Far behind them a thunderous bellow made Legolas pull up on the reigns. Over the trees fire plumbed, dissipating into a dark rolling cloud, that spread like a disease. The horse stamped its feet, attempting to walk sideways from the explosion, whinnying. Whatever it was made him uncomfortable. Ali liked to think animals were more in touch with that sort of thing, so she shied away with it.
"What was that?" Ali asked, leaning forward to stroke the animal's neck without taking her eyes off the dark cloud. She felt like if she looked away it might rush at her and try and choke her.
"Smaug," Legolas murmured.
"Looks more like smoke to me, like a fire," Ali's heart throbbed once, that was coming from Laketown, she realized, thinking of the dwarves. They'd be fine, dwarves were hardy, at least up until now they had been.
"The dragon," Legolas added, eyes narrowing in its direction, thinking deeply.
"The dragon!" Ali sharply inhaled. Of course the dragon! Her fingernails dug into her palm sharply. Had the dragon killed the rest of the dwarves and attacked Laketown? Was Thorin alright? Quickly her hand found the small braid resting behind her ear, stroking it calmed her nerves.
As if he'd heard their conversation Smaug rose far off above the trees, back above Laketown. Ali sat up on the horse, no longer stroking his sides, instead her fingers knotted in his mane tightly. Thundering fire balls rained down on the town, no doubt sinking it below the icy waters. She wanted to insist they head back, try to fight, or fish people out of the water. But how does one fight a dragon? How could she be any more help getting them to land when she didn't have a boat? Icy guilt closed up her throat, she knew they couldn't go back.
Smaug dropped below the tree line again. Ali and Legolas remained motionless on the dancing horse. Ali didn't suggest they ride back and save the day, and Legolas didn't move either. Together they listened to such faint cries that they didn't seem real. Smaug drown them out with his inaudible rumbling voice.
One last time he rose above the town. Ali sat forward again, determined to ride back, if not just to help the dwarves. But Smaug didn't fight, instead he spiraled and danced in the sky, rising and falling haphazardly. Then plummeted like a stone, the sound of him hitting the water unmistakable even from this distance. They sat in silence. Ali didn't know what Legolas strained to hear, but all she could make out was the crackling of fire.
"I believe the dragon is dead, though I cannot promise anything for those in the mountain," Legolas finally loosened up on the reigns, allowing the animal to dance to the side of the path.
She had to know. Ali had to get to the mountain. Which meant she had to finish this stupid journey. "Let's go, now." Ali demanded.
"I wish to speak with Tauriel," Legolas jabbed his heels in the animals side, forcing it into a reluctant walk back the way they'd come.
"We don't have time!" Ali smacked her elbow back into his stomach. "I'm sure they're all fine, so let's get on to see what we can see and back to the mountain, we'll see her there. Now turn this horse around, right now!" Ali snapped. She didn't mean to sound harsh, but she didn't have the time to wait for his one-sided romance soap opera. That dragon was a serious pain in everyone's butt, if it just didn't exist then everything would be fine. Ali narrowed her eyes at the rolling cloud. That dragon was a real Dinkleberg in her fairly odd life.
Either Legolas respected her far more than she realized, or her smack to the gut hurt more than she'd meant, because he grumbled and did as she asked.
Ali didn't like this place. It smelled ungodly close to a time when she'd burned a good bit of her hair off while huddled around a fire with Lord Vigtor. The air itself weighed down on her, making her feel as if she wore a heavy wet coat while it was eighty degrees out. Which she'd also done once when she was with Lord Vigtor, but that had been a cluster effect of downhill events from the beginning of that day.
They struggled up the rocky hill, shale sliding out from under her feet, scraping and crunching down the hill till it fell at the bottom. Legolas tossed her back narrowed glares and she silently apologized. The closer they got to the top, the more despair began to finger into her mind. Perhaps she should have gone back to the dwarves and joined them, it wasn't as if they'd leave her again. There was no way Smaug would leave that mountain with Thorin still alive. Ali shook her head when the thought floated through, that wasn't true, they found a way, they had to have.
Clenching her jaw, Ali fell flat beside Legolas at the top. Not winded in the least, but exhausted, mentally and physically. Before them a huge gate that had been carved from the mountain loomed malevolently. Ali rolled a smooth piece of stone between her fingers while she watched the gate. It felt like all this stone was made from glass, or pressed hopes and dreams of children.
"What is this place?" Ali whispered. Anything louder than that felt unnatural. As if the stone itself might notice her and press what little happiness she had left into one of these smooth stones.
"Gundabad. Beyond that is the ancient kingdom of Angmar. This fortress was once its stronghold. It is where they kept their great armories, forged their weapons of war." Legolas crouched low beside her, scanning the towers for something.
"Why are we here?"
"The orc I pursued out of Laketown, I know who he is. Bolg, a spawn of Azog the Defiler. A warg pack was waiting for him on the outskirts of Esgaroth. They wore a mark I had not seen for a long time. The mark of Gundabad." Legolas narrowed his eyes, concentrating on something so distant that Ali couldn't see what caught his attention. What caught hers was Azog, that name kept popping up, he was the reason she was here. She took back her comment earlier about Smaug. Azog was definitely more Dinkleberg than the dragon.
Off on one of the walls a light flickered. Ali flattened even farther against the stone. "There's someone home," she pointed to where she saw the movement.
"We wait for the cover of night. It is a fell place, Ali. In another age my people waged war on those lands." Legolas breathed deep, his eyes falling to the stone. Ali knew that look, one she wore herself long ago. "My mother died there. My father does not speak of it. There is no grave, no memory, nothing." He fell into his seat behind the stone and rested his head back against it, staring off into the dark sky, lost.
Without thinking Ali reached out and gripped his hand. Holding on not just for him but for herself. He was right when he said this was a fell place, even at the mention of losing his mother, Ali could feel happiness draining from them both. The darkness that covered everything slithered into her pores, trying to snag anything she had left and rip it from her soul. Whatever lived here was so horrid that the land itself was tainted.
"I lost my mother as well," Ali couldn't look at him when she spoke. "I was so young, I don't know what happened to her after that." Her throat tightened with emotion. "I remember, when I was super little, my mom would hum this little tune when we would sit in the closet to calm me down and keep me from being scared. When I really miss her, and wish she were with me, I hum that song." Ali had actually forgotten about the song. It had to have been years since she'd hummed it to herself, curled on a park bench under a mass of newspaper. In the beginning it had been hard for her to live like that, day to day unsure where she was going to sleep or what she would eat. Not that it ever got easy, but she'd adjusted.
"I also have a song my mother used to sing," Legolas smiled weakly at her.
Ali almost asked if she could hear it. Anyone as beautiful as him had to have an angelic singing voice. Hell, back on Earth this man could pass as an angel probably. But she didn't need to ask, several moments later he began softly singing. Ali couldn't understand the words, but it flowed smooth, like honey.
Ali blinked lazily a few times and licked her lips. Something under her was stabbing her dully in the stomach. Rolling over, she wiggled a stone out from the pile and flopped back over, snuggling her face back down into the crook of her arm and closed her eyes.
"I believe you've slept long enough, its dark now." Legolas shook her shoulder gently. When she cracked an eye she saw him with his back to the stone, peering around and scanning the area.
Quickly Ali shot up onto her elbows. How had she fallen asleep in the middle of enemy territory? That's how you get stabbed Ali, that's how you get stabbed! Her inner voice chastised her. Ali scrambled up to kneel beside Legolas, sliding on a large chunk of stone that loosened and descended down the embankment. He glared back at her once more and she mouthed an apology, wincing when the stone finally struck the bottom. Why did stone have to be so loud?
"How is it that one as small as you are, can be so impossibly loud?" Legolas grumbled. "You've spent far too much time in the company of dwarves."
"Don't blame the dwarves, I've always been obnoxious," Ali retorted, huddling by his side to get a better look.
"You're right, I've meet many far quieter dwarves," Legolas said. It sounded as if he was insulting her, but she caught the slight upwards turn on the corner of his lips.
"You just watch, one day you're gonna become friends with a dwarf and you're going to have to eat all your words," Ali rolled her eyes.
"Oh, and how are you so sure?" Legolas asked with one perfect brow raised.
Ali shrugged. "Spend enough time with them and they grow on you." That had certainly been the case with her. Now she was crouching on the outskirts of the dankest place in Middle-Earth, trying to get some idea of how to end this war before they got involved.
"Sounds like a fungus, perhaps you should get that checked," Legolas grinned slightly.
"Yuk it up now pretty boy, just you wait. Now what's the plan?" Ali fidgeted next to him. Her heart began to pick up pace at the sheer thought of entering that place. From the looks of it there wasn't any wood or boards, which happened to be the only thing she seemed to be able to fight with now a days. Or any days, she guessed, since now a days were the only days she'd ever fought.
"There won't be any fighting, we'll be outnumbered a thousand to one most likely." Legolas cast a sideways glance towards her. "Or in my case, two thousand to one." He had somehow become a real comedian since she'd met him, and she couldn't tell if she loved it or hated it.
Ali opened her mouth to remind him that she'd already killed like, three, orcs, so it would be more like one thousand nine hundred and ninety-seven, but Legolas shoved her down onto the rocks.
"Quiet," he hissed, pressing against the stone. Ear splitting shrieks and leathery flapping made that order easy to follow. Ali put her hands over her head on instinct, squinting to see what he was seeing in the dark. Above their head, massive, bat-like creatures hurdled towards the gates. Even with the distance between them the slight breeze carried a foul smell of sweat and iron.
"Where are they going?" Ali breathed, just above a whisper. She was terrified one of those things would have supersonic hearing and catch them talking.
"They are swarming." Legolas spoke almost as quietly. "These bats were bred for one thing."
Ali followed Legolas's eyes back to the huge gates. She didn't like how that sentence sounded. Even worse was that she knew exactly what he meant. "They're for war." Her heart hammered against her ribs while they disappeared and reappeared, fluttering just behind the gate.
A lone figure exited. Ali's jaw clenched. She didn't need to see who it was. The fact that he rode out ahead of the others made it fairly clear. Bolg, the spawn of Azog. Behind him an army poured out of the gates, like a plague of locusts from this distance. This was all so real. A war. She'd never been in a war, she never thought she'd see one in person. Yet here it came, marching past her without realizing, and it all really boiled down to two men. Thorin and Azog, whichever one stood at the end was the winner.
Spawn of Azog. Ali narrowed her eyes and followed his form. Wherever he was heading, Azog was sure to be there. Her heart stopped. The mountain. Azog would be going to the mountain, which meant this army was heading there!
"We have to warn them!" Ali gasped, pushing up from her hiding place.
"We may be too late. Hurry!" Legolas grabbed Ali's arm and drug her after him, practically carrying her without any effort.
Somehow they had to get there first. Unseen by this massive army. Ali wracked her brain while Legolas tossed her up onto the horse and leapt up behind her. She had to stop everything but this horse. They flew into action, the horse rearing back for a moment before hitting the dirt hard, hooves beating loudly. They took a different road, a shorter one that lead closer to the lake, less hidden. But it wouldn't be enough, they had to get there faster.
Straining her concentration, Ali gripped the horses sides. Her mind buzzed, under her hands the horses straining muscles seized. Everything ceasing to move with it.
"No!" Ali cried. "Move horse! Please!" She didn't have time to deal with a learning curve, she needed this to work and she needed it now.
Time flowed again and Ali pitched forward, narrowly avoiding falling off entirely. This time she breathed deep. Legolas's arm tightened across her stomach to hold her on. Think of the horse, it's movements, it's space in time. Her mind buzzed. The horses muscles kept pumping, its hooves slapping the ground sharply. Legolas's arm froze behind her, straining sharply against her stomach with each hoof beat. She hadn't managed to keep him with her, but Ali thought of the horse.
"As fast as you can run!" She yelled, ignoring the buzzing and steadily growing pressure.
I dropped a special joke in there for a special guy I know who's reading! You know who you are! Thanks for being this stories biggest fan!
Things are beginning to wrap up, only a handful of chapters left!
Which there might be a bit of a wait for...I know I know, I finally get back just to leave for a bit.
I'm going to be moving, a tad unexpectedly and abruptly and will be without internet for a short bit.
But I'll be back! I promise! This story will end!
Will you like it...I can't promise that, but it will end :)
So adieu until I have internet!
Muah!