I uploaded two chapters at once so if you are confused you should go back one xx
Their laughter sliced through me the deepest. A small, vulnerable part of my brain still had a visceral reaction to the sound. For a moment it felt like I was frozen, like I had been plunged once more into the icy depths of the river. It made my muscles lock up and my feet felt like they were cemented to the ground.
I hadn't expected to be attacked yet. Had not mentally prepared for a surprise like this. My armour was still on the ground for crying out loud.
A large hand encircled my arm, pulling me backwards in an almost bruising grip. Not a second later an arrow sliced through the air, missing my nose by mere centimetres. Tauriel spun with her sword in her hand. She hit the arrow with the edge of her blade, cutting it in half. It clattered harmlessly to the ground at her feet.
It was also the shock that I needed to actually start moving. Nothing like being nearly shot in the face to get the juices flowing. If Kili hadn't grabbed me and hauled me back, I dread to think where that arrow would have found itself.
Buried in my skull most likely.
Dwalin would have been disgusted with the lack of self-preservation skills. I had not spent the last several months training my ass off with him to get killed immediately. If I failed here, then Adar was right to keep me behind.
I couldn't have that.
I thanked Kili with a look, then dove down and picked up my sword from the ground. In a surprisingly fluid motion, the blade was unsheathed and in my hands. Correct grip and everything. It would have been beyond cool if we weren't currently fighting for our lives.
My eyes had adjusted more in my dire need. I could now see the small troop of orcs that surrounded us. Though I say small. There had to be at least 20 of them, varying in size. There were definitely a couple Gundabad orcs in their midst. They towered above everyone and stood at almost 7.5 ft. They stayed towards the back, letting the grunts do most of the work.
Legolas fired arrow after arrow. Followed by the sound of choked groans as his shots landed. Though they weren't downed by any means. The creatures soldiered on like it was nothing. More like an undead zombie hoard than living beings.
One caught a Gundabad orc in the shoulder. The thing looked down at it as if it was nothing more than a toothpick. With a meaty fist it grabbed the arrow shaft and snapped it in one swift movement.
An orc ran towards Kili, breaking rank from the others. It charged with a serrated dagger in its hand, howling with an unnatural screech. Kili spun out, swinging his sword in a round arc. There was a lot of power behind the movement, and he sliced through the orc with ease. Right through its mottled abdomen, severing muscle and sinew alike. It left a gaping hole where its stomach used to be. The creature barely had time to cry out before it pitched sideways, eyes guttering out.
More ran forwards, trying to swarm us like insects.
A cry from behind me had me twisting on my heels and bringing my sword above my head. Just in time to have an axe handle brought down upon me. The sword and axe clanged together in mid-air, wood splintering against the edge of the blade. My arms nearly buckled with the force of it.
The axe head was perilously close to my shoulder, but I caught it in time. With gritted teeth and a roar, I pushed back against the orc. It stumbled back, relinquishing the pressure on my sword. It gave me just enough of a chance to step backwards and put some distance between us.
Dwalin told me that I needed to use speed because I was too scrawny to rely on my strength. If I kept trying to deflect blows head on, I would tire too fast and make a mistake. I needed to move about. Not be still for too long.
"Come here little elfling," the creature jeered. Spittle flying out from between its rancid teeth. "Let's have some fun."
I tried to quell the panic that shot through me. The words were too similar to ones I'd heard before. My heartbeat had already skyrocketed and every nerve ending felt like it was firing at once. My palms became slick against the pommel of my sword. I had to grip it tighter to stop it from slipping in my hands. There was no room for my grip to falter
The orc reared up again, hefting the axe above its head.
I dodged to the side. The axe came down in the space that I had just vacated. I could feel the air it dislodged. Before I could get caught up in my thoughts, I struck out with my sword, arching the blade across the orc's wrists. The sword vibrated as it hit bone and I nearly lost my grip. The skin sliced open, and the orc screamed, dropping the axe in the process. An all-consuming anger took over its face as it stumbled back, nostrils flaring, teeth bared.
"You'll pay for that," it spat, literally.
The wrist that caught the brunt of my attack, hung uselessly by its side. Black blood dripped into its palm and down its long fingers into the grass below. However, the other hand was still functioning. It twitched and curled its nails into vicious claws, before launching at me with a roar.
I hadn't expected it to charge. I reacted on instinct and tried to jump backwards with a cry. But my feet collided with something. A small boulder. It sent me toppling head over heels.
I had just enough forethought to bring my sword close to my body.
The orc fell with me, teeth gnashing perilously close to my face, and dragging its dagger like nails down my right arm. It felt like fire lanced across my skin.
We both landed against the hard unrelenting ground. It knocked the air out of me, but I managed to keep hold of the weapon close to my chest. Slick, black blood dripped onto my hands and seeped into my shirt. The momentum of the fall had forced my sword through the orc's gut, effectively impaling itself.
Bile rose up in my throat. The thing was monstrously heavy and it spasmed as it died, like a wriggling fish.
Too close. Too crushing. I was trapped beneath. A small cry escaped as I tried to push the orc off me. My arms strained with the effort, but with considerable determination I was able to climb out from under the creature. It rolled off me onto its back. My sword still remained in the centre of its gut, like some obscene effigy. With a foot for leverage and a grunt I unearthed the sword.
A tremor threatened to overtake my hands. It was a battle to keep them under control. I looked down at them, shaking and covered in blood, and immediately felt like an idiot. Why was I wasting time swinging a sword around when I had a literal weapon in the palms of my hands?
I wasn't playing to my strengths and things like that could get me killed if I wasn't careful.
I didn't get much more time to chastise myself. A looming shadow reached out and grabbed me before I had any chance to react. A hand covered the lower half of my face, nearly suffocating me in its grasp. It slammed me backwards into its body and I felt the impact reverberate through me. I barely reached the things chest.
The other hand held a rusted knife under my chin. I felt its booming laugh radiate through the air, as I struggled in its grasp. It spun around, with me to tow, to face the rest of my group. Most of the other orcs had been dispatched and lay strewn across the muddy ground.
Kili's eyes grew wide, and his fear was palpable. Legolas and Tauriel were better at concealing their expressions.
The orc reached out with its knife, pointing to the others. "Drop your weapons," its voice was like nails on a chalkboard. It moved its knife back to me, the harsh metal grazing my neck. "Or this one–"
I didn't give it the chance to speak anymore. My hands moved to reach behind me, digging my nails into whatever skin I could find. Then I focused all my hatred, all my anger, all my fear, directly into my hands. The electric vibrations shot through my arms in an aggressive rush, manifesting into a blinding power.
This was the first time I had knowingly used my power to attack something. The other times it had happened on instinct or was accidental. This time I wanted it to happen, and I wanted it to hurt.
It did not disappoint.
The magic burst out of me in an explosion of power. Bright, white light danced across my vision. Burning, tearing, searing. There was never any chance for the creature to escape. My magic tore through his flesh like it was butter, until its body ruptured and exploded outwards. Pieces of orc rained down upon everyone like a biblical plague.
My vision swam and my knees nearly gave out below me. Kili ran over and propped me upwards with a guiding hand. I happily leaned on him for support.
Maybe that was a bit much. Note to self, don't use that much power next time if I don't want to faint mid battle. I needed to find a happy medium of explosion and energy conservation.
"It blew up!" I heard Legolas' excited yell.
I didn't need the reminder. There was enough desiccated orc coating my clothes to emphasise that fact. Black, almost oil-like, blood clung to everything, and I could feel it, hot and putrid, across my back. The smell brought tears to my eyes.
Legolas seemed to come to his senses. He looked up from the patch of blackened ground and finally noticed me. "Oh Eru, Liriel are you okay?"
"Living the dream," I said, only slurring slightly.
"The other orcs tried to run," said Tauriel walking back to us. In my daze I hadn't even realised she had gone. "They were easier to kill when they were on the retreat."
So, we were safe for now.
"They were likely a scouting party, trying to spy on the dwarves. There could be more about," said Legolas "We cannot let our guard down."
"Here drink this," Kili offered me a skin of water.
I accepted it greedily. The cold water soothed the burn in my throat and helped to clear my head. I'd nearly downed half the skin before I realised and handed it back to Kili.
The tremors thankfully stopped, and I didn't feel as woozy anymore.
"Are you okay?" Kili asked, looking me up and down in case I was harmed.
Just as I was about to nod, his hand brushed against the top of my arm. I hissed through my teeth and flinched away. Dark, red blood mingled with the black. Mine. The first orc had sunk its claws in deep.
"You're hurt!"
"I'll be okay," I muttered, not really believing my own words.
There were three gashes down the top of my right arm. They weren't as deep as I feared, but now that I noticed them again the burning pain returned.
"We should not linger," said Tauriel, looking around and towards the horizon.
"Leah's hurt, we can't move yet."
Tauriel's eyes swung back towards me, zeroing in on my arm. "I can help you, Liriel. My healing skills don't match that of a true healer, but they are efficient enough."
Tauriel cleaned the wound first and I took the opportunity to change into my extra shirt. The leggings however would have to deal with the light misting of blood. Tauriel also helped me to get the worst of it out of my hair, and once I no longer looked like a serial killer, she got to work on my arm. She muttered a string of Sindarin under her breath. A spell of sorts. It worked as a kind of catalyst for her magic. Her hands glowed faintly, and I felt the pain die down. Moving from burning, to throbbing, to a dull ache. The skin knit itself back together, but not completely smoothly. There were still defined raised lines.
"That's the best I can do for now. It may scar if you do not get it healed by a professional. But otherwise, it is perfectly healed."
That's all I could really ask for in our current circumstances. What were a few more scars down my right arm? As long as I no longer had an open wound, I was happy.
I finally donned my armour. With Kili's help tying it all on, it didn't take too long and then we were moving. I couldn't bear the sight of the mutilated orcs scattered across the field and forced my eyes away. Legolas and Tauriel led us on, scanning the horizon and not letting their guard down for a single moment.
Kili held my hand in his, effectively pulling me along. His strong grip kept me grounded in the here and now. Though my mind still wandered. Self-doubt and panic still found their way into my thoughts.
"Was Adar right?" I whispered to Kili "Maybe I should have just stayed."
Out of the four of us I had the least amount of fighting experience. I was the biggest liability here. Hell, if Kili didn't pull me out of the way in time I could be impaled by an arrow.
"What do you mean?"
"It's just," I shook my head. "One slip up and I could have killed us both. I don't have the same fighting experience you all have."
Kili squeezed my hand. "You're too hard on yourself, Leah. You can do impossible things that none of us could ever do."
"But I keep freezing up. The next time it happens could be the last."
"Next time, you'll be more prepared. You'll know that it's coming," said Kili "We can do this Leah. I believe in you."
I looked into his eyes and found no lies. He genuinely believed in my capabilities
"The reason we're even doing this in the first place is because we can't leave when we know we can help. None of us would have been able to stick it out in the elven halls for long."
And wasn't that the truth.
The Royal Runaways plodded ever onwards. I was growing quite fond of the name actually. It suited us quite well and could also be a kickass band name. As a way to distance and distract myself from the night's events, I tried to imagine what our band would be like.
I would be the singer. Kili would definitely be the violinist (because obviously every great rock band has one). Though I reckon he could throw in some great backing vocals, hitting all those deep notes I could never touch. I had a feeling Legolas could play a mean guitar solo. He seemed the type. Tauriel, I decided, would be on the drums. She could hit out at enemies well enough. I had a feeling she'd be great at hitting a drum skin too. Our very own Roger Taylor.
What would our hit single be? Barrel full of love? Night Raid? Every option I came up with sounded incredibly cheesy.
During my musing we climbed over rocks and forged across streams. It would have been a hell of a lot easier if we had horses. But this was the bed we made. Now we must lie in it. Or hike across it, if you will.
We walked for around two hours. The lake cut across a lot of our path, and we found ourselves having to journey around it. Taking the river had cut out a significant portion of our overall time. But now we were slowed right down.
Lights began to materialise on the horizon. Flamelight of a distant campsite. The closer we got, the more lights popped into view, spanning across an open plane. It had to be the Elven army. We were close.
There was also a strange cloying scent in the air. Sweet and earthy. It went right to the back of your throat, and I had to stop myself from choking.
"What is that?" I coughed
"Deliosp," said Legolas, the scent did not seem to affect him. Though there was a big chance he'd smelled it before.
"And that is?"
"It's a type of herb. When you burn it, it can be used to conceal the scent of you and those around you," said Tauriel.
"As you can probably smell, it is quite effective," Legolas laughed.
That was quite clever. Masking our scent from Smaug, so when he finally emerged, we could surprise attack him.
We reached the top of a small peak and flattened against it. The damp grass tickled my face and I spat out a few blades that got a bit too up close and personal. The mountain stood alone directly in front of us. You couldn't exactly see it in the darkness, but you could sense it. A huge shadow against the backdrop of the sky. I knew that it would be an amazing sight when we finally got to see it in the sunlight.
The Elven camp stretched out below us. It was close to the treeline with more shelters set up within the forest. People moved through it at a sedate, calm pace, meaning no orc packs had found their way nearby. I saw a few humans mixed in amongst the elves. Some were helping, some were complaining, and I assumed the rest were sleeping. Adar must have already started the evacuation of Laketown.
"What do we do now?" I mused.
Now that we had made it, I was unsure what to do next. In my mind it was just 'reach Erebor', 'defeat Smaug' and 'win the war'. I hadn't thought about what would happen in between those points. We couldn't just waltz in like we owned the place. Adar would skin us alive. But hiding was not an agreeable option either.
"I hadn't thought this far ahead," said Kili from beside me.
Great another one of us who wasn't thinking.
"Maybe we should just try to blend in," said Legolas "Pretend that we are supposed to be there."
There was dumbass number 3. I just needed Tauriel to do something now to make it 4 for 4.
"We aren't exactly unrecognisable, you know. I'm 5ft 3, Kili's a dwarf, Tauriel's ginger and you're the prince."
Tauriel shuffled forwards a bit so that she could see me "What would me being ginger have to do with any of that?"
"I didn't want to leave you out and it's the first thing that came to mind."
She raised her eyebrows at my response.
A question of further ideas perched on the end of my tongue, when the sound of twig snapping caught my ears. A lot closer than I expected. The words were swallowed up as I spun towards the noise. Before we had the chance to react, lantern light fell upon us.
The shape of two elves shadowed in the lamplight loomed above us. One holding a lantern for guidance and the other with a knocked bow, levelled right at us. When they saw just who it was lying in the grass, they weakened his grasp.
Shock ran through both sides as we got caught.
"Hey, Thanor," I said, recognising one of them. "What brings you to this hill?"
"Your Highness, what are you doing up here?"
"We were just chilling," I said with a nonchalant shake of my head "Nothing you need to concern yourself with."
"Your highness, you were under strict orders to remain in the palace." said the one with the lantern. "We're going to have to bring you to the King"
"Surely we could negotiate something" said Legolas, climbing to stand.
"The king's orders overrule yours I'm afraid, your highness."
So that was the decision made for us. We were in fact just going to go straight to my parents. A sense of trepidation burned through me. This wasn't going to be pleasant at all.
"We should have bribed them in some way," I muttered under my breath as they led us through the campsite. They wound around the smaller tents, before heading towards the largest one. The elves gave us stunned looks as we did the walk of shame past them. They knew we had broken Adar's strict wishes.
"Elven guards are not easily bribed, Liriel," Tauriel said.
"You were," I joked. "All we had to offer you was the opportunity to help others and you were hooked."
"I was not bribed," she said, affronted.
"Suuure."
She shook her head and stopped listening to me.
The tent entrance drew closer, and I felt my mouth go dry. Kili's heart rate picked up alongside mine, which wasn't helping me concentrate.
A guard slipped through the door before we could get there. Followed closely by the sound of Adar yelling. "WHAT?!"
The door of the tent was ripped open, and Adar's imposing frame filled the gap. I jumped back with how quickly he appeared. A fire burned brightly in his eyes, an anger that I had yet to see in him. As soon as he laid eyes on us all, his jaw tightened, and his nostrils flared. I felt very much like a child again. About to be scolded by her Adar.
Adar moved to the side and pointed into the tent. "Inside. Now," he said through gritted teeth.
I wasn't going to make him wait when he was this angry. My feet carried me through the doorway with startling speed. Mum stood just inside. Her expression showed no sign of surprise, and she gave me a sympathetic smile.
"What part of 'stay inside the mountain' did you not understand?" Said Adar, directing his question towards me. I dropped my gaze, not able to hold it when he looked so mad. "You do realise that I did that for your own protection."
"Of course, I do but–"
"Obviously you do not, or you would not be here," he turned his attention to Legolas "And I thought I left you in charge of protecting our Kingdom. Why are you here?"
"I could not in good faith let Liriel venture out alone, Adar. I came along to protect her."
The lying little shit. "Hey! Don't put this on me. You wanted to leave even more than I did."
"Enough! both of you," Adar sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"I had forgotten just how idiotic you two were when you were together," Adar growled. "It is like you suddenly only have one brain to share between the two of you."
Adar turned away as if he couldn't bear to look at us. He picked up a goblet from the table and downed it in one. Mum ambled over and rubbed his shoulder comfortingly.
"They aren't children anymore meleth nin," Mum's voice was like a soothing balm "We have to let them make their own decisions."
"Even if those decisions get them killed?" Adar snapped.
"I couldn't just sit there Adar. We're here now. Please, just let us help," I pleaded.
Adar turned back to me "What makes you think that I am not just going to send you back?"
"There are orcs," said Legolas "We encountered an orc pack earlier tonight. They must be amassing to the south of here."
"You are saying that there are orcs roving around us already?" Adar's voice was alert
"Yes Adar."
"I will send scouts to comb through the area," said Adar "It would seem that you have gotten your wish. It is too dangerous to send you back now, so you must remain here."
I did not allow the relief I felt to show on my face as Adar looked between Kili and me. "You will do exactly what I tell you, do you understand? I will not have you risking your lives needlessly. If I see you trying to do something outlandishly dangerous, I am not above tying you to a tree."
"We will listen," I promised, as long as I could stay here, I could deal with that.
Kili nodded too.
Adar rubbed his head as if it pained him. Then he sighed and stood up straighter. "I am going to talk with the guard. Do not do anything stupid while I am gone." With that Ada stalked out of the room.
As soon as he left It felt like I could finally breathe. Crisis averted...kind of.
"Well, that went as expected," said Mum
I walked over and looped my arms around Mum. She rested her head on the top of mine. "He'll come around eventually darling."
"I mean I call this progress," I joked "He only threatened to tie me to a tree he hasn't already done it."
Mum inspected a strand of my tangled hair with curiosity. It had dried funny after my dip in the river. "So how did you make it out then? Is it a daring adventure story?"
We told Mum how we had escaped from the elven halls, using the clues in her letter.
"The barrels?" She said, shocked "Why on earth did you do that? I thought I told you to use one of the hidden entrances."
So, she hadn't been hinting at us to use the barrels at all? My inferring skills needed freshening up.
"In our defence they were all guarded," Legolas said, trying to claw back some dignity.
"You could have waited for a shift change," Mum's face was bemused.
"That's what I said," Tauriel chimed in.
"It doesn't matter," I said, cutting my hand through the air. "What's important is that we are here now."
"If you say so darling" Mum patted my face sarcastically.
Now we just had a dragon to contend with.