Elven Chronicles Book 4: The Final Stand

I quickly finished off the last bit of rock and pulled myself out of the mound. I was too exhausted to do anything but roll down the fifty feet of rock. I landed hard on the ground and it took me a while to get situated. I realized that there was no fighting going on at the moment except for a few arrows flying. I picked myself up and staggered all the way to camp. I was lucky that no one saw me due to the fact I could barely lift my head up.

I just stumbled right into the base tent and found the guys hovered over the map. I staggered next to Aaron and said, "What is up?"

"Oh nothing Kida," he answered and then shot up from his seat. "You're alive!" He gasped and grabbed me. I just collapsed into his arms and did not move. The next two hours passed in a blur of activity. I was carried by Aaron to the nurses' tents and they cleaned me up and patched up my head. I was fed some liquids, and then I passed out for a couple of hours.

I woke up to the smells of warm food. Aaron was sitting next to me holding a plate of meat and bread. "Hey babe," he said.

"Hey," I said softly. "Sorry about that." He just smiled back and stroked my hair. I notied then that the large bandage was still around my head.

"Here," he said and started to feed me food. He cut up all the meat and broke the bread so it would be easy for me to eat.

"I remember doing this for you five years ago after you were kidnapped," he began, "but you were a lot more fragile that time."

"I am too tired to feed myself," I answered and continued to eat what he gave me. "What has happened in the past day and a half?"

"The signal was received from Elendil and the others. The army for them was deployed and there is a stalemate currently. We all thought you were dead, and I think the enemy did too."

"I am sorry," I said.

He leaned in until he was an inch above my face. He was dead serious. "Don't do that to me ever again. I thought you were dead for the past day, and I will not go through that again. I love you too much." Then he kissed me.

A couple of hours later I was able to get up and move around. I found the soldiers rested and ready for the next round of battle to begin. I found the earth benders I saved from the rock slide with Elwen.

"High Queen Kida, thank you for saving our lives," one of them said. "We felt awful about it, and thank goodness you are alright."

"You are all my subjects, and I will take care of you the best I can. Never feel bad and thank you for being so brave the other day," I replied and met up with the others in the tent.

"Queen Kida, thank goodness you are save," Queen Lyalle said. "The River women were very distraught."

"Thank you Queen Lyalle. It will take more than a ton of rocks to keep me down. How are the women holding up?"

"Just fine. The Dark is still making advances but Queen Isabel's benders are doing an excellent job in helping us. Some archers have joined us for support as well. I don't see the Dark army crossing the river anytime soon."

"Good. King Levan, anything to report?"

"My men are just fine. We have found some good places to dig in and everything seems to be running smoothly."

"Father?"

"Same here Kida. Nothing too serious for now. The archers are fine too," he added.

"Excellent. Well, go and prepare your forces for tomorrow. I can sense that the Dark will try to make their move early."

They took their leave, and I stayed behind to pour over the maps. Fifty elves have been killed along with twenty wolves. Honestly I thought there would be more in six weeks of fighting, but most of the deaths occurred in the first two weeks. The armies have learned a lot more since then. If Lily, Elendil, Nani, and the others could pull through, my hopes of winning would grow stronger.

I stayed up late looking over those maps, and fell asleep in the middle of writing some notes. I woke up briefly to Aaron picking me up and taking me to my tent. I loved him so much, and really found it hard to believe he could put up with such a mess as myself.