A day late but here's Chapter 20! This one's a long one so enjoy! I'm a bit busy over the next two weeks but I'll do my best to get Chapter 21 up in that time frame. Thank you to all the readers, reviewers, and followers. You guys make the work so very worth it. Thanks! Xoxoxo
Her blood pounded in her ears as their enemy regrouped. Their numbers swarmed like ants over their own dead. Droves of them surged forward. The discarded ladders from the front lines were once again in the hand of Uruk-hai. From behind her Aragorn voiced a command in elvish. Instantly the elves surrounding her knocked their arrows. The elves behind her were brushing lightly against her shoulders on either side. Ready and waiting for their next command.
Haldir's voice rose above the cacophony of Uruk-hai. Down the causeway his command was flawlessly followed as the surrounding elves drew their bows and held steady.
"Their armor is weak at the neck and beneath their arms." Legolas translated for her. His piercing eyes were trained straight ahead.
Closer and closer their enemy came.
Kneeling beside them Nat drew her guns. As soon as her palms contacted the grips they hummed with energy and a slight blue glow. She braced them along the wall so she could fire both simultaneously, reduce the recoil and keep them as accurate as possible. Using her forefinger on either hand she turned them up to full blast.
"Leithio i philinn!" Aragorn yelled his command to the surrounding soldiers. When they began to fire Nat followed suit. Relentlessly she pulled the triggers over and over again. Her weapons kicked back strongly into her palms. In satisfaction she watched as their droves began to dwindle from arrows and energy blasts.
"Did they hit anything?" Gimli yelled from beside her as the elves continued to fire overhead. One after the other Uruk Hai fell prey to her weapons but still they gained ground. Thousand poured forward and hit the stone walls of the Keep. "Send them to me! C'mon!" He cried, eagerly shaking his axe.
Below they began to stand and load onto the ladders. They clung to them on all sides, dozens and dozens of them at a time.
"Swords! Swords!" Aragorn shouted desperately from down the Keep in warning.
Quickly she holstered one gun and pulled out her long knife. She continued to shoot as the ladders were raised higher. The first had already almost reached the walls
"Good!" Gimli shouted as the first Uruk-hai breached the walls. The chaos of close combat began.
"Legolas! Two already!" Nat paused in her firing to see Gimli proudly holding up two fingers to Legolas who had already migrated further down the wall behind her. His hair was wild, blades slick in black blood.
"I'm on seventeen!" He replied before returning to his handy work.
Gimli's mouth hung open in outrage. "I'll have no pointy-ear outscoring me!" Nat didn't know if she had the heart to tell him she was on twenty-one. She fired her weapon at the ladders closest to her but where one fell another simply took its place.
She blazed on, the elves at her back killing off any Uruks that dared get close. They were effective and deadly allies; it was hard not to admire their efficiency and precision from a military standpoint. They were elegant killers, graceful even, as they ended the lives of their enemies.
There were so many of them, too many, and more kept coming.
She could just hear Gimli's growling baritone over the din of battle, "Eighteen! Nineteen! Twenty! Twenty-one!" Nat barked out a laugh, "I'm on thirty-seven." She shouted, knowing he very well might not hear her.
"Twenty-three! Twenty-four!" His voice louder this time as if to prove that he was steadily gaining on her.
Her blood surged with adrenaline as she was forced for the first time to use her long knife. Her instincts took over and she downed it in a single move. These beasts were bred for strength. Their massive size made them slow and an easy target for her. She had trained too long and too hard for these simple-minded beasts to best her. Dumb brutes, she could handle them by the dozen.
On and on she fought, firing her gun and using her blade as she went. Already she was slick with blood so thick and black it stuck and stained like tar to her hands and weapons. The rain continued on, pouring down over them, making both stone and steel slick with its wetness. The scent of blood was heavy in the air, and something more, something darker. It traveled with them; a chilling power that drove them on. She recognized it's feel and the subtle note of sulphur that came with it. The wizard. He wasn't here in body but he was here in mind and spirit, driving on his forces with dark purpose and power.
For hours they fought on in the rain. Soaked to the bone, she cut her way through all those who climbed the walls nearest to her. Further and further she worked her way across the battlements. Their own numbers were slowly dwindling. Behind her elves and men lay dead or injured scattered over the battlements or on the ground below them. Their hideous wounds gaping red against pale flesh. The dead Uruks piled high among them.
Her breathing had grown heavy some time ago. The chill in the air burned in her throat. Her heart beat heavy and steady in her chest. She was conditioned for this and her enhanced body engineered for long grueling hours but even she had her limits. If she managed to fight her way to the end of this, she would likely reach them. The Red Room had pushed its candidates to their very limits with each exercise; either to kill them or increase their thresholds. Further. Faster. Stronger. Years of mental and physical training and torture.
It was how she'd survived the injections.
It was how she'd survive this.
"Togo hon dad, Legolas!" She recognized Aragorn's urgent voice shouting over the battle noise. She spun around frantically and spotted Legolas far down on the opposite side of the wall. His bow drawn. He was focused intently despite the chaos around him. He fired.
"Dago hon! Dago hon!" Nat followed the path of his arrow through the rain where it found its target at the neck of a Uruk-hai charging forward with a large torch in hand. The torch caught her attention. It burned brighter and hotter than any oil torch should. The flames were white hot and even through the heavy rain it remained burning.
"Get off the wall!" She shouted desperately down the way. "Move!"
The elves began to shift and clear space from the area...but it would not be enough. She'd seen the barrels and hadn't thought much of them. This was an old-world war she'd thought perhaps they'd been filled with tar...now...now she knew better.
Legolas fired again, his arrow finding the creature's neck on the opposite side and still he charged on relentlessly. Scrambling Nat pushed her way through to the outside of the wall and fired over its edge. The energy bursts hit the ground alongside the beast as he ran. He was only just out of range. On impulse she leaped onto the wall, carelessly exposing herself but desperate to bring him down. If those explosives went off, they would blow the wall apart. She felt arrows whiz by her. One sliced into her thigh, but she didn't stop. She wouldn't.
"Get down!" She shouted as loud as she could. She hit her target at the last moment. He dove forward with what dying momentum he had remaining. She knew they were done for.
An arm wrapped around her waist, yanking her from the edge of the wall. She recognized the armor and the silver glint of hair before she was crushed by his body and deafened by the explosion that followed. She wrapped her arm over the back of his head in an attempt to protect it from flying debris. The blast sent them both sprawling, dust and rock pelted them. Haldir tucked her up further into his body as they rolled. When he released her, he remained prone on the ground. With a groan through his clenched teeth he craned his head back against the stone and made it cover his ears. His sensitive hearing was ringing with ungodly pain.
He worked his jaw and appeared to say something but Nat couldn't hear him. The ringing in her own ears was deafening. Disoriented she reached out at the blood on his lobes and showed him her fingers. She could feel the wetness of blood dripping down her own neck as she sat up beside him. Nat rolled to her knees and drew her gun. As the dizziness subsided, she took in what was left of the wall. A great void had been blown clean through it and the Uruk-hai were now spilling through it in massive droves. On top of the wall their allies and enemies were gaining back their feet. She aimed carefully and quickly and fired a round into the head of every Uruk-hair she could focus on. Beside her Haldir was pulling himself to his feet. The debris and dust covered his armor dulling its shine. His once red crimson cloak tattered in spots and stained with the black blood of Uruks from the ramparts.
Chaos had taken over.
She watched helplessly as Aragorn and Gimli struggled to hold back the hoards attempting to come through the wall. Archers at their backs fired relentless at the void and still they spilled forth.
Nat reached down and handed Haldir his sword from her kneeling position at his side.
"You're going to need this for a while yet." She said with a small smirk as the battle picked back up around them. She fired from her knees a few more times before she gathered herself up to standing again. Haldir was already moving, elegant and efficient, he sliced his way through a revitalized hoard of Uruk-hai. She took up a position near him. Using her gun and long knife they worked together to keep the causeway clear.
Nat heard him give a hiss of pain and turned to see him clutching his upper arm as he dispatched the Uruk-hai who had wounded him. Grimacing he turned away, blood running over his large pale hands. He looked down in disbelief at his injury. He could feel the burning foul ach of poison. The beast's blade had been coated. Not enough to kill him but enough to keep his body from healing the wound cleanly. It would scar quite badly. Caught up in the moment he didn't, at first, notice the Uruk coming up behind him until it was too late for him to react. He caught sight of the twisted ill-bred face of his enemy in his peripheral. Eyes wide he knew his death had come from his own momentary carelessness.
A stinging pain bloomed across his cheek bone and sliced into the fold of his ear. The dull thump of a blade sinking into flesh sounded behind him, but it was not his own. A heavy crude sword landed dully on his armored shoulder, it's wielder now sporting a long knife protruding from his cranium. The beast was dead before he hit the ground.
The beat of his own heart had never been a more of a welcome sound.
In a blur Natasha sped past him and in a move that told him ,very plainly, that she wasn't entirely human, rolled over the corpse she had just created and with a powerful yank she removed her blade and landed on her feet. She stood with her back to him firing that weapon of hers, clearing more space around them.
Shaken, he gripped his sword firmly and set back to the task at hand. Silently he thanked the gods and goddesses for watching over him. Now the reason behind their meeting was clear to him. He'd pulled her from the grips of danger twice in a very brief span of time. He'd delivered her from danger and she'd given him life.
"Fall back!" The command came from above the gate near the King, where they too were now forced to fight off the scourge of Uruks that had scaled the walls.
"Retreat!" Aragorn echoed to the men and elves below. Looking up to the wall Aragorn yelled to him. "Hurry, inside! Get them inside!"
Haldir shouted in Sindarian to his comrades to retreat. He waved them past him as they fled the causeway and made for the Keep. This was it then he thought. Soaked to the bone in blood and rain; They would make their last stand together inside the walls of the Keep where the narrow halls would help cut off their enemies' overwhelming numbers.
He brought up the rear of the group to cover their retreat and found himself shoulder to shoulder with Natasha.
"Go!" He shouted to her over the great cacophony of battle. "I'll hold them off!" He bent down and retrieved a quiver of arrows from one of the fallen and quickly filled his own quiver. Rapidly he fired at the approaching swarm of Uruk-hai. They moved as one, a thick black mass of snarling teeth and rotting flesh.
She had no opportunity to catch his eye as they were both highly occupied, "I'm not leaving you!" She replied covering their backs as they retreated further down the wall. She watched as he strained to pull back his bow. The vein at the side of his neck bulging with the effort. His jaw clenched tight from the pain. He was almost out of arrows and his injured arm was bleeding profusely, growing weaker by the second.
"Take this!" She forced the gun into his bloodied hand and flipped off the grip software. He slung his bow over his shoulder. "Just point and pull the trigger."
He looked at the device skeptically but did as she asked having seen her use it. Surprised by the kick back, his first shot was wobbly at best. He saw her mouth gently curve into a grin as she grabbed her spare. His second shot was spot on. The small device was magic and machine in one. He could hear the mechanicals whirring inside, feel the vibration of power, and the end result was destructively powerful.
"Haldir!" There was a familiar pained cry, both desperate and relieved, from behind them. He turned catching sight of Orophin limping terribly but still dispatching any of their enemy within his reach. They quickly caught up to him at the base of the stairs to the main hall.
"Help him!" Natasha said calmly taking the weapon from him and firing with both hands. Haldir slung his brother's arm over his shoulder and hauled him up the stairs. She saw Aragorn heading toward them with Gimli and Legolas in toe. She split her attention from their direction as they covered their own retreat. She fired upon as many Uruks as she could. Through the rain she could see some of the Uruks sported angry blisters and chemical burns on their skin. She hoped they suffered.
As soon as the trio hit the stairs, she followed up behind them until she crossed the threshold. The heavy doors slammed closed as men rushed to bar them closed. On the other side the Uruks pounded on the heavy door, the only barrier between them and the rest of the Keep.
They needed a plan and they needed one now.
She holstered her guns, wrung out her hair, and got to work shoring up the door. Grabbing a nearby table she flipped it and began shoving it towards the doors. Aragorn and Legolas grabbed ahold and lifted it up against the large entry way. It was solid but the Uruks were already beginning to pile up on the other side. They would get through one way or another. The beasts had successfully cornered their prey.
"The fortress is taken." Theoden said in disbelief, "It is over…"
Nat glared at him as she flipped another table and shoved it toward the men bracing the doors tirelessly. Duty or perhaps desperation drove them on. Filthy, bloody and exhausted she wondered how they remained on their feet after hours of relentless battle.
Forcefully Aragorn replied, "You said this fortress would never fall while your men defend it! They still defend it! They have died defending it!" with a sharp movement he gestured to the men reinforcing the doorway.
Theoden looking hopeless gazed up at the high overhead windows. The gray light of dawn had just begun. Their enemy raged on outside the walls. Their growls and roars victorious. The Uruks had taken the fortress.
Aragorn turned to Theoden's private guard, Gamling, "Is there no other way for the women and children to get out of caves?" when he didn't respond Aragorn pressed him, "Is there no other way?"
"There is one passage. It leads into the mountains but they will not get far. The Uruk-hai are too many." Gamling finally answered.
"Send word for the women and children to make for the mountain pass. Barricade the entrance." A born leader, Aragorn had no qualms with commanding men that were not his own.
"Gamling!" Nat called as he made off in a rush for the caves. She unstrapped her thigh holstered gun and shoved it into his arms. "Give this to Eowyn...she knows how to use it."
Gently he acknowledged her, "My Lady." It was the least she could do to try and protect them. Perhaps Eowyn would be able to buy the women and children enough time to escape. His gaze was earnest and she knew right then that he wanted to ask her to go to the caves with the other women and children.
"Go." She urged him on and turned back to the room of soldiers that were left. So few remained, even the elves number had been halved. So many lives had been lost. More would soon follow.
Haldir had propped his brother up on a remaining table, laying him on his side Haldir examined Orophin's leg. She joined him. Nat wasn't the most skilled when it came to triage, but she had years of training under her belt and plenty of practical application. It came with the territory. Wisely, Haldir had put a tourniquet high on his thigh. His pant leg had been cut away leaving his thigh exposed and removed as much of his brother's armor as possible. The pale smooth skin was sliced open deeply enough that Nat could see bone. It wrapped around to the back of his knee, deep enough she was sure he had severed muscle and tendons. His leg hung loosely from his hip joint, carefully Nat reach out and palpated the area.
Severe dislocation at the hip.
Orophin for his part was breathing hard. Sweat beaded on his brow and the fair skin of his face was drawn and shallow. He had to be in tremendous pain.
"I can set the hip bone and stitch the wound." Nat broke their silence looked at Orophin's pained face and then back up to Haldir's, so similar the two of them. Such strong features and intense eyes. They were beautiful even now after hours of bloodshed and death.
"What point is there? Surely we will all be dead before dawn." Orophin hissed between his teeth and then gave a small tight smile. "Give me my sword and let the filthy beasts in, brother." Haldir gripped his hand tightly, "Give them one last taste of our steal."
"There is hope yet." He looked to Nat "Do what it is you can for him." He took his brother by the shoulders to hold him down. "We will see home again brother; it calls to me even now."
There were very few healers in the halls, scattered about doing what they could for the mildly injured and stabilizing those with larger wounds. It would seem that the end result of war at any time and place was always the same. Her mind floated back to the second world war. She'd been so young but she remembered the smoking and charred bodies that littered the streets after the air raids. She remembered the hospitals overflowing with the dead and dying, the screams of pain and cries of grief.
Nat had been trained to take life...very rarely did she get the opportunity to save it.
Nat began to rotate his leg with practiced ease as Haldir spoke gently of their home. With great affection he painted a vivid picture with his words and slowly drew her out of her own harsh memories. She had never seen Lothlorien but even she could picture it from his lovingly detailed description. Golden stately trees and cool running waters, she felt his words in her heart when he spoke of the home the brothers shared together. She could picture the flowing architecture and winding foot bridges, the hanging gardens. All of it as vivid in her mind as if she stood before it.
Gentle she turned Orophin on his back and nimbly climbed upon the table to grip his mangled leg.
"Breathe in" she said softly as she positioned it, "Deep breath out…..and again." On his next exhale she drew up his knee and pushed into his chest. With a sickening pop Orophin cried out in pain as his hip rolled back into place.
Laying it back down, she gently rotated it again to keep it supple. He let loose a series of words and from his tone he was unquestionably cursing. Once she stitched him up, she'd have to go back and massage the muscle out. The trauma to the area had already caused severe inflammation. That was if they managed to live through the next few hours. Haldir called over one of the healers as Nat palpated his hip joint, satisfied to feel that the firm muscle and smooth bone was back and well in place.
Haldir handed her a small wooden box the healer had brought to him. Inside a thin bone needle and thread laid upon clean linen. She grabbed up a nearby flask and uncorked it, relieved as the stench of strong alcohol filled her nostrils. Whiskey would have to do.
Quickly she uncinched her belt and hung it over Orophins mouth, "Can't let you break those pearly whites, handsome." He opened and she tucked the leather between his teeth. Without a second thought she held down his leg and poured alcohol over it to try and sanitize it. Desperate times called for desperate measures. Orophin nearly arched off the table as the burning pain of sterilization singed his wound. His muscles vibrated and shook with the pain of it. He cried out through the leather between his lips but fought to restrain himself through it.
Pain.
People battled through it in various ways. Some would give into it completely, wallow in it and scream their way through it. Others would bite it back as Orophin was doing. Trying to fight his own natural reactions to it as it built up beneath his skin until he burst. Even for all her years of training she could only suppress it for so long. She could get through days, even weeks of torture in the field but eventually when she was in the safety of her own space; once she'd been extracted, debriefed, and treated...even she gave in.
"What are you doing?!" Haldir barked as he pinned his brother back to the table. She took the belt from his mouth and offered him the whiskey. Helping him sit up, she cradled his head as he drank deeply from it, coughing in between his large gulps. There was enough in the flask to put a human into a drunken black out stupor. She hoped it would give him at least some relief.
"I'm sterilizing the wound. The alcohol cleanses the bacteria that would corrupt it and cause infection. Drinking it...well that's rather obvious I think." When he'd drank his fill, she laid his head back down as he drew in deep breaths in an attempt to calm himself. She strung her long-curved needle as she waited for the alcohol to kick in. She wiped down the area and took a more in depth look at the gaping wound. It would need deep stitches, if these had been dissolvable, she would have done it in two layers, as it was she would have to make do.
"Ready?" She asked as she met Orophins slightly hazy eyes. He wasn't drunk...but buzzed was better than nothing. By the time she was done he would blow through the haze or pass out from the pain. He gave her a small nod and turned his gaze away from her. With a measured reach he put the belt back into his own mouth and took a deep breath.
"Be quick about it." He muttered quietly between his teeth.
Smoothly she sutured his leg back together with neat close stitches. His muscles vibrated with pain beneath her fingers as she pulled his tissues back together. His blood, slowed by the tourniquet, still covered her hands by the time she had worked to the top of his wound. She closed it neatly, the bleeding had nearly completely stopped, only a small amount was gathering at the surface of her stitches. A good sign, she loosened the tourniquet but didn't release it fully and noted no significant changes in bleeding.
Haldir handed her a clean linen, she used it to blot the sweat from his brother's brow before she wiped her own hands of his blood. He was shaking, but awake.
"That will have to do for now." She murmured catching Haldir's eye, what now, her gaze seemed to say.
With fluid strength Haldir lifted his brother into a sitting position and propped his back against the pillar in between the tables. He handed Orophin his sword belt from the bench seat. His position gave him a good view of the great doors that lead to the hall. If they were to die, they would all go down fighting together. Haldir would give his brother the opportunity to die with dignity, with his sword in hand.
"So much death." Theoden halted his maddening pacing, His voice broke in grief "What can men do against such reckless hate?" he looked out over the room, littered with the injured and dying. His gaze landed upon them his question hanging in the air.
"You can fight." Natasha said, cleaning the blood from her hands as best she could. "And die with honor. Show those beasts that we are unafraid." She'd been close to death many times but had lived much longer than she deserved. What kind of life did she have left? Her home was gone. The people she loved were gone. She would never see her world again if Eric was successful in destroying the scepter. Death had been her curse and her gift perhaps it was time she welcomed it.
"Ride out with me. Ride out and meet them!" Aragorn urged, approaching the King he gripped his shoulders briefly before releasing him. It seemed as if the touch of his hands brought him forth from his grief. Rooted him back in the here and now.
"For death and glory." Theoden whispered reverently.
"For Rohan. For your people." Aragorn replied.
"The sun is rising." Gimli's rolling bur sounded from behind the other men. His gaze drawn to the high windows.
Nat watched as Aragorn's gaze was drawn to the faint light streaming through the ancient glass. Gandalf's words echoed in her mind,' look to my coming at first light. At dawn, look to the east.'
She saw the look of realization cross his features; he too had recalled the wizard's words.
"Yes, Yes! The horn of Helm Hammerhand shall sound in the deep one last time!" Theoden bellowed triumphantly. Nat smiled a grim smile; death would be theirs for the taking.
"Yes!" Gimli agreed as he took off running up the steps to the horn. Gone without so much as a goodbye.
Théoden's soldiers scattered to gather the horses from the stables below. She ventured back to Orophin's side. His brother stood close at hand, he had zero intention of leaving him. Confined to the tabletop Orophin would have a difficult time defending himself and killing anything that came through the doors. With purposeful intent Nat handed over her last gun to him. One to Eowyn and one to him, both had capable hands and even braver hearts.
"You have a good position to cover us to the doorway." She said softly clasping his hands around it properly. She'd seen Haldir using it and she was sure he would be more than capable once he fired it the first few times. He gave her a soft smile and spoke to her in that lilting elegant language of his.
"The common tongue hasn't the words to describe my gratitude." He spoke genuinely, grabbing her hand as he spoke. His eyes shone with a depth of appreciation she couldn't describe but she could feel it in his touch. Elves it seemed were well adept at expressing themselves when they wanted you to know it.
What soldiers were able mounted their steeds. Beaten and ragged but their spirits remained unbroken. Haldir looked at her questioningly when she made no move to join her companions and the remaining soldiers, elves and men alike. Resolute to their fate.
"You need not stay here." He said, would she not rather fall defending her kin? Few of his own soldiers had made it to the temporary safety of the halls. Of the five hundred that had traveled to the Deep only one hundred remained. The Uruk-hai had simply been too many and despite their centuries of experience they had been overwhelmed by sheer numbers. Never before had he suffered such losses. As Marchwarden he would not show the grief that raged in his heart.
Thinking of Gandalf, she responded, "The entrance to the caves needs to be protected. We are their best shot at surviving." Perhaps they could delay the Uruk-hai long enough to give the women and children a clean escape into the mountains if Gandalf didn't arrive as he had foretold.
This was the best chance for the people of Rohan.
"Let this be the hour when we draw swords together. Fell deeds awake! Now for wrath! Now for ruin! And a red dawn!" Theoden mounted his horse and put on his helmet. The sound of the horn rumbled through Helm's Deep as Gimli blew with gusto.
"Forth Eorlingas!" Theoden roared. With his soldiers behind him and Aragorn and Legolas at his flanks, Theoden led the charge out of the Keep and into the Hornburg. She could see them slashing away at the Uruk-hai as they went. A spear straight into the heart of their enemy's dark army. They stormed out of the gates and there she lost sight of them as the column charged down the causeway. Elves and men side by side. She knew what awaited them there, the promise of death at the hands of thousands of Uruk-hai. There was but a small chance that the wizard had accomplished the impossible and ridden far and fast enough to catch the company loyal to Eomer and march their host here in time.
The Uruk's that remained within the walls charged towards the Keep where Haldir, Nat and Orophin remained. Side by side, Haldir drew his sword and she, her long knife. They backed inside the doorway just enough to give Orophin room to aim from his position behind them. Haldir gave Nat a sideways glance. His harsh angular features set in defiance. He had no intentions of dying here. He would see the great golden forest of his homeland again. He and his brother would return together and take up their post along the border and defend their home as they had done for centuries. No mindless hoard of Uruk-hai and Orc would take that from him.
Nat could feel his determination. Power radiated from his every pore. Bloodied from battle, his sharp featured looked all the more fierce. It was a heady combination that sent her blood pounding hot.
"Fight hard, my lady, many lives depend on it."
There was no time to respond to his words for in that moment the Uruks were upon them. They fought well at each other's sides, moving together and apart, as water around stone. The pair flowed seamlessly. From afar Orophin had to admire how naturally they moved and how fearsome Natasha was in battle.
Of the three of them in their family, Haldir had been the brother born for war. As the oldest he'd been a natural leader even as a child. As Haldir had grown his body had changed drastically in comparison to his own and Rumil's. Naturally his frame had been significantly more muscular. His shoulders were wider. His legs were more powerful and his arms defined and rippled with muscles. Generally lean and strong, elven males were not typically so powerfully built. He'd gravitated to the training grounds at a young age, well before he'd fully matured. To say Haldir was deadly would be to greatly under-state his capabilities. His mind was just as sharp as his blade. As a master of strategy Haldir had often bested his enemy in battle with body and mind. Watching him now, in his element, only reminded Orophin of how proud he was to be brother to the greatest March Warden Lothlorien had ever seen.
Orophin picked off the Uruk-hai that charged past the pair. His eyes wide from his first few shots. Her weapon was a miraculous thing. Never in all his years had he experienced anything of the sort. Grinning at the pleasure and ease of it he pulled the trigger.
Dozens of Uruk-hai funneled through the entry into the awaiting blades of Haldir and Nat. The few that slipped passed were picked off by Orophin, who despite the circumstances, seemed to be enjoying himself.
Taking in her surroundings she could see the tops of two large Uruk-hai charging up the stairs. One reached for a crossbow strapped to his back. The other was in the process of loading a bolt.
She circled around Haldir, "Incoming!" She shouted. Her back to his as she covered him while he finished skewering his current opponent. On instinct she reached out to his thigh and grabbed one of the blades she knew was holstered there. Both Uruks came up firing. She loosed his knife in time to catch it in the throat as he pulled the trigger. A shot that would have killed her went wide and caught her in the fleshy muscle of her shoulder. She took it with gasp and grunt of pain. The other shot went wide toward Orophin who gleefully returned fire. The Uruk-hai charged forward and reloaded. His beastly comrades covered him by engaging both Nat and Haldir in a wild surge.
Nat switched her knife to her other hand and with an angry cry she fought her way forward toward the other bowman. Her gun fired rapidly in the background. Around them their enemies fell in swift succession. The crossbow twanged and twanged again and the bolts whizzed by her. Using all of her strength she threw herself to the ground onto her shoulders. The move sent a blast of pain into her wounded shoulder but she proceeded to kick out with both legs into the chests of two Uruks blocking their paths. The blows jolted up her legs but the pain satisfied her as the two giants went toppling backward. Haldir overtook her and with practiced ease slaughtered the bowman. The last of the Uruk-hai now lay dead or dying at their feet.
Covered in black blood they looked out over the Keep. Where they expected to see more of their enemy gathering behind the walls to charge forward; instead what they saw made them both gasp in great relief. On the field Gandalf rode with a host of Rohirrim. Their armor shining bright to the point of blindness from Gandalf's blazing light. The sun was at his back, seemingly draped over his shoulders in a celestial halo. Among their great numbers she easily spotted Wulfric. He was absolutely towering on horseback, cleaving his way through Uruk after Uruk. She hadn't realized she said his name until it left her lips on its own accord. The swords of the Rohirrim flashed and a great cry rose from the field, "Victory! We have victory."
Her eyes misted over in relief. Turning to Haldir, a small smile played on her lips. They'd won! Despite the immense odds they were victorious. The battle weighed heavily on her, so many had been lost. Elves, men and boys had perished in great numbers to defend the Keep. She was at least thankful that they were among the living and that the deaths of their allies and kin had not been in vain.
Haldir wore a similar expression. His eyes full and bright in the light of morning and those razor-sharp cheekbones splattered with blackened blood. His hair was pleasantly disheveled to her eyes. Despite the bloody nick on his cheek he looked hopeful, she thought as she gazed at him. In that moment he they both were. Nat wanted to reach out to touch him and give them both a small dose of comfort. She settled for patting his armored chest with her uninjured arm as she turned to check on Orophin. Reluctantly she broke his heavy gaze and set her sights to Orophin upon the table.
Her arm dropped in disbelief. She froze.
"Haldir…" Nat called him softly. Her feet moving on their own accord to rush to Orophin's side.
Two bolts were embedded in his chest. His head hung loosely at the neck. Reaching out she lifted his head and put her ear to his chest knowing already what she would find. He wasn't breathing. The muscles of his heart were shredded and he had bled out extensively from the bolt that had gone straight through him. Gently, she reached out to cradle him. She laid him flat and with trembling hands smoothed his brow and closed his unseeing blue eyes.
She felt Haldir more than saw him, but she knew he was there beside her. She could feel his grief rolling off him in waves with such strength it choked her. Her eyes welled with it.
Who was she to cry over a man she barely knew?
"I'm sorry Hal…" her voice cracked as she found his painful gaze.
"Leave." The mask had slid back down. His voice had gone hollow and flat.
She made to speak again.
"Leave." His voice cracked like a whip. His gaze chilled her straight to the bone. He'd turned it off. All of it. Every emotion she'd seen before in him was gone.
She backed away slowly and with a respectful nod left him to grieve alone.
As she passed through the great doorway she turned only briefly to watch him. He collapsed onto the bench beside the table where Orophins body lay as if his legs had just given way beneath him.