Chapter 14: Broken Promise
Gailien fights her way through the Orcs. She jumps over the stairs, wrapping her legs around one of their necks as her blade makes its way through their skull. She releases him, rolling backwards and landing in a low crouch.
So many things run through her mind. She hasn't found Thorin or Dwalin, but she can hear Kili nearby. Half of her is telling her to run and find her love, the other knows that she needs to stay with Fili.
Her eyes keep dropping to the ground, knowing that at any moment she could be lying on it. She runs down a rampart, instinctively reaching for her bow to shoot the Orcs she sees down below but her hands only grasp air. She does, however, see Thorin fighting off two Orcs on his own.
She whispers his name as her feet move faster along the rampart, her eyes barely leaving him as he fights below her. The only thing to break her from her trance is a heavy weight dropping onto the stone in front of her.
Gailien's feet skid to a halt, lest she run into one of the biggest Orcs she has ever seen. It isn't even pure height or muscle. It almost looks half-troll. Fixing her stumble, she changes into a defensive stance, digging the ball of her foot into the stone behind her.
The large Orc growls, swinging his sword through the air as he lazily walks towards her. she must look like a mouse next to him. But a lethal one. Her blades are kept still until he is no less than a few steps in front of her. The creature is typical for one its size: hard blows, but slow moves and not that smart.
She ducks and rolls underneath its sword as it comes down through the air. It clangs, rebounding off the stone that used to be under her feet, but she is to its side. Her own blades lash out, the top one slicing through the upper leg.
The Orc growls, almost roaring and it stumbles forward and out of her direct reach. Knowing she needs to hit higher, Gailien runs towards the furthest wall of the rampart which goes to the height of her head. With a forceful leap, she bends her leg, catching it on the top of the wall and pushes back off.
She soars through the air, her swords above her head as she flies towards the Orc's back. They dig into the back of his shoulders and Gailien lets her weight do the work but clinging to them, letting her body hang below freely.
The Orc screeches, leaning backwards and trying to reach behind but her blades are in too deep and it cannot reach her. It starts to shake, sending Gailien's body from side to side. It growls loudly as she doesn't let go, twisting its body around with so much force that her hands slip from their tight grip.
She crashes back into the wall she jumped from, her back receiving the brunt of it. Her breath leaves her lungs, sending her to the ground in strangled gasps. The snow is cold against her skin, sending spikes of cold pain up her forearms as her fingers dig into it.
"Argh!"
She pushes herself onto her backside, scuffling her feet along to ground to push herself against the wall. The Orc still lives, her blades protruding from its back, but she can hear its pain. For a split moment, she wishes she had taken Ardoth when it was offered to her.
She glances to the ground, trying to see if it fits her vision. She certainly is alone here.
But it seems that it is not fate. An arrow, not with the red feathers of her own or Kili's sinks deep into the Orc's skull, straight down as though it was shot from above. Her head snaps upwards, just catching sight of a crebrain flying overhead and a familiar figure hanging upside down from it. Once again, Legolas has saved her hide.
The Orc crashes face-first into the ground of the rampart and Gailien slowly manages to pull herself back up to her feet. She puts a hand to her stomach as it burns but pulls it away almost instantly. Her entire hand is covered in blood. She looks down at her chainmail, feeling sick at the sight of the large dark patch showing through the metal.
Maybe it is bleeding enough to kill her.
Wiping her hand on her pants she strides over to the dead creature. Putting a heavy foot in the middle of it's back, she pulls her swords out. She looks back over the side where Thorin was once fighting but the only sign that he was there are the two Orc bodies in the snowy ground.
With no idea where he is now, Gailien decides to head back towards Fili's area, fearing that she has left him too long. The path is mostly clear behind her as she had just come through it, littering the area with her enemies' bodies.
Her eyes dart around, looking for any sight of movement as she marches through the fortress, sticking to the outside areas. Azog is around here somewhere, lurking for sons of Durin. The sound of fighting picks up again as she nears her previous area, Fili to the area near her left.
The fighting comes from Kili who fights two Orcs on the stairs that lead around a tower. Gailien's speed picks up, heading towards him but an unexpected arrival calls out his name.
"Kili?!"
Both their heads turn to the direction it comes from. Tauriel. She is on the other side of the Fortress, past Fili and near where they first arrived.
"Tauriel?!" Kili calls back.
"Kili?!"
The distraction costs him and a sword slices across his cheek. Gailien doesn't need to see the future to guess what may go down. She understands fully what someone might do for their heart and with Kili's history of reckless bravery, she isn't sure she likes Tauriel being here, calling to him during the midst of a battle, no matter how much she may like the Elf herself.
She continues moving towards Kili, killing Orcs as they come towards her. She briefly glances to the balcony she knows that Fili is on and it is a sweet peace of mind to see him still hidden, leaning out to watch things and the bow tightly gripped in his hands. No doubt he is hating not being able to fight, but he couldn't even if he tried.
Out of the corner of her eye, she sees Tauriel being attacked by Bolg, catching her by surprise. Her eyes dart back up to Kili who is already moving towards Tauriel. Gailien holds out her hand. "Kili!" The Dwarf pauses, changing his sight to her. "I'm closer to her, you need to get to Thorin!" Kili looks back to Tauriel then to her, uncertain. "She'll be okay, I promise!"
And that is a promise she intends to keep. Kili nods, running towards wherever Thorin has been led to and Gailien sprints towards Tauriel. She runs, leaping off the side of the building and rolls as she hits the ground. Tauriel is being thrown to the ground by Bolg who saunters towards the Elf.
"I thought I told you not to mess with my Dwarves," Gailien growls, striding confidently towards Bolg. Bolg pauses mid-stride, half turning to glare at the new arrival. "And you mess with her, you're messing with them."
Tauriel looks up to her with surprise, then back up to the spot that she saw Kili, but the young Dwarf is gone, already on his way to finding Thorin.
Bolg leads the first attack. He's stronger than the Orcs she has fought before (besides the troll-like one) and faster. Gailien dives out of the way, barely standing up before she blocks another attack.
"He's okay," she says to Tauriel who is still trying to pull herself to her feet, knocked dizzy by the hit to the wall. Bolg doesn't hold back and Gailien can barely keep her defence up, let alone find the moment to send an offensive move.
Bolg forces her up against the stone wall at the bottom of the stairs, both trapping her in place, and limiting her arm movement. Hit after hit she blocks, her back pounding agonisingly from the last time she was thrown into the wall, not to mention being flung off the battlement by Thorin.
Her eyebrows scrunch together, every ounce of concentration going into keep Bolg's thick blade away from her body. They both of them grunt each time their blades connect, though his are out of anger and spite, hers out of pain and frustration.
From behind them Tauriel finally staggers to her feet, slightly swaying but her knife clutches tightly between her fingers. But Gailien makes the mistake of looking over Bolg's shoulder and tensing in anticipation. Bolg senses her change and just as Tauriel raises her knife high to come down on the back of his neck, Bolg releases Gailien from her parry, swinging his large arm out backwards.
Tauriel is caught in the stomach, her mouth opening wide as the air is knocked out of her for a second time. The knife falls from the hands, clattering loudly on the stone ground, falling only a few feet from where Tauriel falls. Bolg kicks down hard on Tauriel's stomach, causing the red-haired Elf to groan and fold in on herself.
A horrid thought strikes Gailien like lightning from the sky. What if it wasn't her that she saw? The hand was feminine, but that was all she really saw in the image, the torso blurred. She hadn't even thought of the possibility that another female would be around in the fight; she just made the assumption that it was her.
Gailien rushes forward, making another mistaking of alerting her incoming presence with a cry from her throat. Bolg turns back to her and reaches out. Gailien's throat is caught in his grip as he pulls her off the ground. She drops her swords, her hands reaching up the claw at his hand and wrist. The blood is trapped in her face, no small breath able to travel down her throat leaving her gasps soundless. He stands tall, staring at her blankly as the small half-elf creates scratches in his skin.
Her vision starts to blur, and her head begins to burst with pain but not as much as her lungs cry for air. Gailien lets her legs hang limply, focusing her energy on his hand instead. Her fingers dig into his skin, pulling with all her might at his fingers but they are tighter than her current grip on reality.
She glares at Bolg, wanting him to know that if she is going to die, she will die with a bite. Bolg retaliates to her expression, leaning in closer to her face and baring his teeth to her as he tightens his grip. Gailien chokes, her hands becoming weaker by the second as no air makes its way to her head or lungs. Any tighter and he will break her neck.
But Bolg looks over his shoulder to something that is too blurry for Gailien to notice, her hands slowly stopping their fight; clawing turning into pathetic pawing. Then she is dropped to the ground, knees crumbling under her weight like her body is an anchor.
But instead of being unconscious, Gailien starts gasping for air. It is both overwhelming at first but never seems to be enough to satisfy her. She flips onto her back, looking up to the misty sky as her hair spreads out around her, half loose from its hold. This still isn't it. This isn't yet where she dies.
Finally, with enough air to see clearly, Gailien rolls onto her side, unable to stop to low moan as she puts pressure on her stomach injury. Just a few meters away, Tauriel has picked up her long knife as is engaged with Bolg. Gailien almost smiles as she seems to be winning until Bolg pulls a move that ends with Tauriel's back towards his chest and her knees kicked forwards so his arm around her neck is the only thing holding her up.
The half-Elf's eyes widen, pushing up onto her forearms and searching around for her own swords as Tauriel kicks backwards, trying everything to escape from his death grip. Gailien's hands find her blades and using her fists, she pushes to her knees, then to one foot.
And Bogl's free hand lifts into the air, the metal glinting off of something then he drives it down. Gailien gasps as though she is the one to be on the receiving end of the sword. Tauriel is silent, but her mouth is open in a silent scream.
"No!"
Gailien's throat tears in pain as her cry of anguish echoes over Ravenhill. Bolg watches Gailien's expression with satisfaction, removing his sword from Tauriel's chest and lets her fall forward to the ground, dead. Her blood starts pooling through the grooves in the stone, her life streaming away.
She promised. She made a promise and she failed. You lie. You always have and you always will. Thorin's voice rings over and over in her head, nothing in focus but Tauriel's body lying on the snowy ground with open but cold eyes. Kili's face. She lied. She broke her promise.
Her lip quivers as she kneels on the ground hunched over. Bolg walks slowly towards her, kicking Tauriel's body out of the way.
This isn't just some Elf. This is Tauriel. Legolas' friend. Oh, gods...Legolas. Kili....
"I promised," she whispers, rocking slightly. "I made a promise." She rises to her feet, snarling at Bolg who still smirks at her. "And you made me break it." Her voice is hollow with her swollen throat, knuckles white and nothing but the Orc in front of her in her mind.