Chapter One

The Calm Before the Storm

I claim none, nor have any copyrights to any affiliate of Greece (you'll see) or any of Tolkien's of his son Christopher's work.

Aulen slipped the chainmail armor over his head, and it fell to the ground with a few rings of small pieces of metal clashing. Sasuke, Aulen's pet since he was three, chuckled.

"What are you laughing about? At least you don't have to put on all this heavy equipment like I do," Aulen spat at the orange canine.

"Don't talk to me like that! Besides, you didn't have to eat the pet food they serve here! Cow meat, bah! Fruit and fish is my ideal meal! Oh! And did you know that they only serve one meal a day here? The Hornburg isn't a great place to be," Sasuke said quickly.

"Yes, we're both having a horrific adventure in this Fortress, now can ya help me find my saber?" Aulen said in his usual calming voice.

"You mean sword, right?" Sasuke asked.

"Is there a difference? All these blades and not a single one is mine!" Aulen continued to franticly searched the sword racks until Sasuke found Aulen's sword next to where he was sitting.

"So are you finally ready, oh noble Rohirrim rider?" Sasuke asked Aulen sarcastically.

"Please don't call me that. And yes, I'm ready, come on, lets get onto the Deeping Wall,"Aulen answered his fox.

"I have to come to the wall too?"

"Yes, now come on!

Outside of the armory was where the majority of the castle was. A long ramp spiraled from the top floor to the bottom, and to the left of the keep was another long staircase that led to the Deeping Wall, and the Refugee camps behind it.

Aulen and Sasuke walked across one of the ramps, a fortress wall that connected the Main Gate with the Deeping Wall, and half of the Deeping Wall until they came to their position on the wall, about three meters from King Theoden.

" Hey, Aulen, did you bring your bow and its arrows?" Sasuke asked Aulen.

"... Uhh...Well...,"

"Fine, I'll go get them," Sasuke said, before he sped away. Aulen looked out at the field and sighed. Soon the field would be covered in black and red blood. Aurel had heard the dreadful talk between Theoden and Gandalf, about there being a massive army of ten thousand Uruk-Hai and Orcs rushing to Helm's Deep ( or more properly speaking, the Hornburg, as Helm's Deep is a deep Ravine behind the fortress.) to kill the three hundred defenders there. Aurel remembered the books he read about a fictional land by Tolkien called Earth, which had fantasizing tales of a world of only sentient humans warring against each other, such as a Greek Spartan army made up of only three-hundred soldiers facing a massive Persian army, perhaps metaphor for this battle which was to happen soon, however in Tolkien's tragedy the army of Spartans was surrounded and cut down because a traitor, probably a metaphor for Grima Wormtounge, told the Persian king Xerxes about a goat pass in the mountains. Ah yes, fantasy is a magnificent thing.

Aulen sighed once more. Then he heard it. It was a beautiful sound, not at all like an orc's horn, he'd only heard it once before. It was an Elfen horn. A rather untidy man wearing leather armor and a sheathed long sword, a blond-haired elf (noticeable by his slightly pointy ears) running with a bow in hand, and a Dwarf with red hair and an ax the same size as the dwarf could be seen running to the gate, and King Theoden had temporarily abandoned his post to greet the unexpected reinforcements.

Sasuke came running across the Deeping Wall around this time holding a teak short bow and a small "pack" that was crammed with arrows, and made Aulen wonder how exactly did the small fox carry some items that must weigh half as much as him.

"He...here...is you...er...ba...bow," Sasuke panted. His tongue stuck out of his mouth, like a Warg.

"Thanks," Aulen said simply.

--

Eden sat in a cold cave. The lantern near the heavily guarded entrance to the cave only gave light to the front half of the cave, so the persons in the back of the cave could barely see outlines of the persons next to her, and she was lucky enough to be in the front soothing her baby sister, Doina. She looked at her reflection in a nearby puddle. Her brown hair came down to her shoulders, and was a bit unkempt from the weeks of traveling from a small village in the Fords of Isen, where her mother was brutally murdered, and her father was injured. The attack by Wargs wasn't much better as Eowyn's group of Refugees was poorly armed, and her brother Aurel became a murderer, and a hero to her.

She remembered that day well. Five persons in the group they joined were killed, and three of those she saw die. Not long after her best friend was taken by a spear, the w

Warg rider turned its attention on her, which was when IT happened. Aurel had taken a spear from a dead Rohirrim warrior and stabbed the wolf-like monster as it charged to her, and killed its decayed-skinned rider with the orc's own scimitar. To say the least, Eden was amazed. Who wouldn't be? Her brother, the same dork who annoyed her for five of the seventeen years they had been alive, had saved her life.

Suddenly, as if from nowhere, a hideous horn bellowed through the night, and into the mostly dark and completely gloomy cave. The sound of rain echoed through the cave, and a few rain drops falling from the roof of the cave disrupted the puddle, and the reflection of Eden disappeared as she stood to talk to a friend who had survived the attack of the Wargs.

--

Aulen held Sasuke just above his head so he could see the Uruk-Hai army advancing.

"... Aulen... we're doomed, aren't we?"

"Yes...yes we are."