Chapter 6 - First Blood
Prince Oroweth of Mirkwood was sitting next to his father at breakfast, closely watched by seven other elves. He stared at one of the watchers, who happened to be his little brother, Nilwethion.
"Oroweth?"
The prince jumped, not expecting to be spoken to. Seven heads turned away and began chatting with the people sitting next to them.
"Yes Adar?"
"Why did not one of you come and sit by your mother and I yesterday in the feast? It was quite . . . unusual. You, Astaler and Nuryávië do usually," the king took a sip of his wine, watching his son carefully. Somehow he felt that not everything was quite right. Oroweth squirmed under the pressure of his fathers gaze.
"Well Ada, we, uh, wanted to sit with Calensil, and Calensil was sitting with Legolas, Nilwethion and Thellind, and you know how they do not like sitting too close to you . . . it is a pure fact father. If we offended you in any way, we are extremely sorry,"
The prince stared at the food in front of him, tearing the crust of the bread in to smaller and smaller pieces, almost without realising what he was doing. The king watched him curiously, and put down his goblet of wine.
"Oroweth, are you ever going to eat that bread or shall you sit there picking at it all day? If you find the pass-time enjoyable I am sure we could find plenty of bread for you to pick at all day,"
Oroweth gulped, noting the tone in Thranduil's voice, and rammed a small piece of the crust in to his mouth. He still managed to avoid eye contact with his father, and was grateful for it. Prince Oroweth was sure that if he looked up, his father would see strait through him, as always. That would be his dare ruined, and the twins would have won the game.
King Thranduil raised an eyebrow at Oroweth's sudden change in behaviour. He was beginning to resemble his younger brothers, in a way. He sighed and shook his head. He turned around, signalling to a servant for more bread.
As he turned away, Oroweth took his chance and tipped the small sachet of salt in to the wine. For a moment it swirled quickly like a snowstorm, but then the little white grains disappeared in to the drink.
The prince sat back in his seat, and noticed again the seven pairs of eyes watching his oh-so-carefully. He winked at them. That was the first part of the task complete, and now for the second. That would have to wait, however, for the king to take more wine.
Thranduil turned around, and noticed again the attitude change in his son, but this time decided to overlook it. He turned the talk instead to politics, and seemed to ignore the wine, much to Oroweth's displeasure.
"My son, I have not yet spoken to you about the orcs,"
Oroweth became confused. What orcs?
"Adar?"
The king rolled his eyes at the short memory his son seemed to have.
"The orcs, Oroweth. The orcs you were sent after two weeks ago. Do not tell me you have forgotten!"
The prince suddenly remembered and grinned apologetically. He took a sip of his own wine, hoping his father would imitate him without realising, as often happened among the guards. He was lucky. The king raised the goblet to his lips.
"I am becoming impatient Oroweth. Will you tell me about the orcs or am I going to have to ask your brother?"
It seemed that within the small gathering, for it was only the royal family and the main family of Imladris present, that the room held its breath and sat up. From the corner of his eye, Oroweth noted the look of glee on the face of Thellind and rolled his eyes at his brother. He turned back to the king and carried on the conversation as if nothing had happened and as if nothing was going to happen.
"Well Adar, it was quite a large group, about two hundred of the foul creatures I believe we counted, and they were too well trained with their weapons for comfort. We . . ."
But he was interrupted. Just as his Adar took a sip of the salted wine, three elven servants rushed in out of breath, one of whom Nilwethion recognised as his dance partner of the previous night. They gave a hurried curtsey as the face of the king turned purple at the taste of the mutilated wine.
"Your majesty, there are orcs down by bathing pool!"
"About thirty, your majesty, and they were all fully armed!"
"WHAT?" screamed Thranduil, accidentally knocking over his goblet. Oroweth flashed a look at Astaler. Were these the same band that they had been sent to completely destroy? Astaler shrugged, looking worried.
"Is anybody hurt? Is anybody still there?" asked the queen, interrupting her husband, keeping her head level. The worry showed through in her voice, for she cared very much for all her people, making her very popular. The three servants looked at each other, terror written all over their faces.
"Your majesties," gulped one, "Prince Legolas is there with the Lady Aliela. We found them bathing in the pool, and none of us noticed the orcs, but then they began firing their arrows at us and they could not get out of the pool or they would have been shot for sure! It was all we could do to run your majesty! Had we been a second later we would be dead!"
The three maids stood in the middle of the room shaking, and a tear fell from the eye of the youngest one.
"Did you just say . . . did you just say that my son is stuck there?" tremored the king, "My SON?"
"Yes, your majesty," whispered Aelin
The kings' face turned white.
"FOLLOW ME, NOW!" he barked, striding out of the room with his sons in wake, "IMLAMTHIEN! GO AND TELL SILNAN TO GET HIS GUARDS AND GET DOWN THERE BEFORE I GET R-E-A-L-L-Y ANGRY!"
The second her husband had finished barking orders, Imlammthien ran out to find Silnan. It would not be difficult. He would, as usual, be in the guards' room. Most likely glaring at a group of unfortunate guards for playing cards.
Elrond leaned over to Calensil who was sitting next to him, calmly eating.
"If he is not 'r-e-a-l-l-y angry' now, princess, what is he?" question the ancient elf. Calensil shrugged, carefully buttering a white roll.
"Mild," she commented, before turning her attention back to her food.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Thranduil and his sons raced down to the pool, swords and daggers ready for blood in their hands. There had been no time to fetch bows and arrows.
Thellind slew the first orc, in the trees by the side of the pool. He slit the unsuspecting creatures throat, black blood pouring on to his hands.
As they burst in to the clearing, the element of surprise was on their side. The orcs, although they were expecting elves to rush in at some point, had not expected resistance so soon, nor so angry. They were also too busy firing arrows both at the water and at a body, covered by a cloak, floating half submerged on the surface.
As the royal family of Mirkwood relentlessly attacked the orcs, twenty more guards rushed in with the queen and their captain.
The fight was over in a matter of minutes, the guards shooting down many of the disgusting creatures within seconds. They had, of course, had time to fetch their bows.
As they were pushing the orcs back in to the woods, Astaler, whilst battling with an orc, began questioning it, as was his style. Most of the time, if you paid your attention to the fighting and not the questions you would keep concentration, but if you are the one answering, you almost always loose it, thus loosing your life.
"Who have you killed?"
The weapons clashed together.
"Some rancid elf,"
The orc ducked as Astalers' blade came down hard on its shield.
"Male or female?"
The orc brought up his sword in defence.
"Covered by the cloak,"
Again, Astaler came in on the attack.
"So you couldn't tell?"
The orc parried, and tried to make an attack, leaving its torso open. Astaler took the opportunity to stab the creature, blood pouring over him.
"Oh well," he muttered. Turning around, he saw the last orc falling to his mothers hand and raised an eyebrow.
"Naneth? What are you doing here? 'Tis a battle scene!"
The queen wiped the sword on her skirts and walked over to her second son.
"I am aware of that. There are female guards and warriors, are there not?" she sheathed the sword, staring at the astounded prince.
"Well yes, but you are the queen,"
She raised an eyebrow, and then unsheathed the sword and grinned.
"How did you think I met your father? Dancing, like your brother? I was a warrior before Oroweth came,"
She turned away from her son, anguish taking over her expression as she saw the dead body on the water.
The water was no longer the clear blue it had been only an hour before, but ridden with trails of blood, both red and black. Orcs and elves had both died today. Just because they had won did not mean there was no price. These orcs had been good fighters.
The queen waded in to the water, blood staining her skirts. She stopped in the shallows, afraid of what she would see.
Instead, Captain Silnan waded in to the pool from the other side, and then swam when it became to deep for him. Many of the elves on the banks turned their heads away, not wishing to see the captain reveal the morbid scene they were expecting.
As the captain swam in to the centre of the pool where the body was, still covered by the cloak and resembling the queens' pincushion, the king grabbed one of the soldiers.
"Go and find out how these . . . these creatures got this far in to my realm!" he hissed. The elf nodded and disappeared in to the woodland, taking another with him.
By that time, Silnan had reached the corpse. Fearing what he might see, he plucked out as many of the arrows as he could and then finally drew the bloodied cape off the body. Nothing could have prepared him for what he saw.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
A/N: CLIFFIE!!!! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! How COULD I leave it there? Am I not just the most evil creature ever? **Goes in to fit of hysterics**
REVIEW REPLY THINGY
DAW THE MINSTREL ~~ Your review made me laugh. Just the way you said it. Well, if they had clothes they might have had a chance to run away, but yes, I can see how much more they needed a weapon. Any weapon would have done.
IMBEFANIEL ~~ I hope you have a nice holiday. Oh you poor thing! You BROKE your BOW? **Sends waves of pity**
DOT ~~ I suppose I should take that as a compliment, because it means my cookies are nice, but I'm not sure if it was meant that way or not. Calensil won't . . . **plot bunny runs past** **grabs pretty plot bunny** **rams plot bunny in cage and starts feeding it cookies 'n' lollypops** Calensil causing trouble for the lovebirds . . . **gives DOT big hug and an extra cookies for the plot bunny**
ORODRUIN ~~ Thellind's' dare might have been a MEAN dare, but you have to admit, it is an extremely daring dare.
LEGOLAS4ME ~~ What was that you were saying about cliffy's? **Enter manic laugh here**
ORION ~~ I left it at a cliffy because, well, I'm evil. Such a cute couple aren't they? Back to the subject of cliffy's, what did you think of this one? ; p
O.B.I.M ~~ I'm glad you like it
Dragon Jewel ~~ There are still mistakes? **Hits head against wall repeatedly** Aw MAN! I've been through each chapter at least twice, and there are still MISTAKES?
FIREFALL ~~ I guess 'impending doom' is about right. Not many grins or giggles this chapter I'm afraid though.
FIREANGEL ~~ So you can smell the rocs too huh? Aren't they disgusting? I had to put a peg over my nose so I could write without falling unconscious due to the stink. The person who came up with those dares was indeed a most helpful and wonderful person, and I'm giving her and extra cookie for helping. ^_^
NILMANDRA ~~ Actually, they didn't have anything on. Don't worry, they weren't actually DOING anything **wink wink nudge nudge** just splashing about and having a laugh. Your question will be answered in the next chapter.
ELFAER GILIELL ~~ You mean you like cliffy's? Hehe. Join the club.
**EMAU and her muses hands out choc 'n' cherry cookies to everybody who reviewed**
Love y'all. Yup, I even love you lurkers who are hiding out there, not leaving a review. I know you're there.
Prince Oroweth of Mirkwood was sitting next to his father at breakfast, closely watched by seven other elves. He stared at one of the watchers, who happened to be his little brother, Nilwethion.
"Oroweth?"
The prince jumped, not expecting to be spoken to. Seven heads turned away and began chatting with the people sitting next to them.
"Yes Adar?"
"Why did not one of you come and sit by your mother and I yesterday in the feast? It was quite . . . unusual. You, Astaler and Nuryávië do usually," the king took a sip of his wine, watching his son carefully. Somehow he felt that not everything was quite right. Oroweth squirmed under the pressure of his fathers gaze.
"Well Ada, we, uh, wanted to sit with Calensil, and Calensil was sitting with Legolas, Nilwethion and Thellind, and you know how they do not like sitting too close to you . . . it is a pure fact father. If we offended you in any way, we are extremely sorry,"
The prince stared at the food in front of him, tearing the crust of the bread in to smaller and smaller pieces, almost without realising what he was doing. The king watched him curiously, and put down his goblet of wine.
"Oroweth, are you ever going to eat that bread or shall you sit there picking at it all day? If you find the pass-time enjoyable I am sure we could find plenty of bread for you to pick at all day,"
Oroweth gulped, noting the tone in Thranduil's voice, and rammed a small piece of the crust in to his mouth. He still managed to avoid eye contact with his father, and was grateful for it. Prince Oroweth was sure that if he looked up, his father would see strait through him, as always. That would be his dare ruined, and the twins would have won the game.
King Thranduil raised an eyebrow at Oroweth's sudden change in behaviour. He was beginning to resemble his younger brothers, in a way. He sighed and shook his head. He turned around, signalling to a servant for more bread.
As he turned away, Oroweth took his chance and tipped the small sachet of salt in to the wine. For a moment it swirled quickly like a snowstorm, but then the little white grains disappeared in to the drink.
The prince sat back in his seat, and noticed again the seven pairs of eyes watching his oh-so-carefully. He winked at them. That was the first part of the task complete, and now for the second. That would have to wait, however, for the king to take more wine.
Thranduil turned around, and noticed again the attitude change in his son, but this time decided to overlook it. He turned the talk instead to politics, and seemed to ignore the wine, much to Oroweth's displeasure.
"My son, I have not yet spoken to you about the orcs,"
Oroweth became confused. What orcs?
"Adar?"
The king rolled his eyes at the short memory his son seemed to have.
"The orcs, Oroweth. The orcs you were sent after two weeks ago. Do not tell me you have forgotten!"
The prince suddenly remembered and grinned apologetically. He took a sip of his own wine, hoping his father would imitate him without realising, as often happened among the guards. He was lucky. The king raised the goblet to his lips.
"I am becoming impatient Oroweth. Will you tell me about the orcs or am I going to have to ask your brother?"
It seemed that within the small gathering, for it was only the royal family and the main family of Imladris present, that the room held its breath and sat up. From the corner of his eye, Oroweth noted the look of glee on the face of Thellind and rolled his eyes at his brother. He turned back to the king and carried on the conversation as if nothing had happened and as if nothing was going to happen.
"Well Adar, it was quite a large group, about two hundred of the foul creatures I believe we counted, and they were too well trained with their weapons for comfort. We . . ."
But he was interrupted. Just as his Adar took a sip of the salted wine, three elven servants rushed in out of breath, one of whom Nilwethion recognised as his dance partner of the previous night. They gave a hurried curtsey as the face of the king turned purple at the taste of the mutilated wine.
"Your majesty, there are orcs down by bathing pool!"
"About thirty, your majesty, and they were all fully armed!"
"WHAT?" screamed Thranduil, accidentally knocking over his goblet. Oroweth flashed a look at Astaler. Were these the same band that they had been sent to completely destroy? Astaler shrugged, looking worried.
"Is anybody hurt? Is anybody still there?" asked the queen, interrupting her husband, keeping her head level. The worry showed through in her voice, for she cared very much for all her people, making her very popular. The three servants looked at each other, terror written all over their faces.
"Your majesties," gulped one, "Prince Legolas is there with the Lady Aliela. We found them bathing in the pool, and none of us noticed the orcs, but then they began firing their arrows at us and they could not get out of the pool or they would have been shot for sure! It was all we could do to run your majesty! Had we been a second later we would be dead!"
The three maids stood in the middle of the room shaking, and a tear fell from the eye of the youngest one.
"Did you just say . . . did you just say that my son is stuck there?" tremored the king, "My SON?"
"Yes, your majesty," whispered Aelin
The kings' face turned white.
"FOLLOW ME, NOW!" he barked, striding out of the room with his sons in wake, "IMLAMTHIEN! GO AND TELL SILNAN TO GET HIS GUARDS AND GET DOWN THERE BEFORE I GET R-E-A-L-L-Y ANGRY!"
The second her husband had finished barking orders, Imlammthien ran out to find Silnan. It would not be difficult. He would, as usual, be in the guards' room. Most likely glaring at a group of unfortunate guards for playing cards.
Elrond leaned over to Calensil who was sitting next to him, calmly eating.
"If he is not 'r-e-a-l-l-y angry' now, princess, what is he?" question the ancient elf. Calensil shrugged, carefully buttering a white roll.
"Mild," she commented, before turning her attention back to her food.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Thranduil and his sons raced down to the pool, swords and daggers ready for blood in their hands. There had been no time to fetch bows and arrows.
Thellind slew the first orc, in the trees by the side of the pool. He slit the unsuspecting creatures throat, black blood pouring on to his hands.
As they burst in to the clearing, the element of surprise was on their side. The orcs, although they were expecting elves to rush in at some point, had not expected resistance so soon, nor so angry. They were also too busy firing arrows both at the water and at a body, covered by a cloak, floating half submerged on the surface.
As the royal family of Mirkwood relentlessly attacked the orcs, twenty more guards rushed in with the queen and their captain.
The fight was over in a matter of minutes, the guards shooting down many of the disgusting creatures within seconds. They had, of course, had time to fetch their bows.
As they were pushing the orcs back in to the woods, Astaler, whilst battling with an orc, began questioning it, as was his style. Most of the time, if you paid your attention to the fighting and not the questions you would keep concentration, but if you are the one answering, you almost always loose it, thus loosing your life.
"Who have you killed?"
The weapons clashed together.
"Some rancid elf,"
The orc ducked as Astalers' blade came down hard on its shield.
"Male or female?"
The orc brought up his sword in defence.
"Covered by the cloak,"
Again, Astaler came in on the attack.
"So you couldn't tell?"
The orc parried, and tried to make an attack, leaving its torso open. Astaler took the opportunity to stab the creature, blood pouring over him.
"Oh well," he muttered. Turning around, he saw the last orc falling to his mothers hand and raised an eyebrow.
"Naneth? What are you doing here? 'Tis a battle scene!"
The queen wiped the sword on her skirts and walked over to her second son.
"I am aware of that. There are female guards and warriors, are there not?" she sheathed the sword, staring at the astounded prince.
"Well yes, but you are the queen,"
She raised an eyebrow, and then unsheathed the sword and grinned.
"How did you think I met your father? Dancing, like your brother? I was a warrior before Oroweth came,"
She turned away from her son, anguish taking over her expression as she saw the dead body on the water.
The water was no longer the clear blue it had been only an hour before, but ridden with trails of blood, both red and black. Orcs and elves had both died today. Just because they had won did not mean there was no price. These orcs had been good fighters.
The queen waded in to the water, blood staining her skirts. She stopped in the shallows, afraid of what she would see.
Instead, Captain Silnan waded in to the pool from the other side, and then swam when it became to deep for him. Many of the elves on the banks turned their heads away, not wishing to see the captain reveal the morbid scene they were expecting.
As the captain swam in to the centre of the pool where the body was, still covered by the cloak and resembling the queens' pincushion, the king grabbed one of the soldiers.
"Go and find out how these . . . these creatures got this far in to my realm!" he hissed. The elf nodded and disappeared in to the woodland, taking another with him.
By that time, Silnan had reached the corpse. Fearing what he might see, he plucked out as many of the arrows as he could and then finally drew the bloodied cape off the body. Nothing could have prepared him for what he saw.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
A/N: CLIFFIE!!!! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! How COULD I leave it there? Am I not just the most evil creature ever? **Goes in to fit of hysterics**
REVIEW REPLY THINGY
DAW THE MINSTREL ~~ Your review made me laugh. Just the way you said it. Well, if they had clothes they might have had a chance to run away, but yes, I can see how much more they needed a weapon. Any weapon would have done.
IMBEFANIEL ~~ I hope you have a nice holiday. Oh you poor thing! You BROKE your BOW? **Sends waves of pity**
DOT ~~ I suppose I should take that as a compliment, because it means my cookies are nice, but I'm not sure if it was meant that way or not. Calensil won't . . . **plot bunny runs past** **grabs pretty plot bunny** **rams plot bunny in cage and starts feeding it cookies 'n' lollypops** Calensil causing trouble for the lovebirds . . . **gives DOT big hug and an extra cookies for the plot bunny**
ORODRUIN ~~ Thellind's' dare might have been a MEAN dare, but you have to admit, it is an extremely daring dare.
LEGOLAS4ME ~~ What was that you were saying about cliffy's? **Enter manic laugh here**
ORION ~~ I left it at a cliffy because, well, I'm evil. Such a cute couple aren't they? Back to the subject of cliffy's, what did you think of this one? ; p
O.B.I.M ~~ I'm glad you like it
Dragon Jewel ~~ There are still mistakes? **Hits head against wall repeatedly** Aw MAN! I've been through each chapter at least twice, and there are still MISTAKES?
FIREFALL ~~ I guess 'impending doom' is about right. Not many grins or giggles this chapter I'm afraid though.
FIREANGEL ~~ So you can smell the rocs too huh? Aren't they disgusting? I had to put a peg over my nose so I could write without falling unconscious due to the stink. The person who came up with those dares was indeed a most helpful and wonderful person, and I'm giving her and extra cookie for helping. ^_^
NILMANDRA ~~ Actually, they didn't have anything on. Don't worry, they weren't actually DOING anything **wink wink nudge nudge** just splashing about and having a laugh. Your question will be answered in the next chapter.
ELFAER GILIELL ~~ You mean you like cliffy's? Hehe. Join the club.
**EMAU and her muses hands out choc 'n' cherry cookies to everybody who reviewed**
Love y'all. Yup, I even love you lurkers who are hiding out there, not leaving a review. I know you're there.