Big THANK YOU to cucu and MusicalDevil!
And, I do not own any of Tolkien's amazing works, just the shadows...
The three had just began to follow the heavily trotted path the Uruk-hai had made through the woods when the shadows returned back to the camp along the river. The shadows noted the abandoned appearance of the camp and took off after the sound of crunching debris along the path of death and destruction. They moved quickly and quietly among the trees, catching up to the three wanderers. The wind shifted slightly and a shadow caught a scent.
"Where are they going?" The smaller shadow atop another's back muttered when it caught scent of where the group was headed. "Oh no!" They were walking right into a trap!
Aragorn was so focused on the beaten path before him that he didn't notice something moving towards him rapidly on his right.
"Aragorn!" Legolas shouted as he whipped out his bow and arrow and fired at the scurrying brown thing as it leapt in the air towards Aragorn over a slight overhang. Aragorn just had enough time to look up to his right and see the underside of a brown spider jumping at him before it was flung forward with the force and speed of his friend's arrow. Aragorn slid to a stop as the hairy spider fell to the ground, dead. The Elf and Dwarf came up behind Aragorn to see what Legolas' arrow had hit and killed.
A decent sized spider, about 20 pounds, and roughly one and a half times the size of Gimli's axe head, lay dead on the woodland floor. It looked very much like the spiders that had infest Mirkwood.
The leaves on the forest floor began to quake and shudder all around the group. The group faced outwards, their backs towards each other and weapons drawn. Legolas' eyes swept through the forest as the leaf litter trembled. He felt something very lightly moving under his boot. He glanced down, as did Aragorn. There were spider web threads strung across the forest floor, alerting the spiders to their whereabouts. Just as they glanced back up, the assault began. Spiders of all sizes began to lunge at them from all angles around the forest floor.
"Hurrragh!" Gimli gave a hoarse cry as he swung his axe at the incoming arachnids. Legolas began to unleash a rain of arrows at the ones that jumped at the group or whichever crossed into his sight first. Aragorn swung his sword at the pesky crawlers as they drew near to him; he even managed to kick several smaller ones that became way too close for his comfort. As the skirmish continued, they began to break up the threads along the forest floor. Aragorn tried to create an opening or path for the group to flee; it was only to be met by more spiders filling the void. They only managed to move a short distance towards the base of the overhang that met their level path to create a steep hill.
Legolas' ears picked up on the sound of four gaited beat of multiple animals heading in their direction. He distinctly heard growls and chuffs right before the group heard horrid screeches from the arachnids. The ground beneath them shook, causing the cluster of bipeds and the spiders to stop momentarily before looking the direction of the screeches. As the spiders continued their attack on the Man, Elf, and Dwarf, Legolas caught sight of a shadow figure out of the corner of his left eye. The shadow moved quickly between the trees and managed to land several deadly blows on the spiders among them. Legolas could only glance at the shadow from time to time as he fired arrow after arrow relentlessly. He made out that it was a person, of Mannish or Elven descent, he didn't know, for it was wrapped in a cloak, very much like the Lothlorien cloaks they wore, only this one was a distinct dark gray-blue color with its hood drawn up to conceal its face.
This shadow wielded a wooden recurve bow, but that didn't seem to be the only thing this individual carried. It seemed to have some knives and several other weapons on its person, too. Legolas couldn't focus too much on the shadow figure, it didn't seem like a threat, and it did seem as if the spiders were overwhelming the other party as well. Suddenly the shadow was either struck or was forced out of hiding and jumped into the group by a lunging spider that met its end with one of the shadow's arrows. The Man and Dwarf were surprised to see another 'person' in the woods, let alone fighting.
The onslaught continued. Gimli was grabbed and thrown off his feet and dragged some distance to a nearby tree before Aragorn stabbed the creature trying to drag the tired Dwarf away. Legolas knew he'd be running out of arrows soon if this continued.
"I've had enough of this," an agitated voice stated. Legolas glanced to where the voice originated from. It was the cloaked person. Suddenly, its demeanor and fighting style changed. It became more brisk and, rather than using the bow, it used one of several long knives on its person. Very much like the graceful movements of an Elf, the person easily shifted from one motion to the next, hitting the intended targets in some way. Gimli had gotten up and was about to run into the fray when a rope caught him and was strung up in a hunter's trap. The next thing Aragorn knew was he was aiming for a spider one second, before he heard a shout, "Look out!" He found himself kicked in the chest, away from a lunging spider that would have nailed him in the back, and was sent backwards into a tree. He went to pick himself up, but the roots of the tree he had hit wrapped around his limbs. He struggled against the twisting vines and limbs as the tree secured him and made sure he couldn't use any weapons. Gimli was floundering about in the air, trying to make heads or tails of what just happened. Legolas realized he was the last one of his group still standing in the center. He turned and ducked as a spider jumped at him and flew over him.
"Come on, Elf boy! Get 'em! Get 'em!" Gimli cheered from his now upside down position hanging from the snare. Legolas kicked one of the many spiders away with a swift kick. "To yer left!" Legolas turned to his left, but there was nothing there and quickly whipped around to get face to face with a flying spider that was met with one of his long swords. "No! Yer other left!"
Legolas struck down another, "Not helping." He stated firmly to the upside down Dwarf. Gimli let out a little grunt.
Legolas had just cut a spider off his bow when he heard, "Duck!" He looked behind him before he hit the forest floor as fire shot over him in a blaze, scorching the spiders surrounding him. It was coming from the cloaked person; the person, who had somehow, managed to create fire and use it as a weapon.
From what Aragorn could tell, it looked like the shadow put its left hand in front of its mouth, palm up and open, and blew across it. He saw Legolas hit the floor as a plume of fire burst forth and singed everything.
"Oo! Oo! Hot! Hot!" Gimli chirped quickly as the fire neared him to burn the spiders going after him.
Once the person was done playing with fire, Legolas looked around from his point on the ground. He could see the burnt bodies of dead spiders and how all the others seemed to run off. He glanced back at the cloaked person, who was also looking around before he swept his feet out to take the cloaked person's feet out from under them. With his Elvish grace he stood up and had an arrow ready and pointing at the supposedly downed individual.
As the person's feet were swept out from underneath them, they tucked and rolled, ripping an arrow from their quiver, notching it, and coming up onto their right knee, left foot planted in front for support, string pulled taut, and aiming at the one who caused them to fall.
Neither moved as they glared each other down, when Legolas' ears picked up on underbrush crunching. He glanced around, as did Aragorn and Gimli. There was a pack of large Warg looking animals, yet they weren't Wargs at all. They were-
"Dyralupin," Aragorn muttered in slight shock.
Legolas and the cloaked person continued to have their glaring contest. Legolas could finally get a good look at who or what was following them from the shadows. The person wore dark brown, if not black, knee high boots with three leather straps wrapped around each calf, navy leggings with dark brown leather holsters wrapped around its thighs, a blue tunic, more dark leather straps that held weapons, a grey blue long sleeve shirt, dark brown black arm guards that ended in gloves with suede on the inside and tipped at the first knuckle of each finger. He drew his gaze up to look under the shadow of the hood; he could see brown eyes glaring at him. The brown eyes slowly lose their threatening appearance and had something flicker across them as if they recognized or knew something. The person's body, which he was assuming was a female, became less tense, but still poised to strike. Not a word was said, but both at the same time slowly lowered their bows and eased the tautness out of the bowstrings. The female stood up. They both just stared at each other for a while, arrows still notched. The Dyralupin, or Dyres, had circled around the group.
Suddenly, Legolas let lose an arrow right past the woman's head, killing a spider that was brazen enough to stick around. The woman didn't even flinch, but the Dyres were a bit on edge and some let out a warning growl. Legolas lowered his, now empty, bow. There was a long silence between the two as they stared each other down again. Aragorn and Gimli began to fidget and squirm, trying to see if they could get out of the situations they were in.
Legolas finally broke the silence, "Thank you for your help." He bowed his head slightly to show respect and gratitude, though his voice was stern and flat.
The woman gave a sharp reply in her middle toned voice, "What are you doing in this forest?"