A Mistake

“Barricade the door!” Raina shouted as the others started feeling the vibrations. They reverberated through the stone and up Raina’s spine as she shook in fear.

Soon enough Legolas was throwing old weapons to Aragorn and Boromir to barricade the doors shut. Raina found herself unable to really move, besides find high ground on top of Balin’s tomb alongside of Gimli, and notch an arrow into her bow.

She took a shaky breath as the creatures stopped outside the door.

“What… what are they?” Raina breathed. Sam, who was standing with Gandalf called for Frodo.

Frodo unsheathed Sting, the old sword that Bilbo had given him to reveal that it had lit up bright blue.

“Orcs!” Legolas cried as Frodo looked up at them in fear.

Orcs… Raina thought to herself. They were said to be the cruelest creatures to ever walk the Earth, and now there were hundreds, if not thousands, surrounding them.

“It’s going to be okay,” Legolas said from beside her, glancing up to look into her eyes as he aimed his bow at the doors.

She nodded, but couldn’t help but wonder. They were at least a few hours away from escaping the mine, an hour if they all sprinted. And they were surrounded by orcs. They were outnumbered by a hundred to one, and were trapped. How on earth could they make it out? How was it going to be okay?
At this moment, some creature from outside gave an inhuman war cry, and Raina stiffened even more.

“Oh. They have a cave troll,” Boromir said in sarcastic relief. Raina resisted the urge to cry right then and there.

Before long, the doors were being torn apart from the outside. Aragorn and Boromir finally backed off, giving Raina and Legolas clear shots from where they were. The other drew their swords and faced the door. The Hobbits didn’t look much better than Raina felt. She attempted to steady her hands by not thinking of the chaos that was about to ensue, but every time she tried, the increased heartbeats of the others drew her back to her terror.

When she opened her eyes, only a few seconds had passed, but it had felt like many minutes. There was now a small gap in the wood of the door. Instinctively, Raina aimed her arrow at it and fired. A cry came from beyond the door, and another orcs stood in the dead ones place, angrier than the last.

Raina notched another arrow, and another and another, taking as many out as she could before the creatures were upon them.

After a few shots, one of the arrows was returned, just barely missing Raina’s face. The archer had overestimated her height, and it soared right over her head.

“OI!” She shouted angrily once she had regained her balance. From below her, Legolas laughed.

“Not all your prey will lie down and not fight back, cupcake,” he said, while firing his own weapon. Raina would have laughed, had she not been scared that it would turn into mad cackle out of fear.

They then burst through the door, and there were far fewer than Raina had heard. She guessed the rest were hiding up where ever they had come from, but she didn’t have much longer to think.

She shot as many as she could from where she stood, but many got by her. There was one… it was looking straight at her, wielding its axe.

She glared at it, and took aim. The arrow flew straight by his ear. Her heart jumped as the creature started towards her, and she tried to shoot him down again. But by now she was so jumpy that it wasn’t even close. Her heart raced as she fumbled quickly for another arrow.

The orc was only a few feet from her once she got her hands on the arrow. She gave a shriek of pure panic as it raised its weapon, grinning maliciously. She stumbled back, her whole body shaking with horror.

But before the blow was dealt, an arrow was lodged right in its heart, from where it had raised its arm to strike her down.

Raina let out her breath, feeling on the verge of tears. In that instant, she was picked up bridal style by a strong somebody and carried to the back of the small room.

“Get up there,” he said gruffly as he set her down, motioning to the ledge that the Hobbits huddled on. “I doubt they will follow you.” And with that Legolas had drawn his sword once more, and threw himself back into the fight.

Raina climbed, trying to calm herself down as she did. Once she reached the top, she pulled herself up and took her bow off her shoulder. By now her hands were not shaking, and she had begun to calm down. Once glance below told her that she was in company of very skilled fighters; although they were outnumbered, it seemed possible that the Fellowship could get out of there. Aragorn beheaded one orc, and swung around with the same blow to stab another and cut through one more. Boromir was not as skillful, but was taking his share of the beasts out as well.

With this, Raina notched an arrow and shot on orc in the shoulder, which had been about to attack Frodo. She narrowed her eyes, but it only took one more arrow to kill it.

She kept this up; taking her time in choosing her next target to make sure none of the Fellowship was snuck up upon. She also did shoot the orcs that crowded around underneath her, trying to crawl up fast enough to kill her. None of them succeeded.

It wasn’t much longer after that did most of the Fellowship all look up in fear. The cave troll had joined the fight, and was then chasing after Sam.
Raina loaded three arrows into her bow, and shot the troll in what she had hoped to be its heart, throat, and brain, but she was a little off. Legolas a shot it as well, Gimli hacked at its legs with his axe, and Aragorn and Boromir fought it with swords.

Raina and Legolas soon irritated the troll enough that it was more concerned with pulling the arrows out of its skin rather than fighting, and Raina smiled at the small triumph. But it wasn’t a second later that she was yanked down several feet to the stone floor by her ankle.

She blinked back tears as she stared at her attacker. A few orcs stood above her, weapons clenched in their hands as they stared down at her. Raina pursed her lips and she felt the pain of her ankle being twisted, her head throbbing, and her back where she fell. For a moment, no one moved.
As fast as she could muster, Raina shot her hand down her boot to find the small dagger hidden there. With that, she stabbed one of the shocked orcs in the eye, killing it. The other two weren’t so easy.

She barely had time to jump up and throw her dagger in front of her face before one of them tried to stab at her throat and the other tried to cut down her legs. Because she had jumped up, the sword just barely cut her legs, but she still gave a gasp of pain.

The orc who had cut her grinned, showing pointed teeth covered in black blood. Raina grimaced, and pushed at the sword she had blocked to stab the orc’s stomach. It curled over with a howl, and Raina jumped on its legs with all her might, causing them to snap. She would come back to finish it after she had killed the other.

The other was ready for her attack this time, but was not ready when she pulled out an arrow and used it to stab its eye. It wasn’t close to dead because of this blow, but it was distracted enough to let Raina slit its throat. She then grimaced and walked back to the other orc and slit its throat as well, trying not to gag.

Raina glanced around at the battle from where she stood now. She was completely calm now, but her blood on her legs was soaking through the cloth, and her head was pounding.

She slid her bloody knife across her tunic, which was now already stained with black blood, and then slid it back into its place in her boot. She unsheathed her sword from her belt, tossing it in her hands a few times to get used to it. Although Boromir had showed her a few things with the weapon, she was hardly comfortable wielding it.

An orc turned its head to face her, moving to raise its weapon. Before it could, Raina shoved the sword into its chest with a cry. She had not been confident enough with her blow, thus the sword did not break the creatures ribcage and stab its heart. It cried out in pain and Raina pulled at the sword to remove it and slit its throat. She winced as the creature fell on its face, all the life had gone out of it.

She sighed, wishing she could’ve brought the sword above her head and just beheaded the creature. But she knew she was not strong enough, and it would have just caused the orc more pain. Although they were a major part of all this trouble, Raina could not bring herself to make unnecessary pain in a world that already had enough of it already.

By now Raina was breathing hard, and felt numb to the fear she had felt before. There was so much blood everywhere, but she refused to feel faint. Trying to sharpen her senses by letting her heart become number, she stabbed a random orc that she passed. This time, though, she did not flinch.
She walked through the battle, which was starting to slow. Every so often an orc or goblin would try to attack her. But once she had left her feelings out of it, she did not resist killing them on the spot.

A few skirmishes later, Raina heard the cave troll bellow from across the room. She immediately stopped paying attention to the battle around her and looked up at the pillar it was standing near. Who ever it had found was a Hobbit, because no one else could fit there. She started striding over there, which became a sprint after a few moments.

“Aragorn! Strider!” Frodo called. Raina whipped her head around to see Aragorn surrounded by several attackers. She ran to him, cutting her way through.

“Go!” she cried, taking the creatures on by herself. She drew her dagger from her boot once more, and shoved it into an orcs throat without a thought while she swiped her sword at the others, successfully cutting one’s stomach.

One took a swing at her neck with its axe, and she threw herself backwards from it, catching herself before she fell. She let out her held breath with a smile or triumph. I think I’m starting to get the hang of this, she thought with a grin before she felt a sharp pain from her ankle.

She gave a cry of pain a surprise, looking at her ankle through blurry eyes. She swore under her breath as she saw her red blood on the knife of one of the orcs she thought she had killed. It was at her feet, an ugly snarl of a smile on its face. With a snarl herself, she threw her own dagger into its heart. It died before it knew what hit it.