WindSongEnchantment: Thank you so much for your review! I'm glad it didn't seem too repetitive. I feel like the goblin section in a lot of fanfics kind of tend to drag because everything has to go a certain way.
Chapter 22: Azog the Defiler
It's a strange feeling being hunted down like a rabbit for dinner. My heart slammed painfully into my ribcage, rattling my very bones as I sprinted down the uneven terrain. The mountainous forest that we were in was sparse with trees, the rocks giving way to each other like a collection of blocks stacked precariously together. My boots slipped in the sharp dips and dives where gravel turned into stone, a tree catching me in an unforgiving embrace that sent the very breath from my lunges.
"I would really enjoy not feeling like a rat in a maze for one blasted- OOF!" Nori went slamming face-first into a tree trunk, the whole thing shivering at the impact.
"Idiot," Dori snapped at him as he flew past, Ori only a few paces behind.
I dodged around a series of trees, my ankles giving warning groans as I took the steep path at a near-disastrous speed.
Behind me, I could hear the howl of wargs, the calls of black speech that hissed and echoed through the now ominous dark of the night. The others had fallen back behind me in a matter of moments, their labored breathing and heavy boots the only thing that made me stop from turning around. There hadn't been any calls of pain - no cries for help - another reason that I didn't stop as I sprinted forward, the ground leveling out and -
"Yavanna help us," I breathed out, panic starting to itch at my belly.
Nothing. Nothing but a sharp drop, a pitiful cluster of nearly bare trees stopping the dreadful vision of the cliff's edge as it loomed in front of me. My axes felt heavy in my grip, my muscles feeling suddenly clumsy as my brother skidded to a stop beside me.
We had nowhere else to run. No options.
The howl of the approaching orcs pierced me like a physical blow. We had escaped them once before. I was sure that they would do everything in their power to make sure that didn't happen once more.
"What do we do?" I choked out, turning desperate eyes to my older brother. I had never seen him more frantic, the lines in his face taut, his adam's apple bobbing as he looked around. Nori had always had a plan - always.
The heavy feeling of mounting terror pressed into my skin. Even the wide-open night sky couldn't lessen the growing realization that - my eyes snapped to my younger brother, his hands clutching at his slingshot in white-knuckled panic. Would we be able to get out of this?
"Up into the trees!" Gandalf roared. My eyes snapped to Fili's, the piercing blue of his gaze meeting mine over his shoulder, his dual swords glinting wickedly in the moonlight. Climbing wasn't a solution to our problem. It was stalling the inevitable. "All of you! Come on - CLIMB!"
I scrambled up, my axes returned swiftly to their straps. Climbing was the easy part. I scrambled from branch to branch, bark scraping along my palms and arms. The sound of scuffling scratched at my ears.
"Reminds me of the good old days." I blinked down at Kili, his face alarmingly pale as he blinked back up at me with false bravado. "Gonna throw apples at me, Tori?"
My stomach rolled, the memory of our childhood seeming oddly out of place in this stark moment. Down below, our tree gave an ominous shake, the sound of teeth-gnashing and warg calls splitting the air. Just below the last branch of our tree, I saw the blur of the patchy hide of an orc hound.
"Strange how you and your brother seem to have such a romanticized version of our childhood," I murmured, the sharp words coming out shaky as a few more wargs barreled past.
"I'm sure being princes made it considerably more bearable," he replied tightly. Neither of us was listening to the other anymore. Instead, our eyes were stuck to glinting gnash of teeth below us, the way that the hound's eyes didn't reflect even a fraction of the moon's light. They were pits, voids waiting to drag us down.
So many. There were so many.
I gulped down the acrid bite of fear as it coated my throat, trying not to shake as the growing revelations about our current odds became starkly clear. Somehow this felt more perilous than that goblin mine. Cold sweat drenched my nape, sliding down my spine in a chill reminder of my own terror.
Warm hands clutched at where my own grasped at the tree's sturdy center, squeezing gently before they released me. "Breathe, Tori."
Kili hadn't even turned to look at me, his head bent as the maw of the warg currently pacing below us gave a snapping snarl. He didn't look away as it leaped, jaw snapping at our slim shadows as it tried to reach us.
They circled, pawing at the ground beneath us. Maybe… maybe if we stayed like this…
All of their heads suddenly snapped around, a strange snarl vibrating through all of them like an echoing chant. I unwillingly followed their graze, crouching lower on my branch to see beneath the splay of leaves around me. Beneath where I perched, I heard Kili draw in a ragged breath.
"Azog."
It was a whisper. Nothing more. But it traveled across the wind like a secret meant to be told. It bit through my very bones like the bitterest wind. Azog the defiler. Azog the white orc. Azog the legend who had slaughtered thousands of dwarves, who delighted in our blood and pain.
"No," I heard Kili breath, his breath coming at odd, rapid intervals. Blindly, I reached below to clutch at his shoulder, barely able to pinch more than a scrap of his coat in my hand.
"Breathe, Kili," I said, voice shaking like the leaves shielding me. "Breathe."
Azog the defiler looked like an alabaster stone that I had found once in the riverbed far in the depths of a mountain river. His head was bare, not a hair visible on any part of his flesh. His face was much like any other orc - sharp in places that didn't need to be, his lips a grotesque carving, his ears abt-like, teeth sharper than that of the deepest sea creature. His skin was trenched with scars, the torn remains of old wounds slashing across his face and bare chest. He sat astride a warg with much the same coat of fur as him, white as the new moon, clear at a fresh spring.
I shivered as he leaned forward, drawing in a deep breath of the night air, his voice low as he turned to the pack of orcs stalking closer on their own mounts. I didn't know what he was saying - black speech was not something that folk normally went out of their way to learn. But no one needed to study in the dark language to know the name that he said, know the relish that curled his lips as he said it: Thorin.
"Kili," I breathed, sudden panic seizing me as I tugged futility at the prince's cloak. My tongue grew heavy in my mouth, a new sort of terror gripping me as my eyes snapped to where our king stood, clutched amid a curl of branches. The wind had blown his dark hair into a riot of angry waves, his teeth flashing as his eyes shone like twin fires in the night. He looked like he could taste blood on his tongue. He looked like he had seen too much of war to fear it now. And that was precisely why I was so afraid now. "Kili, your uncle can't go down there. Kili!"
"Wha-" The brunette dwarf sounded dazed, his eyes still blinking across at the unholy silhouette of the white orc.
"MY KING-!" My call was cut off, my feet slipping as the first orc slammed into where Kili and I were hiding. The whole tree shook, the sound of snapping roots and splintering bark ringing in my ears. I bit down on a scream, my nails digging into bark, shards sliding smoothly into the bed of my nails.
Desperately, I tried to catch sight of the tree that Thorin had been in. If he jumped down he would be ripped to shreds. We were outnumbered -
"BALIN!" I screamed, waving wildly. The older dwarves eyes snapped to me, his skin looking waxy. "DON'T LET HIM-!"
The root system that had been keeping our tree grounded snapped as another warg slammed into its base, a sullen groan piercing the air as it swayed. We were going to fall. My feet and arms scrambled at the bark, heart racing. We were falling.
"JUMP!" I heard a familiar voice scream. I obeyed.
My eyes snapped around quickly to make sure that Kili was doing the same, my boots scraping along the branch as I dodged from branch to branch, trying to get to one close enough that I could leap. I sucked in a breath, bracing as I stumbled, arms flailing, and then leaped.
Arms clutched at me, grappling with my own as they caught me just short of where I would have fallen to a toothy death.
Kili had jumped to another tree, his chest heaving as Ori shivered beside him on a branch.
"Get ready to jump again, lass," Dwalin bellowed, hauling me to my feet and all but dragging me forward as the tree gave a sickening groan once more and I felt the tell-tale tilt of roots being clawed into submission.
Tree after tree fell, each one taking us with it in a wild dash of fear and adrenaline.
But there were only so many trees to be had - so many escapes to be made.
"I've got you, love." Fili's breath rushed harsh and hot against my temple, his hand branding around my forearm and dragging me up and onto the branch. Dread clutched tightly at my throat, silencing anything more than a gulp of air before my fingers tightened on the front of his jacket.
Below the wargs had converged, snapping and snarling at the base of the final tree that stood between us and being torn to shreds. We had all made it - each of us adding even more weight to the precariously scrawny branches of the tree. I could already feel it leaning, the dwarves higher than me looking oddly tilted.
Fili's arms curled around my waist, clutching at me for a moment as he turned us both so my back was pressed to the harsh bark of the trunk.
"This isn't good," I breathed.
"Even that seems like a slightly upbeat rendition of our current predicament," Fili whispered.
Something flashed in my peripheral, followed by the sharp yip of a wounded warg. The sudden blaze of fire blinding me. An illusion?
No.
A wizard.
"Fili!" A pinecone dropped down to us, the blonde prince turning deftly to catch it. Heat radiated from the small little cone, burning at my face as I gaped down at it. Fire - he had set the pinecones on fire.
I gasped as another once soared passed, nearly toppling over as I caught it. Bramble and brush kindled, quickly catching fire as the wargs whined, bewildered. Soon the ground beneath us roared with flames, the fire creeping outwards like the seeking fingers of a blind widow. Pressed back, I saw Azog's lips curl back in a roar.
"That won't be enough to keep them away for long," I said, teeth gnawing into my lip. There had to be something else that would get us out of this mess.
Unwanted, my eyes drifted to the ledge that our current tree was clinging onto, the roots already looking strained beneath our weight. As I watched, a tangle of roots snapped, our perch quivering dangerously. My eyes drifted back to where my brothers were only a branch above me, their arms thrown up in a cheer.
Dirt shifted, the weight of all of us sending the tree tipping over so suddenly that I stumbled, hands scrambling at the base of the tree as Fili cried out beside me.
"Tori!"
"DORI! ORI!" My body moved before I could think, my boots slipping across the bark as I scrambled upward.
I saw it as if in slow motion - Ori's face pulling wide in shock as his body went flying backward with the momentum of the tree. Dori's body turned instinctively to try and catch them. Both of them lost their balance, their cries cutting through me with the coldness of a frozen blade.
I hit the branch with enough force to knock the air out of my lunges, my hands flung out, Dori's grasp sweaty in my grip. I panted, feeling ill from the punch to my gut. My eldest brother's wide, silver eyes glinted up at me, Ori's head barely visible just below. My bowels turned to liquid as I stared past them into the perilous drop below.
"Don't look down," I snapped, voice quivering as I saw Ori's head start to tip in that direction. He gave a pathetic whimper. Dori's adam's apple bobbed thickly, a sheen of sweat starting at his temple.
"NO! THORIN!" I heard someone scream behind me. I couldn't look up now. I could barely focus on anything else but the growing shake in my arms as I clutched onto Dori's hands. It was a study in silent agony, a worship in patience.
Beneath us, the tree gave another shudder and my body tilted precariously with it. Where was Fili? Kili? Or our other brother, Nori? A dribble of sweat-slicked my back. The branch was digging in just beneath my ribs, my body thrown over it like a sack. It was hard to breathe.
I grunted, my shoulders starting to spike through with pain. I could hear the others yelling around us but couldn't focus enough to really understand what they were saying.
"GANDALF!" Dori cried, his face reddening as his fingers slipped a bit in mine. I bit down on my panic, our hands tightening on each other until the tips of his went purple and I stopped feeling the nerves in my own.
I wouldn't let go. I would never let go.
Something in my shoulder popped.
"FILI!" It should have been a cry - loud enough to get his attention. I needed his help. Instead, it wheezed out of me, sounding pathetic.
"Tori - Tori, hold on just-" Someone cried out in pain. I couldn't see anything - couldn't see anything but the mounting terror in my brother's face.
My body slid a bit, the combined weight of Ori and Dori finally tipping me forward. I let out a hiss, trying not to let my terror take hold.
"Dori, you have to let her go." My blood went cold, something far worse than the panic of falling into the deep abyss taking hold. Ori's small voice piped up again, quivering but clear. "She's going to fall."
The loosening of his hand on mine was almost immediately and I let out a sharp cry as my hands, exhausted and cramping, tried to make up for the loss of leverage.
"DON'T YOU DARE!" I sounded hysterical. I could hear it bubbling up inside of me, my breaths sawing from me in frantic puffs.
I wouldn't let go. I wouldn't let go.
"Tori," Dori's voice was soft, too sweet for the fire burning away the trees to ash behind us and the darkness below us. I squeezed my eyes shut, sweat starting to mat my hair to the sides of my face. "Tori, you have to let go now."
"SHUT UP!"
"TORI-"
"I WON'T LET GO!"
It turned out I wouldn't have a choice.
Something hard pressed at my legs, taking whatever leverage I had and all but flipping me off of the branch. My scream was ripped away from my lunges, falling somewhere behind me so swiftly that I didn't even hear it. We tumbled into the abyss together.
Please review and follow/favorite if you like it! Oh and if you like this and maybe want to read a harry potter fic, I have one of those too if anyone's interested.
