Lim Aear

Author's Note: I keep apologizing every time for not updating soon -as I have promised- so I really don't know if it would mean anything, were I to apologize again. However, this time it was truly a case of 'force majeure', since my computer decided to break down and I decided to drive my pump through the screen in a moment of... ahem... frustration. Anyway, I got my computer back just yesterday, so I will try to reply to your reviews some time this week. In the meantime, I thought I would post the next chapter, which was originally longer, but I decided to end it here... What, you know I love cliff hangers!

Disclaimer: See Prologue.

italics: thoughts

[translations]

Chapter 26

“Hîr nín!” the elf cried as he rode hard towards the elven army. [My lord]

Legolas pulled his horse to a halt for a brief moment as he approached the elf and motioned for the rest of the army to ride ahead.

“What news of the city?” Legolas asked, his heart thumping wildly in his chest in fear of hearing that the city had already fallen.

“The orcs have made it to the gates, my lord! The walls are keeping them back, but they found out about the gardens’ gates at the west and some of them are trying to reach them! A small force of archers is already there, but they will not be able to hold them back for long!” the elf answered, his voice edged with worry.

“My wife?” Legolas asked, dread filling his heart at the thought of her coming to harm.

“Her Highness is moving to the caves with the rest of the elves, my lord,” he answered and a look of relief passed over the Prince’s features briefly.

“Aphado nín!” Legolas told the elf and leaned to whisper at his horse to run fast; to fly through the woods and over the fields. Not for the sake of his people; he had been fighting countless years for them. [Follow me!]

This time they had to fly for the sake of his beloved.

****************************************************************************

“Belwen, what’s wrong?”

Elaine was on the verge of tears. The secret passage was hidden by a moving part of the wall, behind a big marble statue. Like the Gate leading to the upper world, it could only open with the leaf or the password spoken by an elf, and once locked from inside, it was impossible to open no matter what. But the entrance was small and the passage leading to the caves fit hardly two people in width. The whole population of the city was hurriedly making its way to the caves, but no matter how fast they moved, it was still difficult for everybody to just run inside and secure the rocky wall.

Elaine was bravely waiting with Belwen for everybody else to go inside before she did, but the line had stopped moving for some reason. She was their Princess, therefore had to secure everybody’s safety before she cared for her own; but above all, she was human, a frightened young woman who could barely keep her body from trembling at the prospect of losing her life. She suddenly realized she wanted so badly to live; she had so many things to do! She couldn’t just die at the hands of fairy-tale monsters!

“I know not, my Lady,” Belwen answered equally scared and tried to peer over the crowd gathered in front of the passage to the source of the delay.

A loud crash turned everybody’s heads around and the yelling and shouting coming from the Halls behind them drained the colour off their faces. The archers appearing around the corner were yelling at them in elvish, but Elaine was in too much shock to comprehend anything with her very limited knowledge of the language.

And then, there was chaos.

The elves started running away; the archers were still yelling and shooting arrows; Belwen was pulled away by the crowd, screaming frantically for Elaine and trying to reach her… But the young mortal looked in horrified shock at the black creatures that the archers were trying to keep off, unable to move, speak, or even think.

Elaine would never forget the first time she came face to face with an orc, until the day she died. It almost looked fake; those ‘things’ belonged to some horror movie! But their movements were too smooth to be wearing a costume, the smell of their black blood too acrid to be fake, the bleeding wounds they caused to some of the elves too real… She had never seen so much blood and death in her life; actually she had never seen any at all, unless curled upon her couch in the safety of her living room and watching the news. How alien had death seemed to her until then… until she found herself in its grasp! It was too much for her. Too overwhelming. Too unbelievable. Too unfathomable. A little too of everything. Standing there, in the middle of the panicked crowd and a few feet away from the battle, her worst nightmares came true.

The world was certainly not a safe place.

Monsters really did exist.

And she would very, very soon die.

She would have, if the arrow coming from behind her hadn’t embedded itself in the head of the orc that was running towards her and stopped him literally dead in his tracks. Suddenly snapping out of her trance, she looked wide-eyed at the creature laying in front of her feet and let out a scream as realization of the situation hit her. A strong arm wrapped around her body and pulled her away, dragging her behind them.

“Stay behind me!”

The wonderful feeling of relief flooded her as she found herself behind Legolas, and breathed in deeply to clear the fog off her mind. Nothing would happen to her; everything would be fine. Her husband was finally there and he would protect her.

She was safe.

Legolas fired arrows in a deadly speed, pushing the orcs back. They had made it just in time, as the orcs had broken the palace’s doors and ran inside the Halls. The small elven force, which had stayed to protect the city, would not have been enough to hold them back, but had at least delayed them until their elven comrades had reached them from the east entrance of the Palace. The orcs, seeing the growing numbers of the elven warriors, were slowly retreating, but kept fighting nonetheless. He tried his best to concentrate on his moves and not be distracted by the presence of Elaine behind him. His worry for her well-being would be disastrous, if he let it consume him; he had to be perfectly focused if he wanted to protect his wife.

It wasn’t long before the orcs were pushed back to the palace’s main entrance and were driven to the wide staircase, which lead to the court. There, with the advantage of being in a higher position, the elves unleashed a rain of arrows on them, watching their malformed bodies fall dead on the ground. Elaine had moved away upon reaching the first fallen bodies of orcs, but an angry reminder of Legolas to stay as close to him as possible had made her overcome her shock and step over the dead creatures. Slowly she had acquired a sort of immunity to the sight and couldn’t help but stare in awe at the fighting abilities of her husband. It was one thing to hear about them and a completely different one to see them in real life! Pulling her gaze away from Legolas for one second, she looked around her to assess the situation…and caught the black mass coming from their left as quietly as possible: some orcs had breeched the gardens’ gate at the west, had found their way into the corridors of the palace and came out from the opposite side at their left; where no one had remained to protect the building.

Time could really slow down, Elaine realized.

Everything moved as if in a dream: languidly and clearly. She could clearly see Legolas’ back, as he was fighting off the remaining orcs, that had attacked with renewed force at the sight of their kind coming from inside the palace. But Legolas had not seen them yet. Neither had any of the other elven warriors, caught by surprise at the sudden attack of the orcs, which were until now running for their lives.

Only Elaine stood frozen watching the arrow that sailed fast toward the elven Prince.

Ok, I know you officially hate me now... :-P As always, I love to hear from you guys!