NolitariHey! Good to hear from you, we were ready to post this chapter when your review came through so you're lucky we caught it! I love TTT as well, I think it may be my favorite.

Siriusly Sirius Lily BlackWell, you certainly have a longggggggggggggggggg list of wants for Santa don't you? We'll see what we can do about all of that, I think that this chapter should answer some of your wants as well. Keep reading okay?

warrior'sgambitSweet! We have up dated soon! And here let us slap you around to keep you awake!

Winkle: You can't slap around our reviewers and readers Sir that's just not right!"

Snodgrass: Fine but he said he was falling asleep! That's the last time I try and help someone!

AraelMoonchildYou keep reading and we'll keep up the story! And we will have to continue the Gollum impersonations of course!

crazyroninchicWe're so glad that you glad that we're glad that you glad and we're all glad together! You appear in this chapter as well. If we have missed anyone just let us know. Keep reading!

LadyElenath!There we have up dated!

Primevera Lily Tookhere is the answer to your desire to see a battle, with the promise of more in the next chapter! I am counting the days my dear Lily till we can enter Hobbiton for the first of many times! By the way is Gandalf going to be doing the fireworks? Or does me not do that anymore because he's too serious being the "white" and all that? Hummm have to think about that.

Valiant Warrioress (known as "Pancake" to half the kids in Mexico): I love, love love your name! What a hoot! I've been to Mexico on a mission trip as well! I was so glad to be there! The people are so different I declare it was like being in a different country!

Winkle: It was a different country sir.

Snodgrass: Oh shut up!

Slayer3: You get a kick…

Winkle: Say bottom! Please say bottom and don't tell me to shut up!

Snodgrass: Fine, bottom! There are you happy? Now go away! Ahem, Slayer3 you get to kick some bottom in this chapter as Haldir's schweetie heart and all so enjoy! The dance sounds interesting and all, but you are not a singing idiot in our story! Sorry.

AnnamariahAh faithful Annamariah you always do get around to reviewing! We never feel as though we can up date until you review! Now I will you sing you a little song for being such a dear! "Great is thy faithfulness! Great is thy faithfulness! Chapter by Chapter new reviews I see! All I have needed thy reviews provided, great is thy faithfulness! Anna to thee!

Winkle: Mr. Snodgrass, a publisher you are, but a singer you are not.

Snodgrass: OOOH! You asked for it now!

Winkle: No! No! Sir, I am sorry! Please don't….

Snodgrass: Oh shut up!

Chapter Nineteen

Wargs and Reaching the Deep ( as in Johnny Dep)


Barbie's POV

They just weren't ready. And already Háma was dead, felled by a Warg. I didn't see him die, but I saw enough. And for once I saw Legolas angry, shedding his calm-royalty mask thing, really driving that knife in the snarling Warg, then wrenching it out. Then I couldn't see him anymore, the press of men on horses around me blocking them out.

"What's happening?" I asked frantically, trying to see over their heads. One of the men turned to me, his face hard and grim, jaw set.

"It's Wargs and their riders. This isn't going to be pretty. You should go with the women and children, you just a girl yourself. Too young. Too young."

He turned away, still muttering those last two words, and shaking his head. And…I felt a brief thrill of genuine fear run down my spine. But I steeled myself, pushing those feelings away. I wasn't going to back out now, not when Rohan needed me so.

"All riders to the head of the column!" Theoden's voice rang out, and I tightened by hands on my reins. I was a rider. But I had a few questions too, so I maneuvered my horse alongside Aragorn's.

"How do you kill a Warg?" I asked quickly, our horses were both just at that restrained speed before a gallop.

"The necks a good place to start. Always begin with the Warg, the orcs are nothing without them. Watch out though, they have their own weapons."

I nodded. But I wasn't done yet.

"Is it all right if I'm a little scared?"

"You'd be a fool if you weren't a lot scared." Aragorn shot a sharp glance at me, and I felt myself straightening up in my saddle, lifting my chin up.

"Thanks. I needed that."

"Barb!" I heard Em's voice, and I swung round to see her waving frantically at me from the crowd of women and children.

"Be really careful!" she shouted. And then a tiny boy beside her yelled.

"Remember Jackie Chan!"

"And the Alamo!" I called back, not even cracking a smile. Then I kicked my horses side, and we galloped away, losing them from sight. I couldn't see anything, so I pulled my horse around till I was at the front of the column, one of the ones heading the charge. Already I could feel the adrenaline surging through my veins, sweeping away my apprehensiveness. So this was how Steve Irwin did it I thought wryly, and then almost screamed.

We were bearing right down on Legolas, who was so busy sniping at the orcs that he didn't seem to notice us.

"Get out of the way you idiot!" I shrieked, but my voice was lost in the thundering of the charging horses, and shouting men. Oh no! I thought, I could see the obituary now Legolas of Mirkwood, felled by a stupid horse.

Then my jaw practically hit my saddle as I watched. At the very last possible moment, when Mandos himself was probably cringing, Legolas whipped around, reaching up at the same moment, grabbing onto the horses mane. Then he swung himself through the air, landing behind Gimli, already reaching for another arrow.

Clue in Barb! Wargs straight ahead you nimrod!

Manwe protect us I thought, and yanked out an arrow, watching the advancing surge of Wargs spill over the ridge. I was going to have a ride toward these creatures, and shoot my bow at the same time while maintaining balance on my horse with no hands.

If Legolas could do it, well then so could I.

Twa-thung. Twa-thung. Twa-thung.

"Take that you suckers!" I yelled, right before our two forces met and clashed. The Wargs immediately took three of our horses, attacking their riders, ripping and snarling like demons. Wince.

Twa-thung.

The first meeting lasted about two minutes, with our side taking the heavier losses by far. The fighting was intense, and those who fell, fell hard. These were warriors.

Then the forces parted for a moment, we had ridden right through each other like a gigantic mowing machine. Then we wheeled right around, charging right back into the Wargs.

It was about this moment that the elves really swung into action, led by Thandiel, corporately known as "Haldir's shweetie." At this moment she was anything but sweet though, wielding a bloody sword. And then she sheathed it, all the other elven warrioresses ( is that a word?) did the same. What were the idiots thinking, this was a battle!

Then it got crazier. Thandiel pulled herself up onto her horses back, and was half-standing half-crouching on it as the horse raced directly at an oncoming warg. She called out terse, clipped orders in Elvish to her warrioresses, and different elves changed direction, heading this way or that. Then, as Thandiel's horse and the warg were just about to collide, a long knife shined in her hand as she leapt from her horse's back directly onto the bucking warg.

She and the orc wrestled for a few minutes, her knife against his rusty javelin. She finally got him good, right in the stomach. He screamed, and fell off, then she took out the warg, slitting it's throat. As it stumbled and careened into another dying animal, she flipped head over heels, landing with lithe grace. Good for her.

Here comes one for me.

I sighted along my bow, and for an instant, I met the orcs wide, yellow eyes. They glared back at me, full of malice, and a desire to kill. Well, now it's my turn. I released the arrow, and it sunk deep into his skinny chest. Too late, I realized I should have gotten the warg first like Aragorn said, it was coming on too fast.

"Jump!" Someone shouted this, and I jolted back to reality.

Hating myself as I did so I yanked my feet out of my stirrups and abandoned my horse to the mercies of the warg. I hit the ground, really hard, right on my backbone. I could actually hear the breath as it whooshed out of my lungs, and for a second all I saw was white.

The next instant I had to roll out of the way to avoid being crushed as a warg crashed to the ground close by. God, those things could've killed us just with their foul breath! What do they feed those things! Giving myself half a second to recover, I caught my breath, and jumped back out. Ow, my poor back.

I looked around, my bow ready. The wargs seemed to be everywhere, taking down horses, orcs fighting men on foot, other wargs surrounding the bodies and…oh no. For an instant, while I wasn't being charged or attacked, I seemed suddenly detached from the scene, as if I had a third perspective.

Everywhere I could see blood andworsesoaking into the grass, men collapsing to the ground as they were wounded, screams of the dying on either side filling the air. Horses being devoured as they were still partially alive, shrieking and whinnying. And myself, standing in the midst of this bloody whirlpool, bow drooping from my hand, doing nothing.

Nothing.

Barb you idiot get a hold of yourself!

I came to with a start, looking around like a sleepwalker awakened. Already I was drawing my bow, when I saw something that made my heart hit my shoes. Aragorn…and the warg. I couldn't let this happen, too many had already fallen.

"Watch out!" I screamed, but nothing could be done.

I watched in horror as the warg dragged Aragorn off the cliff. I tried frantically to think of what had happened to him, but I couldn't remember, my mind was blank for the time being. All I could think was that another had fallen, another life had been uselessly wasted. And I could hear that mans voice echo in my head again, that man I had seen killed in the first charge.

Too young. Too young.

Emily's POV

For once I knew what it's like to be filled with fear and at the same time be utterly helpless. I knew that if everything went according to book and movie none of the women or children would die, but what about the men? What about Boromir?

I wasn't able to dwell on that thought for more then a few seconds because we were running and riding away from the attack as fast as we could. I had a million children hanging off my horse and knowing that I couldn't handle the animal well under this conditions I forced another mother into it. These people were born and bred to love and control horses and it would be better if the children were with someone who knew what they were doing. I ran with Eowyn, her face was whiter then a sheet and set like a flint.

We ran and ran until we couldn't run anymore, and still none of the men showed up at all, not one. How long did the Warg fight last? We finally calmed to a fast walk and for the next two hour plodded on. We women took turns carrying the children, the older boys were trying to make it into a game by giving piggyback rides, but I could see that they were just as afraid for their fathers as everyone else.

Finally at about four in the afternoon we came over a ridge and one of the boys cried, "Helm's Deep!"

We surged forward and my breath stolen by the sight of the massive stone stronghold growing out of the rock. The cozy sight of smoke came from the inside and very faintly the movement of people. Eowyn stood watching as the people poured over the ridge toward Helm's Deep, I stood with her feeling terrible. I didn't want to go in anymore then she did, we were both waiting for someone.

"Eowyn, he will be coming back, I know it." I said, I hope she believed me. She nodded "I know , I know." and looked back across rolling hills we had just covered. "I am sure that both Aragorn and Boromir will return with my uncle."

We said these things to try and help ourselves believe that everything would be alright. I wasn't worried about Barbie, she always came out of these scratches with only bruises, no serious wounds.

I shouldered one of the backpacks and we trudged toward the vast stronghold. We were welcomed by another group of refugee's who had escaped the toughs that had been reeking havoc in the local villages.

We were the last to walk in with Eowyn, the people were already settling around the stairs and walls in happy little heaps. Almost immediately Eowyn and I hurried up to the wall to see if we could make out any approaching dust clouds. We saw nothing, nothing but the rocky terrain we had just covered.

"They'll come, they'll come." I said, pulling my cloak around me at the sudden blast of cold air off the mountain.

"They have so move slowly anyway if they have wounded men, it does no good to dwell on it." she said as her eyes scanned the horizon eagerly.

"A watched pot never boils." I said even as I wanted to stay on the wall, I knew that I had to help get the stronghold ready for that night. With a huge amount of reluctance we left the walls and went about finding out how much of everything we had.

I was mindlessly going around doing whatever Eowyn would tell me to do, my thoughts were on what I remembered of the scenes of the warg attack in the movie. And considering the fact that Boromir was supposed to die early would that make him more vulnerable?

"Dear God please protect my Boromir, I don't want to become a widow on my wedding day!." I prayed.

"May I help you my lady? That load is rather heavy."

I looked up and found a young man had already taken hold of my basket of potatoes and was lifting it to his shoulder. He was tall and thin, like Legolas, but he was obviously not an elf.

"Thanks it is a little bit much. And you are…?"

"Hadrien, guardian of the Deep. You are from Gondor I hear." he smiled a wide grin that lit his whole face from one end to the other.

"Well, not originally, but I am now. My name is Emily by the way."

"Yes, I know you're newly married this morning I hear, congratulations! I hope you and the Lord will have a very happy life together."

Thos was just wayyyyyy too weird to be congratulated on my wedding when I wasn't hundred percent sure he was even still alive. I started to laugh and snort a little at the thought, if I hadn't laughed I would have cried it was so ridiculous. I choked it back however at Hadrien's slightly horrified expression, and felt tears coming instead.

"Oh my lady are you well? Please sit down for a moment." he said and made me sit on the cold stone steps that were strewn with straw. He patted my hand and I cried, wishing I had a handkerchief to wipe my running nose. What I really wanted was to have both hands free and a nice dry Kleenex and be left alone.

As if he could read my mind the young man handed me a handkerchief of some kind and went on with the basket of potatoes. I felt tiny cold hands resting on my arm and I looked up to see Zara watching me, her eyes huge and scared.

"Are you afraid Lady Emily?" she asked her voice just above a whisper. "Cause my mum says that we're safe in Helms Deep, so you don't have to worry anymore."

"Thanks sweetie, I needed that…I just want my sister and Lord Boromir to be alright."

"Me too, Lord Boromir is really nice and wery Honorable." she said stumbling over the words.

Suddenly a happy cry came as Hadrien came thundering down from the walls. "OPEN THE GATES! THEY'RE HERE!"

A mad scramble ensued as families ran forward to greet there families, they were shoved back as the gates swung open and the riders poured in. It was a pitiful straggling bunch that filled the narrow walkway of the Deep. I had no idea how many we had lost until the first few families realized that their fathers, brothers and sons were not there.

Eowyn pushed passed me and said breathlessly, "So few!" her eyes searched the men, "So few of you have returned!"

Theoden's face was a blank mask as he moved away from her and wiped the sweat from his brow. "Our people are safe. We have paid for it with many lives."

He was gone in a second and I put my hand on her shoulder as Gimli took her hands saying gently, "My lady... "

"Lord Aragorn, where is he?" she asked lifelessly.

"He…he fell…" and tears poured over the dwarves beard and rugged cheeks. She sat down hard and I held her close like I would have Barbie, I found Theoden watching us and I merely nodded. He looked away and went on toward the hornburg.

Then I saw Boromir come through the gate his arm bleeding badly and a huge gash on his cheek soaking his collar a dark burgundy color. Behind him came Barbie with what was left of the elven warriors. I left Eowyn and flew into his arms crying and hugging them both to be certain they were really alive.

"It's alright Em, we'll be okay." sighed Barbie. Boromir nodded and cast on eye around the Deep, "We'll be safe here, these walls have never been breeched."

As I looked into his eyes I felt like crying all over again.

"I just wish that were true!"

Barbie's POV.

A hard-won victory. But we had reached Helms Deep at last, and I think collective sigh of relief ran through our small band. Our ranks had been terribly diminished, though we had won out at last.

One of the elves was dead, and rather than abandoning her body as we had been forced to do with so many others, they had brought it with them, not willing to leave her to the orcs. Beriadanwen, the elleth who had helped with the little kids was now carrying the fallen elf with her on her horse, face unnaturally blank. I think she was just reacting as so many of us had, by pretending we were fine, we were all right. As we rode through the gates, a tall teenager ran towards her, face full of sympathy and concern.

"Here, let me help you." I heard him ask as he gently helped to lower the body the ground. I wondered who he was, he definitely hadn't been around before, and he was too old to have been sent with the women and children.

"Thank you." she said in choked up tones.

I'm not sure why, but this little act of compassion had a somewhat odd effect on me, and I felt like crying. I didn't of course, but it made me even more curious about thatwell, he wasn't really a kid, but he wasn't an adult either, so teenager would have to suffice. The label didn't fit, but hey, what was I supposed to call him? A while later, while I was scoping out the view from the wall I saw him, and decided to ask.

"Hey, um, you." I called out, jogging along to keep up ( being so short, almost anyone can out walk or outrun me).

He turned around, and I almost did a double take. I kid you not, this guy had golden eyes! Seriously! And I thought was just for Mary Sues. Wait a minute! Mary Sues! I went up to him, and gave his arm a light pinch, to see if he would melt.

"You aren't a Mary Sue are you?" I asked. He looked nonplussed.

"I'm sorry, but my name is Hadrien, not, uh, Mary Sue." he said perplexedly.

"Yeah, I know it's not your name, Mary Sue isn't a nameI mean, it is a name, but not in this casethis time I mean a title, like, Scruffy Ranger. That's not Aragorn's name, but it's one of his unofficial titles, and I was wondering if Mary Sue was one of yours."

"You are a very confusing girl." Hadrien said, and I didn't really blame him. He looked at me more closely. "From what land do you hail?" he asked.

"From what land did I hail?" I thought "Hey, where's yo digs" was good enough for me.

"Um…ah, you see, I don't really come from anywhere around here. I don't think you would recognize the place." I said, dancing around the touchy subject of time-travel.

"Oh, I see." he said, then his tone changed. "We certainly have a lot of other distinguished guests tonight. Théoden himself, Lady Eowyn, Lord Boromir of Gondor, the Steward's son…and the elves. They are so beautiful don't you think?"

"Yeah, I suppose so." I said, a little taken aback at his enthusiasm." You kinda feel once you've seen one you've seen 'em all."

"I think could never tire of looking at them." he said "They're immortal, and perfect, and so graceful." He trailed off for a few moments. Then with start he turned to me.

"I know who you are." he said "You must be Lady Emily's sister! That's why you looked familiar. You look very much alike you know."

"No we don't!" I said "We both have dark hair and all, but that's about where it ends."

"If everyone else around you has blond hair isn't that enough?" he said.

"I suppose so, but you have black hair." I pointed out.

"That's true. I seem to be the only one around here that does…except forwho's that fellow over there?" I followed his gaze. There, looking absolutely muddy and exhausted and worn-out was our mutual friend Aragorn. Talk about sighing with relief!

"Thank you God." I said aloud. "By the by, who "are you" exactly?"

He sighed patiently. "I am Hadrien, Keeper of The Deep."

"Wow." I said "That, like, rocks! The initialsKOTDare a little awkward, but who cares. Keeper of The Deep. Very impressive. I don't have any title…except for maybe Lady Persistent Nag. LPN, wait a second, isn't that some kind of nurse or something?"

"You are…a very odd girl." he repeated.

"Yeah, well, you're cute too." I said, and ran off.

Emily's POV

It's late.

It's about midnight.

The sky has clouded over with thick black storm heads. The air is heavy with rain and pregnant with fear, all the young boys were just armed, taken from their mothers who scream and cry after them. I want to plug my ears and hide from the horror of what is about to happen. I helped Barbie prepare for the battle. I tightened her belt around her gleaming chain mail and made sure her quiver was full of arrows.

"Now if you get hurt just run back to us and we'll take care of you, I don't want you taking any unnecessary risks." I said.

"Isn't the whole night a bit of a risk?" she said, I just looked at her. "Okay if it's really serious I'll limp back to you okay? But not for any scratches. Besides Theoden put me in charge of the little boys with a huge pile of rocks and things to throw. We're pretty well protected from with we'll be standing."

"Remember the wall is going sometime tonight so you have to watch out for flying boulders and pieces of wall."

"Can't we just tell them about the wall? I mean it would save a lot of people form dieing." she said as I jammed a helmet over her head.

"Argh! Do I have to wear to of this things? It's so uncomfortable!."

"It would be a lot more uncomfortable to have an axe or arrow through your brain, so wear it." I said. I looked her over and she peeked at me through the layers of chain mail and protective gear. " And no, we can't tell them about the wall going, Theoden won't believe us anyway. Besides then if the wall would go there they would think that we were in on the enemies plans and maybe burn us as witches later. This is still a kind of the middle ages."

"Well I am going to warn him, we should at least try like we did with Boromir."

"Did you warn Boromir?" I asked, for some reason this had never come up in the general conversation.

"Nno not really, but I think that we must do something to stop it don't you?"

"I don't know for sure, Galadriel had said something like that but nothing for sure. Look we can't warn them it could cause some major problems later. Don't think that I haven't' felt horrible about the men and boys who are going to die tonight!"

"Than why can't we try!" she wailed. We stood there glaring at each other and in the next room I heard Legolas yelling at Aragorn in elvish. Tensions were high, but that little bit of humanity made us both break into a smile.

"I won't promise not to talk to him but you have to promise that you won't stop me if I do. Deal?" She said.

"Deal, now be careful okay?" I hugged her feeling like I was embracing a walking metal factory.

"I heard that!" she snickered.

"Ya know that reading peoples minds is going to get old after a while."

"Oh and how would you know? When I can't read a book, I'll read someone minds, you can't image what lurid reading an orcs mind is, yuck!"

"Get on with you! Honestly you can't even be serious when we're facing an all night battle!" I laughed and shoved her toward the stairs, she clunked up them and just as she reached the top she began to teeter backward. But before she fell Legolas who rushed by me in a bad mood caught her and set her back on her feet before rushing off to go and have a pity party.

I mean "HELLO" we're all fighting a major battle and we know we can't win, but talking about how badly we're out numbered isn't exactly the smartest thing that elf ever did. Besides the fact that we can now hear the tramp of the orcs feet in the distance. It was like low thunder, coming steadily closer and closer.

I went to the wall, and looked over the rows of men and elves that stood there weapons ready to defend their families. Theoden was giving last orders to Aragorn, Boromir and Gamling.

"Whatever happens Gamling you must protect the women and children at all costs. I won't have anything happening to Rohan's children. Aragorn your main power must center on defending the walls and keeping them clear of ladders or grappling hooks. Lord Boromir, you have the gates and hornburg."

As he assigned the tasks to each they nodded and gripped their weapons a little tighter in their battle scarred hands.

"I'm sorry that some of you must lose your lives tonight when many of you do not even hail for Rohan, for your help I thank you. I won't pretend that we are going to be victorious tonight, but at least we will make such an ending as will echo through history!"

"And it would too, we will always look back on this as an honorable battle won. At the cost of many lives." I thought.

They broke up and each headed for his respective place of defense, Boromir saw me and coming up he took my hands in his and we stood there looking at each other.

"When I said that we may not have longer together I had no idea how soon we would face something like this." he said.

"It doesn't matter, we both knew that we would come to it someday." I said focusing on the brass buckles of his vest.

"I want you to know that I was proud to be your husband even if it was only for one day. You are a beautiful woman Emily, even if you punched me the first time we met." he kissed my hands and release them.

As he walked away I ran after him, "Boromir, if you die in this battle I will absolutely kill you when you get home."

He grinned tucking my hair behind my ear and said "Then I shall stay alive, go on now. I love you."

I touched his handsome face and left without looking back, I went deep into the hornburg and through the doors into the caverns where all the women where waiting. I sat down near Eowyn and began what would be a very long wait.

Theoden's POV

I am a fool.

Why do I encourage my men to fight when all that can come this night is death? I pray that my father's, great Kings as they were are not looking down on me in shame. I feel so helpless as the men and elves line the walls of the deep. Even young Hadrien joins their ranks, flail and sword in hand.

I most remember that I have to be strong for my men and gave what hope to them as I can. If we die, we die, but I will not have them wait meekly for death. No that have never been our way, we will fight for life. I have to cast aside my own fears and fight, I must be strong.

I am a fool, but I am also a King.