The Battle of the Fifth Age
Freya ran through the woods, her heart pounding as she gasped for air. She paused for just a moment, leaning against a tree to catch her breath. An arrow whizzed past her head and stuck in the tree with an audible “THUNK”. Freya had reached a dead end. She closed her eyes and steeled herself as her hand wrapped around the handle of her dagger. In a flash she drew her dagger and whirled around. She would run no more.
When she turned around she saw nothing but trees. All of a sudden arrows started raining down on her from all sides. They came from all around her. She turned and started running back the way she had come. The pelting of arrows stopped as suddenly as they had started. She stopped in confusion. Just then around 20 elvish warriors dropped down from the treetops. She realized she had entered, armed, into Lothlorian.
Time froze for Freya at the appearance of the Elves. She was keenly aware of her surroundings; her senses sharpened. The sun was low in the west when they first appeared from the trees. And though it was mid winter the leaves still clung to the trees, beautifully golden. Freya knew it was forbidden to carry a bladed weapon into Lothlorian, especially for a female Elf. But she reasoned, twenty Elven archers was still a better chance for survival than a Balrog. Nevertheless, Freya was not here to fight her own kind. She had bigger plans that would not be deterred. She sighed, letting the dagger slip from her hand. She watched the knife fall for what felt like hours until the tip of the blade pierced the earth. Freya raised her hands and slowly turned to the other Elves, her hands held definitely high in the face of certain death. She did not know if the power of Lothlorien, where and Elven Lord and Lady resided and protected, was great enough to turn Orcs away at its borders if they were to pursue. With darkness threatening all of Middle Earth, she trusted none.
The Lorien elves’ leader, Haldir stepped up to Freya. He asked her, in elven, who she was and why she was there. She replied, in the common tongue, that she had entered to escape an army of blood-thirsty Gundabad orcs. When asked why she was being followed and where her bow was, for it is commonly known that elves are experienced bowmen. She said she would only talk to Lord Celeborn and Lady Galadriel. Next thing Freya knew she was standing in front of Galadriel and Celeborn. As she bowed down, Celeborn asked why she was there. She told him that thousands upon thousands of orcs were closing in. She wanted to know if the borders were well protected. Galadriel said to Freya, “Hannan Le (thank you) for the warning. The border is well protected.” Just then an Elvish warrior ran in and said “Orcs are attacking, we can no longer hold the border.
In the outer part of Lothlorien, Legolas paused to get his bearings. He noticed immediately the forest had gone silent around him. Not a bird sounded from the trees. Even the insects had paused their chorus of chirps and buzzing. Something was wrong. Legolas slowed his pace, peering through the trees, unable to shake the feeling of being watched. The trail was beginning to slope upward, an indication he was approaching the mountains of Lothlorien. As the foliage grew denser, Legolas heard an audible “CRACK!” break the stillness of the forest. Legolas had an arrow nocked in his bow before the sound had even cesed to echo through the woods. Two orcs suddenly crashed through the brush. Legolas spun to avoid an orc blade, then quickly stabbed the first orc in the throat. The second orc managed to fire two arrows that Legolas somersaulted to avoid. When he popped back up on his feet the shot the orc in the forehead. Legolas felt a sinking feeling in his stomach as the sound of orc war drums reached his ears. He was home.
When Legolas told Thranduil, his father, that he could not go back, he moved in with the elves of Lothlorian. Little did Freya know that Legolas had been following her ever since she left Rivendell. The reason he followed her was because he was wondering why a female elf was going off alone. When she disappeared in the tangled mess of trees, he lost her. Later when he came running to tell Celeborn that the borders would not hold, he realized the she-elf was there.
Legolas knew he needed to warn Lothlorian of the orcs amassing at the border. After disposing of the orc sentries, Legolas crept to the edge of the forest. What he saw was awesome and terrifying. Lying between him and Celeborn, as far as the elvish eye could see, stretching miles in all directions, the fires of the orc army burned in the night. They were like thousands of blazing yellow dots in the blackness of the plains, and moving busily about in the bright light were the hulking shapes of orcs, and the wiry muscled forms of wargs. There were thousands of them, all armed, all waiting to descend on the Elven realm of Lothlorian.
He decided to climb the trees to get pass the orcs. When he was passing over the orcs he started shooting at them with his bow. After killing around 100 orcs he finally reached Celeborn. Once he warned Celeborn, he was given orders to take the she-elf, Freya, to an empty room. Once he showed Freya to her room he left to see if the elven army was ready at the border. Just then the orcs broke through. War had begun.
As the sound of Elven armies heading to the border faded, Freya found herself alone in the stillness of the castle. This was not how her quest was to end. She slipped her knife onto her belt, silently opened the door to her room, and disappeared into the shadows. The land that lay before Freya was surprisingly hilly. It was not a change in terrain that could be distinguished by someone in the valley, but became distinct when nearly on top of it. There were small trees and dense stretches of brush farther on, and… something else, something forign to the land.
Freya crept closer to the unknown object. As she came closer she realized it was not an animal, but a creature she had only heard of in fairy tales. It was an Ent, a tree herder. The strange part was the forest of Fangorn was asleep, and even if the trees were awake they would not venture so far north. She realized something was off. What happened to the Ent, she did not know but she assumed it was bad.
Recognising the Ent, Freya came to a sharp halt. Her breath caught in her chest. She squinted into the strong light of the afternoon sun, unable to see the surrounding terrain. She sensed something was wrong but didn't know what. As Freya crept closer to the Ent the land appeared to have spikes, almost like a porcupine laying down in restful slumber. Spikes in every direction as far as she could see. The sun glinted of metal in the grass, which was dotted with various colors. Small black objects were moving amongst the spikes like fleas on the back of a dog. Finally, Freya steeled her nerves and called out “Hey-oh!” to whomever- whatever lay ahead. To her shock, she was met with a flutter of wings and the frightful shrieking of winged scavengers disturbed at their meal, vultures. Hundreds of them rising in a flurry that blocked out the sun. There had been a battle. As Freya neared the Ent she let out an audible gasp. There were dead men lying on the ground as far as she could see. Those spikes began to become distinct - they were the lances and standards of the fallen men.
She tentatively crept forwards. When she neared the first she realized the symbol on the standard. This was the remains of the mighty Rohirrum. As she walked around she felt like something was strange about this battle. She inspected the nearest body. She realized that there was no blood, no sign of injury at all. She did another walk around and realized the only bodies were those of the Rohirrum men and horses. She was curious because there was only the Rohirrum, no enemies, and none of them supported wounds or blood. What had happened? Then she remembered the Ent. She came closer to it but it shied away. She used some Elvish magic to calm the Ent. Even then it still remain wary of her. As she examend the Ent she saw there was a cut in it. At first she disposed of that thought. But then she realized that cut could not have been created by any living creature on this earth. Nor could it have been created by any of the dead. It was truly forign.