KAT
Frodo took Sting from his belt to see that it was, indeed, glowing blue. 'Um… Strider…' Frodo mumbled, tapping Strider.
'What is it Frodo?' Strider asked.
'My sword's glowing!'
Aragorn looked down at the hobbit to see Frodo holding his glowing blue sword out towards him.
'There are orcs about!' Aragorn shouted so that all the fellowship could hear. 'Frodo, Sam, Merry, Pippin – stay close to me.' He commanded. Sam, Merry and Pippin also drew their swords, and the four hobbits huddled close to Aragorn, who now also had his sword out. Gimli was clutching his axe, Boromir had his sword, Legolas was loading his bow and Gandalf had his staff.
They all looked ahead, towards the two paths. Orcs were coming down one or both of them toward the fellowship.
'Be on your guard.' Aragorn said. 'Is the ring safe, Frodo?'
'It's still on the elven-chain round my neck.' Frodo reassured him.
Then they heard footsteps and the screech of orcs coming from the right hand path.
'Do we run and take the left hand path, or stay and fight the orcs?' Boromir asked.
'They will only follow us if we run.' Gandalf said. 'It would be best if we could destroy them now.'
'Then we stay and fight.' Aragorn said. 'Be careful, little ones.' Aragorn looked down to the four hobbits. Frodo's sword was glowing an even stronger blue; the orcs were getting ever closer.
The first few orcs could be seen in the distance on the right path, and they were immediately killed with bows from Legolas and Aragorn's bows.
The fellowship started to move along the right hand path. They soon met the orcs, and the fighting started. Luckily, it was not a large invasion, and there were no other creatures of evil like trolls with them.
The hobbits weren't as accustomed to killing orcs as the rest of the fellowship, and tended to linger at the back of the fighting, rather than join in. After a while, they got braver, however, and all four moved forwards and started attacking the orcs as well.
Between the four hobbits, they managed to kill about 3 orcs, but then one orc turned on Merry and Pippin while another rounded on Frodo and Sam. Hobbits aren't the best fighters, and the rest of the fellowship were too busy fighting to notice they were in trouble.
Luckily, Frodo and Sam managed to shake off their orc, and managed to kill the other one that was advancing on Merry and Pippin.
The fighting continued for a while longer, and no one else managed to get into trouble.
Sam managed to kill one orc single handed, and proudly turned to Merry, Pippin and Frodo to see only Merry and Pippin.
'Where's Frodo?' Sam asked anxiously.
Merry and Pippin looked around, they thought he had been standing with them. A scream of help pierced the air, and the three hobbits turned to see Frodo standing against a tree, an orc advancing menacingly on him.
'Frodo!' The three hobbits called, running towards the orc. Frodo was pinned against the tree with terror, his eyes fixed on the orc. Its spear was worryingly close to him, and he was petrified despite knowing he had the mithril vest on.
'Hey!' Pippin called, trying to get the orc's attention. It worked, and the orc spun around to face Pippin.
In the process of turning around, the orc's spear had dug itself straight into Frodo's arm.
Frodo screamed and yanked the spear from his arm. The arm of his shirt immediately turned a nice shade of red. Frodo slid down the tree, clutching his arm as Pippin came up behind the orc and jabbed his sword in its back. The orc fell dead, and Merry, Pippin and Sam rushed over to Frodo's side.
'Mr. Frodo, sir! Are you all right?' Sam asked, dropping to his master's side.
'I'm… okay Sam. In pain… but I'm not going to die… I don't think…' Frodo gasped.
'Strider!' Merry called.
There were only a few orcs left now, and they were quickly killed. Aragorn heard Merry's call, and came over to Frodo's side.
'He got a spear in his arm.' Merry said.
Aragorn took hold of Frodo's arm and rolled up his shirt sleeve, making him wince in pain. 'You're lucky, Frodo. This isn't serious. Deep, yes, but not life threatening. The spear's broken your arm, but it's a simple break.' Frodo cried out in pain again as Aragorn ran his finger over the wound.
'Sorry Frodo.' Aragorn apologised. 'Tell me, can you bend your arm?'
Frodo tried to bend his arm, but couldn't. He shook his head.
'As I thought, broken.' Aragorn said. 'That can only heal naturally, I'm afraid, but I can help with the pain. Legolas, bring me the bag with the medical supplies from Master Elrond.'
Frodo noticed for the first time that Boromir, Gandalf, Legolas and Gimli had also come over to him. Legolas went over to where they had left Bill the pony with the bags. He came back holding one of the smaller bags, from which Aragorn pulled a small bottle of water, some healing herbs and some bandages. He cleaned out the wound with the water and herbs before placing Frodo's injured arm across his chest and bandaging his arm up. Using another bandage, Aragorn then made a makeshift sling to support Frodo's arm.
'We must keep going.' Gandalf said. 'I bet there are more orcs on the way. We must be somewhere safe by nightfall.'
Sam and Merry helped Frodo to his feet, and they started to walk again. They went back to where the road had parted, and this time took the left hand path, as it seemed to be safer. They walked for the rest of the day without rest until nightfall, when they left the road and set up camp.
Once they were all settled, Aragorn called Frodo to him. 'Let me look at your arm properly, now we are in no immediate danger.'
Frodo came over to Aragorn, and Aragorn took off Frodo's sling before starting to undo Frodo's shirt buttons. He stopped after undo the top two buttons, however, and stared at Frodo.
'Strider?' Frodo asked uneasily. 'What's wrong?' Whatever was wrong, Aragorn was absolutely speechless. 'Strider?' Frodo asked again. 'What's the matter? It can't be that bad – I haven't lost the ring or anything!'
'That's just it…' Aragorn said. 'There's no chain and ring around your neck…'