The Diamond Witch

Seven

We had just barely had gotten a moment's rest when Azog the Defiler along with his orcs appeared.

"Out of the frying pan..." Thorin started.

"...and into the fire! Run! RUN!" Gandalf finished.

We all started running down the mountain as fast as we could. The wargs followed us, only a few paces behind. Soon, the foremost warg caught up to our group and leaped at Bilbo. He ducked behind a rock as the warg's jaws snapped in the air over his head. The warg landed in front of him. Growling, it charged at him. Bilbo pulled out his sword and held it shakily in front of him. The charging warg impaled itself in the head on the sword and fell down, dead. Bilbo looked on in surprise. A few more wargs caught up to the fleeing dwarves, but they were quickly dispatched. We reached a large outcropping of land with a few trees growing on it. There was no way out of there. We would either die at the hands of the orcs, or commit suicide and jump off the cliff. Lovely. We were going to die either way. The only way we could escape death's grasp for a time was to climb into the trees.

"Up into the trees, all of you! Come on, climb! Bilbo, climb!" I yelled.

Bifur threw an axe, killing a warg that was approaching him. Bofur jumped off a rock and grabbed a tree branch, using Dwalin's head as a stepping stone to the tree. The other dwarves began climbing into the trees as well. I had to assist some of them with magic. I noticed that Bilbo was trying to pull his sword out of the dead warg's head, but it was stuck firmly. He continued to pull until I assisted him. I ran over to him and pulled the sword from the warg's head.

"They're coming!"

Gandalf climbed to the top of the furthest tree; Dwalin boosted Balin up. Thorin, Bombur, and the rest climbed up trees too. The main body of wargs and warg riders approached us. Bilbo finally looked up to see several more wargs running at him. I lifted him up into the tree as the wargs rushed below him. I put up a shield and three wargs disappeared. I ran to a tree and the twins aided me as I climbed up. Dozens of wargs circled the trees. After a moment, the wargs ceased their growling and turned as the White Warg, with Azog on its back, approached us, slowly. Thorin looked at Azog in shock.

"Azog?!"

As the White Warg growls, Azog stroked it.

"Nuzdigid? Nuzdi gast? Ganzilig-i unarug obod nauzdanish, Torin undag Train-ob." {Do you smell it? The scent of fear? I remember your father reeked of it, Thorin son of Thrain.}

Thorin looked stricken with pain and grief, realizing that Azog had captured his father.

"It cannot be."

"Kod, Toragid biriz. Worori-da!" {That one is mine. Kill the others!}

At Azog's command, the Wargs leapt forward and tried to climb the trees on which we were attempting to keep safe in. They jumped as high as they could, scrabbling at the tree trunks and breaking apart branches in their jaws in their efforts. The trees shook violently at the assault, and the dwarves struggled to hold on.

"Sho gad adol!" {Drink their blood!}

With the weight of the Wargs climbing it, the furthest tree from the edge of the cliff—on which Bilbo and several other dwarves were in—got uprooted from the ground and began leaning wildly. As more Wargs grabbed onto it, the tree tipped over and landed on the next tree. The dwarves and Bilbo jumped from the falling tree to the next. However, this tree as well tipped over. And like dominoes, all the trees began falling over, each time all the dwarves (and I when it came to my tree) jumped to the next one. All the dwarves, Bilbo, Gandalf, and I managed to jump onto the last tree, on the very edge of the cliff. This tree, for once, didn't fall over. I noticed Gandalf had grabbed a pinecone and he used his staff to set the pinecone on fire. He then threw it down amid the Wargs, who retreated in fear of the fire. Azog was startled and angry at the unexpected resistance. Gandalf lighted three more pinecones and threw one down to Fili, calling his name.