The Sisters [A Hobbit Fanfiction]

Chapter 17

[A/N: And since we broke 300 reads, here's another update ;) ]

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The company raced out of the forest on foot, the ponies long having bolted or been shot down.

Bringing up the rear, Nienna, Runa and Kili all ran, forced to turn to cut down the faster orcs as they did so. A small group of orcs began to gather as they chased their quarry, finally realizing that their safety lay in numbers.

The group singled out Kili (the slowest of the threesome) and began to circle. Unaware of their companions predicament, Runa and Nienna took to the trees to try and gain some space to shoot down their enemies.

By the time Nienna saw the danger and cried out in warning, it was too late, Kili was trapped. He tried in vain to defend himself, but it was easy to see he was fighting a losing battle.

Just then, there was a flash of white light and Gandalf appeared in front of Kili quickly driving off the orcs.

“Didn’t I tell you to wait?!” he bellowed at Runa and Nienna as he helped Kili up.

“Plans changed!” Runa replied, hopping out of her tree and sprinting to catch up.

“Clearly,” responded Gandalf with light sarcasm lining his words. Nienna, who had followed Runa, spoke up defensively,

“They had catapults…” This came as news to Gandalf and he looked at her in surprise as they continued to flee across the grassy hills.

“Really? Catapults?”

“Catapults,” confirmed Runa gravely.

“Ingenious,” muttered Gandalf with what the other three suspected was a chuckle. “Didn’t anyone think to… er… dismantle the contraptions with fiery arrows?” Runa and Nienna looked at each other then offered a sheepish,

“No…”

Gandalf shook his head, but smiled kindly,

“Well, no use trying to change the past. Can’t be done. One simply has to move onward!” With that, they managed to rejoin the company and the entire group raced across the plains.

“Gandalf! Where were- oh nevermind! Where are we going?” asked Thorin at the head of the company as Gandalf came up alongside him.

“To a friend!” Gandalf said. Both looked back to see the orcs still behind them, and gaining as they spoke.

“We’ll never make it!” Thorin exclaimed.

“Oh yes we will!” returned Gandalf with determination, quickly veering toward part of the plain that was littered with rocks and trees.

“Split up!” called Gandalf as they entered the area. The company quickly did as instructed and as the orcs came into sight, each group took off in different directions, forcing the orcs to follow suit.

“We’ll never be able to keep this up,” panted Kili, running alongside Fili ad Runa with Nora leading them.

“Hopefully we won’t have to,” responded Runa grimly.

Suddenly, an orc fell from the skies and landed on top of Nora. Both fell to the ground, Nora crushed underneath the orc’s weight.

“Fili!” ordered Runa, rather unnecessarily as the dwarf had already sprung forward and was ripping the orc off Nora.

Runa looked up to see that the seemingly ‘flying orc’ had actually dropped onto them from one of the steeper ridges next to them. Comforting as it was to know that orcs had yet to evolve so that they could fly, it also revealed that was an intimidating row of orcs that hadn’t jumped, but looked as though they were preparing to.