✓ Wizard's Apprentice | Legolas |

Book Three: Chapter Fourteen

***We are nearing a close, guys. Hehe. I'm so giddy!***

In the end, there was only one battle left. With an undead army, it was going to be remotely easy.

I pointed my finger, ushering the dead forward, onto Mordor. Acheron stuck close to my side, especially after my vomiting spells that I've been having lately. My father made the joke that it's all the corpses but Acheron and I both know what it is. I'm pregnant.

Aurelius figured it out as well and if it wasn't me that was between them, him and Acheron would probably be in a fight right now. My brother was overprotective. Not a bad trait but a seriously annoying one.

Acheron leaned down close to my ear. "Are we going to talk about the baby?"

I shook my head. "Not right now. We have a good seven months left." He nodded, putting distance between us again, probably more for Aurelius's sake.

"I see it, m'lady!" One of the undead called. I ran ahead and saw the dark crumpled land. He was right. We were here. But we weren't the only ones prepared for battle. Thousands of orcs stood in formation, looking for something to kill. The master was at the front, an evil grin on his face.

"I have a proposition for you," his voice rang out. I eyed him with obvious suspicion. "If you duel me with just magic, the winner rules." I looked over at Acheron. He clearly didn't like the idea but our army was outnumbered, undead or not.

"I will take you up on that," I replied. My dad let out a strangled breath but remained silent. I walked forward but left a good distance between my enemy.

"Ready?" he asked. I gave a yes. Without even a flick of the hand, I was knocked off my feet. When I recovered, he was already coming up with another spell. And with all the hand motions, I'm guessing that this one would be worse.

I tried to look back on my magic lessons.

"Spells are just words unless you put meaning and heart into them," my mother once told me. "And good and evil blend when spell-casting. If you want to do good, you must cast evil. If you want to do bad, you must cast light. It's the balance of things."

I thrusted my hand forward, wriggling my fingers. The master stopped what he was doing, bending down in pain. This was on the borderline of forbidden magic but I am doing good. The balance.

He broke out of my hold, panting before pushing me backwards. I got back up, putting my own hand out again. This time, flames shot out. I almost got distracted since I actually can't use fire. Things change, I guess.

"You little witch," he screamed, putting out the flames with water. I smiled gleefully before I felt the sharp prickles on my skin. I looked down and saw snakes crawling and winding up my body. I let out a scream but remained still.

"It's an illusion!" Acheron yelled from behind me. When he said that, the snakes disappeared. If he wanted to play that why, then I will too.

I visualized in my head, calling the birds that I will always have a connection with. Ravens and crows. When I looked up, there they were, circling above. I shot a menacing look the master's way before pointing at him. The birds charged, distracting him. I rushed forward, wrapping my hand around his neck, staring into his eyes. He stared back, his eyes glazing over, the pupil bleeding into the iris until there was nothing but black. He fell to the ground, sobbing. I've never done this before but it was the worst kind of magic.

"I am sorry, my master," he said, grabbing my hand. I snatched it away.

"Call off your army, then allow the undead to kill you," I ordered, leaving him then and going back to Acheron who looked quite disturbed, even for a part orc.

"That was...unusual."

I shrugged. It wasn't a big deal as long as I didn't dwell on it. Because, lets face it, I might have lost part of my humanity. Not like Bilbo was a star student, either. "I'm ready for this to be over."

He smiled before leaning over and planting one on my lips. "I'm ready to start a family," he said, putting his hand to my stomach. I finally took notice that there was indeed a small bump.

"Lets grab Amity and go," I said. I put out my hand, releasing all of the undead so they could cross over. And with that, I said goodbye to everything light and turned to my life of an orc's wife.