Disclaimer: We own nothing, etc. etc.
Author's note: This is another story by Poppet and FallenCherub, but we're also introducing a new author: BohemianDuck! Whoo! Anyway, hopefully this'll go farther than our last story...It's definitely better. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW!
Silence. That's what Lassiwen loved about traveling. The silence. Just the birds in the trees and the wind in the grass. No horses or chatter or bossy Wardens shouting all the time.
"Ow! Shit!" came the pained voice of one of Lassiwen's companions.
"Lovely, silent Amon Hen," muttered Lassiwen to herself as her friend and traveling companion Ariella hobbled into view.
"Quiet, Ella," Cirdae said. "Lassi was enjoying the silence." She put emphasis on these last three words, indicating that this was an often recurring theme.
"Damn those hawthorns!" cried Ella, sitting down on a nearby raised tree root and removing her boot. A trickle of blood showed through her stocking, and she gasped thinly as she extracted the needle-like thorn from her foot. A few more choice words escaped her. "Fuckshitbuggerwankass!"
Lassi shook her head and carelessly, pulled out a small bottle. "Give me your foot," she said in a business-like manner.
"Once a healer, always a healer," grumbled Ella.
"Former healer. The flipping Warden tossed me out," Lassiwen said cheerfully, dabbing at the wound.
"Well, you did sleep with her husband."
"He slept with me first."
"Shut up and fix my foot."
"Hold still and I will." She finished up, topping it off with a scrap of bandage.
"Will the two of you quit bickering and listen?" said Cirdae, climbing a tall, leafless tree nearby and looking to the river. "Do you see what I see?"
"Well, as you're up there, and we're down here," observed Ella, "no."
Cirdae glared. "Something is glinting through the trees off to the south, there."
"Glinting?"
"Yes. Glinting. You heard me. Glinting."
"Oh, bugger off bitch. Just tell me what you see."
"Well, I can't really tell, but I'm assuming it's armour."
Ella started to speak again, but Lassi had already begun to make her way through the forest. Ella took off after her as Cirdae slid down the tree.
Cirdae beat them both, however, to the lights in the forest, being the fastest and quietest. All three women slowed as they were close enough to hear the men. But what they heard was not a few hunters tracking a steed. They heard marching feet.
Confused, the girls looked at each other. Lassi pulled back a branch. She turned back immediately and pointed animatedly, indicating that they should turn back. Cirdae and Ella scrambled quickly down the hill they had climbed, frightened by the look of fear on Lassi's face.
"Mordor Orcs!" she whispered loudly. "Foul and twisted mockery of the Elves that were captured and corrupted—"
"We know what they are, Lassi," Ella whispered back, "but why are they here?"
The three looked at each other. "Gil-galad and Elrond have been gathering their men. Is it possible that the battle is about to happen—"
"And Sauron knows of it..." Cirdae said, "...and is calling back his own forces?"
"They must be here because of Sauron's will or they would not be out in the sunlight," Lassi reasoned.
Ella crept back up the hill, wanting a look of her own. Glancing through the brush, Ella knew that there were creatures preparing for war. The fact that Orcs were "marching" in some form of order was proof enough. These Orcs carried long, curved swords; some had axes. Then a small group of Orcs carrying primitive and twisted weapons passed.
Ella shuddered. A flag carrier was approaching. The banner he was carrying had a large, red spider-like creature on it, the flag of the tower of Cirith Ungol.
"Cirdae and Lassi joined her shortly afterward, having seen the flag from down below. This was a small "regiment," and soon the seemingly never-ending line of Orcs was coming to an end, but as the last few approached Ella smiled, then Lassi, then Cirdae. They crept out into the armour-less backs of the thousands of Orcs.
The three girls silently slid through the ranks, slitting throats and stabbing backs, until they reached the flag-bearer. They left him to be surprised that he was leading a non-existent regiment.
The girls slipped back into the forest and silently made their way back toward their starting point.
"So...what now?" Ella asked.
"Rivendell. We go join my lord Elrond," Lassi said.
"You do realize," observed Ella, "that we're on the wrong side of the mountains, right?"
"And that the mountains we'll have to march across are infested with," Cirdae paused to tic items off on her fingers, "wolves, Orcs, maybe even dragons?"
"Not to mention that the nine are abroad," finished Ella.
"Come on you two!" said Lassi. "We could be heroes!"
"Yeah, dead heroes."