From The Inside

26

The rancid taste of orc blood was something which Ylva could never really fully forget. She had followed Bard all the way to the market, the tight groups of orcs got barrelled into. She for one wasted no time in leaping on the first one she saw. She concentrated on clamping her jaws down on its head, armour or not, it wasn't going to withstand her bite force. After hearing a crunch, she merely bounded to the next. She kept going this way until she had parted from Bard, who had reunited with his children, and until she had somehow managed to do a full circuit and cross paths with Gandalf.

He had a momentary pause in fighting and looked to her with a tired expression. Tired though his expression was, he was also extremely glad to see her in one piece. She spat, perhaps not the best way to say hello after this burst of fighting, but the well of orc blood which was lingering in her mouth had to come out.

Gandalf merely raised an eyebrow at her and turned to push away an oncoming orc who saw fit to try and get a cheap shot in. Another tried while his back was turned only to have her leap on it and grip onto its shoulder. She let out a yelp when its blade nicked her shoulder, yet it was such a minor injury she rather quickly forgot about it as she turned to Gandalf. He had dealt with his attacker and nodded to her. Sticking with him, she ran by his side all the way to a small bridge, which Bilbo was standing on, from here they had a brilliant view of the battlefield below.

Dain's army had started to retreat backwards, Azog's forces had continued to push them backwards to the point that the only place they could really go was to the barricade; though this meant being cornered against a wall. Though this was the likely outcome to happen, it in fact didn't. Just as the orcs were about to close in, the barricade which sat blocking the door suddenly got shattered and pushed aside. From the rubble out came Thorin and the other dwarves. It had taken quite a while, but it seemed that he had finally seen sense and had come out to fight in this battle, at last.

"The dwarves are rallying." Bilbo said while readjusting his grip on Sting, he briefly glanced at Ylva, who looked in a worse state than she was. He dully noted he would never wish to have her as an enemy. Even as she stood the constant dripping of blood coming off her fur was enough to cause him to feel discontent. She was on their side, he knew that, but the mess of gore and black blood which dripped from her dark fur was still unnerving.

"They're rallying to their King." Gandalf replied with a light smile, he didn't pay notice to the slight mess of Ylva, he knew naturally that she'd get stuck head first into fighting. If it meant killing as many orcs as she could, there would truly be no stopping her.

Looking to the side, the three moved off, the fighting was drawing closer. Bilbo almost got pushed aside as Ylva literally seemed to fly into the nearest orc and pin it to the floor. Staring slightly wide eyed as she throttled the squirming figure below her, Bilbo just had time enough to dodge out of the way or an orc charging at him. Hearing his voice over all the noise, both Gandalf and Ylva moved away and looked to what he was gesturing at. "It's Thorin," Bilbo said while glancing to the mountain pass which he along with a select few were travelling up.

"And Fíli, Kíli and Dwalin. He's taking his best warriors," Gandalf said surely while watching the small group as they continued to travel upwards.

"To do what?" Bilbo asked while staring wide eyed up at his friends.

"To cut the head off the snake." He said lowly and seriously.

"Gandalf!" The sounds of charging hooves and a clear voice exclaimed. The three looked towards a horse which was speedily making its way towards them.

"Legolas," Gandalf wasted no time in moving forwards. "Legolas Greenleaf!"

"There's a second army," Legolas said shortly while dismounting and moving closer to the wizard. "Bolg leads an army of Gundabad orcs; they are almost upon us."