Bravado II

"… Long ago we fought and died, together…" The blonde Marchwarden trailed off at seeing the five companions on the stairwell feet away with the Ranger in the lead, and he smiled as he finished, "We've come to honor that allegiance."

"Welcome, Haldir!" Aragorn greeted him first, descending the stairs to embrace the elf who awkwardly returned the gesture, drawing back, "You are definitely welcome."

Eäriel embraced the blonde and beamed as they drew away, "Thank you for coming, all of you." Bless Elrond, she silently added.

Legolas greeted Haldir properly before they faced the king again.

"We are proud to fight alongside men again." Haldir stated as his host also turned to face the king.

oO0Oo

Storm clouds began to slowly accumulate in the dark heavens above and the tension was dense as the gathered host of elves and men awaited their foe's arrival to the keep.

From the Deeping Wall it was an easy view of their foe as said host marched ever closer to the keep's walls, their march sounding louder than the quietly-growling thunder above, as lit torches that resembled a massive unit of flames guided them through the dark.

The men were still restless it seemed, ready to fight and let fate decide whether they should die tonight or another day; the elves that stood alongside them were stoic with their sharp gazes set on their approaching foe.

"Could've picked a better spot…" Gimli grumbled from his place between the elves as they stood at the ready on the causeway.

Eäriel caught the amused smirk on the prince's lips regarding their shorter companion's griping, and she offered, "We all decided this was the best vantage point, if you recall, Gimli." She and Legolas were to shoot down their foes at long range while Gimli and Boromir dealt with the unfortunate beasts that reached the causeway path; it was a win-win situation no matter how one saw it.

"Cheating death seemed more fun the first time around," Boromir commented to his fellow man as the latter had walked over to them between surveying the other elves that stood in two rows and had left him room to walk between their ranks.

"Whatever luck you live by, laddie, let us hope it lasts the night." Gimli added in as he glanced at the Ranger.

The gathering clouds rumbled with a low growl above as lightning dance in the dark.

"Your friends are here with you, Aragorn." Legolas assured him as they both glanced up at the impending rain.

Eäriel nodded without removing her gaze from their foe, "I am sure we will survive the night." She had seen worse things, a live fire-breathing dragon being one of the worst, she had to remember that.

The rain was a light shower, thankfully, and she vainly hoped the battle would not last long for the rain would surely make the night tedious.

"Show them no mercy for you will receive none in turn!" Aragorn stated to the Galadhrim amongst them as their foe came to a halt several yards before the wall, walking amongst the rows again.

Eäriel thought of the fear and anger she had felt towards the Uruks who had took Merry and Pippin and only flexed her grasp on the metal-covered curve of her bow. No, she would indeed give those foul things no quarter… Aside from her father's reputed ruthlessness she had inherited, she hated the Uruks for trying to kill her friends.

Gods so help her, she would take a hundred of them down with her if tonight was to be her end.

oO0Oo

A loud roar came from the Uruks below as they began pounding their spears to the ground while the archers readied their respective bows and took aim at the beasts, and Eäriel ignored the thrumming in her ears as the pounding the beasts made on the earth grew in volume in order to intimidate their enemy; her lip only curled slightly in disgust.

The battle chant below halted when a lone arrow whizzed through the air from the garrison to stick one Uruk in the throat, and the beast hit the ground dead. This gave the rest of the Uruks further incentive as they bellowed their outrage and war cries, charging head-on at the wall like a stampede.

"Aim for the neck and below the arm!" Eäriel advised her kin as they readied to fire at Aragorn's call, releasing her arrow when Aragorn gave the order, nocking another arrow when the first wave was hit and most of them were felled, repeating the motion as her kinsmen did.

The archers continued raining arrows upon the Uruks that fired back with their crude crossbows, the beasts setting ladders to scale the wall when their rebuttal had little effect.

Fortunately she was used to close-combat.

"Ladders!" Boromir shouted to the men plus elves when said tools latched onto the stone wall's ledge, drawing his sword from its scabbard.

Eäriel switched from one weapon to the other with fluidity, beheading the first Uruk that reached the ladder infront of her, stabbing the throat of the next with a disgusted look. "Keep firing and mind their archers!" She advised the Galadhrim around her that were fending off their own, beheading another beast before she grabbed hold of the ladder hooks and shoved the ladder off the ledge with a slight grunt, ducking as one Uruk from the ladder by Boromir leapt at her. With a reflexive growl as she turned on the Uruk, she sliced its legs using one blade and used its twin to behead the beast, noting with a rueful look that these beasts were more depraved than the ones they had slain at Amon-Hen.

"Twenty-two… twenty-three…!" Gimli exclaimed as he counted the Uruks he had thus far slain as the battle waged on, having hopped onto the ledge of the causeway between two of their ladders and hacking the first unfortunate beast that was at the top of the ladders.

Boromir gutted another Uruk that fell on his shield, hearing a snarl behind him and twisting about to see the next beast had frozen in place; he sidestepped the Uruk as it fell forward only to look on Eäriel as she stood slightly out of breath with her dirtied knives in hand. Blue met blue as he was reminded of that day at Amon-Hen when she had saved him, and again he found himself thinking that she was the most brash she-elf he had ever met. He snapped out of his thoughts when a snarl sounded from another Uruk that rushed the elleth from behind, and he brushed past her to cut down the beast.

Eäriel looked over her shoulder at the Captain as he had slain the beast that would've killed her without a second thought, and she looked around at the various elves that had been cut down by the Uruks that had reached the causeway. She stole herself from the painful memory of her kin that had died in Dale and her ears perked when the raucous noise of cheers sounded below, trotting to the ledge at finding a vacant patch of stone to see the beasts parting way for four of their comrades to roll a large spiked ball into the causeway's drain. Her face paled. "Aragorn!" She forsook petnames and looked back at hearing his boots rushing to her side before she showed him the Uruks below that had now, much to her further dread, begun cheering a hulking one that carried a lit torch as it made a beeline for the drain.

"Shoot it down!" Aragorn commanded the elves that were nearby as Eäriel loosed one arrow and then another at the champion beast, two of her arrows landing in the beast's broad shoulders as Legolas also loosed a few arrows at the Uruk before it dove for the drain.

A resounding 'boom' thrummed in the night air as the chunk of causeway above the drain exploded.

oO0Oo

White noise erupted in her ears and the elleth cracked open an eye to see a familiar bearded face with blue eyes the color of stormy blue skies hovering over hers. "Thorin…?" she murmured softly.

"Eäriel, get up!" His visage disappeared as her hearing came back to her then and she heard the Uruks charging feet as she recalled painfully that there was a battle going on.

She grimaced as she scrambled to her feet rather clumsily, shaking her head even though it throbbed from somewhere above her right brow, looking around to see Boromir had also fallen with the causeway and was picking up his dented shield and Aragorn too as the lattermost rubbed his head with a hand. She looked forward as the Uruks began surging through the break in their defenses like an angry hive of hornets, and growled slightly as she drew the glowing Hathelas from its scabbard. She perked her ears when hearing a familiar dwarf's battle cry as she spotted said redhead drop from one side of the now-breached causeway to land amidst the Uruks, hacking and slicing at the overtall beasts. She groaned under her breath before seeing the dwarf be knocked on his back and into the knee-high waters of the stream, looking back to the slew of Galadhrim archers as Aragorn gave the order for them to let loose their respective arrows.

When seeing the hail of arrows only enraged the renewed horde, Aragorn led the charge with his sword bared, Boromir and Eäriel at either side as they collided with the spear-toting Uruks.

As she was closest, the elleth gutted another Uruk between the ribs to then reach into the stream and haul up the dwarf who spluttered and coughed, releasing his scruff to parry another beast's strike for her chest, drawing her arm back only to swing down on the Uruk's helmeted head and proceeding to yank Hathelas free. She lifted a hand to wipe her brow only to wince and lower it to find a smidge of blood from her fall; she huffed and sheathed the sword to return to her knives, launching herself back into the fray.

Aragorn cut down two at a time at the very least; Boromir struck with well-honed ease and let each of his foes fall on his shield; Eäriel beheaded one before gutting the next with deadly fluidity.

It felt like they were one, a near-invincible unit that turned the tide on the Uruks they slew.

Eäriel's ears perked as she straightened from ducking one Uruk's swing for her head when said beast fell forward to see the blonde ellon had cut it down with his blades. She acknowledged that he looked just as winded and dirty as she did, and she nodded her thanks.

Legolas returned the nod before looking past her at the number of felled beasts that had since piled up, and then at the dwindled numbers of their fellow elves, noting she had also acknowledged the same and they shared a look.

They had to fall back, and fast.

"Fall back to the keep!" Théoden called then, as if he had heard their thoughts, his words for Aragorn as he added, "Get your men out of there!"

"Fall back!" Aragorn relayed the command to the remaining elves with them between cutting down Uruks in his path, looking at Eäriel and Legolas as they helped him call their kinsmen back to the keep while doing the same. He looked to Haldir fighting on the far side of the wall, "Haldir, to the keep!" He cried, receiving a nod from the blonde before he then relayed the order to the remaining elves with him. He perked up as her head of brown streaked past him to run for the wall. "Eäriel!" He called.

She punted an Uruk away only to gut it with ease, meeting Haldir's gaze and nodding as she decided to help him by cutting down the beasts in their way. "I have seen too many of my kin fall this night…!" She declared, leaning back when another beast lashed out before she cleanly lopped the head off, ushering her kinsmen ahead of her when there was an opening. A burly Uruk nearly caught her head before its crude blade was blocked with a sharp swing from Haldir's sword; the beast gurgled in pain when she rammed both blades into its sternum from her reflexive bow.

Both elves shared a nod before they hurried after their comrades just as the rest of the Uruks were hot on their heels, and the elleth's heart soared as the prince was holding the door for them. Haldir and Eäriel darted into the hall just as Legolas and what elves remained slammed the doors shut before they began to accept whatever pieces of furniture that weren't rooted to the stone floor as well as broken boards to barricade themselves in when the Uruks threw their weight against it from the other side.

"The fortress is taken, it's over!" Théoden called wearily to the men barricading the doors.

Lifting another broken board to put it in the barricade, Aragorn retorted, "You said this fortress wouldn't fall while your men defended it; they still defend it, they have died defending it!"

Eäriel looked at the king from helping hand the boards to the men plus Legolas, Boromir, Haldir and Gimli and noticed he was tired of battle and if she dared to add, nearly ready to accept defeat; she jumped when the Uruks on the other side of the doors slammed their battering-ram particularly hard against the wood.

Boromir turned to the king and his wardens, "Is there no other way for the women and children to get out of the caves?"

Aragorn came forward when seeing the question hadn't seemed to spur the king from his dejected state, repeating, "Is there no other way?"

Gamling, the king's head warden, answered both men, "there is a way, it leads into the mountains… but they won't get far, the Uruks are too many."

"So much death… what can men do against such wanton hate?" Théoden asked of the room at large, his eyes on Aragorn.

"Make a stand." Boromir answered after a moment of uncomfortable silence, seeing the king lift his head slightly to look at him. He looked to Aragorn as a silent exchange went between both sets of green and blue eyes.

Aragorn nodded his head, "Ride out with me, and meet them." He stated slowly, looking at the king.

Théoden's dejection seemed to slowly evaporate the more their words soaked into his head, and he said, "For death and glory."

Eäriel looked at the nearby window, her eyes widening slightly at seeing the sun's warm light slowly creeping its way into the morning. "Aragorn, its dawn." She declared, a smile slowly spreading across her face, and she looked at both men with renewed excitement.

"Yes… the Horn of Helm Hammerhand shall sound in the Deep, one last time!" Théoden nodded, the elleth's excitement seeming contagious.

"Yes!" Gimli declared.

No sooner had the dwarf hurried to sound the horn did those who remained in the room readied their horses to make a final charge against the Uruks.

Aeglos' ears swiveled and she pawed the stone floor at sensing her rider's excitement, as said she-elf made sure both of her knives were ready to be of use again.

Eäriel flexed her grasp on the reins and looked over at Legolas as he made sure Gimli was secure on Arod's back before he felt her stare and blue met blue. She nodded to him with hint of a smile on her lips as she recalled that kiss in the armory…

"… Let this be the hour when we draw swords together… fell deeds await; now for wrath, ruin, and a red dawn!" Théoden's declaration drew her back to reality before a loud and deep horn blast erupted into the air and throughout the keep; the party charged forward just as the doors were shoved open from the other side.

Commanding her mare to hold fast, Eäriel drew her knives in a fluid gesture and swung down on the beasts on either side of her that sought to bring her down, soon leaving felled Uruks in her wake as she kept at Legolas' flank. Glancing about, she took comfort in seeing her comrades faring just as well as she was before she swung her right arm's blade so it severed the head of a tall Uruk at her flank.

On the far incline towards the east a neigh sounded, causing her and some of those with her that were in the middle of cutting down their foes to look and see a white horse leading the charge of a larger host.

Eäriel laughed in relief, "took you long enough!" She grinned at recognizing the mighty white steed and wizard who rode him along with the horse-lord host at his tail.

Together with the aid of the returned Rohirrim, they slew enough Uruks so that the cowardly stragglers fled as far as to the shaded edges of Fangorn Forest.

Bringing Aeglos to a halt, Eäriel looked at the treeline and watched with shock as the tops of the second or third layer of trees began shifting and moving about before cries and shrieks of dying Uruks filled the air as they were at last ended.

They were alive, after so long… She looked heavenward and smiled gratefully.

At last, the ending to a very long night had come.

oO0Oo

Small trickles of smoke rose up among the dead.

Stepping aside as two men walked past her carrying one of their felled soldiers on a litter, the elleth spotted the dwarf proudly seated atop a felled Uruk as the prince approached him from the stairwell.

"Forty-two is my final tally." Legolas stated rather proudly as he cleaned the head of one of his arrows.

Gimli arched both brows and replied coolly, "'forty-two'! Now that's not too bad for a pointy-eared elvish princeling." He paused when the blonde's brow twitched and his smug look faltered before adding with a light 'thwack' to the dead beast, "I myself am sitting pretty on forty-three."

The beast twitched under him and Legolas let his arrow fly to hit the Uruk's throat; lowering the bow, he looked at the dwarf and stated with cheek, "forty-three."

"He was already dead."

"He was twitching!"

"'He was twitching' because he's got my axe embedded in his nervous system!" Gimli laughed as he slapped a hand on the handle of his weapon, causing the beast's body to twitch again as the blade was lodged firmly in its skull.

Shaking her head as she stepped up to both friends, Eäriel laughed quietly. "Personally, Gimli, I prefer beheading them… s' a bit savage, but they die fast." She commented as she halted next to the prince.

Gimli huffed amusedly at her comment, "well lass, how many?"

Yanking the arrow from its place lodged in the Uruk's throat, Eäriel answered serenely while offering it to its owner, "forty-seven… but that's not counting the ones on the ladders." She looked up at the prince with a tilt of her head.

Legolas' brow twitched again at being bested by her –he couldn't recall the last time she'd won against him at something, if he were to be fair—as he sincerely doubted that Gimli wasn't also surprised at her stumping them. "Best two out of three?" He wondered.

She snorted softly and gave him a dubious look, "Should I hold my breath?"

"I wouldn't, lass." Gimli smirked cheekily when Legolas shot him a look; Eäriel laughed.

an: sorry i haven't updated guys! hope you guys don't hate me too bad.. a lot of stuff has been going on in my personal life so i haven't had much time to write.. anyway, so this ends the Two Towers and RoTK starts next chapter. read and review please, thanks guys! :)