~ Sightseeing in Middle-Earth ~
~ Disclaimer: ~
None of the characters are mine. Neither is the setting. Nor is any of the dialogue I may happen to use from the book. Erin is, however, mine. And the rest of the original words are also mine.
~ Chapter XII~
~ Helm's Deep, Part 1 ~
We arrived at Helm's Deep the next evening, riding almost non-stop along the way. Gandalf had left early the second day of our ride, so it was down to Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, Boromir and I.
When I saw Helm's Deep, I was, for once, not incredibly amazed by it. It looked almost exactly like it had in the movie, and though the walls were certainly tall and impressive, they weren't amazing. This was a fortress, built to be defended, and had very little decoration in it. I'm sure, if I'd known something about military defense, I'd be in absolute awe, but as it was, I just saw it as a lot of large, plain stone walls. And it was all very grey and dreary, which immediately brought my good mood crashing down to the reality that I was going to be in an actually war battle. It would be nothing like my previous two battles with orcs, I was sure. There, it was simple - stay alive, and get away. Here - the goal was to completely defeat the enemy.
When we arrived, everyone inside the fortress was very happy we'd come, and a small cheer was picked up before someone decided it was best to be quiet. We immediately set about getting food - after all, you can't go into battle without something in your stomach to threaten to come up as an added projectile weapon. Not that it would work that well against Orcs.
Once we were done eating, Theoden encouraged the Fellowship to go get any extra armour or weapons we needed from the armory. When we went down to the armory, we discovered that there were a great number of other people down there, also raiding the armory. We managed to work our way around the room, however, looking at the weapons as we went, and Boromir found some knives he liked, as did Aragorn, and Gimli found a few axes. I had my sword, both the normal one Gandalf had found for me in Rivendell and the Elvish one from Galadriel, and didn't need or know how to use anything else. I would've loved to have had a shield, but frankly, I had no clue how to fight while using one, and it would probably hinder me more then help me. Boromir did find a chain mail shirt for me that fit rather well, though.
I was surprised, slightly, when Aragorn and Legolas got in an argument in Elvish in the armory. There were two different versions of this part of the story in my mind - the book, and the movie, which I only vaguely remembered. But I remember one thing clearly - in the movie, we were attacked before we got to Helm's Deep and Aragorn took a trip down a river and got really really dirty. And since that hadn't happened, I'd figured we were following the book. But the argument in Elvish was NOT in the book. So I wondered suddenly if the Elves were going to show up suddenly to help us fight. The fighters around us were definitely disheartened enough about the coming battle. They could use the morale boost.
When we were done picking our weapons, the Fellowship made it's way back up to King Theoden's hall in the keep. There, Theoden started talking about tactics and methods of war and such, and I, very bored, left the hall to roam around, keeping a careful watch on where I was and how close the Orcs were, so I could get back to the hall before the attack began. Eventually, I ended out on the great wall of Helm's Deep, that was later to be turned into gravel in the middle. I silently reminded myself to keep away from the middle of the wall during the battle, then looked out over the wall.
I'd avoided looking behind us the whole time we were riding, since I knew there were Orcs behind us and didn't really want to see them chasing us. But now, when I climbed onto the wall of Helm's Deep and looked back the way we'd come, I saw that though there was indeed to smoke and glow of fires that the orcs were starting as they went, trying to intimidate us, it was a lot farther off then I'd thought it had been in the book. This was definitely shaping up to be more like the battle from the movie.
Sure enough, as I stood watching, a long column of figures slowly began to appear out of the night. The guards closest to me began to shift nervously, and one put and arrow to the string of his bow and looked about to shoot.
"It's the Elves." I said quietly, then left the wall and jogged back to the keep, leaving a startled guard behind me. I reached the keeps steps just as the cry rang out that someone was approaching, and those that had been in Theoden's hall discussing strategy now rushed out to see who it was. Then the cry went out that it was the fair people, and everyone but me just about went into shock. I, of course, had a grin plastered on my face.
I stood back, far up the steps, as the Elves entered, and then Haldir stepped forward and made his speech about Elves and Men fighting together again. Theoden replied, and Aragorn decided this would be a good time to hug the Elf. I tried not to snigger at Haldir's surprised look and wary response to the gesture, knowing every elf currently in Helm's Deep would hear if I did. Once the Elves were welcomed, Theoden and the rest of the Fellowship, plus Haldir, disappeared back into Theoden's hall. Out of curiosity, I joined them.
"It is a good thing you have come, Haldir." Aragorn said once we had entered the hall and the doors were closed.
"Indeed, now that I have seen the forces you have to defend the Deep, I see the wisdom of the Lady in sending us." Haldir replied calmly. "Though some would wonder if even our help can make a difference in this battle." I kept silent on my knowledge of this. The others continued to talk about strategy and the coming battle, for what seemed like hours, until someone came and whispered something in Theoden's ear. Then he announced it was time for us to go out to the walls, and we did. Somehow, Haldir managed to end up beside me, and grabbed my arm and stopped me, keeping me in the hall while everyone else went out.
"The Lady is not pleased with you, human." Haldir told me seriously.
"Not kidding." I said sarcastically.
"He was supposed to die and you did not let it happen. It has changed the course of the quest, and should be rectified quickly." Haldir said meaningfully. I chose not to guess at what he was trying to imply.
"What exactly are you suggesting? That I kill him?" I asked sarcastically.
"Yes." was Haldir's reply. "If it comes down to that." I stared at him in surprise. I had expected something like 'cause him to let his guard down and then leave him to be killed', not 'kill him'.
"You're kidding, right?" I said blankly.
"No." Haldir said.
"And just how does the lady suggest I do this?" I asked icily. I knew there was no way in hell I'd do as asked, but I was curious as to what they'd come up with.
"The Lady is prepared for her Elves to take the blame for the son of Denethor's death." Haldir said calmly, and this time my jaw dropped. I had been right about the sword.
"You efing..." I began, anger surging up in me, then I realized that yelling wouldn't help the matter - would probably make it worse, in fact - and calmed down, taking a deep breath and running my hand through my hair.
"Haldir, I won't." I replied simply. "If she's so prepared for the Lothlorien elves to take the blame, you can try and kill him. But I will be there, watching, defending him against his enemies - whether they're Elf or Orc."
"You will not remain by his side the entire battle." Haldir said, his eye hardening as he adjusted to the thought that he'd have to kill Boromir.
"No, and you won't live until it's end." I snapped in reply.
"Is that a threat, human?" Haldir asked, eyes narrowing.
"No, it's knowledge of the future." I replied, looking straight back at him.
"Your knowledge of the future regarding deaths up to this point has not exactly been correct." Haldir said pointedly.
"I was there to save Boromir - I won't be there to save you." I said softly, then turned on my heal and left. On my way out, I almost ran into Boromir, who had come to see where I'd gotten too. He looked at my hard expression, and seemed about to comment when he glanced over at Haldir and saw a matching expression on the elf. Wisely, he decided not to say anything. Instead, he led the way to where the rest of the Fellowship was waiting. They greeted me with nods, all looking grim, and I soon adopted the same expression as I looked out at the Orcs that were fast approaching.
There were TONS of them. I felt sure there had to be over a million of them, though I knew it was closer to a hundred thousand. It looked as if there was a wave of Orcs coming our way, and for the first real time since I'd entered Middle-Earth, I felt fear that I might die here. The prospect of dieing in Middle-Earth wasn't all that bad to me, and before I had come to Middle-Earth, the prospect of dieing hadn't bothered me, either. But now...the thought of dieing made me want to run into the caves and hide until the battle was over. That made me smile wryly. What interesting comments I'd get then.
The Orcs had come to a stop a fair ways before the wall, now, and were making the most annoying noises, giving war cries, banging on their shields, generally trying to frighten us. I noticed, for a few humans, it seemed to be working. Then one single arrow flew from one of our archers, and absolute silence rained as the Orc the one arrow had hit fell to the ground, dead.
Then the Orcs came on, their war cries for real this time.
For the first part of the fight, there was really nothing for Boromir and I to do - all the Orcs were down on the ground, and neither of us were very good archers. Boromir did, I noticed, throw his two newly-acquired knives down at some Orcs, and from the look of satisfaction on his face, I guessed they'd hit their marks.
Then the ladders started coming, and Boromir and I had plenty of work. It was difficult to fight while keeping an eye out for Boromir's defenses, too - it was like fighting with someone who you never knew if they'd be able to protect themselves. Boromir saved my skin many times, and from the alternately worried and annoyed glances he shot my way, I knew I wasn't fighting up to snuff, and he had noticed. It would have been nice if Haldir had just moved a good ways away - like, to the other end of the wall - but he stuck to within 20 feet of Boromir and I, so I couldn't relax for even an instant.
Boromir and I got separated from Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas at some point, so I was rather surprised when I looked down over the wall in one of the few lulls in fighting and saw Aragorn down at the gate with Gimli, driving off some Orc attackers. That reminded me of what was to come with the 'Fire of Orthanc', and I took stock of where Boromir and I were on the wall.
"Damn it!" I swore, mostly to myself, as a fresh wave of Orcs came over the wall. Boromir and I were almost exactly in the middle of the wall - I could see the stream that came through the grate in the wall beneath us. So I started trying to edge Boromir and I away from the center. Boromir, however, did not know what was coming, and the most Orcs were to be found in the middle of the wall. Somehow, I got separated from him. When I realized, I was more worried about the wall blowing up then Haldir getting to Boromir.
Ducking under an Orcs swing, I thrust my sword into its gut, and it fell, dead. Glancing around, I realized that there were no more Orcs around, only Rohirrim and Elves. In this lull, I glanced over the wall, and to my horror, saw the Orcs rolling the bomb into the grate, the 'Suicide Orc' not far behind. I searched the wall frantically, barely noticing Legolas shooting at the suicide orc, searching Boromir. Finally I found him - right where we'd been at the last lull. On top of the drain.
And then the wall blew up.
~ Disclaimer: ~
None of the characters are mine. Neither is the setting. Nor is any of the dialogue I may happen to use from the book. Erin is, however, mine. And the rest of the original words are also mine.
~ Chapter XII~
~ Helm's Deep, Part 1 ~
We arrived at Helm's Deep the next evening, riding almost non-stop along the way. Gandalf had left early the second day of our ride, so it was down to Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, Boromir and I.
When I saw Helm's Deep, I was, for once, not incredibly amazed by it. It looked almost exactly like it had in the movie, and though the walls were certainly tall and impressive, they weren't amazing. This was a fortress, built to be defended, and had very little decoration in it. I'm sure, if I'd known something about military defense, I'd be in absolute awe, but as it was, I just saw it as a lot of large, plain stone walls. And it was all very grey and dreary, which immediately brought my good mood crashing down to the reality that I was going to be in an actually war battle. It would be nothing like my previous two battles with orcs, I was sure. There, it was simple - stay alive, and get away. Here - the goal was to completely defeat the enemy.
When we arrived, everyone inside the fortress was very happy we'd come, and a small cheer was picked up before someone decided it was best to be quiet. We immediately set about getting food - after all, you can't go into battle without something in your stomach to threaten to come up as an added projectile weapon. Not that it would work that well against Orcs.
Once we were done eating, Theoden encouraged the Fellowship to go get any extra armour or weapons we needed from the armory. When we went down to the armory, we discovered that there were a great number of other people down there, also raiding the armory. We managed to work our way around the room, however, looking at the weapons as we went, and Boromir found some knives he liked, as did Aragorn, and Gimli found a few axes. I had my sword, both the normal one Gandalf had found for me in Rivendell and the Elvish one from Galadriel, and didn't need or know how to use anything else. I would've loved to have had a shield, but frankly, I had no clue how to fight while using one, and it would probably hinder me more then help me. Boromir did find a chain mail shirt for me that fit rather well, though.
I was surprised, slightly, when Aragorn and Legolas got in an argument in Elvish in the armory. There were two different versions of this part of the story in my mind - the book, and the movie, which I only vaguely remembered. But I remember one thing clearly - in the movie, we were attacked before we got to Helm's Deep and Aragorn took a trip down a river and got really really dirty. And since that hadn't happened, I'd figured we were following the book. But the argument in Elvish was NOT in the book. So I wondered suddenly if the Elves were going to show up suddenly to help us fight. The fighters around us were definitely disheartened enough about the coming battle. They could use the morale boost.
When we were done picking our weapons, the Fellowship made it's way back up to King Theoden's hall in the keep. There, Theoden started talking about tactics and methods of war and such, and I, very bored, left the hall to roam around, keeping a careful watch on where I was and how close the Orcs were, so I could get back to the hall before the attack began. Eventually, I ended out on the great wall of Helm's Deep, that was later to be turned into gravel in the middle. I silently reminded myself to keep away from the middle of the wall during the battle, then looked out over the wall.
I'd avoided looking behind us the whole time we were riding, since I knew there were Orcs behind us and didn't really want to see them chasing us. But now, when I climbed onto the wall of Helm's Deep and looked back the way we'd come, I saw that though there was indeed to smoke and glow of fires that the orcs were starting as they went, trying to intimidate us, it was a lot farther off then I'd thought it had been in the book. This was definitely shaping up to be more like the battle from the movie.
Sure enough, as I stood watching, a long column of figures slowly began to appear out of the night. The guards closest to me began to shift nervously, and one put and arrow to the string of his bow and looked about to shoot.
"It's the Elves." I said quietly, then left the wall and jogged back to the keep, leaving a startled guard behind me. I reached the keeps steps just as the cry rang out that someone was approaching, and those that had been in Theoden's hall discussing strategy now rushed out to see who it was. Then the cry went out that it was the fair people, and everyone but me just about went into shock. I, of course, had a grin plastered on my face.
I stood back, far up the steps, as the Elves entered, and then Haldir stepped forward and made his speech about Elves and Men fighting together again. Theoden replied, and Aragorn decided this would be a good time to hug the Elf. I tried not to snigger at Haldir's surprised look and wary response to the gesture, knowing every elf currently in Helm's Deep would hear if I did. Once the Elves were welcomed, Theoden and the rest of the Fellowship, plus Haldir, disappeared back into Theoden's hall. Out of curiosity, I joined them.
"It is a good thing you have come, Haldir." Aragorn said once we had entered the hall and the doors were closed.
"Indeed, now that I have seen the forces you have to defend the Deep, I see the wisdom of the Lady in sending us." Haldir replied calmly. "Though some would wonder if even our help can make a difference in this battle." I kept silent on my knowledge of this. The others continued to talk about strategy and the coming battle, for what seemed like hours, until someone came and whispered something in Theoden's ear. Then he announced it was time for us to go out to the walls, and we did. Somehow, Haldir managed to end up beside me, and grabbed my arm and stopped me, keeping me in the hall while everyone else went out.
"The Lady is not pleased with you, human." Haldir told me seriously.
"Not kidding." I said sarcastically.
"He was supposed to die and you did not let it happen. It has changed the course of the quest, and should be rectified quickly." Haldir said meaningfully. I chose not to guess at what he was trying to imply.
"What exactly are you suggesting? That I kill him?" I asked sarcastically.
"Yes." was Haldir's reply. "If it comes down to that." I stared at him in surprise. I had expected something like 'cause him to let his guard down and then leave him to be killed', not 'kill him'.
"You're kidding, right?" I said blankly.
"No." Haldir said.
"And just how does the lady suggest I do this?" I asked icily. I knew there was no way in hell I'd do as asked, but I was curious as to what they'd come up with.
"The Lady is prepared for her Elves to take the blame for the son of Denethor's death." Haldir said calmly, and this time my jaw dropped. I had been right about the sword.
"You efing..." I began, anger surging up in me, then I realized that yelling wouldn't help the matter - would probably make it worse, in fact - and calmed down, taking a deep breath and running my hand through my hair.
"Haldir, I won't." I replied simply. "If she's so prepared for the Lothlorien elves to take the blame, you can try and kill him. But I will be there, watching, defending him against his enemies - whether they're Elf or Orc."
"You will not remain by his side the entire battle." Haldir said, his eye hardening as he adjusted to the thought that he'd have to kill Boromir.
"No, and you won't live until it's end." I snapped in reply.
"Is that a threat, human?" Haldir asked, eyes narrowing.
"No, it's knowledge of the future." I replied, looking straight back at him.
"Your knowledge of the future regarding deaths up to this point has not exactly been correct." Haldir said pointedly.
"I was there to save Boromir - I won't be there to save you." I said softly, then turned on my heal and left. On my way out, I almost ran into Boromir, who had come to see where I'd gotten too. He looked at my hard expression, and seemed about to comment when he glanced over at Haldir and saw a matching expression on the elf. Wisely, he decided not to say anything. Instead, he led the way to where the rest of the Fellowship was waiting. They greeted me with nods, all looking grim, and I soon adopted the same expression as I looked out at the Orcs that were fast approaching.
There were TONS of them. I felt sure there had to be over a million of them, though I knew it was closer to a hundred thousand. It looked as if there was a wave of Orcs coming our way, and for the first real time since I'd entered Middle-Earth, I felt fear that I might die here. The prospect of dieing in Middle-Earth wasn't all that bad to me, and before I had come to Middle-Earth, the prospect of dieing hadn't bothered me, either. But now...the thought of dieing made me want to run into the caves and hide until the battle was over. That made me smile wryly. What interesting comments I'd get then.
The Orcs had come to a stop a fair ways before the wall, now, and were making the most annoying noises, giving war cries, banging on their shields, generally trying to frighten us. I noticed, for a few humans, it seemed to be working. Then one single arrow flew from one of our archers, and absolute silence rained as the Orc the one arrow had hit fell to the ground, dead.
Then the Orcs came on, their war cries for real this time.
For the first part of the fight, there was really nothing for Boromir and I to do - all the Orcs were down on the ground, and neither of us were very good archers. Boromir did, I noticed, throw his two newly-acquired knives down at some Orcs, and from the look of satisfaction on his face, I guessed they'd hit their marks.
Then the ladders started coming, and Boromir and I had plenty of work. It was difficult to fight while keeping an eye out for Boromir's defenses, too - it was like fighting with someone who you never knew if they'd be able to protect themselves. Boromir saved my skin many times, and from the alternately worried and annoyed glances he shot my way, I knew I wasn't fighting up to snuff, and he had noticed. It would have been nice if Haldir had just moved a good ways away - like, to the other end of the wall - but he stuck to within 20 feet of Boromir and I, so I couldn't relax for even an instant.
Boromir and I got separated from Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas at some point, so I was rather surprised when I looked down over the wall in one of the few lulls in fighting and saw Aragorn down at the gate with Gimli, driving off some Orc attackers. That reminded me of what was to come with the 'Fire of Orthanc', and I took stock of where Boromir and I were on the wall.
"Damn it!" I swore, mostly to myself, as a fresh wave of Orcs came over the wall. Boromir and I were almost exactly in the middle of the wall - I could see the stream that came through the grate in the wall beneath us. So I started trying to edge Boromir and I away from the center. Boromir, however, did not know what was coming, and the most Orcs were to be found in the middle of the wall. Somehow, I got separated from him. When I realized, I was more worried about the wall blowing up then Haldir getting to Boromir.
Ducking under an Orcs swing, I thrust my sword into its gut, and it fell, dead. Glancing around, I realized that there were no more Orcs around, only Rohirrim and Elves. In this lull, I glanced over the wall, and to my horror, saw the Orcs rolling the bomb into the grate, the 'Suicide Orc' not far behind. I searched the wall frantically, barely noticing Legolas shooting at the suicide orc, searching Boromir. Finally I found him - right where we'd been at the last lull. On top of the drain.
And then the wall blew up.