~ Part Five ~
The group finally slowed to a stop while Gandalf took a head count of all of the gasping dwarves. Ellía leaned against a boulder, and only then did she remember the slash she had taken to the back. She hissed out a breath as her bloodied skin burned and quickly pushed away from the rock. Fili noticed her movements and turned to her with a bit of concern in his eyes.
"You took a blow for young Ori. How bad is it?" He asked stepping forward. "It is nothing I cannot heal once we find a place to rest longer." She reassured him with a weak smile. Kili appeared by her side and said, "That looks quite painful. At least let us wrap it for now." He said and began to pull at his under shirt to rip a piece off.
But he was stopped when Gandalf yelled, "Where is our hobbit!". Ellía looked around quickly, trying to see if her friend was just being overlooked, but could not. "Curse that halfling! Now he's lost?" Gloin grumbled. "I thought he was with Dori!" Oin exclaimed. "Don't blame me!" Dori said defensively. "Where did you last see him?" Gandalf asked the group.
"I think I saw him slip away when they first collared us." Nori spoke up. "Well what happened exactly, tell me!" Gandalf demanded. "I'll tell you what happened. Master Baggins saw his chance and he took it-" Thorin began but Ellía, not being able to bite her tongue, interrupted him. "He would not do that! You always assume the worst of others." She growled at him, surprising the others.
Thorin whipped his head in her direction and slowly stalked up to her. "I am surprised you did not do the same, she-elf. Where as Master Baggins has only thought of his soft bed and warm house since he left, you have only dreamt of returning home to your sheltered life." He spat. "We will not be seeing our hobbit again. He is long gone... maybe you should follow." Thorin added as he stepped away from the angry elf."
"No. He isn't." A voice said from behind them. They all turned to see Bilbo standing there awkwardly. "Bilbo Baggins! I have never been so glad to see someone in my life. "Bilbo we had all but given you up!" Kili breathed out in relief. "How on earth did you get past the goblins?" Fili asked him.
Bilbo chuckled nervously and Ellía caught a glimpse of something small and gold being slipped into his vest pocket. 'It couldn't be...' Ellía thought as she recalled stories from her childhood. "Well what does it matter? He's back." Gandalf said, clearly trying to change the subject.
"It matters. I want to know. Why did you come back?." Thorin asked. Bilbo took a deep breath and looked over the group before looking back at Thorin and saying, "I know you doubt me, I know you always have, and you're right. I often think of Bag End. I miss my books, and my arm chair, and my garden. See, that's where I belong; that's home, and that's why I came cause you don't have one.. a home. It was taken from you. But I will help you take it back if I can."
Thorin was quiet, as was the rest of the company, as Bilbo's words sunk in. Before anything else could be said, a nearby howl ripped through the silence, startling the group. "Wargs..." Ellía said as she unsheathed one of her swords and turned around to look they way the howl had just come from. "Out of the frying pan..." Thorin said lowly. "And into the fire." Gandalf finished before yelling for everyone to run. The company took off in a sprint down the mountain side, weaving through tress and jumping over boulders, as the wargs drew closer.
Once the first few wargs caught up with the group, Ellía spun around and planted her feet as one charged towards her. She ducked as it launched itself at her and cut it right down the middle of its underbelly, sending it it off into the woods screeching. She turned when she heard Bilbo cry out but was relieved to see he had killed the beast on his own.
"Up into the trees! All of you! Come on! Climb!" Gandalf ordered, causing Ellia to finally look around and notice they had trapped themselves on a cliff with nowhere to run. Ellía ran to the closest tree and kicked off of a boulder next to it, propelling herself up into the branches. Fili and Kili followed her, helping each other quickly climb up.
Ellía watched in horror as the main pack of wargs and their orc riders came into view. "Nienna have mercy on us." Ellía whispered. Suddenly, a small moth fluttered in front of her face, giving her an idea. "Mithrandir! The eagles!" she called to the wizard who quickly nodded and got to work.
"Is that Azog?" she heard Fili ask from the other side of the tree. "Uncle said he was killed years ago!" Kili hissed out. Ellía looked where they were staring and saw a terrifying sight. An all too familiar pale orc, astride a white warg. Just as the Goblin King had said.
Azog began to speak in orckish as he studied the people that had climbed into the trees to escape him and his pack. Ellía's knowledge of the orkish was quite minimal, due to her father not liking many of those kinds of book to be in her possession, but he was still able to pick up some of what he said.
"...fear... father reeked.... it... Thorin son of Thrain." was all Ellía got, but it was enough to understand the look of disbelief and sorrow on Thorin's face. Azog lifted his club and piointed it at Thorin and said, "...one...mine... kill..!" before signaling his wargs rush at them. The beasts began to jump up and try up climb up into the trees and drag them out.
Ellía, Fili, and Kili swung the swords at the jumping wargs when they got too close, but the beasts were starting to uproot their trees with their weight. Suddenly, she heard a loud creaking and looked up to see the two trees in front of theirs were falling towards them. "Hold on!" Fili yelled as the trees knocked into them and the other dwarves hopped on to their branches with them.
Almost immediately, their trees roots gave out and they began falling into the last tree at the edge of the cliff where Gandalf was. "Jump!" Dwalin ordered and they all jumped over into the last standing tree. Ellía took a deep breath as she sat on her branch and looked around to make sure everyone else had made it. Thankfully, everyone was safe at the moment.
She had closed her eyes for a second trying to steady her nerves, when she felt light headed for a moment. She snapped her eyes opened and tried to rub the blurriness from her eyes with with her hand that didn't have a death grip on the tree. Only then did she register the steady stream of a thick liquid trickling down her back. "Nuuta", she cursed as she pulled her hand out from the back of her top and saw that her hand was covered in blood.
She was snapped out of her daze by flames suddenly growing in the forest around them. "Ellía!" Gloin hollered above her. She looked up in time to catch a smoldering pine cone. "Ouch! Ouch!" she grumbled as she switched hands before chunking it at the wargs below. The flames slowly grew, forcing the beasts back and the dwarves celebrated, but it was too soon...
The tree let out a loud groan before its roots began to burst above ground and lean over the edge of the cliff. "Mr. Gandalf!" A desperate Dori cried out. Ellía whipped her head around to see the dwarf barley hanging on and Ori clinging to his foot. Her heart felt like it was going to crack when Dori lost his grip and disappeared, but Gandalf had held out his staff in time for Dori to grasp it, saving himself and his youngest brother.
Ellía heard Azog let out a sound that seemed to be a mixture of a laugh and a growl, and looked back at him. She noticed that he and Thorin were staring at each other intensely. The next thing she knew, Thorin was standing up from his spot on the trunk and marching towards Azog with his sword drawn.
Everyone watched in horror as Thorin charged forward to face off with the pale orc, while the forest burned around them. Ellía was about to call out to Gandalf and ask if he had sent the message to the eagles, but her vision suddenly went dark.
~~~~~
Ellía blinked her eyes quickly and found herself laying in her favorite meadow back in Rivendell. A loud huff sounded by her ear and she turned to see one of her dearest friends looking down at her. "Radag? Where am I? What is happening? Where are the others?" she asked frantically while standing up.
"Breath my dear, you will return to them in a moment." a soft voice said behind her. Ellía spun around to see he grandmother, Galadriel, the Lady of Light, smiling at her with open arms. "Haruni." Ellía breathed and rushed into Galadriel's embrace. "Your father has been very worried about you." She told the young elf as they pulled away. "That was not my intention." Ellía said shamefully and looked at her bare feet.
"He knows this, my dear. Though he is worried, he is also proud. Your father now realizes how brave you were for accepting such a dangerous and unknown fate." Galadriel explained as she brushed a piece of hair behind Ellía's ear. Although she was comforted by her grandmother's words, she could not stop thinking of why she has here.
"Haruni, what is happening?" Ellía pleaded. Galadriel smiled down at the girl before saying, "The Valar have finally foreseen what your purpose is to be on the this quest and within the company." The young elf's eyes widen upon hearing this. "You spoke to the Valar?" she whispered. "They came to your father in a vision. Your purpose, my dear, is to save the Sons of Durin." Galadriel said softly as she studied Ellía's reaction.
Ellía was quiet for a moment before saying, "How am I to do that?" she asked desperately. Galadriel gave her a sad smile before placing a light kiss on her forehead. "You will know when the moment arrives. But be warned, child. One approaches now." The Lady of Light whispered before Ellía felt her eyes grow heavy and the last sound she heard was a desperate whiny from Radag.
~ Elvish Translation ~
Nienna - A Lady of the Valar, the Weeper, and the Lady of Mercy
Nuuta - Damn
Haruni - Grandmother