The Dragon (Book Five in the Aerlinniel's Secret Series)

Chapter 5: It Is Our Fight

Legolas POV

Some of the Elves follow me, we go through a gateway and see the Dwarves, a Hobbit, and a few Elves floating away down the river in barrels.

"Holo in-annon! (Shut the gate)" I command.

One of the Elves with me blows a horn. The other Elves and I rush toward the guardpost.

When we get through the bushes, there are several orcs rushing at Tauriel. We shoot them down. As I'm fighting the orcs, I look over and see one of the Dwarves pulls the lever, opening the sluice get and letting the dwarves and others in their barrels through. Some of them fall down a waterfall and float down the river.

I leap to the top of the guardpost as I continue to fight the Orcs. Tauriel, the other elves, and I run after the orcs, shooting them.

~~~

We have caught up to the orcs.

As I'm fighting them, I leap over the river and land with a foot on the heads of two of the dwarves. From this vantage point, I shoot at the orcs on both sides of the river. I take a breath and I aim my bow carefully and shoot, and skewer two orcs through the head with one arrow.

I continue to fight the Orcs, using the heads of floating dwarves as stepping stones to get across the river. I stop pursuing them as the dwarves and others continue floating down the river. That's when I notice her.

I didn't get a good look at the three Elves before, but now that I have, I see that one of them is Aerlinniel. What is she doing with the Dwarves? Is that why she left? To help them?

It seems like all the orcs are dead. I hear a noise and spin around in surprise, Tauriel attacks an Orc and forces it to its knees. Right as she goes to decapitate it with her knife, I stop her.

"Tauriel! Dartho! Ú-no hono. Ho hebo cuin. (Tauriel! Wait! This one we keep alive.)"

I stare after the dwarves for a second, then turn and head back towards the Woodland-Realm.

~~~

Tauriel and I have brought the captured orc to the Throneroom. As I stand with my knife pressed to the orc's neck, my Ada paces around it.

"Such is the nature of evil. Out there in the vast ignorance of the world it festers and spreads, a shadow that grows in the dark. A sleepless malice as black as the oncoming wall of night. So it ever was; so will it always be. In time, all foul things come forth." My Ada says.

"You were tracking a company of thirteen dwarves. Why?" I question the Orc. I need to know why Aerlinniel was with the Dwarves.

Not thirteen, not any more. The young one, the black-haired archer, we stuck him with a Morgul shaft." The Orc hisses. "The poison is in his blood. He'll be choking on it soon."

"Answer the question, filth." Tauriel says to the Dwarf, strernly.

"Sha hakhtiz khunai-go, Golgi! (I do not answer to dogs, She-Elf!)" The Orcs says to her.

I push the Orc a bit as Tauriel whips out her knife.

"I would not antagonize her." I warn.

"You like killing things, Orc? You like death? Then let me give it to you!" Tauriel says and then rushes forward with her knife.

"Farn! Tauriel, ego! Gwao hi. (Enough! Tauriel, leave! Go now.)"

The Orc snarls at her, but Tauriel regains her composure and leaves.

"I do not care about one dead dwarf. Answer the question. You have nothing to fear. Tell us what you know and I will set you free." My Ada offers.

"You had orders to kill them, why? What is Thorin Oakenshield to you?" I ask.