Note:

Anna does not like fighting on horseback! She is a woman made for ambushes and urban battle.


Fighting on horseback was unnatural. The riders of Rohan, Annamir concluded, must be privy to some sort of foul sorcery in order to cut a swathe through their enemies without falling on their arses.

Annamir was a decent rider, and fighting came to her as naturally as breathing, but attempting both tasks simultaneously was utterly beyond her. Clinging desperately at a horse's reins while clenching her thighs with all her strength and clutching tenuously to her long-sword did not lend itself to effective blood-letting. It was therefore with peculiar relief that Annamir found herself thrown from her horse.

Her feet finally planted on solid ground, Annamir rolled her shoulders and pivoted her long-sword in her hand to test its weight, a smile playing on her lips. A warg surged toward her with gleeful grimace, his rider shouting orders in a foul shriek, but Anna stood her ground. She stood perfectly still, sword held primly in front of her, like the statues that used to line the coliseum of Osgiliath before the Nazgul tore them down one-by-one. At the very last moment, she side-stepped and brought the tip of her sword down into the wild wolf's neck. She glanced over her shoulder only long enough to watch the creature skid to a stop several feet beyond before throwing herself into the fray.

Observing the battlefield, Anna noted with peculiar pride a great number of orcs and wargs pitted with arrows; Nelwen was quickly making up for her lack of experience. She could make her out a little distance away, firing arrow after arrow while perched daintily on Bill's back. Clearly Nelwen had availed herself of whatever sorcery the riders of Rohan were privy to.

An orc stumbled in front of her, startled to have been abruptly parted from his mount, and Anna put a merciful end to his confusion with a quick stab to the throat. Nearby, a riderless warg gnawed at the armoured leg of a prone Rohirrim soldier whose wretched cries were almost loud enough to be heard above the din of battle. Anna rushed to his side, pierced the foul creature through the eye and then levered his jaw open long enough for the soldier to wriggle free. She gave the soldier a smile and a nod before whirling around to find something else to stab. Falling into her familiar rythem, she whirled and dove through the throng, stabbing and hacking with efficient, well-considered blows.

The battle was quick, their losses few; the humans were lucky that Nelwen had been able to give them considerable warning of the imminent threat. Anna stood and wiped the orc blood off her blade with a rag, watching the soldiers of Rohan move across the field to give aid to their fallen comrades and put horses injured beyond hope out of their misery with a swift plunge of their swords.

"Aragorn!" Nelwen called, picking her way across the fallen orcs and humans. Annamir briefly raised her head, watched Nel pace for a moment, then returned to her task. Aragorn was probably fine. But when the Nelwen's calls for her friend continued to go unanswered, Anna's hand stilled and she felt the first pang of unease. Her eyes scanned the field; saw nothing. She made a circuit of the battlefield, all the while calling his name; still nothing. Nelwen's pale complexion had taken on an ashen hue and Annamir feared that perhaps the fellowship had just experienced its first casualty.

Nearing the edge of a crag, she heard the muffled, watery laughter of a dying orc. She turned to see the bloodied beast regarding her smugly.

"Tell me what happened and I will ease your parting," snarled Annamir, her dagger at the creature's throat.

"He's dead," the orc rasped. "He took a little tumble off the cliff."

"He's lying," Nelwen cried as she stepped forward. "He's lying," she repeated as she knelt at the orc's side, sounding noticeably less convinced. Spying a flash of silver, she uncurled the orc's bloodied fist to reveal Arwen's favour, Aragorn's most beloved possession, the chain broken and bloodied.

With graceless feet, Nelwen stumbled from the orc to the edge of the cliff, peered cautiously over the edge to the turbulent waters below. Annamir approached her slowly from behind, not wanting to startle her as she stood so close to the cliff's edge. When she finally reached her side, she risked glancing at Nel's face.

Nelwen was not good at hiding her feelings and Anna had quickly become familiar with her expressions. The way she scrunched her nose when she disapproved, the way her ears flushed pink when she was proven wrong (which, contrary to the elf's protestations, did occasionally happen), the way her smile became crooked when she was genuinely amused. But never before had Annamir seen her look so utterly desolated, tears streaking down her cheeks and mouth disfigured in a silent wail.

She'd been so preoccupied by her concern for her friend that Annamir hadn't noticed King Theoden's approach, didn't notice his presence until he rested a consoling hand on Nel's shoulder. Nel flinched at the touch, her whole body gripped with tremours of grief, roiling over her in waves. Theoden snatched his hand back as if burnt. At an apparent loss on how to comfort her, he turned instead to rejoin his men. "Get the wounded to horses. The wolves of Isengard will return," he said to his lieutenant. With clear reluctance he added, "leave the dead." At his final word, Nelwen gave a strangled whimper. "Come," called the King, rallying them for their onward journey to Helm's Deep.

The two remaining members of the fellowship stood at the cliff's edge, Nel's whimpers growing into full-throated cries. Annamir, knowing that Nelwen was not overly fond of unsolicited physical contact, placed a cautious arm around the elf's shoulders. After a moment, Nelwen turned and curled herself into Annamir's chest, crying openly on her shoulder. Annamir wrapped her arms around her and murmured empty platitudes: perhaps the orc was wrong, perhaps he'd survived the fall, perhaps he'd meet them at Helm's Deep. But she knew that Aragorn was likely dead, and she was surprised at how much that realisation hurt.