Nepenthe [Legolas]

11

"We should leave now." Legolas said, anticipation in his words. His eyes were wide as they scanned their horizons, sweeping vastly against the tree line. He was waiting for something. Viridis knew both this and of the imminent threat.

Leaving was futile. They would have had to have gone hours ago, before they even docked for a rest. Viridis accepted this with an unwilling reluctance as he sat against a rock, one knee drawn up as he sharpened and cleaned his blades. They would be drowning in Orc blood in moments, he knew. But what they would not be tainted with was the blood of his comrades. He would make sure of this.

"No. Orcs patrol the Eastern shore. We must wait for cover of darkness." Aragorn replied to Legolas though Viridis still heard.

"It is not the Eastern shore that worries me." Legolas went on. "A shadow of a threat has been growing in my mind. Something draws near. I can feel it."

"And it is close," Viridis spoke for the first time as he dragged his blade through the fabric of his clothes, polishing it before moving on to the next. "Uruk-Hai approach from the trees. We cannot outrun them, but we can fight them."

"Where's Frodo?" A wavering voice asked. Viridis glanced up to see Merry looking around with worried eyes.

His eyes flitted to the shoreline where all boats remained. Frodo should have taken one, should have been long gone by now.

"I'll look for him," Aragorn said quickly, brandishing his sword and running forward. "It is no good to wander in these forests alone. Especially if we have Orcs on our heels."

Legolas turned to Viridis then, eyes analyzing, studying every possible outcome, every pathway that they could take and have taken up until this very point.

"You were with him. In the forest." He said. His tone was not accusatory, merely anxious, hopeful in knowing that Viridis could help. "What did you say to him?"

Viridis stood, brandishing both Mori Twins. He held them fast in his grip. "It is not what I said or did. But he." He finished darkly, eyes straying to the abandoned shield cast haphazardly onto the ground. Boromir's shield. He had left it to gather more wood, and Viridis noted with a pit in his stomach that he hadn't returned.

A cry then, one of ravaging rage. It was close and too loud to be distant. The Orcs had arrived and Gimli, eager to prove that he need not the time to rest, brandished his axe, held his high above his head, and uttered a war cry as he ran forward into battle.

Viridis and Legolas wasted not a moment more before following at a sprint, the remaining Hobbits close behind.

Through a steep incline they went, fighting upward through trees as they cast off several orcs that rushed at them. There were more than Viridis could predict. The air was foul with their breath, fouler still as their corpses hit the earth.

They found Aragorn toward the top of the earth, upon a ridge as he bravely fought but thirty orcs by himself. Frodo was nowhere to be seen and Viridis waited not a second more before he was charging forward, blades out before him.

Legolas killed those that he could not with a rapid succession of arrows, all hitting their targets, all fired with such precision that it was impossible to miss.

Viridis ducked quickly as an Orc charged at him, raising both blades above his head, he felt their tips dig into flesh. The Elf ground his teeth together as he stood, casting the Orc off from his blades with a mighty heave that sent the corpse tumbling forward, tripping the three more that followed in its place. He killed these in a series of actions, stabbing one straight through the abdomen while simultaneously winding back the other twin and letting it fly so that it was embedded to the hilt in the heart of the next beast.