Chapter 19

It was not long after the main leader of the wargs had sent off his messengers, when Thorin could hear the sounds of more slightly farther away wargs howling as if on the hunt. The messengers had apparently found whom them had been sent to find, namely the orc that Thorin hated the most, Azog.

He was not allowed to keep his mind on the white orc for long, for when the large wolves beneath them, that had been thus far been just milling about the roots of the pine's, suddenly became riled up. It started rather suddenly, first one large thud upon the tree trunks of first one tree and then another. It did not take the dwarves prince long to figure out that some of the largest looking wolves, which were honestly the size of wargs, were throwing their substantial girth against the trees. Their size and strength caused the trees that were under their attack, to groan and shake under the stress. Apparently the soil was not so packed as what might be needed for these trees to stay upright. Years of wind had likely eroded away at the pin tree's root systems, and it was only starting to show now when deeply grown root structure would have been a good thing, but alas they were not.

With how the tree he was in was shaking, Thorin did not think that it would be standing much longer. His mind raced of what to do when a great cracking groan on of the trees starting coming down. With two great cried Kili and Fili jumped from their high perch into the neighboring tree that Thorin, Beth and the others were in, with a creak cracking of limbs fem both their jump as well as the now felled tree on the ground.

Even as his nephews grappled to stay in this tree, Thorin felt as if it was going to follow suit as the first one very soon. During this time he had not realized his hand was still steadying Beth until she had turned in such a manner that dislodged his hand from her back.

His head turned toward her and saw Beth slowly getting her footing on the branch she had been sitting down on not moments before, hands grasping at branches to both of her sides to not be dislodged from her position as she moved. She looked petrified as another warg through itself against the tree shaking it with more vigor than before. But there was a change in her face, which Thorin somehow knew meant she had made up her mind, as terrified as she was, to jump over to the other tree that Gandalf was in before theirs was going down.

He wanted to stop her. Help her. Keep her protected. But he knew there was no time for that since she would probably get angry with him for doing so. Now was no time to have any kind of argument, even with a human girl who could only get out a little passible Westron that did not include swears. The look upon her face when he had hoisted her into the tree not that long ago had been clear in her dislike for such displays that she felt only showed that he though she was weak. Really he was more afraid of what she would do or where she might go if Beth Hale ever came into her own and no longer needed his help at all. But, Thorin could not help watching her run down as far as she could down the thickest part of the limb before launching herself into the thin air between the trees, a stone settling heavily in his gut that would not dislodge itself even when he saw her catch hold of a limb and scrambled over to the other side of the tree to make way for others to follow.

…..

Beth could not believe how fast the other trees had fallen; seemingly not moments after she had jumped there was a mass exodus by the dwarves and one hobbit into the very tree that they were in with Gandalf now.

Even now she thought she could see shapes farther off in the darkness, but her human eyes were not as shape as the dwarves in the darkness. But from the whispered words that she could catch from them, someone, likely Ori, had caught glimpse of a white warg with a rider. She could only assume it was the white orc come to demand whatever he wanted of Thorin. For this they had been cornered in the last tree right no the edge of the cliff, the wolves had eased up on their attack in the slightest bit, but never letting them think they had been forgotten. They were waiting till this powerful beast gave his word, whatever it may be.

It was in this lull that Gandalf started to mount their defense. Beth's exposed skin had prickled uncomfortably moments before Gandalf suddenly had a flaming pinecone held in his hands. Magic she was sure, for whom in this time period who just summon fire without use of a lighter or flint in this day and age?

Gandalf used this first pinecone to light a few others before passing them to to waiting hands of the dwarves who instantly had figured out his plan. For the brush and now felled trees were tinder dry and would make a cheery firewall to keep the wolves and wargs at bay. Soon the night was lit up with flaming pinecones flying through the air, hitting wolves and brush non-discriminately. There were some horrible cries and the smell of burnt fur that quickly filled the air, just as the orcs riding several large wargs appeared on the top of the hill. Beth could not help but grin, for surly the monsters had not expected their prey to have found such an ingenious way to fight back.

The wolves were in chaos, fleeing this way and that, some with burning fur and snapping at their brothers in their anger and fright. Beth did not join in with the throwing of pinecones partly since she was sure that dwarfish hands were apparently no so impervious to fire as she was really sure hers were, as well as she was much to busy holding onto the tree for dear life as this all went on around her. She did not need second degree burns to hinder her ability to cling to the tree bark.

The orcs cried out, in what she assumed to be orc-ish since she understood not a word of it, but they did sound a bit more than miffed with all of the wolves running away in a confused mass. While the dwarves yelled triumphantly as the wolves turned tail.

This celebration was however cut very short indeed when this tree that had provided the pinecones that had helped them so greatly seemed to have had enough and started to fall with a sad grinding of the roots being torn from the ground.

Beth felt her heart seem to stop as they surely were going to hurtle down into the valley floor so far below, but just as suddenly as the tree had fallen it came to a horrible shuddering stop, with a screech and a shake.

It was not until the fallen pine had stopped moving for the most part that Beth really realized what an awkward and strange position she had been stuck in as she had been scrabbling to keep a hold of anything substantial, as it had fallen. She was clinging to a, thankfully, thick enough branch that seemed like it would support her weight, clutching to it with both her set of arms and legs wrapped around it in such a way that she was straddling it. Against her better judgment she looked down, only to see that where the cliff ended. It was a sudden drop into thin air for what she could only see as hundreds of feet, at the bottom of which was a rocky bottom that was hardly hospitable looking at the moments.

She was also rather sure that during the fall she had yelled out in a horribly high pitched and unusually feminine manner, but she was not entirely sure of that fact. If they lived she might have to ask someone, but Beth also knew even as that crazy question passed through her head that she likely would not remember to ask such a silly query if they did some how manage to live through this night. For it was looking very much like they were going to end up either smashed on the rocks so far below or have their bones crunched on by the powerful jaws of the wargs that where now pacing just beyond the fire. The battle having turned back again into their favor.

Arid smoke that stung her eyes from the pinesap, as everyone seemed to be having a bit of trouble trying to keep ahold of the branches and limbs that had once help them so securely. When suddenly the weight of both the bullet box in her jacket pocket where she had placed it during heir escape from the caves if she had need of it, as well as her revolver that sat nestled against her hip it it's haphazard holster she had made herself with bits of leather bound to her belt. She had quite forgotten about both things till this moment, but perhaps this might be a good time to make use of them.

While the other's continued to throw flaming pinecones with wonderfully amazing accuracy, Beth shimmied her weight around until she was straddling the branch instead of hanging onto it like a squirrel. It was when she finally righted herself Beth, along with everyone else that the orcs had gotten their ugly steads under control and now swarmed were the fire was waiting for a section to die down. The largest of them, the white one, was trying to stare them down through the flames as if his gaze could kill.

As Beth was trying to reach with her free hand to grasp the box of bullets she thought she was actually going to catch it without much trouble. That was until a particularly large jerk of the tree, shook her with such force that the fallen pine groaned agonizingly and needles were shaken off by the fistful. Beth was jostled and suddenly felt the small yet weighty paper box, with all of it's priceless contents, jostled from her finger tips instead of staying in her hand as it should have.

She leaned forward with such a velocity that while she was somehow able to gasp the heavy box firmly Beth found herself having leaned forward way too much and was pitching forward to fall into the open air just below her. She was only saved by digging her fingernails of her free hand into the bark-covered branch in a painful manner, she was rather sure she might have ripped out some of them. But it was better than plummeting downwards.

It was about then that Beth was disturbed from trying to carefully open that slippery paper box, when from the periphery of her vision she saw a sudden movement. Freezing at her work she looked up to see Thorin having stood up and walking slowly down the tree trunk. It was obvious he was making his way over towards the flame, sword drawn, the blade glinting and glittering in the firelight.

…..

To say Bilbo was rather surprised at himself when he had stood up on a burning tree and ran rushed towards a fully grown warg with his little sword drawn. He had been absolutely terrified for the majority of the night, still was in fact. But something had snapped in him. Perhaps it had started back in the caverns, or when he had found out the little golden ring's powers. He was hardly sure, but certainly some part of it had been when Thorin had first walked and then started to run into the seemingly figurative and literal jaws of death.

With the flames and sparks all-around the dwarf prince, with many landing on his coat and fur trim only to go out with a horrible looking fizzle, Bilbo saw in that moment the leaders of old. Those men, elves, dwarves, and even a few rare brave hobbits who stood up against formidable or even impossible odds to defend themselves and their friends to the very last.

It has been in that moment that when he saw Thorin go down underneath the huge crushing blown from the orc's mace and into the jaw's of the white warg, with no one to support him, that Bilbo had found himself suddenly moving. Even as Thorin landed a hit with his swords onto the beast's side and was thrown onto a pile of rocks for his trouble, Bilbo did not stop moving.

He had no time to think of what he was doing until he had literally thrown himself at the orc who was about to cut off Thorin's head.

Somehow with help from his speed and his huge amount of surprise on his side, if not a pile of luck, Bilbo toppled the orc over. It was over in a flash of steel and blood. And the still terrified Hobbit found himself rising up, the orc at his hairy feet. Sure the orc had not been the giant of the one the white orc was, but to a hobbit all orcs where very large in comparison.

Adrenaline rushed through his veins, but even that did not take off the sting of terror that flooded his brain as the slain orc's warg lunged at him. Bilbo wanted to screw his eyes shut, he had no time to move to defend himself. His little stand of courage even as he had been dripping in fear was about to end with him dead after all. Suddenly there was a loud bang, and the warg sort of convulsed in stride as it nearly knocked Bilbo over instead of tearing at him with its huge fangs.

Bilbo lay on the ground, completely stunned from the fall. He could only blink for what seemed like hours though it must had been only a few seconds. For when he looked in the direction from where the practically supernatural sound had come from he clearly saw Beth.

She stood not ten feet away pointing the useless piece of melt, that seemed to be smoking slightly from the opening, at the beast had that had been out to kill him. She herself seemed to be swathed in fire from behind, only the white areas of the whites of her eyes testifying that she was just as scared as he.

Bilbo was stunned, to only from the blow when he had hit the ground but also that horrible banging noise. Even when she barked out to him something in her own tongue, which he translated in his head to meaning something along the lines of 'get up', he could not find it in his strength to move.

"Bilbo! Move! Thorin requirement help!" Beth was able to force out in Westron before turning her attention to the now horrified looking and outraged orcs. Bilbo could not help but remain frozen for a while longer as the human girl pointed that hunk of metal at another pair of charging wargs. The thunderous noise came once then twice and the beasts both toppled over in succession, holes in each ones skull as if struck with an invisible spear.

…..

Beth could feel her whole body trembling, but she forced herself remain calm. After the second and third wargs had fallen at her feet, the rest of the wargs and orcs had seemed to think it best not to just charge her. One of them spat out a word she was sure was either witch or the other word that was rather close in pronunciation. She decided witch suited her needs best in this situation, the fear of the supernatural seemed ingrained in these creatures as it had been with the goblins.

At this point she knew she had only three more bullets in the chamber, if the orcs all decided to charge her at once she would only be able to take a few more down if her aim was true. Beth was reasonably sure that she would not be able to reload quickly enough before being taken down. She hardly wanted to be eaten, so she did something only slightly less stupid than just rushing at them head on hoping they would run away in pure terror. Instead she gave them what they though they saw, a witch.

Waving the revolver above her head she screamed at them in her own language. Mainly just because it was all her brain could think of, but she did figure that it might sound a whole lot more like she was casting a spell, they didn't need to know she was pretty much just spouting random lines from different plays she had been forced to study in university. Apparently the great tragedies from 500 years ago had stuck with her a bit more then she realized.

This was just after she had ran out of breath that a weird silence fell over the whole space. The fires, that were now starting to die quickly, only murmured when they had been roaring not long before. Right was one orc rider and warg seemed to think it a good idea to start forward upon the 'witch' again, a huge feathered creature streaked across them and picked them both up before dropping them over the side of the mountain.

Suddenly it was a mad house, with orcs and wargs alike truing to scramble away for it really did seem like Beth had summoned some wrathful creature into their midst. However she knew that was not the case since all she really had been yelling just random bits and pieces of plays that had made no sense at all much less could have been any kind of curse. What kind of curse included "your mother was a rat and your father smelt of sambucus" anyways?

Her line of thought was however, rudely, interrupted when one of these huge birds, which she rather sure were overly large eagles, scooped her up in its claws and dropped her into the darkness below.