A New Fellowship of the Ring

by Wizards-Pupil

Faramir has a dream of Boromir's death by the Uruk-Hai. In a desperate attempt to save him he take his place at the council of Elrond. A look at what LOTR would have been like if Faramir was a member of the fellowship instead of Boromir. Now Complete

21. The Battle of Helms Deep

A/N: Sorry this chapter is shorter than usual, I'll make up for it next time :)

The battle of Helms Deep started at midnight. We could hear the drums of the approaching Urak-hai for an hour before they could be seen. Then, in a sudden onslaught they appeared out of the deep dark of the Deeping Comb. The outer defenses fought hard, but they were overrun after about an hour.

The battle for Helms Deep had reached the Deeping Wall. After midnight on March 4, a storm began and the assault was launched on Helm's Deeps wall. Most of the actual battle is a blur of water and blood. However, I shall attempt to give an accurate description.

A group of huge Orcs and Dunlendings, men who occupied land near the Rohirriam and despise everything about Rohan, advanced up the causeway leading to the gates of the Hornburg. We shot at them as best as we could from above, but they held their shields over their heads to deflect arrows and rocks from above. They battered the gates with two great tree trunks. Eomer and Aragorn led a sortie from a side door and drove the attackers off the causeway. We managed to distract them long enough for the damaged gates to be semi repaired.

Once we retreated back into Helm's Deep Saruman's forces renewed their attack on the gates and tried to scale the Deeping-wall with ladders and grappling hooks. We fended them off from the top of the wall but our army began to grow weary. It was now about 3 am.

Then Orcs managed to creep into Helm's Deep through the culvert where the Deeping-stream passed under the Deeping-wall. Gimli noticed there advance and sounded the alarm. Gamling led a group of Westfold-men to drive the Orcs out. Gimli slew a number of Orcs with his axe and helped block up the opening of the culvert. Up on the Deeping-wall, Legolas and I had been hard at work with our bows. Unfortunetly we ran out of arrows quickly and had to use our and swords.

Not long before dawn, an unbelievable changed happened in the battle. We had been managing to hold the Orcs and Uruak-hai of but one Orc changed that. An explosive device created by Saruman unlike anything I had ever seen was set off in the culvert by an orc, whom Legolas and I couldn't kill in time, and the Deeping-wall was breached. Actually, a good portion of the Deeping wall was blown to pieces, there really wasn't that much of it left to breach. At the same time as the explosion a 100 ladders were raised against the wall. So now Saruman's forces were coming in through the wreckage of the Deeping wall and over the wall. Eomer, Gimli, Gamling, and several other soldiers went to the Narrows in front of the entrance to the Glittering Caves where the refugees hid so that they could be protected. Most of the rest of the Rohirrim entered the fastness of the Hornburg, and Aragorn, Legolas and I covered their retreat.

Theoden had boasted that the Hornburg had never been captured by an enemy, but Saruman's forces were quickly overwhelming us. Theoden and Aragorn came up with a glorious plan for the Rohirriam. At dawn what was left of the Rohirriam army would ride out of the city and face the overwhelming army head came all to quickly and we mounted our horses for the final charge. We blew the horn of Helm Hammerhand from the Hornburg and rode from the ruined gates of Helm Deep. The horn blast could be heard throughout Helm's Deep, and we heard a horn blast in return. We rode out with all the survivers of the battle, including the protectors of the Glittering Cave.

However, the layout of the battle had changed. As we rode out from the Deeping Wall we beheld two unexpected sites.

The white Rider had returned with serious reinforcements.

Gandalf had come with the army of Erkenbrand, over 1,000 Rohirrim. They were charging down the western ridge of the Deeping comb towards us. We had trapped Sarumans Army between our forces.

But far more unexpected than Gandalf's return was what was in the valley of the Deeping-comb.

There was a vast forest where there had been naught but flat land the night before. The surrounded Orcs and Urak-hai ran into this strange forest, and they never emerged.

They were killed by the trees.

The battle of Helm's Deep was over, and we had won. With naught but 3,000 men we had one against an army of 10,000.