The Company of Wolves

Chapter 14: Healing

The Eagles flew quite at a height, putting much needed distance from the company and Azog as much as they could. They gracefully glided through the upper clouds of mist, soaring over the mountains, the sunset gleaming over their broad feathers.

No matter the beauty of this flight, most of the dwarves had their eyes on Thorin, who was unconscious in one of the Eagles talons. Fili called out to him, but no answer.

Rhea was watching below her, seeing her friends drooping heads and limp bodies. Worry set in as she knew all three of them had many battle wounds, but Ash and Dakota got the worst of it in the end. They looked half asleep but in too much pain to completely enjoy the moment of flying through the skies.

Rhea whimpered as the Eagles swooped down over a waterfall, folding their wings and diving below the valley. She wanted to of course know if Thorin was even alive, but her friends could very well be bleeding out. Her priority was them as always, she absolutely couldn't stand to see them in this state after the battle. They had never fought things so hard in their entire life, the challenge of it clearly showed.

Bilbo had leaned over on top of the Eagle and saw that Thorin was still not awake, however he switched his focus to Rhea who seemed a little better off than the other two massive wolves in the talons of the Eagles.

"Ash!" He tried calling down to the dark grey wolf, Rhea perked her ears and looked down as well.

Ash weakly lifted her head to give Bilbo a pained look, before dropping it again letting out a small whine.

Rhea felt so heartbroken, she could feel her wounds all over her body but that was nothing compared to how much pain her packmates were in. She wanted to go to them.

Right as she was feeling desperate, the Eagles swung around a huge rock formation slowly lowering all the company down onto it. Thorin was first while Gandalf came next. He rushed over to him immediately, leaning over him.

The Eagles all spread out and lower the dwarves one by one. When The Eagle lowered Rhea to the rock, she stood up and shook herself before shifting back into her human form. As soon as she did so though, the pain intensified immensely. For as wolves they can handle more pain than a human, especially in their wolf forms. When they transform back though, it gets much worse.

Gasping, Rhea dropped to one knee. While Oin and Gloin rushed over to her, both at her side. "Easy lassie, lay down." Oin told her, but she shook her head.

Turning her head she saw that Ash and Dakota had been dropped to the rockface already. They didn't shift back yet, as they just laid there licking their wounds weakly.

Rhea got up and ran over to them, holding her arm as pain shot from the back of her shoulder blade. Her neck hurt as well as most parts over her body scattered from her legs up. But she pushed it aside and held Dakota's head in her arms.

Whimpering quietly, Ash stiffly tried getting up. "Ash stay down! And don't shift, the pain will be too much." Rhea corrected her, earning a groan from the grey pelted wolf as she plopped down again.

Bilbo was about to go over to them when Thorin woke up. "The Halfling?" He whispered, while Gandalf smiled in relief.

"It's alright, Bilbo is here." He informed him, "He's quite safe."

Dakota tried watching from where she lay, her eyes glazed as her ribs ached with every breath she took. Rhea held her close while examining Ash at the same time.

"Oin, can you get something to stop the bleeding?" Rhea asked, her eyes on Dakotas side, which was leaking more blood than even Dakota realized.

Oin went to work with whatever coats and material he could muster, but said that they need to go down into the forest so he could get what medicine and bandages he could. Rhea's eyes went to Ash whose hindleg looked oddly twisted, like one of the wargs broke it.