The Eyes of Emerald

Chapter 12

All the tiredness and the pain left the dwarves as they raced through the trees, the howls and barks of the wargs growing ever closer behind them.

The sun was already setting and all of a sudden, their flight was cut short by a cliff opening before them. No one knew what to do.

But not Dawn. Fili watched her climb one of the trees and leap from one to the next, until she was at the top of one of the trees. Fili followed her, and soon Gandalf ordered everyone to climb up the trees. As Fili reached to the branch Dawn was on, he had only remembered this was the technique she used when she was hunted. On the tree with them was Kili, Dwalin, and Thorin. And just as Dwalin got up, the wargs began to jump and bite the branches. Dawn was breathing heavily, as this was identical to one of her encounters with orcs before. Fili seeing Dawn so scared, took her hand and held it tight.

"Whatever you do, don't look down," Fili said. Dawn nodded. She looked up and forward to the other trees. But then the wargs stopped. So Dawn looked, and was then stiff.

"Azog," Thorin gasped. Dawn felt fear all through her.

"Do you smell it?" the Defiler spoke in black speech. "The smell of fear. I remember your father reeked of it, Thorin son of Thrain"

"It cannot be." Thorin said. Dawn swallowed. She had never seen the defiler. But whenever there was an Orc encounter, she always heard them speak of the master. He must have been the master. The defiler's smile wiped away, seeing Thorin once more.

"Wait! That one is mine," he said, pointing at Thorin. "Kill the others!" And with that the wargs continued. Dawn then looked at the final tree at the end. She felt the tree loosely shake.

"Fili, we have to get to that final tree." Fili nodded. The two then leaped from the trees till they got to the final one. It wasn't long before the others came as well, since one by one the trees were beginning to fall. The Defiler laughed seeing his prey all together in one tree. But just then a ball of fire came from the top of the tree, and hit a warg.

"Fili!"

Dawn and Fili looked up to Gandalf who was holding flamed pinecones. As he tossed one down to Fili, he began to bounce it lightly from the burning spots. But as he threw it, they understood what to do.
One by one Gandalf began to toss down more flamed pinecones and the dwarves lit more with them and they caused a ring of fire to block the wargs.

But their short victory soon ended when their tree began to rock. And as it leaned forward, everyone struggled to keep balance.

Azog was smirking at the dwarves, knowing that they didn't stand a chance and it would be his greatest delight to see them perish there.

Thorin looked up towards him and locked eyes with him. The glance they were exchanging was one of pure hatred. The dwarf barely looked at his men holding on for their lives, right now, nothing else mattered than his old enemy sitting on his warg a few meters away from him, his old enemy who he had thought dead for so many years...

Grabbing his sword as well as a piece of broken branch to use as a shield, he stood up and stepped off the trunk on the cliff again, walking towards the Defiler.

Balin's face paled, Gandalf's turned into an horrified expression but it seemed that none of them were able to go after him as he was racing towards the white orc. But the Orc charged strong with a leap, and knocked Thorin to the ground. As he got up, he was hit back to the ground once more. And then the white Warg sunk his teeth into Thorins waist. All Fili could hear was his uncles shouts of pain.

"I'm going to help!" Bilbo said. But as he was about to stand, Dawns hand grasped his arm tightly.

"Bilbo, no. You'll get hurt!" Dawn exclaimed.