The Ranger ➵ Kili Durin

PART I : CHAPTER 7

Bilbo and Elvira ran side by side, Elvira making sure the young hobbit got in front of her. She noticed a warg not far behind them and she grabbed Bilbo and forced him to duck down as the warg jumped over them in an attempt to snatch one of the two up into its jaw. The warg stood before them now, and ran towards them in full force, but Bilbo had his sword out first and the blade dove through the warg's skull before it got any closer. Bilbo looked on in surprise, but Elvira knew they did not have enough time for it.

"Up into the trees, all of you! Come on, climb! Bilbo, climb!" Gandalf shouted, when he noticed that Bilbo was struggling to get his sword out from the skull of the warg. Elvira stepped in quickly and pulled it out with little struggle, while she pushed Bilbo in front of her as the pair ran for safety.

The majority of the company was already in the trees as Bilbo reached them, with Elvira not far behind.

"Bilbo, c'mon, into the tree!" Elvira shouted, as she stopped and turned around, pulling her bow out as she began shooting oncoming wargs down as quickly as she could. Elvira turned around to see Bilbo still on the ground, and realized he could not reach the branches. She sprinted to his side and boosted him up into the arms of Fili and Kili, who after grabbing Bilbo, reached down to pull her up as well. She went to latch on to the branch, but a warg grabbed a hold of her leg, as she let out a cry of pain. The warg pulled her to the ground before climbing on top of her and snarling, it's large teeth mere inches from her face as the beast growled.

"Eli!" Fili and Kili screamed. Elvira grabbed a hold of a knife by her side and forced it up into the stomach of the animal, killing it almost instantly. She got out from underneath the warg and ran to the trees as two other wargs started running her down. She hopped up into the tree effortlessly, and there she tried to catch her breath and ignore the throbbing pain of her left ankle where the warg had bit down. She felt the blood dripping down into her boot, but she ignored it.

And that was when she saw him. A white warg's fur glimmering in the light of the moon, it's rider sitting triumphantly on top as he stared at his prey in the trees. His metal claw for a hand was up slightly, the metal shining in the light.

"Nuzdigid? Nuzdi gast? {do you smell it? The scent of fear?}" Azog the Defiler snarled. "Ganzilig­i unarug obod nauzdanish, Torin undag Train­ob {Your father reeked of it, Thorin son of Thrain}. Auk dig obod moavhas agh faavher, Elvira Valnir {as did your mother and father, Elvira Valnir.} Lat ukmellun ro iav avoo, for avhe avwo agh ij gism yearuk jiak kepav lat {you smelled of it too, for the two and a half years I kept you}."

"It cannot be," Thorin whispered in disbelief, his face stricken with pain and grief at the realization of his father being held by Azog. Elvira had yet to take her harsh stare off of the pale orc, mentally seeing herself ripping his remaining limbs off of his body for bringing up the past so maliciously.

"Avhouke avwo ayh uorkormajal {those two are mine.} Worori­-da! {Kill the others!}" At his command, the wargs lept forward to try to climb the trees. The dwarves, Elvira, and Bilbo had to constantly pull their legs up to their bodies to avoid the snapping jaws of the wargs below them. The trees shook violently against the force of the wargs that tried to knock them down, and the company had to hold on tightly to the branches to stay where they were.

"Sho gad adol {drink their blood}!" Azog yelled from the ground, and those beside Elvira heard her growl in anger at the sound of his voice.

With the weight of the wargs climbing upon it, the tree Bilbo, Elvira, and Fili and Kili were in became uprooted, and started falling to the side quickly. Elvira was the first to launch herself from the tree to latch onto the branch of another, and the rest followed suit. Like a kind of domino effect, each tree in turn fell to the side with the weight of the wargs and the pressure from the previous tree until at last, the entire Company was perched in one tree on the very edge of the cliff.