WOOH! Next chapter, here we go. Enjoy you guys. This would be the end of An Unexpected Journey.
Running away from blade wielding Goblins. Not exactly what I had planned on doing this evening, though we were, in fact, doing fairly well against them, only needing to knock them off the rickety wooden platforms to kill them, all the while simply dodging their weapons to avoid falling off ourselves.
The company had, somewhat, separated into smaller groups in order to run through the Goblin town safely. Well… safer than we would be, should we attempt to run all together as a group. I could see Kili, Bombur and a few others use a ladder to push some of the Goblins back, subsequently causing them to fall down the chasm and, with the help of Dwalin, join up with the rest of the company.
A boulder was blasted from the ceiling by Gandalf and his staff as we ran, and Thorin and Dwalin began pushing it down the hill. It was a comical sight to see, oddly. We ended up on a large bridge leading towards a small tunnel, but we were stopped when the goblin King burst up through the wooden bars, blocking our way past. The army of Goblins surrounded its leader, making quite the threatening sight.
"You thought you could escape me?" It spoke, its beard/chin moved as it spoke, before he swung his mace at Gandalf, causing the wizard to swiftly move backwards, pushing me back into the huddle that was the company. "What are you going to do now wizard?" The malice and disgust in the Goblin King's voice was obvious as he spoke the last word.
Gandalf seemed to think for a moment before stepping forward and slicing the Goblin King across his belly, to which, said creature, grasped the wound and fell to his knees on the wooden floor.
"That'll do it." He said before Gandalf stepped forward again to slash across its neck, killing him immediately. The crash that followed was strong enough to cause the wood of the bridge to break, apparently, as I felt it crack beneath my feet and felt a hand wrap around my waist. Peeta. I leaned into him, breathing in the usual 'Peeta scent' of bread and fresh air from the trip so far.
The ground fell away from beneath me and we fell.
I hit the wood below me hard and felt something land atop me, before attempting to pull myself out of the wreckage.
After getting out, I stood up, feeling the disks in my spine crack, sighing in relief, before turning to find almost all of the rest of the company contained in the wreckage, finding it a little comical before regaining my composure and pulling at the first hand I came to, which happened to be Gloin's. He stood, dusting himself off and we helped the rest of the company out from under the wood after the Goblin King fell on top of the already wrecked bridge, causing the entire company to audibly groan.
I heard Kili yell for Gandalf and looked up to find thousands of Goblins climbing down the walls towards us, clearly about to avenge their leader.
"Only one thing will save us! Daylight! Come on, here on your feet!" Gandalf yelled as he pulled Oin from the rubble. We got everyone from the wood. I grinned at Peeta before running after Gandalf, knowing he'd follow me, down a thin tunnel, finding daylight within minutes and following it eagerly, sighing in relief as I felt the sun on my face as I ran from the Goblins down the hill.
The wizard and Thorin came to a stop in a clearing and I leaned against a tree to recover my energy, before looking up as Peeta wrapped his arms around me. I responded in the same way and revelled in the embrace, no longer hearing the shrieks and shouts of the Goblins.
So maybe killing the Goblin King was not the best option in Middle Earth but it was necessary if we were to get out of there alive.
We rested for the day, though no-one slept, for fear of the Goblins chasing us again. The sun was about to set when I heard what sounded like a roar, like noise. I saw that at least half of the company had heard the noise as well, as quite a few of them, Finnick and Peeta included had snapped to attention and each member of the company had reached for their weapons and were stood around the clearing awaiting the danger we all knew was coming.
"Out of the frying pan…" I heard Thorin say, a slight fear obvious in his voice.
"And in to the fire… Run." Gandalf responded with. What was happening? What did they know? "Run!" He yelled and sprinted down the hill, the entire company following him, weapons at the ready, should we be threatened.
I ran with the company, Dwalin running at the side of me, not noticing that we were all running towards a dead end.
The orcs had run everyone to the edge and Gandalf had shouted for us all to climb the trees. We all ended up in the same tree at the edge of the cliff as.
When what seemed like a fireball fell past my head, I was a little shocked to say the least but was reassured, mostly, when the fireball, which was actually a pinecone on fire, managed to divert the Wargs and drive them back a little.
Gandalf continued to drop the pinecones down to us, and we drove the mutated wolves away, though realising too late that throwing fire around trees was a bad idea as the flames licked at the wood and the trees caught fire, sending the whole place up in a blaze.
The wood of the tree we were in cracked and the tree fell through the air, stopping at a horizontal position. I almost fell but grasped on to the wood for dear life. I heard the shouts of Dori and Ori and tried to look around, not expecting to find Ori grasping Dori's boot and Dori struggling to hold on. I reached out to Ori to try and pull him up but failed and shouted as the 2 fell a short distance but sighed as Gandalf's reflexes as a wizard kicked in and he thrust his staff out to save the falling dwarves.
I looked back as I felt a small weight from the tree lift and found Thorin running down the length of the thick trunk.
The albino orc i'd only heard about from Balin, riding the white warg (granted, it was indeed adorable) and I just knew that he was threatening us, even though I had no idea what he was saying. Azog. He was sitting on his warg on a rock and was looking directly at Thorin with a look that was reciprocated tenfold by the dwarven King. Rage.
I tried pulling myself up but It was proving difficult in the circumstance. Bilbo seemed to follow the king and knocked one of the orcs to the ground and attempting to look threatening with Sting. It did not seem to work and I saw 4 shadows sprint past me. Looking towards them I found my father, Dwalin, Fili and Kili running towards the clearing where a now unconscious Thorin and Bilbo were, facing the orcs. The 4 of them burst into the clearing and, drawing the attention of the orcs immediately, managed to fend off at least 2 of them each.
I turned my attention back to the dwarves in the tree as I felt my hands slipping and heard Ori and Dori's screams and knew they had fallen. Their shouts ended and a small thud was heard. Well then..
I felt the grip of my hands loosen and I fell, screaming, before I landed on something soft. I had my eyes closed but grasped on to whatever was holding me up, as hard as I could before opening my eyes and finding feathers.
Tears rolled down my cheeks and I felt the wind on my face as I flew on the back of the giant eagle and shouted in relief, seeing Ori and Dori ahead of me on the back of another.
I heard a shout of 'Katniss!' and turned to find Peeta riding a 3rd eagle. I smiled ever so gratefully at my husband and held out my hand towards him. The eagle he was riding seemed to understand and flew closer to me and Peeta swung his leg over 'my' eagle behind me, wrapping his arms around me. I felt safe again.
We flew for hours before we stopped next to a very tall rock. We slid down off the eagle onto the rock itself, seeing the entire company gathered at the tip.
Joining them, I held my breath as I took in the view of the East of Middle Earth. The Lonely Mountain, Mirkwood. Everything. It was all so beautiful but I was brought out of my stupor as I heard a cough behind me.
Turning I found my father on the ground, unconscious.
So there we go. An Unexpected Journey all finished. Next chapter begins the Desolation of Smaug. :)
Hope you like it so far.