Katie watched, mesmerized, as the search party and Elladan fought off the orcs. She was so shocked by the appearance of her friend that she no longer felt afraid.

The band of orcs was surprisingly large—apparently, a couple of troops of them had gathered together for safety in the Downs. This must surely be the sum total of the horrid creatures. More poured in as Katie watched. They came from every direction, as if they had been all drawn to this place to finish off Elladan once and for all.

The search party was large, well-armed, and highly skilled, and they killed off their foes one by one. The last orc fled shrieking into the undergrowth, and Legolas' bow sang. The orc fell soundlessly.

In the silent pause after the battle, Elrohir swung off his horse and took four quick strides over to Elladan, catching him up in his arms and holding him tightly, careful of his injured arm. They were both perfectly still for a long moment, and Katie smiled, tears springing into her eyes. Their faces were hidden by the curtain of their long, black hair, but their body language said it all. Katie saw the men around them exchange relieved and joyful looks.

Finally, Elrohir stepped back and took a long look at his brother. Elladan did look pretty terrible, now that Katie had the leisure to observe him. He was covered in mud, and his hair was loose and tangled. Even in the patchy moonlight, he looked pale, and there were half-circles under his eyes, dark as bruises. His right arm was in a sling and he held it closely to himself. He had fought with his left, and still clung to his long knife, which was now covered in orc blood. He was completely exhausted.

"I thought you were dead," Elrohir said, his voice rough with emotion.

Elladan gave a jaunty half-grin. "You cannot think to get rid of me that easily, muindor-nín!" he answered, but even as he spoke, his eyes shut and his knees gave beneath him. Elrohir caught his brother easily and supported his weight on his shoulder. His face showed grave concern, but Elladan didn't see it, his eyes shut with utter exhaustion.

Aragorn had dismounted and now led Elrohir's horse over, helping Elrohir to situate his brother in the saddle. Elrohir swung up behind Elladan and supported him as they rode out of the rubble.

"We need to set up camp to see to his injuries," Aragorn said quietly. "It is probably best we do that outside of Deadmans Dike."

Elladan startled them all by speaking, his voice scratchy from thirst. "Yes, please," he said emphatically, leaning back gratefully into his brothers' arms.

000

They set up camp not far from the walls of Fornost. After taking care of her horse, Katie immediately went in search of some wood for the fire. Elrohir and Aragorn would need to light to see to Elladan properly. The soldiers soon had the fire blazing away, and Elladan was seated next to it when Katie returned from her self-appointed errand. Two of the soldiers had slipped out to hunt, and returned with a brace of rabbits. They would usually have made do with the food they had brought, but Elladan's food supply had been found with the body of his horse, and it was a good bet that he hadn't had much to eat in the past week. He would need a good broth or some soup to drink, not the heavy traveler's bread they had for themselves.

When Katie returned from helping the soldiers fetch water from a nearby spring, Aragorn and Elrohir were occupied with splinting Elladan's forearm. She took a seat nearby, and one of the soldiers handed her a bowl of soup. She thanked him and silently watched the tableau unfold before her as she ate.

Elladan drank greedily as Aragorn carefully positioned his splint. "What happened to you?" Elrohir asked his twin quietly, refilling his cup with clear water.

"I was thrown from my horse, and I landed on my arm," Elladan answered between gulps. "I knew I was not in any sort of shape to fight, so I made a hasty retreat. They followed me."

Elrohir nodded. "We know. We followed your trail all the way through the Downs and into Fornost."

One of the soldiers handed Elladan a bowl of the stew, and Elladan supped it hungrily.

"I found a place to hide in the ruins," he explained, wincing a little as Aragorn tied his splint off securely. His face turned greyish, and his voice dropped so that Katie had to strain to hear him. "I do not know how they did not find me. I was there for… I do not even know how long. It was more than a week. I had little water and no food, and hardly even dared to leave my tiny cave in the sunlight—the orcs had posted sentinels all about the Dike.

"Then tonight, they all began to gather nearby: I think they finally figured out where I was hiding, and planned to attack. I knew there was nothing for it—I had to make a stand and go down fighting, or be killed in my hole like a frightened rabbit." He locked eyes with Elrohir. "I was certain I was going to die. You came at exactly the right moment. I believe that was all of the orcs in the Downs—you killed them all. Had you come just a few minutes later…"

His voice trailed off. Elrohir leaned his forehead against his twin's temple and shut his eyes, as if reminding himself that Elladan really was alive and well and with him again. After a minute he pulled back and said, "It was Katie's doing that we found you in time. We were going to follow your trail, which headed in the other direction. She led us straight to you."

"Katie?" Elladan looked surprised, and glanced around. His gaze fell on Katie, who smiled softly at him. "I did not even know you were there!" he exclaimed, then bit back a yawn.

"Here," Elrohir said quietly, "let me try and get some of these knots out of your hair." He pulled out a comb and began carefully working his way through the tangles in his brother's hair. The men began drop their voices so that their conversation would not disturb their weary comrade. Long before Elrohir was finished, Elladan's eyelids drooped and he fell asleep, leaning against his twin.

Aragorn took the bowl of stew from his hands before he dropped it. "It seems it has all finally caught up with him," he said quietly. "His eyes are closed," he observed a moment later.

"He is exhausted," Elrohir agreed softly. "It is a miracle the orcs never found him—and that we reached him on time." He glanced over at Katie, who returned his gaze calmly.

"Well," Legolas said, sitting down on Katie's other side, "at least we finally wiped out these orcs. They will menace the area no longer."

Katie nodded. "I'm very relieved about that," she agreed feelingly. "I'm not sure I understand why there were so many of them here to begin with."

"They are being driven out of the South," Legolas answered, careful to keep his voice low so that he didn't disturb Elladan. "The orcs have pretty much been wiped out of Ithilien, thanks to Prince Faramir and King Elessar." He and Aragorn exchanged a smile. "There are fewer and fewer places where the orcs can hide, and it seems they believed the unpopulated North to be one of them. They were wrong."

"Their own violence and hatred doomed them," Aragorn said quietly. "Had they not attacked Elboron's caravan, we might not have made such an immediate push to find and destroy them." Katie suppressed a shiver.

Legolas wasn't fooled. "You are weary; we all are. Go rest now."

Katie nodded, and unpacked her bedroll, settling down for the night.

000

Katie was woken abruptly in the middle of the night by a shout. It took a moment for her to register what was going on. Then she realized what it was they had shouted.

"Orcs!"

She tried to jump to her feet, but got tangled up in her blanket. When she had finally gained her feet, everything about her was chaos. There were men running everywhere, shouts of panic, the clash of swords, the screech of orcs. She was getting very sick of that sound.

It seemed they had not killed the last of the orcs in that skirmish; there was this final troop to fight. Katie wanted to help, but she had a pretty good idea of exactly how useless she would be in a battle. And she had promised Elrohir she would stay out of the action. Grabbing her long knife and belting it on quickly, Katie made her way toward the edge of the camp as quickly and unobtrusively as she could.

"Elladan!"

Katie wheeled around at the sound of Elrohir's voice, raised in a battleground shout. Elladan was a short distance away, fighting an orc with his good hand. But Katie could see that his motions were slow, almost sluggish, and his balance was bad. Elrohir was struggling to get to him through the fray, but wasn't making any progress.

As Katie watched, the orc knocked the knife out of Elladan's hand. Elladan stumbled and fell, catching himself on his good hand. The orc took that opportunity to kick his broken arm. Elladan crumpled with a cry of pain, and the orc lifted his sword with a wicked cackle—

Katie didn't even realize that she was running toward them until she was almost there, shouting. She had drawn her long knife; the firelight flashed off its blade. Reaching the orc, she swung it as hard as she could with both hands and gave an almighty yell.

TBC

AN: A little short, but if I finished out the three pages, I wouldn't be able to stop on a cliffie, would I? —grins maliciously—

Skye: lol Hmm… let Dan live and eat chocolate… or let Dan die and don't eat chocolate… You know, I'm not a huge chocolate fan, really… lol

Lady Dragon, Jammchra: I should probably read that passage with the physical description of the Downs. Which chapter is it in?

Thanks for all your reviews! The full mailbox really made my morning. :)

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