If you think real hard about what happens at the very end of the last chapter, you'll figure out what happened. ;-)
And, I copied down this chapter from my aforementioned notebook while listening to my hip-hop CD, so please excuse any little grammatical/spelling errors!
Wow, this word check thingie is amazing! It interpreted 'sgadiws' (hey, a P.Diddy song was on) as 'shadows'!!! Cool!!! Technology rules!!!
~Chapter Seven
The next morning Théodred was gone, only a letter in his wake. I read it quickly. It revealed nothing important, only containing sweet nothings and worries. I scanned it twice and then tossed it nonchalantly onto the bedside table.
The peculiar absence of the men that day did not go unnoticed, as the stricter bar of woman from the fortress's walls was not looked over. The air stilled and was silent, broken only by a baby's cry, which was stifled immediately in turn.
Doom hung over our heads. I wrung my hands anxiously as I searched for Éowyn. I burst into her room. She sat with her back rigid and straight on her chair, staring out the window.
"It is happening," she said darkly. The sky's color had deepened ominously.
"Nuuruhuine," I whispered. The shadows of death. "What is going to happen?" I asked, as if she knew.
"We are going to fight," she said simply. The shadows deepened even as I watched. I fell to my knees in anguish. I yearned for the comforts if my home as the shadows swallowed us.
I hung my head out the window, needing fresh air. I breathed deeply, trying to slow my dancing heart. Metal on metal sounded far away, the sounds of the beginnings of battle. I was tempted to voice some prayer that I could not put into words.
Éowyn stood. "How I wish I could be out there," she said mournfully. "I am a shield maiden of Rohan, not some seamstress wench!" she cried defiantly. "Curse them who will not let me bear arms for my country!" Her proud words inspired me, and the feelings of confusion were cleared from my head and I felt only the clearest and most specific emotions. Now I felt the same for my bow as Éowyn her knife, and the blood of Lórien ran strong in my veins.
"If we cannot fight, then we can help in our own way," I said.
Soon the casualties started leaking into the castle like water from a broken faucet. Some were dragging their comrades in under their arms. Soon the marble floor was dotted with pools of blood. Moans and screams came from the hall that we had converted into a ward. A man lying on the floor with an arrow sticking at an odd angle out of his neck was screaming gibberish about Uruk-Hai. A moment later he was silent; his heart was still. I quietly removed the arrow and cast it into an empty receptacle. There were no sheets to cover his still-fearful eyes with, so I gently closed the lids with a tip of my finger while I ripped a layer off the hem of my skirt to use for a bandage on some other bleeding patient.
Faint sounds of battle reached into the castle, making our eardrums throb with the quiet sounds. Éowyn and I tried to analyze the particularly loud screams. She listened for her banished brother and his Rohirrim and I listened for Théodred and Legolas.
Loud bangs were heard from outside, followed by several loud thumps. "They're putting up ladders," said Éowyn, straining to hear. She cowered slightly. It was the first fearful gesture I had seen her make.
The time skipped at odd tempos, until I dozed off into some damp corner, the sounds of battle penetrating my nightmares.
~~~
Sorry it's so short! I guess Math was over… J
