Nightly assaults
Earenis did not find sleep for a long time. For one thing, cold chills kept coming from outside under her blanket, but that was not the main problem. Mistaroa's restlessness had infected her and now she was rolling back and forth as well. Her wolfhound seemed to have found sleep in the meantime, but it was apparently not too deep.
An undefined uneasy feeling had taken possession of Earenis. She couldn't determine it exactly, but secretly she felt that something was not quite right. Her instincts usually never deceived her, but this time she just couldn't explain why she was so alarmed.
After a few hours of restless lying down, she decided that it didn't make sense to try to sleep so quickly. She sat down at the edge of the bed and drove over her face, sighing. Maybe she should do some stretching exercises to take her mind off things.
Mistaroa had become awake from her movement, but that wasn't the reason why he suddenly started growling deep in his throat. Earenis paused. And then she heard the creaking.
It was soft and definitely came from the roof. Since she slept directly under the roof truss, she could not assume that there was an animal roaming around. Someone was walking on the roof and seemed careful not to make a sound.
She meant Mistaroa to be quiet and grabbed her sword and the lined underwear she usually wore under her armour. It would at least give her some protection. Then she sneaked out of her small room with her blade drawn to search the inn for the troublemaker. Something was clearly going on here.
She was just passing the door to the king's quarters when she felt someone grab her by the shoulder and twirl her around. She was about to swing her sword when she recognized Legolas just in time and stopped.
"So that's how it is," hissed the elf angrily. "You are an Orc after all. What are you doing here?!"
She snorted and left with a jerk. "Let's see what's making those noises."
"And for that you need a sword?"
She wanted to hit him for his arrogance, but that was never going to happen anymore. Yapping loudly, Mistaroa leapt past them and clawed at the door to King Elessar's chambers. Moments later they heard a loud rumble from them, followed by the sounds of battle.
Earenis seemed forgotten for the moment. Legolas rushed past her, ripped open the door and stormed into the room. Earenis couldn't see much of what was going on, but seeing a stooped, dark-skinned figure was enough for her. Sword raised, she stormed after the laegel with a battle cry.
She faced a terrible mess that a handful of orcs had made. In the short time the king had not managed to get to his sword Andúril and so he helped himself for a long time with the debris of a chair. Legolas had also been unable to find any other weapon than a still smouldering log from the fireplace.
With a fearsome barking Mistaroa pounced on the orcs and Earenis followed him. After all, she was obviously the only one who had a useful weapon at the moment. One of the orcs that beset King Elessar was dead within a heartbeat, the others turned to the new and far more threatening enemy in surprise. This gave the man the opportunity to reach for his legendary sword and now to attack seriously.
In the meantime, the commotion had of course been noticed by others. Just as Earenis rammed her sword into the skull of the last of the orcs, Elrond and his sons and Gimli joined them. Quickly they grasped the situation, but they didn't get a chance to say anything, because they already heard how other orcs might have been tampering with the main entrance of the inn.
"Quickly, we must sound the alarm," exclaimed Lord Elrond and rushed forward. The others followed.
As soon as they reached the stairs leading down to the taproom, the door was already broken open and more orcs streamed into the building. A commotion broke out in the whole inn. Meanwhile all the noise had woken up the other soldiers of Elrond and Elessar, who had been accommodated here. On the king's orders they armed themselves and joined the defence.
There were another twenty orcs who wanted to storm the inn. A wild brawl broke out, everyone shouted wildly. In all the chaos it took a while before the orcs could be pushed back so that they could leave the inn.
Apparently a larger orc horde had crept into the village to lay siege to the inn. The enemies had been noticed by the soldiers outside the inn, who were already hunting for the intruders under the orders of the camp commanders. Apparently the danger was averted as quickly as it had come.
Earenis felt a hand being placed on her shoulder in recognition. As she looked around, she saw King Elessar standing beside her.
"You have saved my life and prevented evil," he said. "You truly prove your worth."