Chapter Ten- The Siege of Helm's Deep

Draxie: *skips around and around Opal's bedroom* *falls into random portal and appears in Middle Earth in front of Legolas and Alanna* Hello, are you Alanna and Legolas?

Legolas: Yes.

Alanna: No.

Legolas: I say we are.

Alanna: Hel-lo, I'm Charlotte, remember? Alanna walked into a tree.

Legolas: Oh, yeah. Oops.

Draxie: So are you Legolas and Alanna or not?

Legolas: I am Legolas and the girl is Charlotte.

Draxie: Errrr... Now I'm confused. I thought Miss Opal added a character called Alanna. She never said anything about someone called Charlotte.

Charlotte: She DIDN'T! WHAT! How dare she! *stalks off to find Opal*

Legolas: Wait, Charlotte! Come back! *runs off after her leaving Draxie stranded in the middle of nowhere*

Draxie: *chases Legolas* Hey! Don't leave me here!

Legolas: *reappears leading Charlotte* Now let's not forget that if Miss Opal dies then we can't go anywhere because she is the one writing this story. I wouldn't mind if you had the intention of giving her a long and lengthy lecture about this matter but going off to find Opal with murder in your eyes isn't a good idea. Imagine what she could do to you! Rocks could fall on your head, you could fall off a random cliff for no apparent reason... Oh wait, you've already done that... A dragon could come and do the stereotypical thing and carry off the beautiful maiden to be eaten, et cetera.

Charlotte: Beautiful maiden! You really think so?

Legolas: *regrets using that example* *sighs* Yes. *stops Charlotte trying to kiss him* Charlie, please. There are draxies present.

Draxie: How do I get back?

Legolas: Errrrrr... *pinches Charlotte on the back of the neck*

Charlotte: *slides to the ground*

Legolas: We'll find out in a minute.

Alanna: *stands up* What were we doing again?

Legolas: Working out how to get yonder draxie back to her home.

Alanna: Easy. We find a ring of magic mushrooms, run around it backwards three times and yell 'Your mother was a hampster and your father smelt of elderberries!'

Draxie: Really?

Alanna: No no no no no no no no no no no... Yes.

Draxie: Ermm... Which one is it?

Alanna: Oh wait, that's the one that takes you to Alagësia. We have to yell 'None shall pass!'

Legolas: *facepalm*

Draxie: Is she for real?

Legolas: 'Fraid so.

Draxie: *starts skipping around Alanna and Legolas* Can't I stay here a while? I've never been here before. The seaweed is always greener... *sings Under The Sea from The Little Mermaid*

both grab draxie's arms, hogtie her and drag her to a ring of random magic mushrooms that is nearby. Place draxie in middle of ring making sure her bonds are secure

Alanna: *runs backwards around the ring three times* None shall pass!

Draxie: *reappears on top of the TV in Syletah's house still hogtied* *sees Syletah* Mfflle! (Uh-Oh!)

Syletah: MWAHAHAHAHA! I have now got the draxie in my custody already tied up! Now to do my experiments! *drags Draxie off into secret basement cum laboratory*

Draxie: MFFLLE! (HELP ME!)

Syletah: Before I experiment on this draxie, I would like to say one thing and one thing only. Angela and Opal do not own Lord Of The Rings but they do own Alanna and Charlotte. *closes door with evil laugh*

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO oOoOoOo

Site of the Battle with the Wargs, two hours ago…

Alanna surveyed the battle. She had managed to fight her way to the edge of the battle but her horse had run off when she turned into a wolf and was now nowhere to be seen. The fight seemed to be at a bit of a stalemate at the moment but the men of Rohan were slowly gaining the advantage.

Alanna was about to plunge back into the battle when something slammed into her from behind. She fell forward and landed badly on her right paw, spraining it and causing her to trip. She rolled to her feet and snarled at her attacker. The instant she was on her feet, the warg that had slammed into her attacked again, not giving her the chance to reclaim her balance. This time, Alanna dodged and thought it had missed her but soon discovered that her fur on the back of her neck had become entangled in the iron collar of the warg in question.

The warg was riderless and dragged its unwilling passenger all over the battlefield. All the while, Alanna was desperately trying to cut herself loose with her claws, but was unsuccessful. She was forced to change tack when she spotted a cliff directly in the path of the warg. With some difficulty she managed to slice at the warg's chest with her claws, but it was too late.

Alanna suppressed a howl as the, now dead, warg's momentum carried both of them over the cliff and they plummeted towards the river.

I'm dead, thought Alanna. Unless… Insane idea time!

Alanna was never quite sure exactly how she managed to execute her plan without executing herself but she managed it. It wasn't easy (she had to block out Charlotte's screams while carrying out her plan) but she managed it.

Alanna knew that hitting the water from her current height would be the same as falling onto stone unless she used something as a shield. As it so happened, a dead warg was just the right shield for the job.

She shifted back, and managed to get on top of the warg and, seconds later, both of them hit the water. Even with the warg as a shield, the impact when Alanna and the warg hit the water was sufficient to jolt Alanna free from the warg and into the water.

Alanna changed back into an elf and let the current drag her further downriver until the river reached a point where the cliffs on either side of it turned into pebbly shores. The saturated elf swam out of the current and onto the shore. Her last thought was of Legolas as she lost the battle to stay conscious.

Helm's Deep, now...

Aragorn, Boromir, Legolas and Gimli were a subdued bunch when they finally arrived at Helm's Deep. Legolas, having returned to consciousness, was pale and completely silent. Alanna's death had shocked all of them. She had been through some very dangerous situations and, more often than not, received some very serious injuries, but she had always survived. For her to die so suddenly was a blow to them all.

Éowyn came running up to the remaining soldiers when they arrived.

'So few,' she said when she noted how small the company was compared to what it had been when they charged the wargs. 'So few of you have returned.'

'Our people are safe,' said Théoden shortly. 'They have paid for it with many lives.'

'Including an elven one,' Boromir said just loud enough for Théoden and Éowyn to hear.

'Where's Alanna?' asked Éowyn.

'She didn't make it,' Aragorn said quietly. 'But don't even mention it when Legolas can hear. He's taking it harder than the rest of us.'

'Where is he then?'

Aragorn, Boromir and Gimli looked around to find that there was no sign of the elf. The threesome looked at each other.

'We should find him,' Boromir said.

The trio searched Helm's Deep from top to bottom and then again from bottom to top but they did not find Legolas until quite a while later…

Somewhere in Rohan, one hour ago...

Alanna regained consciousness to find herself looking up at three very familiar, and very unexpected, faces.

'Haldir? Elladan? Elrohir?' she asked, half of her mind thinking that she was hallucinating and the other half wondering what the heck Haldir and her brothers were doing in the middle of Rohan.

'What are you doing here?' Elrohir asked. 'You look like you've just been in a battle and then fallen off a cliff into a river!'

'Good guess,' Alanna moaned trying to sit up using only one hand.

'We elves like guessing games,' Elladan stated.

'That was just another interesting fact about elves,' added Elrohir.

'Will you two quit it with the interesting facts?' Alanna said, weakly. 'But, more to the point, what are you doing here?'

'According to Galadriel, there's an overly large army of Uruk-Hai marching to Helm's Deep as we speak,' said Haldir. 'We are going to help the men of Rohan defeat them. It was just plain luck that we happened to be going this way and found you.'

'Just the three of you?!' Alanna asked incredulously. 'Oh, no. I see now.'

Alanna had just spotted the army of several hundred elven archers assembled behind the three boys. Elladan and Elrohir helped Alanna to her feet.

'We got very worried when I found your horse wandering around somewhere near here,' Haldir said. 'We feared something terrible had happened to you. Lieutenant!'

One of the elves came forward and saluted.

'Yessir?' he asked.

'Fetch Alanna's horse, lieutenant,' Haldir instructed.

'Yessir, right-o sir, right away sir.'

'Something terrible almost did happen,' Alanna said wincing as her wrist twinged. 'But I'm not going to tell you about it. For now, I am going to do this.'

Haldir did not have time to duck and so got a stinging slap across the cheek.

'OW! What was that for?!' he cried.

'That was for what you said when I left Lothlórien. And there's more where that came from so don't push your luck.'

'Fair enough,' said Haldir. 'Now are we going to stand here gossiping all day or are we going to get going?'

'We're going to get going and I'm going to take out my annoyance at Saruman, Gríma Wormtongue and the world in general on these Uruk-Hai.'

Haldir produced a bandage from somewhere and bound Alanna's sprained wrist before helping her up onto Asfaloth. The army then marched off in the direction of Helm's Deep.

Helm's Deep, three hours later

A horn echoed through the fortress of Helm's Deep.

'That's not an orc horn,' Aragorn said to Boromir, Gimli and King Théoden. 'That's an elvish horn if ever I heard one.'

The four of them were discussing battle plans and tactics in Théoden's throne room but then rushed outside to see what was going on. The gates of the fortress opened and in came Haldir, Elladan, Elrohir and the accompanying army of elven archers but that wasn't what astonished Aragorn, Boromir, Gimli and Théoden the most.

There riding at the head of the army was the last person they had expected to see. Alanna. Aragorn's jaw dropped.

'I saw… We thought you were dead!' he said to Alanna as she slid off her horse.

'No,' she replied. 'Well, not yet at any rate. What with the upcoming siege and all, I'm not counting my chickens before they hatch.'

'We elves are very good at surviving,' Elladan put in helpfully.

'That was just another inter-'

'Don't you DARE come out with another interesting fact, Elrohir!' Alanna growled.

'Well, all we have to do now is find Legolas and tell him the good news,' said Boromir, choosing to ignore the twins. 'We've searched this place from top to bottom and we can't find him.'

'And when we finished searching it from top to bottom,' said Aragorn, 'we searched it again from bottom to top. I think he might be avoiding us.'

'We elves are good at hiding,' Elladan commented lightly.

'That-' began Elrohir.

'DON'T SAY IT!' Alanna shrieked before turning to Boromir. ''Why would he be avoiding you?' asked Alanna.

'Maybe because he thought his best friend was dead,' said a voice behind Alanna.

Alanna whirled around and found herself face to face with Legolas.

Come on, Alanna, thought Boromir. Now would be the opportune moment to tell him what you need to tell him.

Legolas wordlessly held something out to Alanna. She looked down and saw her necklace. Her eyes widened.

'I thought I lost it when I went over the cliff,' she said. 'Thank you.'

'No thanks are needed,' said Legolas hugging her. 'I'm just so glad that you're alive. Now, we need to get you to safety before the Uruk-Hai arrive.'

Alanna looked at him sharply.

'What makes you think I'm not fighting?'

'We elves are good at fight-' began Elladan.

'SHUT UP!' yelled Alanna and Legolas in unison.

'Look at you!' Legolas continued. 'You've got a sprained wrist and you've just fallen off a cliff and into a river! You're no use to us half dead, Alanna.'

'That's funny. I thought I was half alive.'

'This is no time for jokes! You're not fighting.'

'Yes I am.'

'No you're not.'

'Yes I am.'

'No you're not.'

'No I'm not.'

'Yes you are.'

'No I'm not.'

'Yes you are.'

'Oh fine. If you insist then I will fight.'

'I do insist. You go and get ready and- wait WHAT?!'

Aragorn and Boromir burst out laughing but fell silent when Legolas glared at them.

'It's not funny,' he growled. 'This is a serious matter and… Alanna get back here!'

Alanna had been trying to sneak off without Legolas noticing but this failed.

'Legolas,' she said switching to elvish. 'Six hundred men and elves against ten thousand orcs? They need all the help they can get.'

'I agree but you are in no fit state to be fighting. A) It's one o'clock in the morning and you haven't had much, if any, sleep since last night; b) you can't use your sword and c) you can't fire your bow, so how are you going to fight?'

'I can still use my bow and I can fight just as well with my left hand, thank you. And besides, remember the dragon saga?'

'Don't remind me of that ever again.'

'I didn't even notice that very very large cut on my arm until a week later when I regained consciousness and saw the bandage. I saw it and thought "Holy cow! Where'd that come from?". I can deal with pain.'

'That's not the point! The point is… Oh fine. I acquiesce. You can fight. Knock yourself out.'

'Or rather, don't,' said Aragorn.

'What are those two talking about?' asked Théoden.

'They're bickering like siblings,' Aragorn muttered.

'I heard that,' Alanna and Legolas in unison.

'Elves,' Gimli grumbled.

'I heard that too,' the two elves said simultaneously.

'Now now children,' Aragorn said patronisingly. 'Let's not argue again.'

'Again with the patronising!' Legolas exclaimed. 'I'm older than you and don't you forget it!'

'I'm older than you, Alanna and Aragorn put together so stop arguing,' said Haldir. 'Anyone would think you three were siblings.'

'Well we're not, so kindly-' Legolas trailed off.

Haldir, Legolas and Alanna all looked at each other and swallowed.

'They're here,' murmured Alanna.

Legolas and Haldir ran off to assemble the elves on top of the wall. Boromir walked over to Alanna.

'If you were looking for the opportune moment,' he said softly. 'That was just it.'

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO oOoOoOo

Five minutes later, the elven archers had been placed on top of the outer wall of the fortress, the humans had been placed inside the keep and both races could see the full extent of the approaching army.

There were thousands upon thousands of Uruk-Hai. They were all clad in black armour and bore vicious looking spears among other weapons. Alanna came over to where Boromir, Legolas, Aragorn and a disgruntled Gimli were standing.

'Well, lass,' Gimli said to her. 'Whatever luck you live by, let's hope it lasts the night.'

Alanna's response was drowned out by a huge thunderclap. Lightning flashed and it started to rain very heavily.

'Fantastic,' muttered Legolas. 'Now they can see us better.'

'Gandalf will be here at dawn,' Alanna said. 'We just need to hold them off until then.'

'Easier said than done,' muttered Aragorn.

The orcs stopped marching about twenty yards from the outer wall of the fortress.

'What's happening out there?' asked Gimli who couldn't see over the top of the wall.

'Would you like me to describe it to you?' inquired Legolas. 'Or would you like me to find you a box?'

Gimli, Aragorn and Boromir laughed

'Archers to the ready!' yelled Alanna.

All archers, whether human or elven, obeyed her. One of the human archers accidentally fired and hit an orc.

'One down, nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine to go,' said Boromir.

The orcs, on seeing their fallen comrade, charged at the wall.

'Take your aim!' yelled Alanna. 'FIRE!'

A volley of arrows soared from the bows of the archers and the first three rows of orcs fell.

'Did they hit anything?' asked Gimli.

Gimli did not get a response as Alanna was yelling orders again.

'Fire at will!' she yelled.

Wave upon wave of orcs fell but the archers couldn't stop them from reaching the wall and beginning to raise ladders.

'Ladders!' yelled Aragorn unnecessarily.

'Yes thank you Aragorn,' said Legolas sharply. 'We had noticed.'

'Good!' cried Gimli. 'Now Boromir and I have a chance to catch up to Legolas.'

'Are you three having a competition?!' Alanna asked incredulously.

Elf, human and dwarf all looked at her as if to say, 'But of course!'. Alanna shook her head.

'Boys,' she muttered and drew her sword.

The first few orcs who climbed the ladders were repelled but there were to many for the defenders to stop completely. Some of the ladders got pushed down but again there were too many.

'Causeway!' Boromir yelled about two hours into the battle.

Everyone who wasn't preoccupied with defending themselves looked over to the causeway. A group of orcs had formed a phalanx, put their shields over their heads to defend themselves from arrows and were marching up the causeway. Their sides were unprotected and this was where Alanna ordered the elves to shoot. Two lines of orcs fell but that didn't stop the rest. As the defenders watched, a ripple passed through the group and, at the end closest to the gate, a huge battering ram appeared. The orcs began to ram the gate, unperturbed by the rocks and arrows pelting them from the side and above.

Théoden's voice floated across to the sensitive ears of Alanna and Legolas who were close to the keep.

'Is this it,' he said. 'Is this all you can conjure, Saruman?'

'Don't say that, Théoden,' Legolas muttered to Alanna. 'Don't ever say that. Whenever someone says that, something bad happens.'

The second he finished Aragorn tapped him on the shoulder. Legolas turned and Aragorn pointed out into the orc army. Running towards the wall was an orc who looked exactly the same as all the other orcs. The only exception was that he carried a torch that was sparking and fizzing like one of Gandalf's fireworks.

Legolas fired at the orc and managed to hit it with three arrows but the orc refused to die. In the seconds before it reached the wall, Alanna and Aragorn managed to get most of the defenders off a twenty foot long section of the wall above the orc's destination. The orc reached the wall and, too late, Alanna realised that Legolas was still directly above the orc's destination.

'LEGOLAS!' Alanna screamed.

Legolas looked up at her. Their eyes met and, a second later, the wall exploded.

A Note From Angela And Opal:

Angela: NOOOOOO!

Opal: What? What?

Angela: Why do you always have to end chapters on the worst possible cliff hangers? Alanna fights a Ringwraith, a scream is heard and you end the chapter. Alanna goes off a cliff, you end the chapter. Now, the wall beneath Legolas has just exploded and you end the chapter. Why? Why? WHY? Why do you do this to us, Miss Opal?

Opal: I'll tell you later. For now, please review and tell us that we aren't wasting our time on this and I will say do svidaniya (that's Russian for goodbye) and thank you for reading! (no I do not speak Russian. There is this wonderful invention called Google Translate...)