This is the rewritten chapter 14.
Love,
BitterStrength
CHAPTER 14
At long last they had arrived before the looming Black Gates of Mordor. Almost all the horses had been set loose sometime earlier and now only the Companions, the members of the Fellowship, Éomer and a representative of Gondor sat upon horses.
Step by step the Gates came closer, until the army fell in line some distance away. Those upon horses assembled in front of the line, safe for Arya, who, mounted upon Saphira, was hiding somewhere out of sight, awaiting Eragon's signal.
After several moments Pippin started to grow a little restless. "Where are they?" he spoke quietly.
Aragorn, who had heard the question and felt the same restlessness, then set out on his horse towards the Gates, followed closely by the other 8 horses.
They stopped several meters away.
"Let the Lord of the Black Land come forth!" Aragorn shouted towards the top of the Gates. "Let justice be done upon him!"
They were met with silence, until, after some incredibly tense moments, in which the 12 riders looked around with haunted eyes and the horses became a little spooked, the Gates opened a crack to let out a lonely rider.
"My Master, Sauron the Great, bids thee welcome," the rider, who was a gruesome creature to behold, spoke. The creature wore a helmet that covered most of its face, until only its disgustingly twisted mouth could be seen. Its mouth was surrounded by long cuts and never covered the pointed teeth they held. The smile the creature showed was only distinguishable as a smile due to the fact that the creature tilted its head to the side.
The 12 riders looked upon the creature with disgust and disdain, but stayed silent.
"Is there any in this rout with authority to treat with me?"
"We do not come to treat with Sauron, faithless and accursed," Gandalf spoke, and the creature glared and grimaced back at him. "Tell your Master this: The Armies of Mordor must disband. He is to depart these lands, never to return."
The creature laughed. "Old Greybeard, I have a token I was bidden to show thee." It then pulled out a white shining shirt of metal. It was the míthril shirt Bilbo had given to Frodo back in Rivendell, before the Fellowship had set out on its journey.
Gimli sighed in despair and Pippin let out a whispered and anxious "Frodo".
The creature then threw the shirt at Gandalf, who caught it.
"Frodo!" Pippin cried out.
"Silence," Gandalf told him.
"No!" cried Merry.
"Silence!" Gandalf commanded.
"The Halfling was dear to thee, I see," the creature taunted. "Know that he suffered greatly at the hands of his host. Who would've thought one so small could endure so much pain? And he did, Gandalf. He did."
The Fellowship all felt the despair in their hearts that Frodo could very well be dead, and they all glared at the creature with tears glazing their eyes. Gandalf had given the shirt to Pippin, who cradled it in his arms while he cried softly, as it was one of the dear possessions of his cousin Frodo. The creature let out a laugh.
Then Aragorn rode towards it.
"And who is this? Isildur's heir? It takes more to make a king than a broken Elvish blade."
Aragorn grimaced and in one fluid movement pulled his sword out of its scabbard and beheaded the gruesome creature as he let out a strangled battle cry.
The other riders looked upon the uncrowned Gondorian King in shock, until Gimli spoke. "I guess that concludes negotiations."
"I do not believe it," Aragorn told them with a wild and passionate look in his eyes. "I will not."
It was then that the Eye of Sauron turned towards them and the Gates opened wide, giving them a good look at the ten thousand orcs that started to walk through the opening.
"Fall back," Aragorn commanded his fellow riders. "Fall back!"
Together they rode back towards the line, where all but Aragorn set their horses free. The line itself moved backwards a little at the sight of all those orcs, terror gripping at their hearts.
"Hold your ground!" Aragorn yelled at the line. "Hold your ground. Sons of Gondor, of Rohan, my brothers," he called to the soldiers, who stepped up and listened. "I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come when the courage of Men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship. But it is not this day. An hour of wolves and shattered shields when the Age of Men comes crashing down. But it is not this day. This day we fight. By all that you hold dear on this good earth, I bid you stand, Men of the West!"
The men drew their swords and prepared for the battle that was to come as the words spoken by the uncrowned king uplifted their spirits albeit in a bit of a morbid way. If they were to die, at least it would be fighting alongside the last of the line of Isildur.
Aragorn's steed rose its front legs as the King himself turned towards Mordor with his sword held high. He then dismounted and turned his steed loose and joined the companions at the front line.
Then they waited while the armies of Mordor surrounded them, until the Men of the West were an isle of Men in the middle of a lake of ground, surrounded by thousands of orcs.
"This is it, then," Edmund murmured from where he stood next to Peter. "At least we'll all see each other again in Aslan's Country, right?"
"That's right, Ed. Don't worry, you won't be going off to make mistakes without me," Peter smiled at his little brother. "And Su, Ed, if any of us make it out, look after Lu. She'll have a hard time without us. Don't ever let her lose her faith."
Susan, who stood on the other side of Peter, nodded solemnly. "Be careful, please," she begged them, sharing a knowing look with her elder brother, before she moved to stand next to Legolas and Gimli, whom she would fight alongside with. Peter and Edmund moved towards their fighting companion, Aragorn. Gandalf would look after the two hobbits and Eragon would fight side by side with Éomer.
"Never thought I would die fighting side by side with an elf," Susan heard Gimli state matter-of-factly. There was no accusation in his voice.
"What about side by side with a friend?" Legolas asked, looking down at the dwarf.
"Aye, I could do that," the dwarf answered.
She had by then reached the elf and the dwarf she would have as her battle companions.
"I'm glad to stand with you, here and now, Master Dwarf, Lord Prince" she spoke to them as she took her place on the other side from Legolas than Gimli. "May we all slay as many enemies as possible and perhaps see the day when this world will be free of the darkness of Sauron."
"Aye," Gimli grumbled.
"Stay close beside me," Legolas whispered to her as he laid his hand briefly upon her shoulder and looked into her eyes. "So that we may both make it out."
"So that you can risk your life to save mine?" Susan questioned just as quietly.
"So we may save each other," he replied. "No dirweg," he then mumbled, knowing she didn't understand a word he was saying, especially as she cast him a questioning look.
But they didn't have time to speak any more, for at that moment Aragorn rushed towards the horde of orcs with a muttered "For Frodo" upon his lips, quickly followed by two very eager hobbits.
With a cry that spoke both of courage and terror the rest of the army followed the three, although within a couple of feet Merry and Pippin were starting to fall behind, for the others of course had longer legs.
Susan threw herself into battle, swiftly dodging the spears the orcs held up against them with her bow, before stabbing the first enemy on her path through the eye with one of her arrows. She quickly moved on to her next opponent, who was already a bit more prepared for her. Seeing as orcs aren't very smart, though, she easily killed him and moved on, stabbing orcs with her arrows and hitting them with her bow.
On her left, Gimli was hacking about with his axe in imitation of a hurricane, felling enemies and for once not counting those he had killed, whilst on her right, Legolas was battling his enemies with such grace that it could only be described as dancing. Not a single enemy ever came close enough to him to do him harm, but the second they were within his reach they were lost to his twin daggers.
However, no matter how easily the three managed to slay their opponents, all around them they could see their comrades in battle fall prey to the sneaky tricks of the orcs. And no matter how many orcs they killed, there were always three more to take the place of the fallen enemies.
A little ways away Edmund, Peter and Aragorn were facing the same problem. Bodies were littered all around them; both enemy and foe, and more bodies joined the fray every second. And yet, there seemed to be no end to this battle.
The three fought as a united front, slashing, stabbing, blocking. When one struck down an orc, the other two blocked the weapons of the other orcs around them.
This method saved them quite a few times, as Edmund was prone to take unnecessary risks and Peter was sometimes too arrogant to accept that he needed help. Aragorn was the only one of them who kept his head straight as he was determined to last as long as possible to defend his people.
Every so often the three would step in to save a fellow warrior who was in trouble. They would fight alongside said warrior until they moved on to the next.
Their example however caused the Men of Gondor and Rohan to work together in a similar way, by protecting each other's backs, saving them in many instances.
Across the battlefield Eragon and Éomer had also managed to surround themselves with the bodies of the fallen. They were, however, managing a little better than the others.
This was probably due to the fact that Eragon had managed to come up with a spell that gathered the energy of the fallen and transferred it into him. He then used the energy to fuel the spells he cast with the eight words of death.
Éomer was struggling a little more, but as he stayed close to Eragon, he benefitted from the fewer opponents he had to fight at the same time, as most were slain by the Rider.
But, no matter the ease with which they fought, they knew as well as the others that they couldn't keep this up forever, and that at some point there would be too few warriors left to fight alongside them.
It was at this point that the shrieks of the Nazgûl appeared and the Men of West started to lose hope for surely, if the flying beasts and their masters arrived, they would lose sooner rather than later.
But not only Mordor had flying fighters.
Saphira! Fly! Eragon yelled in his mind at his trusted friend and companion of his mind.
The dragon and the elf upon her back sprung up from their hiding place, an outcropping a little ways away, and soared towards the army as fast as Saphira could manage.
Her little one was in danger after all. She could not possibly delay.
As soon as they came into the view of the army, the Men who remembered them from the battle of the Fields of Pelennor started cheering and picked up their fighting once more. Hope might still be enough to save them.
However, the Men were not the only ones who saw them approaching. The eight Nazgûl swiftly changed their course and now headed towards Arya and Saphira.
Alright, Saphira, this is it. Let us keep those horrid creatures from the army, but try not to engage them right away. We do not yet know their full strength, Arya spoke to Saphira.
Saphira answered by manoeuvring them around the incoming Nazgûl who each tried to get a grip on the blue dragon.
The monsters flew at her, sometimes alone, sometimes all together. But they never managed to get close enough to her to do her any real damage.
I'm going to light one on fire, to see if it hurts them, Saphira rumbled at Arya.
She then proceeded to light up the first of the beasts that flew at her. She curved her tongue as Glaedr had taught her and spewed the fire from the pit of her stomach. Her opponent screeched and screamed as the flames hit it and the robes of its master caught on fire so quickly it seemed as if it was soaked in oil. Both beast and master screamed in terrible agony before falling from the sky, right in the middle of the army of orcs below, thus lighting some of the orcs on fire as well.
The remaining Nazgûl screeched in anger and doubled their efforts to catch Saphira, but now steered clear of her mouth in fear of the flames.
It wasn't until Arya managed to get into the head of one of the fell beasts to kill its mind that things started to turn sour for the flying duo.
The Nazgûl had now noticed the elf.
Suddenly the minds of both Arya and Saphira were under attack. Recognizing the mental attack as such, the two immediately threw up any and all mental defences they could think of. This, however, caused them to lose communication with each other and as Arya was not even half as experienced fighting from dragonback as Eragon was, this gave them quite some difficulty.
Arya was forced to simply focus on staying on Saphira and keeping her mind closed off from all outside forces.
Saphira herself was having quite some trouble fighting the fell beasts whilst keeping Arya on her back and the both of them in the air and fighting with her mind against the Nazgûl. She dodged the flying monstrosities as best she could, but there were several instances where she either nearly lost Arya or got bit or scratched at. She was however successful in keeping out of range of the swords of the servants of Sauron, if sometimes only just.
The Nazgûl kept on battering at their minds and both Saphira and Arya were quickly getting tired from the amount of energy it cost them to work together and keep their own minds save.
At one point, Saphira was forced to climb higher much to the annoyance of the elf upon her back, for the air suddenly became thinner, catching Arya by surprise. She had never been this high up in the air before.
Suddenly they heard cries of animals that were not the Nazgûl. The eagles had arrived.
On the ground, everybody struggled with the forces before them.
The battle had already lasted several hours and all were tired and weary, making more and more mistakes, which they could not afford.
Éomer and Eragon seemed to be doing alright, but this was mostly due to the young Rider's spells.
Peter and Edmund had been separated from Aragorn and now fought back to back. They were holding their own, but were quickly losing strength for they were getting tired and the small cuts they had received had become quite numerous which did not help them.
Gandalf and the two hobbits were much the same. They were tired. Gandalf seemed unharmed, but both Pippin and Merry had several injuries and their bravery could not sustain them much longer.
Aragorn stood alone, facing a troll. He fought bravely and seemed still as invigorated as he did at the beginning of the battle, but the troll was proving to be a dangerous opponent. In his blood, Aragorn knew he would probably not survive the troll's attack.
Somewhere away from him, Legolas saw his friend struggling and without a second thought, he fought his way over to the Ranger. He had previously still been fighting alongside Gimli, having lost track of Susan quite some time ago.
Susan herself was unaware of the struggles around her and focused only on the battle she herself was fighting against her opponents. It was only when suddenly a large explosion occurred that she looked up from her opponent.
Translations:
Sindarin:
No dirweg = be careful