to love someone else

Chapter 33: wargs

Aerin knew they were riding fine horses, probably the best in all of Middle Earth, but they were headed towards wild beasts who could kill any horse with just one bite in the neck. She knew they had to be careful. To kill the warg first, or the rider? Whatever it took - she had to keep her horse alive. They were charging at them, as fast as them, and it took only a few moments before they all clashed.

Aerin didn't know how many she managed to cut in just one rush through the crowd. It seemed like a good start, and everywhere she turned, others seemed to be having the same success. But there were still a lot of them coming toward them, even with a lot of riderless wargs on their hands. Aerin rushed back through the pack trying to kill as many as she could but avoid their bites. It was all a haze - she was surrounded by so much noise and so much stench and so many cries that it all just became a sort of a haze. She cleared out the space around her but did not realise that in doing so, she managed to distance herself from the Rohirrim and she was now standing alone. She had no idea how it happened. It was a mistake.

What happened next, Aerin did not see coming - before she realised it, a warg rider attacked her from behind a cliff and she fell down, not even knowing what hit her. Aerin hit her head against the ground hard, and when she opened my eyes, she saw that her hands were in a pool of blood. It took her a moment to realise where it was coming from. She touched her head but it was perfectly fine. It was her horse who still lay, dead. She couldn't afford paying any heed to the excruciating pain in her head. The Orc was sneering at her, not attacking her yet, holding his warg in control and enjoying every second of it.

''What are you waiting for?'' Aerin asked, getting up, and slowly walking up to the enemy. ''You think I'm afraid, don't you? Argghya!!!'' she cut the warg's head off before it even moved. The Orc fell off the warg but did not waste a single second on the ground. Getting up, his blade clashed against Aerin's. He was big, much bigger than all the ones she killed earlier, or at least he seemed so. 

All Aerin managed to do was block his own hits, merely defend herself, but she caused him barely any harm, except a few cuts on his arms. She used all her strength and wit, but it seemed to no avail. His sword clashed against hers once more, and Aerin clenched her teeth, trying to hold against it. The muscles in her arms started to burn, and she knew she wouldn't be able to hold it much longer. She had to think of her next move before her arms failed her and led her to her death, and she decided. Aerin let go and quickly crouched down, and when she did shecut his leg. Not fully, but she managed to damage all that kept him standing, and he fell, face down on the ground. He squirmed in pain, the blood slowly living his limb. The leg was useless. He tried to drag himself away from me but Aerin stepped on his injured leg, to which he screamed agony.

''Are you going somewhere?'' she asked, before she turned him around on his back so he'd face her. He was almost too heavy to move. He grimaced and squirmed and Aerin knew he was afraid. It was such and odd and pathetic and memorable sight. How did she feel bad for the orc?

She was taking her sweet time, and it wasn't wise at all, but she was now so blinded by hate that she didn't think. All the hate she's ever felt about anything, and all the anger, seemed to be turned toward this one particular Orc now. ''You're a big Orc. I've seen Orcs much weaker who sneered at me even with my blade in their guts. But you're afraid now,'' Aerin pointed out, putting the tip of her blade against his neck. ''You're pathetic.''

Before Aerin could kill the squirming Orc below her, another one appeared from behind her, and when she turned around, it simply fell dead. An arrow was in his back, and lifting her head Aerin saw Legolas standing before her. ''Why did you wander off?'' He asked. ''I didn't even realise it.''

''Come.'' He ordered. ''Not yet.''

Still squirming on the ground desperately, the Orc used only one leg to try and drag himself away. Aerin put her blade against his neck once more and he looked at Aerin with fear in his eyes. ''You big nasty Orcs always seem to think I'm afraid of you,'' Aerin spoke to him almost softly as she slowly pressed her blade against his throat, and a single drop of dark blood appeared. "You'll pay for what your kind did to my nana (mother)." She felt so much hatred. ''Don't worry about your dirty neck. I don't want to make a lot of mess,'' She said before she stabbed him through his chest. He gasped for air once more before he fell back on the ground. ''What was that about?'' Legolas asked her, confused, as they rushed back to our group. ''He thought I was afraid of him,'' I said, ''And he killed my horse.''

''Don't wander off again,'' he said, before they re-joined their comrades. He sounded angry with her. The battle seemed to have ended. The field was full of dead wargs and Orc corpses, and quite a few fallen Rohirrim, it seemed. They couldn't afford to lose one man, but what was done could not be changed. ''Gimli, where is Aragorn?'' Aerin asked but he did not answer. He simply kept looking around, completely dumbfounded. Legolas rushed through the field, his eyes searching every bit of it.

''Where is Aragorn?'' Aerin repeated, fear already growing in her, panic rising to almost blur her vision. She felt she would faint if nobody answered her question. And nobody did. Aerin rushed through the field and looked through the corpses, turning them around, inspecting every piece of space around her. But she could not see him anywhere. Aerin had to remind herself to breathe. Her limbs started shaking. Legolas called Aragorn's name, but there was no answer.

''Legolas, find him!'' Aerin absolutely demanded. She did not care if it was in his power or not, she needed him to find Aragorn. ''Tell me what happened and I will ease your passing!'' Aerin heard Gimli shout. She rushed to him, and watched him press his axe against a dying Orc. The small Orc wasn't afraid at all, not did he care about an easy passing - he was sneering and laughing at us. ''He's... dead...'' the Orc muttered, coughing up dark blood.

''Shut up!'' Aerin shouted, snatching Gimli's axe from his hands and pressing it harder against the Orc's neck, but he only laughed. ''He took a little tumble off the cliff,'' the Orc said. The axe fell free from her hands. She had no control of it. ''You lie!!!'' outcried Legolas, grabbing the Orc. The Orc only laughed to his face, blood bubbling out of his mouth, before he died in his grip.

Aerin noticed something in the Orc's hand. She did not want to believe it was what I thought it was. ''Legolas,'' she called, holding the Evenstar in her hands. Her sister gave that necklace to him. He must've fought hard. She thought her heart would burst. She wasn't sure if she could stand much longer.

When they saw the Evenstar in Aerin's hands, Gimli and Legolas rushed over to the cliff to look down. Aerin could barely follow, slowly, focusing on breathing and not breaking down. She couldn't see Aragorn down there, but then again, the river could have washed him away. What was she meant to say to her sister? That thought came like the easiest thing, when Aerin know it should have crushed her. But she wasn't herself anymore. She wasn't well. She had no idea what feeling numb meant until that moment, even if she thought she knew. She felt as much as a plant at that moment and from that moment on. The hopelessness consumed her completely. 

''Get the wounded on horses. The wolves of Isengard will return,'' King Théoden approached them with the orders. ''Leave the dead.''

''Come,'' the King called, but they stood there staring at the river a while longer. Aerin started feeling dizzy, and had she swayed a bit more, she would have fallen over. Aerin doesn't think she would have cared. She felt Legolas squeeze her hand tightly. That was all she felt, but she let go and ran off to join the others, tears flooding her vision.