Chapter Text
Everyone was up well before first light. A hearty first breakfast was served in the Hall of Kings, and several of the Hobbits serving the meal were attempting to ensure that everyone ate a big meal. More than one Dwarrow was scolded for trying to eat lightly. "It has to last you all day! Or at least through the battle! There'll be no time to grab a bite to eat until things are all over!" was their refrain.
Most did not have the heart to deny the small creatures their efforts to help, including Fili. "Thank you, Mistress," he said politely, as he took what was offered to him. Sigrid did the same next to him. They were both dressed in thick gambesons, and as soon as they had finished their meal they would go and get their armor. Fili led Sigrid over to the dais that had been set up at the front of the Hall for those leaders who chose to use the long table.
"I'm used to being the one to tell my people to eat well because we won't get anything until sunset," Sigrid sighed. "I hope everyone takes their advice."
"Some will, some won't," Fili shrugged. "Some will be too nervous to eat. Others will know how it feels to fight on an empty stomach. Yet others will know that they shouldn't eat at all until after the battle as they'll eject everything in their stomachs if they try. They'll eat or not. There's nothing that can be done about it now." With that, he set to filling himself up. Sigrid sighed again and ate her breakfast as well. After they had finished their meal, both Fili and Sigrid passed their dishes to a couple of Hobbits that were smaller than the rest, (which had to mean that they were young tweens as Bilbo had explained), and left the Hall to go to the royal armory. It was the only part of the palace proper that had been accessed.
"Fili, here!" Thorin called. The rest of the Company was gearing up, not only donning their new armor, but also picking backup weapons and carefully placing white beads in their hair and beards. "This is for you," Thorin said, as he carefully placed a large white bead in Fili's hand.
Fili looked it over carefully. The bead was made from bone and nearly the length and width of his thumb. Down the length of the bead were engraved runes filled in with gem dust of a fiery red, probably made from the small pieces that were carved off of rubies when the gems were shaped. It took a few moments for Fili to realize that he was holding part of a tooth, not a bone. "This is from one of Smaug's teeth!" he gasped.
Thorin grinned savagely. "Yes, and all who took part in his death have been given one made by my own hand. Balin, Oin and Gloin each have a second bead as they sacrificed part of their beards to Smaug's fire. I would honor all who helped to kill the beast."
Fili grinned. "Well, we're honored to have them, Uncle," he said, as he quickly unbraided his line braid and redid it with the bead right next to his cheekbone.
When Fili was done, Thorin gestured both he and Sigrid into a side chamber. "There isn't much, but Kili was right about Bilbo's mithril shirt not being the only one in the mountain. Here, Fili, wear this so you have a better chance at surviving the battle this time. Kili and Tauriel are already wearing theirs." Thorin handed over a set of mithril chainmail that Fili could wear under his plate armor. "I am sorry to say that we have none in your size, Sigrid."
"What Fili made for me is more than enough," Sigrid said. "That Fili has better protection this time is a good thing," she paused, and gave Thorin a firm look, "as long as you do as well."
Thorin took the slight rebuke in the spirit it was meant. "I've not been fighting gold sickness this time, so I'm clear headed enough to know not to charge out there without armor," he promised.
"Good, I prefer that we all survive this time," Sigrid said plainly as she began slipping on her chainmail.
"Mahal will it so," Fili and Thorin both prayed.
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Bard jumped as a Hobbit wearing a feathered cap simply appeared at his side. "I am sad to say that the Orc scouts are experiencing some serious problems," the Hobbit said with a wide grin. "An entire group of them were wiped out in a land slide and quite a few of the others have had serious injuries due to falling rocks. I'm afraid that the poor dears are suffering terribly."
Bard grinned in return, even as he willed his heart to settle back into his chest. He was beginning to see just why Master Baggins had told them not to worry about the smaller scouts. "That's a terrible shame, it is," he agreed. "With any luck they'll see that coming up here just isn't a good idea. Perhaps they can set up their signal tower a little lower in the valley?"
"Probably best, but you know that Orcs aren't the sharpest spade in the shed," the Hobbit said with a sigh and a shake of the head even as he looked delighted. "Stubborn as an ox and twice as likely to keep going even in the face of all good sense. Well, no hope for it, we'll just have to keep helping the dears along." The Hobbit's face was full of mischief as he casually saluted Bard and somehow vanished.
One of the Men laughed quietly, as Bard turned back to them. "Things are looking better all the time, but don't get careless, we've still got a long way to go."
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Thorin stood on top of the bolder beside the main gate, this time in full armor. The Dwarrow of Erebor, some of the Men of Dale and the Elves of the Greenwood were standing before the gate in armored rows, the Dwarrow in the front and the Elves in the back with the Men directly in front of the gates. It made sense, the Dwarrow were ready to put up the shield wall and the Elves were all Spearmen with a far longer reach than the Dwarrow so their spears would reach the enemy over the Dwarrow's shield wall. The Men were swordsmen, and they would only meet the Orcs when the enemy finally broke through and the fighting broke down into melee weapons fighting. They were there mostly to guard those who were ready to bring the wounded off the field of battle as most of their Men were either with the Elven archers or with the Hobbit Bounders. Thorin had given them as safe a role as he could considering their inexperience. Suddenly Dwalin laughed loudly and called out - "HEY THORIN! LOOKS LIKE LOVER BOY"S HERE!"
If Thorin wasn't wearing gauntlets and a helm he'd have dropped his face into his palms. Instead he closed his eyes and reached for patience. Of course Dwalin had been spreading the tale of Bilbo's gossip, because he could hear laughter spreading throughout everyone standing before the gates. "I see him, Dwalin," he said curtly, and see him he did. Azog stood on top of that damned signal tower of his, but this time it was at the back of his army. The Hobbits and the Men with them had done it. They'd kept the Orcs out of Ravenhill. It was too bad that they couldn't take out the giant bats overhead that shielded the Orcs from the sun. All it would take would be a few good rays of sunlight to make Thorin's day so much easier.
"AZOG! YOU WILL NOT HAVE THIS MOUNTAIN! NOR WILL YOU HAVE THE FREE PEOPLES OF THESE LANDS DEAD AT YOUR FEET! TURN BACK TO YOUR MASTER OR FACE DEATH AT OUR HANDS!" Thorin roared the challenge that he knew would bring Azog's wrath down on their heads.
"Bit simple that," Dwalin commented. "But I suppose you have to be when your dealing with someone as stupid as that Orc. After all, things didn't go too well last time, did it?" He was standing very calmly to Thorin's left, with the butt of his war hammer resting on the ground as he leaned on the head. He was the picture of calm relaxation in the face of the enemy. There really could not be much more of an insult than that - someone who is a veteran warrior saying with his body language that you are no threat to him. It was a pity that Azog could not see it.
"No, it did not," Thorin agreed. He jumped down from the boulder and drew Orcrist from it's sheath. He made his way to directly behind the shield wall, knowing better than to get in anyone's way, but needing to be seen as ready to lead the combined forces to victory. Fili and Kili fell in by his sides, and Sigrid and Tauriel fell in next to them. The royal family of Erebor stood proud and waiting for Azog to make his move.
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Bilbo wasn't happy to be back on the battlements once more, but as he'd already said, it made the most sense to put him there rather than in the thick of things. No matter that he'd done his best to train with Sting, he really hadn't had the time to get any good at it. His bow on the other hand, well that was another story. Some of the young children of Men, (those old enough to have a job but too young to be hands deep in dealing with wounded), and those Hobbit tweens who were not strong enough to get their arrows all the way down to the battle were busy running back and forth from where some of the injured Dwarrow were hammering out sling stones from some of the rubble that could be found around the gates and making certain that those stones were placed in piles next to the older Hobbits.
"Steady all," Bilbo called out. "There's no point in getting ourselves tired when all they're doing is just standing there. Wait for the Orcs to make the first move. They can tire themselves out dragging those contraptions of their's." Those contraptions were battle engines - Bilbo's thoughts stopped as the ground began to rumble. "Here come the were-worms!" he called out. "The second army will come through the tunnels they're digging. Watch out for the Trolls! Don't bother trying to shoot them. Leave them for the Dwarrow and the Elves down there. The only good way to take them out is to get some belladonna into them, but we can't exactly invite them to sit down for some tea!"
"Rude!" a Hobbit matron sniffed, even as she set her quiver into place on the wall. "Look at that! They're not even trying to talk!" she said, disgusted as Azog yelled out something in the Black Speech and the Orcs charged at the line of Erebor's defenders.
"DU BEKAR!" came from down below, and Bilbo was glad to hear Thorin's voice, even as the Orcs reached the line that the Hobbits had determined was how far their arrows would reach. They'd come to an agreement with the Elves and the Men that no one would try to shoot until the Orcs had reached that invisible line.
"HAKKA PAALLE! FOR THE GREEN LADY AND HER LORD!" yelled Bilbo, and he began firing. All around him, and from above, came a hail of battle cries, arrows, and sling stones all shot right into the enemy lines. The Orcs began falling well before they reached the shield wall. Bilbo had only time for one thought. 'This is going to going to be terrible.'
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Thorin didn't know Calithildir all that well, but as far as he was concerned, the new King of the Woodlands was already a far better king than his father had been. That was because unlike last time, when the Orcs finally hit the shield wall, (and yes he had noticed Orcs falling from the waves of arrows and stones from the battlements - take THAT Azog!) the Elves did not do the stupid thing and jump over the Dwarrow's to get at the enemy.
No, this time the Elves set up their own shield wall directly behind the Dwarrow, and when the Orcs crashed over the Dwarrow pushed up and over by their own forces, the Elves were there to crush those who made through the Dwarrow lines, and from what he could see as he was between the two lines, they often were able to kill the Orcs before they managed to get back on their feet. That was something he could get behind. "BARUK KHAZAD! KHAZAD AI-MENU!" he yelled with a grin as he began swinging Orcrist at his first foe. Mahal! He'd actually missed this - at least he did right now. He knew perfectly well that later he'd never want to see a battle again, but right now there was nothing he wanted more than to take the heads off the Orcs in front of him.
The entire thing quickly devolved into the chaos that was a true battle. Soon Azog sent in his Trolls and other beasts. Thorin wasn't one to let his focus devolve into a tunnel. He kept his awareness open, so that he could see and hear what was happening around him. So he was aware that the Trolls and other beasts were being shot at by the archers, and that the Orcs still back with them were falling by the dozens. He'd expected that. What he hadn't expected was a rain of giant bolos, blocks of stone on the end of giant chains, being shot into the sky and landing on top of a good portion of Azog's army.
Dain had arrived.
And so had Galadriel's Elves along with the majority of the Men from Lake Town, because from the other side of the mountain, down from where Ravenhill's ruins were, came Elves and Men riding on horses and plowing through the back of the Orcs' armies. It was enough. They were only outnumbered 3 to 1 this time. This time they had a far greater chance of survival. "DU BAKAR!"
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Dain sent in his cavalry. The war rams and battle pigs weren't nearly as tall as some of those horses the Elves were riding, but that just meant that they could hit the Orcs harder, square in the belly rather than the head. The horses were good for trampling those down on the ground though. "Send in the chariots, and then the rest of you, follow me! BARUK KHAZAD! KHAZAD AI-MENU!" He laughed as the Dwarrow behind him began crying "FOR THE KING!" as they launched themselves at the Orcs. It was a good day to be Khazad!
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Azog sent some of his reserve troops to attack Dale. Lunt, one of the Men, cursed. "Damned Orcs. I spent weeks trying to shore up that damned wall!"
"Just be glad our people are inside the mountain," Percy told him, even as they guarded a young Gimli carrying a wounded Dwarrow back to the gates. He stabbed an attacking Orc before handing over a bunch of dragonscale arrows to Bain. "Let them waste their time." There was a deep, not-sound that had him looking over at Dale once more. A substantial number of Orcs were simply not there anymore - and what looked like a few Trolls, (or perhaps some other sort of creature, it was hard to tell anymore), were nothing more than a large pile of burnt ash.
"Wizards have their uses," was the conclusion that the small group of Men reached, even as they headed back out into the battlefield to kill Orcs and save more of their own.
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The Dwarrow and Elves fell back to regroup in front of the gates. Once there, Thorin, Fili and Sigrid, and Kili and Tauriel, along with Calithildir, led a charge right back into the now somewhat reduced ranks of the Orcs. Fili and Sigrid were grimly keeping pace with Thorin as he lead the Dwarrow ranks like the tip of a spear towards Azog's signal tower. Kili and Tauriel were laughing as they fought side by side in a deadly dance. Dwalin fought beside Calithildir, as the Elf stayed close to Thorin. The Ri siblings were passing throwing axes between them by burying them inside Orc heads. Bombur was swinging a morning star and bouncing Orcs off his great belly before jumping on them. Balin had joined Dain's charioteers and was plowing through Orcs like it was a game of nine pins.
A blind Troll with it's hands covered in metal spheres with long chains with morning stars at the ends and an Orc riding it's shoulders was ripping it's way through the Dwarrow ranks. The Elves and Men archers on the upper battlements were doing their best to turn the damned thing into a pincushion, but it had little effect. Bofur saw the situation and called to Gloin and Nori. The two Dwarrow were carrying shields, and they held them up at an angle so that Bofur could run up and over them. Bofur used the shields to launch himself right onto the Troll's arm. From there, he climbed up and knocked the Orc off with his axe. With a laugh, he took control of the Troll, grabbing the chains attached to the Troll's eyes and drove it towards the Orc lines.
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Those who had attacked Dale were no more. Between the Elves, Men, Galadriel and Gandalf, not a single Orc or Troll, (or anything else that Azog had sent), had survived. With the destruction of his reserve troops, they had Azog trapped between Erebor's defenders. The pale Orc and his troops were trapped. That was when the Eagles and the shifters arrived. The Eagles dropped shifters on top of what was left of Azog's forces, and then took to attacking the giant bats that shaded the battlefield. With each bat that fell, more and more of the sky was unblocked. Unfortunately the sky was covered in clouds, so little sunlight fell onto the Orcs. A couple of Trolls did get turned to stone as they could not get away from the sudden light fast enough, but for the most part it was the shifters that did more damage to the enemy.
Still that did not mean that there were no more Orcs to fight. Balin managed to take out six Trolls with his chariot. Bofur's Troll took out another. Unfortunately he was thrown when his Troll went down as well. Without more than a shrug, he grabbed up a warhammer and began attacking the Orcs around him. One got in a luck shot and knocked him down to the ground. Bifur noticed, and ran at the Orc, hitting him in the head with the axe in his own head. The two tussled, stuck together, until Bofur grabbed Bifur around the waist. Bombur grabbed Bofur and Bofur called, "PUSH!"
The three Dwarrow pushed the Orc off a short cliff until the Orc was hanging solely from the axe. The two younger Dwarrow held Bifur, not letting him be dragged over, until Bombur decided that it wasn't working. He let go of Bofur, stepped up his back and over the two other Dwarrow. He jumped down onto the Orc, the sudden shift in weight pulling the Orc off the axe. Bombur and the Orc fell the rest of the way down the cliff, and Bombur hit the Orc until his head bashed in.
Above on top of the cliff, Bofur suddenly realized, "Bifur! You've lost your axe!"
"No he hasn't!" called Bombur and hustled over to them, carrying the axe that he'd pulled out of the Orc. He handed it to Bifur.
"You know where you can stick that!" Bifur proclaimed in Westron, and threw the axe over his shoulder. "Let's get back to it!"
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Finally, at long last, it came down to Azog, Blog and a few of Azog's best warriors against the leaders of Erebor's defenders. The defenders stood in a circle around the last of the Orcs, and Bilbo pushed his way through so that he could witness Azog's end. He waved. Azog noticed the little Hobbit and seemed to go mad, attempting to rush him rather than take out anyone else. He didn't even notice five different swords, (Thorin's, Fili's, Sigrid's, Tauriel's and Kili's), thrust into his body in his attempt to get at the Hobbit.
Azog fell dead at Bilbo's feet.
"Well, that's that," Bilbo said with a sigh. "Now time for the clean up."