When in doubt, jump in head first

10. The Eagles have come to save the day

They tumbled and slipped down the slope. Laelynn gasped as she tripped, and a Warg sailed over her head, landing and turning on her with a snarl. It ran at Bilbo, who held up his sword and looked shocked as the creature ran headlong into the waiting blade.

It fell to it's side, dead, Bilbo's sword still buried in it's forehead. She ran past him, slicing the throat of one of the Wargs who was foolish to come close to her. They reached the edge of the tree line, and Laelynn shuttered to a stop when she saw the drop below.

"Into the trees!" yelled Gandalf, already halfway up the pine at the edge of the cliff. She took a running leap at the nearest tree, and pulled herself up onto the lowest branch. She climbed higher, until the branch under her feet gave a small creak of protest. "Come on, climb! Bilbo, climb!" The wizard continued to yell, and Laelynn turned to see the hobbit still trying to remove his sword from the Warg's skull. She moved her sword to her left hand and pulled out her wand.

"Relashio," she called, and a jet of purple light flew from her wand, releasing the sword from the skull. Bilbo stumbled back and nearly dropped his sword, then looked around for the other dwarves, who were mostly up the tree at that point.

Dwalin (still on the ground) picked him up and threw him to Kíli above, eliciting a strangled yelp of protest from the hobbit. He then swung himself up into the tree just as the first Wargs entered the now-empty space.

The circled the bases of the trees, and Laelynn swallowed down the fear she felt, pushing it behind her shields. An orc rode in on one of the Wargs, the mangy brown creature whining under his weight. His pale skin was crisscrossed with scars in precise pattern, and an iron claw was stuck in the stump of his left elbow.

"Azog?" Thorin breathed in shock from a tree near her. So this is the Pale Orc, she thought.

A cruel smile snaked across the creature's thin lips. "Do you smell it?" he rasped, his voice sending a chill through her bones as he spoke a tongue so foul she would never repeat it, "The scent of fear?" He paced on his Warg, the small amount of moonlight glittering off his pale skin, before he spoke again, "I remember your father reeked of it, Thorin son of Thrain."

Laelynn's mind wandered back to the conversation she'd had with Gandalf nearly a month ago, when he'd said the Thorin hadn't been told the secret of the stone before his father was killed. Seeing the look of helpless disbelief on his face, she wondered if there was more to it then the old king dying suddenly. Azog lifted his claw and pointed it at Thorin. "That one is mine," he snarled, "Kill the others!"

The other Wargs streamed forward at his command, faster and thicker than blood from a wound. The ran at the trees, and the great pines protested the assault with creaks and groans. Laelynn clung to her branch as the tree shook, the wood beneath her feet cracking. The snarls of the Wargs and the snapping of their jaws filled the air, while Azog looked on with unholy glee.

There was a cry from the tree farthest from the edge, and she turned to watch in horror as the roots wrenched themselves out of the soil. Dry earth flew into the air as the tree fell against the one next to it. Which fell against the one next to it.

Like a row of dominoes the trees fell, and Laelynn's shrieks joined the yells of the dwarves and the snarls of the Wargs in the air. The company was jumping off their trees as they fell, and as the roots of her own began to leave their home in the earth, she steeled herself. The smooth wood of her wand in one hand, the soft leather pommel of her sword in the other, Laelynn jumped to the branches of the tree next to hers, where the entire group now hung from branches, staring at the orcs.

A blur of light flew past her left ear, and Laelynn turned to see Gandalf passing out flaming pine cones to the others. Looking to the ground again, she saw how affected the Wargs were by the flames. "Incendio!" she yelled, and a stream of fire flew from her wand to the ground, catching easily on the dry brush. The Wargs were yelping, trying to avoid the attack, and many retreated with their fur on fire.