Sarah says hi! Sarah says bye! Sorry the responses are short and the post is short (not to mention that it actually doesn't go back to Thorongil and Legolas even once *runs from rotting fruit*), but 'swamped' is currently Hannah's and my middle name and as I warned you: we're posting on the fly. ;D
Mouse: Haha, you can't track us! We are the most un-find-able-est authors since… since… Cassia and Sio! Our hidy-holes stretch from the Shire to the sea of Rhun and are guarded by anonymity and booby traps! *bravado wavers into relief* Which is good, because otherwise we would probably be very worried just now. ;D
None: Thanks! And sorry about not having Thorongil and Legolas in this chapter. Believe me, we have them in the next one! :D
saber crazy: You know, I don't think I'll even try to protect our villain this time. I'm too much in sympathy with those intent on pulp-i-fying him. ;P Do you think a book ought to be written? 'Obi's Law and Other FanFiction-Related Reasons Why Things Go Wrong'? :D
Anarril: So glad you liked Thorongil! and Stavhold! and Findel! and Nethtalt! and Legolas! and Thengel! and Gandalf! ;D *bows* So pleased you enjoyed our chaos as well. ;)
reginabean: *looks at regina's computer and ff.net* Now behave you two! Erm, sort of sorry about the cliffy… :)
Gwyn: Yup, he was trying to psych him out. And no, it's not very nice, but will it work…? Thanks on our climax! As for Galmod… I'm afraid we neither whomp him nor kill him, but if you stick around for our Special Features at the end of the fic, you'll know why. :P
Maranwe: Too short? Oh good. We were getting worried about you. :P Battle scenes are everlastingly hard to visualize, unless you meet a really brilliant writer! Like Tolkien. ;) Yeah, I'm a sucker for happy endings too! And we like over-excitement! Unfortunately, well, realism *will* creep in from time to time, and about the only excuse we can make was that we never realized people would wind up liking the characters we decided to kill off… :( Unfortunately too, we don't wind up giving Galmod the death he deserves. 'Why' you ask? Stick around for our Special Features thingy at the end of the fic and we'll tell you. :P By all means: do not bring down internet-depriving wrath upon your head!! :)
Belothian: Welcome!! Sorry about confusing you — if it helps it's: Eorwine and Gandalf against General Fuinor in one fort, and King Thengel and Bronweg against King Harnwe in the other fort. Glad you're enjoying it regardless! :D Forget Duurben? We're not *that* cruel! *turns to Hannah* Are we? :P And so sorry about your rapidly dying out favorite characters… :{ Glad you're still reading in spite of that!!
Crazy/evil: So glad to have you! And believe me, it's worth pages of feedback that you're even here! This far into the fic, anyone who's willing to catch up all the way is worth their weight in mithril. ;) Er, sorry about keeping you up, though… As for Thorongil — we've always pronounced it 'Thoron-gil', but since it's Tokien's name, that could be wrong.
Saige: Ever our Nethtalt fan! So glad he is still keeping up his good performance. :D
w: Ooh, such wonderful praise!! I mean about our chaos; much work equals much happiness when our efforts are appreciated! :D Glad/sorry about all that extra character-death related stress… Glad because you care about our OCs (since we can't very well kill of anything cannon), and sorry because, well, our intentions behind telling you ahead of time were to *save* you from stress! Obviously it didn't work… :P We are most pleased that Findel did not manage to make a walking nuisance of herself, and even managed to garner some approval (in spite of 'steal/steel' :D)! :) Thank you on our OC characters in general — particularly Eorwine, Galmod and Stavhold (more so the latter, for obvious reasons). ;) And a tremendous thanks on our recovery work!! That is something that has always bugged us about fan fiction as well — thus making it onto the 'And at all costs we must have absolutely none of that in *our* fic' list. Here's hoping we don't mess up our record… ;) As for Duurben, as I've apologized above and below, we don't get back to that particular story line in this next post! Sorry! :(
Your post! Such as it is… Please, don't kill us for leaving, um, BOTH of the heroes out of a whole post like this. :|
___________________________________________________________________________
/ (o) \ (o) / (o) \ (o) / (o) \ (o) / (o) \ (o) / (o) \
Thorongil
By Sarah and Hannah (Siri)
(disclaimers, explanations, and summaries
available at the top of chapter 1)
/ (o) \ (o) / (o) \ (o) / (o) \ (o) / (o) \ (o) / (o) \
Chapter 25
Forgiven
Nethtalt looked around frantically for something they could use to burn the last five catapults. Kelegalen was across the enclosure from him, rigging up the last of his explosives to a single catapult. Gandalf had provided the saboteurs with one extra explosive in case of a miscalculation, but this was not enough to destroy the amount they had remaining.
"Findel! Nethtalt!" Kelegalen called across to them. "Gather what dry brush you can find from the forest, we may need it to burn these catapults!"
The two nodded and hurried to the tree line of the forest they were up against. Findel's soiled skirts caught on brambles and tripped her up as she reached the undergrowth, but Nethtalt caught her elbow and she pulled them free with a short jerk.
They found dry, scratchy grass growing sparsely around them, which could possibly be helpful to get a blaze going, but what they needed was something larger.
The two went further into the brush, searching around for what could be useful — Findel now holding onto the edges of her skirt and creating a sack to hold what she gathered; behind them they heard the battle raging. Suddenly Findel gasped and grabbed Nethtalt's wrist; he turned to her quickly.
"What is it?"
"Look," she mouthed, gesturing into the dense thicket beyond the line of trees. Nethtalt frowned at what she was pointing out, but it took him only a moment to recognize what it was.
Coming through the trees towards them was a group of about three or four Southrons. They were scanning through the wood, seeking out a way into the enclosure, and Nethtalt had little doubt that they would bring more to ambush the saboteurs.
"Quickly," he pulled her away before they could be seen and rushed to Kelegalen. "Father!" The young man called, halting his father who looked up from where he was rigging the last explosive to look at his son. "An ambush is coming through the thicket — they will be upon us soon if we cannot find a way to forestall them."
Kelegalen shut his eyes in concentration on this new trouble. Barely had he begun to think, however, before his eyes snapped open and he looked from Nethtalt to Findel and the dry grass she still carried.
"Of course," he whispered. "Thalion!" he called to the other man and ran to the catapult beside him. "We must move the catapults!"
"What?" Nethtalt looked at his father in surprise. "What do you mean?"
"We are going to start a brush fire," Kelegalen explained grimly, "but we must move these catapults as close as we can to into the forest first."
"But these are meant to be moved by many strong men," Thalion objected, coming up beside them.
Kelegalen nodded shortly. "Today they must be moved by three men and a girl; we have no other choice."
Situating themselves quickly around the first catapult, they threw their weight against it. There were ropes attached to the catapults for the Southrons to move them and Thalion and Findel took these while Nethtalt and Kelegalen thrust their shoulders against the back of the machines. Once the wheels began moving the job grew easier and to their great fortune, much of the enclosure had been built on an incline. Once the catapult's movement had began it rolled quickly to the thicket, picking up speed until it had crashed into the brush.
The four Rohirrim did not wait to watch the machine's progress but moved instantly to the next.
By the time the final catapult had been slammed into the others the four were exhausted, but followed the ruts down to the forests' edge.
"Flint, steel," was all Kelegalen said as they drew them out. "Light the grass, we have had a dry winter and it should burn easily."
Nethtalt flicked a spark into the materials he and Findel had collected and it lighted instantly. Findel looked up in time to see the ambush of Southron warriors heading their way.
"Findel!" Thalion called. "Move back!"
The girl nodded and turned as the heat from the fire licked at her legs.
Running a short distance, she stood breathless at the edge of the trees as the flames began to ignite the clutter of fallen trees slowly, eating into the dead wood. Kelegalen had not spoken falsely, the dry weather had made kindling of the debris that covered the forest floor.
After a few anxious moments, she heard the Southrons cry out in fear and flee back the way they had come, but still she did not breathe easy until she saw the three Rohirrim stumble out of the forest towards her. All were blackened by the smoke that was already beginning to rise and spread.
"We must leave by another route," Kelegalen said breathlessly. "Come now, we must make haste to—"
He was cut off as a cry of pain lanced the air.
/ (o) \ (o) / (o) \ (o) / (o) \ (o) / (o) \ (o) / (o) \
Stavhold held against the warriors, striking them and beating them back, but they began to overwhelm him. A sword cleaved at last through his bloody spear and it dropped beside him; he felt them press in further. One warrior grabbed the man and yanked him to his feet, forcefully dragging him away from the pressing throng. Stavhold fought against him, but he knew it was no use. The Southron dropped him to the ground and Stavhold cried out as he felt the cold steel of the warrior's blade bite into his flesh between his shoulders and twist painfully. It was wrenched free and he felt his breath leave him in one scream of agony. He felt warm blood soaking his tunic. His knife fell from his limp hand, and his one eye closed as the Southrons swarmed past him.
/ (o) \ (o) / (o) \ (o) / (o) \ (o) / (o) \ (o) / (o) \
Kelegalen shouted Stavhold's name as he saw the man fall and the four Rohirrim stood in absolute shock as the Southrons began to push into the enclosure.
It was then that they realized they were trapped inside.
Kelegalen drew out his weapon, his eyes never leaving the fallen form of Stavhold. Thalion and Nethtalt also drew their weapons and Findel, being without weapons, stepped back out of their way. Kelegalen doubted they had any hope of passing the Southrons, but he knew also that they must try. He regretted again that he had brought Nethtalt into this, and that he had allowed Findel to accompany them, but it was too late for such regrets now.
The Southrons rushed towards them at great speed — then suddenly, in the instant that Kelegalen raised his sword, there was a mighty explosion that rocked the air and sent the Rohirrim stumbling forward. The Southrons drew back in startled panic.
"Run!" Kelegalen yelled to the others, seeing their opportunity. They got to their feet and began to push through the confused Southron host, swinging their blades at any who apposed them.
Kelegalen paused at the entrance to lift Stavhold over his shoulder, then he ran after his companions.
Instead of risking running through the Southron camp, they veered to the left and ran for the safety of the trees that were not ablaze. Nethtalt and Thalion stayed to the rear, still battling the Southrons who gave chase, but many had been too stunned by the explosion to regain their wits in time.
"What happened?" Nethtalt wondered aloud as they ran and Kelegalen smiled thinly despite the grim situation.
"In all the confusion of moving the catapults, I realize now that I had not set off the last explosive after placing it. I think the fire must have burned right into the very case itself instead of properly lighting it; thus it was not contained as Gandalf had meant it to be. It exploded much farther outward."
"It is to that we owe our escape," Thalion murmured as they slowed their pace within the shelter of the trees.
"No," Kelegalen whispered, suddenly sober as he again felt the burden he carried over his shoulder, "not only to that."
They ran until the sounds of the enemy became faint enough that Kelegalen felt it was safe to rest. Nethtalt and Findel built a small fire while Thalion tracked down something edible in the foliage. Kelegalen moved a short distance away and lay Stavhold down on the ground, red immediately staining the ground.
Kelegalen felt his heart clutch in pain at Stavhold's appearance. The man's eye opened slowly and he saw Kelegalen only vaguely above him.
"Capta—"
"Hush…" Kelegalen soothed gently, putting his fingers against the man's mouth. "You will be well my friend."
"We have escaped?" Stavhold questioned, ignoring Kelegalen's order.
"Yes Stavhold," Kelegalen whispered placing his hand against his friend's cheek, he felt blood run over his fingers from a gash on the wounded man's head.
"And you are all safe?" Stavhold's voice trembled and blood gathered at the corners of his mouth.
"We are all safe," Kelegalen nodded his voice also trembling as he spoke.
"Good." Stavhold closed his eye once more and his breath hitched slightly.
"I did not see Gálmod," Kelegalen said, trying to keep his friend with him.
"Gál—Gálmod left." Stavhold's words were slurred and he found it difficult to breathe. He couldn't feel his arms or his legs anymore.
Kelegalen felt his heart rend at the sight. Gálmod had abandoned them…Stavhold had not.
"I am so sorry," Stavhold whispered, forcing the words out of his failing body. "I am so—so sorry I abandoned Strider, Legolas…and you."
"It is forgiven," Kelegalen tried to hold back the tears in his eyes. "You fought with bravery and courage today, you did not run from the danger but faced it; you saved our lives. You saved us." He needed desperately for Stavhold to understand.
Stavhold opened his eye again and looked up at Kelegalen. For a moment he focused on the other man's face, and he smiled as the words brought release to his shuddering heart. His last breath was a soundless whisper of approaching sleep. Then his seeing eye glazed over as the one which was sightless and his body settled in amongst the fallen leaves.
Kelegalen's head dropped and slowly he placed his hand against his own chest, then against Stavhold's chest. He felt warm tears slide down his face as he gently removed the eye patch from Stavhold's right eye, then closed both eyes carefully and rose to his feet. And for a short time he merely stood there, looking down at his fallen friend.
TBC…