The Lord of the Rings: The Banshee Queen

Chapter 8

I was the first to be awake, seeing Dawn curled up in a shivering ball with the blanket protecting her. My vision was blurry at first, but it went back to normal and my head swiveled around to look at everybody else.
Gandalf slept with his eyes open; Gimli snored loudly, his helmet still on and his hands gripping his massive ax.
Merry and Pippin held each other, their mouths agape.
I took my coat off to keep Dawn warm. I hated seeing her be freezing cold; her toes icicles and her teeth chattering violently.
I kissed her when Legolas and I heard the cracking sound.
"Everyone, get up!" he exclaimed, pulling back the string of his bow and aiming it at the direction the noise came from.
Without asking questions, the other members woke up and wielded their weapons.
Dawn whimpered and held me close.
I drew out my sword Sting, shocked to see the blue glow emitting from the blade.
Orcs?
I didn't want to believe it.
They've been extinct ever since Sauron was defeated.
We all stood our ground, my arm around Dawn's waist.
Gnarled gray hands tipped with black talons scratched the bark of the nearest tree.
"Frodo, what is that?" she whispered.
She drew her dagger and separated herself from me.
The creature leaped out of the forest when Legolas shot the first arrow through its forehead, blood spurting.
It screeched and wailed in pain, the filthy hands helplessly attempting to extract it out of its forehead.
The screams were terrible; they were worse than the cry of the Nazgûl.
We shielded our ears from the haunting sound.
What was this devil?
Everyone's mouth was agape, eyes wide in bewilderment.
It fell to its knees, crying out weakly and reached out to us before it took one deep breath and was no longer moving.
I motioned to Gandalf as we stepped to the corpse, red fluid still seeping out.
The creature's thin, inky-black hair barely covered the greenish breasts that sagged to its belly.
Gandalf pushed the hair out of its face, causing us to gag once we saw what it looked like.
I have unfortunately seen many disturbing abominations and this was by far the worst.
A skeletal pale face with sunken features and the wide eyes a dark purple, the feline pupils orange.
Its mouth was open, exposing two sets of sharp fangs.
"What was that?" Pippin inquired, breaking the uncomfortable silence.
Gandalf blew out an exhausted sigh and answered, "That was a Banshee; a Scavenger to be exact."
"A Banshee?" Dawn gasped.
He nodded and dusted off his clean garbs.
We all sighed heavily and set ourselves on the ground.
There was another species of Banshees?
What did normal Banshees look like then?
I shook my head to remove all questions and grasped Dawn close to me.
We had to save her.
It was possible that more was to come; it must've been sent out by someone to try and kill us.
After a minute of hesitation, I pleaded, "Please don't tell me that there's more of them."
Aragorn said, "There will be if we don't start moving again."
We quickly ate some breakfast and continued the quest until we decided to rest at Fangorn Forest.

Legolas sharpened his daggers while Gimli and Aragorn hunted for meat.
Dawn tossed some logs into the blazing fire, dabbing a cloth over her perspiring temples and massaged her feet.
"Frodo, is it alright to be afraid?"
I replied, "It is how we survive after all."
She smiled sadly and questioned, "Will we survive this?"
I swallowed.
"I pray we will..."
Branches snapped and leaves crunched as Aragorn and Gimli returned from the hunt, carrying a dead deer together.
"I'll get the stew ready," Dawn said, taking out a carrot and a few potatoes.