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She could see nothing, could feel only the pain of raw scrapes all around her ar in chunks of stony dust She groped around in the darkness of the partially collapsed tunnel, searching desperately for her father
Luck ith her, for the area around which Bruenor lay had survived the catastrophe alently running her hands over his face, then putting her ear low to his h it was
The woure out which ould provide the shortest route to the surface, though she wondered if she should even go to the surface at all Had the orcs coroo’s tohich surely had fallen? If so, she wondered if she would be better off staying there, in the dark, for as long as she could ether so she could head for the south
That seear was up there, and Dagnabbit and the others were up there, and the townsfolk were up there, and if the orcs had indeed come on, the battle would be desperate
Catti-brie crawled to the side of the s free several chunks and a ers bled but she pushed on The ground above her groaned o the exhaustion that crept through her as thefor her toat the side of the stone, and she ju light streamed in as the boulder went away, hoisted and tossed aside by the strong arave hiently pulled her froar asked desperately
’"He’s the same," Catti-brie replied "The collapse didn’t touch his room Dwarves built it well"
As she finished, the woman looked around at the devastation The tower had half fallen over and half collapsed in on itself, and it had taken out several buildings on its toppling descent, leaving a long line of rubble She wanted to ask so many questions then, about who had survived and who had fallen, but she could find no words, her jaw just drooping open
"Dagnabbit is gone," Wulfgar informed her "Three other dwarves were lost with him, and at least five townsmen"
Catti-brie continued her scan, hardly believing the devastation that had befallen the town Most of the buildings were down or badly daed, and little remained of the wall When the orcs came on -and she kneould be soon since she could hear their horns blowing and druanized defense, just fighting from street to street, and before the bitter end, froathered strength from his stoic expression and his wide shoulders He’d kill more than a few before the orcs finished him, Catti-brie knew, and she decided that she would too A wry sar looked at her curiously
"Well, if it’s to end, then it’s to end in a blaze o fighting!" she said, nodding and grinning
It was either that or fall down and weep
She put her hand on Wulfgar’s shoulder, and he on hers
"They’re co," came a voice behind them
They turned to see Tred, battered and bloody, but looking , one hand hidden behind his back, the other holding his double-bladed axe
Wulfgar pointed out several positions in a rough circle around the cave entrance leading back to Bruenor
"We’ll hold these four positions," he explained, "and fall back behind one pile after another to join up right here"
"And then?" asked Tred
"We fall back into the caves, or what’s left of them," the barbarian said "Let the orcs crawl in and be killed until we are too weary to strike at thereeh he understood, as they all did, the ultimate futility of it all Certainly some orcs, thirsty for blood, would foolishly coh the wicked creatures would realize that time was on their side, that they could just wait out the return of the defenders, or even worse, that they could start fires and smoke the defenders out of the caves
"It’ll beBruenor and to die beside the fine children of the king He was a fine and brave one, that Dagnabbit," Tred said so pile of broken stone "Citadel Felbarr would’ve been proud to call hi hiar replied "Dagnabbit stood tall and defied theods He knew that he had done well He knew that he had honored his people and his race"
A sole their heads in deference to the fallen Dagnabbit
"I got me some orcs to chop," Tred announced
He saluted the pair and roups to defend three of the positions
Soon after, the boain but there was plenty of cover with so many piles of rubble, and there was little left to destroy The giants’ prelude see else The rain of boulders ended as the orcs,their battle cries
Catti-brie started the fight for the defenders, popping up fro arrow that hit a worg squarely in the head, stopping it in its tracks and launching its rider through the air The woe of targets with orcs swar over the all but destroyed walls She drove her arrows into their ranks, taking one, sometimes even two, doith every shot
But still they caar instructed her
He rose up strong and tall andorcs away, launching theh the air
All around the pair, the defenders of Shallows rose todesperately side by side For a while, it seemed as if no orc’s blow could fell any of theed off and retaliated immediately and brutally Bodies piled all around the four defended positions, and al
The h, nor could the defense The defenders, even in their desperate frenzy, knew it
Wulfgar swept his warhah any defenses the orcs trying to stand before hie Occasionally one of the creatures ed to slip under the blow, or duck back fro silver arrow drove it down
Catti-brie put Taul Whenever she couldthe snarling wolves to be the h, the woman didn’t even bother to aim, nor did she have to
Even with that devastating line of fire, and with Wulfgar fighting more brilliantly and brutally than she had ever witnessed, the orcs, like the incoh holes
Catti-brie let fly an arrow, put another up and spun around, blasting away an orc point-blank Another was there, though, and she had to take up her bow like a staff and fend the creature off
A second joined it, and she alar Al that any distraction to hi about his swift downfall The woman whipped Taul the two orcs back She dropped the bow and in the saed sword
The orcs pressed on, a thrusting spear coht A doard parry sheared the spear’s tip cleanly off, and the orc, surprised by the lack of any real impact with the parry, overbalanced just a bit
Enough for Catti-brie to turn her hand over and stab out quickly, taking the creature in the chest
Back caainst the heavy blade of the second orc’s sword One on one, this creature would be no match for Catti-brie
But two others joined it, on either side, and Catti-brie orking furiously to fend off the trio Behind her, she heard an irunt
But she couldn’t help him, and he couldn’t help her
Catti-brie worked her blade all theaside thrust after stab after slash Frustration greithin her, for she wasfar too hard to maintain the pace
The orc before her and to the right moved suddenly, and in a way she could not have anticipated At first, she thought the creature was charging her, but quickly she realized that it was just flying by, launched at the end of a heavy dwarven axe Tred stepped forward behind it, launching a backhand that doubled over the second of the trio, the one standing right before Catti-brie The wo all of her attention to the orc on her left She came forward suddenly, turned Khazid’hea over the orc’s sword and down The orc, both weapons do, charged forward, trying to bowl her over, but the woht past the orc As the blades disengaged, she flipped her grip around and stabbed out behind her, severing the creature’s spine
"Defenses falling!" Tred cried, running to join the battered Wulfgar and nearly getting his head torn off by one of Aegis-fang’s wild swings "We’re backing to the hole!"
Wulfgar grunted his accord and swiped away yet another orc, then fell back behind the rubble barricade
A worg ca for his throat
Catti-brie, her bow retrieved, took the wolf in the flank, the powerfully enchanted arrow throwing it out to the side, quite dead
She looked up to see a horde of others charging in, though, and expected they would be overwhelround and turned to see old Withegroo, his features gaunt and strained He could hardly stand, his body treht, but the look in his eyes was not dull, and he e
His fireball stopped the charge of worg and orc, and brought the defenders a little ed a s bomb, then he looked at Catti-brie and winked
He fell over, and before she even went to hiroo’s blast had defeated the charge of one flank, but the orcs did not scra defenders backed and backed so in the south they kneasodds
Or were those horns sonal? the defenders had to wonder, as the press suddenly lightened They were practically backed to the end of the line by then, with several already forced down into the tiny tunnels
The defenders of Shallows regrouped in a tight ring and battled on Before long, Catti-brie and Wulfgar were back to their original defensive position, and this ti before them
Still the horns blew in the south, and as the fighting subsided, Wulfgar dared to run to the highest mound he could find and peered out that way
"What in the Nine Hells?" he called