Torn Between

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Down the hill we ran, away from the howls of the wargs. Bilbo was on one side of me; I wasn't going to lose him again, and Kili was on my other side, drawing his sword. We came to the bottom of the hill, and it ended in a cliff.

I could hear the wargs running behind us, and suddenly a warg jumped in front of us, its teeth bared. It lunged, and before I could do anything Bilbo had his sword stuck in its skull.

I widened my eyes at him, and he stared at the dead warg in shock.

Another warg shot past us, an I nocked an arrow and shot at it, hitting it in the back.

"Into the trees!" Gandalf shouted, since there was no escape, the orcs had cornered us.

Kili grabbed my hand, and we started up the tree. Once we were a good halfway up, I looked down to see Bilbo still on the ground, trying to pull his sword from the warg's head.

"Bilbo!" I shouted. I made to climb down the tree, but Kili grabbed me and pulled me back.

"He'll get up," Kili whispered in my ear, but as I saw the orcs getting closer and Bilbo still on the ground, all my heart did was pound faster.

I leaned into Kili, just wanting to be safe for once, and to my relief, Bilbo finally get his sword out of the the warg's skull and climbed up the tree parallel to us.

The wargs surrounded us, and the pale orc strode into view, perching on a rock.

He smirked at us, cornered into the trees, and he began speaking in Black Speech. I didn't understand what he was saying, but I knew it wasn't nice.

"-Thorin undag Thrain," Azog finishes.

Thorin pushes a branch out of view. "It cannot be," he murmurs.

Azog speaks again, and by the way he points at Thorin I can tell he's saying, 'that one's mine.' The wargs charge at us, jumping into our trees and ripping off the lower branches. They growl and snap, but can't reach us, until the begin pushing down the trees.

Our tree falls first, into Bilbo's. we jump and I land hard on a branch, only to have to jump again to the next tree. We continue tree jumping until we are all in Gandalf's tree; the last tree; the tree hanging over the edge.

Azog laughs. Suddenly something whizzes past me; a pinecone on fire, and I glanced up to see Gandalf lighting pinecones on fire with his staff. He drops one down to Fili, who light's Bilbo's on fire, and soon we're all throwing flaming cones at the wargs. They run in fear, and retreat to behind the wall of heat.

Azog glares at Gandalf. We all shout in victory, but our tree shakes and the roots begin ripping out of the ground, hanging us over the edge. This makes Azog laugh, us hanging on for the sake of our lives.

"Mr. Gandalf..." Dori shouts, and I see him loose his grip, only to grab Gandalf's staff at the last second. Ori is hanging on to Dori's boot, and the two of them together is weight enough to make Gandalf struggle.

Thorin looks towards Azog, and Azog stares back, silently challenging him to come and fight.

Thorin stands, Orcrist in one hand, and his oaken shield in the other.

"Thorin, don't," I whimper, but he seems to not hear me.

He begins walking toward Azog, who opens his arms wide in challenge.

I do the only thing I can; I push myself from the tree and run after him, ignoring Kili trying to pull me back.

Azog jumps forward, his mace poised to strike Thorin, but at the last second I shove him out of the way and receive the blow.