chapter 43

Gamli began swinging his large axe in figure eights, taking off a different foul head on each downstroke. Blinding flashes of light came from one side where Radagast was taking out enemies with both staff and sword. For one so old he moved with great speed and agility. Glancing towards his beloved he could see nothing more than a tornado of light-colored hair and her flashing swords. She was almost dancing between the enemies, leaving a path of fallen dance partners behind her. And she was laughing!! Gamli couldn't believe his ears. "She's a fighter, that one," He muttered to himself as he turned his attention back to the task at hand.

With the wolves tearing out throats left and right and the ents sending down a rain of rock, they were soon able to overcome their enemies. Gamli took a moment to catch his breath and looked up....right into the face of a warg. Warg riders were coming in fast with more orcs close behind. Before Gamli could hoist his axe up, an arrow sprouted from the neck of the beast.

Looking in its direction he saw Melda shoulder her bow and draw her second sword from the chest of the orc she had plunged it hilt deep into when she saw her beloved dwarf about to be mauled. He made his way to her side and they stood back to back, the dead piling up around their feet. Finally, their blades met empty air.

It was no time to stop, and they took the opportunity to slip away from the main fray and over to where Radagast had taken advantage of a jagged opening in the wall the result of a well aimed ents boulder. There they managed to slip inside the stygian depths with only the barest of light from the staff in the old man's hand. "Quickly and quietly, young ones. There is danger around every corner. No need to bring any more foul beasts to us."

They strode quickly through the dark fortress to an old passageway that apparently led deep underground. Suddenly, the feeble light of Radagast's staff flickered out. Muttering a string of ancient words he attempted to relight the way but with no avail. "My magic is no good here my friends, there are dark spells on this cursed place. We shall have to do without."

Gamli put a hand on the arms of his two companions. "I can see in this darkness, whereas the two of you cannot. No Melda my love, not even your elven eyes can compare to those of a dwarf underground." Taking the lead and making sure that he would not lose either companion in some dark crevice, they continued on.

After several long minutes, with a few muttered curses from the two, suddenly clumsy, magic wielders behind him, they came into a large, brightly lit cavern. And the sight before their eyes stunned him. Looking back at his companions, he saw his shock echoed in the tears of Melda's eyes.

They were stacked like cordwood, elegant and willowy birches, beeches and slender maples. Vaguely man-shaped, but each clearly recognizable as a species of tree. Shorter in stature than the ents outside now raining destruction on the fortress exterior, they were shorter and...well definitely more feminine. These were clearly the missing entwives, cruelly lashed and chained together for some inexplicable purpose. Like a harvest gathering. He then saw row after row of great tables set in long lines, sticky with sap, surrounded by loose branches and great piles of leaf debris. Great blackened knives and monstrous saws hung overhead the tables still dripping with the oozing sap, the life blood of these majestic creatures. One entwife was tied to the table nearest them, some of her limbs had been removed...he watched the creature now barely stirring; shuddering briefly and then lay still.