[Arry]

Captain Gâshronk fingered the prizes he had taken from the wounded Elf. ‘Why hide them away,’ he thought. ‘I’ll just wear them for now – put ‘em away before we get to Dol Guldur, so’s no one there’ll take them from me.’ The red stone glinted handsomely as it caught the light.

The other Orcs, especially the one who had dragged in the unfortunate Elf, drew away from the Captain and “his” prizes. ‘There’s others out there; I can feel ‘em,’ he grumbled to his fellows. He seethed with anger, looking at the Captain. By rights those Elf-things should be his! ‘Get your bows and let’s do a little hunting for prizes of our own.’ In a clattering cloud of stirred up dust, the Orcs took off for the line of trees the downed Elf had come from.

Gâshronk called out a few useless threats, to no avail – they had already run out of earshot. ‘Left me to guard the prisoners, did they?’ he growled, drawing his blade and walking toward the wagon. It appeared, though, there was not much to guard – the four Elves all seemed tightly bound and unlikely to escape, though the three they had captured first stared hard at him with their foul grey eyes. A brief chill made the hair on his arms stand up, his skin prickle. He shook it off, and moved a ways away from the wagon to sit on a rock in the sun.

Gromwakh and Snikdul, hunkered down in their little hidey-hole beneath the bushes. At one point, Snikdul nudged his companion, asking if perhaps they could go after the Elves, too. He wanted an Elf finger to put on his necklace. ‘No!’ was the quick answer Gromwakh gave him. ‘Just stay put. That one fool Elf was obviously after the prisoners we have. He got himself shot. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty more Elves out there with the same idea . . . and all of them with arrows that have our names on ‘em!’ He lowered his voice to a low whisper. ‘Remember back in camp, before we started. We got reports of Elves in the trees keeping watch on us.’ He shook his head firmly. ‘You plant your hairy behind right here in the dirt and stay undercover. We’ll sort things out . . . Elf fingers and all . . . when it’s safe . . .’

Snikdul grumbled, about to protest what Grom had said. But the sound of light steps in the camp caught the two Orcs attention and they ventured a look through the leaves.

‘See!’ hissed Gromwakh, pulling his friend back down. ‘There are more Elves! And they’ve come for their own . . .’