Home ↠ The Hobbit

V. Return

A roar resounded through the air as the were-worms penetrated the surface of one of the various mountains that surrounded them, rubble being flung through the sky and crushed in their jaws with everybody watching the scene in unrest. The worms retreated after only a moment, leaving gaping tunnels behind them that lead directly to the armies.

All was silent until an obnoxious blaring horn was sounded, the unmistakable sound of their biggest enemy. Orcs began to pile through the tunnels that the were-worms had left behind, Athena's breath catching in her throat at the new enemy they would have to face—this one worse than any Elf or Dwarf that stood on the battlefield.

"The hordes of hell are upon us! To battle! To battle, sons of Durin!" Dáin ordered his soldiers onwards with a cry, the Dwarves wasting no time before heading off to meet their opponents in combat with screams emanating from their very souls, forgetting all about their feud with the Elves.

"I'm going over the wall, who's coming with me?" Fili asked those around him, everyone cheering in agreement as they prepared to join the battle against the Orcs.

"Stand down," Thorin firmly stated, ceasing their actions.

"Are we to do nothing?"

"We can't just leave them!" Athena defended Fili.

"I said stand down!" He bellowed, showing that he wasn't going to argue any further about the matter.

But Athena didn't listen, instead she turned her back on the company and made her way towards the rope that still hung from the rampart.

"Athena!" Fili called after her when seeing she was planning to join the fight regardless.

"I refuse to abandon them like the Elves abandoned us," she stated without looking back or stopping.

"You would be wise not to disobey your king," Thorin spat out from his spot at the top of the stairs, Athena having already reached the rope and holding it with both her hands.

"You are not worthy of being my king, not this version of you at least," she responded with the same amount of venom in her tone before pushing herself away from the top of the outlook and beginning to climb down the rope and to the battlefield.

Her feet hit the ground as another blast of the horn resounded through the air, turning to see both Elves and Dwarves alike rallying together to defeat their common enemy that threatened to overwhelm them. Trolls had emerged from the tunnels and were beginning to use their clubs to smash as many of their foes as they could do, throwing people into the skies.

A third horn was heard and she stepped forwards with one goal in mind: to find Bilbo amidst the chaos. There was no way that he'd be in the middle of the main fight so he must be on the sidelines. She pushed her way through the fray to try and find the Hobbit, but he was only small and it was hard to see with the dust and dirt being thrown in front of her. Then she noticed a pointed grey hat in the distance and immediately took off in the direction of the wizard, the Orcs paying no attention to her as they were too busy already engaged in battle with others.

"All of you, fall back to Dale now!" Bard yelled over the fighting and marching once noticing more trolls and Orcs heading straight to the city.

"Gandalf!" She yelled but her voice was drowned out by the shouting and grunting, watching as him and the Hobbit took off after the city.

She followed their trail, running after them as quickly as her legs could carry her while she dodged the various people on the battlefield, trying not to become lost or caught up in the fight before she was able to reach them.

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When she reached the city it had already been overrun with Orcs, screaming filling the air as the townspeople ran for cover. The streets were filled with the foul beasts, the cramped conditions making it even harder to manoeuvre through the deadly crowd. She pulled her sword out before launching herself into the fray, slicing down Orcs with her only goal to get through the crowd unscathed, Gandalf and Bilbo nowhere in sight.

She managed to make her way into a lesser crowded area, grabbing onto the arm of an older man as he fled through the city with a group of men behind him, bows clutched in their hands. "Have you seen a Hobbit? Ginger hair, he'd only be tiny?"

"I think I saw him down by the market," Percy responded before she let go of his arm and allowed him to continue on his journey.

Thankfully, she still remembered the general layout of the city and took off running towards where she knew the market to be. When she arrived she saw a cluster of Orcs fighting against a group of citizens that had once belonged to Lake-town, letting out a breath when she saw Bilbo's familiar head of hair among the crowd. She pushed herself into the action, forcing her way to the Hobbit and wizard that she had been searching for.

Bilbo had both his hands wrapped tightly around Sting, fighting as hard as he could against the battalion of Orcs that surrounded them from all angles. He turned around in the battle but widened his eyes as he saw one of the hideous creatures with it's sword poised to cut him down the middle clean in half. But it's weapon never dropped, instead a sword was embedded in it's chest with no hand attached to the weapon. His shock turned into confusion before morphing into joy when he watched Athena run down to him, grabbing onto the hilt of the sword that she had thrown in desperation to save his life before pulling it out of the Orc and kicking the corpse to the ground.

"Oh I'm so glad to see you," he whispered to her as she sent him a gentle smile. "What about the others?"

"They tried to fight but Thorin wouldn't let them," she explained as she whirled around to meet swords with another Orc, swinging their blades to the side and allowing the point of her sword to slice through its neck, "I fear nothing will take him out of his trance."

"Ah Athena, it's good of you to join us," Gandalf remarked when seeing that she had joined in on the constant fighting around them, not stopping to pay full attention to her as he was too busy fighting off the horde with his staff.

"I can't say I'm too happy to be here," she responded while ducking under the blade of an enemy before plunging her sword into its chest, all the while dodging Bilbo who moved dangerously closely to her in the throng.

Amidst the skirmish she distantly heard the sounds of screaming children, furrowing her eyebrows as she could have sworn she had heard those voices before. She turned her head to where the shrill yelling was coming from and saw Bard stood a little ways ahead of her attempting to lift up a cart that had fallen to the ground but struggling with the weight of it. She didn't think twice before rushing over to him, skidding on the snow as she came to a stop on the opposite side of the cart before helping hoist it up and onto its wheels, the man sending her a very brief nod in thanks before he boarded it and took off down the hill, Athena unable to watch the scene unfold as she was instantly thrown back into the fighting.

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Athena sat herself down on one of the many rocks littered on the battered floor of the city, Bilbo resting on the floor beside her with Gandalf standing a few feet away from them. It had been a gruesome fight but they had collectively managed to wipe out the Orcs that had invaded the market place, everybody who was there taking a moment to rest and ease the aching in their limbs from the strenuous fighting.

Her head snapped up towards Erebor when the bellowing sound of a horn resonated through the wind and over to the city of Dale. There was no mistaking the sound for anything other than the horn of Erebor, the Dwarves being the only ones who would be able to sound it.

"Thorin," Bilbo whispered in realisation.

The King under the Mountain had returned.