The Balrog Slayer Rides Again

Chapter 8

Glorfindel's enemy spun around and reached for his sword. He had somehow managed to knock Glorfindel's dagger out of his hand. Suddenly, the hooded man laughed.

Glorfindel, distracted, paused. The laugh was familiar. It was soft but hearty.

"Estel! Why you little rat!"

Aragorn pulled down his hood and smiled. "What are you doing here?"

"Looking for you and the missing Hobbits! Do you know how dangerous it is out here?"

Aragorn's face turned solemn. "These are dark days."

"It looks like, instead of me finding you, you have found me." Glorfindel raised his eyebrows.

Aragorn laughed. "Don't do that. It makes you look just like Adar."

Glorfindel mock-glared and immediately lowered his eyebrows.

"I felt something dark roaming the forest, so I left the Hobbits to scout the area. I saw a small orc party roaming these trees, and I was hoping to take them by surprise. Unfortunately, I just saw what appears to be a much larger band moving this way. I was heading back to our camp when I heard something. It sounded like a muffled scream."

Glorfindel grimaced, but made no comment.

Aragorn gave him a questioning glance, but continued. "I didn't see who it was, so I waited here, hoping to see something." His eyes glinted playfully as he mockingly said, "I hope I didn't hurt you."

"On the contrary. I'd be all to glad to do it again and give you the beating you deserve."

Aragorn stiffened a second before Glorfindel heard it.

"Yrch." Glorfindel growled.

"Vala-" Glorfindel knocked Aragorn in the head.

"Your adar would be appalled." He sent him a stern glance, only broken when Aragorn muttered something.

"It's your fault."

"Why you -" He glanced around. "Now is not the time to argue with your elders."

He quickly filed through his options. He heard the orcs coming closer. There was no chance to run.

He glanced towards the trees and hoped Aragorn would follow him. He figured the ranger had already anticipated the same thing. He just hoped an ambush would work.

"Why is it that trouble follows you like a magnet?" Glorfindel muttered to Aragorn. He glared at Glorfindel while he perched on a limb in the tree next to him.

He mouthed, "It's not my fault!" This brought a smile to both their faces as they remembered childhood days. It was always Estel's fault, or so the twins always said.

Glorfindel heard them get louder and louder, until he could smell them. It took only a few minutes for them to enter the clearing.

They were a large party of perhaps forty, and Glorfindel knew the odds were against them.

He heard one order a halt, and they began to search the area. So, the orcs knew they were here. It wasn't surprising, given their attuned sense of smell, but Glorfindel had hoped to take them by surprise.

He signaled for Aragorn to take the first shot. The ranger shot the captain square in the neck, killing him instantly.

The orcs were instantly on their guard, and Glorfindel and Aragorn took their next shots as quickly as possible. The orcs had probably already figured out where their enemies were located, and Glorfindel planned to wreak as much havoc on them as possible in the short amount of time they had.

"In the trees!" He heard an orc bellow. This brought enemy fire near his vicinity. He darted to another tree, hoping to fire a few more arrows before turning to hand-to-hand combat.

He noted that between the two of them, Glorfindel and Aragorn had slain fifteen orcs with arrows. He shot two more and dropped to the ground.

The orcs couldn't fire arrows at him, but he noted that a few were still firing in the trees. He realized that Aragorn was still in the trees.

He was outnumbered ten to one. He needed help fast. Unfortunately, Aragorn was still in the trees.

He dodged a blow and ducked, his back nearly pressed against a tree.

Aragorn leapt down from the tree, and he saw that Aragorn was hardly in a better position.

He parried another blow, and forcefully went on the offensive, striking a few orcs. One of them fell to the ground, motionless. A few others snarled in pain, distracted. Glorfindel took his chance and stabbed a orc quickly. He whirled around, deflecting another blow.

He was slightly worried now. He saw Aragorn wasn't faring very well, either.

Glorfindel hadn't wanted to drag Asfaloth into this, but there was little hope of escaping with such odds against them.

He dodged a strike, and then spun around to kill the offending orc.

He whistled.

Asfaloth galloped into the fray, distracting half the orcs. It was Glorfindel's chance to turn the odds around.

Strike, deflect, dodge, attack.

Glorfindel saw a small group of perhaps a dozen fleeing from the group. Aragorn chased after the swiftly disappearing group, leaving Glorfindel to finish the job.

There were only a few orcs left; four were trying to face down Glorfindel and three others were provoking Asfaloth.

Glorfindel was fighting hard, but somehow he just couldn't breach any of their defenses. He heard a whinny, and saw that Asfaloth had been hurt. This seemed to encourage the orcs fighting Glorfindel, but he recovered from the split-second distraction faster than they did.

There was only one to go when Asfaloth had trampled all of his tormentors.

The last orc had a challenge in his eyes, but he was no match against Glorfindel. With a quick sweep of his sword, the last orc was down.

He saw that Aragorn was nowhere in sight, and this troubled Glorfindel, but there was little he could do at the moment.

He noticed that Asfaloth was bleeding. Concerned, he murmured soothingly, and quicklyscouted the areato get something to clean it with.

If only Aragorn hadn't run off…

A/N: I hope you liked this chapter. I tried to put some creativity into it. I'm sorry if my action scenes aren't too great, I haven't had a lot of practice and I'm still not entirely comfortable with those scenes.

And, as a not quite so random note, I believe this is Day6 of Glorfindel's journey.

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Seeing-spots: Yes, our dear Estel kicked him. I had some fun with that thought. :P Yeah, he probably wanted to head back to Rivendell a long time ago, but as the author I'll have to exercise restraint and keep him from doing that. Thanks for your kind reviews!

Ellfine: I tried to keep it interesting. Thanks for reviewing!

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