Caged Hearts; An Unexpected Chance Book 1 of 3

Chapter 17

The company ran down the hill, tying to outrun the Wargs, that were hot on their tail. While the Wargs howled, invoking their prey to run faster, Jasmina jumped off a small rock and landed in time as one of the creatures jumped over her and stopped.

It had spotted her and went in for the kill. She quickly drew out her sword and moved to the side. This made the Warg go past her and allowed Jasmina to stabbed the Warg's side, slicing her sword down it's body, making it die in a matter of seconds. She removed her sword and went back to join her group.

As she joined them, Jasmina noticed Bilbo, who was trying to get his sword out of a Warg's head. She ran over and yanked it out for him then pushed her friend forward, telling him to run. He complied and they both ran for their lives. Jasmina heard Gandalf yell their names, thus making her look up to see the company high up in the trees.

She hoisted Bilbo onto a nearby tree and climbed up herself soon after. In no time at all, the ground below them were over-run with Wargs, snarling and jumping at the company. Jasmina glared at the filthy beasts and was in half a mind to slash them with her sword. The Wargs, unexpectedly, calmed down and turned their heads in the same direction.

Curious as to what the beasts were staring at, Jasmina looked in the direction they were and immediately saw her worst enemy. Well, he was all the dwarves' enemy, due to him been the one who killed Thorin's grandfather and king.

Azog the Defiler, on his white Warg, staring at the company with a taunting smirk on his scarred face. Jasmina stared down at Azog, who then saw her and let his smirk grew larger. Thorin also saw Azog but unlike the response Jasmina had, he said to himself,

"Azog. It cannot be."

Though she did not turn her head to see Thorin's face, Jasmina knew what the expression would be. Hate. Anger. Slight fear in his eyes but that would be soon gone. Then she heard Azog say in his language,

(I decided to change the black speech into English, so that you guys could follow along.)

"Do you smell it? The scent of fear? It's filling the air, like flesh that's burnt by fire. It reminds me of your father was reeked of it, Thorin, Son of Thrain. Also your father, my treasure."

Both Thorin and Jasmina stared at Azog with pure hatred, as their memorises of their fathers came into mind. Azog let out a chuckle and yelled to his Wargs,

"Both of them are mine! Kill the others!"

As soon as he gave the order, the Wargs began to jump at the company. Having no other choice, Jasmina yelled at Bilbo to climb, as she began slashing the Wargs below her, keeping them away from her hobbit friend. As she fought, she felt the tree she was in start to shake and she saw the bottom of the tree start to break.

"Bilbo! Jump to the tree! Quickly!"

She ordered him, to which he listened and obeyed. He jumped and with the help of Dwalin, he safely made it. Jasmina was about to do the same when the tree gave way, causing her to fall to the tree in front of her. Thorin noticed her and immediately grabbed her before she could fall and pulled her up, catching the attention of a certain Orc.

Due to the first tree falling, it had knocked into the other trees, causing them to fall like dominoes. This made the company quickly jump onto a steady tree before that began to fall as well. They landed on the last tree standing, which was near the edge of a massive cliff. Jasmina looked down and could barely see the bottom.

Her attention was brought back to the situation she was in, when Gandalf yelled own to her,

"Jasmina! Catch!"