Daughter of The Darkness

Chapter 26

The next day had continued much as it had done yesterday. Everyone traveled together and laughed every step of the way.

They all stopped for a short break. Everyone dumped their packs on the ground and collapsed, bringing out flasks of water. No one stopped talked. Elfreda paced around the area, feeling on edge. Something was not right about the area. Gandalf could feel it too.
"I'm going to have a look around," she said to the wizard. He nodded.

Alone, Elfreda started to jog around. Her powerful eyes scanning the area for anything that moved. There was nothing, not even birds.
"How queer, it's too quiet," she thought. She had searched for little over ten minutes when she heard the harsh language of the orc ringing out through the silent air.

Following the rough noise, Elfreda kept herself low. Treading carefully she found a high vantage point where she could see everything. There were about ten surviving orcs and wargs from the pack which attacked them outside the Goblin Caves.

They had followed them. Elfreda had no idea how but they had.

"Surround them, and kill them," ordered Azog. The others laughed in agreement, their wargs hungry for dwarf blood. One of the orcs who was sat next to Azog spoke to his leader
"What about the girl?" he asked. Azog to a while to think about what his minor had said.

From her vantage point, Elfreda strained to listen. She knew she had to leave and warn the others. But her heart wanted to know what Azog was going to say.

"Kill her, she means nothing." said Azog bluntly. Elfreda let out a huge breath- her cover was still safe.

A hot puff of breath of air trickled down the back of Elfreda's neck. Something was behind her. Something big was behind her...

Gandalf tapped his foot on the ground and smoked heavily on his pipe. Elfreda had been gone for far too long. What had happened?
"We need to leave," said Thorin. Everyone stood up, not noticing who had gone. Fili and Kili were the first ones to notice she had disappeared.
"Hey, where's Elfreda got to?" Kili asked. Gandalf grumbled.

Swivelling round on her behind, Elfreda came face to face with a set of drooling fangs. The white teeth snarled at her and a giant paw pushed her to the ground.
"Great!" she muttered rolling her eyes.

Thorin picked up Orcrist and swung it around in his hand.
"Well, where is she?" he asked. Everyone had gathered around Gandalf all wanting to know where their friend had gone. Gandalf still muttered and shook his head.
"I do not know," he replied "I just pray Elfreda will be alright." Thorin huffed and walked off. He pushed his blade into the soft grass to get rid of his anger.

The warg had Elfreda pinned to the ground, arms strapped to her sides. The scout had found her spying on the attack. On her trousers she had a pocket. Inside was a foldable blade. Fiddling the button with her fingers the top finally came off. Reaching inside she pulled out the blade. With a quick flick, the blade flung open. It was small and thin but deadly and could easily kill a warg. Elfreda stabbed the warg in the underbelly.

With all the strength she could muster, Elfreda rolled the warg over and off the vantage point. It gave her away but she had freed herself unhurt.

The dead warg hit the ground with a crack. Azog looked up and saw Elfreda run off.
"Argh! Kill them!" he commanded.

Elfreda ran as fast as she could. She needed to get away- fast. Elfreda was light and swift. The wind flew round her ears and blowing out her cape. The ground was soft and propelled her boots. There was nothing that was going to stop her. Elfreda was fast but she could hear the pounding of warg paws closing in behind her.

"We need to find her!" argued Fili "we can't go without her,"
Thorin rubbed his eyes, knowing his nephew was right but they needed to leave.

Suddenly from behind them, sounds of breaking twigs ran up to them.
"Run! Go!" shouted Elfreda. The Company did not need to ask any questions as Elfreda sprinted straight past them. Her pace blew the dwarves to dust. So she turned around and ran back.
"Come on! The wargs are catching up with up,"

At the mention of wargs, the Company picked up their pace.

The day was slowly turning to night but everyone kept running, their hearts beating fast and full of adrenalin. Elfreda was carrying some of the dwarves luggage, she was use to running a distance with heavy items.

It was dark when they finally stopped running. They took refuge in small mountain range. Everyone was breathing heavily and supported each other with their recovery.