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Chapter Seventeen - Death Foreseen

The company, Maura, Bilbo and the wizard continued to descend down the mountain in a panic as the vicious howls filled the air behind them. Maura and Bilbo stayed together as they followed closely behind the others. The healer let out a startled cry when she heard the ferocious snarls coming behind her and she could feel the fear just pounding in her chest at the thought of what would happen if they should be caught.

After a night of no rest and nothing to eat for the past day, the only thing that kept them from falling to the ground from exhaustion was their adrenaline. Despite their head start the wargs had caught up to them in a matter of seconds. It was completely dark out now, making the race down the mountain side sketchy at best. Bilbo and Maura had been forcibly separated when a warg jumped over top of them. The healer managed to escape down another path but the hobbit wasn't so luck as he now stood inches from this horrifying beast that continued to snarl at him. The warg let out a vicious growl and charged at the frightened little man. Bilbo instinctively stuck out his sword in front of him, impaling the animal. The hobbit was more surprise he had it in him to do such a gruesome thing. It was not in the nature of a hobbit to use violence and it startled him a little. Bilbo quickly shook his head from the daze he was in when he heard the others around him letting out battle cry's as they took out more of the warg's.

The group eventually made it to the bottom of the hill and through the trees only to come to an abrupt stop at the edge of a sheer cliff. They all turned behind them to see the wargs quickly approaching and the wizard immediately without hesitation ordered everyone to climb up into the trees. Maura looked around in desperation for Bilbo when saw he was trying to pull out his sword that was still embedded in the dead warg's skull. " Bilbo! Come on!" The healer yelled, seeing more warg's descending down the mountain.

"Lass! There's no time!" Bofur shouted as he pulled her by the arm in the directions were the others were going. Maura glanced behind her as she was being dragged to see the young hobbit had managed to get his weapon free and noticed the many beast coming right at him and he climbed into the nearest tree. Dwalin had given the young woman a boost up to grab the closest branch and before he could do the same Bofur had stepped onto his head and jumped into the tree. The wizard was in the furthest tree, closest to the cliff edge and peered around to make sure all the company had gotten up into the trees before their limbs could be chewed off.

The warg's snarled up at the dwarves that were clustered in the trees. An eerie silence suddenly filled the area, making it seem colder then it was with the wind blowing. The beast cleared a path as another seemed to join the area, causing all the wargs to temporary retreat. Thorin looked on and his heart literally dropped at the sight of someone he had believed to dead this entire time was now very much alive, riding a massive white warg and wore a satisfied sneer.

"Azog," Thorin whispered. The pale orc moved into the moon light. His nemesis spoke in a horrid language, the dwarf only catching his own name and his father's among the series of taunts the orc spilled out at him. Thorin found himself unable to look away from Azog, hoping if he starred at him long enough the orc would disappear and he would wake up, that he was just imagining him standing before him, but the orcs continuous cackling and rumbling only made the dwarf prince more infuriated. "It cannot be..." Maura glanced at Thorin, she could hear the pure terror in his voice, that was also mixed with anguish and anger. The dwarf's eyes narrowed at the disgusting creature before him, his insides were just fuming and Balin had to restrain him just to keep him from completely losing it and climbing down the tree to kill Azog right then and there.

The pale orc pointed his mace right at Thorin, uttering something in his vile language to his wargs and without further say the warg's let out vicious growls and proceeded to throw themselves up the side of the trees, gripping the branches with their jaws and ripping them apart. The warg's continued to snarl in frustration. One of the warg's launched itself at the tree Maura was in, causing her to lose her balance and she let out a startled scream as she fell through the branches when she felt strong hands catch her by her arms. " I got you, lass!" Bofur shouted as he pulled the woman up on to the branch he was standing on. Thorin had seen the whole thing and then looked back at Azog, who was laughing sadistically at the thought of seeing the young woman ripped to shreds by his wargs.