The Caves of Helm's Deep

by Ynnealay

Inside the caves of Helm's Deep, the women and children can do nothing but listen to the battle above them. Drumming, or is it the footsteps of Uruks? Swords clash, and which one wins? The armies of Isengard or of Rohan?

There is drumming above me.

No, it's footsteps. Of whose I know not. Is it the monsters, or the men who bravely fight for our Théoden King? Why does my heart so strongly insist it can't be our soldiers who are winning? My little brother cries, his baby blue eyes in terror. I reach out to him; I don't realize my hands are shaking.

I am scared.

Drawing back my hands, I can't calm my heartbeat; it's beating out of my chest. I breathe shakily. I close my eyes, trying hard not to cry. A loud explosion echoes through the caves. Someone shouts that they've broken in. Hope is lost. Panicked cries reach my ears from every part of the cave. The ground is cold and hard, the ceiling dripping with moisture. But it doesn't matter.

Why is it so easy to accept? Right here, very soon, we will all die.