PJ brought Elrond and Galadriel into the battle...I won´t...
Dains army made ready for battle. Thorin Stonehelm had joined his father, as well as most of the generals of the Iron Hills. If they should lose the battle, the Iron Hills would be robbed of most of their military power and would be vulnerable. But Dain had sworn to never let his cousin Thorin down again. It was all or nothing.
The dwarves had secured the mountain while the elves and men protected their flanks. Gandalf and Radagast would support the men, who were only few in number. But Radagast had another surprise for the army of free folk of Middle Earth. He had sent one of his beloved birds to get Beorn, the skin changer who had offered shelter to Thorin and his company during their quest. Radagast knew that Beorn hated the pale orc and that he still seeked for revenge. Maybe today, he would get it. Beorn stood beside Radagast and gazed upon the mountain, the home of the proud dwarven king who had freed him from his chains. He had heard that the young and lovely princess had become mad and he worried deeply. Beorn had liked Belladonna and he hoped that he would see her and her bunny friend again one day. Beorn smiled as he remembered the sour expression on the hobbits face when he called him a bunny.
Brann stood behind Thorin, with her arms wrapped around him from behind. She feared the outcome of the battle and she feared to have to watch her family and friend get hurt or even die. She missed them, but she would never want them to join her in the Halls of the Waiting too soon. Before she had joined her husband on the lookout, Brann had made sure that Belladonna and Bilbo were still in the royal chamber. She had found Belladonna asleep in front of the fire with her head resting in the hobbits lap. Bilbo had also slumbered peacefully. Brann knew of course that both would fight when the time had come and that neither of them would accept to be left behind. Branns heart clenched in worry about her daughter. She had never seen an actual battle with her own eyes, but she had witnessed what happened afterwards and that was even more devastating. Brann only hoped that Belladonna would not suffer.
#
The battle started as the sun was at its highest point. The orc army under the command of Azog and his son Bolg attacked the mountain in full force, not even slowing down to launch a well coordinated attack. It was pure slaughter. As soon as Erebor and Dale were in sight the orcs charged at the dwarves, elves and men. Dains riders charged at the batallion of wargs and the elves launched a full arrow attack on Azogs flank. The loud clatter when the two armies collided made Branns ears ring. Hundreds of dwarves, men and orcs died in the very first moments of the battle. Azogs army hit the free folk with such force that they were pushed back to the mountainside and were trapped between the cold stone and the rage of the orcs. It was Gandalf who made a part of the mountain´s side collaps and burry the orcs underneath falling stone. Dains dwarves could only relish in the short disruption of the battle for a few moments before the next wave of orcs attacked. It was an unending wave of attacks.
Thorins company emerged from the mountain with their weapons held high, roaring dwarvish war cries and hitting the orcs right in the middle of their array. Miraculously, none of the company was even hurt during their first attack, but soon they had to part and fight in smaller groups. Fili and Kili stayed with their uncle, who tried to fight his way through the orcs to reach Azog. Balin and Dwalin stayed behind them, but had difficulties to follow. The families Ri and Ur formed a protective circle around Oin and Gloin, not wanting to lose their healer right in the beginning of the battle.
It was a cold day, but the sun moved over the battlefield swiftly, burning the ones who were still fighting. For some time, the armies were equally strong and the dwarven defenses of Erebor were holding as well as the elven defenses of Dale. But soon, luck began to shift and the orcs grew stronger. The elves and men fell back and the dwarves struggled. Thranduil, Legolas and Tauriel fought at Bards side and their fight became desperate as the orcs filled the streets of Dale. The elven king was seperated from his son and the captain of his guard and fought his way through the narrow streets. With elegant and powerful moves he killed one orc after the other. Legolas and Tauriel moved back to the battlefield while Bard shot the orcs from a high tower in Dale. Thanks to the Mirkwood elves, he had many more arrows to shoot than the ones he had brought from Laketown.
It was Tauriel, who looked out for her love in the chaos of the battle, who spotted Azog first. She watched in horror as Azog pushed his own guard aside to reach Thorin and his nephews. Bolg was at his fathers side and grinned maliciously as he charged at Fili and Kili while Azog took up arms with Thorin. Tauriel was exhausted and fell to her knees on the grey stone near Dale. She could see Fili and Kili fight the huge orc, but she could also see that the king´s nephews were about to lose this fight. Tauriel knew that she would be nothing without Kili and she knew that Kili would be nothing without his brother. With a last smile towards her friend Legolas, Tauriel ran into the raging battle below, her red hair flaming in the setting sun.
She reached the Durins as Azogs warhammer hit Thorin square in the chest. Tauriel winced as she heard a woman scream, but there was nobody there. The scream was full of emotion, full of pain and anguish and even Azog heard it and paused in irritation. In that moment a most unexpected reinforcement arrived on the battlefield.
Two small armies joined forces with the armies of the free folk of Middle Earth. One came from the south and one from the east. The army from the east was led by Dwana and the one from the south by Dis. Zial, Gwen, Dara and Thror accompanied Dis and Dwana had brought Mya and Dains daughters and their husbands. Both armies charged the group of orcs in the middle and drove them towards the reach of the elven arrows. Dain nearly fainted as he saw his whole family join him on the battlefield and fought even more to rejoin with them. Countless orcs fell under his blade.
Dwana found her father near the gates of Erebor and joined him and her uncle Balin with her axes. Balin smiled at his niece, but Dwalin cursed and ranted about his daughter being there.
'Tis no place for a lady!' Dwalin yelled over the heads of the orcs.
'Good! Cause I am no lady!' Dwana yelled back at cracked an orcs skull open with the blunt end of her axe.
'What will happen whe you fall along with Dains whole family?' Balin yelled.
'Nain is still there!' Dwana grinned.
'Nain does not even have a beard yet!' Dwalin rolled his eyes. He was running out of air to yell. This was not the time.
Zial rushed to Oins side immediately, swinging her light sword and covering the blows with her small shield. Thror tried to shield his wife as good as possible, he swung his heavy warhammer at every orc who came into their vicinity. Gwen, the warrior of Thorins daughters, had brought her own batallion of dwarves and supported the left flank of Dains dwarves, which threatened to fall back under the amount of orcs launching at them.
Dis desperatly tried to find her sons, but in the chaos of the battle she had lost them and had to defend her own skin as some wargs charged at her. It was Dara who fought at Dis´side and protected the Durin princess´ back as a shield sister.
Thorin had not seen the armies come, he was struggling against Azog, who turned back to him with full force. The king of Erebor saw the mighty orc swing at him again, but this time the blow landed on a shield. Not his own shield. Thorins eyes widened in shock as he saw a blue blade cut through the air and heard his daughter cry out for him. Belladonna and Bilbo had joined the fight and they attacked Azog with all their might. The pale orc was surprised about the blue blade dancing in the air, but he recognised it and remembered the hobbit who had challenged him in the Misty Mountains. He swung at the blade and watched it fly a few paces until it clattered to the ground.
'No! Bilbo!' Belladonna cried out and launched herself at Azog, who easily pushed her aside. Belladonna landed on her side and her sword flew out of reach. Thorin was about to move in front of his daughter and shield her with his body as he heard Brann snarl.
Get your filthy claws of my daughter! Brann was fuming with rage and made the air around Azog burn in an intensity that knocked him off balance. Thorin took the chance and rammed his sword into Azogs stomach. With a snarl he turned it and pulled it out, making Azog fall to his knees with a pained groan. Thorin looked into the pale blue eyes once more and swung his blade to Azogs neck. The pale orc fell into the bloody mudd of the battlefield, his eyes wide open in death. Belladonna scrambled towards Bilbo, who had taken off his ring. Both were unharmed, only sporting a few scratches and bruises.
A loud roar made Thorin turn around. He saw Bolg glaring at him. The orc´s axe was bloody and behind him lay the motionless bodies of Kili and Tauriel. Only Fili was still fighting. Thorin knew that Kili was fataly wounded by the tears in Filis eyes. His nephew and heir cried out in agony and used Bolgs distraction to ram his knives into his back. Bolg fell with his eyes burning into Thorin. In the blink of a moment, both orc leaders had fallen and their army began to crumble.
Thorin looked around and watched his surroundings for the first time since the battle started. Beorn and a group of eagles fought the trolls and the warg riders. Gandalf and Radagast had fallen back to the mountain and supported the riders of the Iron Hills. Slowly, but steadily, the battle turned in favor of the dwarves, elves and men. At nightfall, no orc was alive anymore.
#
Thorin, Dis and Dwana met in the middle of the bloody field after nightfall. The groans and whines of the wounded echoed in their ears, but they stayed focused.
'What in Mahals name are you doing here?' Thorin looked at his sister furiously. 'Are you out of your bloody mind? Who will rule our kin and our kingdom when we all die? You brought my whole family into this mess, Dis!'
'Who will rule? Is that your only worry?' Dis snarled. 'Our kin and our kingdom? There will be no kingdom without you, Thorin! Not for us!'
Thorin sighed as he saw Zial and Gwen walk up behind Dis, looking back at him with determined expressions. They had all fought for him. Dis army had been full of female warriors, many of them having dusted off their weapons and rushing to follow Dis. Thorin could see Bomburs wife and daughters, as well as Doris wife. Even Oins wife had come. The white haired dwarf lady held a bloody spear in her hands. Gloins wife had found her husband and threw herself into his arms with a loud sob. In all these years, Thorin had never seen her cry.
'Together at last.' Dis murmured and smiled. 'All of us. Where we belong.'
Thorin let out a heavy sigh and finally embraced his sister and his daughters. Belladonna came rushing towards her family and threw herself into the waiting arms of her sisters. Dain and his family joined them and for a short moment they all enjoyed the simple company of the other. Until Dis stiffened.
'Thorin, where are my sons?'
#
Now came the part all the survivors dreaded. They had to identify all the wounded and the dead. Cries of anguish and grief filled the early morning hours and many dwarven warriors fell to their knees beside the body of a friend or family member. Some females of Dis´Army had fallen and their husbands were close to follow them to the Halls of Mahal by their own hands. Only the knowledge that they died honorably stilled their hands.
In death, all animosities were cast apart. The healers of dwarves, elves and men did their best to tend to the wounded and the dead were respectfully brought to one of the halls of Erebor and covered with white linen. The dwarves had the most dead to mourn, for their infantry had been hit by the full force of the orc army. But it was the death of a most unlikely couple which united the dwarves and their longtime enemies, the elves.
Kili and Tauriel had fallen to Bolgs axe. They were barely alive, both not likely to survive the morning. The Durin family, Thranduil and Legolas stood at their sides and mourned them. Tauriel and Kili were placed on a bigger cot together with their hands entwined. Fili was injured, but he stubbornly refused to be tended to as long as his little brother drew breath. Legolas and Thranduil had minor scratches and bruises and Dis only had a slight cut on her cheek. Oin and his wife looked over the couple together with Thranduils best healers, but they all knew that they could do nothing. As the sun rose to reach its highest peek, they knew that it was only a matter of moments. Tauriel could not even speak anymore and Kili was pale as death already. They looked at each other and nodded, to the surprise and curiosity of the others.
They want to get married. Brann whispered into Thorins ear. The king had joined with his family in the big tent and felt his heart wrench in guilt and pain about the inevitable loss of his youngest nephew. At his wife´s words he frowned and straightened his back, which was only noticed by Dis. Thorin looked at his sister and then to the couple laying beside each other on the cot.
'Sister mine, you will not like that.' Thorin mumbled and whispered into Dis ear, telling her what he had learned from Brann.
'What?!' Dis exclaimed and made everyone in the tent jump. The elven healer let go of a roll of bandaids and scowled at Dis for the shock she had given him. 'My sons wants to marry an elf?'
'What?!' Thranduil exclaimed in the same way Dis had. 'My captain of the guard wants to marry a dwarf?'
It was Legolas who chuckled despite the sad atmosphere. 'You should see your faces, your highnesses.' he adressed his father in that distant way on purpose. 'It is their dying wish and who are we to defy them?'
With a light smile on his face Legolas exited the tent and came back with Gandalf and Bilbo a few moments later. The hobbit immediately walked to Belladonnas side and the wizard looked around with an astonished frown.
'I am sorry, I do not think that there is anything I can do for...'he started, but this time Fili interrupted him.
'We ask you to marry Kili and Tauriel.' he blurted out and saw his younger brother smile at him from his death bead. It broke his heart to see him like this, but by Mahal, he would ensure that Kili entered Mahals Halls as a happy dwarf.
'You want me to marry...oh.' for the first time in ages, Gandalf was speechless. It took a while for him to settle and he walked to the heads of Tauriel and Kili to place his fingertips on their foreheads. In the meantime the tent had filled with the whole Durin clan from the Iron Hills, the dwarves of the company, Bilbo and Radagast. Thranduil seemed to want to object, but even he could not speak against the couples last wish. He could see the plea in Tauriels eyes and the love for her in Kilis.
With a last glance at everybody, Gandalf began the ceremony. The grey wizard spoke the ceremonial words in both Khuzdul and Elvish and he simply ignored the part when people had the last chance to object to that bound. As he asked the couple if they wanted to take each other they both nodded, already weak from their injuries.
'I now declare you husband and wife.' Gandalf ended and placed his hand over their entwined ones.
The smile Kili and Tauriel gave each other warmed the hearts of the spectators in the tent and Dis and Thranduil even had to fight back the tears. Thorin could feel Branns presence behind him and let his tears roll down his face freely. Fili walked to the head of the cot and replaced Gandalfs hand with his cold one.
'May you rest in peace and united in love, my brother...and my sister.' Filis voice broke as he looked down at them and the wedding guests lowered their heads. Kili, son of Dis and Tauriel, elf of Mirkwood had died, united in love.