CHAPTER TEN - ESCAPE
Fred felt wheezy. She tried to move her hands, but could only manage the barest of movements. She took a moment to collect her senses, wake up from whatever concoction of poisons the spiders had injected her with. She opened her eyes to find a something but centimetres from them. She started panicking, fidgeting and trying to get free. She couldn't breathe.she had to get free.she felt another sharp prick in her neck and the world faded away once more.
***
Duin-Shiel galloped down the mountain as fast as his horse would go. He couldn't believe that she'd fallen over the edge and the image of her eyes, white with terror and falling away swirled around in his mind.
The pursuit of the goblins dimmed to a faint buzz in the background, he was gaining ground on them now. He thundered down the path, constantly looking into the darkness of the ravine to his right to see if he could see anything of her. He could see nothing in the pitch black pit, no sign of her at all.
"CHRISSIE!" He cried out into the ravine, There was no answer, not even an echo.
***
Chrissie fell onto a sloped ledge part way down the cliff. She tried to dig her fingernails into the stone but her now bloodied fingers could find nothing to grip and she slid down the side. She slid over the edge, catching her hair on a stray bush. She was mad now, her hair was out of place. Her fingers tried to grip onto the edge, but her hands just weren't strong enough. She slipped from the edge and fell further into the gloom.
***
Duin-Shiel reached the bottom of the cliff at dawn and looked desperately amongst the rubble for any signs of life. He saw three fingers dislocated in painful positions above the line of soil. He ran to them and held on to them. They were still warm.
He began digging through the rubble like a mad man, still whispering her name as his tears littered the ground. He uncovered her arm and began to pull her out. He heard her grunt. Thank the Valar she was alive. She spluttered as he turned her over and she opened her eyes to see the dawn light spilling across the valley. She smiled and began complaining.
"Oh my God, look at my nails; look at my hair, for God's sake. My shoulder feels like fire."
Duin-Shiel smiled, at least everything was back to normal. He removed the small stake from her shoulder and bandaged it as best he could with strips of cloth. He snapped her fingers back into place, despite her screaming and crying. They sat until nearly midday, resting and eating.
***
Kelly stuck her knife back in her boot and stuffed the apples that were in a bowl by the window into a small satchel she'd *found. * She might as well make use of Faramir's hospitality while it lasted. She'd stayed an extra day unintentionally, since she'd hadn't woken up until after noon yesterday, she didn't see the point in starting out so late in the day. She guessed she was tired from sparring with the guards and perhaps her old injuries had caught up with her.
Using her now familiar window, she jumped into the courtyard, since she still had no idea where the door was. She walked causally down the pebbled street, taking in the sights, sounds and smells of Minas Tirith. It wasn't that different from how she'd imagined it to be. It felt almost good to be in Middle Earth and for a moment, she wondered exactly why she was heading towards the Elves. Sure they wouldn't stick her in a dungeon or try and shoot arrows at her, but they would try and send her home.
She paused. Did she really want that? There was no school here, no stupid coursework to hand in and no exams to be taken. She could quite happily live out her life here. She walked out from the gates and looked to the horizon. There was one thing she'd always wanted to do. Fight at Helm's Deep.
Kelly grinned at started walking north-west towards Rohan.
***
Duin-Shiel helped Chrissie onto his horse, then mounted behind her. Her horse, Kobe had perished last night, presumably eaten by the Goblins, since he'd found several large bones littering the floor this morning.
He still couldn't believe she was alive. They made good progress from then on, since the land was fair and green. They rested the horse often and saw no more signs of the goblins that had chased them so tenaciously the night before. Perhaps Kobe had brought them time to escape.
They camped at sundown and carried on the following day, peacefully narrowing down the number of miles to Mirkwood.
***
Fred opened her eyes. She was getting distinctively tired of being unconscious. She saw the white stuff in front of her eyes and initially panicked. She remembered what had happened last time she'd panicked and stayed still. If she was going to escape this, she was going to have to stay calm.
She tried to reach down for Legolas's knife, tucked securely into her belt. It sliced her fingers up and she tried to pull the blade from her belt, but she was relentless. Fred grabbed the blade between two fingers and pulled. The blade wiggled free a few precious centimetres into the palm of her hand. She wondered briefly if it was night or day and which would be better to face these spiders. Shrugging, she slashed out in front of her as best she could and managed to create a small void. Darkness flooded in, but it was far better than the bleach white of the webs.
She managed to squeeze her forearm out into the open and tried to slash back on herself to get at the webs from the outside. She felt the cool night air hit her stomach and chest. Just a bit more, she thought.just a bit more.
She slashed right through the web and into her shoulder and she couldn't help but wince. Biting her lip, she carried on slashing in a more controlled manner now, feeling it intensely every time she cut her skin. She was going to look a mess when she got out of this.
Fred continued cutting and slashing for what seemed to her like hours, but was in fact mere minutes. She felt herself jerk and looked down. She was at least ten or twelve metres above the ground. Damn. She squirmed around to try and balance the small thread that was holding her up. She heard a small snap and was falling into the blackness below her.
***
Fred was determined not to fall unconscious this time and felt the full pain of her ankle spraining on impact. She cried out as she landed and heard a dozen other snaps. She looked around her; She had landed in a pile of bones.
The bones were everywhere, and were of every shape and size. Large rib cages came out of the ground like tunnels and small little bones littered the ground like beach pebbles. She picked a direction and began crawling, pulling herself by her hands and wincing every time her ankle touched something.
The dawn light began to break out in front of her and she smiled. Smiled just as she felt the ground rumbling behind her as she spiders began to wake up. Smiled just as she saw a thousand spiders the size of large dogs, begin crawling out of tree trunks and caves. She looked away and focused in front of her. Fred began crawling away from the spiders into the dawn light and into the forest. She didn't care where she went, as long as it was away from the spiders.
***
It seemed to Fred that the sky erupted behind her in flames and as she looked back, the brightness blinded her. She crawled under a fallen log, watching the flames lick at the trees and bushes around her. She could never out run the fire. Better to die like this than by the spiders, she thought as plain exhaustion and starvation began to set in. The pain of her sprained ankle was like a throbbing in her mind, clouding her thoughts and vision. She curled up into a ball, similar to a time once before and closed her eyes.
***
Chrissie and Duin-Shiel had reached Mirkwood yesterday afternoon when they'd picked up Fred's tracks. They'd followed them into the forest until spiders had overwhelmed the tracks and night had fell
"She may not even be alive still, these tracks are days old." It had turned out Duin-shiel knew more of the common tongue that he had initially let on.
Chrissie fumed. "I still have to look for her. I will go on alone then." She stormed in the direction of the spider trail and Duin-Shiel followed reluctantly. He didn't really want to follow her to find her friend dead, yet he didn't really want to leave Chrissie alone in the forest.
Duin-Shiel dived forwards and pulled Chrissie to the ground, placing his hand over her mouth. She struggled, but as he turned her head towards the clearing up ahead she ceased to struggle. She'd been just about to storm into the middle of the spider's nest.
She watched as the spiders swarmed from trunks and caves, filling up the forest floor in seconds. The floor was littered with bones, some so huge they reminded her of dinosaur bones and some so small they seemed but pebbles. She hoped Fred wasn't among those piles. Duin-shiel motioned towards a small movement in the trees opposite and Chrissie saw a flash of brown. That wasn't a spider. She moved to get up, but Duin-Shiel pulled her down again. He flicked some stones together sending sparks up and down several long branches. The dry wood soon flickered into strong flames.
"Use these torches to distract them while you get your friend. I will create a larger distraction elsewhere and draw them away from you. Dawn will be coming soon and just keep moving with your friend towards the rising sun. I will meet you there sometime." Duin-Shiel nudged her as he spoke, urging her to go now. She hesitated.
"Thankyou." She said and gave him a quick hug, then leaped right into the centre of the spiders. She never had been one for tact.
***
The spiders came towards her in swarms as soon as she cleared the forest edge. She swung her torch at them wildly, feeling like Aragorn at Weathertop. They shied away from it slightly, but not enough. Luckily, they seemed distracted somewhat, obviously Duin-Shiel's distraction was working.
She turned around and ran towards Fred. Fred wasn't moving, or breathing from the look of it, A tear rolled down Chrissie's cheek, just hold on a little longer Fred; I'm coming. She felt a spider try to bite her ankle and she twisted around trying to kick it off.
She threw her torch at it, forgetting there were hundreds more on the way. As soon as the torch hit the dry forest floor near the edge of the clearing, an entire side of the forest seemed to erupt in flames. Chrissie was thrown back from the heat wave and it took her several moments to get up again. She started crawling back towards Fred, regardless of the flames licking their way towards her.
The spiders retreated from the flames, but Chrissie didn't notice the heat anymore, her full attention on getting to Fred. Tears were streaming down her face as she looked at Fred's lifeless body lying there under a log. Memories flashed in front of her eyes; her first meeting Fred when she was seven years old; staying up all night watching Buffy and X-Files videos together; going to the cinema with Fred; endless memories of laughing and crying together. She was determined they would not be the last.
As she approached Fred, her tears turned into hysterical sobs. Her clothes were torn and slashed, blood leaking from cuts all over her and her ankle was a mess. She lifted Fred's head into her lap and brushed her hair from her eyes with her good arm, her other still being bandaged.
"You're going to be alright Fred. You're going to live through this. Do you hear me?" She wiped a dirty hand across her face to brush away some of her tears. She hoped she wasn't lying.
Fred felt wheezy. She tried to move her hands, but could only manage the barest of movements. She took a moment to collect her senses, wake up from whatever concoction of poisons the spiders had injected her with. She opened her eyes to find a something but centimetres from them. She started panicking, fidgeting and trying to get free. She couldn't breathe.she had to get free.she felt another sharp prick in her neck and the world faded away once more.
***
Duin-Shiel galloped down the mountain as fast as his horse would go. He couldn't believe that she'd fallen over the edge and the image of her eyes, white with terror and falling away swirled around in his mind.
The pursuit of the goblins dimmed to a faint buzz in the background, he was gaining ground on them now. He thundered down the path, constantly looking into the darkness of the ravine to his right to see if he could see anything of her. He could see nothing in the pitch black pit, no sign of her at all.
"CHRISSIE!" He cried out into the ravine, There was no answer, not even an echo.
***
Chrissie fell onto a sloped ledge part way down the cliff. She tried to dig her fingernails into the stone but her now bloodied fingers could find nothing to grip and she slid down the side. She slid over the edge, catching her hair on a stray bush. She was mad now, her hair was out of place. Her fingers tried to grip onto the edge, but her hands just weren't strong enough. She slipped from the edge and fell further into the gloom.
***
Duin-Shiel reached the bottom of the cliff at dawn and looked desperately amongst the rubble for any signs of life. He saw three fingers dislocated in painful positions above the line of soil. He ran to them and held on to them. They were still warm.
He began digging through the rubble like a mad man, still whispering her name as his tears littered the ground. He uncovered her arm and began to pull her out. He heard her grunt. Thank the Valar she was alive. She spluttered as he turned her over and she opened her eyes to see the dawn light spilling across the valley. She smiled and began complaining.
"Oh my God, look at my nails; look at my hair, for God's sake. My shoulder feels like fire."
Duin-Shiel smiled, at least everything was back to normal. He removed the small stake from her shoulder and bandaged it as best he could with strips of cloth. He snapped her fingers back into place, despite her screaming and crying. They sat until nearly midday, resting and eating.
***
Kelly stuck her knife back in her boot and stuffed the apples that were in a bowl by the window into a small satchel she'd *found. * She might as well make use of Faramir's hospitality while it lasted. She'd stayed an extra day unintentionally, since she'd hadn't woken up until after noon yesterday, she didn't see the point in starting out so late in the day. She guessed she was tired from sparring with the guards and perhaps her old injuries had caught up with her.
Using her now familiar window, she jumped into the courtyard, since she still had no idea where the door was. She walked causally down the pebbled street, taking in the sights, sounds and smells of Minas Tirith. It wasn't that different from how she'd imagined it to be. It felt almost good to be in Middle Earth and for a moment, she wondered exactly why she was heading towards the Elves. Sure they wouldn't stick her in a dungeon or try and shoot arrows at her, but they would try and send her home.
She paused. Did she really want that? There was no school here, no stupid coursework to hand in and no exams to be taken. She could quite happily live out her life here. She walked out from the gates and looked to the horizon. There was one thing she'd always wanted to do. Fight at Helm's Deep.
Kelly grinned at started walking north-west towards Rohan.
***
Duin-Shiel helped Chrissie onto his horse, then mounted behind her. Her horse, Kobe had perished last night, presumably eaten by the Goblins, since he'd found several large bones littering the floor this morning.
He still couldn't believe she was alive. They made good progress from then on, since the land was fair and green. They rested the horse often and saw no more signs of the goblins that had chased them so tenaciously the night before. Perhaps Kobe had brought them time to escape.
They camped at sundown and carried on the following day, peacefully narrowing down the number of miles to Mirkwood.
***
Fred opened her eyes. She was getting distinctively tired of being unconscious. She saw the white stuff in front of her eyes and initially panicked. She remembered what had happened last time she'd panicked and stayed still. If she was going to escape this, she was going to have to stay calm.
She tried to reach down for Legolas's knife, tucked securely into her belt. It sliced her fingers up and she tried to pull the blade from her belt, but she was relentless. Fred grabbed the blade between two fingers and pulled. The blade wiggled free a few precious centimetres into the palm of her hand. She wondered briefly if it was night or day and which would be better to face these spiders. Shrugging, she slashed out in front of her as best she could and managed to create a small void. Darkness flooded in, but it was far better than the bleach white of the webs.
She managed to squeeze her forearm out into the open and tried to slash back on herself to get at the webs from the outside. She felt the cool night air hit her stomach and chest. Just a bit more, she thought.just a bit more.
She slashed right through the web and into her shoulder and she couldn't help but wince. Biting her lip, she carried on slashing in a more controlled manner now, feeling it intensely every time she cut her skin. She was going to look a mess when she got out of this.
Fred continued cutting and slashing for what seemed to her like hours, but was in fact mere minutes. She felt herself jerk and looked down. She was at least ten or twelve metres above the ground. Damn. She squirmed around to try and balance the small thread that was holding her up. She heard a small snap and was falling into the blackness below her.
***
Fred was determined not to fall unconscious this time and felt the full pain of her ankle spraining on impact. She cried out as she landed and heard a dozen other snaps. She looked around her; She had landed in a pile of bones.
The bones were everywhere, and were of every shape and size. Large rib cages came out of the ground like tunnels and small little bones littered the ground like beach pebbles. She picked a direction and began crawling, pulling herself by her hands and wincing every time her ankle touched something.
The dawn light began to break out in front of her and she smiled. Smiled just as she felt the ground rumbling behind her as she spiders began to wake up. Smiled just as she saw a thousand spiders the size of large dogs, begin crawling out of tree trunks and caves. She looked away and focused in front of her. Fred began crawling away from the spiders into the dawn light and into the forest. She didn't care where she went, as long as it was away from the spiders.
***
It seemed to Fred that the sky erupted behind her in flames and as she looked back, the brightness blinded her. She crawled under a fallen log, watching the flames lick at the trees and bushes around her. She could never out run the fire. Better to die like this than by the spiders, she thought as plain exhaustion and starvation began to set in. The pain of her sprained ankle was like a throbbing in her mind, clouding her thoughts and vision. She curled up into a ball, similar to a time once before and closed her eyes.
***
Chrissie and Duin-Shiel had reached Mirkwood yesterday afternoon when they'd picked up Fred's tracks. They'd followed them into the forest until spiders had overwhelmed the tracks and night had fell
"She may not even be alive still, these tracks are days old." It had turned out Duin-shiel knew more of the common tongue that he had initially let on.
Chrissie fumed. "I still have to look for her. I will go on alone then." She stormed in the direction of the spider trail and Duin-Shiel followed reluctantly. He didn't really want to follow her to find her friend dead, yet he didn't really want to leave Chrissie alone in the forest.
Duin-Shiel dived forwards and pulled Chrissie to the ground, placing his hand over her mouth. She struggled, but as he turned her head towards the clearing up ahead she ceased to struggle. She'd been just about to storm into the middle of the spider's nest.
She watched as the spiders swarmed from trunks and caves, filling up the forest floor in seconds. The floor was littered with bones, some so huge they reminded her of dinosaur bones and some so small they seemed but pebbles. She hoped Fred wasn't among those piles. Duin-shiel motioned towards a small movement in the trees opposite and Chrissie saw a flash of brown. That wasn't a spider. She moved to get up, but Duin-Shiel pulled her down again. He flicked some stones together sending sparks up and down several long branches. The dry wood soon flickered into strong flames.
"Use these torches to distract them while you get your friend. I will create a larger distraction elsewhere and draw them away from you. Dawn will be coming soon and just keep moving with your friend towards the rising sun. I will meet you there sometime." Duin-Shiel nudged her as he spoke, urging her to go now. She hesitated.
"Thankyou." She said and gave him a quick hug, then leaped right into the centre of the spiders. She never had been one for tact.
***
The spiders came towards her in swarms as soon as she cleared the forest edge. She swung her torch at them wildly, feeling like Aragorn at Weathertop. They shied away from it slightly, but not enough. Luckily, they seemed distracted somewhat, obviously Duin-Shiel's distraction was working.
She turned around and ran towards Fred. Fred wasn't moving, or breathing from the look of it, A tear rolled down Chrissie's cheek, just hold on a little longer Fred; I'm coming. She felt a spider try to bite her ankle and she twisted around trying to kick it off.
She threw her torch at it, forgetting there were hundreds more on the way. As soon as the torch hit the dry forest floor near the edge of the clearing, an entire side of the forest seemed to erupt in flames. Chrissie was thrown back from the heat wave and it took her several moments to get up again. She started crawling back towards Fred, regardless of the flames licking their way towards her.
The spiders retreated from the flames, but Chrissie didn't notice the heat anymore, her full attention on getting to Fred. Tears were streaming down her face as she looked at Fred's lifeless body lying there under a log. Memories flashed in front of her eyes; her first meeting Fred when she was seven years old; staying up all night watching Buffy and X-Files videos together; going to the cinema with Fred; endless memories of laughing and crying together. She was determined they would not be the last.
As she approached Fred, her tears turned into hysterical sobs. Her clothes were torn and slashed, blood leaking from cuts all over her and her ankle was a mess. She lifted Fred's head into her lap and brushed her hair from her eyes with her good arm, her other still being bandaged.
"You're going to be alright Fred. You're going to live through this. Do you hear me?" She wiped a dirty hand across her face to brush away some of her tears. She hoped she wasn't lying.