Chapter Three
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Commander Verity Amezcua followed behind the rest of the group, mechanical feet hitting a tempo into the grass and dirt as they raced and skidded across the plains where hiding spots were few and far between. She had her assault rifle trained and ready to go as leaned up against one of the large boulders that offered very little protection from the beasts and ugly bastards that were chasing after the man in the brown gown. She came to a stop behind the others and readied her aim at the creatures in the distance. Those ugly bastards didn't look too friendly to her, but she also wasn't as afraid of them as she had been when battling the Covenant and the flood. These ugly bastards she can handle just fine on her own, after all they were not sangheili tall or sangheili aggressive.
The sound of an arrow being released from its string drew her attention to the warg and rider that had been standing on the rock top. It came down with a howl alerting the running wargs that the enemy was over here. She opened fire on the warg as it tried to stand up and put it down for good with a few rounds into its skull. She ignored the looks that she was given as she was ordered into the small opening that the dwarrow and hobbit had just dove through. She went feet first, gun still aimed at the roof of the entrance in case she needed to open fire as she landed onto her feet into a crouch doing a sweep with the gun to ensure that there were no enemies waiting in the dark to pounce.
The last to come down the slide entrance was Gandalf the Grey as he landed they heard a bugle blast from the surface and tensed as something slid down the tunnel and landed in a heap at their feet, a dead orc with arrows through the body. The commander kicked at the dead orc with one of her feet, hard enough that the skull cracked with the force of the mechanical weight pressing upon it. The group once again looked at the woman in the strange getup and questioned who and what she was. She didn't seem to mind being in battle, more at ease with it than they thought she would be.
A few moments to allow for the group to catch their breaths, then Gandalf took the lead once more. Having them follow him through the crevice and into an opening where they could see the vast view of what looked to be a city built alongside a beautiful river. "What in the world?" Verity asked, coming to a stop at the edge of the walkway that overlooked the beauty of the city.
"The last homestead, Rivendell." Gandalf explained as they all looked over the beauty of the city and the scenery that was before them. Commander Verity Amezcua looked over the view and shrugged as she turned to once again looked down the pathway that would lead them to the heart of the city.
The group walked mostly in silence, some walking behind the strange woman while others of the group walked ahead of her. They all were aware of her every move however, even as they made their way downward to the bridges that passed over the running river. Where they stopped at the sight of a tall slender male in what looked like a long shirt and pants. Verity took note that the man had pointed ears and long straight light brown hair. The man spoke to Gandalf in a language that was different from what the smaller males had spoken and from the looks of it. The smaller males were not pleased to see the new male at all.
She paid no attention to the insults that the smaller men spoke of the taller man nor did she pay a lot of attention to the response. She did notice that the smaller males seemed ill at ease with being in the area and were only just being respectable in attitude toward what would be their host for the time they were there. She felt the vibration in the ground rather than heard it as she turned to face the riders and their horses. She didn't draw her weapon as Gandalf and the other male didn't seemed overly concerned by the newcomers. However, she did take note of the weapons and armor that the newcomers had on as they dismounted from the horses and handed their reins over to others who had stepped forward to retrieve the horses.
Gandalf introduced the older looking male as Lord Elrond who Verity assumed was the high ranking nobility here as was Thorin as the two were introduced to one another. Then the elves turned to look at her. She stood up to her full height, looking them in the eyes as well. Gandalf introduced her as a newcomer to the group, stating that they had found her near a tree not far from this location.
"Ah, yes. We saw the star shooting across the sky and falling in the East." Elrond confirmed, as he gazed over the human woman in the strange garments.
"That would be my ship." Commander Verity Amezcua agreed, stepping forward to speak to him rather than raise her voice over the din that was the dwarrow as the smaller males spoke to each other in their own language.
"Come, my men will show you all to an area where you can freshen up and tend to your injuries before supper." Lord Elrond stated, motioning for the group to follow behind him and the other elf as he started up the stairs.
"Ay lass, you best not to trust those tree huggers." Gloin advised as he moved to walk beside her. She arched her only brow at him.
"Why is that?" She asked.
"They...Well…..just don't trust them is all. And Thorin Stated you can come with, you may prove more useful than the burglar." Gloin advised scurrying to move ahead of her and leave her to fall behind them with Bilbo. Bilbo looked upset and huffed in indignation at the thought that he would be useless to them. Had he not saved them from the trolls not to long ago? He shook his head in dismay and glanced at Verity. She looked down at Bilbo and the two shared a look before they shrugged at each other and continued along behind the rest of them.
A few moments later, Verity was removing the upper part of the uniform so that she could re-bandage the wounds she had received during the fall. A slight gasp had her turning around to face a female elf that had entered into the room with what appeared to be folded clothes in her arms.
"I am sorry my lady, but Lord Elrond thought you might like something more comfortable to get into for supper." The she elf bowed, and put the clothing on the bed but didn't leave the room. A short quiet of the two staring at each other broke when the she elf asked, "You are a very strong and brave woman to have so many scars on your body. May I ask what happened to your arm?"
"You may, but that doesn't mean I will answer." Commander Verity stated, as she sat down on the bed and rummaged through what was left of the first aid kit to look for more bandages. "Tell you what, you get me more bandages and I will tell you what happened to my arm." She finally stated, after coming up empty handed on bandages herself. The she elf nodded and slipped away to get the bandages for the human woman.
In the meantime, Verity sat shirtless dabbing at the still bleeding wounds that had opened up during the run from the forest to the hidden doorway into the city. A knock on the door had her turning to look at Oin who was trying not to look at her as he entered into the room. "Sorry lass, I thought you might have been injured from the fall you took. So I thought I would lend my expertise to you." He stated, still not looking at her.
"You can help bandage if you want to, one of the elves is bringing me bandages." Verity assured the old dwarf. The older dwarf finally turned to look, making a tsking sound as he surveyed the damage done to the human torso.
"What have ye been getting into that resulted in such damage lassie?" Oin asked, coming up and taking the wet cloth from her hands to wring the blood out and to continue to clean up the wounds that Verity hadn't been able to reach.
"War. that is what has happened." She answered back, leaning her body forward to allow Oin a greater reach to some of the wounds. A soft knock alerted the two of the she elf as she slipped back into the room with the bandages. Oin nodded at a spot on the bed for the elf lass to set them and watched as she paced to the human's front and nodded at her.
"Where shall I begin. It all seemed so long ago when I lost my limbs." Verity stated, bringing up her mechanical limb of hand and part of her arm up to inspect it. "It was on a planet, similar to this one. We were facing off with the enemy and we were losing. The commanding officer had just ordered a retreat when one of the aliens materialized in front. I jumped back but I guess at my speed I was no match for the squid faces own speed. He got me at mid-thighs with his blade and at my upper arm on my left side. I went down and thought I was going to die there." Verity stated, remembering back to the bloody day so long ago.
"What do you mean lassie?" Oin asked, and the she elf had settled down at the woman's feet to listen to the tale and was just as confused as the dwarf was.
"You haven't guessed yet from my weird getup to my language that I am not from this planet." She asked, looking over her shoulder at Oin as he restitched some of the wounds closed after putting a paste to keep any infection out.
"Nay lass, we kind of figured you were from another far off country, not another world." Oin stated, finishing up with bandaging the woman before stepping back and motioning that he was done and would be leaving them to get ready for supper.
"My Lady, how did you survive the attack that took your arm and legs?" The elf maiden asked, Verity looked at her before she replied.
"Someone came and carried me out of the area I was in and placed me on a ship heading to our home planet. My wounds were pumped with bio-foam and I was shoved into a cryotube for the ride home." She answered but didn't expand on what the bio-foam or cryotube was. The she elf knew when someone didn't want to speak further and quietly took her leave, allowing the woman to get ready for supper in peace.
Verity took the time to look over what had come with her, checking over her supplies and weapons. She had several clips of ammo for both her side arm and the assault rifle that had been hanging over her back when she had been pulled through the bridge's window. Both were still in working order with only a few dents and scratches to the metal. She had a few tears in her armor and uniform which she would have to mend before continuing on this little trip. After she finished going over inventory she looked at the clothing that the she elf had brought to her. A simple dress was laid out and Verity looked at it with hard eyes.
The last time Verity had worn a dress was when she had been a little girl on her home planet, now all she had left of that was her memories of the planet and her parents. As the planet had been glassed when she was a teenager. She wasn't about to start now, she moved away and put her uniform back on, leaving the armor off. Although, she felt naked, she was more comfortable in the uniform than she would have been in a dress.