Hope ↠ LOTR

XI. Hope

Her eyes widened when the sword came down on her and then they almost fell from her sockets when a blur of brown crashed into the Orc and sent it tumbling to the ground before its sword could make contact with her. A ferocious growling reverberated through the air and she met eyes with a warg whose mouth was dripping with black blood. Her eyes trailed down its huge paw and she saw a section where there was no fur, her eyes returning to the wargs and it suddenly clicked into place. This was the same warg that she had seen in the battle before they reached Helm's Deep. It continued to stare at her with an unreadable expression before it turned its back and launched itself into the skirmish.

It had saved her life and now it was fighting against the army of Mordor—Athena had found herself with a very unlikely ally. The majority of Orcs had once been Elves many many years ago before they were corrupted by the darkness. If the most beautiful of races could morph into the most hideous of creatures she didn't find herself all that surprised that the most beastly of races could choose to revolt against the darkness and instead turn to the light. After all, wargs were as intelligent as people.

Recovering from the blow that she took to her head she reached out to grasp the hilt of her sword that lay on the ground, curling her fingers around it before pushing herself to stand and taking off in the direction of Aragorn who was pinned underneath the foot of the monstrous beast. She barrelled through the army of Orcs and as one was cut down she jumped onto the back of its falling body and launched herself at the head of the troll. Her sword plunged itself into its head but she was unable to keep her grip on it and went flying through the air before colliding harshly with the ground, letting out a muffled cry of pain when she did. Aragorn rolled to the side in order to dodge the troll that fell lifelessly to the ground with a crash just as a shrill shrieking sound fell over the battlefield, the winds flowing through to where they all were.

With great difficulty Athena managed to push herself to sit up and she found that the warg from earlier had found its way back to her and was snarling at any enemy that got too close to her, protecting her while she was incapacitated before they both looked over at the Black Gate and Mordor which lay beyond it. Tears filled her eyes when she watched the tower of Barad-dûr collapse, sending out a shock wave when it shattered to pieces. Frodo had destroyed the Ring and Sauron had been defeated. Their efforts had not been in vain.

Cheers filled the open air and she was among them, not caring about the tears that streamed down her face while she yelled out of joy and victory. The army of Mordor attempted to flee but the ground caved in beneath them and took them with it, sparing those that had fought against it with less than half the servants of the enemy being able to escape from it.

But then Mount Doom erupted and their hearts were filled with sorrow knowing that Frodo, and most likely Sam as well, were still in the heart of the volcano with no escape fast enough for them. They would die there.

"Gandalf," Athena pushed herself to stand and approached the wizard with desperation in her voice. "We cannot abandon them, not now least of all."

"No. No we cannot," he responded with a firm nod.

The Eagles did not need to be asked for their help, they would willingly do what they could to rescue the two Hobbits that had saved the entirety of Middle-earth. He was whisked away by Gwaihir with two other Eagles at his side, flying into Mordor to collect their friends and bring them back to Gondor where they would meet once again.

"What?!" Her head whipped around when Éomer cried out the question and she saw him sheathing his sword, panicked eyes trained on the warg that was standing with them.

"Wait! Don't hurt it please!" She hurried to yell, rushing over to grab onto his arm and lowering it down.

"Excuse me?" He asked incredulously.