[Child of the 7th Age]

Maura Tuk and Ban quickly returned to the hobbit archers who were still mounted on the wall above the city. This time, they were not defending the north gate, but the homes of the hobbits themselves. They stood on their high perch shooting down arrow after arrow onto the heads of a growing multitude of Orcs who wielded broad-bladed spears and sharp scimiters.

Maura looked on in horror as he spied large bands of writhing wyrms and balrogs making their slow way into the heart of the city. Yet the hobbits were surrounded not by these gigantic creatures, but by an inexorable chain of Orcs, beginning to hack away at the round doors of the burrows with large axes and setting fires on doorsteps to smoke out whoever or whatever lay inside. Their numbers mounted close to two thousand, as the ugly creatures swarmed over every inch of soil within the hobbit village.

Tomba Bullroarer held up his hand to relay orders to the other hobbits, "This way is folly." he roared. "Our wives and sisters and daughters are being roasted alive, while we wait upon these walls." The walls themselves began to shake and waiver as, far below, wyrms and balrogs dug at the city's foundations and pummelled against the stone.

Bulroar nodded to Maura, "What say that we go down below, and give them a welcoming party? For myself I care not whether I live or die, but I have no wish to be responsible for spilling the blood of my wife and children or other female kin, should there be another way. If, as all have said, these Orcs wish to show us the hospitality of Morgoth, perhaps we should take them up on their offer and live still to split their heads some other day."

Maura nodded in assent, "But keep close, and come through the breech at the north gate in one group. For, if they lie, we will use our lives to make them pay dearly."

The group of hobbits fled together from the wall and regrouped below the gate. They came through wielding swords and bows. As they formed their lines again, a massive crush of Orcs surrounded them on all sides penning them up against the remnents of the city wall. Bullroarer strode forward, "Would you have our deaths? For you may surely take our lives but at a great price to your own."

The Orc Captain pushed forward. "If it were my choice, I would make short play of you tonight. I would kill you properly so you would beg for your lives to end. But I have other orders: to kill all, but not the halflings. For they are to be brought back alive, with as little spoiling as can be managed."

He glared, "Now, if you wish to remain unspoiled, you will tell your women and babes to come out of their dirty holes and join you at these gates."

He pushed a blade to Bullroarer's throat, "Tell the women to come, and bring no weapons, or else you all die. For we travel a long way, and you will weep with pain before we reach the prisons of Dorthonion."

Bullroarer sent several warriors to knock upon the burrow doors, and told each of the families to rejoin their kin by the gates. This was done quickly and with no hesitation.

The women and children came swiftly, carrying what few possessions they could manage. Among their number was Nitir and Azra, holding each other's hand, and Zira and her child, along with the injured Raza.

Nitir looked about on a scene filled with death and destruction. The blood, the smoke, the senseless bodies left by the way---all this filled her with revulsion and hatred of Morgoth and his Orcs. But still a part of her thought. I am alive and in one piece, and my people still live.

The Orc Captain gave orders and the large file of hobbit men, women, and children began to make their way slowly northward through the gate.

[ August 11, 2002: Message edited by: Child of the 7th Age ]