A/N: Thank you so much for your support and feedback :)

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Lily barrelled into the armoury, noticing a sea of solemn faces around her, everyone looked like they'd already given up any hope of winning. Lily jostled through the crowd to the three familiar guys.

"Farmer, farriers, stable boys. These are no soldiers." Aragorn stated sadly.

"Most have seen too many winters," Gimli commented, as a doddery fellow ambled past them.

"Or too few." Legolas looked fleetingly at a young lad who past by him. "Look at them, they're frightened, I can see it in their eyes." He told Aragorn. Lily looked at him completely mystified, of course they're frightened, many of them would die tonight. Lots of people seemed to be giving Legolas they same bewildered look that Lily was. "Boe a hûn...neled herain...dan caer menig!" Which meant, they should be frightened...three hundred against ten thousand. Aragorn tried to give him a defiant stare.

"Si beriathar hýn. Amar nâ ned Edoras." Aragorn snapped. He said that they have more hope of defending themselves here than at Edoras. Lily had her arms crossed and was feeling a bit resentful that she didn't have a clue what they were saying, Gimli looked just as pissed off. Legolas said something else and Aragorn exploded. "Then I will die as one of them!" He growled, storming off. Legolas made to follow him but Gimli held him back.

"Let him go, lad. Let him be." He told him warmly. Legolas wandered off in the other direction, out of the armoury. Well, that was tense.

"Let's get us some armour"! Lily tried to be enthusiastic but it was a little flat. They wandered around for a bit, Lily tried to find a breast plate but they were all too ill-fitting for her. Eventually Lily bumped into Igmund, he held her by the shoulders and gave her a smile. Lily felt slightly comforted by the sight of him.

"Trouble finding armour?" He guessed, Lily nodded and he gestured for her to follow him. They got to a wooden chest which Igmund dug through before pulling out a brown leather breastplate, he tossed it to her.

"Leather?" Lily quirked an eyebrow up at him. Igmund got out a dagger and stabbed the leather repeatedly, not a scratch. "Leather." Lily took it, completely impressed. She put it on and laced up the sides. Her sword was in her belt, her hair was braided away from her face. There wasn't much else she could do. "Thank you." She held Igmund's hand and went outside to try and find her companions.

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"It's a little tight across the chest." Gimli's chainmail bundled loudly to the floor. Lily couldn't help but laugh and the three men all turned around. She gave them as cheerful a smile as she could muster, considering the impending doom.

"Fits you perfectly." She laughed.

"Leather armour, will that suffice?". Aragorn asked sceptically, Lily took one of Legolas' long knives and stabbed at her chest. They all took a panicked step towards her but stopped when they saw that the knife had only made a scratch, even an elvish blade could not do much damage. "I never gave you that sword fighting lesson." Aragorn stated. Lily was, of course, devastated to have missed out on the opportunity to embarrass herself again.

"It's alright, I think I can stay alive for a bit, if not I'll run as fast as I can." Which is not very fast at all.

"I have to go, I will see you later", Aragorn nodded as he walked off towards the keep. Gimli looked at Legolas then at Lily.

"I have to...sharpen my axe." Gimli told them as he headed back to the armoury, very subtle. Lily looked at Legolas, she couldn't keep the fear out of her eyes.

"This is no place for an astronomer," Legolas lamented. "But I know it is your choice". Lily wondered whether it was the wrong one, the sun was beginning to set, in an hour or so it would be time to fight in actual battle and Lily had to ask herself what the hell she was thinking? But she couldn't stay in the caves though, she needed to be with the people she now had ties to in this world. "If you should start to struggle, find me...please". Legolas held her face in his hands, his eyes desperately searching hers.

"Back at ya, boo." Lily grinned and Legolas sighed as he let her go. "Of course I'll find you, I'll always find you", Lily spoke with more sentiment than she ever had before and she didn't find it completely vomit inducing, Lily had found Legolas in this world and she felt she would find her way back to him.

"Unto the ending of the world." Legolas whispered. He gently held her face again, bringing her face to meet his. He kissed her with complete unchecked passion, all semblance of his composure and serenity gone. They kissed as if it was the start of the world and the end of the world...which is kind of was, they managed to convey all the moments that had been and would hopefully be in that kiss. They eventually parted but Lily wasn't sure she could move let alone fight, she'd only ever had kisses that were sloppy, awkward or just extremely handsy. She collected herself and looked up at Legolas.

"Good talk." She smiled, Legolas gave a deep chuckle. She knew they probably had to start forming ranks in a moment.

"I'll see you when it's over." He stated confidently, "Or before if there's any trouble".

"I'm sure there'll be lots of trouble, it is a battle after all." She joked weakly. He grabbed her and enveloped her in his arms, she could feel his body was tense with anxiety over losing her.

"I'm gonna be fine." She told him, her words muffled against his chest.

"More than fine, you're going to be brilliant" He replied, letting her go. Lily kissed him again.

"Show them what you're made of Leggy!" She grinned, Legolas laughed and gave a nod. Lily looked at him one last time before going to the other end of the fortress.

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"Do you think unicorns exist?" Lily asked the man standing next to her as they waited in the darkness, looking out over the endless plain. Nothing was coming yet so they had some time to kill. The man was deep in thought and seemed surprised that he was being spoken to.

"What is a...unicorn?" He asked looking out over the plain.

"Like a horse with a horn on it's head, magical animals?" She continued.

"Is that really what you are thinking of, at a time like this?" He looked at her quickly.

"Well there's no point in thinking about dying." She reasoned. Why would you spend your potential last moments thinking about dying, when you could be thinking about unanswered questions, give them one last go.

"What's the meaning of life?" She pondered, the man next to her looked pretty pissed off.

"To try to live as long as possible, which is what I am trying to think about!" He snapped.

"Right." Lily replied, going quiet. Maybe she wasn't understanding the gravity of the moment. "But if dragons exist here, surely unicorns do too?" She asked. The man next to her looked to the man next to him.

"Switch places with me." He pleaded, the man next to him nodded and moved so he was now standing next to Lily. Well that was rude. She kept silent this time until the new man spoke.

"I think unicorns exist," He smiled, Lily grinned brightly. "I'm Bartholomew." He told her, she told him her name and they exchange a warm smile of camaraderie. They both whirled around at the sound of a clear, ringing horn. Everybody looked at each other as if someone would have answers. After a few silent moments, a number of elvish soldiers silently moved into their ranks. One of them stood on the other side of her, he looked at her for a moment, noting her race.

"My kin." He said solemnly. "We have come to aid the race of men, in their darkest hour yet." He shook his head sadly.

"Yeah things are looking pretty bleak." She replied, the elf looked at bit surprised at the way she spoke. "What's your name?" She asked.

"Thalion." He replied, "And yours?".

"Lily," She told him, granted it didn't sound very elvish, what was Lily in elvish? "Like the flower." She added.

"Yes, I like lilies", He muttered looking out into the distance, falling silent. "They're coming, do you see?" He nodded out into the darkness. Lily looked, really looked and realised she could see the first ranks beginning to descend upon them. Then the rain began, typical. Lily had to admit to herself, she was pretty nervous. She'd fought once before and even then she'd relied mainly on luck. Suddenly she felt a rough hand encase her own, she turned to see Bartholomew smiling reassuringly at her.

"You remind me of my daughter, you seem so young...too young." He frowned and looked out towards the oncoming storm. Too young to fight, or too young to die? The ten thousand orcs eventually stopped in front of Helm's Deep. Neither side did anything, nobody made the first move. Until somebody further down the ranks loosed an arrow, felling an orc. And so it began.

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The orcs were upon them quicker than Lily thought possible, even though the orcs were being showered with arrows. Helm's Deep was a brilliant fortress but the orcs were prepared for it. They used siege ladders and began to ascend over the castellated walls. The ranks scattered into action, Lily prepared her sword. She managed to kill the few orcs that came in her direction, panting for breath as she did. She saw one of the ugly creatures headed for Bartholomew or Bart, whilst his back was turned. Bart was locked in battle with another orc, he wouldn't be able to defend himself. Lily ran over to them, running her sword through the approaching orc. The orc turned around, his black blood oozing, he towered over Lily. He had a mace, brilliant. Lily avoided it, jumping and ducking and trying to swipe him with her sword. The orc hit her sword and it clattered to the ground, Lily made a dive for it and quickly got her feet. She sliced his wrist and his mace fell beside him, with an angry growl he backhanded her. Lily fell to the ground, smacking her head on the wet stone. She reached for her sword and jumped back to her feet just as he fell to the ground, the stab wound she inflicted earlier had finally taken effect. Lily felt blood trickle down her forehead, her ears were ringing and her vision blurred a little. She snapped out of it and continued to fight.

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After a lot of fighting she turned to see a particularly large orc towering over her. Lily had an advantage in that she always gained a couple of seconds because the enemy was always surprised to see she was a woman. Lily took a lunge forwards to stab him, he quickly deflected the move. He had some sort of saw as his weapon, why did none of them just have swords? He took a swipe and her which she avoided, lunging at him again.

"You are weak, you are a woman." He growled, wielding his saw at her.

"One out of two." She smiled, jumping to the floor and swiping his legs. He fell instantly, Lily jumped back to her feet and stuck him through the chest. Lily head was starting to spin, the fortress looked like it was spinning, maybe she'd got a concussion. She leant against the wall briefly before feeling her sword wrenched out of her hand, she heard it clatter to the ground. She looked up to see an unarmed orc, breathing heavily as he stood above her. Clearly he preferred hand to hand combat, well this could only end well. Lily thought about Legolas' words, 'If you should start to struggle, find me...please'. Lily saw her sword was well out of easy reach, just as she turned back to the orc he threw her against the wall. She was crumpled on the ground when the orc delivered a kick to her side, Lily winced in pain. She quickly got up and sprinted away to find cover, grabbing her sword as she fled and she somehow managed to get to the empty armoury. She locked and bolted the door, breathing raggedly. She could barely think, the jagged walls of the castles had scraped and cut her right side, the ribs on her left side were in agony and her head felt like it was about to implode. Legolas, she had to find Legolas.

Lily stumbled out of the armoury and set out to find him, she couldn't find him anywhere. Lily pushed herself up onto the battlements to see her three companions, Theoden and his guards riding out into the fray. What were they doing? Probably being bloody noble and brave. Lily turned back to her own surroundings, a few orcs remained in the fortress. Others took them down before she could. Then she heard a noise, like the worst hailstorm known to man. She looked out over the plain to see Gandalf and Eomer's men descending down the mountainside to the orc army. They clashed and Gandalf and Eomer surged through them. Lily considered going down to join them but it was an effort to stand up, even leaning on the battlements. The orcs were being thrashed, some of them realised this and fled, the others were killed. They'd won, they'd actually won. And Lily had managed to stay alive. She breathed a sigh of relief, her ribs protesting slightly.

"We won." Lily turned to see Bart, she threw herself around him. Crying into his chain-mail, Bart lightly wrapped his arms around her.

"The cost has been high, so very high." Bart lamented. "I saw what you did for me Lily, that orc...you saved me." He whispered, kissing her hair lightly and holding her out at arms length. He looked horrified, blood had dried in her hair and on her forehead, the right side of her face was covered in cuts and scrapes from being thrown against a wall. "Come on, let's go get you cleaned up." Bart put a supporting arm around her and they walked into the keep together. See could see no sign of Legolas, so much for come and find me if you need me.