Disclaimer: view previous chapters. Oh, I don't own any "I Robot" or "Star Wars" quotes…or any other movie quotes for that matter…so don't sue me!
Author's Note: THANKS FOR BEING SO PACIENT!!!
CHAPTER 21
It took forever to go to sleep that night. It amazed Kacy how similar Middle Earth was to Earth in appearance. It was the night sounds that were utterly alien. She heard what she assumed must be some type of night bird screeching in the trees somewhere above them but at the same time it sounded kind of like the noise a cat makes when you accidentally step on it's tail. She could also see the shadows of the patrolling sentries in the light of the dying fire through the tent flap. Rion, the tired dear, had fallen asleep some while ago.
She sighed in annoyance. Her leg throbbed and it pained her to the point of keeping her conscious, no matter how tired and fatigued she really felt. The claw marks that had been raked across her thigh by the wolf were deeper than any she had ever suffered before. Fortunately, her main leg arteries remained unscathed.
She snorted with near amusement when she pictured herself finally reaching Rivendell and barely standing in front of Elrond, gushing blood, and saying, "It's only a scratch!"
Scratch indeed…
She un-wrapped her bandaged leg, since it started to bleed again and reached for the supplies the Rangers had graciously given her. She pulled out a clean strip of crude cloth.
She clenched her teeth together with the knowledge of what she had to do. This is when having extreme knowledge about medical science becomes a nightmare…not to mention, inflicting pain upon myself.
To get her mind off of what she was about to do, she focused on her son and watched him sleep soundly, after taking out a water flask that was mixed with crushed athelas. She held the flask above her injury with a steady hand, all the while keeping her gaze on her son, and poured it over her wound. She broke concentration and had to stuff her mouth full of blankets and clamp down to keep from screaming out in pain. Athelas BURNED in an open wound…sort of how alcohol burns back on earth. It smells better than alcohol or peroxide at least…she thought trying to be optimistic.
She then tightly wrapped the fresh cloth around her leg, tying it off in a knot just above her knee with shaking hands, the pain still fresh in her mind, all the while wishing she could just stitch it up already. The rangers apologized, saying that all of their thread had run out before they were given healing supplies and that they were too far away from any neighboring towns to replenish them. She had to make do with what she had. She knew she needed to keep her leg tightly bandaged and keep heavy weight off of it as much as possible or aggravate it into bleeding again. The rangers were kind enough to have given her a crude sort of crutch, thankfully!
The cool thing about the athelas, she noted, was that after it burned for a while, it actually began to act as a numbing agent. But then again, Elrond only told her what it was used for…not the effects, so she could be wrong and the numbing could indicate infection for all she knew.
Finally, released from the pain, Kacy drifted into a light sleep.
Her short reprieve for rest and peace was shattered unexpectedly in the dark stillness of night.
"WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!!!"
Somewhere nearby, she could hear someone clanging a metal bell. The neighing of terrified horses and shrill shouting soon followed as the Rangers all around them awoke and scrambled out to defend their encampment.
She fought down her rising panic and turned to wake Rion but had no need, when the pair met each other's eyes through the noisy din and chaos that erupted seemingly out of nowhere around them. They distinctly heard the clashing of metal against metal and low guttural growls.
Then the wind carried an odor that finally hit them. It reeked…like rotten garbage mixed with the smell of death.
Rion shuddered next to her and whispered the one word she wished she would never hear.
"Orcs…what do we do, mom?"
Kacy looked back at her son, unable to hide the fear that roiled through her like a storm.
Rion gazed at his mother's frightened face, knowing all too well what that meant.
She doesn't have a clue what to do.
For the first time in his life, he saw his mother falter…to see her so confused, so afraid, terrified him.
He felt what he hadn't felt since fighting back against Dennis…a speck of courage…courage enough to keep the fear at bay. With a grim and determined face, he went face to face with his mother.
"Mom, we need to get out of here."
"Yes, I know," Kacy shook her head coming out of her fear induced daze.
"Remember our code?" She asked as the two set about packing up the survival items needed for their hastened journey.
"Live for today so that we can fight for tomorrow," the two stated together. It was a code the duo had created just after her husband had died.
Rion carried the medicinal bag, slinging it over his shoulder and chest and picked up the sheathed dagger the Rangers had given them for cutting cloth strips and placed it in his pants pocket. His mother had already rolled up the sleeping bag type thing (it really wasn't a sleeping bag but more of a straw mat with course, wool blankets covering it). It wasn't the most comfortable thing in the world but it sure beat sleeping on branch or rock strewn ground. Using a piece of tent rope, she made a makeshift backpack by tying the clumsy thing to her backside.
She strapped the belt around her waist, the sword hanging snuggly against her good thigh.
The fighting outside the tent picked up in intensity and screams of the dying and wounded echoed all around them, forever branded in their minds. A fire had been set to a tent nearby, acrid smoke thickening the air.
Kacy took her sword and neatly sliced an exit door for them through the back end of the tent that faced the opposite end of the raging battle. She fervently wished she could aid the Rangers' in their fight but knew that it was impossible.
A stray arrow whizzed over their heads, embedding itself into a tree.
She took the crutch up in her hand but instead of hobbling, she did what she swore she would never do when suffering a leg injury.
She ran.
Rion had been on the middle school track team the previous year, was running on pure adrenaline, and was not suffering an injury, and so was able to run far faster than his mother.
Kacy grimaced with each step but knew that to stop would mean their deaths.
They kept running, the battle sounds growing fainter with each bound. The sword kept slapping against her leg much to her annoyance.
The two did not say a word. All they knew is that they had to keep running for their lives.
Her leg screamed at her in agony and so they stopped for a rest.
She knew they were far enough away because the sounds of the battle were no longer in audible range, and the bright blaze as the entire camp was set on fire just as they made their hasty escape, was no longer in sight.
She resisted the urge to cry. The fact that the entire camp had been set aflame only testified to which side had won. She prayed fervently the entire time they had been running that their tracks would not be followed.
"Hey Rion…"
"Yeah"
"ABANDON YOUR POSTS!! FLEE!! FLEE FOR YOU LIVES!!"
Rion giggled in amusement at his mother's crazy Denethor impersonation from LOTR ROTK movie.
"Humor is the spice of life. Thanks mom, I needed a laugh," Rion quoted with a tired grin.
Their humor died as quickly as it arose and the two grimly stood back to their feet to continue their desperate flight. The minute Kacy's abused leg touched the ground she hissed and flopped back on her bum in pain.
"Mom, are you alright?"
Kacy groaned in response.
Rion mentally kicked himself. Of course she isn't alright! LOOK AT HER!
Wordlessly, he helped her get back on her feet and supported her to the best of his ability. They got back on track, Kacy deciding to hop for a while on her good leg. The moonlight was extremely bright in Middle Earth because the moon was closer to the planet. So, fortunately they did not need to build a fire (not that they could since everything was still wet from all the rain the previous day and neither of them knew how to).
After about five minutes of hopping through the woods, Kacy and Rion met a beautiful sight.
"A stream," Rion pointed in relief.
"Rion that stream is our only chance of covering our tracks the rest of the way."
"And I'm thirsty," Rion added, licking his dry lips.
Any other time, Kacy would have argued about drinking from a stream in the wilderness, all the while lecturing her son about the micro-organisms and bacteria that were most likely to be dwelling there but was too fatigued to care.
After enjoying a refreshing drink, Kacy stood up on her own two legs and the two cautiously trekked along in the stream. Since they had fortunately popped into Middle Earth around the end of summer time and into early autumn, it was warm enough to wade through the water without socks or shoes on. Even though the bottom was sandy, they had to be extra careful not to trip over any random rocks.
The journey was slow going but worth it. Kacy remembered that the stream had been part of the Rangers' directions because it would eventually dump into the Bruinen which was on the borders of Rivendell. As long as they kept going east, they would finally make it out of the Trollshaws.
As the first rays of dawn began to peek over the horizon, Kacy and Rion sagged wearily against the base of a tree by the bank of the stream, unable to take another step…even if their lives depended on it.
MEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEM
That same morning, Elrond slipped away from his haven relatively unnoticed. He led his horse by the reigns and had the impending feeling that something horrible was about to happen.
Always the healer, he made sure to bring along a large supply of herbs and the like. He trusted his instincts. His instincts were rarely, if ever, wrong. Hopefully, none of the supplies he brought with him would be needed but he knew otherwise. He quickened his pace as the horrible feeling grew stronger within his heart.
Kacy and Rion were running out of time…
Unbeknownst to Elrond, a single warrior trailed behind at a distance with a strong sense of protectiveness for his liege.
MEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEME
Kacy and Rion awoke to find that the sun was setting. They were by now very confused and disoriented, first believing it to be sunrise. They figured that it was night-time again when those odd night creatures came back out. Having slept that whole day, they felt rested enough to continue.
They rationed out a biscuit that the ranger's had packed for them in the medicinal bag, to appease their growling stomachs. They now only had two left. They did not look or taste like modern day biscuits. They were dry and tasted weird, like they were half baked and made of barley. As hungry as they were, they made no complaints and barely noticed the difference.
"This is smart. The forest is relatively safe to sleep in during the day, so we should continue to travel by night."
Rion nodded his head in agreement.
Nothing had bothered them as they slept, with the exception of a few curious squirrels that had come down from their snug tree home to investigate the intruders on their turf.
After the first half hour of walking, Kacy took notice for the first time of warning signs that something was out there.
Almost everything went silent, the stream trickling, being the only constant noise around them.
Then the ground began to shudder beneath them. Kacy and Rion looked down at the water to see the sand shifting and could see ripples quake across the streams' surface. Kacy unsheathed the sword after all sorts of gruesome thoughts of what might be out there crossed her mind. One of the worst things she thought of that was capable of stomping through the forest was a T-Rex from Jurassic Park. Then she remembered that there were no dinosaurs in Middle Earth.
But what came booming into the clearing was the next worst thing on the ever growing list of horrors they had already run into thus far.
"There is NO way our luck can be this bad…" Kacy felt that it was the most appropriate "I Robot" quote for the moment, as a huge shadow sailed towards them from above the trees.
Kacy shoved Rion aside and they both dove to opposite sides of the stream, narrowly avoiding getting clobbered by a hurled tree trunk.
The lumbering beast crashed through the trees and undergrowth, stomping into plain view. Kacy rolled to her feet and stood in a ready position with her sword.
The beast stopped and looked at the two in curiosity and then roared quite like the cave troll in the LOTR movie. It gripped a massive club in its fist that had to be the size of a medium sized tree at least.
"We are only trying to pass through, troll!! We mean you no harm!"
The troll roared again before stomping towards Kacy, its' massive club raised.
The troll apparently, wasn't one of the smarter ones that were capable of speech, since this one was only interested in clobbering them to death.
She dodged aside, fear squeezing the life out of her heart and lungs. There was NO way she could take this thing on by herself…the fellowship barely could either, and there were 9 of them!!
The troll brought the club down but Kacy had already stumbled aside and limped around it to reunite with her son.
So THAT is why they call this wood the Trollshaws…Rion thought in morbid fascination.
While his mom had been dodging the troll, he had taken the knife out even though he knew he really couldn't do much of anything.
"RION! You must run ahead to find help!! Get to Rivendell…follow the stream to the Bruinen! You are my only hope!"
Rion was afraid to leave his mother but after she pushed him in that general direction, he took off at a sprint.
If the present circumstances weren't so terrifying, Kacy would have had to laugh up her own inside joke.
Jeez. Whose princess Leia now??!
She refocused her full mental attention at the situation at hand, praying that help would come soon as the troll's club came sailing down upon her once more.
Rion ran until his legs turned rubbery and his lungs felt like exploding in his chest. Only then did he slow down. The stomping and slamming of the troll's feet and club as well as his mother's battle cries had all faded by now. After stopping for a few minutes to breathe, he staggered on.
Until he had a most horrifying thought. What if his mother wasn't there when he finally went back for help?? Or worse…
What on earth will I do without her?
He began to feel guilty and wondered if he really should have stayed behind to help somehow. He would never forgive himself if his mother got hurt. Uncertainty, guilt, and fear consumed him until he felt like screaming.
It was that tumult of emotions and thoughts that kicked his adrenaline back on into high gear and he raced through the forest, following the stream as it made twists and turns every now and then. His heart hammered in his chest and his breathing was to the point of hyperventilation. He should have stopped to rest but his fear got the best of him and he continued to run, heedless of his own health.
He ran, even though it felt like he couldn't take another step, but thoughts of his mom fueled him on. Rion didn't have a clue how long he ran, it must have been hours but he had a feeling that his mom needed help, and soon.
His legs finally gave out on him and he stumbled and fell, as his knees buckled, sending him sprawling into the stream head first. He was so exhausted that he didn't bother to get back up. His lungs felt like someone had taken a hot knife and skinned out the inside of his chest. He struggled to breathe after rolling on his backside. He was thoroughly soaked by this point and feebly tried to get back up but fell back with a splash as every muscle in his body protested. He whimpered and hot, angry tears snaked down the side of his head as he fought the sudden paralysis that had seized hold of his entire muscular system.
He was angry, mostly at himself for not being able to continue on when his mother's life was on the line. He made one last attempt to get back up but his body was so overworked that all his muscles gave out and he fell back down, finally succumbing to the fatigue and stress that plunged him into a black abyss.
TO BE CONTINUED...
AN: I am extremely brain fried as we run our final 2 weeks of college...might not get to update until later this month or the beginning of next! Thanks for your patience.
Thanks to reviewers!! Oceanforce, ecan, catycatcat, dragon of atlantis, Nelarun, potterfan2006, Bregtalien, Dreamer11563, Elwing-Evenstar, and childoftheking!! IF IT WERE NOT FOR YOU REVIEWERS OUR THERE, THIS STORY WOULD NOT BE POSSIBLE:)