Complicated (Thorin Oakenshield x Reader) [Slow Updates]

Chapter Fifteen

Ringing. The only thing she can hear is this all-consuming roaring ring in her ear, causing the snarls of the wargs below to fade, as if into fog. All she can see is the lifeless body of her fallen kinswoman, laid on the pine-needle strewn earth. The once dry earth beneath Annabelle's body is now moist with a blanket of blood.

She almost looks peaceful, laying there. Her cerulean eyes provide a stark contrast to the crimson pool beneath her. Two things that were never meant to be this close together.

~~~~

"Ack- it stings!" Annabelle exclaims, trying to pull her scraped arm away from its treatment. (Y/N) snickers softly and reachs for her arm once again.

"Just hold still, I'm trying to fix it! You don't want to have an ugly scar like Old Man Igarius, do you?" (Y/N) asks playfully. Annabelle wrinkles up her nose and places her arm back in her sister's hand.

"Anything's worth avoiding that fate," Annabelle says, giving an exaggerated shudder. (Y/N) chuckles at her sister's antics.

"So, how'd you say this happened again?"

"Illisa and I were playing around out in the western forests, and we ran into a couple of goblins. They weren't big, and we made pretty quick work of them, but one snagged my arm with its dagger while my back was turned."

(Y/N) sighs.

"You really ought to be more cautious, especially when venturing out of the valley. I can't protect you when I'm not there, you know that," she says in a motherly tone. Annabelle groans.

"Yes, I know, but I was fine! And if I ever need you, I know you'll be there. I mean, you're basically obligated to protect me by now, with how many times you've said that you will," the little girl says with complete confidence. (Y/N) smirks.

"I suppose so."

~~~~

Crack

(Y/N) is ripped out of her trance abruptly as the tree on which she's sitting begins to fall.

On the ground below, there are too many Wargs to count. Beside her in the trees, the company is leaping from their potential deaths onto the only tree left standing. She follows suit, doing so without shape-changing. She isn't certain she could bring herself to right now, seeing as her one and only reason for going on is currently lying in a bloody pool far below.

As they all make it to the last tree before the cliff, she hears the pale orc let out a low, smug laugh. A sensation like snakes slithering along the back of her neck hits her. She shudders.

Suddenly, she hears a sound like sizzling above her head, and seconds later, a flaming pinecone is flying down at the wargs- no doubts thrown by the wizard. As the flames spread and the wargs shy away, more flaming pinecones are being passed from person to person, and soon even she gets her hands on one. Before long, flaming projectiles are descending on the wargs from above.

Trying not to think of her sister's corpse being scorched somewhere beneath her feet, she takes advantage of the moment and uses her uninjured arm to send her pinecone hurtling towards the pale orc's (now quite irked) face. Unfortunately, it missed, only grazing his shoulder, but seeing a moment's pain flash across that creature's face alleviates a bit of her pain.