Chapter 20 ended with:
"There has been talk of dark magic in Dol Guldur, you know that Mithrandir is quite worried about it. Maybe someone is spying on us in a magical way..."
"It is a possibility," Cadworon admitted.
When they reached the wall, they climbed the stairs and stood between Hadron and Brethilon, watching the approaching lights with apprehension.
Chapter 21 - Attacks
"You wanted to see me, Lieutenant?" Valerie turned her gaze away from the lights far away in the dark and looked at Legolas' second-in-command who happened to have been at the fortress that week.
"Yes, my Lady. You are the regent in the absence of the king and the prince. I must get orders from you."
In all honesty, Valerie trusted Hadron's judgment much more than hers under the current circumstances. Legolas' first lieutenant and childhood friend had a spotless record and was well known for his bravery in difficult situations.
"How many warriors have left with my sister when she went to Esgaroth to treat some of her patients in the city?"
"Twenty."
Valerie winced. She quickly counted how many warriors were standing on the wall with them. Including Hadron, Brethilon and Cadworon, she counted eleven. "I am afraid we have left ourselves exposed. I should never have allowed my sister to leave with such a force. She should have waited for a time where we had more warriors in the fortress."
"No one could have foreseen this. This is... unprecedented!"
"Is this real? We are under attack?" Liam asked breathlessly, joining them on the wall after racing from his private rooms.
"Yes, we are," Valerie confirmed. "We need to set up our defenses. Please go back in the fortress, you will be safer."
"Let's use my catapult!" Liam offered. "We can bombard them with rocks!"
"Good idea! Bret, you are our champion with the catapult, please get this step up. Cad, please have all the ellith and my children at the eastern gate, ready to escape in the woods should our defenses...fall. Then, go in my apartment and get my weapons." Cadworon left immediately, knowing where Valerie was hiding the weapons that came from her world.
"Can I stay, Mother? I know how to use the catapult, and you showed me how to use a gun last year. Please do not send me in the fortress with the ellith and children," Liam pleaded. "I am a grown ellon now!"
He was in fact only 15, not even an adult in the eyes of mortals, but he was tall and extremely clever. And he knew how to use a gun. Valerie looked at Brethilon and Hadron for their opinion. They subtly nodded.
"Okay, stay with Bret and help him with the catapult. Cad will bring you a gun."
"Will you go to the eastern gate, my Lady?" Hadron asked.
"I will stay on the wall and defend our people, Hadron. Or have you forgotten that I am a warrior of Greenwood?"
"I would never forget, my Lady. In fact, I think I can say that we are all excited to finally see what your firearms look like! We have heard their noises many times, but we want to see the damages they can cause in the ranks of a group of orcs."
The warriors in the yard nodded, grinning, getting ready for the fight to come, making sure their quivers were full and putting additional quivers near the wall. Valerie's eyes went back to the lights that were getting closer in the twilight and she felt a rush of adrenaline in her veins. Her eyes narrowed. The orcs had attacked her escort once already, and now, they were attacking her home. She would never let them enter the fortress and destroy all the beautiful objects and architecture contained in the royal palace. Or even kill her children for that matter. She saw them all in her mind. Liam who was now standing beside the catapult with Brethilon and asking the warriors to bring big rocks closer to the wall. She imagined Sean, probably rushing his little brothers with Miniel in the direction of the eastern secret gate. Her two little babies, who were no longer babies now, twins by birth but separated by completely different genes. So different physically but closer in character. She hoped they were not too scared. She knew Sean, her tender Sean, would hide his fright and lead them as if they were going for a picnic in the woods. And Phoebe, her only daughter, so fierce and so sweet at the same time. Was she being attacked in the forest, or was she quietly getting ready for the night between her father and grandfather?
Her musing was interrupted by the appearance of Cadworon beside her. He was carrying five of her guns and had also brought numerous boxes of ammunition, not knowing what bullets was required for each gun he had brought. She took a semi-automatic rifle and a silencer, and found a few chargers in the boxes.
"Please bring this to Liam," she asked her bodyguard. He looked at her with a questioning look. She rolled her eyes before assuring him that her son knew how to use this gun. Cadworon left to see Liam and Valerie chose another semi-automatic for herself while Hadron was looking at her with curiosity. She installed the silencer, knowing the elves would thank her later for using this important part when shooting near them.
"Is there anything that you want to ask?" she eventually inquired, sensing he had more on his mind that simple curiosity about her guns.
"Cadworon... you allow him to question your orders..."
"Just like Legolas allows you to question his," she replied. "My mate trusts you, and this is because he is close to you." She rested her gun on the wall and aimed in the direction of the orcs. "Cad and Bret have been my guards for five years, I spend more time with them than with my own husband. I know them. They know me. They are still too far for me to kill them." She removed her gun from the top of the wall and put it beside her.
"Kill them?" Hadron repeated, alarmed.
"The orcs. They are too far. We will need to wait more. Sorry, I am jumping from one subject to another," she smiled wickedly. "What, you thought I was planning to kill my bodyguards?"
"How can you be jesting when we are under attack?" Hadron glared before bringing his eyes down, ashamed of his misbehavior.
"Do you want me to run wildly on the wall, my arms waving in the air and shrieking at the top of my lungs that we will all die? Don't you think that would alert the orcs that we are aware of their impending arrival? At any rate, I cannot wait to use my gun on moving targets. You will see, you will be begging me to try a gun when you see what they can do."
Hadron turned away, mumbling something he did not mean for her to hear. But Valerie had read his mind. She asked him to repeat his words just to embarrass him further.
"Repeat what, my Lady?" Cadworon asked when he came back from delivering the riffle to Liam. He somehow knew that Hadron was not reacting well to Valerie's personality. It had taken him a few months to get use to her unusual character.
"Lieutenant Hadron thinks that his captain and I both suffer from dark humor and have an overdeveloped sarcastic mind. We deserve each other, apparently."
Hadron blanched, suddenly remembering that Legolas' wife could read minds after Galadriel had inadvertently given her that particular ability when she saved her from certain death at the birth of the twin princes.
"I would say that Lieutenant Hadron is in the right," Cadworon replied seriously, "but he also needs to remember that in our current predicament, you are the decision-maker and as such, he should get his orders from you and organize the defense accordingly instead of pouting like an elfling."
Hadron glared at Cadworon. In the past five years, Valerie had not seen Hadron frequently since he had spent most of his time in the forest, like Legolas. As a consequence, she really only knew him from the childhood memories Legolas had been sharing with her. She knew he was a courageous lieutenant that she could trust, but she also knew that somehow, he was not very fond of her. Legolas was assuming that Hadron did not understand his sudden interest for married life and missed their former companionship when they were both single and having fun with the available ellith.
Valerie decided to intervene before both ellyn started fighting. "Now now, Hadron, let's put our differences aside for a moment, and determine what the plans are."
Cadworon and Hadron stopped glaring at each other and they spent the next five minutes discussing strategy with Valerie. Soon, all the warriors were in place, ready to receive the orcs with arrows, rocks and modern bullets. They will never see those coming, Valerie thought with a strange sense of satisfaction. She had not forgotten the attack when she had come back from Esgaroth, the orc that had broken her leg, the black blood she had swallowed and tasted in her mouth for days. She could not wait to rid Middle-Earth from more of these disgusting creatures.
Soon, the orcs were within shooting range and Valerie waited for Hadron's signal. When he silently lifted his arm, the Greenwood warriors sent a volley of arrows on the beasts while Valerie and Liam started firing their guns, most of their bullets killing or gravely injuring their enemies. The orcs were soon disorganized, wondering what were these noisy weapons that killed so quickly, leaving little bloody holes in the flesh of their fallen brothers. They quickly spotted two sources of light above the walls, and started aiming their arrows in the direction of Valerie and her son.
Valerie bent to hide behind the wall when she realized she had become a target. She walked away from her spot, only to reappear further away and start shooting again. She had a hard time spotting the orcs in the dark, while Hadron and Cadworon did not seem to have the same issue. She nevertheless kept shooting, sometimes hitting a head, sometimes a limb that was only slowing down the beast. She emptied a charger quickly and came back to the ammunition box, only to discover it no longer contained chargers for her particular riffle. She threw her weapon to the ground and took a different gun, charged it and started shooting again, one bullet after another, one orc after another, until she heard a familiar cry far away on the wall.
She stood to look in the direction of her son and Cadworon pulled her down violently. She violently hit the walkway behind the wall, hurting her knees on the hard wood.
"It is only an arrow in the shoulder. It is not a mortal injury," he told her, pointing at Liam who was being brought down the wall by a warrior, an arrow caught in his right shoulder. "Keep fighting!"
Valerie swallowed her harsh reply and started shooting again, knowing her bodyguard was right. This time, she was killing with renewed satisfaction now that her son had been injured. These orcs would pay for Liam's pain!
"Their numbers are greatly reduced," Hadron commented. "We will soon have eliminated them completely."
It does not make any sense. They are almost not fighting back, the lieutenant was thinking.
Valerie also wondered what it meant. Why would these orcs have been sent with their bows only, without any weapons for a siege? It was almost like they were not really trying to take the fortress. And if they were not, why would they have come to Greenwood in the absence of the king and the prince?
"It is a diversion," Valerie mumbled, looking at Hadron.
"Why would they try to distract us?" Cadworon asked, watching as his brother was using the catapult to send a rock on the heads of the orcs who were now much closer to the wall. He hit an orc right in the face and laughed darkly.
"There is only one way to know," she replied. "Capture one alive, preferably their leader, to interrogate him."
"They will not share information. Orcs do not talk under torture. Some elves tried it a few time during the first war," Hadron said.
"But we need not to torture them, Lieutenant," Valerie continued, pointing at her own head.
"Are you sure you can read the mind of an orc?" Cadworon asked.
"There is only one way to find out." Valerie looked from the wall and studied the beasts that were now much less in number. There was an orc, bigger than the others, who seemed to be screaming orders to the beasts around him. "This one, bring me this one," she requested, pointing him.
"Spare the big one!" Hadron screamed to the elven warriors.
"It is one thing not to shoot him, but we need to bring him here," Cadworon said.
"We can wait until there are less than ten orcs, and then... maybe I can get closer."
"Never in my entire life have I heard something so silly!" her bodyguard cried. "You think I will let you jump down the wall and walk to the orc leader to have a chat with him?"
"It is the only way!" Valerie insisted.
"That is a load of orc shit!" Cadworon cried, and Hadron's eyes almost bulged out of his head.
"How can you use such language in front of the princess -"
But Valerie and Cadworon were not listening to him, busy discussing their options in a colorful language that Hadron was not used to hear from Cadworon. The warrior had changed a lot since his assignment with the princess, and not for the better, he was afraid!
"That is settled then," Valerie eventually said. "We kill these last bastards from Dol Guldur, and injure the leader. Once they all are down, we will venture outside the wall and I will try to read his thoughts."
"Kill them all but the big one! He is mine!" she yelled to the warriors on the wall, completely forgetting that Hadron was supposed to give the orders to the warriors.
Valerie aimed at the leader's left knee and fired. He went down to the ground, but soon attempted to stand again, putting all his weight on his good leg. He aimed in her direction and shot an arrow that missed her by less than an inch. She shot him again, this time hitting his right knee. He fell heavily, this time sitting down to shoot another arrow in her direction.
"The son of a bitch is strong!" she mumbled. "I must kill it!"
"Stick to the plan! We need him alive!" Cadworon said as he shot an arrow in the direction of the last orc standing.
Soon, there was silence on the battlefield, with tens of orc bodies and injured orcs lying on the grass soaked with black blood.
"Let's go!" Valerie said.
"Wait!" Hadron said. "You cannot go on the battlefield! Some orcs are still alive. We need to finish them off before you can go, my Lady."
"I have an even better idea, let's bring him inside the wall," Brethilon suggested as he joined them. "My Lady, your son Liam was brought to the healers."
"How is he?"
"In pain, but very proud of his first injury. We will hear about it for the next ten years, do not doubt that!"
"I like your idea," his brother told him.
"The king would not allow us to bring an orc within our walls, it is not a decision that should be taken lightly," Hadron intervened.
"It is not taken lightly," Valerie said, not even turning in his direction.
"I refuse to give orders that would degrade Greenwood and its fortress!" Hadron insisted.
"Get him here, within the wall," Valerie commanded to her bodyguards, ignoring the lieutenant's intervention. Without another look at Hadron, the two brothers went down the wall and slowly opened the gate with the help of other warriors.
Valerie remained beside Hadron, finally turning to glare at him. "I respect your judgment, Lieutenant Hadron. I know that you do not know me well, and I know as well that you do not appreciate my mentality. But it would be best for you to keep in mind that although your opinion counts greatly in the middle of a battle, once the battle is over and in the absence of the king and the prince, my directives should remain unquestioned and immediately obeyed. I want to know why these orcs came here to attack us in a foolishly disorganized manner, and I will interrogate the leader here, behind these walls. Am I clear?"
"Yes, my Lady."
The king will hear about it!
"Oh, please!" Valerie snorted on her way down the wall. She paced in front of the gate until the brothers came back, pulling the twitching body of the orchish leader and dumping him at her feet. Warriors encircled them, arrows pointed at the orc who stayed immobile, watching them warily.
Valerie shut the thoughts of the elves around her, looking for a different kind of thought, even though she had no idea what she was looking for. She expected some black speech, or simply negative or murderous thoughts in Westron. But she heard absolutely nothing.
"Do you hear anything?" Brethilon asked, in a hurry to end the beast's life.
Valerie got closer to the orc, and the warriors around her followed her, scared for her life. The orc was close enough to grab a lock of her long hair and pull her within his reach to harm her. Orcs could easily mortally bite the neck of an elf, and this one had sharp, yellow teeth that could more than likely cut like knives.
"I cannot hear anything," she admitted, turning her head away, hoping to evade the stench that was invading her nose. "Maybe if I touched him?" She shivered, hardly believing that she would have enough courage to touch the beast's slimy black skin. Would it leave some greasy substance that would smell for days on her fingers?
The orc's eyes narrowed, as if he had understood her words. "Do you understand me?" she asked him in Sindarin.
The orc took a deep breath, and spit black saliva in her face. Cadworon furiously hit the beast multiple times while the other warriors seemed on the verge of killing it.
"Do not kill him!" Valerie ordered, wiping the spit with her sleeve.
Cadworon walked away to calm down. The warrior had become much more passionate in the past years, and was sometimes losing his temper. Legolas liked to say that she had rubbed off on Cadworon. Brethilon took over and violently knelt the orc on his two knees broken by her bullets. He grunted in pain, but defied Valerie from his lower position.
"Filthy beast, don't you dare spit in my face again or I will cut your limbs one by one until you cry like a little girl!" she said in Westron.
"You do not scare me, She-elf!" he replied in the same language. "You can torture me, cut me into pieces, you will achieve nothing."
"Why did you come here?" she insisted.
He chuckled darkly. "I hope your children will be caught by my master, and that he will send them back to you in pieces, along with a description of their pleas as they were calling for you -" He stopped talking when Brethilon's fist hit his jaw and sent his head to hit the wall.
"Hold him, I do not want him to bite my hand," she told the warriors that were closer. Four warriors each took a limb while Brethilon held the orc's head firmly.
"Please tell me you are not planning to touch -" Hadron pleaded, but before he had time to finish, Valerie had put her hand against the orc's forehead. He did indeed try to bite her hand, and Cadworon helped his brother to hold his head.
"Stop moving," she foolishly asked the orc, as if he would obey. It was still clear in the beast's eyes that he had no idea why she was touching him. Once she touched him, she started hearing some sounds, in a harsh, unknown language, but could not understand any words. She assumed he was thinking in the black speech. "You lost all your troops, all these orcs dead for nothing..."
The orc laughed and she heard a few sounds repeated in his mind. Knowing she would not get anything more from the beast, she let go and furiously wiped her hand on her dress.
"Keep him alive," she asked the warriors. "And bind him. Make sure he remains on his knees, a little pain will do him good."
She walked out of earshot from the orc, her bodyguards and Hadron following her.
"What did you hear?" Brethilon asked.
"Black speech. I did not understand anything."
"Are there some words you can repeat?" Hadron inquired.
"Do you know the black speech?"
"Over the centuries, we have learned a few words. We sometimes spy on them before we kill them."
Valerie tried to recall a few words that she pronounced with an accent that she considered far from how the orc had pronounced them in his head.
Cadworon frowned. He repeated one of the words exactly as the orc had thought it, and Valerie confirmed that it was exactly the right pronunciation.
"What does it mean?" she asked.
The three warriors looked at each other. "What does it mean?" she insisted harshly, knowing she would not like it.
"Esgaroth."
Valerie paled. "You are sure?"
"I am certain."
"You think we were a diversion and that a bigger group is attacking Esgaroth?"
"It is a possibility."
"Why? Why would they do that?"
"They exist to kill mortals and elves, my Lady. Their master in Dol Guldur and Mordor will not rest until all life is extinguished in Middle Earth. Destroy Esgaroth and Greenwood becomes vulnerable. They are our only allies."
"What about Imladris and Lothlorien?"
"They are too far to help us in a war."
"My sister is in Esgaroth," Valerie suddenly realized. "We need... we need to go there, help the city defend itself!"
"We cannot leave the fortress because of an unverified assumption. We need to be sure," Hadron said.
"The orc needs to talk," Valerie insisted. "We need to break him. He needs to talk to us. In Westron."
"It is not in our nature to torture," Cadworon commented. "But under the circumstances..." He looked at his brother, who nodded in return. "If you order it..."
"By the Valar!" Hadron looked at them with wide eyes. "You are ready to do this?"
"To save an entire town? Yes," Valerie replied with perfectly faked self-assurance. She was quite disturbed, and kept telling herself that the orc was just a disgusting beast that would eat her and her children alive if it could. It did not deserve to live.
"We will bring the orc in the forest," Brethilon decided.
"Why?"
"We cannot do this in front of you, my Lady," Cadworon replied.
Valerie took a few deep breaths. "Cad, if I make such a decision, then I must have the courage to see it being done in front of me. I shall not hide and let you do this. I must share the trauma and guilt that will probably follow."
The brothers looked at the warriors that were in the yard, then at Hadron. They all nodded in agreement. They would all share the guilt. To save Esgaroth.
OoOoO
Phoebe was ecstatic. She had spent many days with her adar and grandsire in the forest, guarding the road with patience and attention. In truth, she had been a little disappointed by the lack of action in the first three days, until she had seen her first spider, approaching slowly the forest road. It was big, much bigger than she had expected, but her father had told her it was a young, inexperienced spider that seemed to have lost its nest. Youngling or not, it needed to be killed, and she had been told where to shoot it to wound it lethally.
Perched at the top of a tree with Thranduil, she had shot arrows in the direction of the arachnid while Legolas and two more warriors were on the ground, facing it with their blades. In the end, their combined efforts had been successful quickly, and she had shared the glory of the kill that night around the fire.
The fact that she had not seen more action in the following days was of little importance since she was still high from her first shared kill. She fell asleep near her grandsire on a platform, dreaming of her future glory as a great Greenwood warrior.
The king was smiling as he watched her, easily guessing what her dreams were about. He heard the light sounds of an elf jumping from a tree to another with great speed and agility, knowing the elf was coming in their direction.
The elf stopped in a nearby tree, hidden by the dark and the leaves. "Father?" Legolas murmured. "I have been told by a scout that we have visitors from Imladris that just entered the forest road out West."
"I did not receive a message from Lord Elrond about these visitors. When will they reach us?"
"Around dawn. I will send warriors to protect them from our enemies and escort them to our camp."
"Can you please join us? I hate speaking to people without seeing them!"
Legolas chuckled and joined his father and daughter on the flet, watching his sleeping child with pride. "Is Elrond with them?" the king asked.
"No, he is not. But Elladan and Glorfindel are part of the group. Elrohir is not with them."
"Why am I not surprised?" Thranduil sighed. No visitor from Imladris had been seen in Greenwood since they had left before the birth of Ereinion Gil-galad and Oropher. Lord Elrond had not made the journey he had planned for the birth since the princess had given birth more than three months earlier than the Imladris lord had expected. And no one had come to Greenwood after since the mountain pass had been infested with orcs in higher numbers than usual.
"Elladan must be beside himself not to have seen Phoebe for five years."
"He will find her very much changed," the king added, looking at his only granddaughter. She had grown significantly, having almost reached her mother's height at only ten years old. Her shape had changed also, showing slightly larger hips and a growing bosom. "He will soon understand that he has very few years left to wait..."
"He will wait the number of years that I deem necessary," Legolas replied while Thranduil hid his smile in the dark. Did his son really think that Phoebe herself would not make that decision? How little he knew his own daughter!
"Furthermore, even if she becomes an adult at the same age than mortals, her training will not be complete and she will need to remain here. If she ever leaves Greenwood," Legolas continued, convincing himself that Phoebe would still spend many years with her family, if she ever left Greenwood.
"You think Allison will follow Glorfindel this time?" Thranduil asked, changing the subject.
"I cannot think of another reason for his presence. Valerie and Arwen are exchanging letters every now and then, and my wife must have told her of our decision not to have any more children. Arwen must have communicated this to Glorfindel, who now knows that Allison could move to Imladris and bind herself to him without being scared for her sister's health."
The king reflected on this for a few moments. Legolas' reasoning made sense, considering that Valerie had indeed been corresponding with Arwen regularly in the past five years. But were they all ready to see the modern healer leave Greenwood for good, to be married with the Captain of Imladris? Allison had been teaching the Greenwood healers much about modern surgeries and certainly had more to teach them. And her niece and numerous nephews would miss her dearly. Thranduil could already feel the sadness that would overcome the royal family with her departure. And from Legolas' tired expression, he felt the same. "When was the last time that you slept, Legolas?" he asked his son.
"Four days ago."
"Why don't you rest beside your daughter, I will keep watch. I will wake you before our visitors arrive."
Legolas gladly accepted and lied down beside Phoebe, sharing a blanket with her and falling asleep immediately. He slept for a few hours until his father shook him gently to wake him up.
"I was told they will soon be here," Thranduil whispered. "Did you want to eat some bread and fruits?"
"I am not hungry," Legolas said while yawning.
"I am hungry," Phoebe said sleepily. "I would like some oatmeal with eggs. Sunny side up."
"There are no eggs here, aure nin – my sunlight," the king said, tickling her wickedly. She started laughing, moving around like a snake to stop this hilarious torture.
Very close on the road, the visitors heard a child's laughter and wondered how come an elfling was in the forest. Elladan turned to one of the Greenwood warriors escorting them, silently questioning him.
"Princess Phoebe is with us."
Elladan's eyes widened, surprised and nervous now that he knew his little mate was close. The last time he had seen her, she was a five years old child. Five years later, as per elven growth schedule, she should not have changed much. But he doubted that she had respected that growth rate since he had seen her change in the few months he had spent in Greenwood while his brother Elrohir had recovered from his injuries.
The Greenwood warriors stopped and led their visitors out of the path, going in a dense part of the forest. "Where are we going?" Glorfindel asked.
"You are here to visit the king and the prince? They are here, in the forest, at our temporary camp."
Elladan and Glorfindel stared at each other, wondering what that meant. If they were not at all surprised that Legolas was in the forest, the presence of the king was exceptional. Was it related to the presence of Phoebe at the camp? They silently followed the guards and eventually arrived in a small clearing where a few Greenwood warriors were sitting around a fire, having breakfast. They dismounted while Legolas suddenly jumped down a tree to welcome them.
"Lord Elladan, Lord Glorfindel, please be welcome in Greenwood once more. This is... an unexpected surprise."
"Prince Legolas, it is a pleasure to see you again."
They shared news about their journey, until Legolas asked them about the reason of their presence in Greenwood. "Do you have some important communication from Lord Elrond that you wish to give me?"
"My sister Arwen wishes to come back home after spending a few years with our grandparents. We were on our way to pick her up in Lothlorien, when... we thought we could do a little detour to visit Greenwood first..." Elladan replied hesitantly.
"A little detour?" an imperious voice said from a flet above, and the king himself came down a tree, in a more careful manner than Legolas had done before. "I would not call it a little detour," he said with sarcasm dripping in his voice. "This is almost a two weeks delay to cross the forest and come back..." All the Imladris elves bowed to the king, who studied them with attention. "Lord Glorfindel, have you come to finally claim your mate?"
"I would prefer to present it in a more subtle manner, but... you are right. I have come to speak to Lady Allison and try to convince her to bind herself to me and follow me to Imladris."
"You must be aware that I always preferred blunt facts to circumvented half-truths. I wish I had better news... Allison is not in Greenwood, unfortunately. You will have to go to Lothlorien as you had originally planned..."
Glorfindel became livid. Had he made this journey for nothing? Where could Allison be? Had she forgotten him and moved on with another ellon, or even a mortal from a nearby town?
Feeling sorry for the Imladris captain, victim of Thranduil's own half-truths, Legolas informed Glorfindel that his sister-in-law was currently in Lake-town where she had organized one of her clinics. "Valerie sent us a messenger, informing us that she had allowed her sister to go on this journey. She will be back in a few days, should you decide that you can delay your departure to Lothlorien."
Elladan stopped listening to the conversation, knowing that somewhere in the trees, his future mate was hiding behind the leaves, probably watching him. He had heard her laughter moments before, he knew she must be around. He looked attentively everywhere, until he saw a flash of red in a tree high above. The flash was gone as soon as he spotted it, and he could not find it again.
Phoebe had watched the Noldorin lords from the flet. She could see the golden warrior that was the massive captain of the Imladris guard, but barely saw the darker elf that was standing beside him. It had been a while that she had seen a black-haired ellon. Not since...the departure of Lord Elrond, Elladan and Elrohir years before. Elladan... the one who had called himself her friend, who had proclaimed they would be close forever... and who had never visited her again, not even sending her a letter in the past five years. It was true that she was only an elfling. If she were honest, it is the contrary that would have been surprising.
She moved silently from the flet and went in a nearby tree where she could properly observe the visitors without being seen. And she saw him. One of the twins. She knew it was her former friend when her father greeted him by his name. He was, by far, the most good looking ellon she had ever seen. Although she was too young to feel sexual attraction, she still could develop childish infatuation for a grown male that had caught her eye. And catch her eye he did, with all his differences with the traditional silvan appearance. His raven hair and eyebrows, his masculine features, his slightly darker skin that could obviously tan under the sunlight when he traveled... He was different, breathtakingly handsome, and she would easily fall for his lies again if she did not guard herself, just because of his extreme comeliness.
Glorfindel was coming to convince her aunt to follow him to Imladris, leaving them all behind. And Elladan – was he here to convince Allison to follow them too? Both ellyn were not to be trusted. She suddenly realized that Elladan's eyes were looking in her direction, and she swiftly moved to another tree.
Knowing that Elladan was well aware of Phoebe's presence and that hiding her without a valid reason would be an affront to Elrond's son, the king decided that it was time to introduce them once more. "Phoebe, aure nin, please join us to greet our guests," the king commanded.
Like her father had done before, she skillfully jumped down the tree, landing right behind her grandsire. The king pulled her to his side and she watched Elladan and Glorfindel coldly. "I do not wish to welcome the ellyn who want to destroy our family and take my aunt away from us," she said moodily.
Elladan's heart started singing in his chest. She was... more developed than he had expected, and was becoming... a true beauty. The fact that she had become half-elven while very young had resulted in the development of more elvish features than her mother and brothers. She would become a true elven charmer, with her unusual wavy red hair, her pale skin and these piercing green eyes. He did not see her smile, but her pink lips were hiding perfectly aligned white teeth. Her ears were less pointy than a true elf, and he longed to know if they were sensitive... Immediately dropping this train of thought, he then took notice of the quiver and twin blades on her back and the small bow in her hand. She had already been an archer when he had first met her, but they seemed to already have trained her to be a true warrior by providing her a twin blades training.
"Maybe Allison will refuse again," Thranduil told Phoebe, caressing her long locks while observing Glorfindel.
Legolas rolled his eyes. "Please do not be selfish, my sweet love. Your aunt deserves happiness as much as any of us do."
"It is a pleasure to see you again, my Lady," Glorfindel politely told the little warrior princess who perfectly copied her grandfather's aloof attitude.
"Likewise," Phoebe replied, her eyes finally turning in Elladan's direction. She observed him without any more interest than when she had spoken to Glorfindel.
"We used to be good friends. I am pleased to see you again, Lady Phoebe," Elladan told her, getting closer to kiss her hand. But she did not offer it and he stood awkwardly in front of her.
"No one kisses the hand of a warrior," she told him with something akin to disdain, another expression probably leaned from her grandsire. "In Greenwood, only my mother deserves that kind of respect."
"I am sorry then, I only meant to show you my respect like a princess deserves," Elladan replied, not allowing her cold welcome to deter him. He offered her a warrior handshake, which she finally accepted after staring at him for a few seconds.
"I guess you do not remember me, but -"
"I remember you perfectly well, Lord Elladan Elrondion," she cut him. "You played with me when I was younger. You had promised to visit me frequently, a promise you have quite obviously broken without remorse."
So they were finally coming to the heart of the matter. The young elleth was as feisty as her eccentric mother, and was angry that he had not respected his promise to visit her. Had she felt neglected and insulted? It was true that he could have sent her letters, but she had barely knew how to read back then. And he had been traveling a lot with the Dunedain rangers and his half-brother Estel, fighting the orcs and gobelins that roamed in Middle-Earth. Not aware of her accelerated maturity, he had not communicated with her, and she had not known of his journeys and how he had missed her every single day. And at ten years old, she was already old enough to have felt lied to, disregarded and neglected. How could he repair that now?
"I wish I could have visited Greenwood sooner, but orcs are growing in numbers in the mountain pass, making our route more dangerous than years before."
She looked elsewhere, ignoring his plea. Her grandfather was observing him with a smug smile while Legolas watched him with pity in his eyes. Clearly, he knew what it felt like to be on the black list of Valerie or her daughter's.
"I never forgot you," he insisted, and her eyes came back to him. "Let me show you something." He took out of his tunic a folded parchment that had seen better days and gave it to her. She opened it with a bored expression, until she recognized a drawing she had made five years before. She remembered the childish piece of art done with her colorful crayons, featuring a tall black-haired elf and a small little red-haired elfling who were holding hands.
"You kept it?" she asked with disbelief.
"I have watched it every day since I left Greenwood," he quietly told her, and she knew he was telling the truth. It was clear that the parchment had been unfolded and refolded many times over the years. "It is my most precious treasure. I would like to preserve it and put it away for good. Would you have the kindness of drawing another one for me to keep?"
"I cannot," she lamely replied.
He looked hurt while he folded the old parchment and put it back in his tunic.
"My granddaughter has been training every day to become a warrior," the king casually said. "Far from her mind are the childish occupations she used to like..."
"I still draw sometimes," Phoebe cut her grandsire. "But... I gave all my coloring pencils to my little brothers," she admitted, showing that she was still, despite what the king had said, stuck in the strange period between childhood and teenage years.
"That is very generous of you," Elladan told her. "How are your brothers?"
"Bothersome," she replied immediately, and everyone laughed around her. "Coming here is so peaceful as compared to living in the fortress!"
"You prefer the company of spiders than your brothers'?" Legolas asked, finding his daughter was a little strange. He himself would spent all his time at the fortress if he could, to spend more time with his wife and children.
"No, but I prefer being here alone with you, Ada, and you, Grandsire. I have both of you all to myself!" she proudly stated.
Phoebe is a possessive elleth, Elladan thought. Would he like that in an elleth? He looked at Legolas, who looked very content for an ellon mated with a possessive she-dragon. Yes, he could live with that unusual trait of character in an elleth.
"We have to go back to the fortress tomorrow," Thranduil told Phoebe. "I hope you will show your naneth and your brothers that you missed them as much as they probably missed you!" Phoebe pouted, and the king asked Glorfindel and Elladan if they would go to the fortress with them, or go to Lothlorien until Allison was back from Lake-town.
Elladan and Glorfindel started conferring when a scout coming from the East arrived in the clearing.
"My Lords! There is dark smoke rising from the area of the fortress!"
"Is the fortress on fire?" the king asked while Legolas was already climbing a tree to look for said smoke.
"No, my Lord. It is... orc burning smoke. The smell is quite horrendous for the warriors in the East of the forest. What are your orders?"
"The fortress has been under attack!" Legolas yelled from above. He jumped in front of his father. "With Allison in Lake-town, there probably was only a few warriors left to defend it..."
"We are heading back to the fortress!" the king ordered.
"Captain, are we falling back completely or are we keeping warriors near the forest road to protect it?" the scout asked Legolas.
"Just leave one warrior every two miles along the road. Everyone else should be going to the fortress immediately to kill the orcs!" Legolas decided. He mounted his stallion and grabbed his daughter, sitting her in front of him. The king left the clearing, followed by the warriors that were either on foot or sharing a horse.
"We are sorry, Glorfindel, Elladan," Legolas said, nodding to the visitors. "If you still wish to follow us to the fortress, you are more than welcome. Otherwise, we will see you at another time." He left the clearing, following the king and the warriors, leaving the Imladris visitors behind in the now empty camp. Right before Legolas disappeared in the trees, Elladan saw Phoebe's face as she turned to watch him one last time around her father's form.
"We are going to Greenwood," Elladan decided.
"We are expected in Lothlorien. And we have no idea what we will find in Greenwood," Glorfindel told him.
"I care not. My sister will easily understand that an attack on the Greenwood fortress required our immediate help and under the circumstances, she will forgive our lateness."
OoOoO
Valerie turned from the scene and vomited her dinner against the wall. Cadworon gave her a water skin to rinse her mouth. She thanked him, feeling horribly light headed. It had taken at least half an hour to break the orc's determination and get information from him. Valerie would never forget what had been done to the beast in order to get that information, however priceless it had been. And from the looks on all the warriors' faces, they would not forget it soon either. But their assumption had been right. A small army of orcs were walking in the direction of Esgaroth right now, ready to invade the town and destroy it completely.
"We need to help them," she mumbled. "I promised the Master of Esgaroth that we would always come to their aid if they were under attack."
"How? We are only twelve warriors including yourself," Hadron replied, finally admitting that she truly was a warrior.
"Start burning the cadavers of the orcs outside the wall, the smoke will alert our warriors in the forest. They will come to defend the fortress while a few of us go to Esgaroth." Valerie was determined to go to the city where her sister was in danger. There were a few citizens that she had started to know well in the city, including Hadrian, the little orphan she was helping each time she traveled there. The ten-year old child still had not been adopted by anyone, and was living with the generosity of the citizens, who were employing him and paying him with food and lodging when it was too cold outside. Valerie was buying him new clothes regularly, and giving him some money so he could buy food on his own when he did not find work. This was the most she could do for the child without him rebelling against her interventions. He was quite independent and would become a fearsomely independent man one day.
"It is unlikely that more orcs will come to Greenwood. If there had been any more beasts on the way, we would know it by now," Brethilon commented, looking at the immobile body of the orc leader. It was an indescribable bloody mess.
"Prepare the horses. We will only leave four warriors here," Valerie decided. She knew it was a reckless decision, that Thranduil would be angry later, but she needed to save her sister, her escort and the little orphan that she liked.
They left half an hour later, Hadron leading the group while Valerie was riding between her bodyguards. She had her bow and two guns attached on her back. They rode all night and made it to Lake-town before dawn. They had seen a big fire from afar. The western portion of the town was on fire.
The orcs were sending inflamed arrows on the town, but unlike Lake-town when the dragon Smaug had destroyed it, the rebuilt Esgaroth had more rock than wood as building materials. Some houses were on fire, but not the entire town.
They left their steeds in the valley and hid behind large rocks to observe the battleground. A horde of 70 orcs were near the shore, bombarding the town on the river with their inflammable arrows and rocks sent with their high catapults. They could hear screams coming from the western part of town that was burning, with many people organizing the taming of the fires and boats leaving the town with many children and women aboard. There were a lot of orc cadavers on the ground, with elven arrows in their bodies. The Greenwood elves had defended the town as if it was their own, but unfortunately, the orcs were now hiding behind shields and the elves had not successfully killed an orc since the arrival of the reinforcements from Greenwood, if Valerie's little group could be called reinforcement.
"Do we attack them from behind?" Valerie asked.
"We would be exposed. There are only eight of us," Hadron replied. "We would need to have an incredibly swift attack to decimate their forces quickly."
"Do we have enough arrows to kill them all?"
"We should. And I have brought many chargers for you, my Lady," Cadworon said. "You should be able to kill many foes too."
"Let's get this show going, then!"
They all took their position, ready to shoot and waiting for Hadron's signal. Valerie kept her eyes on the battle when Hadron suddenly looked behind them.
"Is there anything wrong?" Brethilon asked, scrutinizing the dark behind them.
"Someone is coming," Hadron murmured. "Running in our direction."
They got their weapons ready, until they saw the figure getting closer. "It is a child, do not shoot!" Cadworon said. They waited until the small silhouette was closer to them, and Cadworon jumped to catch the child before he reached the orcs. The child screamed but the ellon closed his mouth with his hand and brought him to their hidden group. Too late, some orcs had heard the scream and were looking in their direction.
Valerie looked at the child attentively. "Hadrian? What are you doing here?" she murmured while the warriors around them were warily watching the orcs who seemed to be discussing and pointing in their direction.
The child recognized her immediately. "My Lady! There are five spiders coming!"
"How do you know that?"
"I was in the valley when the orcs arrived. I hid as best as I could, and then I decided to go to Greenwood to get help. But following the orcs were the spiders. They were waiting in line, as if they were the second line of attack."
"How come we did not see them while we rode here?" Valerie asked Brethilon.
"They must have been south from our way."
"Scouts are coming," Hadron warned them. "Not many of them. At my signal, kill them. Be ready for a full attack, as all the orcs will direct their attention to us once we have killed their scouts."
Valerie got her riffle ready, aiming at the first orc running in their direction. When Hadron lifted his arm, she shot the beast right in the forehead while the warriors around her quickly killed the other scouts. Immediately, the orcs that were still bombarding Esgaroth stopped their attacks and started running in their directions, crossbows, bows and blades ready to kill the newcomers. Things got heated swiftly, and Valerie stopped counting the numbers of orcs she had killed after ten. Things were happening too quickly for her. Each time she aimed at an orc, the beast was receiving an arrow from one of the elven warriors beside her. She started aiming at the orcs that were the further away, knowing they would not be immediate targets for her brothers in arms.
Soon, there were very little orcs still standing, and Valerie stood when they started hearing some strange pounding on the ground.
"What is that?" Valerie wondered out loud. It seemed softer than horse hooves, and she realized the swiftness of the pounding meant there were more legs to these beasts than just four.
"Spiders," Hadrian murmured darkly. I have to leave!
Valerie did not react quickly enough after she heard his thought, and therefore did not have time to grab the child before he fled in the valley, right in the direction of the remaining orcs.
"Shoot!" Hadron cried, and the warriors started killing the last orcs that were running in their direction while Valerie started sprinting after the orphan.
"Hadrian! Come back! We will protect you!" She quickly reached him and tackled him to the ground. The spiders were getting closer, and she protected him with her body, her gun aiming in their direction.
The warriors were running towards them, bows and blades in hand to face the spiders.
Everything happened too quickly after that. Valerie saw five spiders getting near them, and she shot in the direction of the closest one. The spider was projected backwards but still came straight for her after, not mortally wounded. Valerie was frozen on the spot, realizing that Legolas was telling the truth when he said these spiders were big as horses. Hadrian screamed in fright right in her sensitive ears, and Valerie shook herself. She shot the same spider again while others were running beside her, attacking the warriors that were trying to protect her from the spiders and the last orcs.
The twice-wounded spider was now on them, and Valerie pushed the child away, attempting to put him out of the spider's reach, but the spider caught Hadrian and hit him with her dart.
"No!" Valerie yelled. She shot the spider again right in the middle of its multiple eyes, and it fell on the child, only to stand again to start enveloping Hadrian's body in its sticky thread. The spiders seemed too big to be killed by bullets and arrows! How were the Greenwood warriors killing these things without grenades? She suddenly felt immense pain in her back, and turning her head, saw another spider towering over her. She fell to her knees, losing all sensations in her lower body first. She watched as three warriors finally killed a spider by standing on its back and hitting it with their blades multiple times. Valerie's body slowly fell to the ground, and her eyesight became blurry as she watched Hadron being overcome by another spider. She suddenly felt her body being lifted from the ground, and started being rolled into a tight cocoon herself, just like Hadrian before. She closed her eyes, letting the darkness envelop her.
The warriors kept fighting and killed a second spider before the three arachnids that were still alive left with the cocooned bodies of their princess, their lieutenant and the orphan child that the princess had tried to save at all cost. And the cost had been high. The three of them were no more than future spider food by now, and the Greenwood warriors had lost a brother in arms. The ellon's body was lying face down in a pool of blood, his carotid cut by the dart of a spider.
Leaderless and troubled, the warriors remained around the body of their fallen brother, until one of them decided to get help from the Greenwood warriors that were behind the Esgaroth wall, unaware that their realm had lost so much in the valley while they were protecting the town of the mortals.
Valerie's life is in danger again… But she could not let Hadrian be killed by the orcs, the poor orphan had already suffered so much in the past years. Unfortunately, another Greenwood warrior die near Lake-town, you will know who in the next chapter…
I hope you enjoyed this surprise chapter on a Sunday night!
Glassary: for Valerie and her older children, using the endearment terms in Sindarin is difficult. They stick with "Mother", "Mommy" and "Father" since these are the words they were raised with and it speaks to their hearts…
Legolas fan: if it was Legolas and Valerie's choice, there would be no other child. But… it's my decision, not theirs! :-)
Glory Bee: I will indeed have Eomer and Lothiriel in the future chapters. I like refering to Tolkien's original plots!
Aureleis: for now, Gil-galad and Oropher are best friends, but their memories will be difficult to cope with in a few decades…
Natasya Ivashkov: thank you for your first review! I admit that I spend more time on this story than I did on the Haldir version. I guess I am gaining experience as this story progresses!
Hannahhobnob: Elladan was a bit disappointed by the welcome he got from Phoebe. But truly, would you expect any less from Phoebe since she didn't hear a word from him in the past 5 years?
Airbender42: I hope the usage of weapons didn't disappoint you! Valerie did use silencers to protect the ears of the warriors around her… Thank you for your review, I really appreciated your comments.
Angel: I already have in mind an important scene when one of them regains his memories. It is not written yet – but it will be dramatic!
KKK3: Thranduil turns out to be a good grandfather. It would never have been possible for him to ignore such a charming child. Let's wait and see what said child will say when he regains his memories!
Peridot Eyez: I had to end this chapter with another cliffhanger – sorry! I will try to post the next chapter shortly!
Aralinn: Thranduil and Valerie will be very close from now on. Even their fighting will be endearing!
Pheebeee: don't we all wish to have an elven warrior as a mate! Normal life seems boring in comparison! Ha ha ha