Only Time

Ch. 28 ~ Helm's Deep

We rode swiftly; the sky had already darkened and looked foreboding. But was little of no concern to us. Our only real concern was to get there with plenty of time to spare before the Uruk-Hai arrived with their killing machine. Haldir and I were in the front of our elven brethren. We had two riders at our flanks holding flags. All were armed to the teeth; bows and plenty of arrows to spare, swords, plus rope for a later plan that I had foreseen myself and the sword wielding elves using. I also had my shurikin; lots of them tucked into a satchel at my back. Haldir stole glances my way as we rode towards Helm's Deep and battle. Finally, I caught him looking and asked him:

"What is it? Did you see something?" He shook his head.

"It is just that I have never seen you look so fierce before, you are totally immersed in the upcoming fight. I can see it in your eyes, in every movement your body makes; the fluidity of it. Just something new to me is all." He said with a small smile. I smiled back remembering that he was never with me in the battle a century ago.

"Well brother mine, you have not seen anything yet. Now we do as we agreed. You taking front flanking positions and I with the more trained sword wielding elves will take the back?" He nodded; we had already worked out our strategic stances.

As we approached the mighty fortress of Helm's Deep from the mountain side, we found the area we had located on the map where we could hide our steeds until after the battle. We would march the rest of the way on foot. We had done just that with Sunset being particularly unhappy with the situation, and my soothing and having him promise he had to stay put until I called him; no matter how much he disagreed he also knew he could not disobey so he just neighed unhappily.

We lined up, with Haldir at the front and me hidden amongst the archer elves as a bit of an added surprise to my beloved Legolas as well as the other fighters. The princess had come to fight alongside men and her true love. I was ready to show once again my skills as a warrior. As we approached Helm's Deep, one of the elves sounded our horn and we marched up the front toward the gate which was promptly opened for us. We marched through it and toward where Haldir saw King Théoden; the latter looked stunned as Haldir bowed and spoke:

"I bring word from Elrond of Rivendell. An alliance once existed between elves and men. Long ago we fought and died together. We have come to honor that allegiance. We are proud to fight alongside men once more."

As Aragorn embraced Haldir welcoming him warmly, Legolas came down and did the same as the Galadhrim turned uniformly toward them. These were highly skilled regimented elves and then as Haldir finished speaking he looked Legolas straight in the eyes and moved his head to the left with a smile. Legolas followed his gaze as did the others as slowly the elves parted and I stepped forward and took the hood of my cloak off to reveal my face and then pushed the cloak behind myself so that I could reveal myself entirely.

All the humans in attendance gasped, Aragorn and Gimli bowed formerly to me and Legolas stepped forward toward me as his eyes searched mine. He put his arms around me then and whispered in my ear:

"Are you ready for this, my beloved?" I smiled as his breath tickled but I did not break concentration as I answered him.

"I was born ready."

Very quickly, without any pretense, Aragorn explained who I was to King Théoden who nodded but one could see he was hesitant yet it was not his place to contradict me nor to tell me whether or not I could fight this war. He was just glad he was getting more help. Finally, the time had come to prepare for battle; Haldir, Aragorn, and I discussed our battle stances and we were just fine taking orders from him; meaning Aragorn.

Without furthermore ado, we spread out to our designated spots with Haldir and the more efficient bowmen on the wall while the long shot elves who were also more sword proficient were behind the wall waiting for the inevitable onslaught. I put my hand on the handle of Altherial and I could tell she was ready for whatever was in store. Prior to us leaving, I had made her extra sharp so she could penetrate the toughest of metal and iron; but no one knew that. Before we went to our places, Haldir and I looked at each other one last time.