Believe it or not, even in a dress, Éowyn is a pretty good sparring partner, though not a great cook… But anyways, we were sparring in order to "build up function in my now useful dominate arm", or something like that that Hayaden said. Suddenly, as I was about to deliver a blow, Aragorn's ever-so-trusty knife cut in, no pun intended.
"You have skill with the blade," Aragorn nodded to Éowyn.
I simply put my knife-dagger away, having stopped before reaching Aragorn's, but Éowyn has to swing her sword around to release it from its contact with Aragorn's blade.
"Women of this country learned long ago: Those without swords can still die upon them. I fear neither death nor pain." Éowyn said. Noticing this was great bonding time for them, even if Aragorn's got Arwen, I slipped away quietly.
~oOo~
Since I have little to no possessions that I'm not already wearing (necklace, small traveling bag, etc.) it's stupid for me to have my own horse, I could just trade off with someone, but Aleece refused to let anyone else ride him (little possessive thing he is) and Jack's still following me around the place.
We walk around lakes when I finally see Éowyn, who I had been looking for, for some time. "Éowyn!" I called out. She turned and gave me a questioning look, "Can I talk to you?"
She walked over to where I was and said, "Yes?"
"I see you've taken an interest to a certain son of Arathorn," I smirked. Her cheeks took on a hint of pink. Her eyes suddenly widened and she looked and me and then where Aragorn was walking.
"He is not your husband, is he?" Éowyn gasped, "Because I would never steal a married man!"
These kinds of moments, in cartoons, are where people have recently taken a sip of coffee and do a spit take because of said shocking news and need for correction or confirmation. For me I could only gape at her, "You- you think Aragorn and I are interested in each other? No, no, dear Éowyn…" I shook the idea out of my own head; Disturbing. "But he is engaged, trust me, I was their wedding ring."
Éowyn looked at me funny, "You were their… wedding ring?"
"Aye," I nodded. "His heart lies with Arwen Undómiel, daughter of Lord Elrond of the Rivendell elves. He has the Evenstar necklace, as a proper wedding token." Rather than a human being to get rid of… see if Elrond gets any present once I introduce Middle Earth into Christmas… ehem. "But you'll find your prince charming… just don't get killed." I muttered at the end.
"What?" Éowyn asked, shocked.
"Nothing," I waved her off. "Go listen to Gimli, I have a feeling…" I left it at that. Stop looking at me; I can play Galadriel for one day, can I not?
"Is that her, father?" A voice said from the side of me, I looked over and saw a fascinated young boy and Háma, so I'm going to guess that the kid's Háma's.
"Yes, Haleth. That is the woman I've told you about." Háma chuckled. The kid was cute, like your favorite cousin cute. Probably about my age, if I were to guess… actually, if I were to guess I'd think that Háma's trying to hook me up, but I know he's too Middle-Earth to do that.
"I'm Haleth, son of Háma," Haleth said, giving a bow. "It's a pleasure to meet you, m'lady." Before he could go and kiss my hand and all that, I stuck my right hand out to shake.
It's not that he's a bad kid, in fact the hand-kiss stuff was sort of cool at first, but ever since I got that slobbery kiss from that bar-guy, I refuse to do it ever again. Haleth seemed a little taken back at my un-ladylikeness, but quickly recovered and gave a firm shake.
"Ruth, no titles included," I said, giving a pathetic curtsey.
"That's a pretty name," Haleth gave a goofy grin. What happened next, I'm glad about; because if it weren't for Haleth's buds calling him over, it would have gotten real awkward…
"Sorry, Lady Ruth." Haleth said with another bow, "I hope we'll meet again sometimes." And with that he walk-ran over to his buds.
"It looks as if you have an admirer," Háma chuckled.
"Indeed," Legolas said, coming over. "It seems that young Haleth has taken a liking to you, Ruth."
"Oh, who invited you?" I playfully rolled my eyes.
"I did," Legolas smirked.
Suddenly laughter was heard as Gimli's horse came barreling its way to the front, leaving poor Gimli on the grass yelling, "It was deliberate!" Sure Gimli, sure it was.
~oOo~
That night we stop for a break and in my hands is a bar of chocolate, my emergency bar. I had no plans to use it this night until I remembered from the movies that Éowyn would try to serve me… what she calls strew. It was emergency chocolate or get food poisoning before a battle. I chose to eat the last of chocolate.
"Gimli?" Speak of the devil. She stood before us with a pot of stew in her arms, offering some to the poor dwarf in front of me.
"No," Gimli shook his head, "I couldn't, I really couldn't." Couldn't stomach it?
"Ruth?" She moved onto me next.
"Sorry, got my chocolate." I grinned.
Éowyn moved to her next victim, Aragorn, who was innocently cleaning his sword. "I made some stew," Éowyn said. "It isn't much but it's still hot." Aragorn, however, didn't get a say in whether he needed any food or not, for Éowyn was already serving him a bowl.
"Thank you," Aragorn said, he tasted it and I could feel the grimace radiating off him… wait that makes no sense. Éowyn looked concerned but Aragorn covered his slip-up soon enough, "It's good."
"Really?" Éowyn asked. I'm going to be cruel and say not a lot of men genuinely compliment her in that skill. Éowyn turned to walk away, in which Aragorn tossed some of his soup out beside him, Éowyn, however, turns back around. Sorry Aragorn.
"My uncle told me a strange thing," Éowyn said. "He said that you rode out to war with Thengel, my grandfather. But he must be mistaken." Hm… maybe I should have mentioned that Aragorn was 87 years old… oops.
"Kind Théoden has a good memory," Aragorn said. "He was only a small child at the time."
"Then you must be at least sixty!" Éowyn gasped.
"Ooo, a betting pool." I say. "Hey Legolas!" I call the elf over. "Unless you know Aragorn's real age, take a guess at it."
"I unfortunately do know Aragorn's real age," Legolas gave a sincere smirk, however that works.
"Okay, moving on, Gimli?" I asked.
"I'd guess seventy-two." Gimli said with his pipe between his teeth.
"Hayaden!" I called my mentor over, "Wanna guess Aragorn's age?" He gave me a 'really?' look but sighed.
"Forty?" Me and Legolas burst out laughing at that answer. Soon enough my trusty Rohan friends came over and put their two cents in.
"Guys, these are my friends," I roll-called them off and then the betting begun.
Aric guessed thirty, Gwen guessed twenty-seven with a hint of suggestiveness in her voice, Faida refused to guess his age and Lucian guessed that secretly, Aragorn was Chuck Norris in disguise. I knew I should have kept him away from Chuck Norris…
"So what's your age?" Lucian asked.
Gwen smacked him over the head, "You never ask a person their age!" Hm, I could have sworn that rule applied to women.
"Sorry to disappoint," I announced. "He's eighty-seven." Éowyn was quite shocked, and whatever suggestivity Gwen had was long gone by now.
Finally Éowyn got it, "You are one of the Dúnedain. A descendant of Númenór, blessed with long life. It was said that your race had passed into legend."
"You really are Chuck Norris!" Lucian cried with joy.
Aragorn chuckled, "If it amuses you, then yes, I am 'Chuck Norris'." I smiled and handed Aragorn a piece of chocolate. Oh you have no idea what you just got yourself into, I thought.
~oOo~
The next day we went back into the routine of walking/riding. Maewyn and I were talking about my culture's sports compared to her culture's sports. Just as we were going over the Kentucky Derby in comparison to the big horse-racing event in Rohan, I remember that, in the movies, Háma gets killed, before I could even do anything, Aragorn yelled, "Warg! We're under attack!" and I knew that Háma was beyond my saving.
Left and right, people of Rohan begin to panic, having never dealt with a Warg attack in an open plain. Only the soldiers (riders, as Théoden put them) know what to do, the ones with weapons and ability headed to the front of the column. I remembered this morning that I carefully planned what I was going to do in this situation (yes, I remember the attack, just not Háma's death, because in the books it wasn't till the Battle of Hornburg). I gave Aleece a slap on the tush, with Maewyn on it, and sent him to Éowyn, where she was leading the people to Helm's Deep.
What did I just get myself into? Now with only my throwing knife and the magical knife-dagger (I've still yet to decide what to call it, how about I just call it Finnick? Welcome to the family, Finnick) to defend myself, and a bunch of orcs and wargs, I felt a little hopeless.
A body presses against my back, I hear my mentor's voice, "Steady breaths," ...wait a minute! That was no mind-pep-talk! That was my real mentor actually fighting back-to-back with me! I'm saved! Slash, hack, parry, swing, stab, slash, swing, hack, hack, hack… oh my god warg just die already!
"I highly doubt it's going to listen to you," I heard Hayaden say as yet another orc fell to his much more skilled sword stabbing. Oh, and I said the whole 'die already' thinking out loud? Oops.
We kept fighting until they were all dead, that's when I remembered the ending of this scene…
"Aragorn!" Legolas called.
"Aragorn?" Gimli called as well.
Because I couldn't take the stupid laughing orc in the movie, never mind in reality, I just slit its throat and told the two the terrible news. "Aragorn fell, dragged off the cliff by the warg." I didn't bother being gentle when getting the Evenstar from the dead orc.
I handed it to Legolas, "For safe keeping." Théoden's already staring at the river, and soon enough we all are. I know he's alive, but I can't help but mourn… let us hope that Arwen/Brego goes and kisses him back to life soon enough.
"Get the wounded on horses. The wolves of Isengard will return. Leave the dead." Théoden ordered. Leave what part of the dead? The bodies? Or did they wish for us to leave their memories… because I know I will never forget Háma nor Aragorn, even if the latter isn't dead. Legolas looks at him disbelievingly and Théoden places a hand on his shoulder, "Come." He says, and walks off. We didn't leave immediately, but we left eventually.
~oOo~
In Helm's Deep, I saw Haleth sitting on the staircase, away from his friends, elbows on knees, head in hands and tears down his face. I wrapped my arms around him and silently let him know that it was okay to cry, there was no shame. We'll never be completely strong.
"Go find you mother, love." I whispered to him. "She needs you more than ever now." I watched as Haleth walked in an unfocused line to find wherever a poor widow would be.
Somehow, I don't know how, my mind began to picture those fierce wargs. They all looked male, like the soldiers who defended the Rohirrims. But where there any females? Perhaps they had loves to come home to, maybe even children… maybe, like how they stopped a father from ever seeing his son again, we've stopped a warg from ever seeing his love again. This was just a theory, for all we know wargs could spring out of cabbage patches.
"Ruth!" My daydreaming had been disturbed by Legolas shaking me forcefully.
"What?" I snapped, not in the mood.
"You need to get into the caves." He told me. Get the women and children into the caves… like hell I wasn't going to fight!
"If you think that I'm go-" I began to rant, Legolas held up a hand to silence me. He leaned close and whispered.
"Personally I think they're being picky," he said. "Rohan needs all the help it can get, do what you want, I was just telling you the will of the King. But if you happen to fight…" Legolas smirked and leaned out. "Throw on a helmet, you're blonde like everyone else." Which was true, quite a lot of Rohan people were blonde, with long hair. But Éowyn's gonna kill me when she finds out I just stole her Mulan role…
"Tell me, future-reader." Legolas said. "If ten depart from Rivendell, how many return?"
I answered as honestly as I could, "If nine depart from Rivendell, than eight will return."
"And what about that tenth?"
"Was never suppose to be here in the first place. Tenth isn't from here." I covered my mouth, wasn't suppose to let that slip out, I was only suppose to think it. Noticing the question look, I answered, "Tenth is from a different world…" And then I left, before Tenth could embarrass herself further.
I run over to where Aragorn returns. The women whisper things of life while other yell, "He's alive!" A crowd gathered already and I have to shove my way through, I shove to his back, so I jump and tackle the poor thing.
"Aragorn-whatever-your-other-names-are! Don't go scaring us like that ever again! The poor elf's so bad that I could beat him in a sword fight!" I yelled.
"He must be pretty bad then," Aragorn cheekily commented, earning a slap on his good arm.
I still haven't gotten off his back when I hear Gimli as he shoves his way across the crowd, "Where is he?" Gimli says. "Where is he? Get out of the way! I'm going to kill him!" He finally reaches Aragorn.
"Killing the king of men seems unwise." I told Gimli.
Gimli, ignoring me, shook his fist and said. "You are the luckiest, the canniest… and the most reckless man I ever knew. Bless you laddie."
"Whoa!" I have to cling on tighter as Aragorn's roped into a dwarf-hug. "The king's over there, by the way!" I hopped off and pointed to the hall. I run there first, of course. "HE'S ALIVE!" I shout.
I run into Éowyn and tell her, "He's alive." I almost watch her run over, but then we see the Evenstar get passed back, so she just watches.
~oOo~
I find Aric in the cave with a woman hugging onto him. It's his mum. "Aric," I walk over. "Have you seen Lucian?" He pointed over to a figure kneeling by a blanket. "Thanks."
"I've got to fight at Helm's Deep," I hear Lucian say to a half-awake-half-dead figure on a blanket. "But I'll come back; I always come back for you."
The woman held out a shaking hand that placed itself on her son's cheek, "I know you do." It was more air than words that came out, but the message was clear. Then Lucian began to sing something I didn't know he heard me sing once…
"Nothing's gonna harm you, not while I'm around." He was a pretty good singer, "Nothing's gonna harm you, no mum, not while I'm around…" He didn't have the british accent that I did when I sang it. So it actually made it a bit more beautiful. "Demons are prowling everywhere, nowadays… I'll send them howling, I don't care, I've got ways…" I guess that's all he knew, because he just hummed the next verse.
"Demons'll charm you with a smile, for a while." I sung that part, much to Lucian's surprise. "But in time…"
"Nothing can harm you." Lucian sang.
"Not while I'm around…"
The woman fell asleep, yes, asleep not dead, we checked, and Lucian turned to me. "I didn't know you sang."
"I didn't know you've heard me sing." I crossed my arms and playfully glared. Lucian chuckled. "Was that your mum?" I asked.
"Yes," Lucian suddenly said sadly. "She's not doing well; I sometimes think I only come back for her."
"Go get some armor on." I told him, as I watched other boys be dragged away from their mothers as well. I never knew this about Lucian, the guy that nothing could get down… he's really a scared, upset boy, who's losing his mother.
"Then I shall die as one of them!" I heard Aragorn say in a raised voice. He and Legolas glare at each other, than Aragorn walks off. Legolas is about to follow him when Gimli catches his arm.
"He's just tense," I told Legolas. "He needs to blow off some steam." Realizing I need to get a helmet, I was to the armory.
Just as I found one that wouldn't blind me, Aragorn appeared and began to put on his chainmail. "He speaks truth," I told Aragorn. "We all think we cannot win. But you speak truth as well; we will die as one of the Rohirrim's; fighting." Legolas magically elf-appears as well with Aragorn's sword.
He says some elvish thing and all's good. 'Cept that we're going to die… "That is no orc horn!" I realize that movie-Haldir and the movie-elves are here to save the day! We run out to meet them.
Haldir stands there and says, "I bring word from Elrond of Rivendell. An alliance once existed between Elves and Men. Long ago we fought and died together." He notices us. "We come to honor that allegiance." Now what does Haldir do? Oh… he dies via head injury.
I take the helmet I held and placed it on his head, "Watch your head at all times!" I played that so smoothly I doubt he suspected a thing, especially since I ran away after.
~oOo~
Peter Jackson makes the whole pre-battle scene from the Battle of Hornburg longer than if it was in a soldier's eyes. In a soldier's eyes, you're clinging onto what could be your last moments of life. And besides, anyone else knows what happens in the battle…
Basically, the old man accidentally shoots uruk-hai in the neck, the enemy gets angry… we shoot a lot of arrows at them while me and Gimli stand there waiting for us to get some action. Then the crossbows come out. I watch in horror as the kid, probably only seven, gets shot and dies from next to me. The ladders come out and that's really where the action happens. I fight my way over to the ladders and try to push them down, try to be useful.
"Twenty one!" Gimli called.
I remember the two ladders I've pushed down plus the seventeen orcs I've killed. "Forty five!" I yell. Gimli looks at me shocked. Then the uruk-hai with the torch and possible immortality came running through.
"Togo hon dad, Legolas!" Aragorn shouts. One shot doesn't kill him. "Dago hon! Dago hon!" Legolas fires another arrow but it doesn't kill him because the orc dives into the sluice.
"EVACUATE THE WALL!" I scream, about to run. The bombs beat me to it. It wasn't getting thrown off the wall that hurt, it was slamming into a piece of stone that did it. Blackness began to cloud my vision and the last thing I heard was the spitting of orcs.
"Here she is! The otherworldly one, he called her."
~oOo~
"I don't see why we can't just kill her now and eat her!" One of my kidnappers complained.
"Because, stupid." Another one hissed. "He wants to get… information from her."
I pretended to be still unconscious, though I could hear every sickening word they said. It didn't take too long to reach Isengard but it was very obvious that it had turned into the next day. I just hoped that Merry and Pippin and Treebeard were already there flooding the place.
As my luck had it, it was only Saruman there. I was led to him, with my hands bound behind my back. "What do you want?" I snapped.
"Mind your manners," Saruman tutted. "I'm simply going to… negotiate with you."
"I would never agree to anything you offered!"
He raised an eyebrow, "Are you sure? What if I said that, in exchange for knowledge of the future, I could send you back to your 'Earth'?"
That struck me. A chance to go back home? A chance that I could once more see my family, and all those that I loved dearly? But that would mean a chance for Middle Earth to fall… and who knows if Saruman would uphold his promise.
"I'd tell you to go fuck yourself!" I spat.
"Watch your tongue, girl!" That received a whack from the staff. "Fine, than perhaps you'll consider this proposition more appropriate. Tell me of the future, and you will not be burned."
Okay… so we haven't really changed the offer except that he's not trying to sound nice this time. A loud roar was what woke us from the intense glaring contest we seemed to have. The Ents are about to take Isengard with rock and stone, and Saruman knew that as well as I did.
I smirked, "You wanna know the future? Fine. The Ents are marching towards us."
Saruman gave me one last glare before ordering two orcs with a basin of oil to dump the liquid onto me. I was lead to a wooden log atop a bed of flammable things, my arms slipping the wooden post between them.
"I did promised a burning," Saruman said, shooting a ball of fire at the flammable material below me.
The song was "Not While I'm Around" from Sweeny Todd: Demon Barber of Fleet Street. I just fell in love with Toby and the song so I put it here. Long chapter (like, longer than the last) and according to Tintcalad, my best! Well, we come to times of sorrow and joy... the end! (Of the Two Towers!) So that means I'm posting an end chapter today or tomorrow! Yay!
If you have any questions/comments please send them in now! If I get enough, I can use that for the next part! Whoopee!
Disclaimer: According to Google, copyrights made before 1978 lasted for 95 years. J.R.R. Tolkien's the Lord of the Rings was published in three volumes over the course of a year from 29 July 1954 to 20 October 1955. Therefore 1955 plus 95 is 2050, and today is only 2014. So I cannot possibly own this piece of literature. Not to mention that I'm using movie-script, so Peter Jackson really has those rights after J.R.R. Tolkien... and he's not dead in addition to 75 years.
:-: Olympic Gold Penguin :-: