Chapter 24: Battle for Helm's Deep

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The Uruk army runs toward the walls we stand on, lines and lines and lines of them charging and shouting and growling.

"Tangado a chadad!" Aragorn yells.
(Prepare to fire!)

The command repeats down the line and I reach back, notching an arrow and pulling back the string of my bow, my grip tight as I wait, the Uruks charging towards us.

Beside me, Legolas says quietly as the feather of his arrow grazes his cheek, "Faeg i-varv... dîn na lanc...a nu ranc."
(Their armour is weak...at the neck...and beneath the arm.)

I breathe calmly, the rain falling heavily around us.

"Leithio i phillin!" Aragorn shouts to us.
(Release the arrows!)

I release, arrows flying all around me and hitting their marks in the Uruks below, many of them falling.

"Did they hit anything?" Gimli asks, moving his head around to try and see.

"Yes, Gimli!" I reach back, notching another arrow and firing—another Uruk down.

"Fire!"

Arrows fly from the volley of Elven archers in the courtyard behind us, but I pay them no mind as I continue to notch, aim, release—killing the Uruks charging towards the wall.

It becomes a steady rhythm, my arms so sure of their movements, my aim sure to hit its mark each time.

Grunting, I grasp the wall and swiftly turn my body at an angle to avoid a harpoon from the Uruks, then snarl when I straighten and fire three more arrows at the beasts.

"Pendraid!" Aragorn yells.

"Ladders!"

"Good!" Gimli grins.

I continue to fire arrows as tall, strong ladders lift up against the wall, taking down as many of them as I can as they start to breach the keep.

"Swords! Swords!"

As the ladders draw nearer, I pull my bow over my shoulder, unsheathing my sword with my right hand and swing, slicing the bare chest of an Orc climbing onto the wall ahead of me, and then stab it, not watching as it falls back to the ground far below.

I step back, clashing my sword with the axe of an Uruk on the wall beside me and pushing it away as hard as I can, spinning around to get out of its' path. As I do, I pull free a dagger and flick my wrist, the blade now sticking out of its chest.

"Legolas!" Gimli yells as I turn and throw another dagger. "I'm on two already!"

"I'm on seventeen!" Legolas replies.

"Huh?! I'll have no pointy-ear out scoring me!"

I turn again, unsheathing my left sword and swing both, cutting off the heads of two Orcs charging towards me.

"Nineteen!" Legolas corrects after firing two more arrows.

"Will you both grow up!" I growl, stabbing and slicing and beheading every Uruk in my path. Then I turn to them, smirking, "I'm on twenty-two!"

Legolas whips his head to the side to face me in shock. I turn again, using both blades to stab an Orc climbing up the ladder before and it falls back, the weight taking the entire thing down with it. I run to the edge and look down.

"Probably thirty now!" I call out.

"Cheater!" Gimli growls, swinging his axe before he jumps up onto the wall, standing atop it and cutting down each Uruk climbing up the ladders on either side of him, counting as he does.

"Seventeen! Eighteen!"

"Now who's cheating!" I call out, turning and throwing a dagger across the length of the wall.

"Nineteen! Twenty!"

I run then, sliding down against the floor and taking out the legs of three Uruks, rising into a crouch to throw a dagger in each one with quick precision, then stand and retrieve them.

"Causeway!" I hear Aragorn shout. "Causeway!"

I watch arrows fly over head as I run to the wall, pulling free my bow and firing arrows towards the causeway, a horde of Uruk's marching over it, their shields protecting them from the arrows above, but not from where we are at the side.

Many fall, but not enough.

"Dago han! Legolas!"
(Bring him down! Legolas!)

I turn behind me at Aragorn's words, my eyes wide as an Uruk runs towards the wall with a bright flame. Legolas is firing arrows to no avail so I notch, aim and fire as well.

Aragorn is screaming now as he points with his sword to the Uruk charging ahead, his voice hoarse, "DAGO HAN! DAGO HAN!"

Our arrows stick into its skin and armour, but he does not stop running. Legolas turns and runs at that moment the Uruk is out of reach.

"Amariel na e-gîr!"
(Amariel get down!)

He reaches me just as the explosion hits, his body colliding with mine from the impact as we fall to the ground side by side.

Dust and rock fall around us, my ears ringing from the sound as the Uruks storm through the entry hole they made through the wall. Elves at the ready to greet them below.

Aragorn...he was at the wall...

"Go!" I shout to Legolas and push him away. "Aragorn—Go!"

He's on his feet instantly, pulling me up with him before he lets go of my hand and runs. I watch as he grabs a discarded Uruk shield, throwing it onto the floor and sliding—sliding—across the wall and down the stairs, arrows firing as he does. When he reaches the end of the stairs, he jumps off, the shield impaling an Uruk's neck.

"Cennir ah!" I scream at him with a growl, standing atop the wall and firing arrows down below as Aragorn and the Elves face off against the enemy.
(Show off!)

When my quiver empties, I turn away from the battle below and focus on the wall, running along and grabbing five daggers as I go, sheathing them and taking out my swords.

I do not allow more tears to fall for the loss of Daria. She would not want that, she would want me to fight, she would order me to.

So that is what I will do.

I spin, cut and decapitate, stab and slice and duck and jump until I'm shoved against the wall beside me by a hammer I did not see, my back hitting the sharp rock and I cry out, leaning right to avoid another blow and stabbing the Uruk's neck.

I pull my blade free and turn, killing and killing and killing.

"Am marad!" Aragorn yells.
(To the keep!)

I try not to look at the Elves littering the ground as I battle past them along the wall, my heart not able to bear more of my kin falling at the hands of these vicious beasts.

"Am marad! Haldir! Am marad!"

I glance over my shoulder, seeing Haldir not too far from me.

"Amariel!"

"Cenin le!" I yell to Aragorn.
(I heard you!)

I turn to escape, killing my way across the wall so I can flee.

But Aragorn's voice, fear and pain now etched into it, has me halting.

"Haldir!"

I spin around faster than I ever have and my jaw drops, seeing Haldir fall to his knees, an Uruk behind him with an axe in his back.

"HALDIR!" I scream, my voice raw as my heart clenches and is pulled right out of my chest for the second time on this night.

~*~

Ithildin - Legolas x OCWhere stories live. Discover now