If there was ever a time to use fowl language, now would have been the moment, and it was a moment that Fili seized; rattling off a string of curse words in Khuzdul The howl of the warg struck Leila to her very core. Her entire body felt cold, as if she had already passed from this life. She had encounter many of them since the incident, yet everytime, they made her blood run cold. The Orcs did not necessarily frighten her, but the remembereance of the torture her and Celeste had endured, before her sister lost her life was enough to set her into a heart pounding panic whenever she heard their howl.

Fili helped her to her feet, never losing contact with her body. They started to run, Fili had Leilas hand on her good arm him his, and his other arm was wrapped securely around her. Of course, this not only made them slower, but it made running very awkward.

"Fili" Leila breathlessly said, " My legs work just fine, you can let me go."

He looked at her concerned, " I want to get you to safety." his voice was also breathless, but full of determination.

" Well if you don;t let go of me so we can both run as fast as we can, we will both end up dead."

Seeing her reasoning Fili let her go, and they ran for their lives. Together. They reached the place where the rest of the company had ended up last. It was a cliff. They were doomed.

" Quickly, up in the tree." Gandlaf yelled to them. Leila did not think any dwarves alive scaled anything as fast as the dewarves of erebor scaled the tree that night. Leila did not attempt right away though. She knew it would be difficult to climb with one arm, let alone stay inside the tree. She did some quick calculations in her head, and got a running start. She ran as fast as she could, and when her foot hot the exposed root, she did her best to launch herself off it. She barely managed to grab hold of a low hanging branch, she tried using her body weight to hoist herself up, but it was harder than she had anticipated. She was dangling like live bait for the wargs and orc pack that drew ever nearer. She could hear their hoof beats, and the breath that was released with each bound that brought them closer.

She felt her fingers slipping, and tried to grip tighter. She felt warm, strong hands enclose around her wrist. It was Ori, and Dori. They heaved, and Nori, leaned down from an opposite branch, by the side of her broken arm, and helped pull her up. It was just in time. No sooner had Leila securely planted her foot on a branch did the pack catch up to them. There had to be at least 7 or 8 Orcs with wargs. At their head was an Orc Leila had hoped she would never see again, the defiler, Azog.

The tree began to shake, as the Wargs attacked trying to get their prey. Leila was paralyzed, she could not take her eyes off of the Defiler, Rage filling her body. Suddenly, fire began to rain down on the wargs, she looked up and saw that Gandalf was lighting pinecones on fire, and passing them to the dwarves to throw at the dwarves. Leila closked eyes with Nori, who passed her one, She promptly tossed it right into the face of a Warg to screeched out in pain and ran off the cliff. More firey pinecones rained down, making the orcs and wargs hesitant. Shouts of triumph came from the dwarves, it had seemed that the enemy had been thwarted.

Unfortuneately, the fire, and weight of the company caused the tree to give way, it fell backwards, only stopping when its last roots caught hold of the ledge in an attempt to stay there. The company was dangling to their deaths. Leila was doing her best to hold onto the branch. Next thing she knew Thorins boots were passing her eyeline. In horror she watched as the King of Erebor attacked the Pale Orc.

Her attention was then diverted, her branch was beginning to creak. She knew she couldn't hold on much longer. This was the end of the line for her, this was her fate. To fall to her death, and never be thought of again. She looked to the dwarves around her, trying to get to their king. Her eyes found Fili. Then his found hers. For a moment everything was slow, the only thing that existed was their gaze. That damn gaze that made her brain short circuit drove her crazy, after all Fili was just a dwarf. She knew she couldn't hold on any longer, and flashed him a small smile, before allowing herself to free fall to her death.

Leila landed on something hard, yet soft. She felt around with her good hand, it was feathers. She opened her eyes and found herself flying. Well she wasn't the one flying she was on the back of a majestic Eagle. She managed to turn her body over without really falling to her death, and looked forward to where they were headed.

Some time later after flying them over mountain ranges, and many miles, the eagles landed, and left them on a high rock clearing. Leila suspected it used to be a lookout spot, there were stairs that led down to the bottom. Thorin was unconscious and had been for the whole flight. Gandalf touched his forehead and waved his hand over Thorin's face slowly, while muttering some ancient spell. Thorin's eyes fluttered open. It was apparent that he had taken quite the beating.

" The halfling," he choked out. The company helped him stand as they all turned to the person of his inquiry. Bilbo.

" You!" Thorin all but spat out, " What were you doing?"

Leila tensed, ready to jump to Bilbos defense, even though she had no idea why Thorin would be so angry with the little hobbit.

" You nearly got yourself killed!" Thorin went on, " Did I not say you would be a burden? That you would not survive in the wild? That you had no place amongst us?"

Leila went to intervene before she felt a hand stop her, it was Fili, his face was sober and he slowly shook his head at her.

Her attention drifted back to Thorin who was now standing directly in front of a very dejected looking Bilbo.

" I have never been so wrong in all my life." Thorin finished his speech, as he embraced a very surprised hobbit. The company collectively breathed a relieved sigh, and began to cheer.

" I am sorry I doubted you." Leila heard Thorin say.

" No, no I would have doubted me too." Bilbo stuttered, " Im not a hero. Or a warrior. Or even a burgler." This sent a chuckle through Gandalf.

The eagles swooped once more past them, heading back to where they came, screeching a farewell. The company all followed the eagles with their gaze, until Bilbo piped up, turned in the opposite direction from the company, with an awed lilt to his voice, " Is that what I think it is?"

They all turned to where he was looking, in the distance, over the forest trees, and though the mists and shadows, there it stood. Fili gasped, and grasped Leila's hand as he looked on.

" Erebor." Gandalf proclaimed, " The Lonely Mountain. The last of the great dwarfs kingdoms of Middle Earth."

" Our home." Thorin said, with a tone that told her that was what he cherished, and honored about it.

Leila looked at Fili's face, it was a mix of awe, longing, and sorrow. His eyes had tears in them, " This is the first time I've ever seen it. I see our home." Leila squeezed his hand, and offered him a small smile.

They all heard a chirping sound as a bird flew over them.

" A raven." Said Oin. " The birds are returning to the mountain."

" That my dear Oin," Gandalf said amused, " Is a Thrush."

" But we'll take it as a sign," Thorin mused, " A good Omen."

" I do believe the worst is behind us." Bilbo contributed hopefully.

It could not have been further from the truth, the worst was yet to come.

A short chapter, but hopefully no less enjoyable. I want to thank every one who has read this, and liked it. It brings me joy to know that I could right something that is loved by people. I know it's taken a long time to write and truly I don't know if this is a story that will ever have an ending.