She became very still at that. "I see." Rising at last, still unable to look him in the eye, she handed back his cloak. "If we do meet again, then it will be at the end of all things."
Then, something happened, something outside of Akaru's experience that he was wholly unprepared for. That little slip of an elven girl went to him, and as though watching himself through the eyes of a stranger, he took her in his arms.
The trolls were approaching the area halfway between Akaru's divided force. Each rider took out his longbow and fitted arrow to string. Remembering the smell of the young elf-girl's hair, the softness of her form enclosed within the safety of his arms, Akaru gave the order. The riders began moving.
At each end of the valley, seven-hundred-fifity riders came together to form a wide `U', and the two united divisions of fifteen hundreds each rode towards each other, gathering speed. For their part, the trolls heard them in the dark before they saw them. There was much confusion as the sound of thundering hooves seemed to come from all around them, and the valley walls greatly amplified and reverberated the sound, so that they thought themselves greatly outnumbered.
As the outer edge of each `U' came together, one cut left and the other right, so that the trolls found themselves facing a dizzying swirl of riders going in both directions.