XXVI- Little Hopes

As day became night the heavens opened, waging their own war in the sky above. The Four Hunters were stationed across the Deepling wall. Mirren shivered but not from the damp water. The Uruks stretched as far as even her elf eyes could see and her heart felt heavy, knowing the young and old menfolk who defended the keep stood little chance against them. Still, Legolas and Gimli flanked her and that gave her confidence. Galdor and a portion of Haldir's Galahdrim stood with them, steady and silent in the face of the beasts of Isengard.

"Tis a grim sight." She huffed when silence stretched for too long amongst them. It was hard to study the creatures below, their armour was black and blended in the night, but their cries howled loudly for blood.

"What?" Gimli asked next to her, jumping slightly at her words, "What do you see?"

"…All of Isengard emptied, Master Dwarf." She mused, repeating Aragorn's words from the day. Mirren smiled a little when the dwarf grumbled at her reply, knowing she hadn't revealed the descriptions that he wanted.

The she-elf held his shoulder steady for a moment, "I fear this is just the beginning of Sauron's plan." She continued,

"Well… You could have picked a better spot!" Gimli huffed loudly.

As Legolas lips curved into a small smile, Aragorn emerged from the ranks of elves behind them. He made his way slowly towards his companions, stopping to look over the wall by their side.

"Well, lad, whatever luck you live by, let's hope it lasts the night." Gimli offered, seeing the concerned look behind Aragorn's raised eyebrows.

"Your friends are with you Aragorn." Legolas added and Mirren turned to gaze at him. The ellon was wearing leather armour on his shoulders but other than that looked very much like he did on other days. A flame of worry gripped at her stomach like she hadn't felt for him before, and she had to fight to put it out. She only partially succeeded.

"Let's hope they last the night." Gimli mumbled, half- grimly and Mirren forced herself to scoff a laugh.

Focussed, Aragorn turned from them, his footsteps masked by the thunder and the tinkling of rain on the soldiers armour as they awaited the imminent battle.

Quickly, Mirren's hair stuck to her forehead, and she grinned slightly as the water seeped into her skin. Slowly in the growing darkness, her eyes seemed to flash from blue to silver. But, she was distracted from the feeling when the Uruk's stopped marching towards the fortress; a flash of lightening revealed one of their foul captains as it mounted a rock and roared into the fresh night air.

With their relative silence, Aragorn stepped forward.

"Show them no mercy! For you shall receive none!" He addressed those defending the Wall in elvish.

Mirren heard the gentle huff of Gimli next to her and swiftly translated it lowly for him.

The dwarf nodded to her in thanks and started jumping to get a better look over the wall. "Uh!" He grunted, "What's happening out there?"

"Shall I describe it to you?.. or would you like me to find you a box? " Legolas smirked, leaning on his long bow.

A grin broke out on Mirren's face as Gimli's laughter erupted like a stroke of thunder and echoed across the Deepling wall - matching the war cries of the orcs.

The beasts stamped their shields on the ground uncoordinatedly and Mirren could feel the earth shake beneath their feet.

Aragorn's raised both his hand and his sword, all around him elves laid an arrow on their bows and Mirren raised her own. Her action was fluid and mindless, despite the dull throb of her old palm-wound that thrummed in anticipation of the battle. She breathed deeply, slowing her mind as her abdomen tensed within her.

And so it begins, she thought, grimly.

As she took aim for the roaring Uruk captain who had singled itself out, Aragorn called for them to hold.

"Their armour is weak at the neck and beneath the arm." Legolas advised in elvish to those around him, Mirren readjusted her aim and held steady.

"They will make for easy targets with those torches." Mirren agreed, "I can see the foulness of their faces clearly."

"Prepare to fire!"

Suddenly a Uruk fell to the ground, dead. It had been standing in the front line and quickly another took it's place, but still it's death triggered its companions to growl ferociously. On the jagged rock, the orc captain thrust forward his scimitar and shouted loudly towards the fortress. For a brief moment, Mirren could only watch as the Uruk-hai advanced upon Helm's Deep at a run.

Aragorn called once more in elvish and the elves released their arrows, sending many Uruk-hai hurtling to their deaths. The captain fell from the rock and a smirk of satisfaction settled itself across Mirren's face as she swiftly drew her bow again… and again and again.

Someone called for a volley and a wave of arrows washed over the Deepling wall where they stood and into the ranks of the uruks below.

"Did they hit anything?" Gimli asked, jumping once more.

"No, Gimli… we missed." Mirren drawled, rolling her eyes dramatically, still focussed on their enemies. The dwarf grumbled loudly, dismissing her sarcastic tone as Legolas, absurdly, laughed.

"Send them to me! Come on!" The dwarf growled, fisting his axe tightly in both hands. Another onslaught of arrows reigned down on the orcs but just as quickly more beasts filled their places.

Mirren flinched when their first wave of large crossbow arrows were fired towards the wall. An elf near them was skewered but they had no time to fret over his loss as the uruks prepared ladders to breech the wall.

"Ladders!" Mirren called in elvish and then in Westron for Gimli.

"Good!" The dwarf cried, stepping back a little to let the orcs come to him. The ladders were raised swiftly, carrying tens of well armed orcs with them. Mirren unsheathed her twin blades quickly, treasuring the feel of them in her hands.

"Swords! Swords!" Aragorn called, seeing the flash of her blades and delightfully, the elves unsheathed their weapons in unison.

Mirren slowed her breathing and focussed on trusting her instincts in the few blissful moments that passed before the Uruks breached the wall.

The she-elf immediately struck two down, twirling her blades efficiently in the face of many foes. She remembered her courage and fought close to the wall, striking skilfully at those whose focus was tied to the ladder and not to the fight.

Behind her Gimli shouted in glee, "Legolas ! Two already!" and she had to refrain from rolling her eyes once more.

Mirren could see the white flash of Legolas' grin as he paused next to her to reply, "I'm on seventeen!"

The elleth huffed, "…Is now the time?"

Gimli ignored her and paused to shout at Legolas, looking fed up. "I'll have no pointy-ear outscoring me!"

Speedily, The dwarf turned, growling loudly, and deposited his axe in the groin of a bezerker. The Uruk topped from the ladder, roaring.

Legolas simply fired two more arrows, covering Mirren as she forced a ladder from the wall and sent the foul uruks on it after Gimli's kill, into the dark abyss below.

"Nineteen!" He called and Gimli's huff could be heard by all the elves along the Deepling wall.

Fighting with Legolas and Gimli came naturally to her and Mirren found strangely, that while her mind was a little frantic, her body's movements were controlled and precise as she fought her way through ranks of orcs on the Deepling wall.

She wished she could say the same for her breathing, but she found that the thick armour of the beasts was hard to fight against and her heart beat wildly in her chest to keep up with her rapid attacks. Taking in gulps of air as often as she could seemed to work and she tried not to run out of puff too swiftly.

Galdor too fought near them and the elleth glanced an eye his way as often as she could spare it. The sight and power of him and all of the elves along the defences of the fortress was magnificent and Mirren felt a constant swelling of pride in her heart as she severed an arm and a leg from an attacking orc.

As she ducked to allow Legolas to shoot a Uruk who had swung for her head, a loud shout started up over the sounds of battle once again.

"Aim for the causeway! …The Causeway! Their marching on the gate!"

Spinning, Mirren's gaze met Aragorn's as he guided the elves arrows across to the beasts up the causeway.

Looking over her shoulder and towards the Uruks on the field as the elleth fought, the ranger's eyes grew wide.

"Bring him down!" His call was echoed across the front line until it reached the two elvish members of the fellowship who were fighting back to back on the ramparts of Helms Deep.

Saruman's Uruk-hai continued to wash like waves over the tall and long wall.

"Bring him down! Legolas!" Aragorn's demand was shouted like a king, in both elvish an Westron.

"Kill him! Kill him!"

The Prince headed the call as Mirren spun around him, covering his back in a whorl of death as her blades cut through everything that entered their path.

As a beast swung viciously towards her head, she ducked and rolled, anticipating his next blow.

Mirren only had a little time to register the gap between her and Legolas before the wall disappeared from under her and the elleth was launched into the air by an unexplained power.

Rocks, flames and bodies were thrown everywhere.

For a moment, the elleth's mind saw the beacons and imaginary mountains of her last dream beneath her. Then, unwelcome air rushed into her lungs and she saw nothing. Falling, with a crash amongst the rubble of the demolished wall.

"Mirren! Mirren!"

Legolas coughed a little from the thick, choking smoke but continued shouting the she-elf's name. Praying silently to the valar that he hadn't lost her, he looked frantically around him. Despair settled over his heart when the Uruks charged through the broken gap in the Deepling wall. Masonry, shattered into pieces was piled up below him like the bodies of the fallen.

Mirren had been standing right there... could there be any hope that she'd made it out alive? …That she wasn't lying amongst the fallen?

A beast swung at his chest, snapping Legolas' eyes back to the battle. Only the quick reflexes of Haldir stopped the Uruks blow.

"Legolas!" He called clasping him tightly on the shoulder before turning to attack another beast.

His mind still reeling, the ellon watched helplessly as Gimli peered over the new gap in the wall and then jumped, recklessly onto a pile of charging uruks, crying aloud Aragorn's name.

Legolas saw the Dwarf miraculously dodge the sharp spears of the Uruk-hai and looked around for a way to join him.

If Mirren had survived the explosion, she was now almost alone in the path of a host of screaming Uruks.

Legolas could focus on little else as he parted a beasts arm and shield from its body. Picking up the wretched metal he shrugged and threw it down the stairs, following his friend's into the thick of the fight.

She could vaguely hear the call of her name, but, coming too, Mirren could see nothing but the small droplets of dirty water freckled up her scratched arm. Saruman had used the drain pipe to force a weakness in the wall, she realised, too late.

Shaking the fuzziness from her head, the she-elf tried to sit up and found that the world began to spin around her. Bowing her head, she dragged her arm over her forehead, grasping one of her twin blades tightly in her palm.

The other one was lost to her and her hand felt empty.

Around her the battle waged on.

She'd lost Legolas in the blast, that much was obvious and she tried to push that fear away and stand, leaning on a crumbled piece of rock for support.

Once she was well balanced on two legs again, it became easier to see everything around her clearly. Near her, Galdor was fighting furiously and from the looks of it, uninjured. The blast had destroyed a section of the Deepling wall and floods of Uruk-hai were charging towards her. She thanked the valar she hadn't been tossed into their ranks. Mirren barely had time to raise her blade before the beasts spotted her and began their attacks anew, finding her an easy target; cornered and alone.

The Daughter of the Sea was thankful for her long years of training as her body made up for the fuzziness of her mind. It acted quickly, throwing itself into the fight as if she hadn't just been thrown 50 ft into the air.

A particularly tall Uruk charged at her, head bent and snarling evilly. Reaching him, Mirren arched her singular blade across it's chest and it reared back in pain. Striking out, the uruk's fist caught the she-elf across the face and unexpectedly, Mirren could taste her own blood in her mouth.

Cursing her bitten cheek, Mirren yelled and blocked the Uruk's next blow, slashing the beast once more and returning the strike across his face with greater force. Growling, a second orc circled around her.

Slamming it's scimitar down on her blade, Mirren had to drop it to save her wrist. Crying out, she thought for a moment that she had lost all her weapons and scrambled for a rock, a fallen blade, a stick; anything that she could use to defend herself. Finding nothing, she quickly punched one of the horrid creatures in the face, remembering only after it had fallen, that she was wearing her father's second gift.

A cry sounded to her right and briefly, Mirren locked eyes with Galdor, who had come so far to find her. He grasped his hand back for an arrow that he had already fired. Reaching for the gift he had delivered, the she-elf dipped her hands to her skirt.

Mirren had little time to think as she slid the fish-scale blades from the armour, but her aim was true as she used two hands to throw them into their surrounding opponents.

Galdor heaved a sigh of relief and bowed his head to her quickly before continuing his fight.

Slowly, time dragged on.

Mirren heard Theoden's voice echo from above as she fought,

"Brace the gate!"

Her vision became a sea of blood and dirt and bodies. Cries of pain and small triumphs echoed in all directions.

Using all the strength she could muster the she-elf stood strong as the forces of Lothlorien slowly fell back behind her, many of them continuing to fall in the face of uncountable enemies.

Above her in the keep, the King began to cry for a retreat.

"Lord Aragorn! get your men out of there!"

Hearing her companions name gave the she-elf great relief. Still she searched for Legolas and Gimli. No matter where she looked they were not there and the thought grew heavier and heavier on her mind and heart.

As the last orc in front of her crumpled to the floor, the she-elf picked up her sword and the tiny fish-scale daggers.

You cannot worry about him, she told herself. He is unmatched by his peers for skill with his bow... You can not worry.

Repeating this thought, Mirren moved forward to a group of Haldir's elves that were falling back from the remaining sections of the Deepling wall. Fighting her way towards them.

Behind her, Théoden's calls rattled from the keep:

"Hold the doors! Stand strong!"

If they can hold the doors, there's a chance, the elleth thought, a small chance but a chance nevertheless.

Waves of Uruk-hai continued to run through the gap in the wall, but Mirren led the small group of elves successfully so they each had a turn at fighting and taking a moment to breathe when they needed.

Pausing only briefly, a hand suddenly grabbed her arm and the she-elf would never have admitted how quickly she jumped in a startled surprise.

"Galdor!"

"My lady!" Swiftly, she embraced the ellon as he looked worryingly into her eyes.

"Lord Haldir has fallen." He grimaced, panting. The old ellon was covered in mud and dirt, his blade heavy with orc blood. "Where shall we send his men?"

Mirren's heart fell at the news and she winced, sighing...So many dead.

Surveying their position once more, she noted the futileness of their decision to try and hold back the hammer of Saruman's army. Glancing behind them, Mirren could just see the remaining staircase that lead almost behind the great doors of the keep.

Uruk-hai still held the causeway and had almost destroyed the barricaded doors.

"Pull them back, Galdor. We must protect the keep... We must protect the entrance to the caves." Mirren shivered, thinking of the women and children who simply sat in the mountain with no certain escape. "Pull them back." She repeated, more firmly.

Galdor nodded steadily, pride alight in his eyes, before he swiftly turned and started calling out loudly in elvish.

Following the King's earlier calls, the remaining elves fought their way through straggling groups of orcs. Forcing their own retreat up the steep steps and into the confines of the keep.

Keeping to the rear, Galdor and Mirren ensured the lives of the Galahdrim were not thrown away in vain. The daughter of the sea echoing the call of retreat so any ally remaining near the broken wall knew their last hopes would lie in the keep.

Stumbling at a run to the top of the wall, Mirren fumbled for something to keep her steady as she moved. Every time she placed her hand down it seemed to sink into a pool of blood, or graze a dead body which made her stomach tense uncontrollably. Only the steady swish of Galdors' green cloak in front of her kept her running up the stairs when she almost fell behind.

Turning a tight corner she found herself almost at the gate where Théoden finally fought with his men. The remaining Galahdrim rushed to help immediately. The Uruk's had slashed through, but something was holding them back now as the Rohirrim did their best to support the failing structure.

Looking around, she tried to spot the golden hair of her elf, to no avail.

"Make way! Make way for the King."

Panting, the elleth could only watch as Gamling dragged Théoden away from the gate. The King's gaze met with hers for only a second, but the elleth could clearly read the despair and lack of hope in the man's eyes.

Mirren sighed, swiping a damp hand across her forehead. Looking up, she realised she hadn't noticed when the rain had stopped. The grey sky now only told of the almost coming of dawn.

Turning slowly, the elleth's breath was sucked sharply from her lungs as came face to face with a uruk who had followed their escape up the stairs. Growling, it swung its mighty axe down at her head, forcing her to suddenly duck.

So much death, she thought again.

But the blow never came.

Instead, a familiar arrow embedded itself in the orcs forehead and the beast fell heavily to the ground.

Standing unsure, her blue-eyes blown wide as she turned, Mirren barely had time to register the golden hair of Legolas before the woodland prince grabbed her forcefully around the waist and dipped his head to... kiss her.

Suddenly... it didn't matter how tired, damp and cold she was. It didn't matter it was the middle of night; the start of a war. She was warm.

His lips brushed heavenly on hers.

And he was the sun and she was soaking in his heat...

"I thought you were dead!...I thought I told you to stay by me!"

His words were said as an explanation, but Mirren found she had forgotten to breathe as he turned from studying her face to sleigh an orc that ran past them.

Warmth rushed through her again as she looked at him, clutching his arm tightly even as he raised it to fire another arrow.

"Legolas-" She breathed, holding his gaze. "-Did you just kiss me?"

Knowing him, she could read the small lack of confidence and uncommon fear in them.

Unable to control herself, the elleth reached up to curl her fingers into his hair and bought his lips down to hers once more, uncaring about the chaos around them.

When her eyes connected with his again, he grinned, brilliantly.

"I thought you were dead." She countered, parting from him slightly.

Mirren was distracted by the glint of her mother's brooch, pinned once more high on his left shoulder, side by side with his heart. She traced the shining metal with a finger and grinned.

"Well...you told me to stay alive.." He smiled, but then a flicker of something passed through his eyes and he stood straighter, dropping his hand from her jaw to her forearm. "Aragorn and Gimli are stuck outside the gate." He told her, looking serious again as he wiped a smudge of blood from her cheek. He smiled then, albeit a small one, as he reached to entwine her hand is his own.

Mirren's eyes widened, "-What!?"

And just like that, the memory of his lips on hers faded into the madness of battle.

Legolas squeezed her palm tightly, seeing her slip from him and unwilling for a moment to let her go.

"They went to buy the Rohirrim some more time to seal the broken gate…"

Feeling suddenly renewed of energy, swiftly the elleth tugged him towards the steps that lead to the arch above the broken doors. Seeing some rope, Mirren grabbed it as they ran, anticipating their potential need for it without any instruction.

On top of the archway, a few archers did their best to aid Aragorn and Gimli below. Glancing over the edge as Legolas took the rope from her hands. Mirren couldn't contain a small smile.

"You've got to be kidding me." She groaned, knowing that only her companions would get themselves into that dangerous mess. "Aragorn! Gimli! Get out of there!"

Hurriedly, Legolas tossed the rope over the wall and Mirren had to forcefully drag her gaze away from him before she helped the ellon pull their friends from the abyss below.

She knew for certain then, that this was turning out to be…by far… the longest night of her life.

Wahooo a birthday present from me to you! Hope you all enjoyed.. more battle to come soon! x J