Silverhelm: A Tale of Two Enemies

Coming Back From The Dead Is No Fun

The next day, Freda did not ride with me. We were very close to Helm's Deep, which meant we had a larger chance of getting attacked. Everyone was tensed, especially the Riders. I rode beside Aragorn and Legolas, sun glinting off his golden hair, walked ahead. Two of the guards, Hama and Gamling went forward, their horses restless. I didn't hear what they said, but almost immediately, an orc astride a Warg charged down the hill and knocked Gamling down. Legolas immediately shot both, but not before Gamling was killed.

"A scout!" he shouted, turning back at us.

"What is it?" Theoden yelled ahead. "What do you see?"

"Wargs!" I yelled back. "We're under attack!"

"All Riders to the front of the column!" Theoden ordered. Aragorn and I complied, and behind us, Gimli struggled to get on his horse. At the top of the hill, Legolas stood alone, taking potshots at the approaching Wargs. When Gimli's horse neared, Legolas swung himself up into the saddle. Silvan Elves.

The Riders and Wargs clashed with full speed. I leaned out of the saddle, swinging at orcs. When I looked over to Gimli, I saw that he had fallen off his horse and had a dead Warg atop him. Sheathing Nahtar and seizing a spear from a dead Warg, I threw it at the Warg, which collapsed and also fell on Gimli.

I was riding to the outskirts of the battle to deal with escaping Wargs when one of the aforementioned wolves knocked me off my horse. Daelen recovered, not falling down, but he bolted, dashing away from the battle before I could remount. Turambar's fate. Feinting to the side, I embedded my spear in the Warg's head (it was riderless). Looking around for a steed, I spotted a Warg heading away from the battle.

I jumped on it, holding on to the saddle with one hand and fighting off the orc astride it with another. I succeeded in throwing the orcs off, but when I tried to get on to the Warg, it was going too fast. When I tried to jump off, I found that my nasty leather bracer was stuck in the stirrups.

Good Iluvatar, this hurts almost as much as when the dragon stepped on me. Also, this incident set my ribs ablaze again. You know what they tell you about Elves being perfect, and not getting hurt at all, and fast-healing? That's just Legolas. Sure, the rest of us can tolerate a lot of pain and keep going for a long time, but an injury like a broken rib- it'll heal, but it'll hurt. Ahem.

Eager to get me off, the Warg veered and zigzagged. However, my weight was in an unusual place for it, and it miscalculated (can Wargs calculate? Horses can.) and ran off the cliff. I cursed in Elvish and frantically tried to get loose. I succeeded by ripping the part of the tunic that held me there, but not before I actually fell off the cliff. I fell through the air, clawing for something to grab (though I was in the middle of the canyon). My body hit the rocks and tumbled into the river, and I immediately lost consciousness. I did not know it, but my unconscious body floated down the river, spreadeagled and face-down, and came upon the bank exactly as I had seen in Galadriel's mirror.

"May the grace of the Valar protect you," I heard a familiar masculine voice say. Then I felt someone kiss me and gently touch my cheek with the tips of his fingers. Though I was unconscious, I felt it distinctly: the fingers had calluses, an archer's hand. Then as suddenly as I had felt him, he was gone.

My eyes fluttered open. Where I had thought that someone had kissed me, a pitch-black nose was snuffling over mine.

"Daelen..." I gasped. He had come back for me, my blessed horse! Daelen bent down on his forelegs. I managed to roll over, put an arm over him, and pulled myself onto my Valinor-praised horse. Daelen rose, and rode off at a canter. I rode crouched, barely hanging on to the swaying horse. "I have never been so happy to see anyone in my life," I whispered.