The Rohirrim Aerin knew as Ethelred reached her sooner than she even expected. Aerin managed to swirl herself and cut the Uruk opposing her right behind his knee. She damaged his sensitive bones so he almost fell, but he waddled back and forth and kept himself on his feet somehow. In trying to steady himself, he swang his sword at her. Aerin lowered her head quickly and avoided it, before she kicked him in the wound she had given him, so the Uruk became weaker in the knees. He was barely standing, and she pushed him down the stairs for Unferth to finish. The Uruk landed face down and the Rohirrim stabbed him through his back.
That was it; there was no longer anything to do below, and they could not simply wait for them to start pouring down below, and Aerin cared little for orders in that moment and decided that if it took improvising, then improvising they would do. But right now they were needed on the wall. They were being more and more flooded by Uruks each second that passed, as they'd managed to put up more ladders against the walls.
Right and left and all around him they fell, blood singing in his veins while the silver hair flared in an angry mane about him. He could hear Aerin shouting throughout the heavy clamour. And now her words rang out clearly, "Take him down, Legolas!" Aerin then made her way closer to him. "On your left!" Aerin's voice carried. The blonde elf knew that it was you speaking, and immediately jerked to the right, rounding back so that he was able to throw his sword through the Uruk-Hai.
It was as Aerin stumbled that she saw the uruk filth coming from behind him. With the momentum of her shove, Aerin grabbed his arm, and with a jerk pulled him from the sure embrace of death as the oddly shaped sword came down in the very spot his head had just been. It embedded itself into another Uruk-Hai and Aerin took the being's head clean off with a swift swing. "Next time, you should watch your back," Aerin said with a coy smile towards her March Warden. He just gave her a return smirk. "Why?" Haldir returned. "You will just watch it for me."
It was true. They were two elves that stuck together. That fought together. That would die together when the time came. Two lovers. "The least you could do is watch my own," Aerin sighed, and her sword jammed into the Uruk-Hai that was passing behind her, towards one of her brethren. "Honestly. You're practically useless out here." She joked making Haldir laugh whilst her stabbed another Uruk-Hai. Haldir shrugged. "I knew you had him." But it was a smirk that Aerin had come to know meant that he was enjoying himself. Enjoying this. It was a little too bloody for Aerin's taste. But a fight that would protect Helm's Deep and the people of Rohan. "On your left," Aerin called casually. And the Uruk was down almost immediately after. Team work was heartwarming, truly.
The hope brought by elven comrades was lost in the terror of that flaring torch nearing the culvert. Aragorn shouted to his companion and Legolas acted quickly. But the torch-barer would not go down. An explosion echoed through the Deep, deafening those nearest and Aragorn could not contain his rage, tearing through his enemies with animalistic fury as what was left of the wall shook beneath their feet.
Aerin was now nowhere to be seen.
The terrible explosion rocked Haldir where he stood on the wall, but he maintained his footing, taking them out, swift and merciless. Then sounded the call for retreat. In one unending moment, he met Aragorn's stare over the Deep and gave a curt nod between slayings to acknowledge the command. "To the keep!" he took up the call, crying out to the furthest archers. "To the keep!" Haldir fought still, calling back the troupes, ensuring everyone heeded the call before fleeing himself.
But the enemy advanced like a swarming hive as the elves moved back. Surrounded, he cut through the shroud of enemies, losing his frustrations in their accelerating deaths.
*SSSSHHHRRRRIP*
The sharp sting to his side sent a shock through him. It wasn't even painful, but it was a stark slash to his body that he could not comprehend, a river fall of red blood gushing, something he could not ever remember knowing before.
His grey eyes flashed around him, but his vision blurred and he only caught a few blinking moments. There was Gimli being dragged away, and Legolas rushing back with arrows still flying. But most of all he saw the retreat. The elven archers were now beyond call of aid. Any ally was.
He turned with a sudden madness, again sheathing his white knives in black flesh.
*THWARK*
Then a wave of coldness stole over him, emanating from his back alongside the sound of metal splitting flesh. A freezing mantle gripped his elven body in icy arms, and the songs of the dead rang in his ears. Never before had he heard the call of Mandos, but it was mournful and sweeter than any remembrance, stealing away his life in those cold, soft claws of death.
Aerin.... Were his lasts words.
He fell.
It was akin to the half-forgotten visions of deep sleep nightmares, wavering in an obscuring cloud of fear. Unreal. But it was too real, he knew. Charging with sudden strength and primal frenzy, he ran through the wall of orcs, cutting them down in a swathe of undefined rage. He fell to his knees beside the swooning body, of Aragorn who had managed to catch him. Cold. Heavy. The only life remained in the dying eyes, focusing on him in one last vision. Aragorn couldn't imagine how Aerin would feel when he told her.
But the battle raged still.
YOU ARE READING
to love someone else
Fanfiction''My heart doesn't matter, does it? Even if it is true, and he feels something for me too, it is still doomed to fail, isn't it? Elves can only love once. I am doomed to die of heartbreak, it's my fate as I know Haldir was the one... I'd never want...
