Chapter 1
Alback woke with his head in a considerable amount of pain. Every thing looked fuzzy and after a while he managed to turn his head to find that he was in an orc camp. A very nice surprise. Suddenly a creature that looked like an orc but was much too large to be one strode into the middle of the camp and all the talking stopped immediately. 'Must be one of those Uruk-hais' he thought. Ever since he heard stories of them Alback had always hoped he would be able to never even catch sight of an Uruk-hai. Suddenly Alback realised he had shackles on his wrists. Then, just as Alback found out he had shackles on the Uruk-hai spoke.
"Why are there livemen 'ere?" The Uruk-hai asked in it's cold voice.
One of the smaller orc's piped up with it's terrified voice, " Thought they might be a bit of fun for you, sir."
After a moments hesitation, the Uruk-hai spoke again; "Cut the throats of all of them," it said nodding at Alback. Alback was now thinking about his pouch of lock picks. He felt around for it but it was gone, however, a single lock pick laid on the ground behind him so Alback picked it up slyly and placed it in the keyhole just as one of the larger and more menacing orc's pulled Barafen in front of Alback. Now with more haste, Alback was trying to pick the lock of the shackles. The orc pulled a jagged dagger from it's sheath and leered at Alback. Now Alback was twisting the lock around in desperation and… the lock pick snapped.
And the orc slit General Barafen's throat.
Alback looked at the corpse that was once his superior, horrified, a few orcs saw his face and laughed. When the other orcs saw what the others were laughing at they laughed too but stopped immediately when at least fifteen horses with riders galloped out of the shadows.
Two more men ran out of the darkness, yelling a battle cry. Alback recognised them as his companions; Whiteshade and Parengir. Whiteshade sprinted off into the battle while Parengir ran over to Alback, who was trying to crawl over to a key in the hand of a dead orc but when Parengir arrived he stooped, picked up the key and unlocked the shackles. Then Parengir handed Alback a sword with it's scabbard and belt and a sheathed dagger. Alback fastened the weapons around his waist and drew his sword.
The fight wasn't going well for the soldiers of Gondor- they were outnumbered three to one at least. Whiteshade and two riders were fighting the Uruk-hai and were on the back foot. There was now only seven riders and three horses left alive against twenty three orcs and the best Uruk-hai the shadow had been able to make. Alback ran over to the Uruk-hai to help the fight but before he could get close seven orcs encircled him like a pack of wolves. Alback gulped as the orcs waited for him to deal the first blow. This was a mistake by the orcs. Alback lunged at the them, sword flashing. Within five seconds three orcs lay dead. The remaining orcs looked genuinely worried by now. Two orcs plucked up the courage to attack back; Alback batted away the first orc's clumsy attack and stabbed it through the chest. Once Alback yanked his sword out of the orc, the orc fell to it's knees clutching the wound and whimpering. Alback didn't see this because he was too busy fighting the next orc, who was doing much better than the other idiot. However, the orc finally made a mistake; it swung it's sword at Alback's head way too hard but he ducked under the clumsy blow and plunged his blade into the orc's belly. Suddenly, Parengir jumped at the orcs and slashed at the there torsos and shouted "Get the Uruk-hai!" Alback didn't need to be asked twice. As he sprinted at the Uruk-hai he noticed that the two riders had been killed. As he neared the final enemy it elbowed Whiteshade in the face, hard. The Uruk-hai then raised it's sword and Alback leaped at it. Whiteshade cried out in pain and Alback wasn't sure where the Uruk-hai's sword went but he carried on and punched the Uruk-hai in the face with all his force but the monstrosity merely grunted and pushed Alback off it's chest then punched Alback in the cheek. Alback heard bones break and as he fell Alback tried to work out whether it was his cheek or the Uruk-hai's knuckles that had broken but judging by the pain in his face it was probably Alback's cheek. Alback raised his sword and attempted to deal a final blow but the Uruk-hai blocked it, however, the swing was so hard the sword went through the Uruk-hai's wrist. The Uruk-hai screamed in pain before Alback stabbed it in the heart.
The Victor dropped his sword and expected Whiteshade and Parengir to smile and congratulate him but instead Whiteshade lay on the ground with a sword sticking out of his chest looking up at the heavens with eyes clad with emptiness.
Whiteshade had been killed by the Uruk-hai.