Date: TA 2941
Thorin: 195 years old
Lina: 192 years old
"Bring it down," Lina growled to Nes. Rising to her knees, the assassin let out a piercing whistle. The movement from the orc camp below ceased, every head swiveling to find the source of the sound as it bounced off the mountains. Then, the rumbling started. Almost without warning, the pile of rocks hiding Kira's band from view began tumbling away.
"Let's go get the bastards!" Lina smirked as she heard Kira's rough voice call out over the field.
The line breaker thrust her hammer into the air, a feral battle cry leaping from her lips. With that the stillness below them vanished. Orcs scurried about as dwarves crashed into their ranks from both sides.
The orc horde Lina had watched marching out to war had obviously constituted the bulk of the orcish presence. What was left to fight now was a group that would have barely been able to contain Kira's forces without serious losses. Between Kira's fighters and those with Lina, the orcs stood no chance. Within mere minutes, the battle was over. Perhaps one or two orcs escaped yelping into the foothills, but those were not Lina's concern.
"Sister!" Kira scooped her friend up in a tight hug. "I was beginning to think you'd never show."
"I'd always come," Lina answered, clasping the other warrior tightly.
The two females surveyed the battle field. The dead were overwhelmingly orcs. Only two or three dwarves lay dead. Several more were wounded, but it did not appear severe. Their forces were scattered about, helping the wounded, moving the dead, and searching for anything of use among the orc possessions.
"I take it you found Thorin alive and well?" Kira asked, shouldering her gear as the dwarves prepared to move out.
"Most assuredly."
"Good. We still planning to fight a dragon?"
"We plan to kill it, one way or another," Lina answered slowly, her eyes sliding over to her friend. Kira was difficult to read after having spent years apart.
"I've never killed a dragon before," Kira mused. "Killed a lot of other beasts, never a dragon. That's something I'd like to do before I die, or as I die, which might be the case."
The scarred female laughed, a harsh sound at the back of her throat. The morbidity of Kira's thoughts startled Lina. Her friend had always been the optimist when it came to fights. This line of thinking was strange, and frightening to Lina. The road to Erebor would not be easy, nor would be the fight to reclaim it.
"You're worrying about me," Kira acknowledged drily. "Don't. I don't plan on dying before we've retaken Erebor. Just realizing I might not live forever."
Lina ducked her head and smiled slightly. Kira had just reached the same conclusion her friend had only a few weeks before. It seemed old wounds and stiffening joints had caught up with the mercenary commander as well.
"I may have to retire soon," Kira joked, her pace never slowing as she led the way back to the fortress. "Let Gavin take over the leading of troops into battle. I'll stick around to beat the stuffing out of the new recruits. If they can't best this old dwarf in a fight, they'll never make it on the field."
"You might want to wait a few years for that retirement," Lina laughed, "otherwise you'd never have any new recruits!"
The fortress commander laughed and gave her friend a fond look.
"I've missed you," she confided finally. "Gavin takes everything way too seriously. The others are just too young to understand what we've been through. I think some of the youngest ones believe I've gone senile."
Lina chuckled, "Perhaps you have."
Kira pulled a face, but did not reply. She had no good way to respond to that accusation. Instead the two females fell into a comfortable rhythm, leading the way back to the Fortress. They had much to do before the warriors could make for the Lonely Mountain.
The wounded needed tending and the dead needed to be buried. A number of weapons and armor had been lost or damaged over the past two weeks. Those desperately needed to be repaired before they even attempted the journey around Mirkwood. Kira would see to those details, Lina had one more pressing concern.
Nearly a week had passed since Lina and Thorin had parted company. Yet not once had Lina heard or felt anything from her husband. The cold darkness was not normal.
The warriors arrived at the fortress shortly after dark. None of them liked travelling in the dark, not when they knew what lurked in the hills. But to be so close to the fortress and waste another night was ridiculous. So they pressed on.
Gavin nearly cried with relief when he laid eyes on his commander. Lina got the distinct impression he was in no way ready to lead the entire company of warriors yet. She also got the impression he didn't really want the responsibility, but that was a comment she would make to Kira later. For now, she simply wished to find a quiet place to unwind and rest.
Kira directed the wounded to the medics. Burial details arrived to remove the bodies of the dead. The regular forces dispersed to their respective barracks. Lina and her warriors were shown to a separate set of chambers, allowing them some privacy as they regrouped. Most of Lina's band tumbled into the nearest bed, barely having time to remove their armor and boots before dropping into slumber.
As tired as she was, Lina was not ready to sleep just yet. She hung her armor on one of the spare armor racks Kira sent them, checking it for any damage that might need repair. She found a couple of rings in her mail that needed replacing, a few slices in the leather jerkin she wore, and a dent in her right pauldron. With access to a proper forge, her mail and pauldron could be easily repaired. The leather was a simple enough item to fix. Her weapons joined her armor on the racks. These too were checked, but no damage found. At least she did not need to spend the time and energy reforging her weapons.
With her gear stowed away, Lina settled onto her bed. She drew her legs up beneath her and closed her eyes. Since simply trying to reach Thorin in dreams was not working, she would attempt to reach him through meditation as Galadriel had suggested was possible. Closing her eyes, Lina began concentrating on her breathing. One of the first lessons she'd learned as a warrior was to center herself. This technique was used to clear her head for whatever task she found necessary. Usually Lina used it after battle. The concentration on her own breathing, her own body, allowed the warrior to find even the tiniest injuries. It allowed her to sift through her thoughts, calming them and finding solutions to her problems. Now she hoped to use it to reach her husband as she had in Beorn's house.
As her mind drifted away from the sensations of her motionless body, Lina reached out for Thorin's mind. The vast space around her was dark, yet lit up every now and then with bright colors. What the colors were, Lina was never certain. Perhaps it was memory flitting through her subconscious, maybe it was the consciousness of another in the void. No one Lina spoke to about the colors knew what they truly were, just that everyone saw some variation of them.
But in the midst of the flashes of color was one spot, dark by far than the others. Traces of Thorin's consciousness clung to the edges. It was for this darkness that Lina aimed. Her mind slipped into the black, hoping to feel the familiar warm embrace that would eventually clear to reveal her husband. Instead she found the cold, clammy darkness that haunted her dreams. The feeling of Thorin was here, but she could not find him. She was cut off.
The harder she tried to push through the darkness, the colder and more sinister it became. A feeling of great evil grew around her, threatening to hold her in her trance. Lina realized that she was quickly becoming trapped by the evil in the black. With a shudder, she jerked her mind free and back to reality.
Something was wrong. First the warg pack, then the orc horde prepared for war, and now the severance of her connection to Thorin, all led her to only one conclusion. Someone or something far greater than Bolg wanted Thorin to fail. And it would stop at nothing to achieve its goal.
A/N: For those of you curious about how I will be continuing this story: I will NOT use much from the Desolation of Smaug that was not specifically recorded in the books. I was seriously agitated after watching the film. The story will continue using the books as a guide for the most part.