Three two-second clips of generic battle scenes from the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, playing in silence. Images dissolve.
Voice-over, Narrator: In a land of heroes and magic...
Scene: Two children, a boy (Demmi) and a girl
(Maevyn), chasing one another on a green hill overlooking a peaceful village.
Demmi: Yah, yah! Can't catch me!
V.O., Narrator: …she was born of neither.
Scene: The girl, Maevyn, by herself, in a dense but
day-lit forest. She is grumbling as she
forges through thorny undergrowth.
Maevyn: Demmi, you stupid, what're you playing at?
She stops suddenly.
Close pan on her face as the annoyance fades, replaced by a look of
bewilderment.
Flash to Demmi’s body lying in the middle of a
clearing.
V.O., Maevyn: Demmi?
Fade to black.
Cue personalized soundtrack composed and arranged by Howard Shore.
V.O., Narrator: In a world where bad things happen to good people....
Scene: The same village as before, now strewn with
bodies. Smoking huts, the sound of
livestock bleating and of brutal Orkish laughter.
V.O., Narrator: They destroyed her village.
Flash to a large, broadly built Orc, Grushak, who stands filling the doorway of one small hut, facing the camera. We hear a woman screaming. Grushak grins sadistically and advances.
V.O., Narrator: Butchered her family.
Flash to a dead man, his body nearly cut in two.
Flash to a dead woman, her dress torn, her throat
slashed.
Flash to Grushak, his back to the camera, examining a
silver cup. Camera lingers.
V.O., Narrator: She is nine years old.
Maevyn steps into the frame, her back to the camera as well. She holds a knife at her side.
V.O., Narrator: She wants revenge.
Flash to Grushak's face twisted in a snarl.
Flash to Maevyn's face, likewise snarling, as she rushes
him with her knife.
Pull-back to Maevyn charging Grushak. He knocks the knife out of her hand.
Flash to Maevyn turning to flee and Grushak catching her
shoulder, yanking her back against him.
Music stops.
Fade to black.
Music resumes.
Scene: Maevyn is thrown to the dusty ground beside
the village well. Grushak's heavy
booted foot lands square on her back, pinning her to the ground.
V.O., Narrator: But vengeance may be a luxury—when it will take everything just to survive…
Scene: Long overhead panning shot of a group of
Orcs running across a grassy plain.
Grushak is one of them, and Maevyn is bound unceremoniously to his back.
V.O., Maevyn: Where are you going?
V.O., Grushak: Maybe you don’t want to know, meat-bag.
V.O., Maevyn: Should’ve…killed me when you had the chance.
V.O., Grushak: Gonna kill you yet, little one. But I believe in saving my fun for later.
Scene: Maevyn being thrown to the ground again -
this time it is strewn with pine needles.
She is in the middle of a coniferous forest, and it is evening.
V.O., Narrator: Now she must make her friends where she can.
Flash to Maevyn's hands, bound and swollen. Two slender hands slip into the frame to trace the cords biting into her wrists.
V.O., Leni: Mae govannen, mellon-nin.
V.O., Maevyn: You’re an elf.
Scene: Profile of Maevyn and Leni kneeling facing
one another. Leni's Elven radiance is a
marked contrast to both the dirty human child and the gloom around them. She is about thirteen in appearance,
beautiful and sad.
Maevyn: You're not tied up.
Leni: (lowers her eyes) No, they...they know that I will not try to leave.
Scene: Profile of Leni standing facing a tall pine tree, her hands amid in its green needles. Kurbag, a tall gray half-Uruk, stands behind her, cupping her chin. He leans in to smell her hair.
Close-up of Leni's face, which is filled with despair. Black talons prick against her skin.
Kurbag: (murmurs) Little moon-Elf....
Scene: Maevyn is walking fearfully, hesitantly,
through a dark night forest, paralleling the earlier scene when she stumbles on
her brother's body. She stops suddenly and horror fills her face.
V.O., Maevyn: (bitingly) I thought you hated them, like I do. I thought you were just too scared to run away. But I guess that was never it, was it?
Flash to Leni extending her hand to Maevyn, and Maevyn knocking it away.
V.O., Leni: …you do not understand…you cannot know….
V.O., Narrator: In a world where the strong prey on the weak…
Flash to Kurbag and a large Uruk wrestling while
surrounding Orcs cheer them on.
Flash to a wiry Orc with variant-colored eyes scowling
down at Leni, who is on her hands and knees before him, staring at the ground.
Flash to the same Orc being menaced by Grushak, who
towers over him.
Dissolve to Maevyn staring with disgust and dismay at the
bare back of an old Orc (Rukshash.) It
is covered with boils and with scars from old floggings. Camera lingers a beat.
Rukshash: (mockingly) Now now. Gentle is as gentle does.
V.O., Narrator: …she will discover the cost of weakness…
Scene: Maevyn crouching, filthy and feral, her eyes
narrowed, mouth pulled back in a savage snarl that shows all her teeth. She looks almost more Orc than human.
V.O., Narrator: …and the terrible price of strength.
Music stops.
Scene: Leni and Maevyn are sitting beside one
another in the dark under a black pine tree.
Maevyn is stony-faced and staring ahead of her as Leni slowly lifts her
hand to brush the human girl’s cheek with her smooth fingertips.
Leni: (softly) You say you will not cry for them, Maevyn? Do not make that the only thing you live for.