It was not difficult to find the small hill of black, burning orc flesh. Even without the smoke to guide them the smell soon became almost unbearable as they reached the mound. The Riders of Rohan had even gone so far as to sever one of the orc's heads and impale it on a pike by the bodies as a warning. Aragorn and Legolas were doing their best not to gag but Thorin drew his sword quickly and began to use it to move the lumps of flesh and bone about looking for any sign of his nephews and praying he would find nothing.
After a while Aragorn joined him whilst the Elf kept watch, the Dwarf King felt full of dread.
"Thorin..." Aragorn spoke finally, outstretching his palm and revealing three beads, "These...do these look like the ones your nephews wear? Orcs do not have such things."
Gently, Thorin took them, running his fingers over the intricate metal work. The stone had fallen from it's setting in one but he'd know them anywhere. His throat and eyes began to burn and he couldn't bring himself to speak, he simply nodded.
Legolas muttered some form of Elven prayer and Aragorn hung his head.
"I am so sorry Thorin." He muttered.
Thorin didn't reply.
"The trees..." Legolas whispered.
"Not now-" Aragorn started.
"No, listen." The Elf insisted, "I can hear the trees in that forest, moving."
"Moving?" Aragorn exclaimed.
Thorin glanced up to see that indeed Legolas was right, he could hear the sounds of heavy steps and even glance a few of the trees moving. Normally this would have been fascinating but the loss of Fili and Kili eclipsed all other emotions.
"Uncle!"
Thorin felt his eyes widen and his hand close around the beads.
"Thorin! Uncle Thorin!"
He looked up at the forest once more to see a huge, hulking creature walking towards them but he cared very little about it. What caught his eye were the two figures standing on it's shoulders, waving at him. It was Fili and Kili, blissfully, alive.
The creature they were riding was like nothing he'd ever seen, a huge, wooden, living tree. With sharp branched for fingers and leaves and moss growing on it's sides and face.
"Onodrim." Legolas breathed, "The ancient race of living trees as old as the Elves themselves. I thought them long gone..."
"Ents." Aragorn grinned, "That's what men call them in their fairy tales, Ents."
"Fili Kili!" Thorin yelled, "How in Middle Earth..."
"Uncle!" Kili grinned, jumping off the colossal creature and almost flattening his Uncle, "We're so glad to see you!"
Fili jumped down after them and Thorin hugged them both to his chest tightly for a few moments before letting them go. Normally he would never be so emotional in front of a human and never an Elf but for once he didn't care.
"I thought you were dead." He breathed, "Aragorn found your beads in the pile of bodies and..."
"It was a close thing." Fili sighed, "For a moment, we thought we were going to be crushed by those massive horses."
Thorin flinched.
"But we managed to crawl to a dropped axe and cut our bonds." Kili continued, "After that we ran into the forest and Treebeard here found us and kept us safe for the night."
"Thank you." Thorin said sincerely looking up at the strange wooden face.
"Where is Boromir?" Kili asked, glancing about, "And Bilbo...?"
Aragorn looked to the others with a conflicted face.
"Boromir was slain." He sighed finally, "By the orcs after you were taken."
"And Bilbo?" Fili asked hurriedly, probably dreading the same news, "Where is our brother?"
Thorin looked to the ground.
"Where is he!?" Kili demanded, "Is he...?"
"He left." Thorin clarified, "He went to Mordor on his own during the battle."
There was a tense silence for several moments before the Elf broke it, eloquently as always.
"I thought your kind gone from Middle Earth." He spoke to the Ent, "Why have you woken now?"
"Saruman is murdering the trees of this forest." The Ent replied fiercely, "For many years we have allowed the creature of Middle Earth to take our wood to make fir and build homes but this senseless murder of trees is fueling nothing but an army! We will not stand for it!."
"That's right, Isenguard isn't far from here." Aragorn realized, "Gandalf warned us that Saruman was on the side of Mordor, he is probably creating armies of orcs there..."
"If we take out Isenguard Mordor will have a much harder time fighting." Kili grinned, "They will need to send troops all the way from the Black Mountains and Rohan wouldn't be in so much danger."
The Ent explained how he and his kind planned on attacking the tower themselves and despite the power of orcs Thorin had no doubt these creatures could defeat a small army if there were enough of them.
"We shall fight with you Onodrim." Legolas pledged, "These lands deserve their freedom."
"No."
All eyes fell to Fili,t eh short word had ended the conversation quite suddenly.
"What do you mean no?" Aragorn asked looking surprised, "Don't you want to stop Saruman?"
"Yes." Fili sighed, "I hope you can but I'm not going with you, and I don't think Kili or Thorin will either."
Kili gave Thorin a knowing look.
"You're going back for Bilbo?" Aragorn questioned, "But we've been traveling in the opposite direction for days, even if you knew which way he was traveling it could take you weeks to find him."
"He's our brother," Kili reminded him, "We're not going to let him do this on his own, even if he does have a ghost for company."
Thorin nodded.
"You will be able to convince Rohan to fight with you." He added, "We have our own job to do in this war."
Aragorn looked like he wanted to argue further but Legolas shook his head.
"If there is one thing I know about Dwarves, it's that once they set their minds on something they are extremely stubborn." He chuckled, "Let them go."
"Well...take the horses." Aragorn sighed, the Dwarves regarded the huge thing with unease.
They were twice their size, but if they could handle them at least they'd be able to make up time finding Bilbo.
"Treebeard and the Ents will help you." Kili grinned, "Right friend?"
Treebeard nodded.
"Thank you again for saving us." Fili added sincerely, clambering up onto one of the horses with Kili.
"Good luck."
-oOo-
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Thrain questioned as Bilbo began to tie his rope to a large stone at the base of a cliff.
"Well, I need to cross these peaks and the easiest way is to walk through them." He replied, "Which means climbing down there."
"But the fog is so dense I can't even see the bottom, it could be miles deep, there could be nothing but water." Thrain argued, "Perhaps I could carry you down."
"You can't even stay solid for a full minute." Bilbo argued, "What if you went intangible while you were holding me."
If ghosts could pale Bilbo was sure Thrain would have then.
"I'll climb down, you can float to the bottom and tell me how deep it is."
Thrain made a face, which was especially disturbing because his normal face shifted back and forth from healthy to a corpse so the movement made it even more twisted. Though Bilbo had noted that over the past few days the switching was slower and Thrain actually looked mostly healthy all the time.
The climb was no easy task. Bilbo was thankful for the thick soles of his feet, which didn't get cut by the sharp edges.
"A little further." Thrain called through the fog, "This mist is actually resting just above the ground level, pass through it and you're there."
Once he reached the bottom Thrain flew back up to the top and tried to undo the rope bindings but couldn't stay tangible long enough. There was nothing for it. With a sigh, Bilbo cut the rope as high up as he could and looped back was left back into his bag.
They walked through the rocky area for a few hours before Bilbo finally started to speak.
"Thrain, what will it take to pass on to the next world?" He asked, "They always say ghosts can earn passage to the next life somehow."
The ghost shrugged.
"You've been looking more, Dwarf-like the last few days. Maybe when you look like yourself again you'll pass over." Bilbo sugested.
Thrain gave him a puzzled look.
"Perhaps." he sighed, "I will do my best not to do so until this mission is over. I dont think its a good idea to leave you on your own."
"I thought you said you agreed with a solitary life." Bilbo teased.
The ghost just grunted.
Bilbo did his best not to giggle.
It was hard going over the rock coated hills. Bilbo found himself tiring easily but he kept climbing up and over all the same with Thrain floating along beside him. That is until he reached the top of a steep hill and stopped red in the distance. Fire, molten fire to be exact, appearing behind blacked peaks just within sight.
"Mordor." Thrain breathed.
Bilbo panted trying to catch his breath and not panic at the sight of their destination. It was still weeks, months of travel away but it still made him uneasy. Once again he felt the Ring calling to it's homeland, getting heavier and heavier at the sight.
All for a sudden flashes appeared before the Hobbit's eyes and his vision was filled with a great, fiery eye. It disappeared just as quickly as it had come but the shock made him stumble and fall onto the hard ground with a gasp.
"It's the Ring isn't it?" Thrain sighed, letting him catch his breath, "It's getting heavier."
Bilbo nodded.
"Come, we need to move." Thrain urged, "I see rain clouds approaching, you should find somewhere to rest before they come."
Haha! :P
I always planned on having Thorin, Fili and Kili going back for Bilbo :)
So here's the deal, the battle of helms deep, Rohan etc... none of that is going to be much different to the films so I'm not going to write about it very much. If I do it will only be in passing mention. Really I want to focus on Bilbo and his family because otherwise I'll just be rewriting the books and films which is dull.