Many thanks to our reviewers who keep us going, and thanks to our friends for some interesting inspiration.
As always, please read and review.
Wonderful reviewers of the last chapter: FernTimberlake (of course ), Queen of Monkey Magic (another cookie), and newbie 'Hope and Love'
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Chapter 5:
The Male Patriarch Rescues the Damsels in Distress.
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Mel grabbed the creatures' arm, turning it back towards her, prohibiting it from seeing Jess. "I haven't finished yet!" she told the creature as she dropped its rather foul arm. "Did you know that the word 'fight' derives from the Latin 'Bagooma', meaning…" she trailed off as the creature lifted its large monstrous arm into the air as it went to strike her. She flinched backwards, closing her eyes, waiting for the blow. It didn't come, as a moment later she felt something fly past her ear, opening her eyes she saw an arrow embedded in the creatures' hand. The creature was looking past her at something and yelled out to the others, "A Woodlander! Golug, ish! Mauk-ul!"
Mel glared at the creature and kicked him hard in the shins, hurting her foot in the process. "Oh f!" she yelled grabbing her foot as the creature pushed her over, she fell backwards only to be caught by human hands. The creature had run off so she was able to look at her saviour: he was a tall man, with long blond hair and had a bow and arrow in his hand. He held her up gently with his other hand. He smiled kindly.
"Elfling, are you alright?" he asked her.
"Yeah, mostly, it's just my arm: I think it's broken or something,"
A small heavily bearded man ran up to them, axe in hand. "Elf, come on, the elfling is fine, there's a BATTLE! I'm on one already!"
"One? That doesn't count, it was outside the…"
"IT DOES SO!"
"Fine," the elf said as he strung two arrows and fired them at the creatures, killing two. "Two for me," he said and the short man fumed. They both ran off to the battle where a group of humans was already fighting.
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Jess gulped as she flipped another creature and cut it down with Jackie's recovered sword. The adrenaline rushed through her body as she fought each one that attacked her. Jess wasn't sure what she was doing, why and how was she fighting these creatures with just a sword and her fists? She had began on instinct when one of the creatures had found her holding Jackie's sword, and it had continued as more and more creatures joined the fight. She was constantly being grabbed from behind and had to swing the large heavy sword at them trying to remove the threats, she was fighting for her life but as the number of creatures grow she found her options becoming more obsolete. She knew she couldn't die, apart from the fact she didn't want to, it would leave the others in grave danger: Mel had begun to make trouble, already irritating them greatly, as Fern had seemed to have somehow done earlier. She heard one of the larger creatures yell out something in that foul language and many of the creatures she had been fighting left. The only term she'd understood was 'A Woodlander!' though she wasn't exactly sure what was meant by it.
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The elf and short hairy man ran into the battle, letting their vast experience show as they, rather casually, counted their kill tally.
"Elf!" the short man called out
"Yes Gimli?" the elf replied
"I didn't think there were any elflings around at the moment,"
"There are none that I know of, perhaps the family is quite… secluded, and for some reason didn't want anyone to know of them…"
Gimli didn't respond for a moment as his axe met a creatures sword, "Thirteen!"
"What? Where did you find all those Urik-hi? I see just over twenty in total,"
"Precisely! And thus I am much more skilled then you elf!"
"Which is very curious, as all you can really do is chop their legs off," Gimli looked outraged as he aimed for a creatures chest on purpose, "unless you are standing on a handy rock or box," the elf finished smirking at the short man.
"Hmph!'
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There were two more elves in the group, twins, and they where quite enjoying themselves. Yet they to pondered the same question that plagued Gimli and his elven companion.
"And since we know one is an elfling, would that make the others elflings to? Or is it an elfling among a group of humans? And I didn't think there where even any elflings on Middle earth!" One of the twins cried
"And what are they doing here in the middle of nowhere, being held captives of the Urik-hi?" The other seemed to finish for the others questionings
"We should ask them," the first suggested
"Um Roh?"
"Yes Dan?"
"Perhaps now is not the best time, as we seem to be quite busy,"
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Mel ran over to Jackie and Susan, who where still looking after Fern, while glancing nervously over at the battle.
"Jess is in there, somewhere," Mel said
"What on earth made her do that?" Susan demanded.
A creature broke away from the battle and headed towards them; this one was one of the shorter, wimpier creatures, and perhaps even more disgusting then the larger that seemed to at least have a brain.
"Help!" Jackie screamed, still slightly hysterical
None of them had any weapons and they looked around wildly for something to defend themselves with.
"Elflings," the creature began to croon
Susan picked up a very heavy rock and threw it, with some force, at the creature. It hit it in the middle of its forehead and Mel wasn't sure it would do anything as it seemed the creatures head was incredibly thick and empty, but the unexpected force threw the creature backwards and it didn't get up again; so Mel assumed Susan had just rid the creature of what little brain it had.
"Wow good shot Suze!" Mel cried as Susan stared at the creature
"I…I…" Susan muttered before fainting
The battle was almost complete, most able creatures fled, including the leader. One of the remaining creatures looked around desperately for a way to escape, but he was surrounded by the enemy. He had not been seen as he was lying injured on the ground, but he knew it couldn't last long as the men were checking for survivors. He saw a slim opportunity, one of the elflings was standing nearby, and seemed relatively harmless; her grip on that sword was quite lazy and she had a rather dumfounded look on her face. He approached her quickly and cautiously as the hunting group was looking after the poisoned elfling and chasing some of his brethren. He had almost reached her when he was startled by a yell of "thirty-three!" by the dwarf.
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The Rangers were checking that all the Orcs and Urak-hi were dead, whilst the elf and dwarf chased the others and counted it all rather loudly. Aragorn watched them doing this, being their temporary commander and all. He listened to Gimli and Legolas shaking his head, whilst chuckling under his breath. He surveyed the troops when he saw something out of the corner of his eye. There was an Urak-hi about to grab the girl who had been fighting!
"GIRL! LOOKOUT!" Aragorn cried as he readied his bow; also attracting the attention of the others.
The Urak-hi grabbed the girl and held her in front of him like a shield. "Don't do anything, or I'll kill the elfling," he yelled as he held a knife to her throat.
"Strider?" Aragorn's second lieutenant asked him.
"Legolas!" Aragorn called out, needing the elf's assistance.
The Urak-hi looked around nervously as Aragorn waited impatiently for Legolas to arrive; Aragorn was defiantly not used to waiting for people.
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Legolas strung his arrow and prepared to shoot when Aragorn's voice interrupted his thoughts; he quickly fired the arrow and listened.
"Elf!" Gimli said loudly in his ear, but he just shushed him.
"Something's going on back there," he said, looking toward the camp. "Aragorn needs our help,"
Legolas ran to the Urak-hi camp, with Gimli just behind him, and saw the scene unfolding before him: A lone Urak-hi holding a girl hostage, while Aragorn looked on unsure, the girl's friend, the elfling, stood next to Aragorn and was trying to talk to the Urak-hi with some assistance from Aragorn.
"What's going on?" Legolas asked.
"He says the girls an elfling; this is not my area of expertise, I'd ask the twins but they're tending to the injured," the twins suddenly appeared at his side; looking on nervously.
"Another elfling?" the eldest asked.
"That's very rare," his brother agreed, and Legolas nodded.
"They're all the same age, which I find the strangest," Legolas said. "None appear to be related,"
"Are you going to do something, or what?" the elfling demanded.
"And just what would you have us do?" Aragorn asked.
"Save her! That's what you hero types do, isn't it?"
"How do we know she's this elf thing?" Gimli demanded of the Urak-hi while the others stared at him.
The Urak-hi smirked and pulled back her hair, revealing the tell-tale pointy ears.
"OUCH! YOU SON-OF-A!" the girl yelled.
"Lower your weapons and let me through or the elfling dies!" the Urik-hi sneered
"Do as he says!" Legolas and the elven twins cried, afraid for the elfling.
The Urik-hi leered at them as they lowered their weapons, though it took one of Legolas's best glares to get Gimli to lower his axe.
"Glamhoth!" the elfling next to Aragorn yelled at him unexpectedly, "Don't hurt her!"
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Jess was afraid, yet frustrated and angry. Jess was watching the people who had had saved her stand around talking with that creature. She could tell Mel was getting quite frustrated, yet was acting strangely diplomatic as she attempted to save her and argue with the leader of the men at the same time. It was obvious that they won't going to do anything as three of them had felt there was something of great importance about this elfling they felt her to be. Jess decided to take matters into her own hands, after all it was her own life at stake and she wasn't the damsel in distress type.
"I'm nobody's damn hostage!" she yelled determinedly, as she stomped hard on the creatures foot, causing it to loosen its hold for only a moment, Jess took this opportunity to grab the creatures arm and flip it over. She then snatched his knife from the creatures hand and drove it into the creatures' chest, finding its black heart. Everyone stared at her in complete shock.
"Jess!" Mel ran over to her and hugged her tight.
Jess stared at the dead creature sprawled out before her, her brain only just realizing what she had done. 'Oh, god! Oh what have I done? I just killed someone…well something!' she thought to herself, starting to hyperventilate, what little colour in her face fled.
"I need to sit down," she mumbled as her legs gave way and she fell to her knees.
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A/N:
Thanks for reading and please review.
A reminder to look at the New Pirate Arrivals, with the same characters, just a wonderful new setting.
