ˏˋ°•*⁀➷

Suddenly they heard a howl away downhill, a long shuddering howl. It was answered by another away to the right and a good deal nearer to them, then by another not far away to the left. It was wolves howling at the moon, wolves gathering together! There were no wolves other than herself living near Y/N's house, but she knew that noise. she made it herself. But to r it out in the forest under the moon was scary and intriguing for Y/n. Those wargs, though, were not of her kin. "What shall we do, what shall we do!" Bilbo cried. "Escaping goblins to be caught by wolves!" he said, and it became a proverb, though we now say "out of the frying pan into the fire" in the same sort of uncomfortable situations. 

"Up the trees quick!" cried Gandalf, and they ran to the trees at the edge of the meadow, hunting for those that had branches reasonably low or were slender enough to swarm up. Y/n and the company found them as quick as ever they could, you can guess, and up they went as high as ever they could trust the branches. You would have laughed (from a safe distance) if you had seen dwarves sitting up in the trees with their beards dangling down, like old gentlemen gone cracked and playing at being boys. 

Fili and Kili were at the top of a tall larch like an enormous Christmas tree. Dori, Nori, Ori, Oin, and Gloinwere more comfortable in a vast pine with regular branches sticking out at intervals like the spokes of a wheel.  

Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, and Thorin were in another. Dwalin and Balinhad swarmed up a tall, slender fir with few branches and were trying to find a place to sit in the greenery of the topmost boughs. Gandalf and Y/n, much taller than the others, had found a tree into which they could not climb, a large pine standing at the edge of the clearing. They both were entirely hidden in their boughs, but you could see their different colored eyes gleaming in the moon as they peeped out.

And Bilbo? He could not get into any tree and was scuttling about from trunk to trunk, like a rabbit that has lost its hole and has a dog after it.

➷

At that moment, the wolves trotted howling into the clearing—all of a sudden, there were hundreds of eyes looking at them. StillDori did not let Bilbo down. He waited till he had clambered off his shoulders into the branches, and then he jumped for the units himself. Only just in time! A wolf snapped at his cloak as he swung up and nearly got him. In a minute, there was a whole pack of them yelping all round the tree and leaping up at the trunk, with eyes blazing and tongues hanging out.

But even the wild Wargs (for so the evil wolves over the Edge of the Wild were named)cannot climb trees. So, for a time, they were safe. Luckily it was warm and not windy. Trees are not very comfortable to sit in for long at any time, but in the cold and the wind, with wolves all around below waiting for you, they can be perfectly miserable places. So this clearing in the ring of trees was a meeting place for the wolves. More and more kept coming in. 

They left guards at the foot of the tree where Dori and Bilbo were and then went snuffling about till they had smelt out every tree with anyone in it. They guarded, too, while all the rest (hundreds and hundreds, it seemed) went and sat in a great circle in the clearing; in the middle of the ring was a great grey wolf. He spoke to them in the dreadful language of the Wargs. Gandalf and Y/n understood it. Bilbo did not, but it sounded terrible to him, and as if all their talk was about cruel and wicked things, as it was. So all the Wargs in the circle would answer their grey chief together, and their dreadful clamor almost made the hobbit fallout from his pine tree.

I will tell you what Gandalf and Y/n heard, though Bilbao did not understand. The Wargs and the goblins often helped one another in wicked deeds. Goblins do not usually venture very far from their mountains unless they are driven out and are looking for new homes or are marching to war (which I am glad to say has not happened for a long while). But those days, they sometimes used to go on raids, especially to get food or enslaved people to work for them. Then they often got the Wargs to help and shared the take with them. Sometimes they rode on wolves as men do on horses. Now it seemed that a great goblin raid had been planned for that night. The Wargs had come to meet goblins, and the goblins were late. The reason, no doubt, was the death of the GreatGoblin, and all the excitement caused by the company and the wizard, for whom they were probably still hunting.

Despite the dangers of this far land, bold men had of late been making their way back into it from the South, cutting down trees, and building themselves places to live in among the more pleasant woods in the valleys and along the river shores. There were many of them, and they were brave and well-armed, and even theWargs dared not attack them if there were many together or on a bright day. But now, with the goblins' help, they had planned to come by night upon some of the villages nearest the mountains. If their plan had been carried out, none would have been left there the next day; all would have been killed except the few goblins kept from the wolves and carried back prisoners to their caves.

This was dreadful talk about listening to, not only because of the brave woodmen and their wives and children but also because of the danger which now threatened Y/n and her friends. The Wargs were angry and puzzled at finding them in their meeting place. They thought they were friends of the woodmen and were come to spy on them. They would take the news of their plans down into the valleys, and then the goblins and the wolves would have to fight a terrible battle instead of capturing prisoners and devouring people waked suddenly from their sleep. So the Wargs had no intention of going away and letting the people up the trees escape, at any rate, not until morning. And long before that, they said, goblin soldiers would be coming down from the mountains, and goblins could climb trees or cut them down. 

Now you can understand why Y/n,  Gandalf, listening to their growling and yelping, began to be dreadfully afraid, shifter though she was, and to feel that they were in a terrible place and had not yet escaped at all.

She would not let them have it all their way, though she could not do very much stuck up in a tall tree with wolves all around on the ground below. So Gandalf, beside her, gathered the huge pine cones from the tree branches. 

Then he set one alight with a bright blue fire and threw it whizzing down among the circle of the wolves. It struck one on the back, and immediately his shaggy coat caught fire, and he was leaping to and fro, yelping horribly.

Then another came one in blue flames, one in red, another in green. They burst on the ground in the middle of the circle and went off in colored sparks and smoke. Then, finally, a specially large one hit the chief wolf on the nose, and he leaped in the air ten feet and then rushed round and round the circle biting and snapping even at the other wolves in his anger and fright.

Y/n among the rest of the dwarves, Bilbo shouted and cheered. The rage of the wolves was terrible to see, and the commotion they made filled all of the forests. Wolves are afraid of fire at all times, but this was a horrible and uncanny fire. If a spark got in their coats, it stuck and burned into them, and unless they rolled over quickly, they were soon all in flames. Very soon, all about the clearing, wolves were rolling over and over to put out the sparks on their backs, while those burning were running about howling and setting others alight till their friends chased them away. Then, they fled off down the slopes, crying, whining, and looking for water.

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷