The guard who was waiting for Elfreda stood impatiently. He was about to go and look for her when she jogged up the corridor.
"Sorry, I'm ready now!" she said. The guard huffed and replied
"Come on, follow me."
Back at the gates, Elfreda looked out into the woodlands ahead of her, knowing the threat of the orcs would not be too far away. So Elfreda quickly paced out of the kingdom, allowing the great gates to close so that nothing could get in...
An orc gazed over the entrance to the great palace of Mirkwood. The huge gates opened and the disgusting creature saw his chance to attack; however the guards threw a figure out and quickly shut them again. Looking around, the figure quickly made a dash off into he trees and could no longer be seen by the orc. Grunting, the mutated creature returned to his master. His master was another orc but he was huge and small white eyes with no visible pupils. A metal line was bolted to his flat face. The orc's name was Bolg. In their foul language the scout said, " the gates are guarded" Bolg turned and replied harshly
"Not all of them, follow me." With that the orcs turned and followed their leader around the back of into the dark trees of Mirkwood forest.
Elfreda stopped where she had spotted the orcs. They were only a few she could tell from their tracks. However, in her heart she knew that there were many more than that. A pair of footprints was much larger than any of the others and was almost shaped like a rectangle. This was no scout group- they had been sent to do some kind of foul work. Elfreda was not going to let that happen- she hated orcs more than anyone. Arming herself with her bow( which she had successfully hidden inside her bag) and followed the rectangular tracks back into the deep.
"Sounds like quite the party, you're having up there," mentioned Kili to Tauriel. Still in the prison, bot the young dwarf and the elf both listened to the huge celebration going on in the great halls in the palace. Tauriel smiled " it is Mereth Nuin Giliath; the Feast of Starlight. All light is sacred but the wood elves love the light of the stars" She paced around and looked p the stairs as if she was trying to watch the party from where she stood.
Kili looked interested "I always thought it was a old light, remote and far away," he admitted. Tauriel turned and looked at him- shocked. "It is memory, precious and pure, like your promise." she said holding out the talisman. Kili took the stone in his hands, but never broke eye contact with Tauriel.
"I saw a fire moon once" he began. Tauriel sat on a nearby stone to listen to his story. "It rose over the pass near Dunland. Huge, red and gold it was, it filled the sky. We were and escort for a group of merchants. We took the greenway south; keeping the mountains to our left and then it appeared." As Kili told the story, Legolas was watching from a far, above the cells. As he listened, a sad frown shadowed his face. He turned to leave, retreating back to his chambers.
Legolas walked slowly through the long corridors of his fathers palace. The nose from the king's party echoed everywhere and would last all night long. He decided to take the long way back to his rom, stopping by at the cellars. The cellars never stopped during the nights when Thranduil threw a party- they needed as much drink to keep the kings pleased as possible. "Good evening, my lord" said an elf, pausing at his work to bow before the prince. Legolas told him to stand "good evening, Galion my friend, how is the festival?"
Galion huffed, he knew that Legolas was also not to fond of al the festivals that Thranduil organised. The prince smiled "I will see you tomorrow melon." he said and departed as Galion hurried off with more orders for wine. As Legolas left, he passed an invisible hobbit, Bilbo who had just found the perfect way for the dwarves to escape...
Reaching his chamber, Legolas was pleased to be alone. Inside he sat on the chair by is desk and closed his eyes for a few minutes breathing deeply. When he opened them, a strange yet familiar sight caught his eye. The prince picked up the fletching ad studied it. Legolas tried to remember were had seen !t before but he could not recall its owner. He put the fletching in a draw in his desk and went to bed. He would think more of it tomorrow. If his father was in a good mood, he would ask him.
The night was long and tiring for Elfreda; the orcs had not stopped to break and Elfreda was rapidly running out of energy. Yet she did not stop, this pack of orcs were up to no good and Elfreda wanted to know why. They had travelled very far from the dark holes from which they came from.
"I'll wager the sun is one the rise. It must be nearly dawn" groaned Bofur in his cell. In another, Gloin replied
"We are never going to reach the mountain, are we?" From behind a corner, Bilbo smiled with the keys to the cells. Still wearing the ring he approached the cells.
"Not in there your not!" he chuckled suddenly appearing out of nowhere. The dwarves shot to their cell doors and cheered Bilbo's name. Bilbo put a finger to his lips an hushed his trapped friends.
"Shhh, there are guards nearby". One by one, Bilbo unlocked the cell doors and all the dwarves were happy to be free. All of them began to walk up the stairs but Bilbo stopped them and told them to go down instead.
The company were lead down the the wine cellars. The dwarves looked at one another whist listening to drunken and snoring elves.
"I don't believe it, we are in the cellars!!" exclaimed Kili. Everyone started to panic and Bilbo tried his utmost to convince them that this was the actual plan.
Meanwhile the elvish guard came to check on the dwarves. The guard was surprised to find all the doors wide open and no one around. Quickly, he alerted the rest of the night guards, one of which was Tauriel, and went on a search for the dwarves. The doors had not been broken so the only other deduction that the elves could make was that the keys had been stolen. Running down the corridor, Tauriel shouted, "Where is the keeper of the keys?"
"Everyone, climb I the barrels!" ordered Bilbo frantically. Dwalin looked at the hobbit with distaste and worry, "They'll find us!" he exclaimed. Bilbo pleaded with them that the elves would not find them but none of them would listen, he gave Thorin a panicked and frantic look. The leader of the Company and their friend gave a loud whisper "do as he says!" The dwarves did not refuse the command of their leader and quickly clambers into the barrels, stepping on each others heads to get into the top ones. If they were not in such a rush to escape, Bilbo would of found this quite amusing. Sticking his head out his barrel, Bofur asked "what do we do now?"
Bilbo walked over to a lever and turned to his friends and replied " hold your breath," and pulled it. The floor where the barrels where started to tilt and slowly the barrels containing the dwarves fell out of the palace into the river below. They were finally free. But Bilbo was not. He had forgotten to save himself a barrel. Suddenly he heard Tauriel shout and once again he started to panic.
Legolas was disturbed when a knock came from the door to his chambers. He told them to enter and a guard entered. In their native speech, he told Legolas of the dwarves sudden escape act. Still dressed from the night before, Legolas grabbed his things and bolted out the door.
Stamping his foot, finally the floor gave way and Bilbo fell awkwardly into the river and was pulled up by Nori and Bifur. Thorin looked at his companion and congratulated him. Bilbo raised his hand, still winded from the fall, to mean that it meant nothing. With that, the company, started to low with the current towards their escape.
Dawn had turned into morning. Elfreda was so close to catching up with the orcs. The forest was playing tricks on her mind. Elfreda thought something was behind her. Drawing her sword, she turned on her toes and slashed out in front of her. There was nothing there. Nothing but trees and air.
Something heavy landed on Elfreda's back, causing her to collapse on the floor. She rolled, but her attacker managed to stand before and whilst pushed her back to the floor. It was an Orc scout. It snarled as it pointed it jagged ugly blade at her. But then, Elfreda could feel through the ground the pounding of hooves on the soft earth. With a whinny like a warriors battle cry, Kasper charged through the undergrowth and tackled the Orc and knocked it to the ground. As it tried to stand, Kasper reared and kicked the mutant in the chest with his large and powerful hooves, killing it.
Kapser, Elfreda's most beloved friend walked up to her as she staggered whilst trying to stand. He nuzzled her arm and nickered softly.
"I'm fine, buddy just a bit shocked, this forest is sending me crazy!" she reassured her horse patting him on the muzzle. That was when she realised that a small trickle of blood was slowly dripping down her forehead. She wiped it away with the back of her hand.
"Its ok, it'll heal just fine". Together, Elfreda and Kasper continued the journey through Mirkwood to find the orcs.
"Shut the gate!" shouted Legolas. He had caught up worth the rest of the patrol and together they had caught up with the dwarves in the barrels. Obeying, the guard closed the barriers to the river and stopped the barrels from exiting.
"No!" yelled Thorin desperately. The elves moved in to capture them again.
An arrow whizzed out of no where and killed an elf. The elf fell into the river- dead. Then a huge number of orcs jumped out of the shrubbery and clambered over the gate. Bolg lead the charge. He was hungry for dwarvish blood but did not mind the taste of elvish either.
"Slay them all!" he commanded.