I do not own Lord of the Rings or any of the characters.
The Battle of Helm's Deep
Rhanir stepped up beside Legolas, both having given their horses to a couple of Rohan's older women to use for the last day of the journey.
"Do you hear that?" Rhanir asked.
"I hear nothing," Legolas said. "What is it?"
"Growling," Rhanir said. "Heavy, slow foot falls. "To heavy for an orc or Uruk, too light for a troll. And muffled. And many more closing in from ahead."
"Wargs!" Legolas hissed.
Just then, Háma and Gamling began to ride past to scout ahead, only for Rhanir to dart over, catching the horses reins.
"Wargs," Rhanir said. "Alert the king quietly to avoid a panic. "Legolas and I will go ahead to delay them."
Gamling nodded and rode back toward the rest of the procession with Háma. As he did, Rhanir and Legolas both started forward at a light run, readying their bows.
"Where is it?" Legolas asked.
"Here!" Rhanir said, spinning and firing an arrow up at the top of a cliff to their left, sending it through the scout's Warg's head. The Warg yelped before pitching forward, crashing down on top of its rider at the bottom, killing him.
"Your circlet is useful," Legolas said. "I couldn't hear him."
"If I die, it's yours," Rhanir said. "As is my armor and blades. "Tauriel gets my bow, though."
Legolas snorted. "As much joy as it would bring me to see you die, you're likely to be the last one to ever be killed out of our group, aside from Gandalf."
"In that, you are mistaken," Rhanir said. "I will die long before I let Tauriel be killed."
Legolas nodded just as Wargs began to swarm over the next hill, several dozen of them, but with a constant stream after the first wave. "This will be bloody."
Both began to fire arrows rapidly. Legolas got three arrows off before Gimli's horse reached him, and he grabbed the reins, flipping backward onto the saddle.
"Showoff," Rhanir muttered, firing three arrows at once, all three flying high before plunging completely through an orc's head and into the Warg's back, hitting their hearts. Just as he did, Tauriel reached him, arm extended, and he caught her forearm, swinging himself around onto the horse before slinging his bow and drawing a curved blade in his right hand. As his left took the horse's reins, Tauriel drew her bow, beginning to fire rapidly. Then, the two forces met and the massacre began. It was chaos. Rohan's riders were the better fighters, but the Wargs were even more dangerous than their riders, and targeted the horses almost as much as Rohan's riders.
Rhanir slashed up across the side of a Warg's neck as they passed it, then slashed its rider up the side. As he did, Tauriel fired an arrow into a Warg moving to attack Théoden. A Warg leapt at them from behind, but Legolas put an arrow through its head. Rhanir spun, deflecting a hurled dagger away from himself with his blade before passing Tauriel his blade and grabbing a spear one of Rohan's soldiers had left stabbed into a Warg. Then, he turned the horse and hurled the spear into the Warg ridden by the orc that had thrown the dagger.
The Warg flipped and the orc crashed down on a rock, the rock caving in its skull. Then, just as Tauriel fired an arrow into a Warg chasing Legolas, killing it before he could, Rhanir grabbed Tauriel and leapt to the side, off of the horse. A half-second later, a Warg crashed into it, tackling it to the ground and biting its throat out. Tauriel hurled Rhanir's blade into the Warg's head instantly, and Rhanir ran after it, ripping it free in time to lean backward under the blade of a passing orc, slashing both Warg and rider, killing both.
As he stood, however, Legolas fired an arrow within an inch of his head. Before he could spin, a newly-dead Warg slammed into his back, bouncing over him. He rolled to a stop, then began to stand, only to raise his left arm, using his Mithril vambrace to block a Warg's jaws, slashing its forepaws off before cutting its throat. He winced as he pried its jaws off his bruised arm, feeling his arm. The bones were cracked, but not fully broken. They'd be fully healed by sunset.
Rhanir glanced around, seeing the Wargs retreating, Tauriel picking off a couple of them as they did, and Rohan's troops finishing any orcs still alive, as well as tending to the wounded.
"Are you alright?" Tauriel asked, hurrying over.
"I'm fine," Rhanir said. "I'll be healed by the time Helm's Deep is ready to defend itself."
Tauriel nodded.
"Aragorn?" Gimli called out, Rhanir spinning, looking around again, this time scanning the corpses.
"Aragorn!" Legolas called.
An orc near a cliff that dropped off into a river off to one side began to laugh and the remaining members of the Fellowship all ran over.
"Tell me what happened and I will ease your passing!" Gimli growled, holding his axe to the orc's throat.
"He's...dead!" the orc choked out before laughing. "He took a little tumble off the cliff."
"You lie!" Legolas snarled, lifting the orc by his vest, only for the orc's laughter to become broken before ending as the orc died from a stab wound in his chest.
Legolas looked down before pulling Aragorn's silver necklace from the orc's hand. Rhanir had never seen Aragorn take it off. Legolas ran to the cliff where Théoden was staring down at the river, Gimli following, but Rhanir remained where he was. He could hear the strength of the river's current. Aragorn would have washed away, alive or dead.
"Are you okay?" Tauriel asked again.
"We really did agree to a suicide mission, didn't we?" Rhanir asked.
"Maybe," Tauriel said. "But not doing what we can to help would be suicide as well."
Rhanir nodded. "Be careful. I don't want to have to train a new friend to put up with me. It's exhausting."
Tauriel smiled. "Then you'd better stick close to me. I don't want to turn my back for a minute and find out you died. We both know how useless you are without me."
Rhanir smiled at her before it faded. He stood as Théoden called for the wounded to be given horses and the dead to be left behind. A couple minutes later, they were all making their way for Helm's Deep again.
Rhanir watched as the last of the soldiers and citizen of Rohan made their way into Helm's Deep. The fortress was impressive, but it was also a dead end. The only way in or out, as far as Théoden had said when Rhanir asked, was the bridge leading up to the gate. When Saruman's forces arrived, they'd be trapped. Everyone who was not a soldier was being sent into the Glittering Caves, a cave system that was accessible through the back of the Keep.
"We can't hold these defenses," Tauriel said in Sindarin, stepping up beside him.
"No," Rhanir agreed in the same. "When the battle starts...don't forget that you promised to keep me alive."
Tauriel laughed, nodding. "Don't worry. I'll protect you."
Rhanir grinned and nodded. "You know, for reasons I can't understand, I regret not making peace with my cousins."
"You'll have time after the battle," Tauriel said. "They're in Lothlorien. They're safe. And you're even more safe because you have me. So stop worrying."
"True," Rhanir nodded.
Just then, Rhanir spotted something move in the distance. He unslung his bow, but waited, squinting at it. Slowly, as it grew closer, he recognized a horse. Then, the rider, who was slumped forward tiredly, sat up, their messy black hair falling out of the way of their face.
"Aragorn!" Rhanir gasped, Tauriel staring at him for a moment before taking off at a sprint to tell the others.
Rhanir sprinted down from the wall, reaching the courtyard at the base of the first set of stairs inside the Keep, and pushed through the crowd, yanking Aragorn into a tight embrace.
"You lucky bastard!" Rhanir said, pulling away and looking Aragorn over. "Only you could fall off a cliff and walk away with only some skin scraped off your shoulder."
Aragorn smiled just as Gimli ran over to hug Aragorn as well.
"Where is the king?" Aragorn asked seriously.
"In the Keep," Rhanir said. "This way."
Aragorn nodded and followed Rhanir quickly, using a rag to wipe the blood from his shoulder. Legolas and Tauriel met them outside the door.
"I'm glad you're alive," Tauriel smiled, Aragorn nodding his appreciation.
"You're late," Legolas said in Sindarin. "You look terrible."
Aragorn's eyebrows rose in amusement as he nodded. Then he grinned, gripping Legolas's forearm in greeting before Legolas returned Aragorn's necklace. Aragorn thanked him in Sindarin before the four of them headed into the chamber where Théoden was planning the defenses, with help from Gamling and Boromir. Aragorn's news was not good. Ten thousand Uruk-hai, at a minimum, were marching toward Helm's Deep, and would be there by nightfall. Théoden did not altar his plans for the defense, except to add in the conscription of any man, child to elderly, who was strong enough to wield a weapon.
Once the plan was finished, Théoden began to walk the wall, Rhanir, Aragorn, and Boromir going with him.
"Saruman's forces will break upon this fortress like water on rock," Théoden said as they walked the Deeping Wall. "Saruman's hordes will pillage and burn. We've seen it before. Crops can be resown. Homes, rebuilt. Within these walls...we will outlast them."
"They do not come to destroy Rohan's crops or villages," Aragorn argued. "They come to destroy its people, down to the last child!"
"If its people are lucky," Rhanir said, Aragorn frowning at him in confusion. "On a couple of my jobs as a mercenary, I cleared out orc packs in caves where they'd been raiding villages from and where women and children, all girls, were disappearing to. I've seen what orcs do to their captives. For the sake of Rohan's women, pray they come only to kill them."
"What would you have me do!?" Théoden snarled at them both under his breath. "Look at my men! They're courage hangs by a thread! If this is our end, then I would have them make such an end as to be worthy of remembrance."
"It doesn't have to be the end," Rhanir said.
"Send out Riders, my lord!" Aragorn pleaded. "You must call for aid!"
"And who would come?" Théoden asked. "Elves? Dwarves? We are not so lucky in our friends as you. The old alliances are dead."
"Gondor will answer," Boromir said.
"Gondor!" Théoden snarled. "Where was Gondor when the Westfold fell? Where was Gondor when our enemies closed in around us!? Where was Gon..." He took a deep breath to calm himself. "No. We are alone."
"If my mark is given with the request for Gondor's aid, Gondor will answer," Boromir said.
Théoden stared at him for a moment before turning and striding away, Gamling going with him. Rhanir sighed.
"We'll be slaughtered," Rhanir said. "Saruman will likely have a way to breach the wall."
"Most likely," Aragorn nodded. "Boromir, how long would it take to summon Gondor's aid?"
"Two days, at least," Boromir said.
"We'll be dead by then," Rhanir said. "I'm heading back to the wall. "I suggest you all get ready for a long fight."
The others nodded, and they all scattered. When he reached the wall, he found Tauriel had already returned to it and stepped up beside her, both staring out across the fields before them.
"Farmers and stableboys," Rhanir said. "Rohan's about to be a lot emptier."
Tauriel nodded. "I never wanted to see another war."
"Sometimes war is unavoidable," Rhanir said. "I was born for war."
"You were born to be who you want to be," Tauriel said.
"I'm...not sure what I want," Rhanir said. "My right hand wants one thing, and my left another."
"Can you not have both?" Tauriel asked.
"No," Rhanir said.
Tauriel frowned for a moment before opening her mouth, only to stop, squinting at an army emerging from around the cliff at the far end of the ravine. "Those aren't orcs."
Rhanir grinned widely. "No they are not. Elves!" He glanced at a soldier beside them just as Haldir blew a horn to announce their presence to the fortress. "Send for the king. The Elves of Lothlorien have come."
The soldier nodded and ran off to pass word of the new arrivals as Rhanir and Tauriel ran to meet Haldir. Someone shouted for the gate to be opened, and by the time Rhanir and Tauriel had reached the courtyard, the Elves had already begun to file into the fortress, Haldir at their head.
"Welcome , Haldir," Rhanir smiled.
"Rhanir," Haldir said, looking as unimpressed as always. "You seem unusually happy to see me."
"Right now, I'll be happy to see anyone who's not an orc," Rhanir said. "And I'm glad you're here, cousin."
Haldir regarded him silently for a moment before turning to Théoden as he arrived, Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli not far behind.
"How is this possible?" Théoden asked.
"I bring word from Elrond of Rivendell," Haldir said. "An alliance once existed between Elves and Men. Long ago we fought and died together. We come to honor that allegiance."
Aragorn welcomed Haldir in Sindarin before hugging him, Haldir sighing and returning it before greeting Legolas with a clap on the shoulder.
"We are proud to fight alongside Men once more," Haldir said.
Théoden thanked him and within minutes, the elves had assembled along and behind the Deeping Wall to the right of the Keep, while Rohan's forces amassed on the walls of the Keep. Rhanir and Tauriel took up positions to either side of Haldir while Aragorn walked along the wall. Gimli and Legolas stood a little ways further along the wall together, and Boromir stood with Rohan's soldiers.
"There's something I want to say before the fighting starts," Rhanir said, glancing at Haldir, who showed no sign of having heard him, but who he knew was listening. "I'm sorry I'm such a shame. You were right about her, I was just too stubborn to listen. I'm sorry for the trouble I caused."
Haldir stared at him for a moment before sighing. "I was wrong to fault you for following your heart. You loved her, and regardless of how things worked out, you did nothing wrong by choosing her. I'm glad you were here. I would have been saddened if you had died before I could make things right."
"Oh, I have no chance of dying," Rhanir smirked. "I have Tauriel to protect me."
Haldir grinned. "Well, then I suppose I should be the one afraid."
Rhanir chuckled. "I'm not letting you die either."
Haldir nodded just as an Uruk-hai shouted, the sound of marching feet growing louder quickly in Rhanir's ears.
"They're here," Rhanir said, the announcement spreading outward like a wave.
Within second, the forces of Isengard came into view. A sea of black with torches scattered among it like stars. The tense atmosphere inside the Keep quickly grew thicker as the Uruks closed in, the force seeming all the larger the closer they got. Lightning flashed and thunder rumbled overhead before rain began to fall, quickly growing into a heavy downpour. As the Uruk-hai began to near the wall, one, a commander, ran up onto a rock and roared, raising its sword.
"Show them no mercy..." Aragorn called out to the Elves in Sindarin, "for you shall receive none!"
Finally, the Uruk-hai stopped, waiting about fifty meters from the wall.
"Aim for the groin," Rhanir said in Sindarin to the elves that could hear him. "Even an Uruk-hai can't fight if he's been shot there."
"Alternatively," Tauriel said, smirking knowingly at Rhanir, "their armor is weak at the neck."
Haldir also smirked just as the Uruk commander roared again, the entire army of Uruk-hai beginning to pound their pikes on the ground, roaring and beating their gauntlets against their chestplates. Rohan's forces all drew their bows and readied an arrow, drawing their bows back. Then, after a second, an arrow suddenly flew from the Keep, stabbing into an Uruk's neck on the side, killing it.
"Hold!" Aragorn shouted in Sindarin, the Elves all waiting.
Roars rang out among the Uruk-hai before the commander ordered a charge with a roar and a thrust of his sword. The Uruk-hai began to flood toward the fortress, and Rhanir drew his own bow, knocking an arrow and drawing it back.
"And so it begins," Rhanir said.
"Prepare to fire!" Aragorn ordered in Sindarin, the Elves all nocking arrows and drawing their bows back.
"The armor is weak at the neck, and below the arm," Legolas told the Elves around him.
"Aim for the groin, was it?" Haldir asked.
"Definitely," Rhanir nodded.
"Release arrows!" Aragorn ordered.
The air filled with the snap of bows, the whistle of arrows, and the snaps and thuds of arrows slamming into Uruk-hai armor or finding flesh. Rohan's soldiers began to fire as well as the Elves continued to fire endlessly. As Rohan's arrows began to find their marks, Aragorn ordered the Elves behind the wall to open fire, their harrows whistling and hissing as they streaked a few inches over the heads of those on the wall, sometimes passing between them, though never hitting them. Rhanir aimed carefully, dropping an Uruk-hai every shot, from what he could tell. As the Uruks reached the wall, they began to fire up at them with crossbows. Rhanir narrowed his eyes, speeding up his shots in exchange for his precision. Instead of every shot killing one, one in three killed, but all of them were aimed at the Uruk archers, and stopped them from shooting, giving the other Elves more than enough time to kill them. As Rhanir shot one he could see aiming for Tauriel, being careful to kill it, he jerked his head backward, a crossbow bolt narrowly missing his forehead. Suddenly, several ladders were brought to the wall, stabbed into the ground, and began to be raised, an Uruk-hai seated on the top of the ladder.
"Target the ones on the ladders!" Rhanir bellowed in Sindarin, the elves instantly slaughtering all of the Uruks on the ladders.
The moment the ladders were high enough, Uruks began to scramble up them.
"Swords!" Aragorn shouted. "Swords!"
Half of the Elves on the wall drew swords, and when the Uruks began to swarm off of the ladders, the Elves began to kill them quickly, but began to lose their own forces almost as quickly. A ladder hit the wall a few feet to Rhanir's right and he drew his bastard sword, turning to it just as the first Uruk slashed a line of Elves. Then, Rhanir stepped forward, slashing that Uruk and another who was about to get off the ladder. That Uruk knocked the next off and Rhanir flipped his sword to reverse grip, grabbing an arrow and shooting the next Uruk to buy enough time to lift the two metal hooks anchoring the ladder before shoving it away from the wall. The Uruks at the base tried to catch it, but a sudden volley of arrows from the Elves around Rhanir distracted them, allowing the ladder to crash to the ground, crushing five more Uruks, in addition to the three on the ladder. Rhanir spun, darting past Haldir and Tauriel, both of whom were still focusing on shooting the Uruk-hai around the base of the ladders. Rhanir killed an Uruk heading for them, then shot an Uruk climbing the next ladder in the groin. The Uruk roared in pain, tumbling down the ladder and knocking the others all off the ladder. As soon as the arrow hit, however, Legolas shot the one that had just gotten off of the ladder.
"Throw the ladder!" Rhanir and Legolas both ordered in Sindarin, both leaning out to fire at the base of the ladder as a pair of Elves unhooked it and hurled it back at the Uruks.
Just then, Rhanir glanced along the wall, seeing Gimli slide between an Uruk's legs and plant his axe in its chest. He fired another arrow before leaning in just in time to avoid an arrow, then spun back toward Tauriel and Haldir, seeing them work together to easily kill an Uruk.
"Legolas!" Gimli shouted. "Two already!"
"I'm on seventeen!" Legolas replied, grinning.
"Huh!?" Gimli asked, eyes going wide.
"Twenty five!" Rhanir shouted over the chaos, then leaned out and shot an Uruk archer. "Twenty six!"
A ladder hit between Rhanir and Tauriel, but just as the Uruk on it landed, Tauriel spun around it, her daggers shredding it before she hurled the ladder, crushing two more.
"Thirty three!" she said, firing out into the army again.
"I'll have no pointy-ear outscoring me!" Gimli shouted.
More and more ladders began to slam into the wall, the Elves unable to hold back the flood of Uruk-hai long enough to knock the ladders down now that a line of Uruk bowmen had gotten into place below the wall. Rhanir sheathed his bastard sword, drawing his right curved blade instead, and slashed an Uruk as it jumped off of a ladder beside him. Then, he picked it up and hurled it down the ladder, knocking three off. a few meters away, Legolas was kneeling between two ladders, shooting the Uruk-hai as they reached the top of the ladders, and a few meters beyond him, Gimli was killing them as they arrived similarly using his axe. Rhanir shot a pair of Uruk-hai charging Haldir, then spun as an Uruk-hai behind him roared victoriously, only for an arrow to sprout from its throat. Tauriel hurled it off the wall before it could fall and smirked.
"You're getting sloppy," Tauriel said.
"Mhm, sure," Rhanir said, firing between her legs.
The arrow skipped off the ground, losing a bit of speed, but drove itself up into the underside of an Uruk's jaw, killing it.
"Not bad," Tauriel admitted, glancing to the side. "Causeway!"
Aragorn spun to look and began to shout orders to the Elves.
"Archers here first!" Rhanir thundered in Sindarin.
As one, the Elves fired into the air at a dangerously high arc, the arrows barely making it past the wall before falling among the Uruk-hai. As soon as the arrows began to hit, they stepped up to the wall, slaughtering the Uruk archers below them before swinging their bows around to the causeway where a massive formation of Uruk-hai were walking up it with their shields held above them to block arrows from Rohan's forces, though the Elves arrows dropped them quickly. Rhanir glanced around, seeing the Elves around them were becoming dangerously few in number, and were struggling to both stem the tide of Uruk-hai coming up the ladders and also those on the causeway. Just then, the Uruks below them began to chant and Rhanir looked down, seeing one with a massive metal torch that was sparkling at the top and no armor sprinting toward the wall through a path the Uruk-hai had made for him. Rhanir leaned out, looking down, seeing a storm drain directly below himself and Tauriel.
"Legolas!" Rhanir shouted, drawing an arrow and aiming carefully.
Legolas spun, looking down before drawing an arrow. As one, Legolas, Tauriel, and Rhanir fired, the arrows driving themselves down into the Uruk's shoulders, and Rhanir's hitting it in the groin. It continued to sprint. Legolas and Tauriel fired again, both hitting it squarely in the chest, but again it continued to run. Rhanir grabbed Tauriel and hurled himself off of the wall less than a second before an explosion blew the entire wall away for a hundred feet across around the storm drain. The concussion slammed into Rhanir's back like a solid blow, sending him and Tauriel flying out over the Elves standing behind the wall. Rhanir's head rung, a high-pitched tone screamed in his ears, and he didn't notice when flying turned to falling, or when falling turned to hitting the ground. He simply knew that his entire body felt battered and abused, and that when he began to register the world around him again, Tauriel was just pushing herself up from his arms. He groaned, struggling to his feet, and picking his sword and bow up off the ground, slinging the bow and drawing his other curved blade in its place.
"I fucking hate Uruk-hai," Rhanir growled.
"Are you alright?" Tauriel asked. "You shielded me, so are you okay?"
Rhanir nodded. "Shall we?"
Tauriel nodded and they turned back to the chaos. The battle was falling apart rapidly. There hundred or so Elves couldn't hold back the flood of Uruk-hai and were quickly being driven back toward the Keep quickly. Tauriel and Rhanir both charged wading into the Uruk-hai and quickly carving their way after the rest of the Elves. An Uruk leapt at them from behind them, slashing at Tauriel, only for Rhanir to shove her aside, then spin, deflecting the Uruk's blade with one of his, his other blade stabbing the Uruk in the eye. He ripped the blade back out and looked toward Tauriel, seeing her retreating from a group of four Uruk-hai, struggling to fend off all of them at once.
"Aragorn!" Gamling's voice shouted over the chaos of the battle. "Fall back to the Keep! Get your men out of there!"
"To the Keep!" Aragorn shouted. "Fall back to the Keep!"
Rhanir glanced at Haldir, seeing he and the other Elves still on the wall were struggling to keep themselves alive. He turned to Tauriel just as she managed to kill one of the Uruks attacking her, then shoved the body into two more, killing the fourth instantly.
"Go!" Tauriel shouted to him. "Help Haldir!"
Rhanir nodded, sprinting for the steps up to the wall as Aragorn told Haldir to fall back. Rhanir slashed a pair of Uruk-hai as he passed before leaping onto the stairs. Just as he landed, Haldir's voice let out a surprised, pain shout. He looked up at the top of the stairs, seeing Haldir holding his gut, blood flowing out of a gash in his abdomen. Rhanir yanked his bow off of his back instantly, firing a pair of arrows, one into the Uruk-hai that had attacked Haldir and also one charging him from behind, killing both.
"Hold on Haldir!" Rhanir shouted.
Haldir staggered down a few steps toward him, only for his eyes to go wide. At the same time, Tauriel screamed.
Rhanir spun, seeing the Uruk-hai closing in on her rapidly. She had a gash in her side, though a shallow one, but she'd lost a dagger and her arrows were spilled across the ground around her. The Elves anywhere around her had either retreated or been killed, and she was
"Save her!" Haldir shouted, turning and slashing an Uruk-hai's head off. "Go, Rhanir!"
Rhanir leapt off of the stairs, stepping off of two Uruk-hai's heads before hurling his curved swords into a pair of Uruk-hai's backs, killing them. He landed in a roll, grabbing several arrows and turning, firing them into the Uruk-hai between them and the stairs up to the Keep. Each arrow dropped an Uruk-hai, clearing a small path. He grabbed Tauriel's arm instantly and all but hurled her toward the stairs. Then, he leapt forward, an Uruk-hai's blade splitting all three of his quivers near the bottom, ruining the arrows and spilling the pieces over the ground. As he rolled to his feet, he drew his bastard sword, slashing an Uruk in front of him. He turned, deflecting a sword, then stabbed the Uruk. Before he could retrieve the sword, he spun, drawing his dagger and deflecting a sword with it. He slashed the Uruk-hai's throat, then stabbed another, only for the dagger to snap and his fist to crash into its armor. He yelped, push kicking the Uruk backward into two more, but just as he did, a crossbow bolt drilled itself through his right thigh. He roared in pain, staggering backward for a couple feet before his leg gave out and he crashed to the ground.
The Uruk-hai roared, surging forward. Then, Tauriel leapt off of the Deeping Wall to Rhanir's left, landing beside the two Uruk-hai who were still impaled with Rhanir's curved blades. She grabbed her own dagger off the ground before sheathing both and grabbing his blades, killing the Uruk-hai around her before slaughtering her way toward Rhanir, desperation filling her face. A second later, Aragorn reached him, Rhanir's bastard sword in hand, and began to slaughter the Uruk-hai as they reached them. A moment later, Tauriel broke free of the group of Uruks, bearing a new gash on her other side, and her thigh, but both were no more serious than her first gash, all barely more than scratches.
"FIRE!" Legolas shouted in Sindarin.
Arrows began to rain on the Uruk-hai, halting their advance completely as Tauriel shoved Rhanir's curved blades into their sheaths and hauled him to his feet, taking his right arm over her shoulder. She pulled him toward the stairs quickly, all but dragging him by the time they reached them as Rhanir couldn't keep up with her only using one leg. After a moment, Aragorn grabbed his other arm and the two of them sprinted up the stairs with him. They reached the top of the walls where the remaining Elves were all firing and the Elves began to break off with them, all flooding toward the Keep. As they passed through it toward the inside where the caves' entrance was, massive ladders, wide enough for Uruk-hai to climb them two at a time, began to be raised onto the walls of the Keep by massive, cross-bow like devices that launched massive harpoons with a rope pulley system attached as anchors on the walls. Aragorn broke off to find Théoden, leaving Tauriel to get him inside the Keep. As soon as they were, Rhanir was only able to keep track of the battle by his hearing, which was hard. There was chaos at the gate, likely the gate was failing, at least two ladders had made it to the top of the wall, and a lot of people were dying.
"We have to get back out there!" Rhanir said.
"Not a chance!" Tauriel snapped. "You can't even stand!"
"They're dying!" Rhanir snapped.
"And if you leave you'll die!" Tauriel snapped back.
Rhanir growled angrily, slamming the bottom of his fist into the wall to his right, but gave in. She was right, after all. As always. Before the argument could progress instantly, Gamling's voice sounded the retreat. Soldiers, both men and Elves, began to flood into the Keep, some going to the caves, others beginning to gather anything they could use to barricade the door. As they were, Tauriel reached down, giving Rhanir a sympathetic look before ripping the bolt out of his leg. He shrieked in pain, hands clamping down on the holes until she had ripped her cloak into bandages. He groaned as she began to bandage it, leaning back against the wall.
"You know, when I jumped off those stairs, I could have sworn I was supposed to be the one doing the rescuing," Rhanir said.
Tauriel grinned. "That just proves how useless you are without me."
Rhanir laughed. "Now you're just making up excuses so you can keep me around. All you have to do is ask if you want me to stay, you know."
"Now that you mention it, I was just making a mental note not to let you wander off anymore," Tauriel smirked. "If you do I'm liable to lose you."
Rhanir snorted. "Careful, there, Tauriel. If you don't choose your words more carefully, it'll sound like you've fallen in love with me."
Tauriel didn't respond, instead staring at his blood-coated leg and the bandages her trembling hands were struggling to tie. He stared at her hands for a moment, then her face, seeing the shadow in her eyes. He caught her hand and she glanced up at him, her eyes wincing slightly in guilt and shame.
"I have to finish this," Tauriel said, pulling her hand out of his and dropping her gaze to his fully-bandaged leg.
Rhanir reached up, cupping her face and pulling her into a kiss. Tauriel let out a shuddering breath and pressed closer, her tongue sweeping out to meet his in the middle as her hands clutched at the sides of his face, his own dropping to the small of her back. After a few seconds, she pulled away, a shaking breath of air slipping into her mouth as tears rolled down her cheeks, but she smiled, resting her forehead against his.
"Don't ever scare me like that again," Tauriel rasped, voice frail and laced with an ocean of emotions.
"I won't," Rhanir said, glancing at the side and seeing Legolas nod subtly and turn back to the door.
"It's about...time," Haldir's voice rasped from off tot he side, Rhanir's head snapping around, seeing him lying off to the side.
Rhanir hadn't even noticed he was there. He had the urge to begin treating Haldir's wound, but seeing it up close, he new there was no hope. Only Elrond could save him, but he wouldn't make it there in time.
"Haldir," Rhanir breathed. "I'm sorry."
"I'm not," Haldir smiled, eyelids drooping tiredly. "You...made the right choice. You always...made the right choice. I'm...sorry for how I acted...how I treated you. Can you forgive me?"
"There's nothing to forgive," Rhanir said.
Haldir smiled. "I was...proud to fight beside you. And I'm...proud of you...for saving her."
Rhanir nodded. "How long do you think you have?"
Haldir smiled tiredly. "Long enough to see how this battle ends. Then...my time will be up."
Rhanir nodded. "I'm sorry I couldn't save you."
"Don't be," Haldir smiled. "She's more important. Besides, you gave me...more time than I should have had. By killing those two Uruk-hai...you delayed my death...long enough for me to be...brought here."
Rhanir remained silent, nodding sullenly.
"Ride out with me," Aragorn said, having been talking to Théoden about what they could do against the thousands of Uruk-hai that still remained. "Ride out and meet them."
"For death and glory?" Théoden asked.
"For Rohan," Aragorn answered.
"The sun is rising," Gimli said.
Rhanir glanced up at the window, but from his position, he couldn't see out of it.
"Yes," Théoden said. "The horn of Helm Hammerhand shall sound in the Deep one last time!"
"Yes!" Gimli grinned, running to the winding staircase that led up to the hammer.
Rhanir picked his bastard sword up from the floor beside him and used it to stand, Tauriel not bothering to tell him to stay down, though he ignored the pointed glare she gave him.
"Be careful," Tauriel pleaded as Gamling ran to get horses for all of the veteran soldiers in the room.
"You, too," Rhanir said.
Tauriel nodded, helping him onto a horse before climbing up behind him and reaching around him to hold the reins while helping hold him on. He looked back at her and smiled, and Tauriel reached forward, kissing him.
"Im mel cin," Rhanir said.
"Im mel cin," Tauriel returned, smiling.
Rhanir looked over at Legolas, seeing him holding a Rohan soldier's sword, and held out his bastard sword. Legolas accepted it, nodding, and Rhanir drew his curved blade.
"Fell deeds, awake," Théoden said once everyone was mounted. "Now for wrath, now for ruin, and a red dawn!"
Théoden pulled his helmet on as everyone drew their swords. Above them, Gimli sounded the horn just as the door exploded inward, Uruk-hai flooding through it.
"Forth Eorlingas!" Théoden shouted, spurring his horse forward at the head of the group.
A dozen or so horses plowed through the Uruk-hai, the rides slaughtering them, then out through the door and into the courtyard. They slaughtered all of the Uruk-hai there and continued through the Keep to the causeway. As they rode onto the causeway, Tauriel tightened her grip around him. Then, they charged off of the causeway and were slaughtering their way through the sea of Uruk-hai. Rhanir twisted, deflecting a spear from behind them and Legolas removed the Uruk's head. Rhanir turned back to the front and used his blade to deflect a crossbow bolt before slashing an Uruk-hai beside him, catching its sword and hurling it into the Uruk archer. He slashed downward and split an Uruk-hai across the face, helmet and all, then slashed another one's arm off, sending it staggering into the way of a crossbow bolt. Suddenly, something began to happen. Uruk-hai were turning to the East. Rhanir slashed one that turned its back on him before looking.
"Rohirrim!" Eomer, head of the group of Rohan soldiers they'd met while chasing the Uruk-hai that took Merry and Pippin, shouted, drawing his sword as he sat atop the hill on his horse, right beside Gandalf.
Dozens of riders appeared over the ridge behind Eomer. Rhanir grinned, then returned to slaughtering Uruk-hai.
"To the king!" Eomer shouted, the entire host behind him cheering and repeating the call as they charged down the hill.
Rhanir's eyes widened. He remembered there being a hundred five riders. Now, there were hundreds, maybe more than a thousand, but he was too busy slaughtering Uruk-hai to do more than glance at the charging riders. The Uruk-hai moved to meet the new threat and formed a line, pikes extending from the front, but just as the Rohirrim neared them, the sun rose over the hill the Rohirrim was riding down, blinding the Uruk-hai and breaking their defensive line. Then, the Rohirrim tore into them, not a single horse or rider being caught by a pike. Rhanir grinned, drawing his other curved blade and returned to tearing into the Uruk-hai. The Uruk-hai seemed to split, several groups trying to attack the two groups of foes carving through them, other groups seeming to be trying to flee. Then, as the two groups of Men met and began to work together and spread outward, more and more Uruks began to flee until they all were.
"Victory!" Théoden cried. "We have victory!"
They pursued the Uruk-hai, killing any they could catch, until they came to a rise where they saw a forest before the Uruks, one that definitely wasn't there before. Tauriel yanked on the horse's reins, stopping them even before Eomer passed the order to halt and stay away from the trees. Rhanir sheathed his swords and sighed, watching as the Uruks flooded into the trees, only for the trees to come alive, waving and rolling like a sea as cries and shrieks of despair and pain rang out from the Uruk-hai being slaughtered within the forest.
"It's over," Rhanir said. "Finally."
"Agreed," Tauriel nodded.
"Back to the Keep!" Théoden ordered calmly. "We bring news of victory to our people!"
A cheer rang out among the Rohirrim and they all turned around, riding back to Helm's Deep. Tauriel rode ahead of the others, getting them back to Haldir as quickly as possible before helping Rhanir down and setting him beside his cousin. Haldir smiled, raising a hand, and Rhanir grasped it firmly.
"Well done, cousin," Haldir smiled. "You always were the best fighter...I'd ever seen."
"Well duh," Rhanir smiled. "How many times did I prove that when we were children?"
Haldir laughed weakly. "Too many for my pride to handle." He let out a pained sigh. "Take care of her. You'll never find another that could match her."
"I know," Rhanir nodded. "I'll protect her with my life." He could see Haldir slipping away, so he switched to Sindarin. "Rest now, cousin. Find peace in Valinor."
"I will not look...to see you there...for a very...long time," Haldir responded in Sindarin before allowing his eyes to slide closed, sighing as he allowed himself to slip away.
Rhanir swallowed hard and turned into Tauriel, who held him tightly. Finally, after a few minutes, he pulled away, taking a deep breath before looking around. None of the others had come back in, and the citizens of Rohan were streaming out of the caves, along with the remaining Elves.
"Help me up," Rhanir said. "We should get outside and find the others."
Tauriel nodded and helped him stand, the two making their way outside, one of the elves bringing their horse for them and the citizens of Rohan parting for them. Once they were outside Helm's Deep again, they found the others scattered around, Legolas and Gimli off to the side. Legolas told Gimli his final count was forty two, and Gimli told him that wasn't bad, but his own final count was forty three. Legolas promptly shot an arrow into the Uruk Gimli was seated on, claiming to have a new count of forty two, arguing that the Uruk had been twitching, only for Gimli to say that it was twitching because Gimli's axe was planted in its nervous system, tapping the shaft of the axe, which was still embedded in its head.
"My final count is sixty," Rhanir said as they stopped beside them, Rhanir leaning on the horse.
"Fifty five," Tauriel said.
Both Legolas and Gimli glared at them before conceding victory.
"Rhanir," an elf said in Sindarin, stepping up beside them and holding out four quivers. "We're heading back to Lothlorien. Word was sent that a host of orcs is moving to attack it, and we must defend our home. Haldir wanted us to give you these before we left."
Rhanir thanked him and gave Tauriel one, Tauriel swapping it for her empty quiver before helping Rhanir replace his three ruined quivers.
"Rhanir, Tauriel, Legolas, we ride for Isengard," Aragorn said, walking over. "We're going to find Merry and Pippin."
The three of them nodded and Tauriel helped Rhanir onto their horse before getting up behind him again. Then, they were off.
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