Disclaimer: If you think I created all this, you need to take an urgent, one-way trip to the loony bin. I used a lot of direct quotes from the book, but Lita is all mine.
Battles, and other Not-so-Pretty Things
They had been riding for nearly five hours, which resulted in giving Ayelita a very sore backside. The excitement had worn off and she now sat in a prominent slump. As Ayelita stared blankly ahead, Legolas rode up to her. "You do not appear to be as enthusiastic as you did when we departed."
"Hmm, my ass is sore," remarked Ayelita dully. As soon as the words left her mouth, she wished that they had not. "Ehhh…."
Legolas sniggered. "I see that you are tired of riding. We should be stopping for the night soon."
As if on cue, moments later someone up ahead called a halt to make camp. Everyone gratefully obliged gathering and dismounting in a wide circle. As soon as she dismounted, Ayelita stretched and bent this way and that to work out some of the painful kinks in her back and lower body. A ring of very unfortunate mounted guards was set around them.
Most were weary and settled down to sleep the minute they set their feet on the ground. Ayelita was somewhat tired herself, but when she sat, she knew that she would not be able to sleep. Some would say that she had insomnia, but she knew that to not be the case. It was just how Ayelita was. If not worn-out, she slept very little, perhaps only a few hours a night. Most of the time simply resting with her eyes closed, but not sleeping, was enough for her. Right now she did not feel like resting at all.
As Ayelita looked around, she saw that Legolas was awake and did not appear to be going to sleep anytime soon, either. She crossed the several feet that separated them and sat down, crossing her legs and leaning back on her hands. "Can you not sleep, Ayelita?" Legolas asked.
"No, and call me Lita," she responded, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear. Legolas's eyes went to her ear; at the top it came to an unusual slight point.
"Alright, Lita. If you do not mind, I could not help but notice that you are…different from the rest of your people," Legolas said cautiously.
Lita nodded, knowing that he meant to ask 'why.' "That's because I'm not of the Rohirrim. I came to Edoras seven years ago, when I was thirteen, from a village near Linhir."
"You are of Gondor then?"
"Well… no. Not fully." The look on Legolas's face told her to explain further. "On my mother's side, my grandmother was from Minas Tirith while my grandfather was an Elf from I-have-no-idea-where." Lita pointed to her ears with a slightly conspiratorial look, "That explains the ears."
Confusion now showed in Legolas's eyes. "But, mortal/elf unions are so rare, surely someone would have heard of it?"
Ayelita pursed her lips, "No, and that's because it didn't last."
"Ah."
"Anyway, the family on my father's side was entirely Haradrim."
"Haradrim?!" Legolas was surprised. "But are they not… savages?" Lita gave him a paint-pealing glare that was a sharp contrast to her normally light-hearted disposition.
"Sorry," apologized Legolas, seeing that he had offended her.
"Most people encounter a few corsairs and judge the entire people of Harad by them. They don't bother to find out who we really are," Lita told him quietly. She added with a twitch of a grin, "but many Haradrim can be fierce when they want to be."
Legolas made a mental note to himself to not judge people without ever having interacted with them first.
"You know, you are the first full elf that I've ever met," Lita said, changing the subject.
"Am I?"
"Yes. The only Elvin person I have ever met was my mother, who was only a half elf. I can hardly even speak Elvish."
"Would you like me to teach you then?" offered Legolas. He crossed his legs to make himself more comfortable.
"Alright!" Lita would love learning more Elvish. She yawned widely. "Do you want to start tomorrow? I am finally starting to get tired now."
The next morning, the party took off within an hour of dawn. The air was unusually hot and heavy for that time of year. Ayelita felt wary of the darkness in the East and the darkness away to the north-west. She did not need to be powerful or wise to know that it was unnatural.
The day was already in the afternoon when a horseman came riding back towards them, causing them to halt. Lita edged her horse forward, curious. The horseman, gasping, clambered from his horse. Upon finally gaining his breath, he asked, "Is Eomer here? You come at last, but too late, and with too little strength. Things have gone evilly since Theodred fell." He went on to tell of the great forces of hillmen well as monsters that Saruman had loosed on them and how the survivors, lead by Erkenbrand, had to draw back to Helm's Deep. There was no hope, he said, and the host should return to Edoras before it was attacked also.
Lita's stomach plummeted deep into the earth to be replaced with cold dread upon hearing this. She was not stupid; she had not expected to chop up some orcs and gain immediate glory. But only now did the true peril of their situation sink in. Earlier, Lita had not anticipated numerous men dying; the loss of hope; having to give up and turn back so as to protect what was still left.
Théoden rode forth and said, "Come, stand before me, Ceorl! I am here. The last host of the Eorlingas has ridden forth. It will not return without battle." Lita did not know whether to take heart at this determination or to dread even more this battle, in which the odds seemed to be stacked precariously against them. Perhaps it was both. The king then cried, "Let us ride to the help of Erkenbrand!" Either way, there was no turning back now.
Gandalf then rode slightly ahead and told Théoden to ride on quickly to Helm's Deep. He had a swift errand to run. With a word from Gandalf, Shadowfax dashed away like an arrow into the sunset. Scythe snorted and fidgeted for an entire minute, eager to follow, before Lita could calm him down. "Redundant horse," she muttered with a tsk.
The host turned back from the Fords of Isen and headed southward, to Helm's Deep. They rode into the night. Aragorn, Legolas, and Eomer, beside whom Lita had been riding, moved up into the van. She followed them. Receiving no objection, she assumed that they did not mind. On and on they rode, encountering few enemies except for the occasional roaming Orcs, who fled upon sight of them. Behind them, more and more of the enemy could be heard. A large host was following them.
"Would that day was here and we might ride down upon them like a storm out of the mountains!" Aragorn exclaimed. "It grieves me to fly before them." Lita wondered whether he was brave or stupid, but knew better than to ask. She had no urge to run heedlessly into an entire army of Saruman's evil followers. The mere thought of it froze Lita's limbs with fear. This too worried her. Lita had thought herself brave and, if memory served her at all, she was brave. Then what happened? Was she not so courageous after all? Would she, when the time for battle came, freeze up in terror, unable to fight properly?
The host rode into Helm's Deep to be met with Gamling, the old leader of those that watched the Dike. They were informed that at Helm's Deep there were about a thousand men fit for fighting, but none of them were the best warriors of Westfold. Gamling was concerned that Erkenbrand may be dead. Théoden reassured him and then said, "But we cannot await him here. We must draw all our forces now behind the walls. Are you well stored? We bring little provision, for we rode forth to open battle, not to a siege."
"Behind us in the cave of the Deep are three parts of the folk of Westfold, old and young, children and women," Gamling replied. "But a great store of food, and many beasts and their fodder, have also been gathered here." As he said the 'children and women' part, Gamling shot questioning look in Lita's direction, no doubt wondering what a, as far as he could tell, woman was doing among the battle-ready men. Lita was by now beginning to wonder the same thing.
They set at the ready, with the king and his household in the Hornburg and Eomer with his men on the Deeping Wall. Lita went with Eomer's company, having already gone the journey with them. With her were Legolas, Gimli, and Aragorn.
Lita and Gimli leaned on the parapet while Legolas sat on top of it. The parapet was so high that Lita could hardly see over it and the top of Gimli's head did not even reach the edge. "This id more to my liking," Gimli said as he stomped around. "There is good rock here. Give me a year and a hundred of my kin and I would make this a place that armies would break upon like water."
"I do not doubt it," Legolas said. "But you are a dwarf, and dwarves are strange folk"- Lita made a noise of amused agreement- "I do not like this place, but you comfort me Gimli, and I am glad to have you standing nigh with your stout legs and your hard axe. But even more would I give for a hundred good archers of Mirkwood."
"It is dark for archery," Gimli told him. "Indeed it is time for sleep. Yet my axe is restless in my hand."
"I don't understand you," Lita said. "How can you be eager for battle? I admit to being scared out of my wits."
"Do you not- Oh no," Legolas broke off his question with a look of despondent realization. "You have never been in a fight or battle, have you?"
"No, I have not."
Legolas looked as if he were about to say something, but didn't. Instead they spent the next half hour silent, Lita fidgeting in anxiety the whole time. Suddenly, they heard yells, screams, and the fierce battle-cry of men coming from the Dike. Men galloped back to the Hornburg. "The enemy is at hand!" they bellowed. Lighting abruptly flashed, lighting up the Dike: it was crawling with dark shapes, some short and squat, some tall and grim. Hundreds upon hundreds poured into the Dike as the cold rain lashed down on everyone. In that moment, a new emotion seized Lita's heart. It was as sever as the freezing fear, so it took her a second to figure out what it was: a flaming ferocity.
Arrows rained over the battlements. Despite the assault, there was no answering challenge from their end. The attacker paused, confused. But in a beat trumpets rang out and the enemies rushed forward. Finally an answer came in the form of a gale of arrows. Lita's adrenaline burned unsatisfied; she had no bow.
The enemy mustered and charged again, with shields above them as a roof. They bore two large tree trunks, and rammed them into the gates with a resounding boom. "Come!" Aragorn, who'd been standing near them, called to Eomer. "This is the hour when we draw swords together!"
They raced like the wind along the wall to the outer court upon the Rock, gathering swordsmen as they ran. Seeing the chance for some action, Lita sprinted after them, followed closely by Gimli.
They reached the end of the stairs and sprang through the door at the rammers. The rammers dropped the trees and fought back. One of the wild men came at Lita, sword raised to strike. In a flash, she blocked his blow with her right knife as she stabbed him with her left. A next attacker replaced him; who Lita kicked down over the edge of the Rock. The remaining wild men and orc-archers soon got the idea and fled.
As Lita approached the gates to stand beside Aragorn, she saw that their hinges and iron bars were bent and that much of the wood was cracked. Several more blows and the gates would have been broken.
"Look!" Eomer said, pointing to the causeway. Many orcs and men were already gathering there. "Come! We must get back and see what we can do to pile stone and beam across the gates within. Come now!"
They ran back. As they ran, twenty-something orcs leaped to their feet from where they had lain among the dead. Two of them crept up behind Eomer and were quickly on top of them. Seeing this, Lita whirled around and, before the orcs even knew what was happening, simultaneously slashed both of their throats. The rest of the orcs fled. Eomer heaved himself up just as Aragorn and Gimli ran back to help.
When they were all back safely inside, Eomer turned to her and said in a heartfelt way, "Thank you, uhh-"
"Ayelita"
"Ayelita! I did not even know that you were with us," he said slowly as he looked at her in what could best be described a confusion. "I shall not find it easy to repay you."
"Then do not give yourself a headache trying to think of a way now."
With this, she and Gimli returned back to their places on the wall. "Two!" proclaimed Gimli, boasting of a pair of orcs that he had slain while they were driving back the rammers.
"Two?" Legolas asked. "I have done better, though I must now grope for spent arrows; all mine are gone. Yet I make my tale at twenty at the least."
Lita did not know how they were so light hearted about war, but couldn't help but add, "Four."
During the next several hours, the battle grew worse. The enemy seemed to grow while the attack on the gates was redoubled. Grappling hooks and ladders were put up against the wall. Men kept throwing them down, only for them to be replaced with more. Lita had several close calls. Once, as she shoved down a ladder, one of the orcs on it managed to catch her on the side of the head as he flailed his arms. The blow threw her back, almost knocking her out. She would have been driven through by an orc that had managed to get over the parapet had Legolas not slain it first.
As Lita struggled back to her feet, she heard Gimli shout above all the noise, "Ai-oi! The orcs are behind the wall. Ai-oi! Come, Legolas! There are enough for us both. Khazad ai-menu!"
Oh on, Lita thought vaguely as she rushed after them, trying to re-gather her wits. She paused for a moment as the men behind her rushed at the terrified orcs. Her head working properly, Lita joined in at once. The orcs were quickly driven back, every last one being slaughtered. Having lost sight of anyone she knew, Lita looked around for them and spotted Gimli over by the culvert, commending a troop of Westfold-men.
He was instructing them in closing it up. This not being her type of work, Lita ran back up to the wall.
There the assault continued, though not quite as fiercely. Seeing a man fighting three orcs at once, Lita came up behind, driving her knives through two of them. The fight continued on this way for another half hour, during which Lita finally began to grow quite weary. At a lull in the assault, Lita staggered over to Legolas, who leaned on the parapet beside Aragorn and Eomer, whetting his long elvish knife.
"No fair," she said with a grin, "your knife is prettier than mine are." The corners of his mouth twitched in response. Lita propped herself against the wall, her exhausted legs barely supporting her weight.
Gimli and Gamling then showed up. "Twenty-one!" Gimli proclaimed.
"Good!" Legolas said. "But my count is now two dozen. It has been knife work up here." Lita had no idea how many she'd slain, having been to busy trying to stay alive to count.
As the group conversed, there sounded a loud blare of trumpets followed by a great explosion. "What the fu-," Lita started to mutter, wide eyed in confusion. She looked around to see a gaping hole in the wall where the Deeping stream was. Through it, a swarm of dark shapes poured in.
"Devilry of Saruman!" Aragorn yelled. "They have lit the fire of Orthanc beneath out feet." He lunged into the breach.
But as he did so, over a hundred ladders were raised to the wall. The last assault swept in like a wave. Lita, gathering her last energy, turned to fight, but could just barely prevent herself from being butchered. She and the rest of the defense were driven back further and further into the Deep, many backing into the caves. Some managed to fight their way to the citadel. Lita was one of those, and only because she was directly following Legolas and Aragorn. A broad stair climbed from the Deep to the Rock and the back gate of the Hornburg.
Upon reaching the bottom of the stair, Aragorn turned to defend it so that all that reached it could go up to the gate. Lita, though being beyond exhausted, stopped and raised her knives to aid Aragorn in his task. As soon as she did so, Lita felt a mighty tug on her left arm roughly dragging her backwards up the stairs. She immediately tried to pull away, but her exhaustion left her too weak to do so.
"Let me go," Lita protested vehemently. She turned, still stumbling up the stairs, to see who it was that dragged her. To her surprise, Lita saw that it was Legolas. He did not let go until they reached the top.
"What did you think you were doing?" he demanded. "You are too weary to walk, much less fight. Get in there." He gave Lita a nudge in the direction of the gate, then knelt on a step, aiming his bow at the first Orc that would dare to approach.
Seeing no other option, Lita obeyed. As Lita propped her back against the wall, her legs decided to give out. She slowly slid down to the floor, becoming aware of just how exhausted she truly was.
After several moments, the two came through the door, Aragorn hurriedly shutting it behind him. Upon seeing Legolas, Lita suddenly felt a wave of gratitude and affection sweep through her.
"Things go ill, my friends," Aragorn panted. Lita couldn't bring herself to care, just being glad to be alive (no thanks to her).
"Ill enough," Legolas said, "but not yet hopeless, while we have you with us. Where is Gimli?" It was only as he said this did Lita realize that she had not seen anything of Gimli since the beginning of the assault.
"I do not know," replied Aragorn. "I last saw him fighting on the ground behind the wall, but the enemy swept us apart."
"Alas! That is evil news," Legolas said. Ayelita agreed.
"Let us hope that he will escape back to the caves."
"That must be my hope, but I wish that he had come this way. I desired to tell Master Gimli that my tale is now thirty nine."
"You're still keeping count?" Lita asked incredulously.
"Certainly," said Legolas, as if it were the most normal and sensible thing to do.
Aragon then left without explanation. Lita was too exhausted to bother asking where or why; she just sat there, resting and thinking. Random thoughts drifted through her mind. So this is war. Not as bad as I had feared. But at the same time, it was as bad, and worse. It was just that the adrenaline rush temporarily subdued her fear, and the constant fighting did not give her any spare time to think of the near hopelessness of their situation. I wonder what became of Gimli…?
After some time, Aragorn returned, saying that he was going back to the wall. Legolas immediately went with him. Lita sighed. I should probably go back out there instead of sitting here on my ass, she thoughtSlowly she hauled herself to her feet, not eager to continue on with the battle. Lita stood a moment and gathered her concentration and energy then went out to re-join the fighting. The next hour and a half went much as the previous ones had, with Orcs reaching that top of the wall over and over again to be thrown back down over and over again. This was getting tedious.
Finally, Aragorn went and stood above the gates, addressing the enemy. He was met with jeers; they demand that he come down, and bring the king with him. Aragorn refused, and said, "I looked out to see the dawn." He then continued to do his best to scare off the enemies. A great power and royalty could then be seen in Aragorn, and it caused the wild men to worry of what he said, looking over their shoulders and up at the lightening sky. Great job, Aragorn, Ayelita thought, greatly impressed.
The Orcs, however, merely laughed. There was a blast of fire, and the archway above the gate where Aragorn had been standing blew up. He jumped out of the way just in time and ran off. The Orcs yells in triumph. You had better have something good, thought Lita, mentally addressing Aragorn. Even as she finished thinking this, a mummer and stirring of alarm went through the enemy. Suddenly, the sound of the horn of Helm rang out loudly for the tower above. Many Orcs fell to the ground cowering and covering their ears with their clawed hands.
Lita looked back into the Deep in wonder. "Helm! Helm!" the people shouted. "Helm is arisen and comes back to war. Helm for Théoden king!" And the king came, riding his white horse. With him rode Aragorn, and behind him rode the lords of the House of Eorl. Out of what used to be the gates they charged.
More men from the caves ran forth. Eager to join this time, Lita galloped down the stairs. With her poured out all the rest of the men in the Deep. None of the enemy survived them. Because of this, Ayelita did not much bother with fighting, but instead focused on reaching the front to see what was occurring there, for further on the Orcs cried and wailed, as if they met something that they feared.
Finally, after much running, Lita reached the front of the company. She stopped. She stood. She gapped. Fore, where there had been a great open green field, was now a forest. "What on Middle Earth-," Lita said in awe. These were no new trees either, they were tall, tangled, moss covered, and had their roots firmly buried in the ground. How the hell did those get here without anyone even noticing?
The host of Saruman did not know where to go. Behind them a huge and mighty company of Rohan, in front of them was the strange forest, which they would not enter for love or money.
Just then, upon the ridge, a white rider appeared. Behind him, horns sounded and a thousand men on foot poured down the hills. Amid them was a tall man bearing a bright red shield. He raised a great black horn to his mouth and blew. The hosts of Isengard were left with no choice. They ran wailing into the trees to never be seen again.
"Ekrenbard! Ekrenbard!" the Rides shouted in joy.
"Behold the White Rider!" Aragorn cried. "Gandalf is come again!"
"Mithrandir, Mithrandir!" Legolas babbled in excitement and delight. "This is wizardry indeed! Come! I would look on this forest, ere the spell changes."
"Wait!" Lita yelled, running after them. "I have no horse!"
A.N.: Here it is! A bit of a long wait, I know, but at least this chapter's nice and long. What did you think of it? Good? Bad? Ugly? Pleeeeese review telling me what you think! I'll try to post Ch.3 sooner.