Daughter of The Darkness

Chapter 36

Elfreda and Kasper trudged through the dark and enclosed forest. Together, the mind tricks that the forest liked to play did not effect them. Mirkwood no longer scared both of them, after all they were just trees; they were not like the trees in Fangorn. However, this did not mean that the pair would not get lost. They had crossed the same fallen tree roughly five times in a row.
"Okay, hold up," said Elfreda "we're lost." Kasper whinnied in agreement and Elfreda ran her soft hands through her hair. Now that she was lost, Elfreda had almost no chance of finding and slaying the orcs. She stamped her foot on the hard ground.

The sound of flying arrows and clashing swords, rippled across the trees. The battle at the gate was like swarm of insects. Elves fought orcs and dwarves. Orcs fought with elves and dwarves. Dwarves fought with elves and orcs. Thorin shouted over the fight to the rest of his comrades "Get over the bridge!" Suddenly, an orc leapt at Bilbo and he quickly killed it with a swipe of his sword. More and more orcs attacked. In this brief moment, Kili made the rash decision to open the gate too the bridge. Getting out of his barrel, Kili made a quick dash up the steps to the lever which opened the gate. On the way up, a searing pain shot through his leg. An arrow was embedded in his thigh. Kili collapsed on the floor, grasping at his leg.

Using the sound of battle to guide her, Elfreda rode Kasper through the trees towards the sound of war. Both had excellent hearing and the battle was not all that far away. Choosing to ignore the safe path that led through the forest and rely on hearing an sight, was the option that Elfreda had chosen; it was working but she would never tell Gandalf, he would only get angry.

"Kili!" shouted both Fili and Thorin together. It was no use, neither could help him. An Orc raised his sword to deliver his fatal blow, when an arrow pierced the beasts back. It fell into the water. Once again Tauriel had saved his life. Without looking at him, she continued to fight the orcs. Her elegant grace and fluency made her an unstoppable force.
"Kill her! Kill the she-elf!" ordered Bolg. A second wave of elves attacked- it included Legolas.

Even in his weak and injured state, Kili managed to crawl up the rest of the steps and pulled the lever. Slowly the gates opened and the brave dwarf rolled off of the ledge and back into his barrel. Then once again, the company were off down the river, with the orcs and elves in pursuit.

Elfreda reckoned that she must of been miles away from her friends. By the time she reached the gate to the open and wild river almost all trace of the fight that she had heard had disappeared. The footprints obviously remained and the scattered bodies of called orcs and a few elves. To her delight, no dwarves' limp bodies lay on the floor.

"Come Kasper, time is short and these footprints will not last long in these places," she said. With the grace of an eagle, Kasper jumped the wall and back into the forest but this time along the bank of the river. More and more evidence of the on going orc attack was obvious even at the speed of Kasper's canter. Bodies of orcs were everywhere. Many had arrows embedded in their heads or backs. Others had slashes of swords and axes gashed into the grey skin. The dwarves were fighting back. From where she could it tell. There where no dwarven footprints on the floor.

An Orc was hanging on a fallen tree, some kind of weapon keeping it there. It was still moving. With a quick shot of an arrow, the Orc moved no more.

Poor Bilbo was hanging onto the edge of a barrel for his life. The white water rapids would prove to be deadly if he was caught underneath. He was being shot at from every angle by both orcs and elves alike.

To his horror, Bilbo saw his friend, Bombur get caught by a large log. The large dwarf was flung out of the air an onto the river bank. He rolled for several hundred metres, rolling and crushing many orcs. When Bombur finally landed, his barrel was beaten and broken. He kicked out the bottom of the barrel and stood bearing a weapons of orcs. He was a swirling, wooden warrior. With a quick dash, Bombur jumped back into a spare barrel and continued on his journey down the river.

The elves matched the pace of the river, and they showed no sign of stopping. Legolas was at the front of it. His agile frame could jump from bank to bank with ease. With a small leap, the prince elf landed on the heads of Nori and Dwalin. Keeping his balance, Legolas shot several more orcs. He jumped again and turned; once again he shot more orcs.

"Come on!" said Elfreda desperately. Out of the reach of the trees, there was still no sign of her friends. That was when she heard similar grunts of angry dwarves. Kapser slowed to a brisk walk.

"Anything behind us?" asked the familiar voice of Thorin.
"Yes" thought Elfreda "me."
"Not that I can see!" replied Balin. Elfreda rolled her eyes. She dismounted Kasper and walked to the edge of the river.
"Your eyes have dimmed them my old friend!" she chuckled. All of them turned around to see Elfreda walking along the river bank, arms folded and smiling.

"Where have you been?" asked Dwalin. Elfreda shook off his question and instead turned the subject back to them.
"You lot look awful!" she mocked. All of them groaned or glared at her. Elfreda laughed again waving her hand in dismissal. Dwalin was angry "we almost half drowned!"

She walked alongside the dwarves for a a while in silence. The sound of the soft water lapping at the edges of the barrel was soothing after the long run in with the orcs. Remembering what happened in the palace, Bilbo perked up and asked Elfreda a question.
"Are you alright?" he asked. She glanced at him, confusion in her crystal eyes.
"Yes, perfectly fine." she replied harshly. Bilbo looked at her again.
"But you were being lead away by elvish guards, but you weren't in prison when I released everyone,"

All the dwarves turned to look at her. Heat flushed her cheeks and she turned away. She knew they all cared and for that she was thankful. But how did Bilbo know about that? Elfreda was sure she would find out somehow.

"Lets just say, the king and I don't always agree with each other," she stated. Thorin's eyes went dark and concerned.
"Did he harm you, if he did..." But Elfreda interrupted him with a brisk laugh and a quick reply "Thranduil's bark is worse than his bite, I'm quite alright,"

"Make for the shore," was all Thorin said. Everyone agreed. Glancing at the company to see of everyone was there, Elfreda made eye contact with the young dwarf prince Fili. He gave her a wide grin, water dripping from his long hair and braided beard. She smiled back in return and lowered her head in a bow of respect.

As she turned away, the heat in her face was blistering but her smile was still spread right across her tired face.