Gannon finally killed the orc with the knife that had been bothering him so much. Conner looked around for a target, abandoning his experiment for the moment. An orc sprouted an arrow; Gannon finished it off. Llweder's spell finally worked, entangling a warg in rapidly growing vines. Meara moved toward the warband and cast a lightning bolt at an orc, singing him.
    A warg finally pulled itself together and leaped on Llweder from behind, savaging him with its fangs.
    Somewhere in the fogbanks, a tactical genius of an orc had decided that they should just throw darts at all the noise. One bounced off Meara's armor. She decided that fair's fair, and prepared to throw another fireball. Conner saw Llweder pinned, screaming, and shot the warg on top of him; it leaped away with a yelp.
    I missed. Again. He didn't, but I blocked it with my shield again. We were both starting to look a little knocked around, but hadn't managed to seriously hurt each other yet.
    Gannon found another orc—they were starting to be in short supply—and missed, but so did the orc. Llweder tangled the warg that had attacked him in another rose bush.
    "Llweder, you okay?" Conner yelled.
    "No," he yelled back, but he was on his feet.
    The warband was slowly prevailing against the greater numbers, having lost a number of men on the initial charge. Meara threw more flaming darts in their direction, singing an orc. Another sprouted an arrow from its vitals. Gannon wounded his.
    I finally landed a blow on the Uruk-hai and saw the tiny signs that meant our long exchange was starting to tell on him; I was getting a little tired myself. His own attack missed me completely.
    Meara cancelled her fear spell and cast a Flame Coat on herself, then strode toward the general melee. Llweder looked at the two remaining, unoccupied wargs, and entangled one of them. Gannon finished his orc. Meara vaporized one. Conner shot the remaining warg; it was still up, but wounded.
    I landed another heavy blow, but it turned out that he had a surprise or two left, and I couldn't parry while my blade was buried in his shoulder. I'm going to be feeling that one for a bit.
    Gannon's latest orc parried his attack. Llweder swung his staff at an orc, clubbing it hard across the back. Meara continued to lay a swathe of destruction through the orcs, who will probably be telling stories about her for the rest of the tribe's history. Conner sent another arrow into the warg he'd shot earlier. Gannon missed. The orc went him one better and dropped his knife, began retreating.
    The Uruk-hai was at the end of his resources; he'd left himself wide open. I cut his head off. We can be a very practical family when it's necessary.
    There were very few orcs left, and they were trying to retreat. Llweder laid a line of ice across their path of retreat, taking out a few more of them on the way. The grim business of finishing off the wounded commenced, as Meara and Llweder prepared to do what they could for those from our side of the battle. Bringing one lad back from the brink of death got Meara a convert.
    We had lost a third of the warband, most of them killed by wargs in the initial charge, but compared to the orc losses we'd come through quite well, and it's likely that they'll leave us alone for a couple of years.
    Us. We went home. The rest of the year passed with remarkable quiet.
    
    

To be Continued?     

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