Orcish Revenge
Chapter 9 - Questions

Legolas walked slowly back towards Gimli and the hobbits. He carried Glorfindel's sword in his cold hands. He stared into the blade, the writing carved in its hilt. He stopped at the foot of the hill and wiped his eyes. He knelt down and wiped the blood off the sword. The moist, green grass seemed to die as Hindike's blood touched it. Legolas stood again looking at the cleaned blade. He could see more writing, but the blood had entered the cracks. He ran back to the stream and washed the sword further. He dried it with his sleave and held it up in the moonlight. The sword glowed with hundreds of colours. He walked slowly back to the willow tree. He collapsed next to Glorfindel's bleeding body. But some things didn't fit. He searched his clothes for any reason why he should be here, in Gondor at a time like this.

A small piece of parchment fell onto the soft grass. Legolas picked it up and opened it carefully. It simply read;

Entwash. Setting of rhîw. Save them.
 Elrond

Legolas shivered in the cold as he pondered this. This surely asked more questions than it could possibly answer. How did the letter get to Middle-Earth? What else had Elrond seen? How long ago had Glorfindel received this message?

Gimli walked slowly down the hill. He squinted in the dark to find Legolas. He followed the stream up to the willow. He stood back as Legolas knelt and shivered, reading the letter over and over.

At last Legolas stood. He had no idea how much time had passed, and he was yet to come to any conclusions. He didn't turn when he spoke to Gimli 'There are too many of the pieces missing. I can only guess how this happened.'

'How what happened?' Gimli asked, walking to Legolas' side. Legolas gave Gimli the letter from Elrond. Gimli read it carefully and thought for a while.

'I don't understand' He sighed, 'How…'

'How did the letter get to Glorfindel' Legolas shivered.

'Perhaps someone brought it from the Undying Lands…' Gimli whispered, only half believing his own words.

Legolas turned quickly. 'No one returns from the Undying Lands!'

Gimli looked up at his friend's face. 'Perhaps that no longer reigns true'.

Legolas glared at Gimli for a moment, think how anyone could leave the Undying Lands. Then he saw truth in his words. 'Perhaps' he said, 'perhaps'.

Gimli thought for a while, stroking his beard 'So who is that has carried this message?'

'I do not know. We shall have to wait and see.' Legolas sighed.

They walked slowly back to the horses and the hobbits in silence. The hobbits had fallen asleep on the horses where Gimli had left them. Gimli mounted behind Merry and waited for Legolas. Legolas stood above Hindike's body. Hatred filling his body. The blood pulsed in his ears again. He picked up his broken swords. He stared once more at the body. Then, with all his might, he drove his swords into his body. He strode to the horse and drew out some dried bread. He sprinkled the crumbs over the body.

He walked once more back to his horse and jumped behind Pippin. He glared once more at the body and said scornfully; 'Let he carrion birds tear him apart!' and then added under his breath; 'If they will have him' then he rode off into the darkness, leaving Hindike to the birds.

They rode for many hours, stopping only once at a stream to let the horses drink. They rode until dawn, rested an hour and rode again. To them it seemed that they were going slower than before, as though their heavy hearts weighed them down. They had travelled nearly as much as before the attack, they should have arrived at their destination hours ago.

Legolas called them to a stop as they reached a large hill. He dismounted and gave each of them food.

'Why have we stopped?' Pippin asked.

'So we can eat in the shade. The horses are tired. We have been travelling longer than expected' Legolas said giving the horses some water.

Pippin looked at Merry with a worried face. 'Are we lost?'

Legolas looked up from the horse and smiled. 'No, we're not lost'

'How much further?' Merry asked, relief encroaching upon his features.

'Very little' Gimli smiled.

'Fine. As long as we're almost there, I suppo…' Merry started.

'Quiet!' Legolas whispered.

'What? I can't…' Pippin started to say, quite loudly. Merry's hand snapped across Pippin's mouth.

Legolas reach for his bow. Gimli raised his axe. Hoof beats echoed all around them. Soon the ground shook. Pippin grabbed his sword and gave Merry his. Legolas pulled the arrow back on his bowstring. The hoof beats stopped suddenly. They heard voices over the hill, and horses snorting. Then they heard hoof beats again, but this time it seemed to be only of one horse.

A single rider emerged over the hill, sword drawn. He saw the Elf and his bow and fell off his horse. They watched with some slight amusement as he rolled down the hill. Then they heard laughter from the top of the hill. Nine young men sat on their white horses, watching the tenth roll down.

One of them called out mockingly 'Oh no! Liam has been captured by the evil elf! We must call for reinforcements!'

Another shouted 'Quickly! Over the hill, the eight foot dwarf of Middle-Earth has pulled Liam from his horse!'

They all laughed heartily as Liam looked up at them with a dark look. He turned to Legolas and spoke softly 'Sorry about them. They're not so bad, they just like a joke or two' as he said this, a boot flew down and hit him on the head. Followed by another outburst of laughter.

Legolas fought hard to keep a straight face. The others didn't bother. They chuckled at the scene that presented itself infront of them.

Legolas looked hard at Liam. He was considerably younger than the others, a child even. He had short, light brown hair and light blue eyes. His horse trotted down to him. It was also different; it was dark brown rather than white.

Liam jumped up onto his horse. As soon as he was seated another boot struck him. Followed by another chorus of laughter. Legolas felt pity for him, and now realising that the others had called him evil, and were now talking about pointy ears, Legolas glared at the riders on top of the hill.

They looked at him and laughed, saying 'Oh no! Now the evil elf is mad!'

Legolas whipped another arrow onto his bow and pulled it taut. The riders stopped laughing.

'Ha… Maybe… Ah, we'll be going now…' One stuttered nervously.

Legolas didn't react.

'Ok… Come on… ah, Liam!' Another squeaked.

Liam looked at Legolas and then looked at the rider who'd spoken

'No. He's staying with us' Legolas said, his face unchanging.

'Of course! Wh… why not!' the rider said backing away. Soon all the riders had left the hill.

'I am Legolas' he said putting the arrow in his quiver and offering is hand to Liam. Liam nodded taking his hand. He gapped at Legolas, wide eyed. He had clearly not met an elf before.

'This is Gimli the Dwarf' He said gesturing towards Gimli 'And Merry and Pippin. Hobbits' Legolas said picking the two hobbits up off the ground and giving them a sharp glance that silenced their chuckles.

'Yes, I know what they are. I have met one already, just yesterday', Liam smiled, shaking their hands.

'What?' Pippin said dropping his sheathed sword on Merry's foot. Merry pushed Pippin and grabbed his foot. Pippin fell on the ground with a grunt.

'I… I said I had met a hobbit' Liam said sheepishly, helping Pippin up.

'Did you catch his name, by any chance?' Gimli asked eagerly.

'Um… I think it was, um… Sam' Liam said pondering hard over this question.

They all sighed with relief.

'Where? Where'd did you see him?' Pippin asked.

'Minas Tirith' Liam replied.

'Quickly then, we must ride to Minas Tirith!' Legolas said jumping on his horse. They all mounted quickly and rode up the hill.

As they reached the top they saw Minas Tirith, towering majestically on the mountain's side. They rode down the other the side of the hill and towards the great white city.

Revised version - Some slight additions and modifications, fixed spelling and grammar etc. No changes to the story, just an improvement on the writing.