Chapter I: To Wreck an Invasion
In a clearing in a forest of Old Gondor sat an army of ragtag soldiers. They bore the flag of the Fellowship, and today, they bore it with pride. In the night, their company had ambushed a nomadic tribe and utterly destroyed it. They had chained those who were not executed outright to one of their supply wagons. The attack had gone off without a hitch, and they were feeling invincible. Unfortunately for them, the attack had not gone unnoticed. And invincibility is never achieved for long.
At the edge of the forest, a young guard stood watch. He normally would have been concentrating very hard on his task, but the night's events continued to play through his head. Officer material, he had heard one of the Lieutenants say. He had been instrumental in the victory, leading his unit when their commander was killed, and his superiors had noticed. He beamed, too preoccupied to notice a shadow fall over him.
Celebdraug, an ancient Noldorian assassin, cast the shadow. She was nearly 7,000 years old in the ages of man, but could easily be mistaken for a girl in her early 20's. Pausing behind the guard, she blew her black hair out of her eyes. She nearly felt remorse for what she was about to do, but she recalled the sight of the same man slitting the throats of helpless captives the night before.
Her eyes narrowed, lighting red and beginning to swirl, as they always did when she was excited. She took one stride, silently bringing her over six and a half foot tall body inches from her target. Her left arm shot out with lightning speed, clamping over the guard's mouth. She pulled his head close to whisper in his ear as her right arm placed a vicious looking dagger on his throat.
"Not so fun on the other side, is it?"
With a jerk of her arm, she sliced the dagger across his neck. Her form melted back into the forest as the guard's body fell.
Across the clearing, seeing it as though standing right beside Celebdraug,
Mordae, another Noldorian elf and Celebdraug's cousin, watched the guard fall.
He stepped forward, bringing his seven-foot tall body, swathed in a black and green cloak, into the view of the soldiers that had run to investigate the guard's body. Before any of them could react, he brought his dragon-heartstring bow up, three arrows knocked and already pulled, and fired into the cluster of men. Every arrow found its mark, one of them punching through and into another soldier.
The group scattered, but Mordae fired again and again until they had all fallen to the hard ground.
Drawing her sword, Celebdraug met Mordae's eyes and she smiled. He returned her grin, drew his own sword, then charged headlong into the middle of the army's camp.
Celebdraug watched as her comrade met his opponents in the center of the front lines. She nearly laughed aloud at the futile efforts of the soldiers to kill her cousin. The two elves had been together so long that they worked as one, and when they were allowed to fight side by side, none could touch them.
Celebdraug looked to the captives, and the guards that were watching them. One by one, the guards headed off toward Mordae, until finally, they had nearly all left. That was her cue. A dagger in each hand, Celebdraug sprinted towards the captives as fast as a horse could run. She slowed as she neared, and then attacked. Drawing up alongside the prisoners and remaining guards, Celebdraug thrust the dagger in her left hand into the back of a guard. She released the dagger as he fell and, jumping, hurled the other into another guard's chest.
Drawing her two short swords in midair, Celebdraug adjusted to land on another soldier. She stabbed down with her left and slid her sword into the spot between his shoulder and his neck, and swung her right into another guard's stomach. Ducking the swing of another guard to her left, Celebdraug paused. She could see now that the chains holding the prisoners would be easily destroyed. She thrust her left hand up into the soldier's gut, and finished him with a slash from her right hand sword. Then, she reached down and took hold of the chain holding the prisoners. She ripped hard, and the chain snapped into pieces.
Leaping over the prisoner's heads, Celebdraug struck a soldier with her left fist as she pinned another to one of the supply wagons with her right-hand sword. There was a crack as the soldier she had punched crumpled to the ground, his head bent back impossibly far. Celebdraug spun to face the stunned prisoners and yelled to them. "Run!" They needed no further urging, and they scattered.
The soldiers battling Mordae wished with all they had that they could flee. Wielding a massive broadsword as though it was naught but a stick, he moved efficiently, his movements flowing together in a sort of gruesome dance, all the while dropping more and more soldiers to the ground.
Mordae brought his sword crashing down on a man to his right, neatly slicing him in half. Spinning, Mordae grabbed the sword arm of a man who was attempting to stab him in the back. He bent the man's arm behind him and without slowing, relieved the soldier of his head.
With a snap of his arm, Mordae whipped his sword in a circle, felling a half dozen more men. Turning his head, he saw a horde of archers racing toward Celebdraug. He set his jaw and with a cry, drove toward her, leaving a trail of broken bodies along his path.
Celebdraug drew her broadsword and crouched into a low defensive stance. The flames that were barely contained in her sword flashed even more violently in her eyes, causing the soldiers to back apprehensively away. Behind them, she could hear Mordae laying waste to the others. The now freed prisoners either fled or grabbed weapons of their own from slain soldiers to assist in the bloodbath.
Celebdraug's hypersensitive ears suddenly detected people running behind the supply wagons. She tensed as archers appeared atop and alongside the three wagons. Time seemed to slow as they drew and fired. Celebdraug spun and twisted, her elven reflexes allowing her to see, hear, and feel every dart shot at her.
She finished her complex dodge and whirled to face the archers. At the last second, her hand shot out and plucked from the air an arrow aimed straight for her head. Celebdraug hurled the arrow with all of her strength into the archer who had fired it, and he dropped, clutching his throat where it struck. Glaring into the eyes of the archers, Celebdraug prepared for the second volley. It never came.
Behind the archers, Mordae slid to a stop. Moving silently but swiftly, he sheathed his swords and grabbed the corner of a wagon with each hand. He inhaled, and then jerked up with all his might, flinging the two wagons into the other archers. There was a crash as the wagons collided with others and a huge cloud of dust and debris filled the air. With a smile, Mordae stepped into the swirling dust, sword drawn.
Sensing a flicker of movement, Mordae lashed out with his sword. He felt it connect and heard the man cry out and crash to the ground. He reached out with his mind and felt Celebdraug in front of him, hearing her sword ring as she slew the last remaining archers. In the center of the chaos, he could sense a small cluster of terrified soldiers. 'Fear is the greatest warrior in war,' he thought to himself as he began to charge.
Earendil, a soldier of the Fellowship, could practically feel the fear in his comrades. Just minutes before, they had been resting, about to embark on the final leg of their journey back to Minas Tirith. Then, all hell had broken loose and now he and his five unit mates were all that remained.
'Two enemies!' he thought. 'Why can we not kill two enemies?'
Suddenly, there was a flash of blue light directly in front of Earendil. Looking for the entire world like a demon from Udun itself, the giant charged through the dust, gleaming sword back at the ready. Just before he was removed from Middle Earth, Earendil noticed the lightning flashing on the giant's sword.
'Fire and light,' he mused. 'They do exist.'
Legends had it that a pair of warriors bearing two of the five elements would rise up and restore the elven kingdom to its full glory. As he raised up his sword in a feeble attempt to block the giant's swing, he decided that if he were to die in battle, he could not have thought of a more worthy opponent. He heard his sword shatter under the awesome blow, and then it was over.
There was a horrendous crash and sparks flew as Mordae's sword smashed through the center of the shaken group of soldiers. The men did not let out a sound; rather they simply collapsed, cleaved in two. In one smooth motion, Mordae sheathed his sword on his back. He peered through the dust, searching for Celebdraug.
"Warmed up yet?" he called.
An instant later, there was one final crash, one last scream cut short. Celebdraug's voice rose through the earthy veil.
"Bite me."
Mordae smiled, "I'll take that as a yes."
