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Angóre cursed as Erenor bolted past the lieutenant and down the corridor after Faerim. He had heard the scream as well, but he also heard the drums, and they weren't coming from the same direction. Trolls! Angóre's eyes burned at the thought. His whole adult life he had spent hunting the creatures. It was his sole purpose; the only thing he lived for. Until recently. Until he had aligned himself with these humans, thrown his lot in with them and with Erenor. Erenor.
The Elf stood, torn. Belegorn stood as well, his eyes darting back and forth. Suddenly, with a curse of his own, he collected his men, scrambling back up the tunnel towards the main party and the scream and leaving the Eldar by himself. Angóre looked up towards the well-lighted corridor, hearing the sounds of panic and combat. Surely there were enough of the Dúnedain to fend off the attack, whomever was making it. A lone soldier would make no difference. Except, possibly, to the person he was supposed to be guarding. He cursed again and looked down the darkened pathway towards the sound of the drums. Would the trolls come up on the unsuspecting and frantic Dúnedain train? Would they pass them by in the labyrinth of caverns? Could he take the chance that they wouldn't?
Angóre had always considered himself a warrior, secure in the knowlege that his decisions affected only himself and that if he made the wrong one only he'd know the difference. And up until recently, this decision would have been simple. He would have followed the sound of the drums until he came upon the trolls, and then he would have attacked them until they or he lay dead. He'd spent his whole life, more or less, in one or another stage of this plan. Find the troll, kill the troll. He had taken an oath, sworn in the still-warm blood of his mother, on that fateful day they had brought him her corpse, ravaged by the creatures of Sauron. He had taken an oath...
He swore feelingly. "I'm sorry, mother," the words sounded dragged from his lips. "I'll be back for them." Then he turned, sprinting up the tunnel towards the Dúnedain and Lady Erenor, his charge.
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