Gandalf looked around cautiously, he knew the one he hunted for was nearby by the way his horse huffed at the air and danced beneath him. The horse reared suddenly when an arrow imbedded itself not three feet in front of the beast.
"Come now, if you want to kill me you need to aim better than that." He spoke out loud and an answering musical laugh was his answer, as a hooded figure dropped lithely from the trees and into a clearing.
"It would take more than a mere arrow to kill you. What are you doing here Gandalf?" The figure asked keeping it's hood up and cloak wrapped around it's shoulders to conceal what was beneath. But Gandalf knew what lay beneath, a beautiful fine boned face of a female half elf, with a long mass of deep black hair that it reflected highlights of blue and purple. And eyes the most startling silver, but within contained flecks of liquid gold, they were the oddest and most beautiful eyes he had ever seen on a creature before, though trying to get this particular stubborn woman to believe that was something he wasn't even sure the Valar could accomplish. At one time it might have been possible, but not now that she had been cursed.
"I need your help Vega, the enemy's weapon has been found. I left it in trusted hands and it is heading to Bree were Strider is supposed to meet them."
"Gandalf you know I can't." Vega replayed.
"Yet, Strider constantly tells me that you are helping to protect the villages in the area and helping any Ranger that comes by. You can't keep this up, and you know it, your patience with staying still is reaching an end and we both know it, so don't be so stubborn."
"Stubborn!" Vega yelled back and pulled down her hood revealing her face. "Look at me Gandalf if any of my friends saw me like this they would be afraid, and rightfully so, not knowing when I could lose the battle for my humanity and turn into nothing but a beast. No, Gandalf it is more dangerous for me to accompany Strider and his companions. It is true that I help the Rangers and the villages any way I can but I cannot let them close, it something were to happen… No, Gandalf I do not want to risk killing my friends with my own hands." Or claws… Vega thought to herself as she looked at the deadly weapons that were where her fingernails should have been.
"Vega, you are stronger than you think, you are in no danger of hurting anyone, and besides you have that stone that protects you. I understand the fear you face but you must remember that your friends will not turn you away."
"How can you be sure, my own kin turned away from me." She whispered.
"And they are all fools, when the curse made itself present." Gandalf said and she smiled at the reminder that the old wizard hearing was as keen as ever. "It is time to fight back, Saron is gathering forces to take middle earth, are you going to stand by or are you going to fight like I know you will. Think about it, my dear and remember your friends are always beside you." With that Gandalf turned his horse away and made his way further to Isengard with the knowledge that Vega would come out of the shadows, she had to it was who she was and his words had sparked the warrior spirit in her.
Vega watched the place where the wizard had left long after he had departed. Gandalf was right, she knew it, but her heart feared the pain that she felt when her kin and family turned her away. She argued with herself that her father hadn't had a choice if he had fought to keep her everything he had built would crumble. So she left voluntarily saving him from making that choice, and why she hid away gave her name as Vega whenever those she helped asked for it. But more than that her heart pined for the company of her friends so much that it sometimes outweighed the fear of being turned away. And the thought of seeing Strider again almost made her giddy, the ranger was a close friend and it was he that made her a sort of honorary member of the Ranger.
Vega stood there so long thinking that the sun had long since disappeared, she gripped the intercut looking necklace she wore. It was a stone of deep emerald green surrounded by silver vines and leaves that made a beautiful and interact setting that held the stone all on a braided rope of silver. This stone was special it kept her curse at bay and allowed her to keep her sanity and return to her real form and not the one she was cursed to share. Shaking her head she returned to her house and to bed she needed to think.
Two days passed and Vega decided not to go but the more she ignored it the harder it seemed to persuade her to go, so much so, that her arrow actually missed it's intended target. An elf missing there target it was unheard of! She was so annoyed when she returned home empty handed from her hunt that she tossed down her poor excuse for a bow and tossed the things she had siting on a chest to the floor and unlocked it. There laying inside carefully wrapped for protection was her real identity, her weapons lay in side the chest. With a shaky hand she reached for the finely crafted elvish bow trailing a hand over the designs carved into the wood, those strange silver eyes with bits of gold hardened from teary to determined. Slinging the bow over her shoulder she pulled out her quiver, short sward and a long sword fashioning them onto her person she pulled on a dark green traveling cloak and shoved out her door.
Vega disappeared, and slinking in the shadows of the forest it's paws not even rustling the leaves as it ran as fast as it could for Bree, was a black leopard with silver and gold eyes.
