Strangers No More

I do not own the rights to Lord of the Rings

Chapter Fourteen

Aftermath

I, Rickard three other knights, Adam Wilson, Felix Clark and Benjamin Blunt, and fifty Gondorian cavalrymen, rode down a road between two fields. Cautiously I glanced from side to side, looking for the enemy. It had been two days since the Battle of Bain Bloss and in that time the army had been working hard. The three hundred and twenty dead soldiers of Gondor, including James Thornton, Carl Frankton, Gerard Crawford, Arnold Ward, Arthur Mason and Norman Hasselrig, all members of our Order, had to be buried quickly. The Orc dead, about four fifths of their army, were burned on pyres to get rid of them. We did not want them buried in the same earth as heroes. The town itself had been badly damaged in the town with twelve building being burned down and a hundred of the townspeople killed. Aragorn guaranteed that the cost of rebuilding the town would come directly from the Royal Treasury. The townsfolk who died were buried in the same mass grave that our soldiers were buried in.

However, there were still surviving Orcs who escaped the battle and they needed to be hunted down. I had volunteered to lead a small force out after a group of Orcs had been sighted not far away but after nearly four hours of searching we had found nothing. Sighing in frustration I tightened my scarlet cloak around my armoured form and looked up at the dark, overcast sky.

'Where the Hell could they be?' Felix grumbled.

'We'll find them,' I told Felix, even though I doubted it myself.

When I felt my stomach rumble I reached into a leather pouch at my belt and pulled out a small piece of bread which I ate quickly. As we rode for a while I started to consider a return to camp, assuming that the Orcs were gone, when I smelt something. Raising my hand to stop the men I scanned the horizon with my eyes.

'Can you smell that?' Rickard asked me.

'Smoke,' I confirmed as I saw a column of smoke rising into the sky just a little more than a quarter of a mile away across the fields.

'There's a farm over there,' one of the Gondorian's told me.

I immediately drew Alaric, which began to flicker orange, and ordered the men to advance. At top speed we galloped across the fields towards the farm and, as we got closer, I realized how bad this was. I could see a farm house, a barn and a few small sheds which were all burning. Next I could see about thirty Orcs running amongst and rejoicing in the slaughter.

'Charge!' I bellowed before shutting the visor on my helmet and my men let out a roar and readied their weapons.

Rickard drew his father's sword, the Gondorian's drew levelled their lances while the other knights raised their swords and axes. Around the farm was a low stone wall that the Orcs were quickly forming up behind. As we cross the short distance between us and the wall a few Orcs armed with bows fired some arrows at us. One of my men was hit in the neck and another had his horse shot. When the animal fell he was thrown off, breaking his arm. Augustus jumped over the wall, kicking an Orc in the head, and when we hit the other side I stabbed an Orc down through the shoulder into its heart. As my men jumped over the wall on their horses the Orcs were quickly thrown into retreat. I swung Alaric down again, the flickering blade shattering the armour and tearing into the foul flesh beneath. Rickard cleaved apart an Orc with his father's sword and then kicked another in the head knocking it down. I pushed up my helmets visor and looked around for the enemy leader. I saw it, an Orc with a massive sword. It was running as fast as it could but one of my men, a Gondorian named Dauron, was closing the distance with his lance aimed at the Orcs back. The Orc ran into a tree and turned around just as Dauron slammed his lance into the Orcs chest and straight through the tree, pinning it there. When the last of the Orcs had been killed I dismounted and walked to the Orc commander, pinned to the tree but just holding onto life.

'Where is the farmer and his family?' I asked it in a cool, even tone, trying to not show emotion.

The Orc cackled, spitting out blood that splattered on my armoured chest.

'In the house,' it laughed through blood. 'Squealed like piglets they did, 'specially the little ones.'

Knowing what he meant I felt my hatred boil and I raised Alaric, the blade glowing brighter than before, and sliced the beasts head clean off and it tumbled to the bloody ground.

'Bastards,' Rickard said to the head. 'What do we do now?'

'Burn the Orcs,' I ordered and pointed Alaric at the head on the ground.

...

By mid afternoon I and my men had made it back to Bain Bloss where I and Rickard quickly went to speak with the king. We had been told that he was in one of the medical tents helping the injured soldiers.

'Are you alright?' Rickard asked me as we walked through the camp towards the medical tent.

'Of course,' I answered. 'Why wouldn't I be?'

'Since the battle a few days ago you've been a little different than normal. I'm just a bit worried about you.'

'I just suppose that the Orcs are different from our normal enemies back in England. Bandits, they're after loot, Lancastrians, they were after the throne. Even when they devastated villages it had a point. Orcs don't have a reason to do anything. They killed that entire family because they enjoyed it.'

'At least we sent the Orcs to Hell where they belong,' Rickard said just before we reached the tent.

It was massive and held the most badly wounded men who could only be treated by being kept comfortable until they passed on. Just before we walked in a pair of healers walked out carrying a stretcher with a body covered by a red stained sheet on it. We respectfully stood aside as they carried the body away to be buried and then we walked in. Everywhere beds were set up but only half of them were occupied. The rest were occupied by ghostly pale men on the brink of death. Aragorn, looking dishevelled and tired, knelt by a bed holding a soldier. With a mournful sigh Aragorn closed the man's eyes and instructed a pair of men to carry the body away.

'Sire,' I said to Aragorn.

'What did you find John?' he asked me.

'Thirty Orcs and a destroyed farm. The farmers were dead by the time we got there.'

I saw the look of sadness on his face as he took in the news that more of his people had been killed.

'We cut down all the Orcs,' I added. 'We made them pay dearly for their crimes.'

'I see,' said Aragorn. 'Go and get some rest. We'll be returning to Minas Tirith in the morning.'

'Good. Thank you Your Majesty.'

AN: I know that was a short chapter but I wouldn't really like to think of this as a chapter. It's more like an epilogue to the first act of this story. I hope you liked it and I'll see you all again soon.

Review Response Time:

ATP: Yep, one thing I liked about the Orcs in the Lord of the Rings films was that they weren't random things to kill like stormtroopers but they were good antagonists who had a lot of humour and were in many ways real people.

KiyaNamiel: Don't you dare touch Alaric! One thing I was concerned about was whether or not people would think Alaric being powered again was a bad idea but apparently it's proven to be a popular idea. I loved writing that battle that I based on one I played on Medieval 2 Total War (I am such a damn nerd).

See you all around. Please review, read, favourite and follow.

Have a nice day.