Disclaimer: I make no claims to any of the character contained herein. I will take credit, however, for the next scene as it is nowhere in Tolkien's tale and is all mine (evil laugh).

Chapter 6:  Ambush

He saw it out of the corner of his eye, just a twitch perhaps, but it was enough to stir the memory, revealing what lay before them. With an unexplained authority Legolas instantly knew, with dire certainty, that this place on the road was grave! A rush of anxiety washed over him. He gasped as the sudden onslaught of realization came upon him. He had seen this place before! He struggled to put the picture together in his thoughts as the danger pierced him. Swiftly Legolas' mind raced back to the place on the field as he had glimpsed the Southron tribesman advancing to the road. Although their march had been nearly out of his peripheral sight, it still had been enough to set off the alarm in his brain and cause him to turn and look again. He had missed it. Within the blink of an eye they had been no more, and his eye in seeking them out had seen merely bodies laying in the field. 'I am a fool! How could I have not seen their game?'

And now they were riding in the midst of that place! Warning rang loud in his head. He frantically searched the dark fields on either side of the road. His eyes intense, he could see well the bodies strewn there, seemingly dead and waiting for disposal. 'Something moved!' He looked wildly about, searching for the source of the activity. Then his eyes grew wide as fear creased his brow. "Gimli," he blurted, "These corpses breathe!"

"What?" The dwarf gasped.

But Legolas had no time to answer. He turned back to Aragorn and cried out, "Aragorn! It's a trap!" The dark king snapped to life, pulling his sword while shifting his eyes to probe the blackness. His men jerked awake from their trances, their backs stiffening at the call, their hands immediately jumping to their weapons. Legolas spun Arod around, startling the horse with his sudden command. But the animal was sharp and answered quickly. Legolas darted his eyes about, his perception of their enemies greater number kindling his fears. Crying out, "Now! Now!" he spurred Arod to intercept the first of the attackers.

In an instant, the field and the road were alive as the savage men bounded from their false graves.

Gimli nimbly slipped from Arod's back, his axe ever-ready as he swung it in random patterns, hewing and slashing and reeling to create a path through the storm. Elrohir and Elladan, as always, remained near the other. They quickly dismounted and drew their swords as they ran to a position near Aragorn. They fought as one, as long years of practice had evolved their style into a graceful, deadly attack, covering any weakness exposed by the other. The Dúnedain forces responded by instinct, and sword, knife and shield were immediately employed as the men drew in to protect their leader. At the center of the fracas, Aragorn drew Andúril, the blade flickering brightly in the faltering torchlight. He reared his mount as if it were another weapon, using its weight to crush and trample those who threatened his authority.

The horses screamed their terror as the evil warriors dashed about them, spears and barbs flicking against their hides as the tribesmen lunged at the riders.

Legolas drew his bow and rapidly fired arrow after arrow in succession. He tried to count the number of foes in his head but realized the sum was far greater than their own. 'Too many!'

In the penetrating night air, Legolas could hear the beginnings of the questioning murmurs from the men on the fields. He heard them call to each other to see the wavering torches of the company of Rangers and then they cried out as they saw a shadowed mass of bodies rising about the Dúnedain. He heard their gasps as the horses cried and they realized a danger was there, and that the Dúnadan leader was in this hub. He could hear them rising, calling to others still, drawing weapons and running to the king's aid. 'We need only a minute. We must hold them off for that long and then this enemy will be overtaken.'

Legolas worked to draw himself closer to Aragorn, still firing arrows into the large, dark men, their appearance made more ominous by the blackness of night. And then he saw the thing that had launched the plague of uneasy feelings. A dark giant with a crown of human skulls furtively worked his way through the fray. This is what had caught Legolas' eye on the field, and now that he knew him, Legolas had no intentions of letting this being go again. He followed the savage's path through the battle scene to discern his malicious intent. And then as he saw the giant pause he realized the Southron's scheme: he sought to kill Aragorn. Legolas' fear grew ever more as he saw that the Ranger was lost in battle, oblivious to this fate. Aragorn made no attempts to flee the scene.

The tribesman crouched, his lance poised as he judged his best move, pausing as if hunting a beast in the wild. Legolas kicked his heel into Arod's side and charged full speed at the Southron chieftain. The horse sensed his master's haste and cocked his ears back, his eyes wild, as he ran with ever more speed. As the charging animal neared his master's prey, Legolas pulled his short dagger and leaped gracefully from Arod's back onto that of the savage giant. Like a child playing on the back of an adult he looked, so small was he in proportion to this colossus. With elven agility, Legolas clung to the unwitting Southron. Reaching around and working his hand to the Southron's face Legolas drove gouging fingers into the monster's eyes. The tribesman flailed in pain and Legolas used the time to raise his dagger, plunging it deeply into the great man's chest. The brute wailed but did not fall. He reached back and pulled the elf from his back, holding him by one leg as if he were a rag doll, and then he viciously flung Legolas away, hurtling the body to the far side of the road. A loud crack greeted the prince and he cried out as his left shoulder made hard contact with the blackened earth. Rolling to his side, he tried to stand, but pain tore through his shoulder and side and his arm hung limply. With panting breaths, he righted himself, weakly pulling himself to his knees. He looked up as a red haze closed in on his periphery. He saw the fierce Southron pull the elven blade from his chest, tossing it aside as if discarding a thorn. And then the fiend turned away to focus again on his quarry as Legolas swayed and his vision dimmed. The world began to spin in the pervading black night.

The tribal leader reached his lance again and made ready to launch it at the unsuspecting northern king. His fingertips balanced the spear, finding that memorized place on the weapon he had long since grown comfort with, and waited for that singular moment to release the projectile. Watching, watching, quickly now, he saw an opening and drew his arm back to make the spear airborne, to thrust it into the heart of the enemy king. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a small man wielding an axe, running full force in his direction, but he knew this small being could do nothing to stop the event in play. 'Now! Now!' the Southron leader's mind sounded. He willed his arm and fingers to hurl the lance forward, but nothing happened as he heard the crisp liquid sound of flesh being hewed. His body quivered and did not respond. His mind told him to turn but instead his body crumbled lifelessly to the ground.

Gimli nearly toppled over the fallen giant's body, so propelled by force was he in his blind run to stop the savage from his desire. He had charged with battleaxe bared and was prepared to hew on contact, but was stunned at the monster's unwitting destruction ere he arrived. The Southron's death was not of his make.

Gimli glanced about him to detect what felled the barbaric force as he saw the men of Gondor gain ground and launch themselves on the remaining tribesmen. The evil warriors collapsed under the weight of bodies pressed on them. Pummeled, hacked and pulverized, the evil hearts ceased to beat. The battle had ended.

Looking up, the dwarf saw Aragorn, Andúril still in hand, fighting off one last attacker while he propelled his horse to the left and right as if it were a part of his own body. The Ranger did not yet seem aware of the killing on this side of the road. Gimli looked off to the hillside and saw Elladan and Elrohir making short work of two more Southrons, a wake of dead bodies before them. Completing his survey, the dwarf turned to his back and perceived Legolas, standing at a distance, his breathing labored, left arm braced in the right as the elf stepped forward on unsteady feet.

Gimli looked down again at the prone form and saw now the instrument of the giant's defeat: an intricately-carven elven long knife was lodged in the base of the huge man's neck. Just then the tribesman's body began to convulse, and the dwarf realized the Southron was still alive. Reaching down, he pulled hard to dislodge the knife which had embedded itself between the vertebrae. Pausing, he balanced the knife in his hand, weighing it as he measured its distance, seeing in his mind the path it had traveled from the elf's hand through a spiral arc to the giant's back. Then reaching down, he lifted the fallen leaders head and slit the great throat delivering this foe swiftly to death's house.

He wiped the stain of blood from the knife onto the grass before he stood. Then turning the blade down as one does in relinquishing a weapon, he stood and began to walk to where the knife's owner stood. Looking up, his heart quickened and his pace increased to a run as he saw his friend falter. Gimli reached out, arms open wide, and arrived at the exact moment required to catch Legolas as he collapsed.

A/N: My apologies that this chapter is a little shorter than the others. I am weighing the idea of combining it with the previous chapter, but rather liked the suspense of breaking the scenes apart like this. Let me know what you think and I will remedy it, if need be, with the installment of the next chapter (which, by the way will be the last one – sorry to disappoint some of you, but this is just supposed to be a glimpse at a missing scene from the book, not an entire book in itself – as it is, this story came out a little longer than I had intended, but it has been fun to write and the words wouldn't stop flowing).