Part 2
So that's an orc, some part of my mind whispered. The rest of my mind was scared shitless at these....things coming at me en masse.
My training and sense of self-preservation kicked in, and I pulled the trigger of my rifle. The first wave of orcs dropped to the ground in unceremonious heaps. Black blood oozed out of them. The stench would have made me nauseous if I wasn't so busy trying to keep them from bashing my head in.
More came, an endless rush of green flesh and black blood. Some of them tried to back away from me, but the throng behind pushed them forward into my range of fire. Some of them made it past me and attacked the others, where they were felled by arrows, swords, and an ax.
My rifle kept spouting a steady stream of bullets to discourage the orcs from further attack, but they pressed on. The rapid kata-kata-kata of my gun reassured me, but all too soon, all I heard was a sickening clika-clik.
I was out of ammo, and the orcs weren't going to give me time to load a new mag. Having no other choice, I lifted the strap of the gun off of my neck and swung my rifle one-handed like a club. With the other hand, I grabbed my bayonet knife and began slashing at them.
Thankfully, the flow of orcs had ebbed, so there weren't so many to deal with. Unfortunately, the only reason they stopped coming was because they were leading a giant creature on a chain into the room. The creature swung a giant club, not caring who or what it hit. It smashed downwards, and I jumped before it crushed me. Then it ignored me in favor of the roaring Gimli, who was perched atop the crypt and brandishing his ax at the giant. It swung again, and Gimli leapt. The blow crushed the foot of the crypt. Gimli roared louder and would've attacked the giant, but a few straggling orcs attacked him first.
I looked back at the door. More orcs were coming towards us. To attack or just watch the carnage of their giant pet, I didn't know nor did I care. I grabbed a grenade, pulled the pin with my teeth, and chucked it out the door. The explosion sent them scattering again.
I focussed on the giant again, just in time to see Legolas jump onto its head and shoot an arrow point blank into its skull. The giant only seemed angrier and showed no signs of injury otherwise. The giant broke its chain and attacked the little ones. I whistled shrilly and threw a rock at it to get its attention. It looked at me clearly annoyed by the little gnat tossing stones at it. I slashed the neck of an oncoming orc and then pulled a grenade from my belt.
"Lookie what I got," I called to it in singsong sort of voice. I tossed it lightly from hand to hand. "You want it?" I taunted. The giant seemed intrigued by the little green grenade. It grabbed for me, but I danced out of the way. I pulled the pin and lightly tossed it up to him. He caught it easily and began sniffing at it curiously.
"Duck!" I yelled to the others. They managed to find some cover a split second before it exploded.
The giant staggered and screamed in fury. The explosion blinded it and removed most of the skin on its face. The explosion had also blown the palm of its hand to nothing more than tattered flesh over scorched bone. Legolas moved in front of it and fired a single shot through the roof of its mouth. It stopped a moment and gagged before dropping dead on the ground.
I searched for the little ones. Aragorn was kneeling over one of them. It was the one with the big eyes. He was slumped over a spear. To everyone's surprise, he got up. Slowly, but he got up and said, "It's all right. I'm not hurt."
Aragorn was breathless. "That spear would have skewered a wild boar."
The little one [Frodo, that was it. Frodo has the big eyes, Sam has red hair, and the other two...are Merry and Pippin] parted his shirt to reveal a shining maille shirt underneath.
"Mithril," Gimli breathed. Another word I didn't know, but this one didn't seem ominous.
Aragorn helped Frodo to his feet and made sure he really wasn't hurt. Then they all stared at me. I was uncomfortable to say the least.
"I know not what manner of weapons you carry," Gandalf said, "but I am thankful they were used in our favor."
I smiled and saluted smartly. I would've made some glib reply, but we could hear the gaggling voices of more orcs approaching.
"Come!" Gandalf shouted. We followed him at a dead run. I could see all around us, up through the floor, and down from the ceiling of the pillared room, orcs were massing from every conceivable angle. We were going to be cut off before we could reach the far door where Gandalf was leading. I loaded a new mag on the run, and stopped with the others.
We were surrounded. We all stood back to back, facing the horde that encircled us. The orcs screeched and taunted from a small distance. I set my jaw grimly and fitted my rifle into my shoulder. If I'm going down, you bastards are coming with me.
Before I could fire a shot, a deep rumble came from behind us. Everyone, including the orcs, turned their attention to the noise. At first I thought it was another drum, but the rumbles came at slow even intervals. A red glow came from behind the pillars. The orcs seemed to know exactly what it was.....and ran for their lives back into the nooks and crannies they had emerged from.
"What new devilry is this?" Boromir whispered.
Gandalf answered him. "A Balrog."
I felt Legolas stiffen beside me.
"Your weapons are of no use here," Gandalf said. "Run!"
We turned tail from the approaching glow and ran through the far door. Boromir was leading this time, and it almost got him killed when he tried to step down a stair that wasn't there anymore. Legolas grabbed him as he teetered on the edge of the precipice. I spared half a second to stare down where Boromir would have fallen. Damn. That last step's a doozie.
The others grabbed my attention again, and I followed through a maze of stairs and small halls. "You guys know where you're going, right?" I asked.
"To the bridge of Khazad-Dûm!" shouted Gandalf over the noise of the footsteps [for that is what the even rumbling was - the heavy footfalls of something even bigger than the giant in the crypt room] which had grown so loud that the cave walls shook with each step.
Legolas and I leapt over a gap in the stair we were on. We turned to help the others across. They each jumped [or were thrown, in the case of the little ones] and landed safely with us on the lower edge.
Frodo and Aragorn were about to jump when disaster struck. The footsteps of the creature loosened a great chunk of rock from the ceiling, and it fell through the stair behind them. The gap we had already jumped widened until it was impossible to cross. The wide gashes in front and behind them trapped the pair. They couldn't go forward, they couldn't go back, and the section of stair they were standing on was beginning to crumble beneath them.
It looked like all was lost for them, but fortune was in their favor. The crumbling stair crumbled forward, and they were able to leap into our waiting arms. The group, now complete again, ran towards the bridge of Khazad-Dûm.
When I first saw the bridge, I nearly stopped and refused, but the red glow grew to immense proportions behind me, and a heat like raw blazing fire crossed my back. It spurred me on faster.
"You call this a bridge?!" I yelled even as I set foot on it. I didn't dare slow down, or even look down, as I crossed. I was too afraid of stumbling over the side of the narrow lip of rock. And there'll be a marker next to the bridge saying 'Here lies Todd Blackburn. The idiot with two left feet who fell from a chopper and a bridge in the same day.'
I was almost laughing as I ran off the bridge and slammed full tilt into the opposite wall. I rolled off the wall and followed Boromir and the little ones up another stair. Boromir stopped and turned around, looking at the bridge. The rest of us stopped and turned as well.
Gandalf was standing in the middle of the bridge, facing down what I can only call a living bonfire. The thing was made of smoke and flames, and it roared with a ferocity that shook me to the core. Gandalf stood his ground and commanded the creature, "You cannot pass!"
The fiery demon only seemed to laugh at the little man in front of it.
"I am a servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the flame of Anor. The dark fire will not avail you, flame of Udûn. Go back to the Shadow!"
The demon raised a flaming sword and brought it down on Gandalf. The blade of it shattered like so much glass smashed against a stone.
Raising his sword and staff together, Gandalf bellowed, "You - shall not - pass!" and struck the bridge mightily.
The demon looked at Gandalf as if expecting something more, but nothing more happened. It stepped onto the bridge with a fiery whip in its hand, and the half it stepped on gave way and fell into the bottomless chasm below. The demon, howling with rage, fell with it.
Gandalf seemed to shrink, having spent so much energy. I nearly yelled in triumph for him, but the victory was premature. As Gandalf turned to join us, the demon flicked its whip up and caught his leg, dragging Gandalf over the edge.
"Fly, you fools," he said and then was gone.
My heart sank into my knees. I didn't know this man, but he had just given his life to save me, to save all of us. God, I wanted to cry.
The little ones cried out his name and tried to run to him, but they were stopped by the bigger men. I'm not sure how it came about, but I found myself running with Sam tucked under my arm as I blindly followed those ahead of me out into the sunlight.
I lowered Sam to the ground, where he collapsed in tears. Merry and Pippin were huddled against each other, grieving. Everyone else seemed in shock. Aragorn, who was the most collected, called out to Legolas to get everyone on their feet and moving. Legolas looked at him as if he wasn't quite sure he'd heard right.
"For pity's sake, give them a moment," Boromir said.
Aragorn motioned at the hillsides around them. "By nightfall these hills will be swarming with orcs. We need to make our way to Lothlorien as fast as possible."
Legolas went to Merry and Pippin and tried to rouse them up. I went to Sam. "Come on, little guy. Up and at 'em." He was limp, and I ended up physically hauling him to his feet. I took him by the shoulders and made him look me in the eye. "He saved you," I told him. "He saved all of us, but that's not going to mean squat if we wait out here for more orcs." He nodded and stumbled forward on shaky legs.
I called out softly to Gimli. "What's at the bottom of that chasm?"
He frowned. "No one knows. It is a bottomless void with no way down save for Gandalf's path. Why do you ask?"
I shrugged. "I'm a Ranger. Part of our creed is 'Leave no man behind.' Even if he's dead, every man gets to go home. I thought if maybe there was a way down, we could get him out." I sighed. "I guess it's out of the question if there's not."
"Even with a way down," Gimli stated, "it would be death for us all."
I knew that rather than arguing with me, he was trying to talk himself out of going back. "I know," was all I said. I stepped forward and took Sam, who was still shaky, by the hand.
Frodo was looking back at me. His eyes were eerily dead, like the grief had killed everything else in him, but I could see that he wanted very much to go back as well. I slung my gunstrap back around my neck and offered him my free hand. He hesitated a moment, looked at Sam, and took my offering. Aragorn gave me a grateful smile before turning and leading us down the mountain.
Aragorn pushed us hard all day. My old drill sergeant could learn a few things from him. Whenever we would slack in pace, he urged us on faster. Well after dark, we could go no further, and when Aragorn called for us to stop and rest, we collapsed where we stood. He woke us again before dawn, and we were off again, just as tired as when we went to sleep.
Drill Sgt. Lowery is a pussy cat compared to this guy, I grumbled to myself as I was roused from a deep sleep. The only one that seemed unaffected by the short rest was Legolas. I half-jogged next to him for a while and couldn't resist asking him, "What's your secret, man?"
He looked at me, eyeing the similarities in us again, and replied, "I am an Elf, not a man, and of what secret do you speak?"
I almost laughed. "You're a what?"
"An Elf. You know naught of Elves?"
I did laugh this time. "Sure....they make toys for Santa. Except for the Keeblers, they live in a tree and make cookies. Seriously though, how do you get the energy to keep going like this? The rest of us are dead on our feet."
He didn't look pleased at my description of elves. "You know naught of Elves," he stated and was silent.
I mentally shrugged off his reaction and kept up my nearly-jogging pace. Occasionally I had to give one of the little ones a hand up from a stumble. I stumbled myself once in a while as well.
The day was once again a long trek into exhaustion that left us deep asleep when rest finally came. Once again, Aragorn and Legolas roused us early to set off. I was tired and hungry [I knew the sugar from my stash of M&Ms would only dehydrate me] and forced to share a water flask with Gimli because I hadn't taken a canteen on my mission.
Around noontime, we reached the edge of a forest. Aragorn seemed relieved to be there. We marched at a slower pace through the surrounding foliage.
My mind, no longer forced to focus on putting one foot in front of another, wandered to locations. I had fallen from a chopper in Mogadishu. Mogadishu was in the middle of the fucking desert with an ocean to the east. The mountains in the area didn't amount to much more than solid sand dunes. Vegetation was scarce until you got closer to the shoreline, and even then it was spotty.
I had just come from a big rocky mountain, which was part of a whole range of mountains and had a cave system the size of New York City. I had been traveling for two days across grassy fields with swift streams flowing through them and was now in a forest.
Where the hell was I? It certainly wasn't Mogadishu, hell it probably wasn't even Somalia, and I was beginning to wonder if I was still in Africa.
"Where the hell am I?"
Everyone stopped and looked at me.
"Where the hell am I?" I repeated.
"Just east of the Misty Mountains, in the woods of Lorien," answered Aragorn.
I shook my head. "No, I mean....where the hell am I? The last time I knew where I was, I was in a fucking desert. Nothing like these mountains or this forest could be found for hundreds and hundreds of miles. There's no fucking way I could just fall out of a chopper and land here." They all just frowned at me. "Fuck! Am I even still in Africa?"
"I have never heard of this Africa," Aragorn said. "When we reach Lothlorien, we may be able to find some map that you recognize, and you may go home when you wish. For now, we must press on. Our journey is almost ended."
I shook my head. I wanted to argue. I wanted to know right that second where I was, but Aragorn made sense, and I was glad to hear this deathmarch was almost over.
Legolas stepped beside me. "You are a strange man, Private Todd Blackburn."
"I'm not the one with Spock ears," I retorted. He looked at me quizzically. "You know, Spock...Star Trek....'That is highly illogical, Captain'....." His facial expression didn't change. "Nevermind. You guys don't watch that much tv, do you?"
"What is 'teevee'?"
I shook my head again. "Nevermind."
"Tell me of the Keebler Elves," Legolas asked. "I have never heard of them before. The name does not even sound Elvish."
I shrugged. "Not much to tell. They're about this big." I indicated with my hands about a foot tall. "They live in a big oak tree, and they make cookies and crackers. Their leader is Ernie Keebler, and he wears this dopey little green outfit. Personally, I like the Fudge Shoppe cookies, but then again, I'm a chocolate freak."
"That cannot be," he argued. "No Elves are so small, and while I know Elves who bake - my father employs many in our city - it is not possible that they all do so. Do they not hunt? or ride? Are they not great archers, as are all other Elves?"
I wasn't quite sure how to answer that. "Uh.....someone at a bakery made them up as a marketing gimmick to get people to buy their cookies. They're not real; they're fictitious. All elves are."
He looked like I'd just told him the moon is made of banana pudding. "Not real?! I am an Elf, and I assure you I am quite real."
I didn't want to argue anymore. I was too tired to argue anymore, and the adrenaline rush I'd had since the orc battle was finally wearing off now that we'd slowed down. Plus, I hadn't had a cigarette since before taking off for Mogadishu. Truth be told, I felt sick. "Whatever."
He didn't press the issue. However Gimli started spouting some nonsense about an elf-witch that lived in these very woods. I tried to ignore him.
That effort was made easier when I found myself nose to point with an arrow. Behind it was a tall blonde guy with pointy ears. In fact we were surrounded by pointy eared blondes with arrows aimed at us. One of them spoke, "The Dwarf breathes so loudly we could have shot him in the dark."
Aragorn said something to him in a language I didn't recognize. We were lead deeper into the woods. Our walk went on into the evening, and I was about to start griping [okay whining] about coming to a stopping point soon when the last rays of the sun disappeared. The forest around us began to glow with tiny silver lights. It was like the trees had plucked stars out of the night sky and decorated themselves with their bright points. The trees themselves looked like burnished silver with dark green leaves, and were so tall and wide, I could imagine a redwood becoming jealous.
We were lead up a stair that had been built into a tree trunk and spiraled upwards out of sight amongst the foliage. Along the way were many platforms, where people were talking, playing, in general living like it was no big deal that they were a hundred feet off the ground. At the top we were ushered into a house of palacial elegance. Standing on a dais were two of the most beautiful people I'd ever seen. I rarely attach that word to men [hey I'm in the army] but the man in front of me could have no other description but beautiful.
And if he was beautiful, the woman next to him was a goddess. She looked at me as though she could see right through me.
I greet you, fair stranger, though you do not belong here.
That was it. I'd been through battle with orcs and giants, dragged on a death march with crazy people who thought they were elves, sickened by adrenaline withdrawal and nicotine cravings, and was now hearing voices in my head.
"Fuck me blind," I muttered and passed out cold.