Remains of the Banished | Aragorn || Lord of the Rings

XXII

The ride continued without pausing for a long while. As they came to the crest of a hill, Legolas peered out in front of them.

Hama and Gamling trotted far forward and Eadrid shifted in her saddle, looking for what Legolas could see. 

Then Eadrid saw it. A Warg and his rider that had appeared at the top of the hill across a small valley. 

"Wargs!" Eadrid yelled to Aragorn. She turned Aiyla to face the rest of the people. "We are under attack!"

Legolas shot the Warg and retreated to his horse, but many were already after them.

"Get them out of here!" Aragorn called to Theoden.

Theoden moved to beside Eadrid at the front. "All riders to the head of the column!"

Eowyn came beside the King. "You must lead the people to Helm's Deep, and make haste." Theoden said.

Eowyn shook her head. "I can fight."

"No! You must do this, for me."

Eowyn looked at him for a moment, then looked to Eadrid, who kept her eyes forward on the enemy ahead of her.

Eowyn turned quickly and urged the people to move quickly.

Theoden turned to look at Eadrid and the men behind her. "Follow me!"

Eadrid followed after him, the rest of the soldiers forming a line behind them. As they approached the Wargs, Eadrid unsheathed her sword and pointing it right at the beast that came her way. As they were about to collide, Aiyla swiftly dodged it, and Eadrid sliced through the Orc that rode it in a clean sweep of her blade.

This continued as Aiyla wove in between the Wargs, always getting close enough for Eadrid to be able to strike with her sword. 

They reached the end of the valley, a line of carcasses behind her, and had Aiyla turn around. As they did, three Wargs closed in, the Orcs snarling and drool falling from the beast's mouths. 

As they began to circle around her, Aiyla backed as far as she could before being stopped by a wall of boulders at the bottom of the hill. Eadrid lifted her sword as the middle Warg leapt at her. She prepared to dodge and strike, but the Warg only squealed and dropped in a heap on the ground. 

Then the other two followed it to the ground, and Eadrid saw arrows buried in each of their right eyes.

Aragorn trotted next to her, and Eadrid gave him a nod as he put his bow back around his shoulder.

They ordered their horses into a gallop and pushed forward together. A warg saw them and Aragorn and Eadrid met eyes quickly. They unsheathed their swords and approached the Warg.

As they passed it, Aragorn swept his blade through the orc's neck, and Eadrid quickly swept under and up through the Warg's neck, her sharp blade cutting easily through thick flesh and bone. As the Orc slumped over the fallen Warg, Aragorn and Eadrid stopped and looked around them. 

Not many of the enemy were left, and it seemed to her that their chances of victory seemed high.

When she looked over to Aragorn, he was nowhere to be found. She looked up the hill and saw him sitting on a Warg, fighting with its rider.

"I look away for one moment..." Eadrid muttered. She dismounted Aiyla and took to the few orcs that were left without a beast. She sheathed her sword and reached for the two daggers she kept strapped to her thighs.

She scraped them together as the orcs charged her. As they came upon her, Eadrid in swift motions moved from orc to orc, deflecting their weapons and slashing through their thin armor. The last orc charged her with his spear pointed to her chest. As he neared her she stepped to the side, gripped the wooden shaft, and ripped it from the orcs hands. She snapped it over her thigh into two jagged pieces and struck them into the orc's sides. 

It collapsed to the ground and Eadrid wiped the sweat from her brow. She looked around her and caught her breath. She saw horses lying on the ground, a few riders with them, and sighed.

"Aragorn?"

Eadrid turned to Legolas.

"Aragorn!" He called again, looking around the cliff top.

Eadrid's heart pounded as she ran to Legolas. "What is it?" 

Legolas shook his head. "I cannot find him, Eadrid."

Eadrid's head whipped around to an orc on the ground, laughing and coughing in his own blood.

She crouched over him and pointed a dagger to his throat. "Where is he?" She growled.

"He's...dead. He took a little tumble off the cliff." 

Eadrid grabbed him by the neck and got close to him. "You lie."

With a final laugh he spluttered blood onto Eadrid's face. She wiped it and only smeared it across her face. She looked down to the orc's hand, where she saw a glint of metal. She pried his hand open to see Aragorn's ring, the Ring of Barahir, that had been passed down to him through his ancestors. Eadrid seized the ring and looked to Legolas in disbelief. 

She turned to the edge of the cliff and walked to its edge. She stared below her, but saw nothing more then a tumbling river.

Eadrid looked to the ring in her hand, two serpents with crowns above their heads, an emerald stone in its center. 

Eadrid headed to the side to go down the cliff, to search every part of the river, when a hand gripped her arm.

"Get the wounded on horses." Theoden said to her, Legolas, and Gimli. "The wolves of lsengard will return. Leave the dead."

Eadrid ripped her arm from him. "I need to go down there. Let me-"

"Eadrid." Theoden said in a soft voice. "You have a duty to your people, do not be blinded by your love."

"I am not blinded, I cannot leave him there!" She said, her voice shaking.

Theoden wrapped his arms around her, kissing her forehead. "We must go." He said as he pulled away and turned quickly on his heel, leaving her alone on the cliff's edge. She looked once more to the river. Turning the ring over in her hands, she slipped it over her thumb and followed after her father. Legolas and Gimli stood before her and looked at her with sorrowful eyes, but she shoved past them and did not look back.