Disclaimer: I don't own the Hobbit, obviously.
Chapter 39: Bait
"Fight till the last gasp; I will be your guard."
—William Shakespeare, King Henry VI, Part 1, Act 1, Scene 2
"Wereworms. I don't even know why I'm surprised anymore." Gemma pushed her hair out of her face, suddenly just feeling overwhelmingly exhausted. "That's what those massive things that burst out of the rock were?"
Tauriel nodded, still fighting to control their bat. It flew towards the sound of the worms, flittering this way and that, like a helicopter with a drunken pilot.
"The worms will desolate our allied forces below should they begin to attack!" Legolas yelled to them from his own bat.
"But how will we stop this?" Tauriel yelled back.
Legolas gave them a look that clearly said he had no idea, but was prevented from answering when they crested the hill to the west side.
The wereworms were quite terrifying, in a sort of unreal way. Only their heads protruded from the ground, giving no indication of their exact length, but Gemma could clearly see that they were at least a football field in diameter. She couldn't see any eyes on their pale bodies, but that mouth... it had circular rows of jagged teeth, like a shark, and clashed together in a rippling wave as the worms let out moaning roars. Huh... Gemma hadn't though that worms could roar. But then, she never thought that she would ever encounter a creature called a wereworm.
The worms were obviously dumb beasts, and she could see several orcs below preparing some sort of meat which would obviously be used to bait the worms. "What's that?"
Tauriel followed her gaze to the bait, which was stored in large metal chests. "Mumakil meat, I believe. I have heard it has a strong odor, especially when burned, which the orcs will do to guide the great worms towards the battle field."
"And how will the worms know where to attack?"
"Oh, they will not, for they are imbecilic creatures. No doubt they will consume some of Azog's own forces, but if the orcs can lead them towards areas with a large number of our own men, the enemy's losses will be collateral damage that will be dwarfed by the number of warriors we will lose." Gemma nodded, as Tauriel had confirmed her thoughts.
The sound of drum beats from the north met her ears, and all three of them turned their heads in its direction. The elves forced their bats higher, allowing them to catch a view of the massive second army of orcs arriving from Gundabad. They would soon arrive at the battlefield, where they would completely overwhelm the allies. The wereworms, the Gundabad army, and, somewhere, Thorin making a final stand; any way you looked at it, it was game over. But Gemma LaRoche was notoriously stubborn, and as far as she was concerned, she would only stop when she was dead. Considering the fact that Sauron's spirit was slowly taking over her body, that might be sooner than she hoped, but at the moment, at least, she still had time to fight. Her fingers grazed the belt on her waist as she looked over at the orcs preparing the worm bait once more.
"I've got an idea," she said to the elves slowly. "You're going to think I'm crazy, and, full disclosure, I absolutely am. But it just might work."
'"Well, Lady Gemma, we are riding on the backs of bats," Tauriel replied, seeming to imply that Gemma didn't have the market cornered on crazy.
Gemma grinned widely as Legolas nodded his agreement. "Alright, let's do it then. First, we're going to need that worm bait."
With some difficulty, the two elves coerced their bats into a steep dive, which made Gemma's stomach jump into her throat in a most unpleasant manner. Then they were levelling out shakily, and whizzing right by the orcs that were readying the meat for burning. Legolas grabbed the skewers of meat right out of their hands and tossed one to Gemma, and then they were flying towards a large bonfire. Oh. So maybe Gemma hadn't thought this plan through quite that well. Determined not to mess this up, she squeezed her eyes shut and held the stick out. Soon they had passed by the fires and Gemma could smell the putrid scent of the burning meat, indicating that her skewer was lit. She chanced a glance back, avoiding the fire she held. Behind them, the worms were thrashing and snapping as the smell of Mumakil meat greeted them. And then the great beasts were coming their way.
"Go north!" Gemma shouted, and the elves caught on, directing their bats towards the approaching Gundabad army. The bats were a little more compliant now that they were being chased, because they just wanted to get the heck out of there and didn't really care which direction they went. The wereworms moved at a surprising speed, rearing up and out of their burrows, and then back into the rock. For a moment they were gone, and Gemma wondered if the creatures could actually smell the bait from underground. Legolas split off from Tauriel and Gemma, heading for one side of the army while the women took the other. A few orcs noticed them, and began shooting arrows, but the bats were too nimble and high up to hit. In near synchronization, Gemma and Legolas threw their flaming skewers like javelins, each landing a fair distance apart at either end of the army below. Then the elves were pushing their bats higher and higher, to avoid what was to come. Everything was silent for a moment, and a few orcs could be heard jeering below, clearly believing their attack had failed. Then the earth exploded open as the wereworms burst out of the ground below the army. Legions of orcs were pulled into their mouths, where the gnashing rows of teeth ripped them apart. Other still were crushed or sucked into the craters the beasts created. The worms rose higher into the air, and Gemma began to worry that her previous hypothesis that the monsters were blind was extremely wrong. They were headed right up towards the bats, which were being pulled in by the combined forces of suction and gravity. They flapped their wings rapidly, but to no avail, and Tauriel screamed as she tried to force their bat away.
Gemma slowed her breathing and tried to concentrate, which was quite difficult when she was spinning and jerking around in the air. She could get this right, or she could mess it up. She didn't get a second chance.
The first grenade was unhooked and held tightly in her fist, one finger looped through the ring to remove the pin. "Tauriel, let us fall for a second, and be ready to pull up when I say." She had to say it right in the elf's pointed ear in order for it to be heard over the deafening sounds on the worm and the chaos below. Tauriel complied and they began to fall straight for the wereworm's mouth. Five, four, three... Gemma pulled the pin, let the grenade fall, and then screamed "Go!" Their bat fought skyward as the bomb fell into the great mouth under them.
The wereworm burst apart with the force of the explosion, spraying blood and guts across the mountainside and wiping out the orcs in the vicinity which had not already been destroyed. It was all very grotesque, and Gemma felt bile rise up in her throat despite possessing a strong stomach.
Across the way, Legolas was having more difficulty. His worm, still very much alive and whole, had caused its fair share of destruction to the Gundabad troops, but it now seemed to have latched onto the scent of the bat, and thrashed its great head wildly as it tried to capture Legolas' mount. This meant that the elven prince had to pull off some tricky manoeuvres to avoid death by mega-worm. Worse still, his bat's wing had been hit by an orc's arrow, and it was struggling to stay in the air at all.
"I hope you have a second one of those weapons," Tauriel yelled back to Gemma as she angled their bat towards their male comrade.
"As it just so happens, I do," she said with an unhealthy amount of glee, considering their current situation. Not that she could be held accountable for it; running on copious amounts of adrenaline and little else could make anyone a bit deranged. "Worm versus bat, round two, commence!"
In another life, in Gemma's world, Tauriel could have been a fighter pilot. She was a natural born flier, even when what she was flying was resistant. Their bat wanted to go the other way, but the she-elf steered it towards the second worm until they too were swerving to avoid the thrashing head. Their presence confused the worm, and its movements slowed slightly, allowing the women's bat to steady so that Gemma could aim her final grenade. Out came the pin, but just as she drew back her arm, their bats jerked violently, nearly throwing them from its back. Gemma was sitting sideways now, clutching Tauriel's outstretched hand with one of her own while the other still held the live grenade. There was no time to wait; Gemma stretched a bit further and chucked the bomb at the worm, hoping that it would still make some sort of impact.
To the trio's relief, it did. The explosion occurred just before it reached the worm, which meant that it did not have the same widespread destruction as the other, but it served its purpose in killing the beast. The massive carcass stilled, and then fell towards the ground, landing on top of many remaining orcs with a thunderous boom.
"Well," said Legolas as he drew his bat up alongside theirs, "that turned out better than I had expected."
"Quite," Tauriel agreed.
Gemma jutted out her lip in mock affrontedness. "Gee, thanks guys. Your lack of faith in my brilliant plans wounds me."
In truth, Gemma had to agree with them. She hadn't expected such results. Their action had taken out nearly three quarters of the second army, and left the remainder scattered and wounded. It was rather impressive, if she said so herself. Two birds down with one stone, and all that. Which left one so-called bird left. Thorin.
Rationally, Gemma knew that Thorin could take care of himself. He was a much better warrior than she was, and stood a far better chance against Azog than she ever would. It wasn't that she didn't have faith in him, in his abilities. It was just that Gemma felt this horrible sense of impending doom, and a desperate need to find Thorin. Fili's death had shaken her to the core, and she suddenly had this crippling fear for Thorin. And Kili too, and Bilbo, and Dwalin. All of them. What if the same thing happened to all of them? She'd lose everyone and she'd be all alone. Again.
As usual, Gemma's luck didn't hold out. She figured that someone upstairs genuinely had it out for her. After all, it was Sauron, who seemed to be the Middle Earth equivalent of the devil, who had brought her into this world, and wanted to use her to destroy it. The Middle Earth gods, which she was pretty sure Gandalf had called the Valar, probably weren't her biggest fans. In fact, they probably wanted to violently kill her so that Sauron couldn't take over her body. It certainly seemed that way when the bat she and Tauriel were riding suddenly decided to clock out, its unconscious body plummeting towards the ground far below. Gemma actually felt sorry for the creature, despite its evil origins; they had forced it to the point of complete exhaustion. Her sympathy was short lived, of course, because their impending doom overshadowed it a little bit.
Legolas, ever the show off, steered his bat towards them in a steep dive. Tauriel grabbed Gemma tightly around the middle and, as if this entire thing had been prearranged and rehearsed between her and the elf prince, reached up to grab the leg of Legolas' bat as it whizzed past. In a move that defied the laws of physics and was probably anatomically impossible and just so typical of elves, Legolas drew the bat level with on old stone bridge and swung himself off and around, catching the women and helping them to the ground. All three landed on their feet, though both elves had to firmly grip Gemma's arms so that she didn't fall on her face.
"You people are insane," Gemma panted. "I thought I was insane, but you guys are insane, and you do all this," she gestured vaguely with her hands, not really knowing what to call it, "like it's nothing. Jeez, I'm just glad you're on my side." She took a big breath, and straightened up, ignoring the slight pain which had begun to course through her body in waves. She was fairly certain that it was the result of Sauron's spirit or magic or whatever it was attacking her body, and she didn't want to give into it. Besides, she was a pro at wilfully ignoring pain and illness, both physical and mental. She'd managed to convince herself and her colleagues that she didn't need serious therapy after being tortured in a cellar for a week, after all.
The elves, oblivious to Gemma's predicament and probably just assuming that she, being a weak human, needed to catch her breath, smiled at the compliment. Well, Tauriel genuinely smiled, taking the compliment with grace. Legolas was smirking quite smugly. Noticing Legolas' smirk, Gemma frowned at him. "That doesn't mean I'm allowing you to gloat or anything. God, your ego is bad enough."
Legolas' smirk just grew larger. Gemma glared at him half-heartedly, and then looped her arm around Tauriel's shoulder. "That's it, Tauriel is my new favourite." Legolas mock pouted, while Tauriel's shy smile became a genuine grin.
They were shocked out of their witty repartee by the screeches of a hundred more bats flying high above them. The sounds of battle soon reached their ears, and not too far in the distance they could see orcs coming over the ridge. The remainder of second army had arrived, still at least a hundred strong, and only a handful of Allies stood in their way.
"Kili is up there somewhere," Tauriel said lowly.
Gemma nodded solemnly. "Thorin too. Azog said he was coming for them, first Fili, then Kili, and then Thorin. He wants to wipe out the entire Durin bloodline."
"Then we shall have to stop him," Legolas spoke up with determination. He turned to Gemma and grabbed her arm. "My lady Gemma, it has been an honour and a privilege to fight alongside you. I would like to think that we may call each other friends."
Gemma nodded and pulled him into a hug, suddenly having the terrible feeling that this was a goodbye. "Of course, of course we're friends. The honour's all mine, Legolas."
They released each other, and Legolas glanced towards the sky briefly, before looking back at the two women. He shot Tauriel a look that held more meaning than words ever could, and it broke Gemma's heart a little. The elf prince focused on Gemma once more, and told her, "You have my bow." And then he was jumping for a low flying bat, swinging himself to hang on upside-down as it carried him to the peak of a ruined tower.
Gemma looked towards Tauriel. The she-elf's eyes followed Legolas' retreating form for a second longer, before focusing her attention on the ruins. Somewhere in there, the men who held the hearts of both women were fighting for their lives. Neither woman was going to sit idly by.
"Lady LaRoche—"
"Gemma," the woman in question corrected the elf.
"Gemma," Tauriel began again with a slight smile, "my prince has spoken of the honour of battling by you side. I hope you might give me the same honour now."
Gemma grinned, and slapped Tauriel on the back in a very dwarvish manner. "Are you kidding? You and I, two badass women, teaming up for the final battle? Heck yeah. Let's go kick some ass!"
AN:
Hooray for tying up loose ends! This chapter was fun to write, but also insanely difficult. Action scenes are hard, and I don't really know how this turned out. Luckily (for me, not you) we're back to what I do best in the next chapter: angst, drama, and all that stuff that will make you cry! You've been warned.
I can't apologize enough for the lateness of this chapter. It's been two weeks, and I don't even have a proper excuse. I went camping last weekend so I couldn't really update then, and then I just sort of fell into a mood, and had great difficulty writing the next chapter (I always like to have the next one completed before I post). Yesterday was my last day of work, which is a relief but also makes me a bit sad because it means that summer is nearly over and I'm going to miss my children. However, the good news is that I'll be able to write more. After this, there are only three more chapters! I've decided to forgo the epilogue in favour of jumping right into the sequel, although that will take a little time to get going.
You guys are beautiful people for sticking with me for so long and leaving such kind reviews. You don't know how happy they've made me, or how motivating they are. I hope that you continue to enjoy the last chapters of this crazy story.