Day 2

Chapter 2: The Teeth Were Rending

-o0o-

The first of the wargs jumped. Elladan threw himself to the side, barely avoiding the sharp, yellow teeth of the beast as it lunged past him. The pain in his leg flared sharply, but he grit his teeth and spun around. His sword already up to deal with the next warg. Having seen its mate's failed attempt, it stopped in front of Elladan crouching low, growling menacingly. Its hindlegs tensed – and Elladan struck. Throwing himself to the side just as the beast lunged, he brought his sword around and buried it deep into its side. The warg howled, but its momentum wrenched the sword from Elladan's grasp - and he had no weapon when a second later the other warg barrelled into him from the side. Its claws tore into his side and its jaws closed around the arm he had thrown up to protect his face. Blood welled from between its teeth, thick and hot and the smell of it only served to inflame the beast further. It tore at the limb and with a sickening crack the bones in his arm gave way. Pain flashed, blinding in its intensity and for a moment his vision went dark.

The warg, sensing his weakness let go, stepping back, preparing for the kill. It was its downfall. Desperate, Elladan grasped in the mud around him with his one good arm. His hand closed on something reassuringly solid and he brought it up and in front of him even as the beast lunged for his throat. It was a thick root, broken by the beast's own paws in its earlier attack, its edge ragged and sharp. And aided by the warg's own momentum, it pierced through the soft skin at the roof of the beast's mouth as it lunged, burying its way all the way to the misshapen animal's brain. Elladan let go of the root and stumbled backwards as the warg fell at his feet. For a moment he thought he would collapse on top of it. His vision was hazy and dotted with black, the world spinning lazily around him. But the other warg was still here somewhere. And so he forced the dark spots from his vision, forced his aching limbs to obey, and his injured leg to carry him a bit further. He turned until he spotted the carcass of the third large beast, his sword still glistening in its side. It was dead.

But before he could even huff a sigh of relief, a sudden noise behind him made him freeze. Another warg? He considered dashing over to the fallen carcass of the last warg to retrieve his sword, but his leg buckled at the very idea of it. And without the use of his second hand to brace against the massive body, he would likely fail in the task regardless.

He turned towards the noise with a sense of finality, but the sight that met him was at once worse and better than he had feared. There was another warg and on its back, its vile yellow teeth flashing with sardonic glee, sat an orc. But the three wargs that he had killed gave the rider pause, and instead of attacking him outright it raised a pale horn to its lips.

Elladan's blood ran cold.

With a silent command he forced his legs forward once more, jumping towards the corpse of the first warg, the one that still had his dagger embedded in its side. He retrieved the weapon, gritting his teeth against the pain that flashed through his injured arm and leg with each move of his body, drew back and threw. His aim held true. And despite his fear that he would lack the strength necessary for a killing blow, the orc fell, hunching over the warg beneath it; And the animal, cowed by the stench of warg blood in the air, loped off into the dark.

But the damage had been done. Elladan could still hear the haunting sound of the orc's horn reverberating in his ears.

But no, worse, those were answering calls.

The hunt was on.

-o0o-

tbc...

Day 2 and another delicious cliffhanger as a little treat while we wait for the 24th of December. It seems to me those wargs bit off more than they could chew *hehe* (I'm as unapologetic in the face of bad puns as Erestor is unimpressed) What do you think?