Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ The Two Gundams ❯ Rohan Invaded! ( Chapter 3 )

Chapter 3: Rohan Invaded!

After the funeral of King Théoden's son, refugees turned up to report that vast hordes of wild men were invading Rohan, burning everything and slaughtering everyone as they passed. This news was especially dismaying given that the bulk of Théoden's forces, the formidable cavalry known as the Riders of Rohan, led by Eowyn's brother Eomer, had been banished by Grima while he was still running the kingdom as a proxy for Saruman.

“We cannot stand against these men in Edoras,” Théoden said angrily. “This is a city of wood. They will set us aflame and hundreds will die. We must retreat to the safety of Helm's Deep. That stone fortress can easily withstand their primitive weapons.”

Quatre glared sternly at Heero to make sure he made no comment regarding Edoras' implied inability to stand against these same primitive weapons. “Is it far?”

“A day's walk,” Théoden replied. “We can make it easily.”

“Even lugging women and children?” Gimli said. “If we're caught in the open, surely that would be worse than here.”

“The women of Rohan are sturdy,” Eowyn interjected in a firm voice. “We can endure any hardship.”

Aragorn acknowledged her statement with a nod, but he turned a doubtful gaze on Théoden. “Are you certain this is the wisest course, Théoden? There is no escape from that fortress. If you are caught in a siege, hundreds may still die.”

“But we will emerge the stronger,” Théoden declared. “We have survived this way before. This is my decision. We will go to Helm's Deep.” He lowered his voice and faced Aragorn worriedly. “Besides, we have no choice. We have too few men to defend the city. We can do more with less at the fortress.”

Gandalf frowned but he nodded. “Perhaps this is our only course, but you will need help before the end. I will ride out and look for Eomer. We will meet you at Helm's Deep.”

“Thank you, Gandalf,” Théoden said gravely.

“Just make sure you hold the siege!”

Treize frowned. “I'm not sure I want Alexa to go through a siege. A simple fight is one thing, but bombardment by siege engines is unpredictable.”

“I agree,” Zechs said. “Alexa and Jett are a little young for a siege battle.”

“You need not fear,” Eowyn said. “There are caves in back of the fortress where non-fighters stay during the battle. This is well away from the bombardment and completely safe.”

Duo blinked. “Jett, in a cave, startled,” he said. He exchanged a look with Heero. “That's sounds extraordinarily bad.”

“Are there stalactites in these caves?” Wu-Fei asked.

“Yes,” Eowyn said. “The caves are full of them. It's quite beautiful.”

“And completely deadly when Jett knocks them loose,” Heero concluded. “So what do we do?”

“I can take them to find Pippin and Merry,” Zechs said.

“How do you plan to do that?” Legolas asked. “Gandalf said they were beyond our reach.”

“Jett can find them,” Duo said. “She's good at that.”

“Do you mind going?” Treize said to Zechs. “You'll miss the fight.”

Zechs lifted an eyebrow. “I'm a pacifist, remember? Of course I don't mind.”

Treize chuckled. “Of course. I'll miss you, though.” He gave Zechs a sultry look. “We'll have to make it up to each other later.”

“Slowly and deeply,” Zechs purred.

Eowyn's cheeks turned pink.

“Very well,” Aragorn said loudly. “If this is the plan, we should make ready and leave at once.”

“We'll travel with you until Jett says we need to go another way,” Zechs said.

Aragorn nodded.

So with the decision made, the evacuation of Edoras was begun. Gandalf departed immediately on Shadowfax, promising to arrive with Eomer and his forces at Helm's Deep in a few days. Not long after, with bundles on their backs or in small carts, the population of Edoras set out for the long walk to Helm's Deep, escorted by the few Riders remaining in the city.

The Gundam pilots, traveling on foot so their horses could be used by others, had barely exited the gate when Roku began to shift uncomfortably.

“I've been a human for two days,” he said to no one in particular.

Quatre gave him a look.

“My fur's all matted.”

“How can you tell?” Legolas asked curiously. “You don't have fur in this form.”

Roku scratched behind his ear. “I just know.”

“There are a lot of people,” Wu-Fei remarked. “Someone's bound to be afraid of you.”

“I'll flank the column and stay out of sight.”

“The Riders need to know,” Quatre said. “They have scouts out. If one of them spots you, he might sound an alarm. I can just see these people stampeding and getting scattered all over the place.”

Eowyn, who happened to be passing at that moment, overheard this remark and frowned. “Our people will not stampede,” she said. “We understand that we must follow orders to allow the Riders to defend us.”

“In that case,” Quatre replied, “please have King Théoden pass word to his Riders not to worry about the tiger in our midst. He's with us.”

“Tiger?” Eowyn questioned.

“Yeah, me,” Roku responded, and he shifted into tiger form.

“Eek!” Eowyn squeaked. She took two quick steps back. Her eyes flicked to Quatre and back to Roku. “Is he a sorcerer?”

“Yes,” Quatre said, “but he's a good guy, like Gandalf. Anyway, this is his normal form, so he's more comfortable like this.”

Roku padded up to Eowyn and licked the back of her hand. “I like belly rubs,” he said. “My tummy fur is really soft,” he added hopefully.

After a brief hesitation, Eowyn reached out and petted Roku on the head. He rubbed against her thigh. “Oh, my!” Eowyn exclaimed. She petted him some more and smiled. “I'll go inform my uncle.” She gave Roku one more pat and then hurried off.

“Well, that was easy,” Quatre said. “But be careful anyway, Roku.”

“I will.” Roku trotted off and disappeared into a fold in the hillside.

They marched without incident until midday, when Théoden called a halt for lunch. Fires were started so hot food could be prepared, because marching over hills was a lot of work. He wanted everyone to keep their strength up.

Eowyn helped with the cooking, diligently chopping vegetables and adding herbs to a bubbling pot containing chunks of fat-laced preserved meat. When she deemed it finished, she ladled generous portions into bowls and brought them to where Aragorn and the Gundam pilots were sitting. “I have hot stew,” she said with an eager smile. She had only managed to bring four bowls, carefully balanced in her hands and on her arms. “There's enough for everyone.” She handed the bowls to Aragorn, Duo, Heero and Trowa. “I'll be right back with more.”

Wu-Fei got one whiff of the soupy concoction and turned green. “No way!” he choked. “I am not eating that!” He stumbled away with his hand over his mouth.

Aragorn tried a small spoonful and his face went completely blank. Heero sniffed his stew and blinked several times. He and Trowa watched Duo expectantly.

Duo lifted a spoonful of the stew to his mouth and ate it. He chewed thoughtfully. He swallowed. “Hm…” he said.

Eowyn returned with more bowls, which she gave to Quatre, Alexa, Jett and Treize. “Where is Wu-Fei? I have more bowls ready.”

“He has a restricted diet,” Zechs said smoothly, “as do I. We'll make do with our supplies, thank you.”

“Oh, all right.” Eowyn smiled encouragingly. “Well, eat up, the rest of you. You'll need the energy.” She watched them expectantly, waiting for them to eat.

“You'd better get yours before it's all gone, Eowyn,” Trowa said.

“Yes, of course!” Eowyn laughed nervously and hurried back to her pot.

Aragorn promptly dumped his stew on the ground.

Duo drew a deep breath. “I thought this was something I would never say, but whatever is in that pot is not food. Fresh entrails served on lambas bread would go down better.”

“Are you sure that's not what it is?” Heero eyed the contents of his bowl suspiciously.

“Where's Roku when we need him?” Trowa said. “He's bound to have something edible in his storage space.”

“I'll get him,” Duo said. He dumped his stew on the ground and everyone else followed suit.

A moment later, Roku appeared, trotting casually through the crowd to a host of exclamations, cries and squeals. He stopped before he reached them. “What is that horrible stench?!” he exclaimed. His whiskers twitched. “Three week old dead rodent that's been buried, dug up, soaked in brine, buried again, dug back up, eaten and then vomited back out after an hour would smell better.”

“Thank you for that unnecessarily detailed description, Roku,” Quatre said. “Do you have anything to eat?”

“Yeah, but can we go somewhere else? That smell is turning my stomach.”

“This from the tiger who knows what stinking swamp mud tastes like,” Heero muttered, but he rose along with everyone else as the group relocated some distance away.

When they were seated again, Roku produced several loaves of bread, a couple of roasted chickens, a ham and a dozen or so apples from his storage space.

“You've been hoarding again,” Duo remarked.

“I like to be prepared.”

They ate the food quickly to make sure Eowyn didn't catch them.

“We don't want to hurt her feelings,” Aragorn said.

“We'd be doing everyone a service if we told her to stay away from the cook pot,” Heero said. “Food like that could kill someone.”

After lunch, their trek resumed. Eowyn walked beside Aragorn, chatting casually. “I think my uncle may have had his wits addled by his long illness,” she confided. “He says he remembers you from a war that was fought in his youth.”

“His memory is fine,” Aragorn assured her. “Although I'm surprised he recalls it. He was just a boy then.”

“But…” Eowyn stared. “You would have to be…” she swallowed and didn't finish the sentence.

“I am eighty-seven,” Aragorn said.

Her eyes went round. “You are one of the Dunedain!”

“That's right,” Legolas said, just a little too triumphantly. “He's too old for you.”

“But not for an elf,” Duo muttered.

“That's funny!” Alexa said, riding on Treize's shoulders. “You're a lot older than you look, Mr. Aragorn. Roku, Jett and I are all much younger.”

“Oh, really?” Eowyn said too brightly. “How much younger?”

“Well, Roku is almost thirteen years old, but he's really just six, and Jett is six, but she's really two, and I'm eight, but I'm really only three.”

Eowyn blinked several times.

“But with all our vacations, it's hard to keep track of birthdays, so we just pick the age we want to be anyway.”

Eowyn looked straight ahead. “I see.”

Duo suddenly flinched. “Trouble!” He pulled two knives from his built. “Roku says there's an ambush!” He took off at a run.

Just then, a clash of swords echoed over the next rise and a man screamed.

“Riders!” Théoden cried. “To me! Eowyn, lead the women and children to safety at Helm's Deep!”

“But…”

“Go!” Théoden cried. “You must lead them in my absence!” He kicked his horse to a gallop and raced for the rise.

Zechs took Alexa from Treize. “Go fight. Jett says we need to branch off now anyhow, so we'll wait until you have all the orcs engaged and take off. Good luck.” He kissed Treize soundly. “Don't get hurt or we will have words later.”

“Of course not, my love.” Treize returned his kiss and dashed off.

Zechs took Jett and Alexa each by a hand. “Ok, Jett, lead the way. Make sure we don't run into anything bad.”

“Ok, uncle Zechs.”

“Eowyn!” Zechs called. “We're leaving now. Take care!”

“But what about the orcs?!”

“We'll avoid them.” Zechs smiled warmly. “Don't worry about us. Tend to your people. We'll see you later.” He and the girls slipped off down the slope, using the vegetation as cover. Within moments, they were completely out of sight.

Over the rise, a battle raged. Orcs on wargs, giant dog-like creatures bigger than horses, attacked the men of Rohan savagely. Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas and the Gundam pilots jumped into the fray with eager enthusiasm.

Grinning broadly, Heero lopped heads off wargs and orcs alike. Wu-Fei rather artistically leaped over the wargs and hacked the riders off their backs with his kitana. Quatre blasted anything that wasn't a man, elf, dwarf, horse or Roku with sizzling balls of fire. Trowa diverted himself by jumping onto the backs of running wargs and snapping the necks of their riders with his bare hands, after which Duo would knife the warg as it went by, cutting open its jugular. Roku was having fun hamstringing the wargs so that their riders would get dumped on the ground, where they had to face Treize on foot and be dispatched by his superior swordsmanship. Overall, it was a pretty good fight.

But when it was over, Aragorn was nowhere to be seen. Legolas was beside himself, especially when he found Aragorn's pendant clutched in the fist of a dying orc.

“He's not among the dead,” Treize tried to reassure him.

“At least those we can see,” Heero said.

“That's not helping.”

“I'm just saying.”

“Duo, can you hear him?”

“No, but I wouldn't if he's unconscious.”

“Roku, do you smell him?” Quatre asked.

Roku trotted across the battlefield to the edge of a ravine with a swift-flowing river at the bottom. “I think he went over the edge.”

Everyone looked over the edge. It was a very long drop.

“That's not good,” Gimli murmured.

“I'll go find him,” Roku said. “Don't worry. I'll meet up with you at Helm's Deep.”

“Be careful,” Quatre said.

“I will.” Roku shifted into falcon form and dropped off the edge.

“Let's go,” Théoden ordered. “We have to get to the fortress and secure it before more enemy forces arrive.”

They arrived on the heels of the refugees from Edoras. Quite a few people were already holed up in the keep, having fled from other parts of Rohan to escape the wild men.

Eowyn was dismayed when she saw that Aragorn was not among them. “Lord Aragorn was not killed was he?”

“We don't know,” Gimli said gravely. “We lost him.”

“Don't worry,” Duo said. “Roku will find him.”

They climbed up onto the battlements and Treize looked around appreciatively. “This is a nice keep.” Then his eyes fell on something below and he frowned. “Why is there a stunning weakness in your shield wall?”

“No enemy has ever breached this fortress,” Théoden declared.

Treize pointed. “How could anyone miss the giant gaping hole in your wall?!”

“We do not allow enemy forces to get close enough to take advantage of it!”

“But it's a giant gaping hole!”

“It is a small drainage culvert!” Théoden retorted hotly. He stood nose to nose with Treize.

“This place is a sieve and we will be flossing our teeth with orcs by sunrise.”

“You…” Théoden began, his face turning beet red.

“Lord Treize,” Legolas interrupted, pulling Théoden away, “I'm sure King Théoden knows how to defend his keep. Why don't we see how the refugees are settling?”

Treize stalked away, muttering to himself.

“Please forgive him, King Théoden,” Quatre said soothingly. “He's just on edge because Zechs is gone. He'll feel better once the fight starts.”

“Hmph, well, of course,” Théoden grumbled. He started issuing orders to his men.

Late in the afternoon, while non-fighters were being moved into the caves and anyone who looked like he might be able to fight was handed a sword and told to use the pointy end for killing things, Duo tipped his head to the side and listened with his eyes closed.

“Do you hear something, Duo?” Wu-Fei asked.

“Yeah, it's Roku. He found Aragorn and a horse, so they're on their way here.” Duo listened some more. “Oh, and he says there's a force of about ten thousand orcs headed this way.”

“Ten thousand? That seems like overkill.”

“Maybe Saruman has self-esteem issues,” Trowa put in with a smirk.

Duo opened his eyes and grinned. “You mean like: great big army, tiny little…”

“We know what he meant,” Quatre interrupted. “When will Roku and Aragorn get here?”

“About an hour.”

“You should go tell Théoden. I'll go let them know at the gate.”

When Aragorn and Roku arrived, they were greeted with cheers, which quickly turned to fear and dismay when the pair reported on the size of the army they had seen.

“They have siege engines, too,” Roku said. “Big ones. Are you sure it's a good idea to have that great big hole in your wall down there?”

Treize folded his arms and gave Théoden a superior smirk.

Théoden scowled. He ignored Roku's comment. “We will be ready for them! This fortress has withstood worse!” He stamped off, shouting new orders.

“Somehow I doubt that,” Wu-Fei said.

“It does seem unlikely,” Trowa agreed.

“I hope Zechs and the girls are all right,” Treize said. “They don't even have the benefit of a curtain wall with holes in it to protect them.”

“Zechs is a superior tactical officer,” Quatre said. “They'll never know he's out there. And if that hole bothers you so much, why don't you go down and figure out how to secure it without the water backing up into the castle?”

Treize blinked in sudden surprise. “Why not let the water back up? What an excellent defense! If the whole area is filled with water and they breach the wall, we're bound to drown a bunch of them.”

“If the whole area is filled with water,” Heero pointed out, “our primary means of retreat will be cut off.”

“But we will only need to retreat if the wall is breached, at which point the water will have drained away.”

Heero thought about this for a minute. “Ok, I agree. Let's go plug up that hole. Roku, come help us.”

“Ok.”

“Even if they plug it,” Quatre said, “it will still be a structural weak point in that wall. We better keep an eye on what the orcs do around it during the battle.”

“I agree,” said Trowa.

It got dark as the sun sank, but not just because the sun was setting. Thick clouds were building up in the sky above them, threatening rain.

Treize rubbed his hands together gleefully. “Rain will help! Look, we've already got a significant lake forming.” Water lapped against the base of the wall across nearly half of its length, spreading out from the drain at the center. “I understand why they put in the drain, but it really does assume you can keep your enemy from getting too close to the wall. I don't think that's going to happen with ten thousand fighters facing us.”

“You assume the curtain wall is going to be breached,” Wu-Fei said.

“Undoubtedly,” Treize replied offhandedly. “But it should be pretty exciting when it is.”

A horn sounded.

“They're here!” someone cried in panic, but someone else exclaimed, “That's not an orc horn!”

Cries of “Open the gate!” echoed through the keep, and soon everyone could see the neat ranks of Elven bowmen marching up the ramp. Cheers rose up as they filed in. When the head of the column reached the entrance to the keep proper, Théoden came out to meet them, along with Aragorn, Legolas and Quatre.

“You are a welcome sight, Haldir!” Aragorn greeted the elf leading the troop.

Haldir inclined his head and faced Théoden. “King Théoden, we elves have not forgotten the treaties of old. We will help you survive this night.”

“Thank you!” Théoden and his men stared in amazement at the elves. It was obviously the last thing he had expected to see.

“By the way,” Haldir said, “why is there water leaking out from under your curtain wall?”

“Long story,” Quatre said quickly. “Aragorn, why don't you get Haldir and his bowmen into position?”

Duo dashed up, his hand pressed to the side of his head. “That would be a good idea,” he said. “There's, like, a million really loud orcs out there. I'm going to have to block everything out, so don't expect any long-distance communication from me, ok?”

“Understood,” Quatre said, “but warn the others first.”

Duo squinted. “Done! Let's get to the wall. That's where they'll get over first.”

“Right!”

Duo and Quatre dashed off to take places on the curtain wall. Aragorn, Legolas and Haldir followed them, along with the rest of the elves. The battle for Helm's Deep was about to begin.