Disclaimer: I own nothing but Kate and Almira. Talk about a major downer. Sorry it's taken me forever to update. I was out of town.

Chapter 3- My Hero

As the guards were binding our hands, Lord Glorfindel issued orders concerning our bags, who was to guide us, and so forth. It was during this interaction with his guards that I realized I understood every single word that had been spoken. Not only that, but both Almira and I had managed to converse with Lord Glorfindel.

"Oh my God!" I cried in my surprise.

"What now?" Lord Glorfindel sighed, turning towards us.

"I understand you. I mean we can actually speak to each other."

"Well, you are an elf. I would hope you would speak your own language."

"Not very bright, is she?" Almira smirked.

Oh, sure this coming from her. Glorfindel did not reply, just simply rolled his eyes and began to turn away towards his horse when Almira began to speak again. Always a bad thing.

"My lord, how long until we reach Riverdale?"

"Rivendell, you idiot," I groaned.

"Not very bright, is she?" asked Glorfindel.

"You have no idea," I replied.

Almira just rolled her eyes. Again.

"It will be about a two day walk to the gates of the city," Glorfindel said. "Let's begin."

That said, Glorfindel mounted his horse and moved to the front of the group, while we were placed in the middle so as to make sure we were properly guarded in case we decided to try anything. Not likely, seeing as I valued my life and sincerely doubted I could actually harm any one of the elves guarding me. It would have been more like me making a fool of myself resulting in my death.

Seeing as none of my captors were interested in talking to possible servants of the Dark Lord, I had a lot of time to myself to try and figure how exactly I could speak Elvish. I only had one really plausible theory and that was the Mary-Sue Factor. Upon entering Middle-Earth and my subsequent change of species, I conveniently gained all the necessary knowledge to communicate. Because, Heaven forbid Mary-Sue would have to do work and learn a language. But how many languages and to what extent I knew them was still a mystery to me. Concerning my earlier conversation with Glorfindel, I was pretty sure I was speaking Elvish because that's what he was speaking. This proved my theory correct because I did it without thinking. This train of thought only served to depress me because it once again made it all too clear I was really trapped in Middle-Earth. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending upon how you look at it) I didn't have too much of a chance to dwell on it because at that moment I was roughly thrown to the ground.

"Hey, what the-," I began but stopped when I caught sight of what had caused my being thrown to the ground. An arrow, one I assumed was an Orc arrow due to the black fletching was lodged in a tree next to where I had been standing. The wonderful reflexes of my Elven companion had just saved me from being skewered. Never had I been so happy to have been captured by Elves as right then.

But before I had a chance to thank my Elven savior I was picked up and thrown against said tree, along with Almira, while the Elves pulled out their weapons and prepared to face the approaching Orcs.

As I watched them I realized one very important detail: my hands were still bound. "Hey, hey! Untie me!" I cried.

One of the Elves turned to me. "Be quiet," he hissed. "We will look after you. What good would it do if you can't even use a weapon? Besides how do we know you didn't orchestrate this so you could escape?"

Ok, so he had a point. But I didn't have time to reply because at that moment the Orcs charged and our captors were busy defending themselves and us. Did I mention how happy I was to have Elves around? Their skills for fighting were amazing. I mean let's face it, the Orcs didn't stand a chance against beings who had most likely had centuries of practice. It was a massacre. That being said, I was having a hard time trying not to be sick. We have all seen at least one battle scene in a movie, but it is nothing like the real thing. The screams and the blood were really starting to get to me. Not to mention the smell. I mean Orcs don't exactly practice good hygiene, so throw in that and the sweet tang of blood and it makes for quite the nauseating combination.

I looked up and saw an Orc sneaking up behind one of the Elves who was busy fighting a different Orc. Dirty bugger. Picking my self up, I managed to rugby tackle the Orc, preventing him from stabbing the unsuspecting elf. I landed hard on my shoulder, emitting a startled cry of pain. My cry alerted the elf and a few of his companions to the Orc's position, resulting in its being shot. Ha, take that. That'll learn ya. The elf I saved, helped me up, and half-carrying me (due to my shoulder) led me back towards the tree, where I had been previously sitting with Almira. With a nod, he set me down and turned back to fighting, while I was again left to watch. My eyes wandered to Glorfindel, and I couldn't look away. At present he was dancing circles around the Orc he was fighting. He almost looked bored. Of course, this was Glorfindel, the twice-born Balrog slayer. Why should a few Orcs bother him? He made it look easy, a stab here, a block there. And he seemed so unaffected. I mean Orcs were dying all around him, crying out in agony but it didn't even seem to faze him.

After watching for a few more moments, I just couldn't take anymore. I closed my eyes to try and block it out and just wait for it to be over, but I couldn't block out the sound; I needed something to distract myself. At that moment, Almira began to whisper, "Kate, what's that thing doing?" I had never been so happy to hear her speak until I realized what she was talking about. The Orc I had tackled earlier was slowly crawling towards us. What was this, the Terminator? It'd been shot like six times (alright two), how could it still be moving? It was staying close to the ground, obviously taking advantage of the Elves' distraction during the battle to get close to us. "Blast, I thought these things were supposed to be stupid," I said.

"What are we going to do?" Almira asked.

I was about to reply that I had absolutely no idea seeing as I had never had to fight an Orc before, when said Orc suddenly sprang from the ground and lunged towards us.

"Move!" I cried and just like that we moved apart and rolled away from the tree. As the Orc began to advance on Almira, she fainted.

"Oh good. You just had to pass out now," I muttered. Seeing as I wasn't a Mary-Sue, I had been pretty much ignored by the Orc. Acting on pure instinct (or stupidity) I kicked the Orc in the back of the knee seeing as it had turned its back on me. As annoying as she was I just couldn't let Almira be kidnapped or killed. Not that I didn't entertain the notion, but seeing as I believe in the hereafter I figured letting her die would be points off at the Pearly Gates.

The Orc whirled around and snarled at me. "Uh-oh. Not good," I said as I struggled to my feet and began to back away. "A little help here?" I yelled to my Elven companions. The Orc lunged and this time I didn't move fast enough. It grabbed me and threw me to the ground, further aggravating my shoulder, and proceeded to try and strangle me. Seeing as my hands were still tied behind my back, I couldn't really defend myself. The situation looked grim, very grim. Just as my vision started getting fuzzy, the Orc was pulled off me and a sickening squelching sound left no doubt in my mind as to what had happened to him. "It's about time," I muttered amidst my coughing fits.

"You're welcome," Glorfindel said as he walked towards me. Blasted Elven hearing. "Are you alright?" he asked while kneeling down in front of me and looking me over.

"Oh yeah, (cough) I'm just fine (cough)," I said as sarcastically as possible, which wasn't very much seeing as I was still having trouble breathing.

"What about your shoulder?" he asked, ignoring my pathetic attempt at sarcasm.

That surprised me because I did not think he would have noticed. But now that he said something, the throbbing pain in my shoulder came to the forefront in my mind. I had managed to block it out while fighting for my life, or trying to. "I think I might have dislocated it," I replied.

"Then it will have to be set," he said and cut the rope binding my hands.

"Bummer," I muttered as he called over one of the Elves.

"This is Faelon. He is a healer and will set your shoulder for you."

I looked up and noticed that Faelon turned out to be the same Elf I had saved. I nodded at him as he knelt down next to me and began feeling my shoulder.

"I wanted to thank you for saving my life. I am in your debt."

"I must admit I was really quite impressed," acknowledged Glorfindel.

I was kind of embarrassed and almost positive I was blushing. "It's really no big deal, I-OUCH!" Faelon had decided to set my shoulder at that exact moment. I began to glare at him while he began to fashion a sort of sling for my shoulder.

"Sorry," he said, "it is better if you do not expect it."

"Thanks," I muttered. It really wasn't his fault my shoulder had to be set. He helped me to my feet (seeing as I would have had a hard time since I couldn't move my shoulder) and then just kind of stared at me. I was about to ask him what was up with the staring when Glorfindel inquired after Almira.

"She's passed out over there," I stated while nodding to her body a few feet away.

"Is it too much to hope for that she might stay this way?" I heard Glorfindel mutter under his breath. I take back what I said earlier about Elven hearing, I love it.

"Now, now. That's not very nice," I said with a smile.

"You can't tell me you weren't hoping for the same thing."

"No, I can't because that would be lying and I try not to do that."

At that Glorfindel just smiled and bent over to see if he could wake Almira up. One shake and she was awake. Just like that. Not dazed or slightly confused, but perfectly awake. Fainted, my arse.

"What happened? Is everyone alright?" she inquired, all wide-eyed and helpless. Disgusting, absolutely disgusting.

"You fainted and everyone is fine," Glorfindel answered while slowly edging away. Almira, seeing him try to escape, sort of collapsed onto him.

"I'm sorry. I am just so weak from my near-death experience. That Orc nearly killed me, you know. I bet you saved me, didn't you? Oh, how kind and brave of you. I am forever in your debt." She stared at him, batting her eyelashes. For heaven's sake, she was practically drooling.

"The hell!" I cried "I distinctly remember me kicking said Orc. Granted, he did eventually shoot the Orc, effectively killing it. But if anything he saved my life." Oh, oh jeez. He really had saved my life. Glorfindel just stared at me with one eyebrow raised. "He he, thanks for that by the way," I said, just a tad embarrassed at my outburst. I ducked my head, hoping I was not blushing too badly.

I heard what distinctly sounded like a chuckle from Glorfindel (if Elves chuckle.) When I looked back up, he had Almira standing and had cut the rope binding her hands.

"I have decided you are not a threat. Don't prove me wrong. However, Elrond will still need to listen to your tale and decide what is to be done with you. We will travel until sundown, which is now just an hour off, and then make camp and journey the rest of the way tomorrow." That being said Glorfindel made to move towards his horse and I noticed the sudden lack of bodies in the area and the subsequent return of the rest of our Elven captors. What they did with the bodies I don't know. However, we were once again surrounded, although this time I assumed it was more for protection than anything else.

But before we could start moving, Almira gave a little cry of distress and her knees gave out. One of the warriors caught her, even though it was almost painfully obvious she was faking.

"Oh dear," she whimpered, "I don't think I will be able to walk."

"Pfft. Yeah right," I muttered. There was no way I was buying this. Glorfindel didn't look too impressed either. But seeing as he was an Elf Lord and supposed to be all chivalrous and stuff, he had no choice but to offer that she ride with him. Poor, poor Elf.

Almira of course was overjoyed, that is as much as she was able to be in her "state." She kept shooting me triumphant glances from over her shoulder while riding with him. Whatever. If she thought I cared then she was sorely mistaken. My Elven companions around me noticed and shot me sympathetic glances. I guess I won big points with them for helping out during the skirmish because they were being fairly nice. Faelon even leaned over and said, "Don't feel too bad. It could be worse. You could be Lord Glorfindel." Between his comment and the look on Glorfindel's face earlier, I couldn't help it, I laughed. Lord Glorfindel turned around and shot us a dirty look. We were supposed to be fairly quiet so our presence would not be too obvious, but I think he was just ticked off because of the truth of the statement. I mean, come on, he had bells on his horse. However, I refrained from saying this and gave him an apologetic look seeing as I really did pity him. I quieted down and shared a small smile with Faelon. You know, this might not have been so bad.