the edge of the cliff.
Gandalf set fire to a pinecone and passed it down to Fili and Bilbo before they'd began lobbing it at the orcs, goblins and wargs.
Their tree teetered over the edge and was hanging horizontally, Dori and Ori both slipping off and only being alive by holding onto Gandalf's staff.
As Kili's arm began slipping Tharwen saw Thorin rise through the smoke and fire, and she grabbed Kili's arm, pulling him back onto the trunk, teetering on the edge of her own branch which was groaning dangerously, Kili gripping her waist so he would not fall.
Tharwen clenched her jaw as Thorin had gone and done the most foolish thing, charging at the pale orc, oaken shield raised. Before getting knocked out by a paw to the forehead.
She was torn between chuckling at the scene and choking as she saw Bilbo scrambling up after him.
"Holy! Bilbo!" She shouted from the branch, pulling Kili up onto the branch before pulling herself up with Kili's help.
The Pale Orc's warg was practically using him as a chew tow!
As Azog's right hand orc went to sever Thorin's head. Tharwen thought she almost had an aneurism. Bilbo had gone and tackle the orc away from Thorin. Tharwen forced herself to get up from the tree and charged at a warg, taking the attention off Bilbo.
The warg reared away but Azog forced it to stay. Tharwen heard a shriek and saw the eagles swooping down, attacking the orcs and goblins. They intervened into the fight and picked off the wargs and orcs one by one, causing the remainder of the pack to flee.
The eagles flew to the great Carrock and placed the members of the company on the top of the rock.
Gandalf had begun muttering spells to wake Thorin. Tharwen was comforting Bilbo quietly away from the group.
"The halfling?" A hoarse whisper floated across the company. Gandalf assured Thorin that Bilbo was alright.
"You! What were you thinking? You nearly got yourself killed!" He said, gruffly, voice swamped with worry.
"Did I not say you were a burden? That you have no place amongst us?" He asked.
"I've never been so wrong, in all my life." Breathed Thorin, wrapping Bilbo in the most affectionate hug the company had seen Thorin give.
"I'm sorry I doubted you." Thorin apologized, holding the hobbit by the shoulders, looking straight into the bloodshot eyes that had been crying only a few moments ago.
"No, I would've doubted me too. I'm not a hero, nor a warrior, not even a burglar." He admits bashfully but with a small smile on his face.
The moment is interrupted by a sharp screech and they company turns to watch the eagles soar back into the clouds.
Bilbo lets out a small gasp and Thorin turns.
"It's that, what I think it is?" He asks in awe.
"Erebor, The Lonely Mountain. The last of the great Dwarf Kingdoms in Middle Earth." Gandalf announced, answering the question before Thorin could.
Thorin shot a sharp glare at Gandalf before turning to stare at Erebor.
"Our home." He breathed, a small smile creeping onto his lips.
"A raven!" Oin cries, drawing the companies' attention to the birds fluttering and soaring back to the direction of the mountain. "The birds are returning to the mountain."
"That my dear Oin, is a trush." Gandalf corrected smiling.
"Well we'll take it a a sign, a good omen." Thorin whispered, feeling his chest fill with happiness.
"You're right, I do believe the worst is behind us." Bilbo said, walking up next to Thorin with a content smile on his face.
Another bird, large bird with silver and black wings, that looked nothing like bird wings but more like a demons, with flecks of gold tinting it's red eyes swooped down and perched on a rock next to Tharwen.
"Your majesty." It croaked and the company turned in shock.
"Riìkan, you're here, oh Mahal I thought I wouldn't see you since I sent you back with a message to my brother." Tharwen breathed.
"What is Eru's name is that thing?" Kili asked, backing dangerously close to the edge.
"This is Riìkan, he is an As-kharthi, Tharken messenger and warrior birds."
"His wings look nothing like a birds, and and As-kharti? What does that mean?"
"Your majesty, I must insist, I have an urgent message from your brother."Riìkan interrupted.
"Right Riìkan, what is it?"
"Ishtha-kar tha Kiz'lan exthuaa rinto bhekan hikldi ishke hajn'dage, wah thori' whariehs inthro tha fahen, stay safe, faen nin sister. Keep watch, careful watch. Oth'a lanthe in dhangeri'lti." Riìkan said, fluently in Tharkeen.
Tharkeen translation:
Ishtha-kar tha Kiz'lan exthuaa rinto bhekan hikldi ishke hajn'dage, wah thori' whariehs inthro tha fahen, stay safe, faen nin sister. Keep watch, careful watch. Oth'a lanthe in dhangeri'lti. = Peace, the Kiz'lan are becoming restless, I fear for your safety, we will rally the warriors for war if it comes to it, come home sister. Keep watch, careful watch, our lands and your quest are in danger.