The battle was nearing, and Aragorn was nearly ready. He wore a fine tunic of chain mail armor under the cloak he'd been gifted with by the elves. He'd strapped on the curved knife that Lord Celeborn had given him upon departing from Lothlorien across his back. But as he reached for his sword, the blade that had served him well in many battles it was not there.
He looked up and saw Legolas standing beside him, his blade proffered in the elf's outstretched hand. "We have trusted you this far you have not led us astray," the elf's face was deadly serious. "Forgive me I was wrong to despair."
Aragorn took his weapon and belted the sheath to his waist and meeting his friends piercing gaze. "There is nothing to forgive Legolas," without hesitation he slipped into the elvish tongue the melodic words coming easily.
The clinking of metal drew both of their gazes to a small figure stumbling in an oversize chain mail tunic.
Gimli was clutching a set of rings trying to look dignified while stumbling over the chain mail. "I do not believe this time we've mistrusted," the rings fell to the ground with a jingling sound. "It's a little tight across the chest," Gimli grumbled dropping his arms to his sides as Aragorn and Legolas exchanged knowing smiles. Then, a single clear note pealed through the keep and again loud and melodious. Legolas whirled to face the doors his voiced sounding shaken as he said, "that is no orc horn."
"Are you sure this is going to work Elwing," Asterin asked lowering the silver-plated horn from her lips. The pair sat astride two beautiful mares who galloped at full speed for the gates of Helm's Deep. The gates the men standing atop the walls bows at their sides. Her friend rose in her stirrups declaring, "we've come to speak with Théoden the king and mark of Rohan."
Silence answered her from the men on the wall and Asterin swore the elven words barely audible as she said, "take off your hood Elwing let them see your face, show them who you are."
With a swirling flourish the green cloak fell away from her friend's face, her mithril circlet glinting in the sun's dying rays like a band of stars upon her brow, her dark, curly hair rippling down her back as she shouted, "we come to aid you in your battle against the forces of Saruman, I am Elwing Halfelven of Rivendell and daughter of Lord Elrond."
Asterin grinned beneath her hood, her face veiled in shadow, strands of her light brown hair hanging over her ears. Her sword hung at her side and her bow, quiver, and knives rested against her back she was about to pull her hood off when a familiar figure emerged atop the walls.
The pair sat astride horses, one was still cloaked, and Legolas recognized the other in an instant, Elwing Halfelven stood astride her horse Farsha far looking more powerful than she had at the gathering of the council of Elrond. Her sword glittered at her side and her gold armor shone in the sunset while beside her rode a tall lean figure cloaked in the garb of Lothlorien elves.
He had opened his mouth to order the men to open the gates when a sly feminine chuckle rang out from below, "my Lord Legolas it is good to see you once more my friend." The hooded figure raised her hands and drew back her cloak, and Legolas stared down at the captain of his father's guard from Mirkwood, Asterin Leafall.
Open the gates," he shouted dashing down the steps his footsteps light on the stone ramparts narrowly avoiding Aragorn who was ascending the staircase. The massive oak and iron doors groaned open as the pair rode in dismounting to greet the men around them.
Asterin's hair swirling around her when she turned to greet a young boy hardly more that thirteen her ivory hilted knives gleaming polished in the final rays of the sun. Her Mirkwood bow no longer as a Galadrim bow sat upon her back alongside her quiver of arrows, Elwing stood beside her looking around the keep worriedly scanning each face. As he approached the pair Asterin turned facing him head on as she said, "mellon, it is good to see you are alive considering the circumstances of our current situation." With that she glanced over her shoulder and shouted, "Elwing use that diplomatic pull of yours to get us a meeting with the king so we can tell him the message we were sent to bring to him.
Suddenly a shout of relief rang through the keep, "Estel!" Elwing dashed past towards the wall a relived smile stretching across her face and a bewildered smile on the face of Aragorn when she threw her arms around him. The pair broke apart their faces going from joyous to grim as the spoke, their rapid elvish leaving the men around them stunned.
All the while Asterin looked around her hazel eyes finally meeting those of the King, as Théoden approached, she bowed ever so slightly at the waist, hearing Elwing and Aragorn behind her before stepping to the side to allow her friend to pass.
"King Théoden," Elwing's expression was kind as she regarded the people of Rohan causing the king to shift his grip from his sword hilt. "It seems that only in times of great danger for all can our people work as one," a soft smile spread across her face as a multitude of horns sounded from outside the keep, "so I bring with me a message from my father Lord Elrond and the Lady Galadriel."
A cry rang out from the ramparts one of joy and surprise as through the gates marched in cloaks of gray and green a legion of elves, their dark bows gleaming, the pure white fletching of their arrows bright in the pale moonlight. "There once was an alliance between elves and men, long ago we fought and died by each other."
As one the warriors turned and faced Elwing and the King as her face became stony and determined, her eyes like icy granite, "we've come to honor that allegiance."
Turning to face the walls she cried out in Sindarin elvish, "to the walls," and said returning to the common tongue, "We are proud to fight alongside men once more." Orders rang out, the enemy had been spotted, lines of black emerging from the horizon. As Elwing raced up the stairs Asterin grabbed a spare quiver packing the arrows into the quiver resting on her back and sprinting for the ramparts and the enemy approached. Her fingers fairly flew over her shafts as she ran the numbers in her head and did not like that which her mind revealed to her.
Peeling off to the left she dashed across the wall top nimbly dodging around the men passing the ranks until quickly she stopped alongside Legolas and the dwarf Gimli. And in front of them, the lines of enemies marched on towards Helm's Deep./
"The men are fearful," Asterin stood atop the walls of the keep on either side of her stood Legolas and Gimli. "As the should be," Legolas said, "even with the reinforcements the Uruks still outnumber us, the odds are well over hundred to one."
Gimli nodded in agreement, "their fear is palpable."A rakish smile crossed Asterin's face which quickly softened when she said, "you know what I say to that." Gimli shook his head as a slight smirk formed on Legolas' face. "To the pits of Mordor with the odds we, will win." A thoughtful look entered Asterin's expression, "I think I may be able to do something about the men's fear." She dashed off leaping onto a taller section of the wall and raising her sword to the sky and shouting aloud.
"Men of Rohan," Aragorn saw Asterin standing atop the highest section of the wall. "I know all seem lost, but I bid you remember, remember why you are atop these walls. Remember what you are fighting for," then a single clear note rang out high and loud through the air. A song powerful and hopeful poured through the air like honey.
Memories rose unbidden in his mind, memories of his childhood in Rivendell, and of his time with the Dunedain. Of playing with Elwing, Elrohir, and Elladan in the fields, and of Arwen who was willing to give up her immortal life for him, for love. Then more recent memories of traveling with the fellowship, all those of whom he held dear. And as the ancient song rang through the air, the men around him began to look less frightened, more prepared for the coming battle. Then the melody changed.
The confidence within her rose with the volume of her song, the battle songs of her kin. So, she sang, she sang for the warriors around her, and for those who were not. The beautiful ancient elvish melodies were written to bring hope in the face of terrible odds.
But then she moved to a different song, a rousing pounding battle melody that called for victory, and the shedding of black blood. Her voice rang soaring over the high notes with ease and dropping down arpeggios ranging from octave to octave. The song rose through the air coming to an epic climax. With a wonderous high note far above the others that had her grinning as she sang, the other voices fading away as her voice rose one more note and fell down a set of arpeggios that had her quieting to barely a whisper.
With that she swung down from the rampart onto the wall top her cloak swirling around her in a blur of green, sheathing her sword and landing beside the men of Rohan, now ready for war and as the rain poured down.
"Asterin," she ran her fingers down her bowstring as she glanced over her shoulder at Legolas who looked truly stunned, "I never knew you could…"
"What that I could deliver a rousing speech," a smirk graced her face as Legolas said. "No sing, it was truly beautiful," she lowered her bow with a smile, her fingers dancing along her bow. "For once I agree with the elf," Gimli grumbled leaning on his ax and jumping up attempting to see over the wall, "what is going out there." A grin made its way across Legolas' face as he asked, "would you like me to describe it to you, or shall I find you a box?"
Turning to the elves incredulously Gimli opened his mouth to retort the began laughing facing the enemy once more. Asterin drew back her bow looking down the shaft, "I heard you have a bit of a competition." A nod answered her as she asked, "mine if I join in?" Shouted orders rang through the valley as Aragorn strode between the ranks of elves who stood still as stone. "Show them no mercy, for you shall receive none." Elwing stood high atop the rampart her bow in hand as she shouted. "Prepare to fire," the creak of bowstrings being drawn, Elwing pulled back the string on her dark glossy bow the white fletching of her shaft tickling her cheek.
Aragorn stood beside her, his sword drawn and gleaming wetly in the rain, hanging at his side while she stared down her shaft at the Uruk standing atop a large rock in the center of the valley. Thousands of dark soldiers each bearing the image of a white hand on their armor, the mark of Saruman, and on the broad shields each of them carried.
Then a grunt sounded alongside the twang of a bowstring, a single shaft flew through the valley landing with a crunch in the neck of a Uruk. A ferocious roar echoed through the valley, and the Uruk-hai charged forward.
Their armor is weak at the neck and under the arm." Asterin's bowstring groaned as she pulled it all the way back the point of the arrow resting just in front of her knuckles, her body as taunt as her bowstring as through the air rang two shouting voices, "fire!" Then the twanging of hundreds of bowstrings snapped in her ears as Uruks toppled only to be trampled under-foot by their comrades, her blue fletched arrow soaring through the air as she drew back her bow again and released the string sending her shaft down into the enemy ranks. She moved across the wall standing beside the men as she pulled back two arrows the feathered fletching brushing her ear as she loosed the shafts at the advancing army.
"Ladders!" a voice rang out as four massive iron siege ladders began rising from the ranks dozens of Uruk-hai clinging to each one. "Bring them down!" Pulling a shaft from her quiver she drew back the string of her Galadrim bow, peering down the shaft towards the snarling army and anchoring the arrow next to her ear the blue fletching brushing against the pointed tip of her ear. But before she could release the shaft a metallic twang brough her attention the dark blur flying towards her.
Dodging to the side, she glanced at the flying object almost gasping at what her eyes saw, it was a short arrow cast in iron. A thud caught her attention and she turned to face the oncoming wall of Uruk-hai, loosing her shaft and knocking an orc onto the spears up held by the army. She heard a shout to her left as she sent an arrow thudding through an orc's neck.
"Legolas two already!" Gimli stood happily his battle-axe stained with the black blood of the Uruk-hai. An exhilarated smile graced Legolas' face as he called back, "I'm on seventeen."Disbelief and frustration made their way across the dwarf's face who promptly roared back, "what, I'll have no pointy ear out-scoring me," before turning to face the oncoming Uruks once more.
Elwing and Aragorn fought as a seamless pair, each back-to-back with the other silver swords flashing in the rain filled moonlight, the blades dripping onyx blood onto the pale stones. She sliced her sword sweeping it up to block a dark blade her sword shining brightly against the Uruk's sword. Twisting the blade, she brought the hilt of her sword up into an orc's face and with a powerful slash sent two Uruks hurtling off the wall. A flash of bright pure white fire caught her gaze, "Estel," she shouted directing her sword down towards the Uruk bearing the torch.
Aragorn whirled tearing off down the wall shouting, "Legolas, Asterin ana high!" Sword swinging, he fought his way towards the culvert gate ducking under an orc sword and parried it to the side as the two Mirkwood elves glanced down the rain slick wall.
Both immediately drew back the strings of the pale bows, their tawny shafts wet and heavy with the rain that was pouring down. A pair of arrows slammed into the Uruk as immediately Asterin whirled slicing her gleaming silver-white knife down across the chest of a Uruk who toppled to the ground. Turing around and reaching over her shoulder she sent another arrow thudding into the orcs side as he disappeared under the wall. Panic seized her as she saw Aragorn cross over the culvert and shouted, "Estel," sheathing her knife she sent an arrow thudding into the torch-bearer. Racing across the stones slick with both scarlet and onyx blood, reaching for her silver knives as the orc threw itself forward.
Then the world went black with a flash of pain an immense blast, and a brief feeling of absolute weightlessness. And the Deeping wall that had stood unbroken for many years was breached.