How had he been so foolish? In the midst of the battle, his keen elvish senses had failed him. The tiny hobbit maiden who had so valiantly come to his aid had been swept away into a hidden underground tunnel by the foul creatures. The image of her stepping out from the pile of crates and brandishing that small dagger to fend off an approaching goblin...a goblin seeking not her, but who was approaching to disrupt his own arrows...
Elladan hung his head a bit and sighed.
"Hobbits will never cease to amaze me" he thought in silence to himself. For it was Podo who had tried to shame him for killing a goblin of the very same band who they had captured and forced to tell them of the goblin lair. Shame over killing an irredeemable creature who had captured your own kin? Elladan sometimes worried that he would never understand the child races.
The three companions sat hidden in tall brush. They rested from the previous night's battle and watched the entrance to the goblin lair, looking for patterns in the patrols or a moment to make their stealthy entrance. It would be difficult with the dwarf, whose zeal for taking the head of an orc might disrupt their plans at any moment. For there were not just goblins in this cave, but also large orcs. He had slain several that night. They were strong orcs, who refused to fall from a single arrow.
The captured goblin had warned them of a cave troll guarding the goblin king. A cave troll? How would their small party take on a fearsome cave troll. This was a plan that seemed doomed from the onset. The only thing that forced Elladan on was the image of the hobbit maiden brandishing that dagger in a shaking hand.
"Onward" he thought. "Today the goblins of the Wilderlands will know fear in their own lair."
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