*Disclaimer* If I said I owned anything, what would you do about it, huh, punk?
A/N: See, here's another! And it's long! Yay! Read on!
Chapter 14-Why You Should ALWAYS Pay Attention on Sentry Duty
She slept later than she meant to; Tracie and Legolas had to come wake her up, and they did so by climbing through the balcony and sitting on her.
"Don't you want to know what happened on the spy mission? Boy, do I feel ever so unloved by my friend since, uh, birth!" said Tracie, bouncing on her happily. She shoved her off and threw on a robe.
"Oh, shut up. There. I'm awake, are you happy? By the way, Trace, thanks ever so for bringing Legolas into my bedroom while I was sleeping. I'll treasure that always." Legolas blushed scarlet, she was amused to see. Tracie grinned happily, also enjoying the look of silly embarrassment on their friend's face. He tried to continue as if nothing had happened. Then gave up, as it was obvious that he couldn't keep his composure.
"Yes. Well, uh, sorry, I mean...yes. Spying. On the enemy. We figured that...that..." Then he sat down in defeat. He couldn't talk anymore in this state. She shoved Tracie out of the way and walked into her closet.
"I'm getting dressed. Tell me when his face returns to its normal color." Which didn't help matters in the slightest. Della must have really been rubbing off on her. Nevertheless, she walked into her closet-slash-changing room, wondering what she wanted to wear today: dress or tunic? Before the Riders arrived, this was the only thing she had to worry about. It felt nice to return to even a small semblance of normalcy. For some reason, she felt extremely self-virtuous today (perhaps a result of having Legolas in her bedroom), and decided to go with a gown. She chose one that was artfully swirled in the colors of the ocean (so it was said. She had never actually seen the ocean), and looked all flowy, like someone had taken the ocean and made it into a dress. Which was exactly the point of it all. She slipped into it and ran a brush quickly through her hair, which had been painfully swirled into a rat's nest while she slept. Then she poked her head out, and saw that Legolas's pallor had returned to normal.
"Good to see you. Now then, I hope you didn't botch this as much as Tracie and I did. What did you find?" Legolas rummaged around in his knapsack and pulled out a sheet of parchment. She swiped it from him and hastily scanned the sloppy scrawl.
"Hmm, what's the translation of this supposed to be?" He smiled and leaned over her shoulder and pointed out things.
"Please, my handwriting isn't THAT awful. See, this is just some quick head count...a few doodles when I got bored...and there's the final count." She squinted bemusedly at it.
"Nope. Still can't read it. What's the final count?" He snatched the paper from her, distinctly annoyed. He snatched it back and examined it.
"You really can't read that?" She sighed.
"Legolas Greenleaf, I'm surprised YOU can read this. Trace, can you please help me out with this?" Tracie grinned and elbowed Legolas out of the way.
"What the stunted Nazgul here is trying to say is that we got to all three of the camps. The one that was closest to the ones we looked at was the smallest, only fifty or so. The others were pretty medium sized. It's odd, though; there's nothing. They have to have a reserve hidden somewhere, because they can't hope to attack us if their numbers are all like this. Well, tonight's your turn, Stillwater, you and Greenleaf here." Rose instinctively fingered her hairpin, then stopped as she realized what she was doing. Tracie smiled slightly, but said nothing. Rose put her hand down and shooed them out.
"Good to know. See you tonight, Legolas. Hopefully not in my bedroom. See you this afternoon, Tracie. Out, out, both of you out." Legolas obeyed immediately, perhaps because of the barb about her bedroom. Tracie, however, hung back.
"Are you sure you don't WANT him in your-ow!" Rose smacked her on the head sharply. Tracie backed away, rubbing her scalp.
"Out, before I toss you out myself!" she said. It was mutually agreed that they were both joking, but Tracie put on the injured-pride look anyway.
"Well, that's the last time I spy for you! Anyway, maybe if you toss me out, Greenleaf will catch me at the bottom." Rose grinned cheerfully.
"Good, let's try that, shall we?" Tracie smiled and started to climb down.
"All right, all right, I give up. See you later." And she was gone. Groaning, she flopped on her bed, wishing she could fall asleep again, even though she knew it was pointless to try. Legolas Greenleaf had just snuck out of her bedroom; how on earth was she going to sleep? Speaking of Earth...Delaney slid up and found the sheafs of parchment that Linka had sent over and began where she left off. Helen was going to work at an office building. It seemed so everyday to her, but Rose found this a perpetual source of fascination. Just the clothes and pavement of everyday life in suburbia were completely foreign and amazing to her.
Finally, when it was almost completely light, she stepped outside. She usually come and went as she pleased; Dam gave her an unusual amount of leniency when it came to her activites. It was not that Dam thought she would complain if restrictions were given...she had come to understand that everything the Elf-wife did was for her own good, and she would obey without question...but that Damita believed that she would evolve and develop better if she was allowed more freedom than even her mother had given her. She held the same policy for Meira and Ellie, but so far the two Elflings hadn't fully realized what freedom entailed. Meira was mostly training with her weapons, and Ellie spent most of her days clinging to Dam and trying, in her own way, to help her mother with housework. Rose smiled as she pictured the two girls who had become as close to her as if they were truly her blood sisters. These innocent faces were why she was so defiant of Awaren's ruling, and why she was risking her life to stop the seemingly imminent apocalypse of her people.
That night, she had a high case of nerves that had nothing to do with walking into an enemy camp, which was about as safe as stepping into a cage of rabid hyenas with hamburger patties attatched to her face. No, it was the fact that she, Delaney Glenn Freeholder, was going to go into said enemy camp in the company of Legolas Greenleaf, the hottest guy she had ever met, not to mention the smartest. And that included Forest, the lovingly dubbed 'intellectual goon'. What also might have contributed was the fact that she came home at twilight and found that Benvenue had been asking after her again. It piqued her, that the Man should be so interested in her. Well, he was technically interested in Rose, but while she was in command of the body, it was her as far as she was concerned. She waited at the edge of the valley, the prearranged meeting spot, and bounced on the balls of her feet nervously. She sincerely hoped they wouldn't run into another tight spot like Tracie and she had; that was a nightmare. Speaking of nightmares...she checked the mental presence that was Rose in the back of her head. She couldn't afford to let her fade away again, or she would really be in a tight spot. No amount of skill could save her if she suddenly didn't understand a word Legolas was saying. Rose was still strong. Reassured, she relaxed. Then tensed up and stifled a shriek as a hand from nowhere descended and landed upon her shoulder.
Benvenue chuckled lightly at her shock.
"My, you're jumpy tonight, miss Rosellyn. What are you doing out so late? And packed for a journey, I see. What escapade are you planning now?" She jerked away from his hand irritably. If Legolas didn't show up soon...
"No disrespect, sir, but I don't see how any of this concerns you." His eyes filled with genuine anxiety. Any other time, she might have felt touched. Now, she just felt annoyed. Why wouldn't he just leave?
"You're not running away, are you?" The idea! She straightened in indignation.
"Think what you like of me, but I don't run and leave my friends in times of battles. Speaking of friends, there he is now. If you'll excuse me, Benvenue, I bid you goodnight." While she had been speaking, her adrenaline-sharpened eyesight picked out Legolas approaching, and she dodged behind Benvenue and followed him into the surrounding woodlands, doing her best to blend into the night shadows. Here she was, an Elf maiden walking into the forest, dressed and packed for a journey, in the company of a young Elf boy. Let him eat that and choke on it!
As soon as she caught up with Legolas, though, her complacency dispersed and she was suddenly afraid for her life. He swung a punch at her, which she narrowly missed, and she jumped onto a low-hanging branch. When he jumped up, she stamped on his fingers, causing him to drop.
"By the grace of Valar, what was that for?" she demanded angrily. He nursed his fingers, looking equally miffed.
"What are you playing at, letting that Man talk to you when you're about to go on a spying mission?" She climbed a little higher and eyed his bow, in case he got ideas.
"I didn't exactly invite him, you know! He just showed up. It's not like I'm just going to blow off the salvation of my home, okay?"
"But he knows we're going somewhere! What if he knows where we're going?"
"I didn't tell him, and Men can't read minds! Don't get yourself worked up over nothing! Maybe he just thinks...I don't know..."
"Well, I don't know either! What if he tells someone that we're leaving for the night? What then? Then they'll definetely know, and it all gets put down, and Mirkwood gets annihilated. You've got to think about these things!"
"Do you actually hear yourself when you speak? I'm not some Angmar, what was I supposed to do, make him disappear?" The glared at each other for a few moments, then she hopped down. "Look, if he thinks he knows where we're going, well and good for him. There's nothing we can do about it but try to get a good night's spying in. Okay? Or do you want to just turn around now and tell Tracie to forget the whole idea, and to tell Forest that he was right, and we should just trust to Linka and Awaren?" She was playing off his pride, she knew that. But it was the only thing she knew that could make him drop a conversation topic. By the look on his face, he knew exactly what she was doing, as well. Would he let it work? After a few moments, he backed down.
"All right. I'm sorry. There's nothing we can do about it. Let's go. We're wasting time." And she knew that was the best she'd get out of him.
They set off in silence, but it was not the companiable silence between herself and Tracie, but a stiff, unfriendly one that made her squirm uncomfortably. They hiked west, and she felt a stitch develop, but she knew better than complain. Finally, to her ultimate surprise, Legolas was the one to break the silence. She was pleased that he had gotten over a wounded ego so quickly.
"I'm sorry I was over-reacting back there. It wasn't your fault."
"Thanks. Apology accepted." A thought drifted up in her mind, perhaps prompted by Delaney. What if Legolas was so angry because he was...jealous? No. She needed to concentrate on the job at hand. But now that the ice was broken, they chatted in whispers while they walked, which was a million times better than the silence.
"What's the total so far of the Riders' forces?" She rummaged around in her pack. Pulling out a piece of parchment, she perused it hastily.
"Hm, two, four, six, seven...eight or nine hundred, give or take a few." Legolas looked slightly worried at the tally.
"And how many Elves do we have on our side?"
"Hm, two thousand? But they aren't ready for an attack, or anything. Armed, yes, good, you know it. But the Riders' ploy is working. They're lulling Awaren into a false sense of security."
"Hey, they haven't hoodwinked us, right? How about that? We'll do this somehow, Rose. Don't worry. I suppose it's too much to hope that Awaren sent out for reinforcements from Lorién?" She snorted derisively.
"Right, and Meira suddenly sprouted wings and flew to Mordor." He laughed at the mental picture.
"You're right. I thought so." They continued on, voices lowering ever so slightly as the night wore on, instinctively getting ready for imminent danger; Legolas fingered his bow, and she started checking her knives more and more frequently. Learning from her experiences with Tracie, she started checking for scouts earlier than she normally would have. Apparently, she hadn't been checking hard enough, because she nearly did an oh-so-attractive flip over Legolas' arm as he flung it out to stop her progress. He flung himself flat on the ground, and she followed suit. He pointed at a tree about a hundred yards in front of them. "Right there. Thank Valar for the full moon. Can you see him?" he hissed as quietly as he could. She squinted. Then, she had him. In the lower canopy of a stately oak, she saw the silhoutte of a Man crouched there, waiting. Legolas was right; if it hadn't been for the full moon, they might have missed him altogether. "Look for more. I'll take care of him." She obeyed, wondering if he could make the shot from that distance and this position. She slowly surveyed the surrounding forest, checking the ground and the treetops. There were two more, that she could see. She pointed them out.
"There, to the west, on the ground, and a couple yards to the east of the first fellow in the higher part of a sycamore."
"Gotcha. Are they looking this way, do you think?"
"Your guess is as good as mine." He looked thoughtful, then pulled out three arrows and stuck them point first into the ground next to him. Then he unshouldered his bow and strung it.
"I'll risk it. Hand them to me as I go, okay?" she nodded as he stood and quickly plucked the first one out of the soft earth. Aiming quickly, he shot and immediately grabbed the one she was holding out for him. Before the first sentry hit the ground, the second arrow was in the air, quickly followed by the third. Then, they were all down. "Are you sure there's no one else?" She nodded and stood.
"Pretty sure. Shall we?" He bowed, like he was holding a door for her.
"We shall. After you." She curtsied as best she could in a shirt and walked daintily forward. Using all the skill they had, they moved like shadows through the trees, always keeping an eye out for more sentries. This is living, she thought, out in the wild, one step ahead of the enemy...There was a shout to the left of them.
"Teldo! Hey, Teldo! What, are you sleeping on duty?" There was a flitting black figure who, in spite of his apparent stupidity in shouting aloud, knew his stealth lessons well, moving much to quickly and never pausing long enough for Legolas to get a shot in edgewise. Rose paled. Once the lone sentry figured out Teldo and his two companions were dead, their element of surprise was lost.
"I think you missed him," said Legolas dryly, breaking into a run. She followed. If they got close enough, she might just be able to run down the lone sentry and dispose of him. Trustworthy flashed out into her left hand. Legolas glanced back. "Put it up! You don't want him to see that he's got company, do you?" Defiantly, Diamondsong appeared in her right hand, as though conjured there.
"He'll know he's got company, if he doesn't already; the least we can do is come calling." The bravery in her ribald comment was lost on the Elf-prince, who merely sighed and pulled out his bow in one hand and an arrow in the other. As she caught up to him, she realized he was talking to himself.
"Come on, you, be still for one blest second, and I've got you..." He stopped suddenly, nocked his arrow quickly, and took a shot.
He missed by a fraction. It was so close, though, that it took a lock of hair off the shell-shocked man, who was clearly not expecting an attack. An idea gripped Delaney and she acted through Rose. She took out a homemade slingshot and groped around on the ground for some pebbles. Nothing of great killing power; more for confusion and discomfort than anything. Not even bothering to aim, she shot off three in quick succession, only one actually glancing a stinging blow on the poor guy's forehead. Completely bewildered, he drew a well-polished sword.
"Who's there? I'm warning you, I'll fight to the death!" Three more rocks; one bounced off his exposed blade. "If you're part o' an Elven army, y'll pay for the killin' of three Riders!" No response. The man wasn't too bright; any other soldier should have run for reinforcements. It would have been all too easy for Legolas to drop the idiot where he stood, but Rose wasn't quite ready to give up her fun. She pushed his bow down and gestured to his own slingshot.
"This should be amusing. Did you and Tracie have this trouble?" He sighed and pulled out his slingshot, better made than Rose's was.
"Some, but not nearly of this magnitude." Delaney gave an inward sigh.
"Well, I guess I'm just lucky like that. If he thinks there's an army, we will give him an army." Legolas gave a slow grin at that.
"Did I ever tell you that I love the way you think?" She didn't say anything, but merely grinned by way of reply. She had never heard a boy say the words 'I', 'love', and 'you' in the same sentence talking to her, even if it was sort of disjointed in her case.
The scout seemed relaxed, confidently thinking, perhaps, that he had frightened the 'army' away. He sheathed his sword, satisfied, and began to stroll back to camp, fabricating the story as he went.
"There were two score hidden in the woods, so I sez to Teldo, 'Teldo,' sez I, 'we must get into a circle, to have each other's backs!' I never knew I could think so well under pressure! Ol' Teldo saw sense in that, and so did Kili and Doderic. So we gets into a circle, and they rushed us! But I drew my sword and took down two, watching the others take them down as well. Then an Elf, a ferocious looking chappie, breaks away and comes at me with a sword as big as an orc's! I parried for me life and slew the feller, but the rest went down by a weasly little bowman. So I backs into a tree and takes down five more..." And on it went. He was so preoccupied with his imagined heroics that he took no notice of the two friends sitting half-concealed next to him.
"Can I please drop him? Stupid bloke; I couldn't miss from this range if I wanted to." She sighed in exasperation and stole his quiver.
"For the last time, weasly bowman, no. We need him to lead us to his camp! Then we have fun on a larger scale. Plus, it saves us the work of stumbling blindly through enemy territory." He stole the quiver back.
"Give me that, ferocious looking chappie! Enemy territory, my eye; we're still in Mirkwood!" She stood and started following the lone sentry, who was still wrapped up in his little fantasy land.
"Good. Care to raise your voice and test that theory? I know we just agreed to do a quick head count, but that doesn't mean we can't make life miserable for them." He looked annoyed, but lowered his voice anyway.
"Any other time I'd agree, but this soldier just grates on my nerves. Him, slaying how many is it now, thirty, thirty five?" He gave a snort at how plausible he though that was. "Ha! He couldn't slay his way to breakfast." She elbowed him sharply.
"That may be true, and that may not be true; let's not shout about it and find out, shall we?" He stopped, looking highly affronted.
"I'm whispering, not shouting! Honestly, I was quieter the first time, wasn't I? You women are so picky...ow!" She had stopped her progress, roughly elbowing him again as he began walking. However, he hadn't exactly been paying attention to the fact that she was no longer moving, and walked straight into her waiting elbow. She had gone along with it in the beginning, but now he was getting more annoying than the sentry. She whirled on him before he had a chance to complain yet again and started quietly berating him, prodding his chest with her finger to emphasize her point. Startled, he moved back every time she prodded him until he was backed up against a tree.
"Listen up, and listen hard. I have had it up to here," she made a slashing gesture at her throat, "with you keeping up a constant commentary every time that Man sneezes, and how he could have done it better. This isn't a daisy-chain outing; it's a bloody spying mission! Start acting like it, or you'll find how easy it is to have tragic accidents in the night woods!" He looked at her, amazed.
"Are you, Rosellyn Stillwater, actually threatening me?" She backed off slightly and flipped Trustworthy almost idly. Then, like chain lightening, it left her hand and landed with a thunk, embedded in the trunk about an inch above his left ear.
"No. I don't threaten. That's what we call a promise." He looked stunned and scared, an odd contortion of his handsome face, eyes still riveted on the dagger beside his head. She reached over and yanked it out, cleaning imaginary dirt off of the blade. "Does 'this woman' make her 'picky' self absolutely clear?" she asked. He nodded dazedly.
"Y-yes."
"Good. Then let's pick up the trail of our friend, shall we?" and she continued as if nothing had happened.
A/N: Yeah, I know, I left off in the middle. Bite me. You'll get the rest of the mission soon enough. I just like leaving you with a bit of a cliff-hanger. Plus, if I didn't break it up, this chapter would go on forever. Cheers!
A/N: See, here's another! And it's long! Yay! Read on!
Chapter 14-Why You Should ALWAYS Pay Attention on Sentry Duty
She slept later than she meant to; Tracie and Legolas had to come wake her up, and they did so by climbing through the balcony and sitting on her.
"Don't you want to know what happened on the spy mission? Boy, do I feel ever so unloved by my friend since, uh, birth!" said Tracie, bouncing on her happily. She shoved her off and threw on a robe.
"Oh, shut up. There. I'm awake, are you happy? By the way, Trace, thanks ever so for bringing Legolas into my bedroom while I was sleeping. I'll treasure that always." Legolas blushed scarlet, she was amused to see. Tracie grinned happily, also enjoying the look of silly embarrassment on their friend's face. He tried to continue as if nothing had happened. Then gave up, as it was obvious that he couldn't keep his composure.
"Yes. Well, uh, sorry, I mean...yes. Spying. On the enemy. We figured that...that..." Then he sat down in defeat. He couldn't talk anymore in this state. She shoved Tracie out of the way and walked into her closet.
"I'm getting dressed. Tell me when his face returns to its normal color." Which didn't help matters in the slightest. Della must have really been rubbing off on her. Nevertheless, she walked into her closet-slash-changing room, wondering what she wanted to wear today: dress or tunic? Before the Riders arrived, this was the only thing she had to worry about. It felt nice to return to even a small semblance of normalcy. For some reason, she felt extremely self-virtuous today (perhaps a result of having Legolas in her bedroom), and decided to go with a gown. She chose one that was artfully swirled in the colors of the ocean (so it was said. She had never actually seen the ocean), and looked all flowy, like someone had taken the ocean and made it into a dress. Which was exactly the point of it all. She slipped into it and ran a brush quickly through her hair, which had been painfully swirled into a rat's nest while she slept. Then she poked her head out, and saw that Legolas's pallor had returned to normal.
"Good to see you. Now then, I hope you didn't botch this as much as Tracie and I did. What did you find?" Legolas rummaged around in his knapsack and pulled out a sheet of parchment. She swiped it from him and hastily scanned the sloppy scrawl.
"Hmm, what's the translation of this supposed to be?" He smiled and leaned over her shoulder and pointed out things.
"Please, my handwriting isn't THAT awful. See, this is just some quick head count...a few doodles when I got bored...and there's the final count." She squinted bemusedly at it.
"Nope. Still can't read it. What's the final count?" He snatched the paper from her, distinctly annoyed. He snatched it back and examined it.
"You really can't read that?" She sighed.
"Legolas Greenleaf, I'm surprised YOU can read this. Trace, can you please help me out with this?" Tracie grinned and elbowed Legolas out of the way.
"What the stunted Nazgul here is trying to say is that we got to all three of the camps. The one that was closest to the ones we looked at was the smallest, only fifty or so. The others were pretty medium sized. It's odd, though; there's nothing. They have to have a reserve hidden somewhere, because they can't hope to attack us if their numbers are all like this. Well, tonight's your turn, Stillwater, you and Greenleaf here." Rose instinctively fingered her hairpin, then stopped as she realized what she was doing. Tracie smiled slightly, but said nothing. Rose put her hand down and shooed them out.
"Good to know. See you tonight, Legolas. Hopefully not in my bedroom. See you this afternoon, Tracie. Out, out, both of you out." Legolas obeyed immediately, perhaps because of the barb about her bedroom. Tracie, however, hung back.
"Are you sure you don't WANT him in your-ow!" Rose smacked her on the head sharply. Tracie backed away, rubbing her scalp.
"Out, before I toss you out myself!" she said. It was mutually agreed that they were both joking, but Tracie put on the injured-pride look anyway.
"Well, that's the last time I spy for you! Anyway, maybe if you toss me out, Greenleaf will catch me at the bottom." Rose grinned cheerfully.
"Good, let's try that, shall we?" Tracie smiled and started to climb down.
"All right, all right, I give up. See you later." And she was gone. Groaning, she flopped on her bed, wishing she could fall asleep again, even though she knew it was pointless to try. Legolas Greenleaf had just snuck out of her bedroom; how on earth was she going to sleep? Speaking of Earth...Delaney slid up and found the sheafs of parchment that Linka had sent over and began where she left off. Helen was going to work at an office building. It seemed so everyday to her, but Rose found this a perpetual source of fascination. Just the clothes and pavement of everyday life in suburbia were completely foreign and amazing to her.
Finally, when it was almost completely light, she stepped outside. She usually come and went as she pleased; Dam gave her an unusual amount of leniency when it came to her activites. It was not that Dam thought she would complain if restrictions were given...she had come to understand that everything the Elf-wife did was for her own good, and she would obey without question...but that Damita believed that she would evolve and develop better if she was allowed more freedom than even her mother had given her. She held the same policy for Meira and Ellie, but so far the two Elflings hadn't fully realized what freedom entailed. Meira was mostly training with her weapons, and Ellie spent most of her days clinging to Dam and trying, in her own way, to help her mother with housework. Rose smiled as she pictured the two girls who had become as close to her as if they were truly her blood sisters. These innocent faces were why she was so defiant of Awaren's ruling, and why she was risking her life to stop the seemingly imminent apocalypse of her people.
That night, she had a high case of nerves that had nothing to do with walking into an enemy camp, which was about as safe as stepping into a cage of rabid hyenas with hamburger patties attatched to her face. No, it was the fact that she, Delaney Glenn Freeholder, was going to go into said enemy camp in the company of Legolas Greenleaf, the hottest guy she had ever met, not to mention the smartest. And that included Forest, the lovingly dubbed 'intellectual goon'. What also might have contributed was the fact that she came home at twilight and found that Benvenue had been asking after her again. It piqued her, that the Man should be so interested in her. Well, he was technically interested in Rose, but while she was in command of the body, it was her as far as she was concerned. She waited at the edge of the valley, the prearranged meeting spot, and bounced on the balls of her feet nervously. She sincerely hoped they wouldn't run into another tight spot like Tracie and she had; that was a nightmare. Speaking of nightmares...she checked the mental presence that was Rose in the back of her head. She couldn't afford to let her fade away again, or she would really be in a tight spot. No amount of skill could save her if she suddenly didn't understand a word Legolas was saying. Rose was still strong. Reassured, she relaxed. Then tensed up and stifled a shriek as a hand from nowhere descended and landed upon her shoulder.
Benvenue chuckled lightly at her shock.
"My, you're jumpy tonight, miss Rosellyn. What are you doing out so late? And packed for a journey, I see. What escapade are you planning now?" She jerked away from his hand irritably. If Legolas didn't show up soon...
"No disrespect, sir, but I don't see how any of this concerns you." His eyes filled with genuine anxiety. Any other time, she might have felt touched. Now, she just felt annoyed. Why wouldn't he just leave?
"You're not running away, are you?" The idea! She straightened in indignation.
"Think what you like of me, but I don't run and leave my friends in times of battles. Speaking of friends, there he is now. If you'll excuse me, Benvenue, I bid you goodnight." While she had been speaking, her adrenaline-sharpened eyesight picked out Legolas approaching, and she dodged behind Benvenue and followed him into the surrounding woodlands, doing her best to blend into the night shadows. Here she was, an Elf maiden walking into the forest, dressed and packed for a journey, in the company of a young Elf boy. Let him eat that and choke on it!
As soon as she caught up with Legolas, though, her complacency dispersed and she was suddenly afraid for her life. He swung a punch at her, which she narrowly missed, and she jumped onto a low-hanging branch. When he jumped up, she stamped on his fingers, causing him to drop.
"By the grace of Valar, what was that for?" she demanded angrily. He nursed his fingers, looking equally miffed.
"What are you playing at, letting that Man talk to you when you're about to go on a spying mission?" She climbed a little higher and eyed his bow, in case he got ideas.
"I didn't exactly invite him, you know! He just showed up. It's not like I'm just going to blow off the salvation of my home, okay?"
"But he knows we're going somewhere! What if he knows where we're going?"
"I didn't tell him, and Men can't read minds! Don't get yourself worked up over nothing! Maybe he just thinks...I don't know..."
"Well, I don't know either! What if he tells someone that we're leaving for the night? What then? Then they'll definetely know, and it all gets put down, and Mirkwood gets annihilated. You've got to think about these things!"
"Do you actually hear yourself when you speak? I'm not some Angmar, what was I supposed to do, make him disappear?" The glared at each other for a few moments, then she hopped down. "Look, if he thinks he knows where we're going, well and good for him. There's nothing we can do about it but try to get a good night's spying in. Okay? Or do you want to just turn around now and tell Tracie to forget the whole idea, and to tell Forest that he was right, and we should just trust to Linka and Awaren?" She was playing off his pride, she knew that. But it was the only thing she knew that could make him drop a conversation topic. By the look on his face, he knew exactly what she was doing, as well. Would he let it work? After a few moments, he backed down.
"All right. I'm sorry. There's nothing we can do about it. Let's go. We're wasting time." And she knew that was the best she'd get out of him.
They set off in silence, but it was not the companiable silence between herself and Tracie, but a stiff, unfriendly one that made her squirm uncomfortably. They hiked west, and she felt a stitch develop, but she knew better than complain. Finally, to her ultimate surprise, Legolas was the one to break the silence. She was pleased that he had gotten over a wounded ego so quickly.
"I'm sorry I was over-reacting back there. It wasn't your fault."
"Thanks. Apology accepted." A thought drifted up in her mind, perhaps prompted by Delaney. What if Legolas was so angry because he was...jealous? No. She needed to concentrate on the job at hand. But now that the ice was broken, they chatted in whispers while they walked, which was a million times better than the silence.
"What's the total so far of the Riders' forces?" She rummaged around in her pack. Pulling out a piece of parchment, she perused it hastily.
"Hm, two, four, six, seven...eight or nine hundred, give or take a few." Legolas looked slightly worried at the tally.
"And how many Elves do we have on our side?"
"Hm, two thousand? But they aren't ready for an attack, or anything. Armed, yes, good, you know it. But the Riders' ploy is working. They're lulling Awaren into a false sense of security."
"Hey, they haven't hoodwinked us, right? How about that? We'll do this somehow, Rose. Don't worry. I suppose it's too much to hope that Awaren sent out for reinforcements from Lorién?" She snorted derisively.
"Right, and Meira suddenly sprouted wings and flew to Mordor." He laughed at the mental picture.
"You're right. I thought so." They continued on, voices lowering ever so slightly as the night wore on, instinctively getting ready for imminent danger; Legolas fingered his bow, and she started checking her knives more and more frequently. Learning from her experiences with Tracie, she started checking for scouts earlier than she normally would have. Apparently, she hadn't been checking hard enough, because she nearly did an oh-so-attractive flip over Legolas' arm as he flung it out to stop her progress. He flung himself flat on the ground, and she followed suit. He pointed at a tree about a hundred yards in front of them. "Right there. Thank Valar for the full moon. Can you see him?" he hissed as quietly as he could. She squinted. Then, she had him. In the lower canopy of a stately oak, she saw the silhoutte of a Man crouched there, waiting. Legolas was right; if it hadn't been for the full moon, they might have missed him altogether. "Look for more. I'll take care of him." She obeyed, wondering if he could make the shot from that distance and this position. She slowly surveyed the surrounding forest, checking the ground and the treetops. There were two more, that she could see. She pointed them out.
"There, to the west, on the ground, and a couple yards to the east of the first fellow in the higher part of a sycamore."
"Gotcha. Are they looking this way, do you think?"
"Your guess is as good as mine." He looked thoughtful, then pulled out three arrows and stuck them point first into the ground next to him. Then he unshouldered his bow and strung it.
"I'll risk it. Hand them to me as I go, okay?" she nodded as he stood and quickly plucked the first one out of the soft earth. Aiming quickly, he shot and immediately grabbed the one she was holding out for him. Before the first sentry hit the ground, the second arrow was in the air, quickly followed by the third. Then, they were all down. "Are you sure there's no one else?" She nodded and stood.
"Pretty sure. Shall we?" He bowed, like he was holding a door for her.
"We shall. After you." She curtsied as best she could in a shirt and walked daintily forward. Using all the skill they had, they moved like shadows through the trees, always keeping an eye out for more sentries. This is living, she thought, out in the wild, one step ahead of the enemy...There was a shout to the left of them.
"Teldo! Hey, Teldo! What, are you sleeping on duty?" There was a flitting black figure who, in spite of his apparent stupidity in shouting aloud, knew his stealth lessons well, moving much to quickly and never pausing long enough for Legolas to get a shot in edgewise. Rose paled. Once the lone sentry figured out Teldo and his two companions were dead, their element of surprise was lost.
"I think you missed him," said Legolas dryly, breaking into a run. She followed. If they got close enough, she might just be able to run down the lone sentry and dispose of him. Trustworthy flashed out into her left hand. Legolas glanced back. "Put it up! You don't want him to see that he's got company, do you?" Defiantly, Diamondsong appeared in her right hand, as though conjured there.
"He'll know he's got company, if he doesn't already; the least we can do is come calling." The bravery in her ribald comment was lost on the Elf-prince, who merely sighed and pulled out his bow in one hand and an arrow in the other. As she caught up to him, she realized he was talking to himself.
"Come on, you, be still for one blest second, and I've got you..." He stopped suddenly, nocked his arrow quickly, and took a shot.
He missed by a fraction. It was so close, though, that it took a lock of hair off the shell-shocked man, who was clearly not expecting an attack. An idea gripped Delaney and she acted through Rose. She took out a homemade slingshot and groped around on the ground for some pebbles. Nothing of great killing power; more for confusion and discomfort than anything. Not even bothering to aim, she shot off three in quick succession, only one actually glancing a stinging blow on the poor guy's forehead. Completely bewildered, he drew a well-polished sword.
"Who's there? I'm warning you, I'll fight to the death!" Three more rocks; one bounced off his exposed blade. "If you're part o' an Elven army, y'll pay for the killin' of three Riders!" No response. The man wasn't too bright; any other soldier should have run for reinforcements. It would have been all too easy for Legolas to drop the idiot where he stood, but Rose wasn't quite ready to give up her fun. She pushed his bow down and gestured to his own slingshot.
"This should be amusing. Did you and Tracie have this trouble?" He sighed and pulled out his slingshot, better made than Rose's was.
"Some, but not nearly of this magnitude." Delaney gave an inward sigh.
"Well, I guess I'm just lucky like that. If he thinks there's an army, we will give him an army." Legolas gave a slow grin at that.
"Did I ever tell you that I love the way you think?" She didn't say anything, but merely grinned by way of reply. She had never heard a boy say the words 'I', 'love', and 'you' in the same sentence talking to her, even if it was sort of disjointed in her case.
The scout seemed relaxed, confidently thinking, perhaps, that he had frightened the 'army' away. He sheathed his sword, satisfied, and began to stroll back to camp, fabricating the story as he went.
"There were two score hidden in the woods, so I sez to Teldo, 'Teldo,' sez I, 'we must get into a circle, to have each other's backs!' I never knew I could think so well under pressure! Ol' Teldo saw sense in that, and so did Kili and Doderic. So we gets into a circle, and they rushed us! But I drew my sword and took down two, watching the others take them down as well. Then an Elf, a ferocious looking chappie, breaks away and comes at me with a sword as big as an orc's! I parried for me life and slew the feller, but the rest went down by a weasly little bowman. So I backs into a tree and takes down five more..." And on it went. He was so preoccupied with his imagined heroics that he took no notice of the two friends sitting half-concealed next to him.
"Can I please drop him? Stupid bloke; I couldn't miss from this range if I wanted to." She sighed in exasperation and stole his quiver.
"For the last time, weasly bowman, no. We need him to lead us to his camp! Then we have fun on a larger scale. Plus, it saves us the work of stumbling blindly through enemy territory." He stole the quiver back.
"Give me that, ferocious looking chappie! Enemy territory, my eye; we're still in Mirkwood!" She stood and started following the lone sentry, who was still wrapped up in his little fantasy land.
"Good. Care to raise your voice and test that theory? I know we just agreed to do a quick head count, but that doesn't mean we can't make life miserable for them." He looked annoyed, but lowered his voice anyway.
"Any other time I'd agree, but this soldier just grates on my nerves. Him, slaying how many is it now, thirty, thirty five?" He gave a snort at how plausible he though that was. "Ha! He couldn't slay his way to breakfast." She elbowed him sharply.
"That may be true, and that may not be true; let's not shout about it and find out, shall we?" He stopped, looking highly affronted.
"I'm whispering, not shouting! Honestly, I was quieter the first time, wasn't I? You women are so picky...ow!" She had stopped her progress, roughly elbowing him again as he began walking. However, he hadn't exactly been paying attention to the fact that she was no longer moving, and walked straight into her waiting elbow. She had gone along with it in the beginning, but now he was getting more annoying than the sentry. She whirled on him before he had a chance to complain yet again and started quietly berating him, prodding his chest with her finger to emphasize her point. Startled, he moved back every time she prodded him until he was backed up against a tree.
"Listen up, and listen hard. I have had it up to here," she made a slashing gesture at her throat, "with you keeping up a constant commentary every time that Man sneezes, and how he could have done it better. This isn't a daisy-chain outing; it's a bloody spying mission! Start acting like it, or you'll find how easy it is to have tragic accidents in the night woods!" He looked at her, amazed.
"Are you, Rosellyn Stillwater, actually threatening me?" She backed off slightly and flipped Trustworthy almost idly. Then, like chain lightening, it left her hand and landed with a thunk, embedded in the trunk about an inch above his left ear.
"No. I don't threaten. That's what we call a promise." He looked stunned and scared, an odd contortion of his handsome face, eyes still riveted on the dagger beside his head. She reached over and yanked it out, cleaning imaginary dirt off of the blade. "Does 'this woman' make her 'picky' self absolutely clear?" she asked. He nodded dazedly.
"Y-yes."
"Good. Then let's pick up the trail of our friend, shall we?" and she continued as if nothing had happened.
A/N: Yeah, I know, I left off in the middle. Bite me. You'll get the rest of the mission soon enough. I just like leaving you with a bit of a cliff-hanger. Plus, if I didn't break it up, this chapter would go on forever. Cheers!