Shadow of Mordor - The Novel

Chapter 6 - The One Truth

Near dawn, Talion and the Wraith went to where Gollum had led them, only to find nothing but the wind.

Talion held out his arms, scoffing at the Wraith, saying, "Well, where is he? Your friend is either a liar or a coward."

The Wraith appeared and retorted, "Maybe it was your threatening his life?"

 The Wraith held out a single hand, gesturing to a set of glowing tracks on the ground, leading up and over the ruins.
In the distance, Talion saw a Caragor lurking among the ruins, snarling at anything that moved.

Talion rolled his eyes, shrugged, and said, "Let's go find your 'precious' treasure."

The Wraith raised a ghostly eyebrow, then disappeared without a word.
Talion began running, following the trail using the Wraith's sight to locate the footprints left behind by Gollum.

"The wretch is not here," Talion grumbled under his breath.

"The eagle hunts rabbits from up high. And so shall we." The Wraith spoke inside Talion's head.

All of a sudden, the Caragor that Talion had seen leapt from behind a bush and tackled the Ranger to the ground. Talion had just enough time to draw his sword when the large, cat-like creature had him on the ruin's floor. The Caragor snarled and gnashed its teeth, and Talion threw up his sword just as the beast made to bite down on his face. The Caragor's teeth interlocked with the blade, putting a tremendous amount of strain on the Ranger's arms.
Talion yelled in rage, kicking upwards with his legs to shove the Caragor off of him. The power of the Wraith surged through Talion, and the amount of force that threw the Caragor away was enough to stun it. Talion ran towards the downed beast, throwing away his sword and drawing his dagger, jumping and plunging the dagger into the Caragor's neck.

 The beast whined and gurgled out its last few breaths, then died in a pool of its own blood. Talion, breathing heavily, walked over to where he had dropped Urfael and stooped to pick it up. He grabbed the weapon and sheathed it with one fluid motion, then turned back to the trail Gollum had left.
Once again seeing through the Wraith's eyes, he climbed up a short tower, using it as a vantage point to see where the trail led next. Talion jumped to a broken wall, then dropped down and climbed over a few battered crates onto the next wall. A flat-topped, roof-like platform covered the wall, and as Talion made it to the height of the wall, he heard a monstrous roar. His eyes flew over to a large cave, where he saw a Caragor approach the mouth of the massive entrance. In an instant, a massive creature ran out of the cave and slammed its fist into the Caragor. The huge beast then picked up the Caragor, shaking it around like a toy, then slammed it into the ground and roared furiously. The Caragor lay dead at the massive beast's feet.

Talion's eyebrows raised and he exclaimed, "A Graug! I need at least twenty men to bring that beast down."

The Wraith appeared next to the Ranger and said, "Oh. Then we will have to find another way."

"Charging into the cave's mouth will only lead us into the Graug's jaws." Talion stated. "A well placed arrow will do the trick here."

Talion's eyes tracked the Wraith's pointed finger towards a hanging bit of Caragor bait, and Talion smiled slightly. He raised the ghostly bow, aiming at the bait, pulled back the bowstring, and fired. The arrow whistled through the air and impacted the bait with a meaty *THUD*.  The bait fell to the ground with a dull, wet *SPLAT*. Almost immediately, Caragors showed up at the site, tearing into the fallen meat, attracting the Graug away from the mouth of the cave.
"Impressive, Talion. That should keep the Graug occupied," The Wraith said to Talion.
The Ranger jumped and landed on the rocky ground, then began sprinting towards the mouth of the cave. Time was short, but Talion made it just in time to see the Graug reach the Caragor pack and begin fighting them.
Once Talion made it to the cave, he whispered out loud, "The air here is thick with death..."
Continuing to run through the Graug's lair, Talion smelled them before he saw them. The stench of death and decay hit Talion like a tidal wave, Orc carcasses littered the cave, and human bones joined Caragor bones on the floor of the lair. Suddenly, Talion heard a chittering sound in the darkness. His eyes widened and he drew his sword to face the monsters in the black.