Aragorn came to himself slowly and painfully. He sat up and looked around, and started. He saw Gimli in front of him single-handedly fending off many orcs with his axe. In my defense, he realized. The last thing he remembered was a huge orc blasting a part of the outer wall to bits, despite Legolas's many attempts to kill it before it could. Then everything went black.
He saw the orcs pushing Gimli into the water that had gushed out from the moat when the outer wall had fallen. They were practically drowning him.
"Gimli!" he shouted in alarm, jumping up. With his sword, he dealt a few well-aimed strokes, which threw the orcs back a step or two. He took Gimli's arm and pulled him to his feet. The dwarf shook the water off him with a low grunt and gripped his axe tightly as their assailants began to advance again.
Aragron too, kept his sword ready. An idea struck him, and he used his sword to signal to the elves on the wall. The elves immediately took the cue and shot a number of arrows at the orcs, causing them to retreat a little. Then Aragorn shouted *Charge!* to the soldiers around them and ran headlong into the orcs. He swiped at them, killing many as he pushed forward into the enemy.
He saw through the corner of his eye the dwarf hacking at the thick necks of orcs with his axe, and smiled momentarily at the look of satisfaction on Gimli's face. Here at least Gimli could catch up with Legolas's count. Almost instinctively he looked around for the elf, as he cut off the head of yet another orc.
And what he saw shocked his sword into stillness. Legolas was standing on top of the he outer wall, with his face buried in his hands. His shoulders were shaking and his bow hung uselessly at his side. Nobody heeded him; they were all too preoccupied with their own troubles. Aragorn watched as he conquered the sobs and lowered his hands from his face, which had failure and dejection written all over it. Aragorn saw his hands tremble slightly as they gripped his bow and pulled out an arrow form his nearly empty quiver.
What happened after that Aragorn never knew. The faces of the teeming orcs all blurred before his eyes, his sword fell to the ground. It wasn't as if he felt any sort of weakness, no he was strong. Strong enough, at least, to challenge Saruman. For he was sure now that Saruman was behind all this. And he was enraged.
Saruman, Saruman, Saruman, his mind screamed over and over again. He could see nothing, hear nothing, was oblivious to all around him. He only concentrated on the image of the wizard; scarcely knowing what he was doing, almost forgetting why he was doing it. And then, just when he felt that he would break from frustration, a female voice also joined in. He didn't know whose voice it was or whether it was real, or a mere dream, but it was very strong, and full of life and fire. It blended with his voice as he called "Saruman" over and over again. And then suddenly the blackness in front of his eyes began to vanish and a dim light replaced it. He opened his eyes, and found himself in Isengard, in a tower-room, looking straight into the face of Saruman himself.
~~*~~
"Aragorn!" Legolas screamed. He watched his friend's face contort with rage – for a moment Legolas thought it was directed at him, for Aragorn was looking in his direction – but no, the anger was too great to be for Legolas. He leapt forward, dashing the remaining tears from his eyes.
Aragorn didn't know what failure meant to Legolas, especially now, when all hope of winning this war had quite faded from his eyes. For Legolas, the more hopeless the situation was, the better it was for him, because he fought twice as well in those circumstances. Failing was hateful then, and it wrung tears from his eyes, tears that never would have fallen had it been any other occasion.
Legolas watched Aragorn's sword fall from his hand, and his fear mounted, the orcs were beginning to surround Aragorn. But Aragorn did not seem to see this. His body had gone rigid and his eyes were shut. Legolas let out a cry of alarm as one orc raised its spear and began to close in on him. He turned and ran down the stairwell for a little way, waltzed over a couple of orcs, and landed at the part of the wall that had been blasted by the orcs. He managed to climb down to the ground, using the uneven parts of the stone as footholds. Landing neatly on his feet, he rushed toward the big group of orcs that had by now surrounded Aragorn and fought his way through them. He was just in time to see one of the orcs raise its spear and smite Aragorn's side. Aragorn's face still held the same expression of determination and hatred and his eyes were still closed. He just crumpled slowly to the floor and didn't move a muscle other than that. For one terrible moment, Legolas thought that he was dead, but a soft sigh escaped his lips just then, which told Legolas he wasn't.
Thank God, he thought; but a new problem arose. There was no way he could take Aragorn into the safety of the Keep, without having to face at least a hundred orcs while helping him. And at the moment Aragorn didn't look as though he was capable of doing anything for himself, so that would leave them defenseless. Legolas's only choice was to fight with orcs and drive them away from Aragorn until he snapped out of his seizure.
And when will that be, he thought, as he raised his sword. If it isn't soon the loss of blood from his wound might kill him. Fool of a Man. No one can trust that race for a million gold crowns. Anger filled his heart, born out of his worry for Aragorn. He could not understand what Aragorn had done. Whatever it was, it had inactivated him for the rest of the war. And, thought Legolas, there is no way we can win this war or even survive the onslaught of Saruman without him.
~~*~~
"So King Theoden took his people to the Hornburg, did he?" said Eomer slowly, watching the bent old wizard in front of him. "Atleast that is what you say. You say you left Edoras three days ago, while they were preparing to leave. No, it is not possible. You cannot have reached here in three days on just a horse, even if you permitted yourself not a moment of rest, as I perceive you have done. You are lying. You are not Gandalf the Grey, more likely you are the White Wizard himself."
"You're words are half true. First of all I am not Gandalf the Grey, but Gandalf the White." He threw off his grey cloak and showed them his true form. They all gasped in fear as he drew himself up to his full size, and unmasked his power.
"And secondly," he continued, "Shadowfax is not just a horse, he is the King of all Horses, coming from the Meras, and ten times as quick as any of these horses you have here. But you must believe me. I am not Saruman. I am a friend of Theo-"
"That doesn't make you a friend of ours," Eomer shouted angrily. "A king who banishes the only people loyal to his kingdom is no friend of theirs. And we are not all that sure that your being Theoden's friend makes you any other than Saruman the White either." He growled angrily, thumping his spear on the ground.
It was Gandalf's turn to get angry this time.
"You know as well as I do that it was not the King but Saruman who banished you. And besides-"
"Even if that is true, it does not excuse the King's later conduct. You said yourself that you had to come here by stealth. You said that Theoden refused to send out riders to look for us. Does that sound like friendship or enemity?" There was a murmur of agreement from the other Men too, at this.
Gandalf saw immediately that the more he tried to convince Eomer, the more he would distance himself from him. He could not keep trying him now. He would have to win his trust. And that would mean he would reach Helm's Deep a little late. Oh Aragorn, he thought, the defenses have to hold. He knew Aragorn well enough to know what his reply would have been.
They will hold Gandalf, they will hold.
But not for long. He knew the force of an Uruk-hai onslaught better then they did. He knew for a certainty that the defenses could not hold for long.
~~*~~