A Ruby's Shine (Thorin Oakenshield X OC)

125. Fighting For The City of Dale

A loud roaring hiss filled my ears as I winced before... the orc's head was gripped in the jaws of a massive, familiar, mountain lion. I watched with wide eyes, my trembling arms dropping to my sides for a moment, as the mountain lion twisted it's body and smacked the orc into the ground before using it's sharp canines to rip the orc's head off, making me gag a little at the image. The mountain lion spat out the orc's head and looked at me, purring worriedly as I stared at it with wide eyes. This mountain lion just... helped me? I know animals sometimes listen to me but I never called for help, my ability wasn't even being used because I feared it would be too distracting in the middle of a battle.

I shook my head, knowing this isn't the time and, if the mountain lion is offering help, then I will take what I can get. I scrambled to my feet, ripping a shield from the arms of a dead orc as I pulled free a bit of leather on another and vaulted myself up onto the mountain lion's back as he or she lowered a shoulder for me to get on. I quickly threw the leather around the mountain lion's neck for grip as I locked the shield to my left arm, my right holding my sword out at the ready as I tied the leather around my waist. The mountain lion tilted it's head, one yellow eye rolling back to look at me as I nodded,

The Mountain Lion roared again, deafening me as I felt the light feeling of Fairfin's talon's before the mountain lion took off, racing forward through ranks of orcs. We were an unstoppable trio, me, the mountain lion, and Fairfin. The Cougar scratched, clawed, and bit any orc that dared challenge us, racing through the ranks of orcs and elves and dwarves with a feline grace, often vaulting right over groups of dwarves and elves, smashing down into orcs. Any that broke free of the mountain lion's grip either were pushed away with my stolen shield or met their end at my blade, Fairfin flying around to attack the eyes of any me or the mountain lion missed.

I gritted my teeth as I swung out at another orc, severing his head from his neck as the Cougar ran on by, heavy padded paws thudding against the earth until I saw something familiar, a flash of an armored pig and a dwarf with a giant hammer.

"There! Novu!" I shouted, the word suddenly coming to mind out of the blue.

Powerful Feline. It mean's Powerful Feline, how do I know that?

This isn't the time or place for this. The Cougar, whom I guess is Novu now, immediatly responded to my call and raced towards the dwarf and his armored pig, which was taking quite the beating. I yelled as I untied the leather around my waist and vaulted myself off of Novu's back, stabbing the orc aiming for Lord Dain's back as Novu hissed loudly, jumping lithely right over the battle pig, tackling the war beast trying to stomp of several dwarves. I rolled out of the way of Lord Dain's dropping hammer as I looked up, watching with wide eyes as Novu, half the size of a war beast, clawed her way up to it's head and began savagely clawing and biting at the war beast's neck as a gurgling, horrible sounding cry came from the creature.

How did I know the Cougar is a she? I shook my head, irritated, this is not the time or place to question strange abilities of mine. I glanced at Lord Dain as he too watched with shock as Novu bit down hard on the weak point of the War Beast's neck, finally ending the beast as the dwarves backed away quick for it's falling body, Novu landing on it's back as it fell to the ground before roaring proudly at defeating such a beast.

"How did ya end up doin' that, Lass?" Dain asked in shock as I looked at him, wondering the same thing myself as I panted for breath before standing, glancing around to see this area in pretty cleared out now. I looked quickly towards Dale and realized the city was clearly overrun, the gates torn open and the explosives clearly gone, but it wasn't enough to stop the invasion of the city walls. I glance toward the main battlefield and saw that, while we are winning on that front, there are still many more orcs within the tunnels and we cannot keep this up forever.