There and Back Again: A Girl's Tale

Chapter 15 The Vow

Chapter 15 The Carrock

Elwen stood side by side with Bilbo, swords up, glaring into the eyes of Azog, the Pale Orc.

She'd seen him in her dreams, had heard his voice and smelled his stench, but seeing him up close was a different experience entirely. He was alive. Flesh and blood and bone, and he wanted to kill those whom she held dear. The creature had made it his mission to wipe out the line of Durin, and she had made it her mission to stop him.

She took a step forward. This day wasn't the day of her vision, she knew that. But I can end it, she thought. Right here, right now. She'd only have to kill him. His beetle-like eyes narrowed on her, pointed teeth gleaming out of the slash in his face that served as a mouth. Azog moved toward her on the back of his great white warg along with a few of his followers.

Azog smiled at her, all teeth and cruelty. "Kill them," he snarled in that foul language of his.

That's when Kili, Fili, and Dwalin came barreling out of nowhere, somehow having disentangled themselves from the pine branches, and fought their way to her and Bilbo. She launched into action without hesitation, knowing a moment could cost her. She stood in front of Thorin's unconscious, defenseless form. No one would get past her.

Elwen shouted as something hit her in the side of the head, sending her flying. In the confusion of the onslaught, Elwen lost sight of Azog and his warg, and paid dearly for it. The white warg hit her with its paw, leaving her dazed. She stood on unsteady feet, shaking her head, but there was a ringing in her ears she couldn't stop. Azog's maw split with a cruel smile as the two locked eyes. She stood as straight as she was able and held up her swords. The fire was raging all around them and through her peripheral, she saw the other wargs surround the dwarves on the ground, trapping them between fire and their enemies, cutting off any retreat. They had no choice but to stand and fight.

Azog's smile slipped from his monstrous face as he approached her, dark eyes narrowing slightly as he took in her face. He no doubt recognized her as elf-kind.

Elwen heard a scream. Dori and Ori! Had they fallen? Cleary not, as their shouting wasn't getting further away, but closer...and higher off the ground...

Elwen jerked her head toward the sky just in time to see it filled with large, expansive wings. The sky was blocked from view by giant eagles! She remembered Gandalf briefly mentioning them at the start of their journey. Something tickled the back of her mind, a memory she had lost. The Eagles of Manwe, she thought, though the name meant absolutely nothing to her. It was as if this weren't her own memory, but an ancient one instinctual to her.

The Great Eagles have come. Her mind snapped back to her last night in Rivendell. She had seen these Eagles in a vision. But what does it mean?

Elwen didn't have any time for further contemplation. Eagles were swooping down in every direction, a few picking up wargs and orcs and tossing them over the cliffs. Others knocked down trees, which crushed wargs beneath their weighty trunks. Another fanned the flames with its wings, causing the inferno to burn warg and orc alike. Azog snarled when one of the Eagles hovered over Thorin and gently took the dwarf king and his sword in its talons and flew away.

"Thorin!" Elwen cried, drawing the attention of Azog once again. She turned back to the orc and lifted her sword, leveling it with his face. "I am your death, filth," she snarled. She took off at a dead sprint, but a tree fell between them, dividing them with branches that had been set aflame. They stared at one another across the crackling fire, faces contorted with rage and absolute hate.