Misc. Stories

LotR - The Valley's Revival - Chapter 1

So... sneak peak to the start of the sequel of the Dark Heir trilogy. I sorta know how to proceed, but I'm struggling to find the words. Any writers know this dilemma. So, have this sneak peak! Other than the Valley characters and Rael, every character belongs to J.R.R Tolkein.

Elysa rode with Aragorn and a few other riders towards where rumors put an orc camp. It had been five years since the main forces of Mordor fell, but there were still a few scattered orc ranks. While a vast majority of Sauron's force had been at the Black Gate, and had fallen with it, some forces remained in other places of shadow. Orcs bearing the marks of Gundabad and Angmar seemed to be vying to fill the void of Mordor, but they were still leaderless, which made them all the more dangerous.

With all of that, it was the job of this small force, made up of Elysa, Aragorn, Faramir, and two other rangers whom Faramir spoke highly of, to take care of the orc camps to prevent the East from rising again. They relied largely on rumor, but to know the false rumors from the true, one scout went to the supposed location, then returned with his report (Aragorn wouldn't let Elysa scout). These most recent rumors, however, spoke of a camp larger than the single ones they'd taken care of previously. Rumor said there were two camps, about twenty miles northeast of Minas Tirith, each with somewhere between twenty and thirty orcs, meaning 40 total orcs at the minimum, each vying to prove their worth as the new leader. This was a rumor they couldn't ignore, so they took a risk, and all five of them went out to meet the closest camp.

They stopped at a rise about a mile from the camp, and Faramir took out his spyglass to scan the area.

"Looks like ten, maybe twenty," Faramir said.

"So rumor overshot the size," Elysa remarked, standing beside him. "Not unheard of. Anything about the second camp?"

Faramir looked out again. "Yeah, I see it. Maybe about another four or five miles east. Hard to tell from here. Rumor indicated that they were closer."

"Can I?" Elysa asked, holding out her hand. He handed her his spyglass.

She too scanned the camp. If she counted right, there were fifteen orcs. One thing they'd learned from these five years was that one could reasonably judge the toughness of an orc camp by looking at the chieftain and his tent. The more marks on his skin, or spoils he wore or sat around his tent, the more battles they survived. Marks meant orcs killed, spoils meant camps conquered. More of one or both generally meant tougher. As with any rule, there were a few exceptions, but they found that, as a baseline, their judgement was often correct.

"Fifteen strong, looks like," Elysa reported. "Chieftain's tent... looks bare. Should be easy enough. Take them tonight and move on to the second camp tomorrow."

"Are you sure?" Aragorn asked her.

Elysa didn't respond. She'd found the chieftain, bare of marks. Untested in battle. That could prove dangerous. She was about to report as much when her eye caught something around his neck. A thick, roughly-crafted iron amulet, weathered and tarnished, dangled in front of his chest. The amulet bore a rune carving, and despite the distance and rust, she could read it. Clearly, the orc couldn't, otherwise he would not be wearing it. Rage boiled over her. That orc had no right to be wearing it, regardless of where it was found. He had no right... no idea what it meant... the weight it carried.

Elysa's rage rose in a second. One moment she was waiting atop the rise, reporting what she was seeing, waiting for night to fall so they may take the camp by surprise, and the next, she was tearing down the hillside, crying out in pure anger, brandishing her sword. The sight of the dwarvish necklace had shaken a part of her that hadn't come loose in years, and she tore forward, hearing but not recognizing nor understanding Aragorn's cries of protest. There was other shouting behind her, but between the blood pounding in her ears and the adrenaline pumping in her veins, she didn't understand a word of what was being said.