"Legolas, perhaps you could go tell Rachel and Katy we are leaving." Aragorn said as he began to tend to Gimli’s wound.
Legolas agreed and disappeared into the caves in search of the two girls. He returned shortly with a worried look on his face.
"Aragorn, have you heard any word of the girls?" He asked, concern in his tone.
"No, I haven’t. Could you not find them in the caves?" Aragorn asked, rising to his feet as he had finished his administrations.
"Nay," Legolas responded, "And no one seems to have seen them enter the caves."
"They are kind of hard to miss." Gimli muttered, standing up as well.
"You don’t think they stayed on the wall and fought?" Aragorn asked.
"I do not see where else they could be," Legolas said, "I will search the wall for news of them."
"I will help you," Gimli decided. The three of the Fellowship quickly split up to begin searching for their missing companions—albeit companions that were forced upon them and ones they were constantly trying to leave behind, but companions nonetheless.
"Aye," The man nodded, "I’ve seen them. They were fighting up yonder, last time we met." He nodded up at a far section of the wall.
"Thank you," Legolas said, hastening his way towards that part of the wall.
The elf soon caught sight of two maidens, lying on the stone floor of the wall among the dead. His face paled slightly as the worst case scenario quickly popped into his head as he witnessed their still forms and closed eyes.
"Lady Rachel? Lady Katy?" He asked hesitantly, stepping closer to the two girls.
Neither of them stirred, but he tried again anyway.
"Rachel?" The voice slowly made it’s way through the musty fog in my head, pounding it’s way through my skull and forcing me to recognize it. I murmured something sounding acutely like a ‘four letter word’ and slowly opened my eyes to find myself face to face with a very worried looking elf.
If I had actually been awake at the time, I probably would have jumped backwards in surprise. But in the half-dead state I was in, I merely blinked up to him and asked, "Legolas?" In a lazy, drawling voice.
The elf smiled, "I was afraid you were dead." He admitted.
"Dead?" I repeated in the same tone, then looked over at Katy and hit her weakly on the side, "Katy wake up, Leggy thinks you’re dead." I managed to slur my words together enough that even Legolas’s sharp ears couldn’t work out what I had said, but it had the desired effect of eliciting a groan from my friend.
I yawned and was about to rub my eyes but stopped short as I noticed how filthy my hands were. I crinkled my nose in disgust, the fog of sleep now beginning to clear.
"Fifty-one." I said proudly, pushing myself off of the ground with an assisting hand from Legolas.
"Fifty-one?" He repeated in confusion.
I nodded happily and kicked Katy lightly with my foot, "Yep, we got fifty-one orcs. I counted."
This time Katy managed to open her own eyes and although she looked like all she really wanted to do was go back to sleep, she forced herself into a sitting position and allowed herself to be hauled up by Legolas as well.
She mumbled something ineligible.
"That’s more than you got," I continued happily, "But that was both of us combined."
"Fifty-one?" Katy asked as she slowly began to catch up with the conversation.
I nodded, "You got, forty-something, right?"
"Forty-one." Legolas confirmed, "How did you know that, though?"
My tired mind went into overdrive trying to decipher an answer to the simple question and at length I replied, "How could we not? Your scores were echoing all over the walls."
Legolas didn’t seem to buy this reply at all, but wrote it off as another of the strange things that seemed to happen wherever we went—another side effect of the ‘Doppler effect,’ perhaps?
"What are you doing out here? I thought you were going to wait in the caves!" Legolas said, forcing his mind back on track.
"Yeah, about that," I started, "It’s your fault!"
Before Legolas could reply, Katy continued, "We were just minding our own business, going down to the caves when all of a sudden… This… Killer rabbit jumped out at us!"
I looked at my companion strangely and wondered at her lacking ability to make up plausible stories. "Killer rabbit?" I scoffed under my breath, then decided to tell the truth no matter how embarrassing it was. "We… I mean… Katy got lost." I said.
Katy looked at me accusingly, "I got lost? I didn’t hear you rambling out the right directions! If anyone was lost, it was you."
"Yeah, well, if you hadn’t suggested we take a nap—"
"I didn’t suggest that! You did!"
Legolas rolled his eyes, "Ladies, please, it does not matter anymore. You are both safe."
"Yeah, I guess…" I agreed reluctantly, "But anyway, then we wound up on the wall while looking for the caves again. I’m never letting Katy navigate again."
Katy rolled her eyes, "You say that every time, and yet you still give me the lead."
I thought about this and a strange enlightenment came over me, "I do… Don’t I?"
Katy nodded and Legolas spoke up again, "Aragorn and Gimli are looking for you as well, let us go down and put their minds at ease."