Ali bolted across the rickety planks. Every corner she skidded around only rewarded her with a glimpse of the blonde before he'd duck around the next bend. Occasionally there'd be an orc body to mark his path. Ali did her best not to look too close. She knew that she had to get used to that sort of sight, after all, she still somehow needed to find Azog. One problem at a time, Ali repeated her mantra.
Right now her problem was not what she'd expected it would be. Damn, bloody, long-legged Elves! Ali puffed deeply, and skidded around another corner. Her legs were too short for this sort of long distance chase. She was much better over short distances. What she needed was a head start. An extra sixty seconds. Her mind hummed, just stop everyone else, Ale pleaded with whatever cosmic stardust was responsible for her new found power.
No stardust needed. The next corner brought on a mixture of emotions. Legolas was there, yay. But so were two little orcs and a giant one that was probably uglier than Azog. They all stood frozen, ready to face off the second she allowed them to begin moving.
Plan. She needed a plan. Ali paced back and forth behind Legolas, smacking the sides of her head with her hands trying to wrack her brain. As each second passed her mind grew fuzzier and fuzzier. "Plan, plan, plan, plan. Okay! Here's the plan! Legolas you kill them, I wait." Ali groaned after she heard that out loud. Stupid plan, won't work. Her head filled slowly with white noise.
Time snapped back in. Ali stumbled back surprised as Legolas stepped forward slicing into the nearest orc. Perhaps her plan wasn't nearly as bad as she thought. Ali watched the biggest one. His one good eye didn't bother to shift towards her, instead he kept it fixed on Legolas. He watched the elf like a fat guy watches a pizza bake. She didn't like it one bit.
Legolas lurched forward, driving his sword towards the ugly sucker, Ali silently cheered. But the orc caught it, wrapping his arm over the top and pinning it to his side, Ali silently booed. There must be some trick in her infinitely short amount of experience that would help him.
"H-hey llama face!" Ali yelled when the orc over-powered Legolas and tossed him to the side. Llama face? The orc spared her a glance, then returned to Legolas, grabbing the front of his shirt and hurled him into a wall. "That's right, I'm talking to you nightmare on Elm Street." Ali kept yelling, fumbling with a partially broken potted plant.
He took a threatening step forward, Ali lugged the pot down the path, it was definitely heavier than she'd originally thought. It landed a foot in front of him, not even the scattered pieces of soil rolled far enough to hit his foot. Out of the corner of her eye she swore she saw Legolas roll his eyes.
"That's right, there's more where that came from." Ali mustered up her best confrontational face, scrunching up her nose and frowning heavily. It landed somewhere between Popeye the Sailorman and Elmur Fudd. If orc's could sigh dramatically she was sure he'd sound as disappointed as a father that just saw his daughters 'tasteful' Believe in Yourself tattoo.
It didn't matter, since Legolas took the distraction and grabbed the orc by the back of the neck, ramming his head into a wooden support beam. There was a time when Ali never would have condoned that sort of violence, now was not that time. From the corner of her eye, Ali saw one of the orcs she thought Legolas had killed darting down a path towards them. Not on her sun dial.
Ripping a wooden plank off a deteriorating box, Ali ran full tilt towards the orc. It didn't even bother to pay her any mind until the splintered edge of her weapon dug up and under the metal plate on his chest. It squealed and toppled over, writhing on the ground. Nasty black spit flew from its mouth, spraying the wooden planks.
A second figure flew up while she wasn't paying attention. Sword raised, shrieking angrily. Ali stumbled back, the dying orc snagged the heel of her boot, tripping her. Curling up instinctively, she raised her arm defensively over her face.
But the blow didn't come.
Opening one eye that she'd squeezed shut, she gasped. The orc hovered over her, sword inches from her arm, face twisted in pure hatred. Frozen. Apparently there was an 'imminent danger auto defense' system installed recently. Ali scrambled out of harm's way, catching sight of Legolas and the orc…hugging?
Shaking her head Ali turned back to her main problem. She yanked the board out of the first orc, stomach rolling when she felt the splinters catching in his gut. "Sorry," she murmured before she could stop herself. While she wasn't positive what the guidelines were for manners towards those that were trying to disembowel you, she was pretty sure apologizing wasn't on the list.
When time started again, the orcs sword sliced down into the wooden planks. If she wasn't so terrified about getting her flesh eaten off her face she might have laughed at its confusion. Gripping the wooden board tighter, Ali pulled it back like a baseball bat. "Hey, Nosferatu!" Ali yelled. It turned and blinked at her, still confused. She swung forward, putting everything she had into it, and caught the ugly sucker right across the jaw, twisting its neck around.
The snap sickened her, she didn't think she'd ever get used to it, but she'd get over it. Shaking it off she darted back over to Legolas, who was touching his face, a small trickle of blood ran from his nose.
"What are you doing here?" Legolas snapped when he glanced down.
"I'm going with you," Ali stated, trying not to leave room for him to argue.
But he found room, "you'll slow me down." Legolas said, striding off down the paths to follow the orcs.
"Excuse me?" Ali jogged at his ankles keeping up, but barely. "I killed two of those things while you and Tall Dark and Disgusting were hugging it out a moment ago."
"I killed more than you," Legolas growled, "and we were not hugging."
"Look, who you're attracted to is none of my business," Ali shrugged, trying not to sound like she was breathing hard. "Plus two is a number, 'more than you' is an average. How do I know you're not lying. I'm just saying in the future you might want to keep a more accurate count."
"You're not helping your case here," Legolas mumbled. His horse circled into view next to a large bridge that spanned across the lake and almost out of sight. Ali knew she had to get to that horse first or he'd leave her in a cloud of horse hair and dust.
Already her head buzzed softly, the pressure from her last fight not quite gone. It was a day for testing her limits. Determined to prove she'd be worth something Ali breathed deep and allowed time to come to a stop. It was strange how second nature it was becoming, like she'd gotten an internal pause button. Ali ran at the horse, knowing she didn't have much time before time either started on its own, or her eyes popped out of her head.
Clawing up the saddle Ali shuffled around so she sat in the front before letting time start back up again. "You're taking me with you, and you're taking me to the mountain."
Legolas's eyes widened for only a fraction of a second before he leaped up effortlessly. "Fine, you can come with me, but first we're going to see where the enemy is retreating to."
The horse jumped into action, spurred on by some invisible order Legolas had given it. Ali jostled in her place on the front of the saddle, grabbing onto the horses mane. She'd apologize to it when they slowed down, but until then it was either pull its hair or fall to her death. She wanted to shout back that she didn't care where the orcs were coming from, and frankly she didn't want to know. But the wind whistled so loudly past her ears that she was sure her words would be swept away behind them before Legolas could hear her.
Thorin hated dragons. Any dwarf would. But right now he found himself actually needing the dragon.
The forges that they'd struggled to get to, that Thorin himself had nearly been eaten trying to reach, were stone cold. It would take days, maybe even weeks for this small company of dwarves to even begin to stoke the fires needed to bring warmth back into the stone. Or one well placed fireball from the same dragon that let them die down in the beginning.
Balin grabbed his head with his hands and paced in front of the forges. They'd essentially run into a cage, with nothing more than a hope and a prayer that the fires had stayed lit. The rest of his company looked around with equal despair. Thorin gritted his teeth, realizing they thought HE'D essentially led them into this cage.
"This plans not going to work. These forges are stone cold." Dwalin growled, pacing like an animal. "We don't have a blaze hot enough."
Thorin smirked, "don't we though?" It was well enough that they had a dragon here to start the fires, but how could he get the beast to actually light them.
"What's your plan Thorin?" Dwalin stepped up, the rest of the paltry company's attention being drawn to them. Quickly they gathered around to hear their king's plan. His magnificent plan…because he was a king after all, so his plan would be magnificent, possibly.
"We're going to distract Smaug from realizing his part in our plan," Thorin thought back to the woman he'd left safely in Laketown. He knew if she were here Ali would approve of this plan. "We're going to use Jazz hands."
"Jazz hands?! Thorin are ya out of yer bloody mind?" Dwalin grabbed Thorin's shoulders, but he pushed his hands off and leaned against the metal bars.
"I did not think to see you so easily outwitted?" Thorin yelled to Smaug.
"Oh, he's lost it, spent too much time with Ali," he heard Balin sigh desperately.
"You have grown slow and fat in your dotage," Thorin continued, ignoring the looks that surely condemned him as insane. Smaug looked over the rim of the cavern, anger knitting his face in a scowl fouler than his breath. "Slug."
Thorin ducked behind the nearest pillar, eyes darting to each dwarf as he found the realization hitting them. "Take cover! Go!"
Not seconds after the last dwarf reached safety Smaug's molten fire blasted past him, blocking the others from sight. The heat and pressure, seared Thorin's arms and he yelled out in pain. It was a plan but not the most complete one, or he'd have had the others run off to cover farther from the flames. The flames were so intense he was forced to shut his eyes or he feared they'd catch flames themselves and he'd go blind.
Then just as quickly as they started, they stopped. Thorin heaved a sigh and breathed deeply. He hadn't realized he'd held his breath while Smaug attacked them. The air itself had been too hot to even breathe. The nearest forge billowed up reassuringly, then ignited the next then the next, all the way down the line.
There was no time to admire them though. Behind them Smaug growled, realizing he'd been played by the dwarves. Thorin smirked, the dragon may have had the power to take his gold from him, but Smaug wouldn't have the power to keep it from him. Thorin ran from the metal pillars they'd taken cover behind, just before Smaug rammed into it the first time.
"Bombur! Get those bellows working. Go!" Thorin yelled over the clanging of the dragon attacking the cage and the roar of the fire going beneath his forges.
"Alright!" Bombur yelled back, veering off to grab a hold of the chain.
He turned in time to see the metal pillars bending deeply towards them. It was only a short time now. "Bilbo. Up there, on my mark, pull that lever." Thorin grabbed Bilbo and jabbed a finger to the lever he meant. Up there at least the hobbit would be out of the way and doing something within his means. The rest of the dwarves began to scatter as Smaug began breaking though the last of the barricade.
Nabbing Balin before he ran off too far, Thorin barked "Balin, can you still make some flash-flame?"
"Aye, it'll only take a jiffy." Balin agreed while darting off, not wasting a second. He grabbed Ori on the way and the pair ran off to the supply room.
"We don't have a jiffy." Dwalin said as Thorin watched the group disappear. Turning to follow his gaze Thorin heard the last of the metal moan and give way under Smaug's onslaught.
This wouldn't be his last fight, Thorin breathed in deep, he'd promised himself he'd see Ali again. No dragon would stop him from fulfilling that promise.
Now, if he were right, before the dragon had attacked they were planning on building a giant golden statue in the Gallery of the Kings. This should still be able to work. Thorin ducked and wove around the room, keeping out of Smaug's way. The dragon was heading right for Bilbo. Thorin climbed an adjacent platform as fast as possible. Bilbo had been a distraction with a purpose, Smaug was meant to approach, but if he killed Bilbo then the next stage of the plan would be in ruins.
Luckily Smaug turned to look at Thorin when he stood on his platform. A target with more value to the dragon, no doubt. "Now!" He yelled at the hobbit, backing up a step at the snarl forming on the dragon's lips, yellow light emanating from his chest. This had better work! Thorin stepped back, his heart hammering in his chest. Just when he thought the water was going to take too long, a power jet slammed into Smaug and knocked him into the side of the furnace. The water hissed and steamed off Smaug's scales, putting the fire he'd been readying out.
The water hardly dissuaded the dragon, who roared and flung water but who's attention focused on Thorin again.. He just had to get to the Gallery of the Kings. Thorin let his warrior instincts take over, ducking and dodging around, careful to keep far enough away from the dragon. Gallery of the Kings, he kept repeating. There he'd be able to set up the ultimate distraction.
As he sailed down the river of gold, Thorin smirked. This was as good as his gold now.
Thanks to everyone for their wonderful support now that i'm back!
I realize more than ever that I shouldn't have listened to them any you are all right, they were wrong
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I love all you lovely readers and reviewers I look forward to reading what you have to say!
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