The Wild Westfold
By: Lauthica Green Clinkenbeard
Chapter Fifteen: The Deeping Wall
The night seemed to pass all too quickly. The fortress fell into an eerie silence as the soldiers reported to their posts. The army of elvish archers lined the top of the Deeping Wall. Haldir stood a few feet to my right. Legolas and Gimli stood a few feet to my left. Aragorn kept hurrying back and forth. I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do. He was speaking only in elvish now and I had absolutely no clue what his commands were. I just stood there in silence until one of the archers leaned over to me.
"The elves can already see the Uruks drawing near. He is announcing it to everyone." The elf said. I raised an eyebrow and looked at the archer. It was a woman! I had forgotten about the equality of the sexes in elvish culture.
"Thank you. I fear though that as the battle rages other archers may not be so kind as to translate." I said.
"I promise as long as I am at your side I will do my best. I am Lisawe." She said and bowed her head down to me.
"Deya." I said doing the same.
"I could not help but notice that you were quite enthralled by Haldir. He is a good man. One of the proudest and most loyal to Lorien. He has watched many decades pass by but to this day he is still unclaimed. I think he may have been a little enthralled as well." She said. I felt my cheeks grow hot again and I glanced over in Haldir's direction.
"He is unlike any man I have ever seen before." I said in a hushed tone. Lisawe chuckled.
"I do find it odd that you would be so taken back by Haldir after spending so much time in the presence of Mirkwood's prince." She said. I looked at her and raised an eyebrow.
"Legolas? He is a fine man but he has never once pulled at my heart strings. He seems so plain compared to the presence that Haldir encompasses." I said.
"Legolas has always put duty before pleasure. I have heard it said that he rarely takes a lover. If I survive this night I may at least try to find myself in the warmth of his bed." She said.
I felt my whole body flare. I had forgotten that elves are a lot more open about…certain activities. If I were to dare say I wanted to share Eomer's bed out loud I would be shunned and scorned as a whore. I then felt myself grow even more bothered at the thought of sharing anyone's bed, let alone Eomer's….or Haldir's.
It was at this moment I heard a strange sound. It was a rhythmic sound, like a heartbeat. My eyes widened and I felt my heart turn into a lump in my throat. My gaze focused on the horizon of the ravine. Slowly, but steadily the glow of torches came into view. The sound was the marching of the ten thousand Uruk-Hai; they had arrived. Reality started to sink in. This was war.
I looked down the wall on both sides of me. Where I was growing fearsome and restless every single one of the elves stayed calm as if this was nothing more than a day's chore. I still had so much to learn.
"You could have picked a better spot." Gimli said. I turned to look at him and couldn't help but smile. Legolas stood calm and tall overlooking the side of the deeping wall while the top of Gimli's helmet just barely broke over the top. Aragorn walked up next to them. Legolas turned to look at him for a moment and then Gimli looked up at him.
"Well, lad, whatever luck you live by, let's hope it lasts the night." He said. Suddenly a great flash of lightning illuminated the entire ravine. I gulped as the terrifying faces of the Uruks turned sinister and wicked.
"Your friends are with you, Aragorn." Legolas said watching the great host draw nearer.
"Let's hope they last the night." Gimli said a little worried. Another flash of lightning struck through the sky. Aragorn walked back down the wall away from us.
TINK…..TINK….TINK, TINK, TINK.
I looked up at the sky as a steady pour of rain began to fall, landing on the stone of the walls and the metal of the armor around me. Great, nothing like a storm to make a deadly battle more interesting. Lightning continued to flash, thunder echoed off the mountains around us, and the rain fell straight down thick and heavy.
The gap between the deeping wall and the massive army of Uruks grew smaller and smaller. I heard Aragorn's voice carry over the wind still speaking in elvish. I leaned over to Lisawe.
"The Uruks will show no mercy. Do not let them receive it." She said. I nodded my head. I gulped again. I hoped I would not get close enough to an Uruk to find out. I was very fond of being on top of this very tall wall with a bow and arrows.
An Uruk-Hai stood at the top of a boulder in the ravine before us. He opened his mouth and let out a screech that chilled me to the blood. The advancing force came to a stop. Everything became silent apart from the clinking of the rain and clashing of the thunder.
"What's happening out there?" Gimli asked and tried to jump up to see over the side of the wall.
"Shall I describe it to you?" Legolas asked and he looked down at Gimli. "Or would you like me to find you a box?" Gimli started to laugh. I smiled to myself. The brief funny moment passed quickly as the Uruk on the boulder screeches out again and every single pike in the hands of all ten-thousand of the Uruk-Hai were all raised and pounded against the ground in perfect unison.
I heard the elves blow their horn again followed by another scratchy horn of the Uruk-Hai. I looked up when I heard the drawing of bowstrings. The Rohhiric soldiers were readying themselves.
"Urgh!" I looked back over to Gimli who was still trying to see over the wall. I looked back out onto the army. The pounding of their pikes went on for several minutes. Was this is? A game of intimidation? A my horse is bigger than your horse competition?
I turned my head sharply as the air was cut by a whistling arrow. The arrow flew from our side. Aragorn shouted something in Elvish, but Lisawe was too focused on where the arrow had landed to respond to my questioned look. I heard the faint noise of armor hitting the ground and then I heard the clamor of Uruks roaring and screeching. We fired the first shot….and we had killed. I suppose nine thousand, nine hundred, and ninety-nine was a little bit better than ten thousand.
The Uruk on the boulder screeched out again and pointed his flat, black sword to the Deeping wall. The army began to rush the fortress. I gulped and pulled an arrow out of my quiver. Whatever good and grace there was still left in the world, please please let the sun rise on Rohan alive and victorious.
Aragorn yelled out a command in elvish and every single one of the elvish warriors pulled out an arrow and drew back their bowstrings taking aim. Legolas said something too in elvish. This time Lisawe aided me.
"Aim for the cracks of their armor." She said to me shifting her own aim slightly. Aragorn yelled out another command in elvish raising his hand into the air. I needed no translation for this. As he lowered his arm back down I released my own arrow along with the hundreds of others that flew through the air.
"Did they hit anything?" Gimli asked Legolas.
Several Uruks were struck down. Everyone, including myself drew a second arrow and took aim once again. I heard someone cry out from the watch tower overlooking the causeway and arrows began to fly from the Rohhiric soldiers back to back down onto the Uruks. Aragorn shouted another command and the elves too were firing shot after shot. It was time to volley.
I had a total of thirty arrows when the battle began as I released my last one I counted at least twenty Uruks that were felled by my skills.
"Send them to me! Come on!" Gimli cried out gripping his axe. With the arrows dwindling in numbers I feared that Gimli would have his chance very soon. I gripped the hilt of my own sword. The Uruks had now reached the base of the Deeping wall. They started to fire their own arrows on black cross-bows. A few elves cried out as they met their ends. Some fell off the wall in both directions.
I heard a great noise of clanking of metal grow louder at the base of the wall. Aragorn cried out something in elvish again.
"Good!" Gimli said smiling.
"Ladders!" Lisawe exclaimed as she let her bow fall to her slide and pulled out a slender blade.
"Swords! Swords!" Aragorn cried out. I unsheathed mine quickly and took my most fierce fighting stance. The first ladder landed right in front of Gimli. He swung his axe up hard and cleaved the huge Uruk that came flying from the top of the ladder. The Uruks that were placed at the tops of the ladders were massive and welded huge, long swords that could take out five men in a single swing.
I spun my blade around as I ducked to avoid one of these swings and I cried out in rage as I embedded the tip of my blade into the chest of the Uruk. It roared out as it fell and I felt its blood splatter on my face. Several more Uruk-Hai now flowed from the tops of the ladders. I ducked and dodged and stabbed and ducked and dodged and stabbed. This was utter insanity!
I watch Aragorn get knocked over and nearly impaled but he sliced clean through the leg of the Uruk. Then I saw Gimli dive in-between an Uruk's legs and cleave him directly in the chest. When Gimli rose back to his feet. He turned around.
"Legolas! Two already!" he called out. Legolas was fighting off the Uruk's using his own bow as a make shift shield.
"I'm on seventeen!" Legolas called out back to Gimli smiling.
"AH! I'll have no pointy-ear out scoring me!" Gimli said and he turned and cleaved the next massive Uruk that came up the ladder right in its…..sensitive place. Legolas was still using what was left of his arrows and let two more fly from his quiver. He turned back to Gimli.
"Nineteen!" he called out. I rolled my eyes at them.
"What idiots." I said, but I could not relax for long. Another massive Uruk was approaching me. I charged him thinking he would swing and I would duck and slash as I had before but instead it was he that ducked and smacked the side of my leg with the flat part of the blade. I stumbled and fell down onto the stone. I panicked. I saw an arrow lying within reach. I grabbed it with shaking panicked fingers and I rolled onto my back quickly. I jumped to my feet and thrust the arrow as hard as I could forward. I heard the Uruk cry out as he took a few steps back. The arrow went square through his mouth. As he stumbled I swung my sword and his severed head rolled off his shoulders and off the wall.
Several of the ladders were being knocked over from the Deeping wall but it seemed that for every one we knocked over two more landed. Rain was pooling on my helmet and kept dripping down onto my face. Finding a spare second or two among the chaos of the Deeping wall I tore it off my head. Just in time, an Uruk with a crossbow turned and aimed his shot at me.
"Urgh!" I said as I hurtled the helmet toward him. It made contact right on his nose just as his shot was fired and his arrow flew harmlessly into open space. I rushed the stun Uruk and sliced him across his neck. He screeched out and reached up at his neck. I kicked him as hard as I could in the chest and he tumbled off the wall.
I was panting heavily and every time I swung my sword my arms and shoulders would scream. I saw an opening a few feet down the wall where Gimli stood. I hurried over to him. Two fresh ladders had just been raised and the Uruks were climbing like spiders towards us. I impaled an already bleeding Uruk and finally reached Gimli.
"Deya! Quick help me get up to that ledge." He said pointing to the wall side. I knelt down quickly and cupped my hands by his feet. He hurried up onto the ledge right in between the two ladders. "These bluggards are mine!" he yelled out. The Uruks reached the top of the ladders only to meet with the blade of Gimli's axe as he swung it back and forth.
"Seventeen! Eighteen! Nineteen!" he said as each Uruk was cleaved and fell from the ladder. I turned by back to him and kept a keen eye for anything that came within a few feet.
"Twenty! Twenty-one, twenty-two, AND twenty- three!" Gimli said as he continued to cleave. He was having the time of his life. I felt as if I would pass out any moment. Pass out….or be killed.
"CAUSEWAY!" Aragorn yelled out pointing across the ravine. He also yelled it out in Elvish. I spared a few moments of my focus to glance over. A large group of the Uruk-Hai were marching up the causeway to the gate. They had large metal shields covering their entire party and I found it odd that they were moving so slow. There was more to this group than the eye led on.
"RRRROOOOOOOOOAAAAARRRRRRR!"
I quickly turned my attention back before me but it was too late. I felt the blade slice across the side of my breastplate. I felt very thankful to Aragorn for suggesting the chainmail. Without it I would have been lying on the stones clutching my own organs as I watched my blood leave me. I looked at the Uruk and I felt my nose snarl up and I felt a great burning rage somewhere inside of me ignite.
"ARRRGGGGHHHHH!" I said swinging the sword through the air. I spun it around sliced across the Uruk's face. His helmet flew off and I brought my blade down hard into his skull. I stopped to catch my breath and I had to wince. The chainmail may have kept the blade from slicing me open but the sheer force of the impact had done something. I had to kneel down for a moment. My strength was leaving me. I began to feel like I was once again started to enter a glass box.
"Deya, come on! On your feet." Aragorn said as he appeared at my side. He too was panting. He reached out and grabbed my arm gently lifting me up.
"I can't do this anymore." I said.
"You must! We are gaining the upper edge and….." his eyes drifted down into the ravine. He quickly leaned over to get a better look and then he darted off. I stood slowly clutching my side. I tried to keep an eye on my surrounding but if an Uruk rushed me now I was done for. I heard Aragorn scream something out in Elvish to Legolas. I looked down into the ravine. One of the massive Uruk-Hai was running through the mass of the black clad army. He held a torch unlike anything I had seen before and the rain didn't seem to affect the fire in the least. I leaned over the side of the wall. Aragorn continued to scream frantically at Legolas. One arrow flew through the air and embedded itself into the thick neck of the running Uruk. Another flew and found its place on the opposite side of the neck. The Uruk was unaffected and just as he reached the Deeping wall he dove head first into the drain that was at the base of the wall under my feet.