Chapter 7
Eradrin looked around in shock. "What is this?!" She exclaimed. She slid down the tree and landed with a thump on the ground, and surveyed the scene. Trees were uprooted or bent over and broken in half all on the left and right side of Eradrin. The ground was churned up in a line across the middle of the clearing. "Did some cave troll come stomping through here or something?!" She hopped in the middle of the path the "thing" left behind. I might as well investigate, Eradrin thought. She turned to Moonsnow. "Stay out of sight. I'll be back as soon as I can." She murmured to the horse. Swiveling around to the way the path led, she crept up to the edge and stealthily moved along the muddy road.
Hours later, the long path got even dirtier. Twigs and logs were randomly scattered around. Eradrin tripped over a few, and crashed to the ground. She laid on the ground for a second, eyes closed. Suddenly voices argued not far from where Eradrin lay. She stiffened. Slowly crawling to her knees, she looked forward. The path swerved off to the side, slightly.
A thump shook the trees, leaves quivering. Eradrin scrambled to her feet. She took off to the side of the path, eyes wide. "What'd you that for?!" A scratchy loud voice squealed. "I didn't do nothin!" Another growled. "You bumped me!" The first one complained. "Well you got in my way!" "It's not my fault I was walking slowly! Your terrible tracking skills got us almost trapped in the sunlight, and you made this dirty path! Good thing I found this cave otherwise we'd be DEAD by now!" "Oh, you two stop fightin already! I'm tired of yer constant arguin!" A third voice ordered. "Well, it's true I did good finding this here cave, wasn't it!" The first one said, "If we were dead, we couldn't find that stupid she-elf and take her to the master!" Eradrin gasped with rage.
"I'm NOT stupid!" She shrieked. Running around the path's bend, she halted abruptly. Three huge cave trolls loomed in front of her, hiding in a wide but short cave. "Looky there! It's that she elf!" It exclaimed, surprised. The others' eyes widened. "Let's take her to Saur-" "Shut it!" One of his companions muttered quietly to him, "We don't want to reveal his plan!" He nodded. "I mean, let's eat her!" He corrected. The others cheered. Eradrin rolled her eyes. "Sure you can." They stared at her, shocked. "IF... You can catch me." With a glance, she whipped around and sprinted down the road.
Roars of fury erupted behind her. Not daring to turn around, she ran as fast as she could. Knowing that it would take forever to reach Moonsnow, she leaped into the woods on the side of the road. Soon, the trolls came crashing along. Their hateful eyes gleamed. "We'll catch you elf!" A rather annoyed one yelled. Hardly daring to breathe, Eradrin crawled slowly out of her hiding spot and onto a nearby tree. Crawling over a branch, she sat slowly up. She reached behind her and pulled out her bow, still on her back, and slipped an arrow through her fingers. She slid the arrow in the bow, pulled back, and... the furious cave trolls never saw the attack coming. Eradrin pulled back her bow quietly and let go. It hit a cave troll square in the eye. The injured troll howled in rage and pain. The others cried out in shock as blood poured from his eye. They turned around and swiped madly with their fists. "Where are ya! Where and ya!" A large troll shrieked. A lucky one hit the birch tree where Eradrin perched. It started to fall. They looked up, and stopped Eradrin, eyes shining with triumph. But the elf ran up the falling tree, and took a mighty leap onto another wide branch. Then, not turning around, she leaped from tree to tree until she finally reached her camping grounds. Moonsnow was pacing nervously beside a couple of shaggy plants. "Moonsnow!" Eradrin yelled. The horse whipped around, hearing Eradrin. Two trolls were thumping behind her, angrily throwing rocks and huge branched at her head. The glowing horse galloped over to the terrified elf, and stretched her muzzle behind her, nudging Eradrin up onto her back. Spinning around, Moonsnow raced across the grove and into the afternoon.
-Scene Switch-
"You didn't get the she elf." A deadly whisper said coldly. "I- I tried!" A terrified Orc voice squealed. "She... She was too fast! Too fierce! She killed more than 20 of us in less than 5 minutes!" "I DON'T want to hear excuses." The thing growled. "Find her. Bring her to Sauron. Or else you can explain to him why you failed." The voice moved out of the shadows. A dark hooded figure appeared. Reaching out an armor clad hand, it snatched the orc's throat and lifted it up into the air."Bring her. Or you're dead." The creature leaped out of the window onto a small headed but fierce dragon. "The master awoke me. You are under my command." With that, the shape of darkness kicked the beast and flew off into the black night, letting out a deafening scream.