The King, The Burglar and The Guardian

Chapter fifteen

Word count - 2,327

Ch - 15

Just as dread fell upon the company, the light from the sun faded, leaving the company helpless in the dark. They made a mad dash in any general direction away from the danger, with Gandalf at the lead. Adelaide struggled to keep up, her leg in serious pain. She cursed every rock and root she stumbled over. The company was soon surrounded by wargs, but they'd be damned if they would survive that many goblins just to be offed by wargs. They found with every ounce of energy they had left, but it wasn't enough. Bilbo was barely keeping up, but Adelaide did her best to stay near him. She was impressed as she watched the hobbit drive his sword into the side of a warg but it was no time for celebration.

Adelaide prepared to get into the fight but a shout caught her attention.

"Up into the trees! Climb!" Gandalf roared, making sure everyone heard him and followed his orders.

Bilbo followed Adelaide into a tree, climbing higher and higher. Unfortunately for her, she picked the tree with Nori, Dori and Ori. Dori tried to climb higher, away from her, but he couldn't. The dwarf just settled for gripping onto Ori as if that'll help. The wargs below chuffed and howled as their meal had just escaped. A few tried to jump and snap at the low hanging dwarves but to no use. As Gandalf whispered a little message to a moth, Thorin scanned the trees making sure everyone was safe. His eyes stopped, as did his breathing as he spotted the very creation that haunts his dreams. Azog the Defiler. The orc rode the white warg, glancing up at the dwarves as if they were fruit fresh for picking.

"Do you smell it?"

Adelaide stared at the orc, it was too soon for them to be meeting again. The orc saw her and smiled sadistically before meeting Thorings gaze.

"The scent of fear? Your father reeked of it, Thorin son of Thrain."

"It cannot be." The words barely left Thorin's lips, like the air had been knocked out of him.

Azog pointed up at Thorin first, "That one," then, with the arm that now served as a sword, he pointed to Adelaide, "and that one, is mine. Kill the others!"

At his word, the orcs riding wargs began to charge at the trees and chewed at the branches, Azog doing nothing but watch. The first tree began to fall, sending the dwarves into the trees behind. Not only could Adelaide barely walk, but now she had to jump from tree to tree like a squirrel? She was getting sick of this.

She braced for impact as the trees continued to topple, each tree forced to carry more weight than the last until they were all hanging helplessly from one on the very edge of the cliff. The company could only watch as the wargs began to climb the now tilted tree. Adelaide looked back when she smelt smoke and grinned, splitting her lip further in the process but she didn't notice.

She laughed as Gandalf launched the lit pinecone straight into the face of the closest warg. He began to drop them down to the dwarves, giving them new hope.

Within seconds, every dwarf had an arsenal of fireballs, and they made no errors with their shot. The wargs began to back off as the fire spread around the base of the tree, a few dwarves hollered in glee feeling much more hopeful. Their shouts soon were cut off by the groan of the tree trunk as the roots were pulled from the group further. A few started to lose their grip, settling for a wizard's foot instead, brother following suit... willing or not.

"Mister Gandalf!"

Dori tried to keep his grip but he soon fell to what was surely his death, had it not been for Gandalf's quick thinking. He lowered his staff just quick enough for Dori to catch it.