Hello again! No one reviewed last chapter! Awww… I love you all anyways! Onwards! Tallyho! Typing lying down is difficult…
"AL. Cause I'm a lazy hobo." "ELVISH!"
Disclaimer: I own nothing but my characters.
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They had set out, the long winding line of the refugees stretching long behind them. Lireal rode with her three friends, close to the front of the column. Beside them, Eowyn lead Gimli's horse beside her cousin, who was mounted on his own steed. Aragorn and Theoden rode side by side behind them, with Lireal and Legolas behind them.
"It's true that you don't see many dwarf women. And in fact, they are so alike in voice and appearance that they're often mistaken for dwarf men." The dwarf explained.
The Lady of Rohan looked to Aragorn.
"It's the beards." He whispered.
"That has led rise to the belief there are no dwarf women, and that dwarves just spring out of holes in the ground!" Gimli waved wildly.
Eowyn laughed.
"Which is, of course, ridiculous." The dwarf finished.
Apparently the horse had had enough of its Dwarven rider, for it then took off, and Gimli promptly fell off. Lireal chuckled at his expense.
"It's alright. Nobody panic. That was deliberate." Gimli called. "It was deliberate."
The blonde woman rushed forward to help the Dwarf up.
Theoden turned to the Ranger. "I haven't seen my niece smile for a long time. She was a girl when they brought her father back dead; cut down by orcs. She watched her mother succumb to grief. Then she was left alone, to tend her king in growing fear. Doomed to wait upon an old man who should have loved her as a father."
Eowyn smiled back at them.
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Later that evening when the group had made camp, Eowyn approached first Gimli, and then Aragorn. The Dwarf refused her, but the Man did not. Lireal quietly stared out into the plain, thinking, paying little attention to the outside world.
After turning the Lady of Rohan away, Gimli approached the Dragorlai.
"If she offers you soup, say no." He grumbled.
The dark-haired woman snorted, shaking her head at the infallible dwarf.
"You been awful quiet lately, lassie." The dwarf mentioned.
"Aren't I always?" she smiled. "I've been thinking, that's all."
Gimli nodded. "What kind o' thinking?"
Lireal shrugged. "My normal thoughts, I suppose."
"Just tell me, lass." The dwarf muttered.
She shook her head. "They aren't the sort of thoughts meant to be spoken aloud."
Gimli was alarmed. "Lassie?"
"I've just been wondering." She said softly. "Where did I go wrong? How could we be so similar, yet so different."
"What're ye talking about?" He inquired, curious and alarmed.
Her silver-grey eyes closed. "Eowyn. Our situations aren't so different in ways, yet the outcomes are so very diverse."
"Huh?" The Dwarf was confused, he hadn't heard Theoden's comment to Aragorn.
The Elf approached them then, slipping gracefully into place beside the pair.
Gimli turned to him. "The lass is saying something odd. I don't understand it meself."
Legolas turned to her, a single brow raised.
She shook her head. "It is nothing."
What the dark-haired woman had been contemplating was the fact that Eowyn had lost both her parents, and was still untouched by shadow. When Lireal had lost her family to the traitor and her minions, she had gone insane from the darkness in her heart and the pain of loss. How were the two so alike and yet so different?
Her friends gave up trying to coax the truth out of her and simply stood by her, offering Lireal what support they could.
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The next day, a pair of scouts rode by them. The group of friends watched them go. The Ranger, the Elf, and the Dragorlai all sensed some darker presence nearby. Uncertain, they could do nothing but press on with the caravan.
The screams and cries of the scouts carried to them on the wind. Lireal urged her horse forward, bringing him to a halt at the top of the hill in surprise. Legolas had already dashed forward and aided the Rohirrim soldier in eliminating the enemy.
"A scout!" he spat, turning to face his friends.
Aragorn had run up to stand beside the dark-haired woman for a moment before he spun about, returning to his horse.
"What is it? What do you see?" Theoden hailed him.
"Wargs! We're under attack!" The Ranger replied breathlessly. "Get them out of here!"
The line of refugees began to disintegrate as the people began to panic. After a short argument with her uncle, Eowyn called them back into line. She began to lead them away, continuing towards Helm's Deep.
Lireal positioned herself beside the Elf, as the two picked off the forerunners of the enemy with well-placed arrows. The men of Rohan were shortly charging past them, and Legolas swung onto his horse as the dark-haired woman merged into the column. The horsemen plus the companions charged into the Warg-riders fearlessly, head on.
There was a great clash of bodies and metal as the two opposing forces crashed together. In short order, both Lireal and Gimli had leapt of their horses, their styles of fighting more suited to having both feet planted on the ground. The Dragorlai swept easily through the orcs and their mounts, spinning and twirling her deadly twin blades. The enemy rarely even saw their death's coming, so swiftly did she move.
Gimli faced off with a warg. "Bring your pretty face to my axe."
Legolas shot it in the neck just as it reached the dwarf.
"That one counts as mine!" The longbeard shouted angrily before he was busy with another warg.
This one, in its death, landed on top of Gimli. That corpse was soon joined by that of an orc, before a living warg stepped on the pile as the dwarf struggled to lift it off himself. The Elf slayed this one also, spearing it with a discarded javelin.
Lireal noticed that there couldn't be many of the monsters left, and turned to inspect her companions' handiwork. Through a break in the battle she saw something that brought forth a cry of disbelief and rage. A warg charged off the cliff, taking with it an unwilling passenger. Aragorn. She saw red, charging recklessly into the nearest group of orcs and wargs. She fought her way until she was standing on the edge of the cliff, staring down into the raging river below.
"See what happens when you resist me, sister dearest?"
Lireal spun, searching for her enemy, but the traitor was already gone, leaving the Dragorlai to wallow in her grief and anger.
When the battle was over, the Dwarf and the Elf realized the absence of their friend.
"Aragorn!" Legolas shouted, moving forwards in search of his friend.
"Aragorn?" Gimli called while following his friends lead.
Theoden spun about, searching for the Ranger.
The blonde elf stopped, glaring at a chuckling orc. The Dwarf put his axe to the creatures throat.
"Tell me what happened and I'll ease your passing." Gimli growled.
"He's dead." The orc choked out. "Took a little tumble off the cliff."
"You lie." Legolas snarled.
He pulled the orc up, but it died before he could force the truth from it. That's when he noticed something shining in the goblins' hand. The elf stared in disbelief at the familiar piece of jewelry in his hand. The Evenstar. It was Aragorns', given to him by Arwen.
Legolas rushed to the cliff to stand beside Lireal. She spun about, eyes full of raging fire. For a moment he thought she might attack him, before the fires slowly flickered and died.
"The creature spoke the truth. I saw it." She mumbled brokenly.
The three friends were joined by Theoden as they stared, dismayed, into the ravine.
The king turned to one of his soldiers. "Get the wounded on horses. The wolves of Isenguard will return. Leave the dead."
Legolas turned, staring in anger and disbelief at the man.
"Come." Theoden said, setting a comforting hand on the Elf's shoulder.
The king walked away, leaving the three friends alone beside the place where the Ranger fell.
Lireal couldn't breathe. It was impossible. It couldn't be true, but it was. She slowly turned and blindly stumbled to her horse. For the first time, her vision was fully obscured by tears. Not a single one actually fell, but they were there. She simply let her horse follow the others as they continued to Helm's Deep. She barely noticed that Legolas and Gimli were there also. She mostly just sat there, staring into the open sky ahead brokenly.
Lady Eowyn ran out to greet them as King Theoden led the riders into the fortress.
"So few. So few of you have returned." She murmured.
"Our people are safe. We paid for it with many lives." Theoden mumbled.
At some point the Dwarf had been given the unpleasant task of breaking to news.
"My lady." He said subdued.
Eowyn turned to him. "Lord Aragorn…where is he?"
Gimli cleared his throat. "He fell."
The lady turned to stare in disbelief at her retreating uncle. He turned back and met her gaze sadly before making his way into the keep. The woman leaned heavily on the shoulder of the nearest horse and the leg of its rider.
Lireal blinked through the haze, glancing down at the woman that leaned against her. Perhaps here she had been too quick to draw judgment. The dark-haired woman dismounted before setting a hand uncertainly on Eowyn's shoulder. The blonde woman stared, begging her to reveal it all to be a trick. The Dragorlai shook her head before the two women, both leaning on each other, made their way into the keep.
The two friends watched as Lireal stumbled away with Eowyn, both seemingly overcome with grief. The dwarf sighed, while the elf turned away, neither able to bear the sight of the proud Dragorlai so broken.
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