Somewhere I can belong
Chapter 6
Meanwhile back at the Mill
The four adventurers once more made their way to the dining hall of the tavern, after their previous attempts to leave the town in pursuit of their errant druid had been less than successful, the were on edge. None more so than Gamgee who had been forced to room with Brangar whose snoring had caused more discomfort to the elven wizard than a close encounter with a Basilisk. Crystal was a close second, Janet had woken her up from a pleasant trance by conducting a bizarre series of exercises that were accompanied with the sounds of breaking cartilage and snapping bone. The whole incident was very unsettling to say the least. Quinn had been a mediating factor, something that Crystal had not realized for most of their last foray into the wild. After today though they would have him back willingly or not.
Instead of the usual crowd that the group had become accustomed to over the past several days, the dining hall was packed with people mingling and engaging in a fierce discussion. Several languages could easily be distinguished and all shared one common phrase, "Orcs on the move."
Brangar's face lit up with an almost childlike glee to it as he that certain phrase. Gamgee and Crystal at the mention of their race enemy immediately tried to listen on the conversations in hopes of learning more and Janet uttered a single word that refocused the entire group, "Quinn."
As the group moved through the swirling mass that had filled the dining they caught other bits and pieces of conversation.
"They've closed the gates. This will destroy our economic output for the next quarter or worse." A familiar looking Halfling stated to a group of fat merchants.
"We should just march up and knock that thrice blasted dark tower to dust." A human with a bastard sword strapped to his back called out. A chorus of, "Aye" greeted his words.
"It's only orcs. Their god has only one eye, why should we fear them?" a dwarf with fiery read hair bellowed.
By the time they had reached the door, they found it barred by two figures wearing full plate armor, one wore an eye patch over his left eye, while the other was missing his lower lip. In a booming voice one eye called for silence, when that failed he took out his war hammer and brought it smashing down on a large keg of ale. The barrel splintered and its contents poured out onto the floor, a dead silence soon filled the air and several patrons began to cry at the waste of ale, Janet among them was wailing the loudest and Brangar had to hold her back. "All able bodied persons, regardless of race, creed, or religion are to prepare to defend the city from hostile forces. The Orcs are coming and I want as many defenders on the wall as possible. Report to Gloin Ironbeard by the Gate of Moradin within the hour or be thrown into the dungeon. That is all."
"Well my comrades it looks like we've been drafted, I suppose I can offer my valuable consul to the Dwarven commander about how to fight a battle above ground." Gamgee stated smugly.
Crystal glared at her comrade with what the group commonly referred to as the its-better-to-have-your-head-cleaved-off-and-try-find-it-look.
The elven wizard shrank before Crystal's gaze, and it took Gamgee a moment to recover his voice before speaking, "All right lets just go see this Commander Ironbeard, Quinn is going to be on his own for the meanwhile. Besides its only orcs how bad could they be?"
Brangar echoed Gamgee's sentiments, "Kill orcs find Quinn. Easy as gutting a boar."
With Gamgee in the lead the group made their way through winding streets filled with refugees from the countryside. Carts overloaded with possessions blocked their progress and a trip that should only have taken a few minutes took almost an hour. By the time the group had reached the gate they had passed countless terrified commoners.
"We may not be scared but something has the entire countryside fleeing their homes for the city." Crystal noted.
Amiss the chaos of the milling crowd a short stocky dwarf with a silver almost white beard was standing on top of barrel shouting directions and directing traffic. The four made their way to the dwarf and soon as they were within earshot they heard the dwarf cursing up a storm and swearing oaths that would make anyone but a Dwarven cleric blush. "That sounds like our dwarf, Crystal you go first, dwarves like you." Gamgee stated.
"Grow up Gamgee are you still sore about Llumeria? No don't answer that I already know."
"What happened in Llumeria, Gamgee?" Janet asked with a quizzical look on her face.
He pulled his cloak tighter about him and tried to disappear into it, "Before your time, I'll you about it late when Crystal can't hear us."
Crystal had made her way towards the screaming dwarf as a wagon surged through the open gate, the harness came off and the horses charged through the throng scattering the crowd in their wake. The wagon veered off and collided with the pile of barrels flipping over and somersaulting before it came to a stop less than an inch from Gamgee. "Well that was unexpected." Gamgee managed to blurt out before collapsing from shock. He awoke a few moments later to see his vision blurred and the world spinning around him, Gamgee feared for a moment he had suffered a severe injury. In a moment he realized that it was only Brangar shaking him erratically trying to wake him.
"brang-ar-stop-shaakking-meee-thiisss-innnsttannt!"
Before Brangar could offer a reply another voice piped in, "Hey big boy stopping shaking the throw rug and help move this cart so we can close the doors before every Dark tower Orc gets in." A white bearded dwarf bellowed, Gamgee wasn't sure but it may have been Gloin. Brangar not understanding the severity of the situation continued to shake Gamgee and ignore the dwarf.
The dwarf jumped off of the barrel he gad been occupying and preceded to walk towards the barbarian and the throttled wizard, those that saw Gloin Ironbeard walking towards the two got out of his way, those that did not were promptly shoved out of his path by the fuming dwarf. The barbarian towered over the dwarf by at least three feet, but Gloin was not intimidated the least and decided to let his actions speak for himself as they always did. The barbarian saw him approaching and stopped shaking the outlandishly dressed elf as Gloin motioned for him to bend down so he could speak to the towering oaf.
Gloin waited till their eyes met and in that instant his right hand shot out and grabbed the barbarian's nose between his thumb and forefinger and then he twisted. The look of surprise on the barbarians face was worth it and Gloin preceded to lead the barbarian over to the overturned wagon and spoke very slowly with a near demonic glint in his eye and spittle flying from his moth. "Listen you poor excuse for a barbarian, I've known barbarians and you are not a barbarian. You are some longhaired imitation pretending to be a barbarian. From this day forward you will act like a barbarian and do so right now. Do I make myself clear to you barbarian trainee."
Brangar could only whimper in pain before screeching out, a pain wracked, "yes."
"Good know move this wagon se we can close this gate, "With that said Gloin released Brangar nose after twisting it back to its original position.
Brangar shook his head for a moment and after making sure to see his nose was still there he began to move the toppled wagon. Gloin seeing the relative ease that Brangar moved the wagon nodded his head in recognition. "You didn't pass out, there's hope for you yet barbarian trainee." Digging through the toppled goods, there underneath a bundle of cloth was the driver dead, Gloin had expected that the driver did not survive the crash, Looking at the way he died Gloin knew that driver was dead before his team arrived at the gate, there sticking out of his back were several dark feathered arrows. Pulling one out he noticed the craftsmanship that went into the arrow, and faintly caught the stench of several poisons. "Close the gates and bar them tight." He bellowed out to those working. He stroked his beard while turning the arrow over and over again, and then in an instant he snapped the arrow in half he tossed it aside, he didn't need to keep it, Gloin knew that in a short while he would be seeing more of those arrows than he ever wanted to.
"Commander Ironbeard, there's movement to the North, a lot of movement." One of the guards on the wall yelled out.
Gloin looked up at the sentry, she was another one of those damnable elves, had no weapon drawn and had been playing a lyre. Worse yet he knew this one and did not look forward to her answer of the question he had to ask. Gloin yelled out, "Friendly or unfriendly?"
"Well sir they look like orcs, they run like orcs, and if I listen carefully I car hear orcish, but there still might be some chance they are just a group of traveling bards like myself in search of perspective employment."
"Stow it Elindil, how long do we have."
"Half hour at most before the vanguard hits us, and after that who knows."
Inside Gloin felt the glee that came to all of Dwarven kind before fighting their ancient enemies, but that was quickly sobered by the faces of those under his command who would not see through this battle. "To the walls you swags I don't care if you believe in some nonviolent, noncomfrontive deity, cause those orcs don't." With those words said Gloin joined those at the battlement waiting for the coming horde, "Elindil know anything that could be considered music to help ease the situation."
Winking back at her old friend she answered, "I think I know something that'll work just right." With that said she unslung her lyre and began to skillfully strike the chords producing what even the most ardent hater of music would describe only as beautiful. A feeling of hope spread through those in earshot and they eagerly grasped their weapons in readiness.
Gloin raised the eyepiece and scanned the horizon for the coming horde, what he saw was far more troubling and suddenly he knew this was no ordinary raid. The orcs had deployed in ranks with a skirmishing line pressing ahead brandishing crossbows and just entering into vision stove groups of orcs all lead by a standard bearer, a red eye above a black tower. Gloin was alarmed at the sight of a single banner flying before, and as more and more orcs came into to view he saw trolls and orcs pulling massive machines that looked like siege equipment. His hand fell numbly to his side still clutching the eyepiece. He had seen something that he would never have thought possible, orcs unified under a single banner, siege equipment and trolls. Everything he could handle, but trolls were another thing entirely, even cut up they still wriggled, oh how he hated things that wriggled. Turning to his aide, a fellow Ironbeard and set him off to inform the other commanders of what they would face, and Gloin did the only thing he could do, he presented a strong face to those under his command and started yelling loud creative insults to the orcs.
"Further down the line, Gamgee, Crystal, Janet, and Brangar had found a position to defend and each was lost in their own thoughts. Their thoughts were a jumble as they worries about their friend Quinn, the horde of orcs rushing towards them like a wave, and one thought solely of what he would have for dinner tonight after killing a score of orcs.
Ramblings from Rohan:
Another chapter done, still can't think up of any decent names for a raven or the elf, so please feel free to drop any suggestions in your reviews.
