[Barodir]

"Let's go, old man!" an Orc shouted at him. He was shoved and fell to the ground. He landed in the mud and dropped his walking stick some distance from himself. He found himself crawling for it only for it to be placed under an Orc's foot. "You want this old man? Here, you can have it...after you pry it from under my foot!" The Orcs laughed at him as he began to dispair...

Garodin had no clue how this came to be. It had been a pleasant day out, and he was out chopping wood at the slow pace that age had set for him. Even after sixty years in this world, he found it necessary to do work. His old military habits would not leave him, even if he was crippled by time.

He had just finished chopping the wood when he heard it: screams of pain and terror. "Surely this is a joke that my head is playing on me!" he said. But it was not, as he saw a house burst into flames.

Then they came: the Orcs. The soldiers of pain and fear in Middle Earth. He had fought them before in his younger years, but would not be able to win now. He threatened the Orcs with his hatchet, only to have it knocked away. He could do nothing but struggle helplessly as the Orcs dragged him and the other townspeople that had survived out of the city...

"...Come on, old man! You can do it!" the Orcs shouted at him as he struggled to grab the stick, always being shoved away. He looked around for anything to help him. Anything at all, whether it be a stick or a blade.

He then realized that he had his two knives on him. He slowly drew one out. "So, you think that since I'm old, I cannot fight?! Well take this!" he shouted as he slashed at the Orcs calf, successfully cutting it. "ARGH!" the Orc exclaimed. He success grabbed his stick and hit the Orc over the head with it. "Foul beast!" he shouted as he attacked the Orc. Others came, though, and broke the fight up. One hit Garodin over the head, and he blacked out...

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Barodir stood at the edge of the establshment. He looked around the city that had been ravaged some time before by the Orcs. "Such senseless destruction. Have these beasts no hearts?!" he asked in vain.

He had gone ahead of the rest of the soldiers to scout out the area. He could almost still hear the screams of the people as they were either killed, taken away, or worse, saw their loved one's slaughtered. This was not the first place that the Orcs had ever destroyed. It was their way of life, in a manner of thought. Thier sole purpose in life seemed to only instill fear in the hearts of their enemies.

All these thoughts ran through Barodir's head. He couldn't bear thinking of how many people were killed. Men. Women. Even children. It was almost as if there was a mass extinction of all ages of life.

And the Orcs wouldn't be stopping here. They'd continue to attack and kill. Beat and murder. Destroy at any cost.

"For too long, this hate has gone on! The Orc's will be punished for their misdoings! I'll stop them, even if I have to take them on by myself! Even it claims my life..."

He thought about this. If he was killed, what would protect his own family? They were in a town cose to here, and they could be next, if the Orcs aren't stopped. "I won't let that happen!..."

Barodir turned around and headed back to meet Fededhor. "Sureley, he'll want to see this" he thought. He took off into the wood-laid path, hoping to make it in time to stop the Orcs reign of terror...

[ March 30, 2003: Message edited by: Barodir ]