Let's see how the battle goes! Will Elladan and Elrohir listen to Gwin's advice to retreat? Read on!

Chapter 19

"Gurth enin goth! Si ath thûr!" I cried, and saw the twins sharply glance my way. I raced to their side and drew my knives, slicing into anything that came near us. My arrival seemed to reinvigorate them, and they began to fight with more intensity.

"What are you doing here?" Elladan gasped, ducking as a huge orc attempted to take his head off with an axe. Elrohir smoothly stabbed it in the abdomen and it fell backward, bleeding out.

"Trying to save your lives!" I yelled, barely avoiding a side swipe. "We have to get out of here!"

"What do you mean? We cannot leave while they still live!" Elrohir shouted stubbornly, a fire in his eyes.

Before I could reply, I saw Saeradan and Candaith run and join us, the latter decapitating an orc attempting to sneak up on me. I nodded my thanks and continued trying to convince them to retreat, "The battle is lost! You need more forces; call a retreat! You can regroup-" I felt something slam into my back and I flew forward, rolling to the side as I fell to avoid the club I knew was coming.

A troll had decided to mark me as its enemy, and I was not going down without a fight.

One thing trolls lacked was brains, and the easiest way to defeat them was to confuse them. I ran around it as fast as I could, ducking under its legs and going in circles. I had to fend off a few orcs as I ran, but Candaith and Saeradan seemed to be covering for me. I made the troll dizzy and he stupidly fell down, giving me the opportunity to stick my knives in its unprotected skull. The troll lay unmoving, its life ended by my deadly strike.

I tried to talk to Elladan or Elrohir again but it was as if they were not listening to me. "I understand you want to win this battle, but this is not the way! You will only get yourselves killed, and if I somehow live through this battle, your father will kill me anyway!" Getting no response from them, I decided to take things into my own hands and signaled for some archers to come join us. Clearly a retreat was not happening, and we needed more fighters on the ground or we would be overwhelmed.

They must have assumed the twins ordered this signal, because seven Elves sprinted into the Ford, forming a protective ring around the brothers and the rest of us. I was busy scanning the opposite bank, trying to find their leader. If I could kill him, perhaps it would put the rest of them into disarray and they would flee. It was my best chance to end this battle before we all perished. There! A huge Uruk, by far the largest I had ever seen, was standing at the top of some scaffolding, hands in the air cheering on his soldiers. I felt a flicker of fear, but reminded myself that this was not the same Uruk from before.

With that in mind, I pulled out my bow and aimed, but it was hard to see in the rain and my shot went slightly off course. I had planned to hit him in the chest where his black heart was, but it ended up buried in his right shoulder. It was with enough force to send him stumbling back and almost falling off, but he righted himself and looked furiously for the archer. I had quickly returned my bow to my back and had my knives in hand once more, trying to hide myself so I would not be specifically targeted. I heard the Uruk roar in pain and glanced up to see him break the shaft of the arrow so it would not get in his way before lumbering down some steps and heading straight for me. Clearly, I had not done a good enough job pretending I wasn't the archer.

Unfortunately, seeing their leader join the fray seemed to give the orcs more confidence, and they roared before fighting with more vigor. I had no time to spend considering this further, as the Uruk was nearly upon me. I threw myself to the right as he brought his massive sword down, narrowly avoiding losing my left arm. I crossed my knives over my head just in time, and his weapon clashed with mine. It was slippery on the rocks and my feet fought for purchase as I was pushed backwards. I was thinking quickly; I did not have the advantage of strength, but I was uninjured and therefore was faster than him. I had to evade his strikes until I got lucky or until someone else killed him.

I pushed my knives towards him and pulled them away, sticking my leg out and trying to swipe his legs out from under him, but they were like tree trunks and he did not fall. I hastily back flipped out of the range of his sword, which had struck right where my head had been milliseconds before. I took off running, trying to create some distance so I could possibly shoot him with an arrow, but he was faster than I gave him credit for and was close behind.

I gasped as I felt something sink into the back of my right shoulder, my arm immediately going numb. I kept running but realized a throwing knife was sticking out of me. I cursed as I reprimanded myself for not keeping a closer eye on what he was doing. Realizing my right arm was all but useless, I sheathed my right knife and resigned myself to fighting with my non dominant hand. We were trained to be able to fight with both, but I could not deny it was not as easy as with my right.

Deciding to leave the knife in my shoulder to prevent myself from bleeding too much, I raced to get back to the group but realized how far I had inadvertently traveled away from them. The Uruk was getting closer to me know and I felt myself weakening, but was determined to be the one to kill him. "Flee yrch! Escape while you have the chance or you will feel the bite of my blade!" I yelled, and was pleased to see him get angry. Uruks hated to be called orcs, finding themselves to be superior. If I could get him angry, he could make a mistake.

Sure enough, he decided to charge me recklessly, and just as he was about to reach me, I turned myself quickly to the right and sliced my sword down his left side, creating a deep gash. He roared and held his hand against it, rage in his eyes. "You will not win this day!" I shouted, and as he staggered over to me our weapons clashed once more, our faces inches apart. I spit in his face and it surprised him enough to allow me to free my blade and stab him straight in the gut. He looked surprised, and I twisted it. I saw the surprise suddenly turn into rage once more, and I felt the knife in my back roughly ripped out before he buried it in my side. "And you will not win either she-elf," the Uruk gasped, black blood trickling out of his mouth. He gurgled a laugh before I saw the light leave his eyes and he collapsed to the ground.

The adrenaline was rushing through my veins so I didn't feel the pain as intensely as I might have otherwise, but I knew I was in trouble. I fell to my knees as I observed with grim satisfaction the orcs scattering as I had anticipated. With their leader slain, they were disorganized and fought sloppily. The remaining elves shot many of them as they fled.

I weakly ripped a portion of my cloak and tried to stuff it into the wound in my shoulder, but could not reach. Giving up, I then put my hands over the wound in my side, desperately trying to stop the blood from flowing but knew it was ineffective. The knife was buried deep, and I was having trouble breathing. I needed a healer fast, or I would likely not survive.

As I felt myself falling forward, I tried to throw my hands out to catch myself, but before I could hit the ground someone caught me. I felt myself getting weaker, and slowly looked up to see the panicked face of Candaith. He was frantically calling for Elladan or Elrohir, and he looked terrified. The pain was getting less now, and I dimly noted that this was likely a bad sign, but didn't have the energy to do anything about it.

He was looking at my injuries and trying to assess them but paused when he felt my hand on his cheek. My fingers were lightly tracing the worry lines on his face, "It will be ok Candaith, do not worry so much," I mumbled, unsure if he could hear me over the pouring rain. "I feel so tired…" I felt my eyes closing but started when Candaith lightly slapped his hand on my cheek, telling me to stay awake.

The last thing I saw before I fell unconscious was the blurred figures of Elladan and Elrohir racing towards me.

Gwin sure likes to try and be the hero; unfortunately, she sometimes pays for it. Thanks for reading, and leave a review if you'd like!