New chapter! Whoop whoop! :D
It's a bit shorter this time but it just fit best to cut it there, so there you go :)
happypills27: Ohh, yes, it will definitely be interesting when Tarya and Tauriel meet :D Kili should watch out :D
Teshka: Weew, Kilarya ftw :D It would definitely be helpful for her if she could switch back to being a wolf and I have something planned for her quite soon, so we'll see how that turns out :D
Doodler100: That's an excellent thought you had there :D I've had quite the same but you'll see what I mean when you read the chapter... :D
Also thank you so much to Mistflower21, Sam0728 and DwarvenWarrior for your lovely reviews! I'm so happy that you like the story :D
And again, as always, thanks to the people who followed and favorited me and my story!
Now, go ahead and read and tell me your opinions and thoughts :D
Kili hated running by now. They were running far too often for his liking. Then again, he didn't want to get eaten alive by wargs, either, so he kept sprinting down the hillside along with the others. The wargs were coming closer behind them as the sun went down on the horizon, leaving them to run for their lives in the murk of the night.
Soon, a few wargs were catching up and they had to draw their weapons and slay those who came too close, all the while they kept racing down the forest, around big trees and jumping over boulders. That was until they were confronted with a sudden cliff, no way to go any further. Kili came to hate cliffs as well.
"Up into the trees!" Gandalf urged them and they all hurried to follow his example. "All of you! Climb!"
Kili took a running jump towards the tree nearest to him and gripped a branch tightly before pulling himself up. It was almost instinctively that he reached out for his brother. Fili grabbed his hand and the younger dwarf heaved him up until he could grab a branch as well and climb onto it.
"They're coming!" he heard his uncle roar and they quickly climbed further up upon hearing the words. When they were safely out of reach of the wargs that now came running down towards them in great number, Kili looked around for a familiar head of black hair. He spotted Tarya on a tree next to theirs, holding on to the trunk beside Thorin, looking down at the forest floor with wide eyes.
"Bilbo!" she shouted and Kili drew his eyebrows together as he followed her gaze. The hobbit was trying to get his sword out of a warg's skull and Kili could only marvel at the thought that he had managed to kill one without getting his head bitten off. "Bilbo, run!" Tarya's voice echoed desperately through the trees when the hobbit finally got his sword free and hurriedly climbed the tree Kili and Fili were on. The blonde Durin heir quickly reached down and pulled the hobbit further up by his collar just in time, as the wargs were now gathering at the bottom of the trees, running around and frantically sniffing the air, snarling wildly.
Nobody saw Gandalf reaching out his staff for a small moth before whispering something to it and then letting it fly out into the night sky. He could only hope that help would come fast enough.
All the while, Thorin was clinging to his branch next to Tarya and Balin. He heard Tarya growl angrily and as he glanced over at her, he saw her looking down on the wargs to their feet with an expression that showed an animosity he hadn't seen on her before. "What is it?" he asked, his curiosity getting the better of him.
"They talk," she replied curtly, gripping her branch tighter. Thorin couldn't help his eyebrows rising in surprise. Tarya scowled at him when she saw it. "I used to be a wolf, in case you have forgotten, I understand bloody well what their snarls and growls embody. They're looking forward to tearing us apart. Limb by limb," she told him through gritted teeth. Well, that made her animosity comprehensible, he thought grimly.
Suddenly, the wargs' noises quieted down somehow and Thorin turned around at the sudden strange silence that filled the forest. As he did, he wished he hadn't, for what he saw made his eyes widen in shock. There, coming to stand upon a large boulder, was a white warg and atop him a pale orc that he knew only too well.
"Azog," he breathed. "It cannot be."
He felt Tarya and Balin look over at him worriedly but he couldn't take his eyes off the Defiler when he started to speak in the foul language of his kin. Thorin didn't understand what he was saying; the only thing he caught was his own name and the name of his father. But he didn't need to understand orcish to get the message. The way Azog looked at him and the sneering grin on his face told him that the orc was insulting him, along with his father.
The dwarf-king shook his head slightly, almost to get rid of the picture that spread before him but it remained there as Azog told his soldiers something, pointing at him with the metal claw that was replacing the left arm Thorin had cut off so many years ago, his voice a loud roar at the end of it. And on cue, the wargs came rushing towards them, jumping the trees and trying to get them down.
Thorin stumbled but felt a hand gripping his shoulder tightly and pulling him back to the tree trunk. "They have order to kill us all, except you," he heard Tarya say and couldn't help but growl at the information the Amarok gave him. "They wi – ", her voice broke in the middle of the sentence and Thorin looked over at her questioningly. His brows furrowed when he saw her face. Tarya's eyes were fixed upon the pale orc, her face a mask of pain and rage and the dwarf-king wondered what had caused it.
Tarya couldn't finish what she'd wanted to say, the words stuck in her throat.
She didn't know the orc before her. She didn't know what his story with Thorin was. She didn't know why he was after them. She didn't know what had happened to his arm. But she did know one thing.
She would rip his guts out.
The Pale Orc was sitting proudly on his warg, the white fur of the beast shining in the dim moonlight while its rider was observing the scene before him. But that was not what had caught Tarya's attention. No, it was a mat of dark brown fur that the orc was wearing as a loincloth. Dark brown fur that didn't belong to any ordinary animal. Tarya knew the colour, the pattern of lighter and darker spots in it. She would have recognized it anywhere, even in the wan moonlight. Even so many years later. It had been silky and soft last she'd seen it. Now it was matted and stained.
Suddenly, she felt the same thing she had felt in Goblin Town. She felt rage spreading hot through her body, mixed with a searing pain this time that clenched her heart. It took her a lot of will power not to get lost in the feeling. She wanted to storm forward, sink her daggers into his pale skin and punish him for what he'd done. But she couldn't afford that now. She could never win; she'd probably not even make it far enough to hurt him before his wargs would get her.
No, she had to concentrate on what was happening around her, when the wargs suddenly managed to uproot some of the trees. Tarya watched with horror as the first tree tilted and fell, causing a horrible domino effect to follow. Fortunately, her companions were quick enough to jump from tree to tree in order to finally land on the last one still upright, which happened to be the one she was on.
The tree rumbled beneath her grip, dangerously leaning over the abyss so that Tarya could only marvel at the fact that they were not yet falling to their deaths when the last of the other trees crashed into theirs. She saw her companions jumping onto their tree further up and for a moment she spotted Kili's face in the fir needles before he leaped over and landed on a branch near her, along with Bilbo and Fili. She diverted her gaze towards the Pale Orc again, then. He was laughing scornfully.
Everything was going incredibly fast and Tarya didn't really know where the burning fir cone was coming from that suddenly flew by her head. She looked up and saw Gandalf lighting more cones, giving them to Kili, Fili, Bilbo, Bofur and the others as they threw them down onto the wargs who howled loudly as they scrambled back, fleeing the flames that were now quickly spreading over the forest floor. Some of them weren't fast enough and their bodies were set on fire. Tarya could only watch with wide eyes. Of course, this kept the wargs off but the fire was now also burning down the wood and sure enough, over the yelps and howls, she heard a distinct dark laughter when their tree cracked and crashed onto the floor, leaving them hanging over the edge of the cliff.
As Tarya looked up, she saw Gandalf leaning over the abyss, his staff the only thing that kept Dori and Ori from falling into the valley, the two of them desperately clinging to it.
The next thing she heard was a deep growl and for a moment, she couldn't place the sound until she turned her head only just in time to catch a last glimpse of Thorin's boots before he stomped down the tree trunk towards Azog.
"Thorin!" Balin yelled next to her but the dwarf-king didn't hear or he didn't listen.
"Bloody fool," Tarya breathed, watching the proud dwarf that had now started running through the burning bushes and trees, his sword high up over his head. She scrambled to her knees, looking over Thorin's head at the Pale Orc who was grinning haughtily. What was the dwarf thinking?! Tarya watched horrified as Azog made his warg jump and Thorin got knocked down. The beast turned around, the Pale Orc striking Thorin with his war hammer before the warg jumped onto the dwarf-king and buried its teeth in his armour.
Tarya heard the dwarf-king's pained cry.
"No!" several of the dwarves yelled, Dwalin's voice standing out clearly to the Amarok. "Thorin!"
Tarya felt her breath hitch in her throat when the white warg hurled Thorin through the air, the dwarf-king landing on a flat rock, motionless. Suddenly, something – or someone – moved past her on the tree trunk and as she looked up, she saw Bilbo, his sword drawn, moving forward towards the orcs. And finally, something in her snapped.
"Bilbo!" she yelled, standing up herself, not even hesitating a second before following him. She heard someone scream after her but didn't pay any attention, when she drew her daggers in one swift motion, running behind the hobbit.
Bilbo lunged at the orc that was walking towards the beaten Thorin, knocking him off his feet. Tarya watched for a second as he stabbed him repeatedly with Sting, before she came to stand defensively in front of the dwarf-king, looking at the Pale Orc with determination. He would not kill another person that was important to her, only over her dead body.
Azog stopped in his tracks as he watched first Bilbo kill his soldier before he directed his gaze at her. The white warg snarled aggressively and she could only growl in reply, gripping her daggers tighter but not making any other movement, every one of her muscles tensed.
The Defiler watched her with something that could almost be called interest, when he suddenly sniffed the air, letting out a low groan. "Wolf," he droned, a sneering smirk coming to play around his mouth.
"Orc," Tarya snarled in reply, letting the rage she had supressed before flow freely through her veins now. She felt her body heat up in an instant and though she didn't know what exactly was happening to her, she felt that it was helpful. She felt strong. She felt powerful.
"Your scent," he continued, his face now getting an almost appreciative hint to it, not leaving her out of his sight even as Bilbo came to stand beside her, Sting pointed at the approaching orcs. Azog grinned cruelly. "She had the same," he growled, his metal claw grazing the fur he was wearing. She saw something shift in his expression, then. And she knew at once that he wanted her as a trophy as well.
"She had the same," Kili heard the dark, deep voice of the orc say, before he saw the change in his expression. He was looking at Tarya as if she was a rare prize, now, something he wanted to get his hands on and Kili couldn't wait any longer. He got to his feet and felt the others do the same to his sides. They charged forward, the brunette Durin heir drawing his sword with a fierce battle cry on the lips just as Azog seemingly gave command to attack. That filthy orc would not get his hands on Tarya or his uncle or anyone else. Over his dead body, Kili swore to himself, as he lunged at an orc, sinking his sword into his body.
The rest of the company did the same, slashing and stabbing at orcs and wargs relentlessly.
Kili fought his way towards Tarya, not willing to let her out of his sight. He just had to protect her. He couldn't let her get hurt again. As he found her, she was fighting off wargs, still defending his uncle's motionless body side by side with Bilbo, shouting and growling loudly. As he approached, he saw her fighting with an extreme force he hadn't known she possessed, killing wargs and orcs with nothing more than single strikes. But as he caught sight of her face, he almost stopped dead in his tracks out of surprise. The Amarok's eyes were glowing like burning suns in the darkness. It was an unbelievable and almost scary sight and yet it had something extremely majestic to it. She was standing surrounded by fire and battle like a warrior-goddess, eyes blazing with ire.
Kili lost sight of her for a moment then, merely able to dodge the fangs of a warg and slicing its neck with his sword. He quickly slashed its rider then, feeling something cut his arm before moving forward once more but as Tarya appeared in his vision again, the sight had changed considerably. Bilbo was now down on the floor, lying on his back and scrambling backwards as Azog himself approached him and Tarya on his warg. Kili forced himself to go faster, then, almost in reach of her, seeing his black-haired friend taking a step back when the white warg lunged at her, teeth bared, and in a last attempt raising her dagger to the beast.
"No!" he heard himself scream when suddenly another sound mixed itself into the noise of the battle and his own cry and the loud howl of the white warg as the dagger pierced its upper jaw before it dashed Tarya away from itself, knocking her off her feet.
There was the cawing of birds.
Kili looked up to the sky as tremendous eagles came down, collecting orcs and wargs and throwing them over the edge of the cliff into their deaths and spreading the fire onto their enemies with the flap of their wings.
The young dwarf watched worriedly and yet amazedly as one of the Great Eagles picked up his uncle with its claws, lifting him up into the sky. He hurried over the last metres then, using Azog's distraction as his warg fell to the floor beneath him. He let himself down on his knees as he reached Tarya who was lying on her back on the floor. As he bent over her, his friend's eyes were barely open, the strange glow within them slowly fading, her body limp. Kili saw her arm was bleeding heavily where the warg's teeth had pierced her. He touched her cheek lightly, her skin seeming unusually warm to him.
"I'll have your head if you die on me, you bloody fool, I swear to Mahal," he growled at her and saw a faint smile gracing her face as she closed her eyes before he suddenly felt himself being lifted up by an eagle. The huge bird gripped Tarya in his other claw and took off into the sky.
Kili almost got sick and he felt a loud scream leave his throat when the bird suddenly let him fall, before he safely landed on the back of another eagle next to his brother. He looked up and saw Tarya being carried further by the bird that had just let him fly through the air. He couldn't help the worry spreading in his chest when he saw her motionless body in the bird's claws.
The feeling only increased when he looked over to his brother and followed his gaze, which was fixed upon the eagle that was carrying their uncle.
"Thorin!" Fili yelled but the dwarf-king didn't make a move, his body limp in the claws of the eagle.