Hope in the Darkness

Hope in the darkness Part 6

The noise is unlike anything she had ever heard before and for a second she can do nothing other than stare in horror at the carnage around her. It isn't until Sam lets out a tiny battle cry beside her and rushes towards an orc making it's way to them that she snaps out of her stupor and dives into the battle herself.

For a while nothing matters other than killing, Meduineth imagines she is back on the training fields in Imaldris with her brother. She concentrates on not feeling, on not retching and emptying her stomach as she feels the warm blood of her enemies splatter across her face and hands, on doing nothing other than cutting them down and keeping her friends safe. Aragorn's cry causes her head to jerk up and she sees him thrown across the room hitting the wall and slumping unmoving to the floor and it takes her a moment to work out the scream that suddenly echoes around the chamber is her own as she stands staring at him. She is unaware of anything else around her as rage takes her over and she fights her way towards the man lying motionless on the floor.

"Medui... ,títhen-pen, come we must move," Aragorn is standing in front of her and she can't work out how, she is rooted to the spot swaying where she stands, gazing unseeingly around at the dead orcs and the cave troll before she is pulled roughly along behind him. She can barely breathe as they stop once more and are surrounded by orcs. The fear that he had been taken from her was so crippling that she was still struggling to comprehend what was happening and even though she can hear Boromir talking, hear Gandalf shouting instructions at them, the orcs retreating, being pulled along once again, it is like she is detached from it all, as if she is watching it in a dream.

"Meduineth, jump," those words bring her back to the present more quickly than anything else, though she wishes they hadn't because suddenly everything is in multi colour, her senses heightened as she can suddenly hear everything and see everything, feel everything! She stares across the gap to Legolas who has his arms open to catch her before he switches places with Boromir as he begins shooting down orc archers trying to kill them.

"Medui, you must jump now," Aragorn suddenly whispers in her ear and she turns briefly to see his face. To any other he looks just as determined and in control as ever but she could see the fear in his eyes and so takes a deep breath and grasping his hand in her own to squeeze it briefly she closes her eyes and jumps with a scream. For a moment she feels that she will fall forever until strong arms suddenly close around her and she is pulled so forcefully into Boromir's broad chest that the air is knocked from her lungs.

Watching Aragorn and Frodo struggle back up the stairs, watching them look across the impossible leap, the stairs crumbling, them falling and finally being caught, she finds it impossible to get any air back into her lungs.

"Quick, over the bridge," Gandalf yells and they are running again, Meduineth still gasping for breath as she tries to keep up. Suddenly though everything seems to slow down as she turns to see Gandalf has stopped in the middle of the bridge facing the demon that was chasing them. Frodo is screaming out his name whilst Boromir holds him back and once again Meduineth finds herself rooted to the spot, horror overwhelming her as she witnessed the man she had come to see as a Grandfather face an evil unlike anything she had seen.

"You shall not pass," he screams, the crack of his staff against the stone sending chills down her spine and then relief crashing through her so quickly that her legs nearly buckle as the bridge crumbles and the Balrog falls into the abyss, Gandalf turning back to them. She smiles then, moving towards him automatically, the smile freezing on her face and ice filling her veins as a fiery chord wraps around his ankle and pulls him backwards.

"NO!" the scream ripped from her throat is so loud it hurts her feet moving of their own volition to get to him before strong arms are wrapped around her stomach and she is pulled backwards against a broad and solid chest. "Let me go, Gandalf," she is screaming and crying her and fighting in her desperation to reach him.