365

mar.14.22

The wind blew gentle, tussling the tree tops mostly with little breeze on the ground. The sun was up, and the sky was a happy blue behind spots of puffy clouds.

Gandalf was off talking with a man who had appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, in a sled pulled by big brown rabbits; the man appeared scared, jumpy, and in a mild panic. Radagast the Brown, was what Gandalf had called him; he was a wizard, like Gandalf himself. He spoke quick through his wild thoughts all disarray, and Lullaby heard him mention death in the forest. Gandalf pulled Radagast aside, away from Bilbo and Lullaby and the dwarfs, intent on keeping their discussion quiet.

The dwarfs made conversation while waiting for Gandalf; others wandered the forest nearby, or organized their blades and supplies. In the moment of downtime, pipes were out and lit.

Lullaby sat on a massive rock, her legs crossed. Fili was beside her, and didn't let her get too far from him. She was grateful for him, helping her stay in Middle Earth with him; she didn't know where she'd be if he wasn't there to help her.

Fili lit his own pipe, and offered the sweet smoke to Lullaby; as she inhaled black cherries and birch, Thorin came over to them.

"All is well?" he asked; he'd noticed how Fili hung around her closely, and hadn't gotten the chance to ask what had been wrong.

Lullaby nodded as she exhaled sweet smoke, passing the pipe back to Fili, who took a drag from it. "Everything's good," she reassured confidently. She felt much better today than she had the night before.

"Is there anything I should be concerned about, as leader of this Company?" Thorin asked. Lullaby knew what he meant – he was asking if there was anything he could help with.

Lullaby smiled at him. "Nope; everything is much better now." She felt Fili's hand on her back reassuringly. "There won't be any problems."

Thorin nodded, a slight smile on his face. "Good to hear," he answered kindly.

It was then that the Company's calm atmosphere vanished; somebody screamed "ORCS!" and the dwarfs had their blades and weapons drawn in a matter of seconds. Fili was on his feet, his own sword drawn. Lullaby jumped at the suddenness of the change in atmosphere; she was on her feet beside Fili.

He withdrew something from the inside of his heavy coat and handed it to Lullaby; it was an axe of dwarfish make – sturdy and somewhat heavy steel, angled angrily along the blade face, dark in shade along the blade side but silver along the sharpened edge.

"You have not a weapon," Fili said, his words spoken very quickly. "Pray you won't need it, but I will not leave you without one." His bright blue eyes found hers; worry was deepset in them. "I will be by your side."

Thorin hollered for the ponies; Ori said they'd run off at the approach of Orcs. Gandalf was there then; Radagast was saying he could draw the Orcs back with his rabbits and sled. Coming to an agreement, Radagast took off in one direction and the Company in another; the Orcs rode on massive Wargs, on a dead run after Radagast.

The Company ran; Lullaby kept pace with them as best as she could, carrying the heavy steel axe in her hands. Everything was happening too fast; she ran where Gandalf and Thorin directed them to run, doing her best to stay near Fili and Kili.

They stopped with their backs against a massive rockface, all quiet as Thorin looked up; she heard it before she saw it: an Orc upon a Warg, strayed from the pack chasing Radagast. She heard the low snarl of the Warg, the nasty breath of the Orc above them. Fili held Lullaby against him, his arms holding her back, his own back pressed against the stone heard him. Kili stood to his right, and Thorin to his right. In Kili's hand was his bow, already loaded with an arrow; Lullaby watched as Thorin silently gestured for Kili to use his bow against the unsuspecting Orc. Taking a breath, Kili turned, lifted his bow, and struck the Orc; it released an awful cry as it fell from the top of the stone face, pulling the Warg with it. Both landed on the ground near the dwarfs; as soon as it hit the dead grass, the dwarfs attacked it, stabbing and slashing with their sharp weapons, making sure both of them were long dead. The beasts screamed until they couldn't.