Hidden Secrets

Disclaimer: I only own Aranwen, Beran, Star, and the plot!

Chapter Twenty-nine: Hell's Deep

T.A. 3019

The Elves headed up to the walls and spread out, filling in the gaps and listening to Haldir's orders in Elvish. Aranwen smiled slightly as the Elves passed her and she moved into a position amongst them. At first they stared at her and she was slightly unnerved. She was one of their kind. She was a half-Elf. Could they not see that?

"Suilaid, Aranwen," greeted Haldir as he recognized the dark haired Ranger. No one else would have the nerve to enter the ranks of Elves other than the half-Elf or her Dunedain father. (Greetings, Aranwen.)

"Im gelir ceni ad lin," said Aranwen and she gave the Elf a quick hug. It was nice to see a familiar face. (I am happy to see you again.)

"Man carel le?" Haldir asked, trying to discern Aranwen's purpose on top the wall. (What are you doing?)

"Standing in for ada. He fell in battle with the Wargs. I am here instead because he has yet to return," Aranwen said sadly, looking over the battlements and staring into the distance, willing Aragorn to appear.

"Aragorn, son of Arathorn, has already returned. I met him when I arrived."

Aranwen almost fell over. If she had not been holding on to the wall, she surely would have fallen over in shock and surprise. Her ada was alive and he was here! He was at Helm's Deep! But he still had not seen her. Why?

"Are you sure it was him?" she questioned, wanting to believe the Elf and feeling bad about questioning him again.

"Yes, it was him."

"I have to find him," she said to him as she turned to leave and make her way through the ranks of Elves.

"Yrch anglennol!" cried an Elf not far from her. The cry was repeated several times and Aranwen looked out over the wall and saw them. (Orcs are coming!)

The troops in her vision stood in her line of sight. They had come to kill. They had come and now Aranwen would have no way of finding her father. It would be hopeless. He was so close yet so far away. Either one of them or both of them could perish in the battle to come and they never see each other again.

"Tangado a chadad!" cried some Elves nearby. (Prepare to fire!)

In her grief and despair, Aranwen some how managed to untie her bow from her quiver and fit an arrow to the string. She aimed down into the masses below, ready to fire. Ready to fight for her life, her child's life and her father's life. She would fight her way to him if she had to.

"Hado i philinn!" commanded Haldir and a volley of arrows flew through the air towards their targets. (Release arrows!)

The Orcs charged forward and the well-trained Elves fitted new arrows to their bowstrings and prepared to fire. Aranwen could feel the muscles in her arms aching from lack of use and damage due to the battle at Amon Hen and Beran's recent attack. She fired once more. But when the Elves announced the arrival of ladders, Aranwen put her bow away and drew her sword in her left hand. Her right hand was still much too weak to handle the sword. She rushed to a nearby ladder and began to brutally cut down the Orcs climbing it and once she was able to, she kicked the ladder down, crushing several Orcs near the bottom.

Aranwen worked her way through the battle towards where Theoden and some of his men stood. Surely he would be able to point her towards Aragorn. If he was well enough to fight. No, Aragorn would fight no matter how bad off he was. And Aranwen was the same way. That's how she knew her father was on the wall. But before she could reach Theoden, an explosion ripped through the battle.

Something had just blown up a rather large portion of the wall. She made her way towards the wall when she felt a vision. She quickly closed her eyes and willed the vision to be quick.

Men and Elves lay on the ground. The explosion had knocked them down after the wall collapsed from under them. Many were dead, but the ones who were alive managed to get up from the dirty ground and keep fighting. She watched as a Man, dressed very similar to her, with dark, messy hair, pulled himself up from the ground, sword gripped tightly in two hands as he rushed back into battle.

The Man was her father. Aragorn was alive and at Helm's Deep. He had been on the section of the wall that had exploded. She could find him! She staggered forward a few steps, still weak from the vision, before she could break into a run. She recklessly dodged and pushed her way through people, her determination driving her. Finally she reached the break in the wall and she jumped from it to the ground.

It was a hard landing and she nearly fell over. She tightened her grip on her sword and rushed into battle, slicing at the Orcs. In one smooth stroke, she managed to behead two Orcs at the same times before twirling around and stabbing a third. With lightening fast moves and fury, she made her way through the Orcs and kept her eyes open for signs of Aragorn.

It wasn't long before she heard the grumblings of Gimli the Dwarf nearby. He was complaining about something again. Aranwen rolled her eyes and headed towards his voice. He was mad about something.

"Nan barad! Nan barad!" Aranwen heard repeated over and over again. And then she heard a familiar voice saying it. (To the Keep! To the Keep!)

"Ada!" she screamed aloud. "Ada!"

But her cries were useless. As soon as she heard his voice, it is gone. Her hope faded and she followed the stragglers into the Keep. She momentarily sheathed her sword, its weight too much for her weak left hand. She knew that she would draw it again soon, but it eased the aches to slip it away for a short period of time.

"Brace the gate!" someone calls and Aranwen wearily jogs forward to join in. She is too tired to hunt down Aragorn.

Theoden is standing beside the gate and Aranwen catches wind of what he is saying to someone outside the gate. "Gimli! Aragorn! Get out of there!" he calls through the gate.

He was still alive. He was outside the gate.

"Fall back!" orders Gamling and everyone moved toward the Keep. "Retreat!"

Retreat? Why were they leaving? They were the only thing that stood between the Orcs and the women and children hiding in the caves. She knew how taxing the siege had been on everyone but they couldn't give up yet. Could they?

A few moments pass after her arrival in the Keep before Aranwen heard that a group of Men were going to ride out into battle in a last attempt to give the women and children time to escape. Aranwen pushed her way towards the horses and whistled for Star. Star eagerly replied and made her way to Aranwen's side. Aranwen mounted up and joined the small group of riders.

The group rides out onto the causeway and Aranwen unsheathes her sword and chops at the Orcs beside her, knocking them off and watching them fall to their deaths. Up ahead she can see Gandalf and Eomer and a large band of Rohirrim. Reinforcements had come. They were saved.

And then an Orc shield came flying at her head and Aranwen's world went black.

Author's Notes:

Hope everyone likes this chapter! I tried to get some good action in! And I tried not to take too long to update! Enjoy!

Reviewers!

IwishChan – There is always hope! Nope, she doesn't really notice because Helm's Deep is such a big place. Falling asleep made her miss her chance. : )

YoginiGal – Aranwen is about six months along at the moment. Not too much longer: )

ElvenRyder – No problem! Glad you like it: )

Fae Black – Most of the stuff I write is never read by anyone else. It's amazing just how much crap I've written that shall never see the light of day. I delete some things but I keep some pieces that I become attached to, incase I can modify them at some point or just to remind me what not to write. This story has a lot of odds and ends that will never make it into the story and some chapters have as many as 6 different versions of them written before I liked on. I'm rambling now. : )

ArwenFairTinuviel – Thank you so much! Hope you like it: )

Ainariella – That's very true. I'm working on those updates! School's a drag. Now that I've got this big battle out of the way, it should be easier to update. Which means faster updates: )