A Heart of Gold

Chapter 8

"Was that a wolf? Are there-are there wolves out there?" Bilbo asked, and Bofur shook his head.

"Wolves? No, that is not a wolf." Bofur said, looking around. Then, from the small cliff behind them, a Warg appeared and it leapt into the company. As it was about to bite down on one of the dwarves, Thorin managed to kill it with his new sword, Orcrist. They were luck that Kili saw it, because another Warg appeared from the other side and was able to shoot it down. However, it only made it stumble down to them and it rose back up and was met by Dwalin's axe.

"Warg-Scouts! Which means an Orc pack is not far behind." Thorin exclaimed, as he pulled out Orcrist from the dead Warg.

"Orc pack?" Bilbo asked.

"Who did you tell about your quest, beyond your kin?" Gandalf asked, walking towards Thorin.

"No one." Thorin replied.

"Who did you tell?!" Gandalf demanded.

"No one, I swear. What in Durin's name is going on?" Gandalf looked around first, then looked at Thorin with a frown on his face.

"You are being hunted." Gandalf said, which caused the other dwarves to panic.

"We have to get out of here!" Dwalin exclaimed.

"We can't! We have no ponies; they bolted." Ori said, and Helga rushed to the place where the ponies were and saw that Shadowmere was still there. She sighed and grabbed her other things from the horse, and slapped its rear.

"Run, girl!" She said, as she watched her dear friend run away from her. She just prayed to the Valar that Shadowmere would be safe and the orc packs wouldn't catch up to her. When she got back to the company, she saw Radagast and Gandalf talking.

"I'll draw them off." Radagast offered and Gandalf looked at him as if he was insane. Well... He sort of is already. Helga rushed to the rock where she sat on and discarded her old, steel, sword and tied Blackfyre to her belt.

"These are Gundabad Wargs; they will outrun you!" Gandalf exclaimed

"These are Rhosgobel Rabbits; I'd like to see them try."

The Company ran across the field, the sun blazing as their hopes of not being caught. So far, they have not yet been seen and Rhadagast's plan is working, so far. There had been a few close calls, such as Ori almost being caught by the wargs, and those beasts jumping over the rock they were hiding in.

However, their luck had to run out at one point. A warg an its rider was on top of the rock that they were leaning on. They all looked up, holding their breaths as the warg's nose inched closer to the edge of the rock. Thorin looks at Kili and Helga and nods, needing no words. Kili and Helga notched an arrow and drew their bows. Together, the pushed themselves from the rocks and aimed at thwir own targets; Kili at the Warg and Helga at the rider.

But it proved that arrows weren't enough as the warg fell and howled in pain. Helg made a jump to keep its jaw shut, hugging her arms around its snout and causing it to bite it's tongue off. As it thrashed and tried to open its mouth, it slightly grazed her arm, warg blood and saliva now mixing with her own blood. However, she held on and waited for Dwalin to finish off the Warg. As soon as the Warg stopped moving, they heard another set of howls.

"Move! Run!" Gandalf shouted as they ran again. With the occasional looking behind, the company members exclaimed how more and more were coming, and they were catching up.

"Kili! Helga! Shoot them!" Thorin shouted and Helga and Kili stopped and stood back-to-back and started shooting at the wargs from different directions. It was all a flurry of arrows flying and quick turns of heads to Helga when she vaguely heard Kili shout.