Concerning Us

Chapter Eleven: Battling Illusions

Orc arrows flew past the couple on horseback, barely missing Dartha on the shoulder. As Legolas drove the horse forward, he flung his sword into the fell creatures that approached them on foot. When the horse galloped passed the two skewered orcs, the prince of Mirkwood reached down and extracted his blade from their wretched dead bodies. The remaining orcs filled the air with screams at the sight of their fallen and retaliated by storming from every direction. The princess made a clean swipe to her right, severing the head of a mutant before recoiling her arm back to puncture the belly of another. Legolas only had moment to look impressed before he had to dodge an arrow. With the arrow coming to his face, he threw himself off the horse, landing on his feet he took to his bow and fired back two arrows consecutively in the direction of which he was attacked. Dartha slide herself to the front of the horse and took over the reins, whipping the beast into a dash. Three orcs stood armed with weapons stood in the horse's course and suffered the consequence of being trampled. Legolas turned to kick down an orc that attempted to strike his back. With the fell creature beneath his foot, Legolas prepared an arrow and pointed it down at it's putrid face. He released it and turned around to see five or six arrows soar towards Dartha who was raging battle against two orc. Fortunately the arrows missed her and two of them happened to penetrate the body of one of the orcs she was fighting and she was left to deal one. She was about to end him when one of Legolas's arrows beat her to it. She looked in his direction and caught his smirk before he fist another mutant. It was in her distraction that she was thrown off the horse which had been frightened unto its hind legs. She hit the ground hard on her back and saw the sky above for a second before her view was changed to the screeching face of an orc that had jumped unto her. He was not armed with weapon, but he held the intent kill her regardless. Dartha felt his smug paws make contact with her skin as he coiled his fingers around her neck. 

His face contorted as he showed his jagged teeth to her, choking her. Dartha's eyes bulged up at her assaulter as she felt fear. His body weighed her down and she felt her chest collapsing under him as he continued to steal her breath in his choke. She felt the impact of the horse falling to it's death as it slammed into the ground not too far from her. Through the corner of her eye, she saw Legolas fighting off orcs, unaware of her danger. Frantically the princess searched the ground around her with her hands for anything she could grasp unto and possibly use against the creature strangling her. Her right hand came in contact with a small rock of an insignificant size before her left hand touched the handle of her sword which she had dropped in her tumble. Her fingers managed to coil and grasp her weapon as the orc dripped saliva on her. He raised her head off the ground as he clenched her throat and began to throttle her skull into the earth beneath her. As Dartha's head repeatedly came in contact with the ground, she fought to focus her strength. With enough power she plunged her sword blade into the side of the orc and instantly gasped for air when his hold loosened. His spit flew unto her face as he screamed in agony until he was silenced forever. Dead, he collapsed forward unto her body. Dartha let out a scream of her own as she flung the corpse off herself in horror and stood to her feet. Her cry reached the ears of Legolas who turned his head in her direction just as he slayed another orc, "Look out behind you!"

A couple of orcs slammed Dartha back down and before they could reach her again she rolled away prior to jumping unto her feet. She felt light headed but she still managed to defend herself against the two. She took out one by the knees. Once he was laying on the ground crippled, she claimed his sword and utilized it with her own to destroy his larger friend. His flesh was spliced by the blades in a one-two formation before she rammed both blades into his abdomen, one after the other. She watched him fall backwards as she felt a pain on her leg. She took the time to end the one she had crippled before she looked down at herself, just as Legolas killed the last two orcs simultaneously. Datha fell to her knees when she saw an orc arrow wedged into her calf. Legolas was still catching his breath when he turned to see her fall, "You've been hit!" he screamed as he ran towards her. The princess's eyes shifted in his direction as the look of dismay settled unto her face. She coiled her delicate fingers around the arrow and through tight shut eyes, she extracted it from her flesh with a pained scream. Legolas grabbed her and tried to will her to stand, "Stand up, Stand up! You're okay, it could very well be a regular arrow and you will heal in no time". Fear flooded his eyes as he looked down into her hand at the arrow, it was tipped with poison.