The Exile's Daughter

A Lucky Escape

"We should go and collect our dinner before some scavenger gets lucky" Aragorn said sensibly, halting Legolas' playful teasing. We packed the rest of our things up and walked on, while I ate my last few bites of breakfast.

***

The going seemed easier that day than it had for all the others. We were closer to Imladris than ever and I could tell the others' hearts lightened with every step they took. Soon we would all be in safety's arms. As we walked on slowly through the cool autumn day, talking unconcernedly and with ease, I felt a warmth spread through my chest like fire. It was a feeling I recognised as if from long ago, one that I had not thought to feel again after everything that had happened, but perhaps I did deserve to feel it after all. Legolas and Aragorn would've said so if I had confided in them. Looking to my friends walking beside me gave me a sense of security too. They were tall and strong, and I knew I was neither, and could never have had either courage or skill to undertake this journey alone.

They had formed the rather sweet habit of walking either side of me, in case my leg got too painful or I was tired from my still malnourished and weakened body. For the first little while, it had made me a nervous to have them so close, but now I took it as a sign of comfort that I could grab onto one of them if my leg throbbed suddenly, or I felt faint from frailty.

"How is your wound?" Legolas said, changing the subject of our conversations as if he had guessed my thoughts.

"It hurts a little less today, though I think it will be a long while before it is healed. I would have lost my leg soon enough if not for Aragorn's skill."

"Well, we did not want to say, for fear that we would scare you, but that was certainly a risk when we first found you." Aragorn admitted quietly. "Now it will heal, but you will have a scar , I fear. If you were under the care of Lord Elrond, even that might have been prevented".

"A scar is the least of my worries!" I laughed "I have both legs, and you have my thanks for ensuring it."

Aragorn smiled for once, and was about to answer, but Legolas thrust out an arm across my chest to stop me from walking any further, looking around him grimly. Aragorn glanced at him and with a look between them, they both confirmed the danger I could feel creeping into my heart.

"Yrch" I said, almost in a whisper. Legolas nodded slowly, fitting an arrow to his bow. (S: orcs)

"We have been too idle with our talk" Aragorn muttered "and now they have snuck up on us unawares".

Legolas unsheathed his long white hunting knife and held the blade, turning the handle towards me. I glanced at him, wide-eyed, but took it silently. "Only as a last resort." He insisted, nocking an arrow and moving in front of me. "Stay behind us and we'll keep you safe."

The orcs came out of the brush either side of the path we had taken, so many that I could not count them, and then they were upon us. Legolas and Aragorn pushed me further behind them, standing shoulder to shoulder so I could barely see what they were facing. The sounds of screeching, rough voices using a foul tongue rent the air, but Legolas and Aragorn did not give up without a fight, spinning this way and that as sword and arrow felled the creatures assailing us.

Always I was kept safe, but my heart pounded to hear the screeches of the orcs closing in – my friends were struggling. The man's breathing was laboured and even the elf looked troubled and weary.

Before I had time to blink, Aragorn was shoved to the ground, and an orc was upon me. It grunted in laughter as I gasped and lunged forwards. However, barely knowing what I was doing, I pushed Legolas' knife in front of me and heard the laughter fade abruptly. My eyes were screwed shut, so I forced them open. They widened as I looked at the bright blade imbedded in the grey skin of my assailant. I flicked it to the side, and blood spurted from the orc's jugular. It collapsed, while I jumped back to escape the torrent of black blood pouring from its wound. 

Legolas breathed a sigh of relief, before turning to shoot down the orcs around Aragorn so the man could get to his feet again. However, the orcs seemed only to be increasing, no matter how many were killed. Another ran towards me before Legolas and Aragorn could reach me, and I ducked as it's sword almost plunged into my stomach. However, I was lucky again. Thrusting out Legolas' blade, I sunk it into a small gap in the creature's armour. It fell and I stabbed it in the throat to finish it off.

Hearing a gasp of pain, I turned in fear to see Aragorn drawing back from an orc, holding his bleeding wrist at an awkward angle. Legolas shot the creature and I backed away as three of its companions advanced on me. I could not fight all of these off at once, I knew, and the others were caught in similar difficult situations. They were splitting us up.

Suddenly, orcs and friends alike turned, hearing the swift thundering of hooves coming towards us. Fair, wrathful voices filled the air and more arrows than those of Legolas soared above my head, finding their marks in the now screeching orcs. The three surrounding me fell within seconds, and I turned to see a company of elves riding towards the fight. Men were also emerging from the grass, hooded and armed with longbows. They shot into the orcs, aiding the elves with precise skill.

I heard Legolas laugh with joy and Aragorn shouted out, relieved, but in a moment the pain in my leg had returned, thundering into my awareness with the hooves of the elves and the shouts of the men who had come to our rescue. I cried out not in joy but agony as my knees hit the ground. Someone shouted my name, but it seemed distant, as did the hands that caught me as I sunk into a dead faint.

AM