LotR - Rise to War {LegoRomance}

XXV: Blind Faith of Escaping

Imladris, 3018 TA, October 29

As she stared at the army of orcs before her, droplets of blood ran down her wounded lips. She had commanded armies similar to those ever since she met Borias, which was several lifetimes ago. Men seemed to obey her every order... her every wish... back then, and she was surrounded by power and grandeur. Now, things were vastly different. Xena had seen the devastation that war and wickedness can inflict on a person. She had lost a great deal in her former life, and it seemed that she would lose much more in this one. As she was pursued by conflict everywhere she went.

Legolas was stuck between nightmare and reality, between loss and darkness, tiredness and anguish, and had devoured the ellon in a temporal struggle he was unsure he would win. 'This is terrible, this cannot be,' he said to himself as he felt his body confined and forced against the pillar. Attempting to ignore the fresh wounds and biting sting in his exhausted body that erupted to new degrees of pain as the cold stone of the pillar came into contact with his bleeding wounds concealed behind his shredded cloak. He should pick up his shattered bits and rebuild his strength, he reasoned darkly. There had been a large number of orcs, and he was well aware that destroying them was a fool's dream.

He felt they could escape and inform the guard in some way. He was fully aware that Aragorn should be concerned by now that he had not returned. His trusted friend would be on the lookout for the human and him. 'The human...' he thought, bringing himself back to the current moment. With a quick look in front of him, everything became silent and an echoing white noise almost burst into his ear, spinning his head. Leaning forward slightly and with his arms still cuffed around the pillar, Legolas watched the scene that opened up in front of his eyes.

Night of her birth in Arda. Thirty-one days ago. Xena, she was called, the warrior princess. Valar, how the stars did fall. He looked for blackness, holes in the heavens. He watched, pale and unwashed. He could neither act nor speak and in front of him rose already a taste for mindless violence. Bodies were lying across the camp, many of them. All dead. Black blood was dripping from their cold bodies, and the smell of blood and death was rising.

And she was standing there, like a rising shadow. She was covered in orc blood, her face, her hair and her body. The elf could not note which part of the blood was hers, and which was from the orcs. The woman seemed different, faceless and fearless as she cut one orc after another. For weapons, she used whatever she could find along her way. How could a human master such wrath?

Now more orcs appeared grey dark creatures with yellow eyes that trotted neatly of catching her. Moving on again. She followed. Some fell by the blades she had found, and some just by using some sort of pressure points. Along with the fight, the wind blew and the dirty dust set on their bodies. Sand in everything. Sand and blood. The orcs were failing. The human was strong, stronger than the elf had ever seen her be.

Another orc approached her from behind, and the two met midway. The orc in front of her shifted slightly. In one hand, he gripped a broken knife carelessly. "You'd best quit," he said. However, Xena was not going to do that, and she saw no use in trying to talk herself out of it. She smacked the orc across the face. The orc collapsed a few yards away and said, "I'm going to kill you!"

He swung with the knife and the woman ducked and he swung again and she stepped back. When the woman hit him again the orc stroke the knife against the side of her head. She went off into the mud and the orc lunged after her with the broken blade and tried to stick it in her eye. She was fending with her hands and they were slick with blood. She started trying to reach for a rock or any rusted weapon close to her to defend herself. They struggled in the dark against the mud. The woman had the broken blade now and they circled like wild animals lost in the brutality of the moment. The orc lurched at her and with one stroke she cut his chest open watching the orc fall to his doom.