Between Two Worlds

28

Finally we part as the orcs draw too near, letting go of each other to fight our own battles, his hand leaving mine, though we are still joined, now in marriage.

My sword clashes with the thick leather of orc armor, splitting the flesh and bone underneath. I feel my movements are different than before I got to Middle Earth. More smooth and thoughtful. The elves have taught me much since I have been here and I suppose I have learned something from them.

The splashes of blood, the souls of what were once elves, but the torture and mutation created something entirely different. The orc.

But being here has taught me to think positively. So I thank God they are not Uruk-hai. Or else our death would be slow and painful.

I ignore the pain in my hands and legs, the strain in my movements and step as I weaken, the stiffness of my breath and the sting in my lungs.

I whip back the stray locks of white hair from my face but when I do a feel a pain erupt on my side. I throw my sword in the direction where an orc has sliced me, just barely luckily, as the creature ducks.

I yank out my knife and thrust it the same direction when he is back up, his sword smacking against it with force. I hit the tip of my boots to his shin hard with a grunt of fury.

A roar escapes its mouth and I finish it by gripping its shoulder, sending my sword through its gut, watching the tip come out the other end spewing black, and rip it back out.

I pant but whirl around and hold out my blade as another almost gets my shoulder from behind. I kick my shin against his ribs as we lock weapons and he staggers back, my leg hurting just a little from the impact against the leather armor and bone. But I spin my sword so that it is under his and send his blade up and out of range. I turn and stab down, scraping his hip bone and yanking my sword out again.

This time I feel a sting against my face. I stagger back a bit and my fingers go to my lip that throbs. I look ahead at the orc who roars loudly, his sword ready.

I lunge forward my blade hitting his from the right and then the left, the ringing of metal stabbing my eardrums. As I try to get him I realize that miss and he grabs my wrist, snarling and bellowing in my face.

I almost panic but then he yelps, cringing forward and falling down.

I look up and see Thranduil twirling his double swords around through the wind. Another goblin runs past him but he stops it before it gets to me, both his swords crossing over his throat and then splitting it open. He lets the demon land on the ground in front of him and turns around, walking backwards to me slowly to protect me as more swarm around us.

I hold my sword right in my hand as they surround us.

"I'll get the ones on the right, you on the left," I say quietly, catching my breath.

"Now," he says.

I turn and hold my sword down with an arm above my head, blocking as one swings horizontally and then flip my weapon again, slicing his other arm and then stabbing through his leg, whirling around and blocking an upward blow from another demon, hacking this way and that at the creature until I get a wound in his side. I leap to the left quickly as a dark arrow whizzes past my head.

But I have to block as another tries to blow down on my head with his ax. I kick him when our weapons have locked and Thranduil's sword comes across to chop off his head, letting roll to the ground with a thud, along with its body.

He whirls around again his blade cutting up another one's stomach and his other smacking it to the ash.

When I look ahead my vision becomes strained, as if the whole world is in slow motion. I see the bowman ahead. I see the arrow he has ready to fire. I see the snarl he gives me just before he lets go. I see it... heading to my throat so slowly. But I can't move, not even inch. I am frozen.