Elven Chronicles Book 4: The Final Stand

I slowly open my eyes and tried to remember why it was so dark. I could hear some muted sounds, but I could not see a thing. I lit some sparks on my fingertips to find that I was under a ton of huge rocks.

"Shit," I murmured and then remembered what happened. I looked around and found that I was in a crater in the ground. I must have willed it as the rocks fell on top of me. I had a splitting headache and felt my head. There was some dried blood, but otherwise I was alright with some bumps and bruises. I got my bearings and figured that if I carved myself a tunnel out of the rocks, I could make it out.

~
"The signal was given and you all know your orders," Isabel was telling the soldiers who were going to go and find Elendil and company. There were two hundred elves, a hundred wolves, and two River women. They were the only other two that could speak the elven language fluently.

"Keep hidden and do not let anyone find you. Stick to the path and you should reach them in six days. Good luck and move out." The soldiers saluted and started the march. Laki had some fifty birds with him to provide some cover. It was the middle of the night and twelve hours since Kida had disappeared.

"They are on the move," Isabel told the others. Aaron was standing in a corner looking like he was trying to hold back tears. She walked over to him and pulled him outside.

"Hey, I know how it feels. When my husband died, I felt like joining him. You need to keep it together and think about what Kida would want you to do."

"I know Isabel, but I cannot get the image out of my head. I should have never let her away from me," he answered.

"Could you stop that rock slide?"

"No."

"Then there is nothing you could have done differently. Come on," she hugged him, and they joined the others back in the tent.

~
"I am never doing this again," I said to myself after carving away some more rock. I was exhausted, my head started to bleed again, hungry, and filthy. I had been going for about three hours now and could not tell how much farther there was to go. I was going straight up though. I guess that was a good thing. After another hour of that hell, I felt a huge energy drain and blacked out again.

I woke up about two to three hours later with the headache. I estimated that it had been about eighteen hours since my lovely disappearance. I figured that they all thought that I was dead for the time being. I could not believe how hungry I was. It really sucked.

~
"Lady Nanina, I received the return signal," Robin reported. "That means that they are sending the reinforcements."

"Good," Nani answered, and then noticed Robin's expression. "What is it?"

"I also received word by bird that the High Queen is dead," she had a hard time saying this.

Nani's face paled and she called the others over and told them.

"Dead!" Isabel exclaimed and then started to cry silently.

"We must stay strong for Kida. That is what she would have wanted us all to do," Nani told the group gravely. They sat in a solemn silence for the rest of the evening, and Nani wondered how this was going to affect the rest of the war.

~
Another two damn hours had passed, and I still did not see any light. I really started to doubt whether I was going to get out of this hell hole. I kept going for another three hours and then rested for an hour. I was ready to stop this nonsense. I hadn't eaten in two days, barely slept, my head felt like it was going to explode, and I had been missing for an entire day.

Then I noticed Koda's bracelet on my wrist and remembered his words 'come back safe, Kida'. I realized then that I had to be close to the top and I could not give up because I had a family waiting for me at home. They needed me, and this gave me the energy to push forward.

I spent the next seven hours digging and saw a beam of sunlight. I knew then that I was going to live. I also knew that those bastards were going to pay big time for trying to kill my elves.