-o0o-
It was deep into the night - at least another three hours before sunrise, when their luck ran out. The horses sensed the danger first. Talagor gave a sudden snort and Belroch stopped, his ears flicking left and right, nervous and uncertain. The clouds broke apart and a single beam of Ithil's rays landed on Elladan's stallion, setting his grey fur alight. It shimmered almost white in the dark. Talagor gave another snort.
A flicker of white, a swift exhale.
"Noro lim!" Elladan shouted, but the command came too late. The forest beside the road exploded as two trolls broke through the brush and the thin trees at its edge, tossing trunks as thick and heavy as boulders onto the road, right in front of their horses. Belroch stumbled and went down hard, and Elladan lost his seat. He was flung off over his stallion's head and landed on the ground; the impact driving the air from his lungs. Something in his leg gave a sickening crunch. For a moment his vision went black. Then his eyes snapped back into focus, revealing Elrohir standing over him, his sword already unsheathed and gleaming in Ithil's stray light. His foolish twin, facing down two trolls by himself.
Luckily the trolls seemed to be more interested in Belroch. The first made a clumsy grab for the grey stallion, but even after his stumble Belroch was too fast to be caught so easily. He gave a mighty kick of his back hooves, and the troll drew his hand back. Its companion laughed.
"Bert you fool, you gotta break them's legs first if you wanna catch 'em."
As if to demonstrate he made a swipe for Talagor, dancing uneasily in front of the trolls, torn between the need to flee and the desire to protect his rider. But before the troll's strike could hit the horse, Elrohir was there. His mithril blade flashed as he struck it against the hard hide of the beast.
"Ah!" the troll shouted, snatching his hand back and against its chest. "It bit me!"
"Noro lim, Talagor! Belroch!" Elrohir shouted, turning for the briefest moment to slap Talagor on his rump, spurring the horse on. With a thunder of hooves both stallions obeyed.
"Aww, no. There goes the food," Bert lamented, following the retreating horses with his eyes longingly. "Oh hey, what's that? Another bitey one."
The troll's grey hand came right at him and Elladan sprang to his feet, only to come crashing down when his leg buckled beneath him, his knee erupting in sudden agony.
"Elladan!"
The troll's hand closed around him, lifting him from the ground with ease. "What are you?" Bert asked, looking at him askance. "Tasty?" he suggested.
"Squish it!" The other troll shouted. "Before it bites like the other o- hey! Where'd it go?"
The answer to the question became apparent a moment later, when Bert howled in sudden pain, letting go of Elladan to wrap both his hands around his left foot. Elladan fell, and there was a sharp crack and another flare of pain as his already injured leg made contact with the ground; as his knee, injured by his fall off Belroch's back, failed to withstand this new assault. Elladan gasped in pain. A second later he screamed.
The pain of his knee fracturing flashed bright and strong, faster than he could suppress and he saw the moment the pain registered in Elrohir, causing the barest stumble - at the worst possible moment. Bert's companion was hot on his twin's heels, kicking at him and the momentary loss of balance made Elrohir a crucial fraction of a second too slow to evade.
Elladan felt the connection of the troll's foot with his twin's side like a kick to the chest and his stomach lurched painfully as he saw Elrohir tossed aside by the attack, flying five yards through the air before falling into a thick patch of low shrubs, blueberry and brambles.
There was no movement from the place where he fell, despite Elladan's desperate attempts to pierce the darkness and the thick underbrush, to catch a glimpse of his twin.
"Well, now where'd it get off to?" Bert demanded. "We could'a eaten that."
"Just get the other one!"
"You don't order me around, Tom Huggins!" Bert replied testily, his arms still holding onto his injured foot. "Get the bitey thing yourself."
Elladan struggled backward, hissing at the way even the slightest move jostled his leg. It was useless. He could not stand.
But as the troll moved forward a sudden spark of silver glimmered in the dark, hurling through the air and burying itself in the beast's neck. One of Elrohir's knives.
"Ai!" Tom howled in pain and stumbled back and even Bert seemed to find a glimmer of compassion.
"Tom!" he shouted.
Their clamour almost covered the soft rustle of the underbrush beside him and Elladan turned just in time to see Elrohir materialize beside him. Winded and breathing heavily, his face and hands marked by deep scratches, but upright and moving all the same. He lost no time in bracing Elladan and helping him upright, dragging the arm on his injured side over his shoulder and taking most of his weight. "Come," he said unnecessarily as they hobbled away from the path and towards the dark edge of the forest. Trolls' eyes were keen in the dark, but the trees and dense undergrowth would provide a cover even they could not pierce.
Together he and Elrohir slipped into the darkness between the boughs just as a new voice demanded from behind them. "What's this racket?" There was a third troll! Elladan closed his eyes as a sharp pain shot through his leg when Elrohir stumbled, muttering a curse and a blessing to the Valar both on the same exhale. They had been beyond lucky to have faced only two of the beasts.
Bert's and Tom's chatter was a fading cacophony, drowned out by Elrohir's heavy breathing, but the response of the third troll reached Elladan's ears loud and clear. The sweetest thing he had heard all night. "Ah, shut your gobs and come! Sun'll be up soon."
He raised his eyes to the canopy above him and saw that the troll was right, dawn was already creeping over the sky. Somehow they had made it through the night.
-o0o-
tbc…
Did I have too much fun writing the trolls? No, I'm sure one can never have too much fun with trolls :D But there was certainky a lot of laughter involved in writing this chapter - maybe even a cackle or two. How did you like the trolls?