Several hours later, Estel slowly started to come around. At first all that he was aware of was the intense pain in his chest and head. As his head started to clear somewhat, he realized that he was even colder now than he had been just a few minutes ago and was shivering violently. When Estel looked at the sky though, he realized it was dark. "Oh, no," Estel thought despairingly. It had been midmorning when he had attempted to cross the river, and now it was late at night. How late it was, he could not tell, but it was late enough to be especially cold to the young human who was already injured and ill. Estel sighed and thought back on how he had gotten into this position in the first place.
Flashback:
Estel was in very high spirits. Only five days ago he had completed his first tour of duty with the rangers and was currently on his way back to his home in Imladris. He looked around and noticed that it was starting to get dark and decided to look for shelter, as he knew that orcs often roamed these woods at night. After a little while of searching, he found a small cave that was partially covered by bushes, with many trees nearby.
Hopping off his horse, he grabbed his supplies and then led his horse to the trees and told his faithful steed to stay concealed there for the night. The horse whinnied softly and nudged the man playfully. Estel could only laugh at the behavior of his horse and went to scout out the cave he had found.
After checking to make sure it wasn't being used by a wild animal, or had been previously used by orcs, Estel settled down for the night but didn't go to sleep. He would not sleep this night with orcs being known for patrolling the area.
Two hours later, Estel heard the groaning of the earth under many feet and knew that the orcs were coming. Crouching down lower as not to be seen, Estel watched as a particularly large band of orcs passed right by his cave.
When the orcs had finally passed by with out them noticing the hidden young man, Estel sighed in relief.
Suddenly though, a feeling of dread washed over him. As the hairs on the back of his neck rose, he knew that something was watching him from behind him. Something full of malice towards him. "How is that possible though? I scouted the cave completely and there was nothing there," Estel thought nervously. He quickly turned around while drawing his sword.
It was this one quick move that saved his life as a sharp singer came rushing at him. Estel swore softly when he saw that he was dealing with a spider that appeared to be of Mirkwood descent. What it was doing this far from Mirkwood was disturbing, but he could not be bothered to think on it then.
The spider gave a great screech when its prey escaped from the surprise attack and continued to make loud noises. Estel cringed at the noise. He knew that the orcs weren't far off, and that they would come to investigate it. Estel had to kill the spider, and quickly before the orcs came.
As the spider once again aimed for Estel with the stinger, he used those precious few seconds to dive underneath the exposed belly of the spider. He thrust his sword up and into the belly of the spider. Estel gave a silent curse when he saw that the spider had landed on his supplies, and that he didn't have the time to spare to move the spider to get to them. Already he could hear the black speech and the heavy footsteps of the orcs.
Estel turned away from the cave and ran the opposite way from where the orcs were coming from, all the while whistling for Star to come.
When Star didn't appear, Estel knew that either the spider or the orcs had gotten to her and felt a brief moment of grief for his loyal horse.
All thoughts of grief for Star however were pushed aside, however, when he saw the orcs were about to fire upon him.
Estel cursed again and dove to the ground, just as poisoned orc arrows flew by him. Quickly gathering his own bow and arrow, Estel shot as many of the orcs as he could until they got too close for him to use the bow.
Estel had been able to kill a fair number of them but there were still many left. He unsheathed his sword and echoed a battle cry and headed strait for the party of orcs. For a moment, the orcs were confused that their quarry was running towards them instead of away, but overcame their shock moments later when Estel had quickly killed five orcs, using his unexpected move for his advangtage.
The orcs charged him very quickly, but he was ducking, parrying, and thrusting his sword into any orc that was within his visual range. He had been doing very well considering the forces that were against him, but when he was busy fighting three very large orcs at once, he failed to notice one moving towards him. At the last second, he sensed the orc's evil presence, and twisted his body. The crude orc knife missed his back, which had been the original target, but cut Estel's leg very badly.
Estel nearly stumbled from the pain and blood loss, but held on until there were no more orcs left alive. Once he was sure of that fact, he allowed himself to sink down to the ground in exhaustion and pain. Hazily, he realized he was suffering from blood loss and automatically reached fro his pack of healing supplies.
When he didn't feel his pack, the memories of the fight with the spider suddenly came back to him, along with the realization that the spider had landed on his medicine pack. Cursing softly, Estel tore some of his cloak off and tied it around the wound in order to stop the bleeding. Estel looked around in order to see if there were any herbs when he suddenly realized that he was wet and it was raining.
He groaned in despair. Now not only had he fought with a spider and orcs and had gotten injured, but his horse had run off, his supplies were crushed, and it was raining, which meant that even if he could find any herbs, he wouldn't be able to use them due to the rain. Cursing again, he slowly raised himself up from the ground and proceeded to limp toward the direction of his home.