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Chapter 2: Attack
If he hadn't been so worked up he would have noticed the tracks immediately, but in his current state of mind he hadn't even bothered looking out for them, even though he knew this area was often visited by the foul creatures. It was not that he had not been warned about them. He had heard his fa… Lord Elrond and his sons warning so many times that he would probably be able to recite it at any given time of the day, but he chose to ignore it nonetheless. Why would he care anyway, nothing really mattered anymore anyway.
Now as the young man slept on the ground in a small clearing, darkness surrounding him completely, the orcs began to creep out of the stinking holes they hid in during the day. They only came out at night time to hunt and even the stars seemed foul to them. To hunt was their main purpose for being here in the first place, and Aragorn was quite lucky to not have run into them already, but now it seemed his luck was used up.
The largest orc in the pack held up his hand, and the rest of them stopped dead in their tracks, having easily seen the hand, despite the darkness surrounding them. The foul beast sniffed into the air. To a human the cool evening air would have had nothing special about it, but to the orcs, designed to hunt, the evening breeze sweeping through the branches of the quiet trees brought with it the distinct scent of human flesh. "Man flesh" The larges orc leered sickeningly.
As soon as they had caught the scent it was not difficult for them to determine from which direction it came. And as soon as they knew that, they set of again, their pace considerably quickened. They headed directly for the clearing where Estel had fallen asleep.
When they came close enough to make out the human's form between the great roots of an oak tree they silently split up, to approach him from all sides, not intent on giving their pray even the slightest chance at escape. This one wouldn't be much trouble though, he was exhausted, they could tell by the way he smelled, and could probably not put up much of a fight. No reason to take the risk though, the orcs never took any risk unless they had to.
It was close to sunset and Legolas began to look for a tree in which to spend the night, it had to be a high tree and if the night was going to be comfortable even branched were to be preferred. Actually he didn't really want to camp down for the night, he would rather continue on, but he had promised his father that he would and, he did not give promises lightly. After he had begun looking it didn't take him long to find a tree that suited his purpose.
He climbed the tree lightly and sat down on one of the highest branched, close to the base of the tree. From here he could see the last rays of the sun paint the sky in a multitude of colours. It was breathtaking, even for an elf that had seen it a million times, this miracle of nature continued to amaze. He would never get tired of watching the sky, no matter what time of the day, it was always stunning.
While looking at this scenery Legolas pulled some dried fruit out of his pack and began eating slowly, while he watched the sun slowly creeping down under the horizon and at last plunge the world into the deep night and he watched the stars wake from their slumber and shine brighter and brighter on the night sky, penetrating the darkness.
This was truly the best way to end a day, Legolas thought contently and soon he fell into reverie as his spirit walked between the stars.
Sometime during the night he heard something not too far from where he was and he drew himself back to consciousness. As soon as he hit the surface he knew that it was orcs he had heard, they were running, but suddenly they stopped and one of them uttered one single word. Legolas could easily hear what the orc had said, and it made cold tendrils run down his spine. These orcs were hunting an apparently they had found a human prey. No one deserved to be devoured by these foul creatures. And so he got up from the branch and ran in the same direction as the orcs, towards the position of the sleeping human.
When all the orcs were positioned all the way around the clearing the largest orc gave sign to attack and just as he was about to charge, an arrow pierced his dark heart and he died immediately. The other orcs stopped for a fraction of a second, a bit put out without their leader, and while this indecision ruled among the orcs Legolas, for it was he who had killed the first orc and thus protected the human on the ground, shot his arrows in swift succession, killing an orc with each and every one of them. Unfortunately this indecision didn't hold for long and soon the orcs were again advancing on the human, making it harder for Legolas to protect him.
Legolas frowned; they were too many, especially if that man on the ground didn't wake up and give a hand in saving his own skin. How could he sleep in this chaos? Legolas wondered.
Suddenly the orcs turned away from the prince, as if listening out for something, and so did Legolas. For a moment everything seemed to have stilled completely, even the forest had ceased breathing, afraid to disturb the precarious balance that hung in the silent air. Then the world sped up to the rate as it had before, maybe even a little faster as if time wanted to compensate for the lost seconds, and the orcs ran away, while Legolas smiled. He had heard what approached that would chase the orcs away; An elven company!
Legolas jumped to the ground, assured that the other elves would arrive in a few seconds and that all danger had ceased, and he wanted to check the human for injuries.
Just outside the rim of the glade Estel lay in some of the orc scouts had been hiding during the entire battle, and now that their comrades had fled, they stayed still, looking at the elf approaching the man they had intended to kill. The orc closest to Legolas picked up a large stone. Turning it in its big, ugly hand it waited for the ideal moment, for the moment when the stone could be thrown in such a way as to kill the elf who had robbed them of their meal. If they could not have the human, then they could at least cause the one responsible as much pain as possible.
TBC
I know I'm evil, and I like it SO much eg´
R/R
