Daughter of Starlight

Chapter Thirty Nine: The Darkest Hour

Dáin immediately ordered his soldiers back into formation, ready to combat the new threat.

"The hordes of hell are upon us!" he shouted, already adapted to the new battle. "Fight to the death!"

While the dwarves rushed forward, ready to truly fight to the death, the elves stood fast, lowering their swords and merely watching them go.

I looked around, seeing that not a single elf had moved to support the dwarf army against the charging orcs. Instead they had retreated, pressing themselves back towards the gates of Erebor with their shields raised. Bilbo, who had stepped towards us with Gandalf, shared my look of disbelief.

"The elves," he said to Gandalf. "Will they not fight?"

I looked to Thranduil, who was looking upon the scene with an odd look on his face, one that I had seen before. It was one of pain. He was already suffering, the inner struggle of whether to fight or not tormenting him.

The orcs advanced, coming closer and closer to the dwarves, who had formed a barricade with their shields and stuck out their spears to impale the oncoming orcs. Before they could begin their assault, the elves leaped over the barricade, joining in the fight. After the elves had gotten clear, the dwarves stood and charged, protected behind their shields while their spears impaled the orcs in front of them.

I felt a smile on my lips for the first time in a long time. The elves had allied themselves with the dwarves to win the battle. With their combined forces fighting the orcs, victory was something that may be accomplished.

"Uh, Gandalf?" Bilbo asked as Thranduil's army continued to march into battle. "Is this a good place to stand?"

I directed my smile towards the hobbit, appreciating that I could find something humorous in our situation. In the next second I witnessed another blare of the orcs' horn and changing of the war flag signals, and I realized that it was now my turn to join the battle.

I dismounted Bard's horse and removed the bow Kili had given me from my back. I had spent the time I had before daybreak fashioning it and the arrows in the quiver to my size, and now I was ready to use it.

I stepped in line with the archers who remained, nocking an arrow and aiming.

Thranduil shouted an order for the archers to shoot, and I shot along with them. Our arrows soared through the sky in an arc towards the orcs, all of them hitting their marks when they returned to the ground.

I watched from where I stood as the battle raged on. The dwarfish war machines went against the orcs' war beasts, trolls who had been released into the battlefield to bludgeon all adversaries.

The horn sounded again with the changing flag signals, and I watched the leftover legions of orcs all begin their march towards Dale.

"Azog," Gandalf said from where he stood in front of me. The archers had scattered to join the fight, leaving me alone with the wizard and the hobbit. "He's trying to cut us off."

The meaning of his words were apparent. Very soon we would be cut off from the city, leaving us trapped in the field between Erebor and Dale.

I immediately began running, with Gandalf close behind me. I was surprised by how fast such an old man could run, but I didn't question it. This was Gandalf the Grey. He could do anything.

"To the city!" Gandalf shouted repeatedly as we sprinted for Dale, alerting the elves of what their plan was as we ran. I briefly wondered where my father was, but my worries were forgotten as I watched a line of trolls fire gargantuan boulders from the slingshots on their back. They crashed into the city walls and sent them crumbling, leaving everything within vulnerable and exposed.