Of Swords and Fire (Percy Jackson/LOTR)

Chapter 15: Boxed

The room went into chaos. Papers went flying everywhere as dwarves clumsily rushed to their weapons and armour. Percy almost got decapitated by yet another axe. Gandalf stood up to regain order. "Silence!" He ordered. The room fell almost silence, except for the ominous thumping in the background. "Sulin, take the wounded and the children to the escape route. Girme and Orein, assist him. Take any able dwarf you see along the way to help." He waved his arms to the right side of the command room, where most of the dwarves were trying to put on their armour as quietly as possible. "Go to the battle and cover their retreat. I will join you."

Percy ran along the corridor, keeping up with the white wizard easily (unlike the dwarves) "Where's the escape route?" He asked Gandalf as he was running. "You follow the others, and they will go there." He said calmly, keeping up a steady pace evenly even with the wooden staff he held.

They spilled into the bridge where they surveyed the area, for a moment. Up ahead, 2 great unhinged doors, still sparkling but bent inwards. To the side, dwarven battling orcs and other things. And to the front, a-

"Trolls. Of course." Farund muttered under his breath. Percy could see that one troll batted aside a dwarf in front of it, sending him into a stone pillar. Percy winced. "We need to hurry!" Gandalf said, already running in front.

He hurried after Gandalf, stepping down the staircase 3 at a time. Gandalf seemed to be stepping down them so fast it appeared he was falling rather than running. As for the dwarves, they were red faced and a staircase away from Percy. They really needed to get some more cardiovascular exercise.

They flooded into the battle, Gandalf first. A cacophony of noises assaulted them, as dwarf battle cries, snarls and the shrieking of blades being put together all melded into one. No way there was a chance that anyone could hear the retreat order. "We need to find a way to broadcast the signal!" He shouted at Gandalf, who nodded his head. He pointed his staff up in the air and yelled. A blast of noise which was Gandalf's voice magnified 100 times made the battle field fall silent, for a little while.

"Thank you! Will all dwarves retreat to Sulin's pass, please?" Said Gandalf, his voice reverberating around the chamber. There were groans of protest and murmurs. "We just started, and my axe hasn't been tested yet." A dwarf muttered to his friend a few metres away from Percy.

But they obliged, and they ran, stumbled or crawled to the exit. The orcs, of course were chasing them the entire time, waving their swords or other wicked weapons and yelling taunts. A few dwarfs Percy had to pull by the collar and drag back from the wave of orcs. TO be honest, Percy would be angry too if they insulted his mother in such a fashion. An unnatural mist descended through the entrance of the mountain, rolling over rubble and fallen bodies like water over rocks. It moved unnaturally fast as well, twice as fast as the orcs advancing. Soon the orcs were entirely covered, leaving an ominous silence. The fog was fast approaching, practically at Percy's heels by now.

He broke into a run, chased by the fog. Whatever it was, Percy doubted it was good for his health. He felt the mist filtering through his clothes. This isn't good. He thought as he felt himself instantly weakening. He stumbled, and Gandalf looked back.

He whispered something next to his staff and thrusted it towards the creeping mist just as Percy was about to be enveloped. A glowing sphere surrounded Percy, and the fog backed off for a moment, just enough time for Girme and Orein to scoop Percy up and drag him to the passage.

"No time! Hurry!" Gandalf cried out. "I will try to barricade the mist off! Get the civilians to safety!" He shouted.

"You are not dying again, Gandalf!" Shouted Orein back. Percy felt good enough to stand on his own feet again and felt a large body of water nearby. "Is there a reservoir nearby?" He asked Girme. "Yes, how did you know?" Orein said, backtracking as fast as he could while simultaneously looking at the situation behind. "I have an idea. Gandalf, can you do a freezing spell?" Percy yelled across the hall. Gandalf glanced back, his fingers still twisting and moving in a complex pattern. "Yes, that would be simple! Why?"

"I need you to do one for me. I'm going to move some water, and I need you to freeze it. Count to 3." Percy looked at Gandalf, whose expression could only be described as complete and utter confusion. "Move some water?"

"1."

"What? I need to-"

"2."

"I need to focus on-"

"3!" Percy shouted and threw his hands at the fog. A wave of water followed it, gushing and flowing through a corridor from the right. None of it, however touched Girme, nor Orein. Percy focused his willpower on completely covering the passage. If there was one hole, this was not going to work. Gandalf looked in bewilderment but recovered way quicker than the rest of them. "Evernui!" He shouted, and the water turned to frozen ice. No fog seeped through anymore, although the sound of furious hammering could be heard behind it, followed by vicious scraping. Percy didn't know what the thing was. Percy didn't really want to know what it was.

"We need to talk about that later." Gandalf offered a hand to Percy. "But this is now." And so, with the fog behind them, and something hammering angrily at the ice, they turned and ran.

*

"You- You did it again." Wheezed Orein, running alongside Percy who had no trouble keeping up with the long legs of Gandalf. "That's my job." Said Percy, glancing at the doors as they ran past. Orein gave him a raised eyebrow but didn't speak anymore in the fear that he might pass out from the exertion. Percy's eyes returned to the doors on the side of the hallway. No creepy monsters jumped out at them. Nothing happened on the way to the passage. Percy supposed that he was entitled to at least one small miracle a week.

They reached a circular room, where nothing was to be heard. Then someone sneezed. Percy was instantly on alert, because none of them sneezed. Someone was invisible. Gandalf muttered another spell, and the view in front of them suddenly shifted, opening like curtains to reveal a massive room filled with all the dwarves in the mountain.

A dwarf broke the silence. "Thank the Valar! We thought you were the orcs." Percy wasn't sure, but he thought the dwarf speaking was a woman. He couldn't really tell, but their voice was a little higher pitched than the others.

Another dwarf broke in. "Yeah, we would've totally been caught by the sneeze." Then they glared pointedly at another dwarf close to them. "Sorry." They muttered, and then sneezed again, spraying nose juice everywhere. Percy inched away from the dwarf.

"Why haven't you started the evacuation?" Asked Gandalf. Yet another dwarf came up. "Ah, Sulin. There you are. Why are they not evacuated yet?"

The crowd shuffled uneasily, and a cold breeze swept in past them. "The way is closed."

A/N: Haha! Bet you didn't know I would publish so soon! I will try to be more active, maybe expect a chapter every 2 weeks but don't kill me if it's past 2 weeks!