Disclaimer: Give credit where it's due…you know what belongs to me and what doesn't.
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"Quick, Lai! Make for the woods! They are almost upon us!" Her mother spoke quickly, with a fearful haste in her voice. She stood in the doorway with her bow and arrows, ready to defend her home. She looked ahead to where the other homes burned, accompanied by shrieks and clanging of metal.
"Where's father?" The small elven child called Lai asked.
"He's gone to warn the villagers. Laivinelen, listen to me." The tall elf knelt to her daughter's eye level and grasped her slender arms tightly. "You must go quickly. Do not turn back. We'll find you after the orcs have passed." She drew the little girl into a hug and felt her eyes mist.
"Go. May the Valar be with you." Laivinelen heard the whisper in her ear, and clung to her mother. Shouts and screams of battle neared them, and Lai felt herself being pried from her mother's embrace and pushed out of the door.
"Run!" Her mother's voice rang out as Lai turned back to see her mother let an arrow fly. She ran as directed, away from the clashing swords and into the forest.
At first, she ran blindly, blinded by tears that streamed past her on winds and marked her passing. She received various cuts and scrapes from tree branches and leaves, along with an assortment of bruises from bumping and falling along the way. When she tripped over a protruding stone and fell for the fifth time, she did not get back up. She curled her tiny form up into a little ball and sobbed. She was frightened, frightened for her parents' safety, frightened for her own, and frightened for not knowing what she could do to help. Crying until no tears came, she got up shakily onto her feet and turned back the way she came. She ran as fast as she could, feeling a sudden urge to go back.
Trees rushed past her and the scent of wood burning met her nose. She saw the smoke first, then the burning cottage came into view.
"Mother!" Laivinelen shouted. "Father!" She ran towards the cottage, smoke making her eyes water. Then she tumbled over a fallen sword and fell flat on her face, sinking into the ashes below the smoke. She raised her head slowly…
And saw the bodies. She crawled over the stinking body of an orc and saw the beautiful Mirkwood bow of her mother cloven in two. A bloodied hand reached out to it, and Lai followed the smooth, unblemished arm with her eyes.
"Mother." She mouthed the word but did not speak. She crawled up to her mother's limp body, noticing the many crossbow bolts sticking out of her chest. When she got nearer, she saw something clutched under her mother's other arm and stopped in her tracks. It was her father's face, caked with mud and dried blood…but where was his handsome body? Her eyes widened as she realized what had happened to her father, and she backed away, her eyes glued to her father's empty staring eyes. She opened her mouth wide as if to scream, but no sound escaped her lips.
Her back hit the trunk of a tree, and she closed her eyes, leaning her small frame against it. She covered her mouth with her hands, smothering the screams that never came. Then, shocked and exhausted, she fell asleep.
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"You shouldn't be here." A calm voice woke her, and she saw an elven boy, close to her own age but a few decades older, staring down at her. His intense gaze scared her, and she trembled visibly. "It's alright. I won't hurt you." He spoke, kneeling down in front of her. "Are you lost?"
She did not respond for a long time, for she did not know how. She considered the question she was asked, and decided she was. She nodded.
He met her gaze with his blue eyes. They were strikingly similar to her mother's. She felt a droplet gather and fall, and the boy quickly reached up a hand and brushed the teardrop away. She flinched, for she thought that he was about to hurt her, but the boy had acted so fast that it took her a while to figure out what had happened. They regarded each other with a scrutinizing gaze, blue eyes poring into gray ones.
Finally, the boy spoke, offering the girl a hand. "Follow me."
She looked at the hand, as if she had not seen the likes of it in a long time. Then she tentatively took it, and let herself be raised onto her feet. She tested out her shaky legs, falling flat on her face again in the process. She ignored the boy's offered hand and stubbornly rose again to her feet alone, and promptly crumpled to the ground, weakened physically from shock and trauma. And still she rose again on her own accord, earning a smile from the boy, and this time, she succeeded. The boy made sure that she followed, and led the way in front of her, watching over his shoulder every few steps of his way.
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"…Six dead, twenty injured, and seven missing."
"And the young couple?"
"Dead. They fought valiantly."
"The child?"
"The house burned to the ground. We found no trace of her."
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So what do you guys think? I would appreciate any sort of feedback, so review! Yes, that means you! =) Oh, come on, it can't be that bad…you've gone through the worst part already (reading my story =P)…