Red-Eyes:
Wanderer
Book One:
Chapter 3
Burk had finished eating soon after Shagrat left, so he and Nameless had gone back to the forges to finish their work.
"Boss! BOSS!"
Nameless looked up, not sure if they were addressing him. He recognized the two orcs who had been shouting to them as two of the orcs that worked for him, at the forge.
Nameless waited for the two orcs to come within conversation range. Burk stood to his left, should his human comrade need more concealing in the cultures of orcs. A small smile appeared on Nemeless's face, but he quickly turned it into a mocking sneer.
When the orcs got closer Nameless began to speak in a impatient tone that meant no nonsense. "What?! What is it that's so important you have to come running and screaming before I even come through the door?" The orcs were not hurt by this tone of voice. It was what they would expect from another orc. Burk had taught him that. Not that Nameless needed him to. That was just how Nameless talked.
The orcs did seem a little disturbed though.
Nameless rushed down through the lower levels of Minas Morgul, fallowed by Burk at the two orcs that had informed him earlier. When they finally reached the forges, Nameless slowed down to a swift walk, scowling and slightly frowning.
Normally the orcs would shout out a brief greeting to the master blacksmith that had been sent to teach them good forging skills, but this time they either ignored him, or watched on in silence and fear. From experiences they new a agitated commander, was a dangerous one. Even if it was only a human.
They finally reached the forge at which Nameless had worked at for the last two months. It was much bigger and well equipped that the others, do to his higher rank. Was anyway!
Red paint covered the iron and stone furnaced and molds. His tools had been broken or set into the furnace until they melted. The water basin was tipped over and...'My Work! My Work is gone! I was almost finished! Were does a whole days worth of work go?!'
Well, it wasn't all gone. Just enough so that he couldn't possibly make it all up before the end of the day, when their daily work was collected. Where the hell do you hind something likes this!
Burk and the other orcs stood back as Nameless took in the damage done. Nameless didn't have to say anything. It was quite obvious that he was funked! 100 Funked. And Shagrat the faggot was personally going to 'punish' Nameless. And the Easternlings who had done this new it too. Damn them all!
Burk turned on one of the orcs which had approached them with the news. "When did this happen?!"
"Soon after you left. The eastern dogs strolled in 'ere like they owns the place, starts shoving us abouts, headed right for the master's smithy." Answered the orc, Tep, Nameless thoughthis name was.
"And you just let 'em stroll in?! Why not just roll out the welcome matt? Don't want to be rude host now do we?!" Burk yelled.
"We didn't just let them in?!" "Then why didn't you stop them?!"
"Orders sir. Captian Shagrat says we have ta be civil to the foreigners 'cause they're 'elpin' us win this war. Not supposed to be frighten. And that was the only way they was leavin'." Tep answered calmly, but inside he was pissed! Damn them again!
Burk growled. Easterlings and Shagrat. This did not bode well for his Nameless lad, no it did not.
Nameless stood still a moment as the weight of the situation began to sink in. Nameless's clenched hands was the only sign. Burk, who was still arguing with Tep, felt movement behind him. He quickly looked about but Nameless was already gone. Burk growled,"Aaarrrgh! DAAAAAMN!!..."
Lee was a mercenary from the eastern lands of Middle-Earth. He and his comrades, as well as many, many other easternlings, had come to fight in honor of the great Lord Sauron, who fought alongside Morgoth, who the easternlings worshiped, against the Valar, at the beginning of Middle-Earth. Sauron had offered them many great riches and land as well as many other things of middle-earth as long as they fought for him and payed him tribute. It was a great honor to fight for him, even if it was along side orcs.
Currently Lee and his comrades sat around a fire, drinking and eating, waiting to be called to battle.
Around them were many tents and in them lay at least two to five easternlings. This area was closed off to orcs, to avoid any unnecessary trouble. Only the easternlings rested here. Of course there were other easternlings lying around Mordor, other than Lee and his comrades, but that wasn't the point!
They had just gotten back at that runt who called himself a master blacksmith and were reveling in the after glow of there deeds.
Lee's younger brother, Manta, and two of his friends had stood watch at the entrance to the forges. They had waited for the nameless runt to leave, then had rushed back to tell Lee.
Lee had wasted no time. Gathering five other eastenling, plus his brother and the two, they had strutted in. The orcs paid them no mind, thinking they were there for some repair to their weapons or armor or something like that.
"You there," Lee said to a orc who was talking to another about smothing or another," were is the head blacksmith's forge?" The orc pointed off to his right then resumed his conversation with the other blacksmith.
"How can I tell which one is his?" The orcs again stopped their conversation but this time their attention was fully on Lee and his comrades.After all, why would nine easternlings need to see one blacksmith, even if he was the head blacksmith?
"The boss ain't in now. 'E left not half the hour ago. Come back some other time. Or maybe some one else around 'ere will look at what ever it is you needs takin' care of." Said the orc.
"No, I'm not looking for the head blacksmith, I'm just looking for his forge." That had done it. But before either of the orcs could move, four of his comrades had grabbed the second orc while Manta and another easternling grabbed the orc Lee had been speaking with. Manta twisted the orcs arm into a very uncomfortable position.
"Now blacksmith," Lee said getting close up to the orcs face, not bothered by the smell of him," I know that you have a certain quota that you are required to fill everyday. However," Manta applied more pressure to the shoulder," that may prove difficult with a dislocated, or even broken arm. So, where can I find the forge of the head blacksmith?"
Lee and his comrades had found it easily enough. The swords and armors and spears and every other weapon the boy had made had been placed in four locked and chained iron boxes, ready to be placed on the wagons and delivered to wherever it was they needed to be. They was rectangular, about eight feet long, three feet wide, and two feet high. A easternling pick up a near by coal shovel and broke open the locks. Three were full but one was only half full. They were expected to fill each of these each day. Lee and the other easternlings decided to take one of the full ones.
"Hey! Hey! What do you think your doin'?! That there's the bosses! Get away from there you eastern rats! Get I say!" An orc who had been working close by had shouted at them. At this, many other orcs had turned to see what they were doing. Some of them put down there work and were approaching them. This could easily become a dangerous situation. They may not have been as competitive as their soldier-orc brethren, but they were still violent, primitive orcs, and they would stop everything to fight off any threat they may think exist, orders or no.
The first one to reach them was the one that had shouted at them. Lee took over from here. Lee pushed the orc back with all his might. The orc was sent flying into another orc. "Tep!" the orc that had caught him said.
"This is none of your buisness! Get back to work! You all still have quotas to fill! And if their not done I am personally going to see to the punishment from my friend captain Shagrat." That had sent a hush all around. The orc that had approached them got up and spoke. "We don't answer to Shagrat! We're not soldiers! We're blacksmith. We answer to the head blacksmith!"
This encouraged the orcs some. "Yes but the head blacksmith answers to Shagrat. It wouldn't be to hard for him to get permission to punish a few lazy blacksmiths if he felt the head blacksmith was being to lenient." Lee sneered. That had done it. The orcs began to look about, seeing if anyone had the nerve to step up. The orc who had mouthed off looked like he wanted to say something, but another orc put a hand on his shoulder. "C'mon, Tep," the orc whispered," C'mon!"
Lee smirked. Then his face went stone like. "Lets take one of these and get out of here!"
They had trashed the place then left quickly.
"Whoa! Careful now Manta!" Said one of the easternling in their native tongue. Lee looked up to see his younger brother Manta trying to wield one of the heavy uruk-hai swords they had stolen. But Manta, although used to wielding the heavy metal that made up the eastern weapons, he was not used to the width, height, and weight of the orcish weapons. Point proven when Manta tried to swing the heavy weapon and nearly fell backwards. He hoped backwards on one foot while the other eastenlings laughed. He finally lost balance and fell flat on his ass, but managed to keep the weapon straight up and steady. The easternlings laughed harder. Manta growled low. The laughter died down some but they still smirked at Manta. Lee smirked at his little brother who looked slightly abashed.
"Lee, what are we going to do with those weapons? Are we just going to leave them in the grown? With all do respect, that does not seem like a very wise decision." Said Ren, taking the attention off Manta.
"For now. I was thinking that maybe, when we get the chance we'd smuggle them out with the rest when a call to arms go's up. Or maybe get them delivered to another post in Mordor. Untill then we leave them buried."
But he was probably right. They had buried the box and most of it's contents after they had taken what little they could want. Mostly taken out of curiosity. There had been no time to really get a look at any of what they had stolen, so they had just taken a few things to examine and quickly but carefully buried the rest. If they were caught with what they had stolen, it wouldn't be to hard to prove the runts story about the easernlings who had it out for him. Even if Shagrat was a personal friend of Lee's, he would not over look the absence of the much needed weapons. At least not when there was proof to prove the story true. But the chance to 'punish' the red eyed boy, was enough motivation for him to ignore the eye witness testimonies of any orcs or uruks who dare to speak for their 'boss' as they put it. Even if that was the entire smithy!
Lee fidgeted with the spot were his left ear used to be before that brat had torn it off! Didn't even use a knife! Just grabbed hold and pulled!
A week ago...
Lee VS. The Red-Eyed Boy
Lee charged at his sparring parner for the day, Shizuma. They were practicing their swordplay that day. Lee attacked Shizuma's flank but it was blocked. Shizuma counter attacked to Lee's head, and Lee just barely managed to dodge by leaping backwards. Lee rose from his crouch, but did not quite stand up straight, keeping his knees bent. Shizuma did the same. They starred each other down a moment, both panting. They attacked simultaneously!
Shizuma gave a kia that sounded like ," WEEZ!!..." and aimed for the head.
Lee made a perfect block then countered to the head as well,"MEN!!.."
Lee had won the spar.
Shizuma took off his protective head gear as did Lee. The saluted and bowed to each other.
"Thank you for the match." they said together. As they walked off to make room for the next sparring partners that day, Shizuma looked to him with a grin and said in their native tongue," Perfect as always Lee."
"Yes I am." He replied with his own grin. Shizuma chuckled,"I meant your sparring and you know it." "Do I?" "Hmph!" They both grinned.
Lee like sparring with Shizuma because he always had something new for him. Shizuma was one of those people who was always improving. But Lee didn't need to improve his techniques. They were textbook perfect! Everyone said so, and it was true. "Ah, look," Shizuma said looking behind Lee,"here comes your groupies."
Lee looked behind him to see some of his comrades heading towards him, lead by his younger brother. "Shizuma! Watch your tongue. That was disrespectful." But Lee's voice wasn't very stern. "What? Its true. You know it." And Lee did know it. And silently he loved it. A little more than a disciplined soldier should allow himself, but he would not admit that to himself. Lee smiled and welcomed it.
"Great job Lee!" said Manta as the others formed a circle around him. A circle Shizuma was carful to avoid. "You won again. Your movements were perfect! Beautiful even."
"You were watching huh? Have you been practicing as well?"
Ren answered for him. "Yes, and he did very well." Manta grinned.
The next sparring couple was ready to start so Lee and the others sat on the side lines and watched. Lee looked around and saw Shizuma drying the sweat from his long hair. Lee frowned. It looked like Shizuma was talking to someone but Lee couldn't see who. Other easternlings who had come to watch the sparring were blocking his vision of the person, so it just looked like Shizuma was talking to the shadows on the red tent in front of him. For some reason this bothered Lee.
Lee got up to change his angle so he could see who it was Shizuma was talking to.
It looked like Shizuma was talking to a orc! But why? It didn't matter, orcs weren't allowed over here, it was a danger to the peace. Lee moved to go correct this error. Manta noticed, as all siblings are always aware of their siblings whereabouts and what they are doing, as often and as much as they can. Manta got up and followed his brother. Ren and a few others did the same.
Shizuma looked up, sensing Lee coming. He seemed pretty relaxed, as always. Shizuma was pretty laid back, but fought like a wild animal!
"Shizuma!" Lee called." What are you doing? Who is this?" He changed to the common tongue and turned on the orc,"You! Don't you know tha-" Red was his next thought. The creature that moved out from the shadows was not an orc but a human. A human boy, younger than even Manta he suspected. Or at least it looked human, but had red eyes! It was also very small. Not even five feet! He was rather pretty, but also ominous looking! Like a bad omen.
"Well, not that its any of your concern, but I'm here on business with him," He tilted his head towards Shizuma briefly. Lee was surprised at the depth of the mocking, sarcastic voice. The child looked about twelve to fifteen, but his voice had clearly matured.
"What sort of business?" Lee asked.
"Why should I tell you?" The child replied.
"Just who are you?" Lee asked.
"I could ask you the same question?"
"I asked you first."
"So, is that supposed to mean something to me?"
"Look, your on my camp-" "Your camp? Look around you, fool! Your in Mordor. Everything here belongs to Sauron." The child crossed his arms over his chest.
How dare he! Arrogant punk! "What is your name?"
"What is yours? Are you a officer here?"
"This is my older brother Lee." said Manta," He is one of the best fighters we have!"
"Hn, still not an officer. Just another grunt."
Arrogant asshole.
The boy walked up to Shizuma. "Here. Its ready. Take care of it. Put it to good use." He said and handed Shizuma a long object wrapped in a black clothe, which he had carried on his back. "I will. Thank you." Shizuma took the object and removed the cloth. It was a katanna! The wood and wax sheath was a royal blue. The wrappings around the handle and the top of the sheath was yellow flecked with blue. Now Shizuma had everyone's attention. He really wasn't sure he liked that, but they were all curios so he indulged them. He pulled the blade from its sheath and held it up so he could admire it. Then a little higher so others could see as well. It was beautiful. The wave in the metal showed it was a fine piece of work. One of the very best. But where the hell did he get the material for it? Mordor was one great big iron mine! Or so Lee had been told.
"Hey, why does Shizuma get the good sword?!" Someone asked rather loudly.
"Because he paid for it." The boy said.
Lee looked at the blade. It was certainly better than the dulling one he had now. And the best worrier should have the best weapon, shouldn't he? Of course. In the eastern parts of Middle-Earth, such good metals were rare. This made good swords almost impossible to make, find, or buy. Lee approached the boy.
"Boy, who made that sword? Was it your master?"
The boy turned his red eyes on Lee but otherwise did not move. "I have no master. I made the sword. I am the head blacksmith here in Minas Morgul."
"You lia! You are only a boy! How could you possibley-?"
The boy just shrugged,"This is Mordor."
Fine! Lee calmed down. "Fine then. How much would it cost to get you to make a sword better than the one you made for Shizuma?"
The boy looked at him ?! How dare he!
"I charged him 3 gold pieces and a silver. For a better one I would charge 5 gold pieces. And I don't haggle!"
"That is a awful lot of money. But I think I can pay it."
"Save your money. I wouldn't make one for you anyway."
"What?! Why not?"
"Because I've seen your sparring. And if you fight like you spar, then I would never put one of my weapons in your incapable hands."
"INCAPABLE!?! What are you talking about?! My technique is perfect! I am the best swordsman here! I am far better than Shizuma!"
"Well, that's a matter of opinion."
Lee's face went stoney. He approached the boy. He bent at the waist to get in the boys face. "What is you name boy?"
"I thought we'd been over this. Your not an officer, I don't have to give you a name. But if you want to tell me yours?"
"It's Lee. My name is Lee." Lee stood up tall."Do you know swordplay?"
"If I do?"
"I would like to challenge you to a sparring match."
The boy smirked. "Hn, I accept. Do you have any practice weapons I may use?"
"Yes, but I'm afraid we don't have any gear in your size."
"That's alright, we won't need it. You don't mind do you?" That was of course against the rules, and Lee would get in trouble if one of the officers caught him, but he was not going to back out. They would resolve this here and now. "Follow me." The boy did and so did everyone else.
Lee and the red eyed boy faced each other on the round arena outlined with white chalk. Neither wore any protective armor. Just sweats and T-shirts. They stared each other down with blank, emotionless masks. They stood six feet away from each other. In there hands each held a wooden sword. Lee had chosen the style which imitated the katanna, while the boy had chosen the one that was similar to the tai-chi style.
Lee got down into a crouch, gripping the katanna firmly but not hard, to make movement easer. The boy held his wooden practice sword in one hand, placed his left foot behind him and bent at the knees. A rather loose stance.
Still cocky. Little brat! How dare he speak so disrespectfully to him! And in public! When this area was reserved for the easternlings, who fought in honor of the dark lord Sauron! Disrespect to the easternlings was disrespect to Lord Sauron! And that was punishable by death!
The boy leapt forward in what was sometimes called 'flunge'(1), still air borne, the boy placed a hand on the grown and pushed off with it. Lee was to shocked to block! The boy slammed his body and the hilt of his wooden sword into Lee's gut. Lee went flying backwards but had the common sense to do a one handed flip and righted himself. The boy was already in Lees face! Lee subconsciously followed the movement of the boys chest and managed to block the blow to his head. Lee countered to the boys head who countered and attacked Lee's head again. They repeated this over and over again, waiting for the other to slip up. They crowed watched on in respectful silence, with the exception of whispers and occasional cheer of encouragement. Lee couldn't understand the cheers but just knowing that he had their support made him feel much better.
The boy was good, not letting up. And the blows were hard. He couldn't possible keep this up. Lee's technique was perfect. They repeated the action for the forth time. The boy was either going to attack his one of sides or faint a attack there and return to the head.
Lee attacked the boy's head, who parried and fainted to Lee's flank, then pulled the weapon up and forward. Lee made a head parry but didn't feel the weapon contact. Instead he felt pain shoot through his neck, but he was to stunned to really pay it any mind. Then he couldn't breath! He almost panicked trying to get air to his lungs. His vision grayed but came back to him. The boy leapt back a foot to give Lee some room to breath.
Lee glared getting angry but quickly pushed his emotions aside. Gotta stay cool. The brat had gone around the parry and struck the crook of his neck! That bastard!
Lee steadied his breathing and took up a stance. The boy did as well, getting more Sirius. This time Lee decided to be more aggressive. The boy certainly was. Perhaps Lee could make him uneasy by putting him on the defensive.
Lee attacked then, lounging at the boy, who parried the blow to his flank but didn't have time to block the one to his left as Lee redoubled. There was an audible 'THRWEACK!!'. The boy winced and flipped backwards. He was up in an instant and Lee was on him. Lee attacked the legs, the torso, the head, the mid-section, anywhere he could get. The boy had some trouble parrying at first, so Lee strategy had worked for a time but the boy was fast and his parries strong, and soon he was blocking Lee's attacks without a problem. But he couldn't keep this pace up for long. Neither of them could.
Then the boy surprised Lee again buy making a very wide (2)omni-parry. This was not proper fencing! The boy caught Lee's wooden sword in the wide swing, and forced it off to the right. Lee lost his grip with his left hand but held on to the substitute weapon with his right. The red eyed boy hit Lee's wrist with his open palm. The weapon went flying out of the ring. Lee was shocked but had enough sense to leap backwards. But the boy followed him and delivered a kick to Lee's stomach. Lee, who was still air borne from the backwards jump, was sent flying a even higher. The boy leapt up in the air, and delivered a downward cut with the wooden sword. Lee hit the ground half in the ring half out.
The boy landed and came up to Lee's side. Lee tried to get up when the boy kicked him in the side, hard enough to roll him the rest of the way out of the ring. The boy smirked at Lee.
A few moments ago he would have smacked that smirk right off! But he had just gotten his ass handed to him and Lee didn't have enough spirit left to get that angry.
"Your right. Your technique is perfect. Too perfect in fact! You don't leave any room for improvement or to improvise."
Some one yelled in Lee's native langue, "What in Morgoth's name is going on here?!"
The boy looked to see who it was. Lee didn't need to see who it was. He was in trouble now. Lee closed his eyes but stayed where he was. He was tired and humiliated. He wasn't sure what he should do, but he could here Commander Ryoko approaching.
To Be Continued...
To the reader of the fic:
Good lord almighty! This fic turned out a lot longer than I expected!
And the time line! Man, even I don't know how I'm going to work this out but I will do the best I can.
(1) Flunge a flying lunge. Another rather usual, effective, but sloppy move. Like the omni-parry.
(2) Omni-parry a rather unusual move. Basically a wide parry that covers the whole body in a wide circle.
ATTENTION BETAS!!: I'm looking for any volunteer betas. So if you know one and would like to help improve this fic, please leave it in your review with you e-mail and I will get back to you.
Again I am open to opinions. It really is a inspiration to receive reviews. Good or bad. Well this thing is too long as it is so I'm just going to cut this short.
I get my info from The Lord of the Rings : Weapons and Warfare by Christopher Lee. But I'm going to manipulate a few things later in this fic.
Later, same bat time, same bat channel.
-Sneere
Dec. 27, 2004
