A Song for Middle Earth (Legolas x OC romance)

8. Loss

After a few more days of travel on river, at one point passing the statues of Aragorn's ancestors, the group pulled onto shore again. There was some tension between myself, Legolas and the ranger, all three of us equipping our weapons as soon as we stepped onto land.

I moved away from the river, ears perked to listen to any sounds from the trees. Every rustle of leaves made me tense, but the sound of heavy feet couldn't yet be heard. As we had sailed, Legolas and I had heard marching on the side we were now resting upon, and Aragorn had seen shadows in the trees.
They couldn't be far.

With my bow drawn, I continued on, eyes constantly scanning around me as I tiptoed silently along.
It took twenty minutes before I could finally make out the hushed grunting voices of orcs. I lowered into a crouch as I approached the noise, slipping behind a boulder as the first sight of them graced me.

It looked like a scouting group, though their numbers were greater than ours, making me frown as I tried to count them.
A snorting sound made me freeze.

"You smell that lads? Sweet flowers. There's a she-elf near by." One of the creatures growled, shortly followed by the cracking of dried leaves and twigs.
With a grimace, I sniffed my shoulder, though my own scent was so normal for me I couldn't make out what they had.
Notching an arrow, I stood and loosed it through the skull of an orc who'd come to stand mere feet from my hiding place. There was silence as the other orcs processed what had happened. Before they could react, six more lay dead at their feet. Finally, chaos ensued as part of the group rushed towards me, the others drawing their own bows and trying to shoot at me. I leaped side to side to dodge their arrows, slinging my bow across my chest and drawing both of my swords to deflect the first orc strikes. The blade from my father whistled a sharp melody as it cut through the air to block the heavy swords that came at me.

I kept myself moving backwards to avoid being circled by the grotesque creatures, ducking away from more arrows and blocking with one arm while returning strikes with the other. I managed to decapitate four orcs before another caught my left shoulder with a jagged edge, scoring halfway through the outer end of my collar bone. I hissed in pain, blinking back the instant tears that came to my eyes.

I sent my blade through his gut, making him release his hilt before I turned and dashed away from the group, using my right sword to dislodge the blade that had locked into my shoulder. Sheathing my right blade, I used my right hand to catch the sword in my left before my numbing fingers could drop it.

I couldn't quite manage to sheath the second sword, so I slipped it through the back of the scarf around my neck, tightening the fabric with my fingers and teeth. The flat side of the blade bounced off of the bandage pouch on the back of my belt as I ran.

I ran parallel to where my companions were, as far as I could to avoid having the orcs scent them out. Unfortunately, it seemed the group had split from each other, and as I rounded a set of old ruins, I found Aragorn urging Frodo to run as the ranger's gaze fell on me, then the orcs that were chasing behind me. When the hobbit hesitated, I ran past Aragorn and grabbed Frodo's arm roughly, dragging him with me as I ran.

He stumbled from the hard pull, but I spun and scooped him up with my good arm, making him cling to my right side as I finished the twirl and continued on.
Once we were far enough away, I set Frodo back on his feet and glanced back, before looking him in the eye. There was a hesitance in his gaze that had me slowly kneeling in front of him and placing a hand on his shoulder, a thunder of footsteps getting closer once more.

"If you are going to leave us, go now. Do not look back."

He looked shocked, his hand lifting to grip mine tightly.
"I don't know if I can do this.." he whimpered, glancing over my shoulder.