A/N: I'm really not very good at this updating thing. I'll set up another chapter a couple of days after the 4th of September (I'm going on holiday soon, so I'll have lots of time and not much to distract me).

Chapter 13.

Glorfindel crouched above the mouth of the cave, hidden from view of the orcs. Spread out on either side were the remaining soldiers, also hidden. Malaglar's elves, along with Elladan and Elrohir, were hidden opposite the entrance and above all the other soldiers.

It was now twilight, and the orcs would soon be moving. Earlier, she had heard muffled cries of pain and all she could do was grip her sword handle until her knuckles turned white. The more she listened, the more she wanted to jump down and kill all the cursed spawn of Morgoth. However, these sounds had now died down, meaning one of two things; the orcs had grown tired of Erestor, or he was dead. Glorfindel pushed the second possibility out of her mind.

Glorfindel was finding it increasingly difficult to maintain her professionalism. She was fighting the urge to just attack now. She ran over and over in her head the strategy, and why she wasn't just going to jump off this rock and into the cave and the rather surprised arms of a score of orcs. She took a deep breath to calm her clenching stomach. She closed her eyes, trying to get her commander fully in charge. The part of her that had been screaming at her and asking why was she here and not in the cave, was now diminished but still remained, whispering doubt to her. A battle was raging between her heart and her head and she wasn't really sure which side she wanted to win. The main factor keeping her in place now, were her subordinates, the people whose lives rested in her hands, who would die if she acted as her heart dictated. The funniest thing about this was that if this had been anyone else, she would probably have relieved them of duty for being a danger to the mission.

The sounds and sight of orcs finally moving caused her to smirk briefly with relief. Finally, they could act! She looked up to Malaglar and prepared to give the signal.

(&)

Erestor was fighting to stay awake, though to be quite honest he wasn't sure why he was bothering. He had already let the orcs hear him cry out, he didn't have anything to gain by staying conscious - indeed, he probably had more to lose. There was always the fact that if he gave in to unconsciousness, he might just give in to death as well. 'So what?' was all his mind could come up with. As his mind searched for a response, which was very difficult given his current condition, unconsciousness slipped further away.

Erestor felt his body jar and he realised that he'd been dropped, but he had already decided it wasn't worth the effort to stay awake, his eyelids were so heavy. As Erestor closed his eyes, he saw an elf standing above him, waving a sword around. He had a distinct feeling he should know the elf, but his body had decided that remembering who it was would take too long, and the black oblivion was so inviting.

(&)

Once the archers had played their role, she gave the signal to Cirorod's soldiers and hastily jumped down into the cave's entrance. Around a quarter of the orcs lay dead, arrows sticking out of their bodies and more still had suffered injuries from the archers. The orcs who were injured were the first to try to run away, or limp in some cases. Several tried to retreat into the cave, only to be met by Glorfindel and several others.

Turning quickly after she landed, she swung her sword and beheaded the orc behind her. She heard the whistle of a blade behind her and quickly made a turning side-step, just in time to prevent an axe burying itself in her head. She quickly brought her blade down, severing the orc's hand from its arm. The orc screeched in pain and clutched the stump of the arm. She thrust her blade into its chest and moved on. She spotted Erestor in the midst of the battle and began making her way over to him, slashing an orc across the chest when it dared to come near her.

Once she had finally reached him, she had to deal with his 'carrier'. She parried the blow that the orc swung at her, causing it to drop Erestor, and struck out, only to have her blow deflected likewise. The orc raised its blade, putting its whole strength into a sideways strike, a rash move on its part. She quickly jumped backwards, causing the orcs to bury its blade millimetres deep into the wall. Taking this opportunity, she struck downwards at the orc's head as it tried to pull its sword out. Nearly jumping over the guard-orc, she took a protective stance over Erestor. Scanning the area, she noticed that Malaglar had sent some of her archers into the battle, and also had to yank Elladan away from the battle by the back of his tunic. Sensing movement in the corner of her right eye, she turned to face the on-coming orc.

She blocked a downwards strike and their blades locked together as the orc tried to overpower her. Unfortunately for her, the orc was larger and stronger then she was and, as it realised this, it grinned down at her as she gritted her teeth, trying to stop the blade moving towards her. She couldn't move backwards because she couldn't leave Erestor defenceless, and she couldn't throw herself to one side because that would just cause the orcs sword to cut though Erestor's body instead of her flesh, that was if she didn't just stumble on Erestor's body.

Deciding on a course of action, she prayed that it would work as she was rather enamoured of her hand. As the orc slowly forced its blade towards Glorfindel, she gently slid the meeting point of the blades away from the hilt, while Glorfindel's left hand slid along the blade to the tip in order to steady the blade. Once the blades meet a quarter of the way along the blade she quickly turned the sword, plunging it up through the throat and head. The orc's blade was stopped by Glorfindel's sword hilt and was partly buried in the handle. The orc made a gurgling sound and she withdrew her blade, black blood running down it in rivulets.

Relieved, she watched the corpse slide to the ground. Looking up, she noticed the battle was nearly over and the injured were being evacuated from the battle field. She could see the twins running towards her, and looked down to take her first real look at Erestor.

He had been badly beaten: his face alone was covered in bruises, and many cuts (some still bleeding) covered his upper body. Most of his tunic was now covered in blood, fresh and dried. His face seemed deadly white where the skin was visible.

Glorfindel fell to her knees and frantically looked for a pulse at his neck. Trembling fingers lingered, waiting to feel something. One second passed, then another and another, and nothing. Choking back a sob, she tried searching again, but still she felt nothing. But before she got a chance to panic, she felt a hand on hers. She looked up into Elladan's face.

"Let Elrohir look," was all he said, and numbly nodding she watched as Elrohir reached out to Erestor's neck and felt for a pulse.

The next few seconds dragged on until he nodded. "He is still alive." Looking over his injuries, Elrohir continued, "I can bandage him here, but he needs to see father as soon as possible."

She watched the twins work, then closed her eyes and tried to think straight. After a moments thought, she realised that she needed to be away from them in order to come up with anything sensible. Rising, she walked towards where she had last seen her Sergeants, thinking over the current situation.

Glorfindel needed to get Erestor to Imladris as soon as possible, and she wanted to take him herself, but their work was not complete, and she couldn't just leave half her army behind. Stopping, she looked over the surrounding mountains. She would have to split the group so only one regiment would go back directly, and in that case it would be easiest just to leave one of the sergeants in command; they were, after all, competent sergeants every one. Looking back onto the field, she saw Cirorod and Malaglar exchanging reports.

"Sergeant Cirorod, how many injuries?"

"In total there are nine injured: only two are reasonably serious, but not deadly. Nothing beyond the skills of our young Lords, Elrohir and Elladan."

"How many are under your command?"

"Six soldiers, ma'am."

Thinking for a moment before replying, she turned to Malaglar.

"I want you to scout the borders of the mountains close to Imladris, search for any traces of orcs, but ignore goblin tracks: you must not get sidetracked. If you find any orcs, I want to be informed immediately. Leave any seriously injured members of your regiment with Cirorod and take a replacement" Turning back to Cirorod she continued, "Cirorod, you will return to Imladris with your soldiers and the injured. Tell Daegon to send his soldiers to his scouting parties, telling them to keep an extra sharp eye for orcs. I also want one runner to fetch my horse: I will return to Imladris ahead of you. I will leave as soon as Erestor is ready to be moved. Dismissed!"

Glorfindel returned to Erestor's side and waited for her horse to return, and for the first time since she left Imladris, she let a little bit of the panic and guilt filter though.

End of Chapter 13.

Ok, firstly I'd like to know your thoughts on this, since it's my first time writing a battle/fight scene and I know it's not great, but I'd like to know what I can do better. Secondly, if it seems a little more rough around the edges then normal it will be because I didn't have time to do a second draft before I went away (I'm typing at 4:30am at the moment to make sure it gets posted before I go away), that or the fact that it's possible that I am/was still a little drunk while typing up the second half. (not so drunk that I couldn't type, and I'm a lot more sober then I was when I left the party) :D .

Reviews as always are more then welcome. See you in September.

cosmic-dancer-ukI hope this chapter was fast enough for you, like I said it's my first time writing an action scene so I'm not sure how this went. We didn't really see Glorfindel in charge so much, more fighting. I was hoping to bring Glorfindel in charge across more in the last chapter. Maybe I just didn't do it so well. But I won't say about patching things up between the two of them ;D

mrbalaclavaI can't stand the whole storm-and-face-100-orcs-with-only-4-men-at-your-side cliche. It really gets on my nerves, because they'd just all end up dead, so I'm glad you like it, and that you feel this Captain Glorfindel can do anything.

ShellMel I'm glad that you like my Glorfindel, even though you were confused at first. Great to see that the stable scene was intense. I was very tempted to have him kiss her then, but the plot bunnies said otherwise. I think you have given me an idea though, but I'm not sure weather to do it or not. . . . .

I hope this chapter was worth waiting for.