Note;

Warnings; tissue alert! Blood and a bit of gore.

Sury on 07, 27, 2014
A little rant...
I got the notice of a message from someone that does no longer exist since I delated it. It was after my cousin added the last chapter here and on other sides, to that girl and all else I would like to clear up something.
I added Stormwind 13 as my co-author because she is truly helping me more than I can ever tell you all. I am aware of it that my English is not the very best and without her kind help and neverending paitience with my troubles in the last months, she still held to me and does herself all this work, this story wouldn't be what it is. Even with her having her own troubles and work she still does this for me!
I delated your message and you from my list of people to recive messages from, girl. Please, never ever again contact me. I will not have anyone badmouth my Beta! Is that clear enough for you! It is already bad enough for Me to recieve mails like yours, I will not let you people hurt her too. I will not even repead your words and also will not tell from what side the message came from. You're simply not worth it.
I also did not bother Stromwind with it. Yep, my dear flamer, she never read your message =^_^= Your little attack run down the drain, smiles. Because, You, are simply not worth the energy wasted to type that down nor does she deserve the hurt you were trying to cause her. She is far too dear to me to give you the pleasure. And I will continue to delate every kind of those mails and comments no matter how often they show up. I have a thick skin in that department and I will not let you harm my Beta.
You're Suryalle

Concerning Hobbits and Dwarves

Of orc's cheated, one orc cussing and falling, someone taking a tumble and a group follow suit and of a king and his musings interrupted and of the dead.

Warnings; tissue alert! Blood and a bit of gore.

Part thirteen ; Falling

'thoughts, Iglishmêk'

*Sign language*

Gerontius cradled his broken arm as he gazed mournfully at the remains of Bramble; the pony had been with him for years, but hadn't survived the plunge into the crevasse that had suddenly appeared. "We've seen better days old girl, haven't we?" He glanced around and pulled himself to his feet, wincing as pain shot through his arm and torso. The old gentel hobbit had the sudden feeling that he had not much time left on Arda.

But he was inside the mountain, even if it wasn't in the way that he had intended.

He started to move, skirting around the still form of the Orc that had landed near him, and heading into a tunnel. He needed to find the others before whatever else lived in the mountain did. Fang gave one last growl at the Orc before he followed Gerontius, worried. Old Hobbits were tough, but Fang was sure even a young one would be in a lot of pain right now.

Gerontius tried to ignore the pain by getting his memories of what happened in order.

He had felt someone dear to him die and hoped that it wasn't his wife or children. But as he headed deeper into the mountain, leaving the trail that his forefathers had used, a massive white Orc had appeared. The Orc and his companions had driven them up the slope of the mountain until they could go no further and were perched on a pile of gravel and loose stone. The Orcs had had no bow but neither had Gerontius, though the Hobbit had had his sling and was able to use the gravel to force the Orc to back down.

Then Hildifons and the others had arrived. Gerontius' son hadn't even blinked as he nocked an arrow and let it fly, hitting one of the Orcs in the throat. The scene had devolved into chaos immediately as Kili's arrows had missed the other Orc, but had caused it to bump into the white Orc's Warg, sending all four down the slope. That had triggered a landslide and soon everyone was sliding down the side of the mountain.

Only to have the bottom drop out from under them in several places and the mountain seem to swallow them whole.

Gerontius had fallen into the same hole as the white Orc. The Orc had spent the entire fall screaming in the Black Tongue, stopping only when he bounced off various outcroppings. He was silenced entirely when Gerontius landed on him at the bottom.

Gerontius knew that even if the Orc survived the fall he would probably never fully recover.

The old Hobbit glanced down at the pup that followed next to him. The pup had been bundled up with the spare bedding and clothes and so was shielded from most of the bumps that the others had sustained. Gerontius prayed feverishly that his son and grandchild were both still alive as he moved that much further into the mountain, leaving the white Orc lying in a pool of blood.

"Where in Yavanna's name are we?" Hildifons got the question out in between curses as he examined himself for injuries. His head throbbed something fierce and he had blood on his hands when he brushed over his temples on both sides. Beside him, Bilbo and Fili sorted themselves out, cataloging their own hurts and scraps; Bilbo had a nasty cut on his arm and Fili's leg was bruised and bleeding.

Across from them, Bifur blinked, holding something in his hands as blood trickled down his face. Next to him sat the Dryad that had slowed down their fall all the way down with her own body used as a shield. That way they had avoided the worst injuries but she had paid dearly for her help. The Dryad snapped her splintered arm off and then did the same for her leg. Both shattered beyond recognition.

They regrew almost instantly, but no one noticed, their attention focused on Bifur.

"Your… Mahal, your axe head! Let me see!" Dis hurriedly crawled over to him, her eyes wide. "I don't believe this – the bone must have grown back around the axe head in the last decades." For the axe had fallen away to reveal healed skin thinly stretched over oddly shaped bone, the only damage the recent cut caused by the fall. "Does anyone still have their packs? I need to bind this. And who else is injured?"

"I have mine, Amad! And a healer's pack!"

Kili scrambled over to her and she took it from him, giving him a once over as she did. Fili and Bilbo showed her their injuries, but they could be taken care of after Dis had assured herself that Bifur wasn't going to die now that the axe head was gone. He would forever look odd, what with the strange dent in his skull from where the axe had rested once.

Personally the Dwarrowdam send a prayer to Mahal in thanks for the wonder he had bestowed on Bifur because surely this had come to be the divine intervention of their maker.

Hildifons however, would need stitches and so as Kili began to tend to his brother and Bilbo, she turned to the bounder, who was attempting to stem the bleeding so that she could work – not an easy feat given that head wounds always bled more than any other.

He had been lucky, even if she would now have to shave off the thick golden curls on the side of his head. Secretly she put the golden curls aside once done, Dis wanted to keep them. He cursed as she finally began to stitch, and she laughed at him, allowing him to curse at her to distract him from the pain.

"Easy with the stitches, you bastard daughter of Morgoth!"

She laughed at him again. "My parentage is secure and undeniably not that of Morgoth – but hold still, this part is tricky. Too near the temples…"

Hildifons acknowledged her words with another grunt of pain, but didn't move. His new haircut caused the others to stare at him oddly. Dis had shaved off the entire sides since the cuts were deep and long. He would have some interesting scars from this adventure to show of, that was sure.

Fili's leg was stitched up next, the alcohol that Bilbo poured over his wound causing a scream, but only one before he bit his lip to stifle the screams. "Seems lady luck loved you more than usual today, boy." Hildifons was the one doing the actual stitching, since Bilbo's hands were shaking too hard to be much good and Dis was busy with Kili's bruised shoulder. "You've missed an artery, but only barely."

By the end, Fili was a mess, tears and snot running down his face, but the leg was stitched and wrapped as well as it could be. Bilbo and Kili held him between them to give moral support. The poor dwarf needed it.

Dis went to the Dryad next, but the tree nymph waved her away. *I am fine, daughter of the stone. Your medicine could not help me anyways. You better fix up that Warg, though.* She indicated Menace as the Warg licked at a wound with a bone sticking out on its paw. Dis narrowed her eyes when the warg growled at her. "You will let me look at the wound, you rotten flea bag."

Blue and yellow eyes meet in a stare-down for several seconds before the warg carved.

The Warg wisely surrendered to the inevitable and allowed her to clean the wound and set his broken bone. But it was Ghost that had the worst of the wounds. Her side had a gash that ran from shoulder to hipbone and her tail had ripped in two. Some of her fangs were broken and Dis hoped that the old Warg had no internal injuries.

Sure ghost was though but also old… as long as she did not vomit blood in the next hours it was good. If she did, Dis did not think that she could help her.

Scar was the most intact of all of them, not counting the Dryad, which no one was, as they couldn't just regrow their limbs. Two of the other Wargs were dead. Dis' ribs were cracked, but she and the Dryad had managed to wrap them as well as they could.

"What now?" Bilbo looked around.

Dis and Hildifons exchanged a glance but didn't answer. In truth, they had no answer. They were too injured to move far, so Dis managed a tiny fire as Bifur gathered their packs together. Bilbo helped cook them all dinner before they went to bed for the night.

In the end the group stayed for at least two days in the place that they had fallen.

Azog woke a day after his fall and screamed in rage as he realized he couldn't move.

The first scavengers found him shortly afterwards.

"How is she, Thorin?"

Thorin Oakenshield shrugged his tired shoulders at Balin. "I can't exactly say, but not good, that much is certain."

Balin closed his eyes and nodded, his suspicious confirmed. Belladonna had done nothing but lay in her bed and cried, nothing but silent tears and soft gasps. She ate, but only because Thorin would force the food down her throat. Somehow, the silent grief was worse for everyone than the mad ravings of the first day.

Thorin was musing on the differences between Belladonna's and his sister's ways of mourning when Isengrim burst into her house.

"Thorin! A pocket… of…" he was gasping "invaders….in the mine!"

Thorin was reaching for his sword and armor even as he snapped, "Explain!"

Isengrim jumped and then rushed to tell Thorin what he knew. "It looks like they used the chaos of the first attack to get to some cover. My bounders saw them steal some food and then followed them back to the old cave that Bungo had nowadays called a mine. I won't risk them escaping and telling whatever they may have discovered. But Hobbits aren't any good inside of tunnels. That's something better left to you Dwarves."

Thorin just nodded in acknowledgement, already turning to Balin and barking orders. "Get your brother here with twenty others. Tell them to bring armor and weapons, along with some mining equipment and enough food for two days. And let him choose at least two that can use a bow!"

Balin nodded and vanished through the back door while Thorin turned back to Isengrim. "How many?"

Isengrim shrugged wearily. "Not sure. Maybe ten, maybe less but not more than fifteen. Lightly armed, almost no armor from what my bounders told me. But taller as the ones we fought."

Thorin hissed out a curse – even with Dwalin's men, he didn't like those odds. He glanced in Belladonna's room one last time before he headed for the door, stopping only to ask one question. "Any word on the boys?"

Isengrim's expression was a mask of worry. "My bounders say that they lost the trail near the Misty Mountains; Hildifons' work, no doubt. But it's not a good sign that he felt the need to obliterate their tracks so thoroughly. Galvan also found signs of Wargs and their orc riders, though the two did not cross."

Thorin turned and went out of the smial without another word.

Isengrim watched him go for a moment before he went into his sister's bedroom to sit with her. She let him hold her hand what gave him a tiny hope that she would life through her ordeal. He stayed through the night and left the smial only to go to Bungo's funeral with her. The act was done quickly, Bungo and the other fallen laid to rest in the hard earth as best they could be before everyone hurried to begin repairing the damage. There wasn't time to mourn. Not now.

Dwarrow and hobbits were buried side by side for the first time in history… he just hoped that that wasn't a dark sign of things to come.

But it wasn't until after this that Bombur noticed that now Bofur was also missing; Thorin had sent him to the Iron hills to inform Dain of the attack and what Thorin and Dwalin had both noticed. In his haste Thorin forgot to tell Bombur about it. They had noticed that nearly all of the slain Orcs were from Gundabad. Thorin hoped that Dain would use the news and attack the mountain settlement that the Orcs kept. He was sure he would, Dain hated the Gundabad Orcs as much, if not more, than he hated Elves.

Years before the Gundabad Orcs had slain Dain's sister in an attack.

Bofur, when he was done delivering the message to Dain, would also take the message to the settlement of King Brodi of the Broadbeam's, who would most likely agree to join Dain to drive the Orcs from the mountains.

But it was Balin who had to calm the frantic Bombur and it was also Balin that had now to listen to Bombur's wife's tirade. So it was Balin who was miserable. *You own me big time for this, Thorin!*

It was as Bofur was racing for the Iron Hills and Thorin was descending into the mines that Gerontius reached the others. Fang had lead him to their hideout. Worried immensely when he noticed the old Hobbit getting weaker and weaker by the minute on their search. Gerontius was at the end of his strength and he knew it. The pain in his torso and head had gotten worse in the last hours and unknown to him, he had internal bleeding that was now killing him. He took one last look at them before collapsing in a heap in front of a horrified Hildifons and Bilbo. His sight going dark forever.

"Grandfather? Grandfather!"

Hildifons dropped to his knees next to his father as Bilbo clutched at the older Hobbit. He wrapped his arm around the still form of his father and the other around his wailing nephew. When Gerontius breathing stopped a minute later Hildifons cry of rage and loss rung sharply through the cavern they were in.

"Father? NOO!"

The little book fell from his lifeless fingers into the dirt as the malevolent metal in his pocket practically purred in happiness. It's stubborn guardian was gone at last.

Not understanding it that its last days had just truly begun.

Under Moria, in the deepest pits of the old mines, a monster made of unholy fire and smoke and darkness stirred from its slumber.

In the tunnels outside, the skull of a long dead Dwarf clad in elaborate armor grinned cruelly and eternally into the darkness in front of the cave of the sleeping beast. The skeletal hand still firmly wrapped around the hilt of a huge double sided Axe and a shield with an odd sign onto its front lay glinting next to his fallen form.

And a black sphere laying in a corner of the tunnel glowed with an unholy red glow for a moment before it suddenly cracked in half by a sudden blue light…

End of chapter.