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Double, Double
Sequel to Elemmire and Amdir
Important Author Note: This chapter starts from the battle with the orcs from more of Amdir's and Elemmire's POV. Thanks! And thanks to the reviewers. You rock!
Chapter Five. Separation
Amdir gazed into Elemmire's petrified eyes, which he was sure were mirroring his own mind numbing fear.
"Ellie we must go!" Amdir shouted over the din of the fighting. For a moment he thought Elemmire would fight him or shake his head in disagreement. Amdir saw his brother's lips part but not reply was forth coming. Elemmire turned to Elrohir who was gesturing frankly at him. 'I love you, Ada,' he thought wistfully. A heartbeat later Elemmire's expression hardened and he nodded curtly. They urged their noble mounts through the gentle urging of their young masters charged through the closing ranks of the orcs.
Amdir wanted to block both his sensitive elvish ears with this fingers to stop the sounds of the fighting from revibrating in his mind. Elemmire's horse galloped beside him a wave of distant pain struck Amdir.
"Ellie!" Amdir yelled over the beating hooves of their horses. Elemmire turned to him and grimaced and nodded signalling he was fine – that they could get further to safety. Lithônion and Aionin carried their masters swiftly and faithfully away.
"Let's stop here," Amdir gasped pulling Aionin to a halt.
Elemmire pulled Lithônion around and glanced around. "No we can go further," Elemmire said through his clenched jaw.
"But Ada, and Gwaor-Adar Estel and Elladan will look for us."
"We've made a pretty clear trailed don't you think?" Elemmire returned nodding his head in the general direction they had come from.
Amdir, who thought himself the leader and elder twin, dismounted quickly and turned to face his brother. "We will rest here."
Elemmire sighed huffily, dismounted and glanced over his shoulder nervously. "We're too close…and I'm afraid."
Amdir rolled his eyes. "I'm afraid too Elemmire. But I don't want to leave Ada behind." He happened to glance down and saw the thin red stream that dripped down Elemmire's right leg.
"Ellie! You're hurt!"
Elemmire blushed and tried to hide his wound unsuccessfully. When they had passed close to the edge of the orcs one had stabbed Elemmire's thigh with a long ugly hunting knife. "I'm fine," Elemmire protested much to Amdir's chagrin.
Amdir pursed his lips together and quickly reverted into the older brother role. He took Elemmire's sweaty had and lead him like a five year old human to a rock. "Sit."
Elemmire sat and watched as Amdir took off his own shirt and started to rip it into small thin strips. "Leg," Amdir ordered once he had finished that chore. Elemmire sighed and stretched his leg out for his brother to inspect.
Amdir prodded the wound thoughtfully and tilted his head to look at Elemmire sideways. "You hurt, gwador."
Elemmire ground his back teeth together and shook his head wordlessly. "I feel brilliant, Am."
"You lie terribly."
Elemmire grinned wanly in return.
Much to Elemmire's disgust Amdir started to tightly bind his leg with the remains of his shirt. Amdir ignored him as he hissed in pain and frustration. "That's all I can do, Ellie. I am sorry," Amdir whispered squeezing Elemmire's uninjured leg affectionately. Elemmire merely nodded wiping away the glistening tears from the edges of his eyes. "I know."
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Elladan whipped around decapitating another orc that had unsuccessfully crept up from behind. He swept his elvish eyes around the scene quickly. Estel was valiantly swinging his sword above his head cleaving the enemy with strong strokes. Elrohir's eyes seemed to be half on the trail where Elemmire and Amdir had left the battle scene.
There seemed to be no end to the numbers of the orcs. Where one fell it was quickly replaced by yet another foul creature.
'Time…' Elladan could hear Elrohir thinking. 'Time. Must. Buy. Them. Time.'
There didn't seemed to be much hope of surviving the attack. There were too many orcs and only three of them. Elladan heard himself scream when the inevitable happened…
An orc had been able to slip under Elrohir's defensive strokes. A split second mistake with horrendous consequences… Elrohir fell to his knees as blood gushed down his side. His sword arm raised instinctively to intercept the sword blow that would have removed his head.
It would only be a matter of time before they all fell under the mighty attack of the orcs…
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Elemmire stirred and murmured in his sleep drawing his feet closer to his chest. "Ellie! Ellie! Wake up," Amdir was shaking his shoulder. "Humans are coming. They might be able to help us."
Elemmire raised his head from the cloak he had been using as a make shift pillow. His head swam slightly as unconsciousness still lapped around his slow moving brain. He blinked and yawned.
"Good morn, Gwador," Amdir greeted patting Elemmire's head. "You slept soundly… and you snore…"
"I do not…" Elemmire slurred. "What did you wake me up for?"
"Humans… this way. They could help us!" Amdir explained adamantly throwing his hands up in the air.
"Help us?" Elemmire screwed up this nose. "What can humans help us with?"
"Well in the very least they could protect us and they might have some medicine with them and food and they might know where we are…"
"But humans?" Elemmire snorted. "They're humans. I don't like humans."
Amdir sniffed indifferently. "But Gwador-Adar Estel is a human."
"Yes but he's a nice human and a smelly ranger. I trust him."
"Not all humans are bad Ellie and we don't have much choice."
Elemmire grumbled and rolled to his feet as Amdir turned his back and promptly began to pack up his things from around the camp. Elemmire followed his brother's example, albeit grumpily.
"I thought we could go out and meet the humans…" Amdir said grabbing the reins of the horses. "They're not camped far from here."
Elemmire was happy to say nothing, only to shake his head at his brother's hope. He had an awful feeling about meeting humans out in the wilds.
With a heavy heart Elemmire mounted Lithônion at Amdir's suggestion and grumbled silently to himself as his brother lead them closer towards the humans.
"Ho! Strangers!" Amdir called announcing to the camp of humans they were there. Elemmire only sighed and slouched in the saddle. "I hope these humans are friendly," he muttered. Amdir shot him a nasty glance in reply.
The humans were a ragged lot comprising of five men all middle aged. Elemmire thought he had never seen a creature that had looked so… so old. Most of the humans had black bags under their eyes and seemed to be nursing sore heads. It was with disgust that Elemmire smelled the body odour and something else he could not place; but it was quite foul. The men were all dressed in brown trousers and loose camel coloured shirts.
One of the men turned around quickly and smiled. "Argh! He's teeth are all black, gross!" Elemmire quipped in elvish before he could stop himself.
Amdir rolled his eyes. "He probably thinks you are ugly too."
"Elf children!" one human exclaimed with a flourished bow. "What a privilege to meet such beautiful creatures out here in the untamed wilds."
Elemmire saw the glances in the human's eyes which seemed to be communicating some sort of plot. He shivered and grabbed tightly onto Lithônion's reins. He could feel the cold sweat on the back of his neck drip down his spine. "Amdir. I'm afraid. This isn't right." Elemmire cautioned in elvish his eyes darting from one to another.
"You must excuse my brother he's a little shy," Amdir said sweetly glaring heatedly in Elemmire's direction. He took a step forward towards the humans separating himself from Elemmire. "We were unfortunately separated from our party when we were attacked. Could you perhaps tell us where we are?"
The human stepped forward smiling, Elemmire watched in trepidation as the human slipped his arm around Amdir's shoulders. "You poor unfortunate soul. Are you hungry?"
"Amdir we are in danger. Pull away!" Elemmire cried once more in desperation.
The human glared at him over his shoulder and made a move to grab Amdir's chin. A moment later he found the elflings pressure point and successfully knocked him unconscious without a struggle.
"Nooo!" Elemmire screamed watching Amdir's body slump to the ground. He wheeled Lithônion around as the humans converged on him. He was in a terrible dilemma. He was petrified of the humans but he just could not abandon his twin.
A human caught Elemmire's ankle and pulled him from the saddle the same time another caught the reins of Lithônion. Moments later the horses had been removed from their masters and Elemmire was held fast to the ground.
The man who had knocked Amdir unconscious straddled Elemmire and laughed as the elfling fought tooth and nail to escape him. He sat and laughed as Elemmire's wrist were grabbed and wrenched above his head.
"Open wide," the man leered as he signalled for something out of Elemmire's line of vision. Elemmire's heart fluttered as a vial of some foreign concoction past straight in front of his face. The man smiled. "Come, now it is time to give baby elf some medicine…"
The band of men laughed. Elemmire struggled throwing his head side to side as the vial dipped closer.
"Hold his head."
Strong hands held him still so that Elemmire was staring straight into the malevolent eyes above him.
"Now baby elf be a good character like your double and open your mouth for your medicine."
"Orc filth," Elemmire managed before clamping his mouth shut.
The man grinned. "Feisty little squirt aren't you." Think fingers slipped past the thin line of Elemmire's lips. His nose was held, pinched cruelly by the laughing men. As he gasped for air his teeth were jarred open and the mixture flooded in.
Elemmire would have spat out the mixture if only his mouth was forced shut, his nose pinched and his throat tickled. The potion slipped down his throat with barely a fight.
A suddenly wariness stole over Elemmire's body. The man who had straddled him leaned over him and cupped the porcelain skin of Elemmire's chin. "Sleep soundly, little one. Tomorrow heralds a new life for you."
Elemmire fought against the drowsiness, his eyes started to droop and he fell into darkness.
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