"After taking Durin with us, we sent the wounded back with a group of guards and then headed toward the outpost. It had been built inside a valley. The tunnels dug together with the Earth-eaters had turned the place into an orc nest."
Elrond and his team were observing a desolate valley from a high point a few hundred meters back. It was very quiet. There was not a single trace, sound, or movement of life. This had put the elves on edge and kept them from acting right away. After waiting for a while, Durin, who had been peeking out sneakily from behind a rock, turned to Elrond.
"Hey, how much longer are we going to wait? There's nothing down there!"
Elrond, right beside him, answered in a calm voice.
"That's exactly why we're waiting, Lord Durin. Haven't you noticed?"
At this warning, Durin looked at Elrond for a moment. Honestly, he had no idea what he meant. He frowned and asked.
"Let's drop the formalities. Call me Durin, and I'll call you Elrond. Anyway, what are you getting at?"
Elrond accepted the offer and explained what he meant in a little more detail.
"Listen to your surroundings, Durin. Tell me what you hear."
Durin gave Elrond a strange look, then began to listen carefully.
"...I don't hear anything... Wait! I don't hear anything!"
Seeing that Durin had gone on alert, Glorfindel spoke from beside them.
"Yes, there's nothing alive. Not a grasshopper, not a bird, not an insect, not even wind... It's as if this place doesn't want living things."
Then he frowned and looked at Elrond.
"I don't like this at all. I have a dark feeling inside me, but I can't explain what it is."
Elrond nodded, his brows knitted.
"I feel the same. Let's stay alert. Durin, tell your men to keep quiet. I have a bad feeling. We're sure the outpost is here, but... something is off."
Although Durin didn't like taking orders, he was different from other dwarves. His ability to grasp a situation was better than that of ordinary dwarves. On top of that, ever since Elrond had warned him, bad smells had been reaching his nose, so he didn't argue. He quietly crouched, pressed his ear to the ground, closed his eyes, and listened to the earth. The two elves watched him with curiosity.
After a few seconds of concentration, he felt vibrations coming from deep below. It was as if the stones and soil had found a voice and were telling him about the activity down there. Heavy footsteps, muffled growls, snoring, and hammers striking steel echoed one by one in his mind. He frowned, opened his eyes, and turned to the elves.
"That valley and the area around it are full of tunnels, and they're very busy."
Then he turned and gave his men a few hand signals. They told them to stay quiet, that the enemy was near, and that they had to be on guard. When his men noticed the signals, they confirmed them and warned those who hadn't seen. This time Durin turned to the elves watching him with a serious face.
"And Elrond, Glorfindel... you're right, I don't like what's going on here either..."
Elrond and Glorfindel exchanged a look, their brows furrowed.
"What is it?" Elrond asked.
Durin stroked his beard thoughtfully.
"I'm not sure... The earth and the rocks are restless. They're even afraid. There's something in the tunnels, but I can't tell what it is."
Then something occurred to him.
"The last time I felt this was in the deepest mine of Khazad-dum. It was something dark and malevolent, but I never understood what it was."
Elrond held his chin and sank into thought as he asked.
"Do you know what it was?"
Durin shook his head.
"No. Ever since I felt that, I haven't gone down to the deepest levels unless I had to. But..."
Elrond's brows drew together.
"But what?"
Durin went on, frowning.
"What I feel here is even stronger than that... It's as if the earth is very close to dying."
Elrond stroked his chin and looked up at the sky.
"Let's go scout. Durin, have your men wait here and watch our backs."
Durin nodded and signaled his men.
"I'm coming with you."
Elrond looked at him for a moment.
"Are you sure you can be quiet?"
Durin pretended to be offended.
"Hah! What do you take me for? Of course I can be quiet!"
Elrond looked at Durin for a while, then sighed and nodded. After that, he and Glorfindel each took out a bottle and began rubbing it on themselves. Durin watched them with curiosity.
"What are you doing?"
Glorfindel explained quietly.
"We're hiding our scent from the wargs and orcs."
Elrond held the bottle out to Durin.
"Use it too. Wargs have a keen sense of smell. If there are any inside, they'll know we're coming right away."
Glorfindel added with a grin.
"Dwarves are especially easy for them to find."
Durin shot Glorfindel a sour look for a moment, then calmly took the bottle.
"Ah, sorry, princess. If not using women's perfumes and soaps like yours means taking a risk, then I'll take that risk."
He gave him a disdainful look and casually rubbed the liquid from the bottle under his armpits.
"Unlike you~"
At these words, Glorfindel's eyebrow twitched.
"Being unkempt doesn't mean being manly!"
Durin answered in a flat voice as he went on with what he was doing.
"Smelling like a flower doesn't suit manliness either."
Then he flexed his muscles, struck a pose, and chuckled.
"Last time I checked, I was a muscular man, and you're a delicate elf with shiny, silky hair and a slender build."
While Glorfindel sputtered and stared blankly at Durin, Durin poured a little from the bottle into his boots too and added.
"The only thing that sets you apart from your females is that your women have round bumps on their chests! Hahahaha! Even humans call you beautiful, not handsome. I've never heard a woman called handsome, but I have heard elf men called beautiful!"
Glorfindel's face darkened completely at those words. He was getting ready to answer when Elrond cleared his throat and cut the argument short.
"Ahem. All right, let's go."
Elrond raised a hand and signaled his own men, and the trio set off. While Glorfindel glared at Durin, he sent him a message.
'We'll talk later.'
Durin answered with a mischievous look.
'Fine by me, princess. Doesn't matter to me.'
The elves and Durin drew back and circled wide, so they could go down into the valley without being noticed.
A few minutes later...
Thanks to Durin, they had gotten down into the valley quickly, found a cave entrance, and gone inside. The elves moved as quietly as they could. After a while, Elrond raised a hand to stop the group behind him and made a few signs.
'Ahead. Two. Guards.'
Upon receiving the message, the elves immediately pressed against the walls, slowed their breathing as much as they could, and kept their weapons ready. Durin quietly crouched behind a rock as well. Two orcs approached at an easy pace. A few seconds later, they were right beside them. Once Elrond was sure there was no one else around, he signaled orders to his two men.
'Take them down.'
The two elf rangers nodded and got ready. As the orcs passed right in front of them, they sprang out from behind the rock and leapt at them. The orcs were stunned and couldn't react before their necks were snapped.
Crack!
Creck!
The elves caught the bodies before they hit the ground and dragged them behind the rocks. The reason they killed the orcs without spilling blood was that they didn't want the smell of blood to spread through the cave. If there were scout orcs or wargs inside, they would notice their presence from the smell. So they would shed as little blood as possible. Once Elrond was sure no one was coming from ahead, he signaled his men and started walking. A few meters later, Durin stopped and bent down, pressed his ear to the ground, and listened to the earth. The elves stopped and looked at him too. A few seconds later, Durin opened his eyes and stood up, taking the big axe from his back into his hand.
"It's crowded ahead. Looks like we've found their center."
Elrond nodded and silently drew his sword, and the elves readied their weapons as well. Elrond turned and looked ahead for a moment, narrowing his eyes. Glorfindel came up beside him and whispered.
"You feel it too, don't you? Something's off."
Elrond nodded.
"Yes... but I can't explain what it is. Do you think we should turn back?"
Glorfindel was silent for a moment, and after collecting his thoughts, he spoke.
"I don't know... King Gil-galad's order is clear. He wants the outpost destroyed before it grows. Its location is the problem. If it turns from an outpost into a fortress, it'll bring us trouble, and you know that too."
Elrond nodded, but he was still uneasy.
"I know, but... I don't know, Glorfindel..."
Looking at Elrond's cautious, uncertain face, Glorfindel smirked slightly.
"Don't worry. Whatever is in there can't be worse than a Balrog, right?"
Elrond understood the reference and smiled, took a deep breath, and nodded. Just then, Durin, who couldn't be patient any longer, tightened his grip on his axe.
"You two nag so much! Come on! Time for action!"
Elrond and Glorfindel looked at the dwarf for a moment, then shook their heads and started forward. The elf soldiers followed them. They had clearly heard the conversation between the two senior commanders and raised their caution to the highest level. If these two elves sensed something was wrong, they didn't want to take it lightly. The shield warriors lined up at the front and the back and held both sides. Right behind them were the spearmen, and the archers were in the middle. This way they secured both the front and the rear and kept the chance of being ambushed to a minimum.
Looking at this formation, Durin silently admired the discipline of the elves. The group advanced a few more minutes, quietly taking down the orcs they saw along the way, and then reached a large cave being used as the outpost. Inside was a vast orc settlement laid out like a tribal camp. After a brief observation, Elrond gave the signal, and the elves moved into a new formation and slipped quietly in among the tents... After observing for a while, Elrond gave the signal, and the elves entered among the tents in a new formation.
Just then, Elrond's narrating voice was heard.
"This was supposed to be a normal mission. Since it was given personally by King Gil-galad, we had no doubts about the situation. He would never have assigned a mission like this without solid intelligence... But we were wrong."
Elrond and his team moved fast but quietly. They killed the sentries, went inside, and attacked the group in front of them. The orcs responded right away but couldn't hold out. The group with Durin, Elrond, and Glorfindel mowed the orcs down quickly. But when the last orc fell, an orc horn blared.
GGGGOOOORRRRRRGGGGGG
All at once the tents collapsed, and heavily armored orcs leapt out from inside them. More poured out of the surrounding tunnels, and goblin and orc archers took up positions on the ledges along the walls and aimed at the elves. Elrond frowned.
"A trap..."
Glorfindel nodded calmly.
"Yes..."
Durin glanced around, then, looking both happy and unhappy,
"How wonderful! More orcs to cut down! Will they ever run ou-!?"
He couldn't finish his sentence. The whole atmosphere in the cave suddenly grew heavy. A thick darkness and a crushing unease settled over the surroundings. As the elves took up their guard in a panic, the faces of Elrond and Glorfindel turned grave. When Durin sensed the presences arriving, a drop of cold sweat ran down his forehead...
"Hey, Elrond, are these what I think they are?"
The orcs drew back in reverence and made way. Four Ringwraiths, wrapped in jet-black cloaks, glided silently out of the darkness to surround the group of two elves and a dwarf. Narrowing his eyes, Elrond answered Durin.
"Yes, the Ringwraiths..."
As Durin focused all his attention and tightened his grip on his axe, the Ringwraiths began to spread a thick wave of despair around them. Their presence pressed down heavily on the elves, and Glorfindel stepped forward, letting his inner light shine out and cutting through the darkness that surrounded them. Gripping his sword, he spoke in a harsh voice.
"Your darkness is useless while I'm here! Vile creatures!"
The Ringwraiths flinched at the light and drew back slightly with faint moans, and the orcs shut their eyes against the bright glare. Elrond looked over the situation around him, forming plans in his mind, and calmly gripped his sword.
"Durin, don't step out of the group. It's going to be a tough fight."
Durin nodded.
"Understood, don't worry. Your back is in safe hands."
Elrond's narrating voice continued.
"The outpost was actually a trap... A trap set for me and Glorfindel... Although the four Ringwraiths worried me at first, with Glorfindel beside me, our chances of getting away were high. But this trap was darker and more dangerous than I had imagined..."
As the elves prepared for battle and Glorfindel was about to charge at the Wraiths, a crushing darkness fell from the cave's ceiling and smothered the holy light Glorfindel radiated all at once. Under this sudden turn, Glorfindel took a heavy mental and spiritual blow and staggered back a few steps. As every last shred of hope around them withered away, a muffled, metallic, bone-chilling, malevolent laugh filled the place.
"Hahahahaha..."
The moment they heard the sound, the orcs and the Ringwraiths knelt in deep reverence. The elves looked in horror at the huge tent in the center of the cave. As every creature on the path to the tent prostrated itself on the ground, the tent's door slowly opened. From inside came a towering figure over two meters tall, clad in terrifying jet-black armor and carrying a huge mace.
As the figure advanced with heavy steps, the elves' faces went deathly pale with fear. Durin, for the first time in his life, felt such crushing pressure and helplessness that he broke out in a cold sweat and couldn't stop his hands from trembling. The giant armored figure spoke in a muffled, mocking voice.
"A slayer of a Balrog, Glorfindel of the House of the Golden Flower. A rare guest, one I don't get to see every day... But your light is no better than a useless firefly before me."
As the dominant, imposing figure walked toward the group with calm steps, Elrond's narrating voice was heard, calm.
"...What we never expected was that... Sauron had come in person for our heads."