Daughter of The Darkness

Chapter 53

Battle rages around the mountain, more allies going to the realm of the dead than the enemies. Echoes of orders from Azog the Defiler resonated through the valley along with the screams of innocent citizens of Dale. Elfreda tried to ignore the no pale faces of those whom had been slaughtered for no reason other than vantage in a larger scale war. She carved and struck as many orcs as her blades could reach, her arrows becoming few and far between. Bard glanced towards her, hammering enemies to create a path for his people. Gandalf too had now joined the mass to defend Dale.
"You need to get out," the wizard warned her as he clobbered an Orc over the head. She laughed
"No, I'm staying until this is over, if Thorin does not help soon, you are going to need help from all sides,"

It was true. Thorin sat in his throne, his mind consumed by the parasite of gold. Dragon sickness was too advanced for any help to be willingly received by any of the company. Dwalin was one of the last to still have hope that the warrior prince was still inside the shell of the host King.
"Many die in war, life is cheap," was Thorins only answer to his pleas "gold is worth all the blood we can spend,"
Dwalins heart then broke. He had not only lost his friend but his King was well.
"You were always my King, you used to know that once, but you cannot see what you have become,"
Thorin was quiet for a moment, something twitched behind those darkened eyes. But he dismissed his fellow dwarf with a warning of death if he should persist.

Elfreda brought her blade down upon several more orcs. She had separated herself from the band, taking a small hoard of orcs with her, reducing the vast number by a few hundred. She twisted her knife upwards into the chest of an Orc only relieve a stab to the lower calf from an Orc she already cut down. It plunged down deeper almost to the bone. She screamed, falling to the floor, clutching her blade and decapitated the Orc as landed on her knees. Orcs now stood over her, around her and beneath her.
To the end she thought. There was a sensation of cold, red metal against her skin.

Then a horn as loud as the horns of Gondor rang out from the mountain along with the crashing of rocks. The orcs stood still as even from Dale the battle cries of the Company rang out, echoing from inside the mountain. The Sons of Durin had returned.

Elfreda cried again, standing against the pain in her leg and knocked the feet out of the Orc in front. She yelled in her own language, a guttural screech that she had not heard in a long long time. A language before Black Speech itself; a summoning of life. Then did she become a angel of both light and darkness.

Bilbo saw the charge of the dwarves. He had not seen battle but this was a sight he knew would be told in tales old.
Gandalf murmured "they're rallying for their King,"
Even Bard, who had disbelieved in the King mustered what was left of his people and charged once more.

Elfreda ran to the causeway limping but her pace was of that of the tired foot soldiers. As she passed, the groups of women began picking up whatever they could grasp and joined the men in battle. One of them looked over at her, saw the blood from her leg.
"She'll treat you, she's not strong enough to fight," The woman gave a low bow towards Elfreda.

The woman was odd, but Elfreda was not in the mood to judge. She kept her face low as she bound the wound in cloth. The woman must of thought that Elfreda could not hear the mumblings from her, but she recognised the voice. This was no woman.
"I have to say, you make an awful woman," Elfreda confessed to the man with greasy black hair. Not only was he a wimp, but a man who would not fight for freedom but grovel to the highest rank. She did not care for him, he could do as he wished. Elfreda needed to get out into the open field where she could join the dwarves. She did not thank the man as she picked up her blades and limped towards the bridge.

"Dain!" Yelled Elfreda across the battle field. Personally, she found the Ironfoot dwarf both funny and annoying but she would prefer to see him than others. The dwarf Lord was armed with a huge hammer and his head which he used for the same purpose, to beat and smash anything that got in his way. His fire coloured hair and beard were braided tight with teeth like golden needles.
"Ya wee lassy!" He heckled back as he crushed another orcs skull with that mass of a weapon.
"Dain!" cried another voice from the opposite direction. Both turned to look as Thorin skewered his way into view. Dain launched himself onto the back of an Orc and practically rode it towards his cousin. They hugged. Elfreda stood back, defending their chat.
"You know, if you two would quit it, it might save a girl a job," she stated, slicing her blade outwards and back in a blink of an eye. She ran up and hugged him, though he was smaller, his grip was far stronger than she thought it would be. The dragon was slumbering beneath him for now.
"I'm glad you are safe," she whispered as she let go. Thorin gazed over her, her bloodied form that was mostly Orc but some of it was hers. He met her eyes again and she laughed
"I'm fine! But you'd better have a plan,"
Thorins face paused for a while then the same vicious grin pulled at his face as well.
"We're going to take out their leader, I'm going to kill that piece of filth,"
Thorin mounted a large mountain goat, Elfreda did not know where that had come from, possibly from Dain's army she supposed.
"Cut the head off of the snake." Elfreda chanted just as a whinny voiced his own, very valid opinion. Kasper had come looking for her. She greeted him with the same strength of the embrace that she gave the Mountain King
"How are you going to get all the way to Raven Hill?" Dain enquired.

As if on call, a large chariot pulled by several more goats barged their way through, commanded by Balin and holding Dwalin, Fili and Kili. Elfreda could not help but laugh at the sight. Elfreda hauled herself up into Kasper.
"Well, let's get going then!"
The goats leapt off in reply, Kasper following close behind. The goats knocked many orcs out of their way then Dwalin finished them off with a large rapid fire cross bow. Those who attacked from the side were either killed by the dwarf princes or by Elfreda's mighty blow. Kasper galloped at pace with the chariot, Elfreda making contact with the dwarves on the rocking roller coaster.
"You should stay on the field," called Fili.
"I've fought in wars longer than dragons have craved gold! Trust me, this is the easy part!" Elfreda laughed. Suddenly the call of Kili rang out.

Six disgusting trolls charged towards them. The large goats did not stop as they jumped high into the air, large spinning blades in the wheels of the chariot decapitating the trolls as they sailed through the air. Their triumph was short lived, a larger, armed troll came bundling towards them, it carried a hefty blade that could carve a statue into two halves. The chariot swerved, Elfreda shot an arrow to displace the troll and the thing went over the cart and missed.

But the chariot and horse accompaniment were now running on ice. The troll smashed into the ice to follow the race. Kasper skidded around, trying to avoid the cracks in the ice and did a remarkable job. His fear of water was keeping them alive.

Elfreda swung round in the saddle, bouncing off of the icy floor and sitting backwards. She loaded an arrow into her bow and took aim. She heard the dwarves arguing about where to shoot the thing but as the troll came over to strike, Elfreda shot at it anyway.

"Hang on lads I'm coming!" shouted a voice from above. It was another troll, smaller and covered in chains. But in control was Bofur. He used the troll to fight the other as the chariot pulled away.

"Bofur I owe you big time!" Elfreda yelled as he fought off the humungous troll.

But wargs were the next fight. They took out two of the front goats and another wargs followed behind. Elfreda swore but ignored the surprised glances from the dwarves. She hated wargs so much. More were advancing from both directions. She swung out a sword as a rider approached and Kasper joined up with the chariot again.
"It's no use, you're carrying too much weight," she called over. "Take the goats and ride to Raven Hill, I'll cover you,"
But the four goats became three as one was struck down by a warg.
Balin smiled grimly "my goat riding days are over, go!"
The three remaining dwarves glanced at each other.
"We can't," said Fili "your family," He looked at her fearfully.
"Be a leader, Fili. Sacrifices have to be made," she cautioned "Durin be with you,"
Dwalin, Fili and Kili took their places on the remained goats and cut their tethers lose. The chariot now has now momentum and swung slowly to a stop, Balin firing rounds of arrows before it came to a halt. Elfreda grabbed a load herself and began to shoot those from her bow.
"I am too old for this," Balin grunted most likely to himself but Elfreda heard and smiled.
"Yet younger than me dear friend,"

The riders reached Raven Hill, their mounts not stopping as they clambered on up the hill to finally reach Azog.