(Disclaimer: I do not own Middle Earth, nor the canon characters, places, etc. May Tolkien's ghost have mercy on me for this. Hehe, by the way, the horse was mentioned five times. :) The conclusion will be next, and I'll have it up really soon. I'm really excited about it, hehe.)
Things were peaceful in Rivendell. Big surprise there, I know, but this time it was destined not to last very long.
If you may recall, the beautiful princess Lily and Legolas started out from Mirkwood to arrive at the Council of Elrond, and they were met by Shadow, a mysterious and fiery girl from a different world, yet with an unusual origin, and none other than Strider, or Aragorn - heir to the throne of Gondor.
Now, you may ask, what about the hobbits? Strider was supposed to meet them in Bree and lead them to Imladris. Well, yes, but as you can see, things have been changed around a bit. Makes things interesting. Anyway, here comes the answer to your question now!
In a quiet room in Rivendell, Frodo slept peacefully. Strangely, Sam was nowhere to be seen, and instead, someone else was sitting by the bed and watching the sleeping hobbit.
At first glance, you might have thought this was also a hobbit. She(yes, of course she) was the right height, being just an inch shorter than Frodo himself. She was different, though. She had long, perfectly beautiful golden hair that fell to her waist, and sparkling violet eyes. She was very slender and very beautiful. One strange thing about her was her feet. Unlike most hobbits, she had small, dainty, hairless feet. The truth was, she had fairy blood in her family, so she was very unusually beautiful.
After calling her beautiful three times, I think you get the point. Anyway, she was wearing traveling clothes, though of course she looked very cute in them. It was then that Frodo woke up and blinked several times.
"Hello, Frodo," The hobbit-fairy-thing said with a sparkling smile. "It is good to see you awake."
"Serena," Frodo recognized the brave hobbit-lass who had come with them from the Shire. She had led them from Bree, and through the wilds, and had even rescued Frodo from the Nazgul. When Frodo had needed to get to Rivendell so quickly, Serena had ridden on Frodo with Asfaloth, to make sure that he would make it, leaving Glorfindel to travel with the rest of the hobbits. Since you all know that Asfaloth was Glorfindel's horse, not Arwen's, if you read the books. ("Their hard to read, but their soooo kewls!1!!")
"Where is Sam?" Frodo asked, looking confused.
Serena smiled. "Do not worry. I told him to go rest, because I would watch you. Gandalf will be in to talk with you soon, too." She nodded. Gandalf knew her well, of course. Serena was almost like a pupil of his, as she had been learning magic from him since she had been a child. Her parents had been killed when she was only three, so she had left the Shire to live in Rivendell, but she traveled with Gandalf a lot. She had come to help Frodo and his friends when she learned of what had happened to Gandalf.
"Gandalf? Where has he been?" Frodo asked eagerly, but Serena just patted his arm gently.
"Don't worry, here he comes. He'll explain everything to do. I have to go speak to Lord Elrond now. There is much going on in Rivendell." She leaned over to lightly kiss Frodo on the cheek before she flitted(fairy-like, remember) on out of the room. Frodo looked after her with a stunned expression. It was then that Gandalf came in, and Frodo was distracted from thinking about the pretty, brave hobbit-lass for a while.
It was then that two horses came galloping into the courtyard of Rivendell. One was black, and the other pure white. Yup, you guessed it...Blackie, Talatenquetanalia, and their riders. Lily dismounted first, and looked around with a slight smile. Rivendell was certainly beautiful. Nothing like her old home of...Eer..um...whatever, but still pretty. She turned to Legolas, her raven hair shining in the evening light quite prettily itself.
"We should go to speak to Elrond now," She said as she patted Talatenquetanalia's nose. As you can imagine, even after that long ride, Lily looked absolutely perfect. Not one jet black hair was out of place, and her azure blue eyes were just as bright and sparkling as ever.
Legolas nodded. "We should before the Council starts. It won't be long until it does," the graceful blonde prince commented as his dismounted as well. After Aragorn got off, he handed Blackie to a stable hand who had come to take the horses.
Aragorn was already starting for the stairs, uncharacteristically silent. Shadow, on the other hand, snorted loudly. Talatenquetanalia, of course, needed no one to tend to her. She merely walked off to graze peacefully while her mistress went inside.
"Bah. Council meeting? I might go to it, but I'm not going to sit around for too long. I'll catch up with you guys later, I want to look around."
This loud and high arrogant comment came from Shadow, of course. After this declaration, she whirled and stalked off, almost daring anyone to argue with her. Aragorn watched her go, but he did not argue. He had already learned that was pointless. Legolas merely shrugged. Shadow was an odd mortal, but since Lily seemed to like her well enough, he did too.
So while the beautiful princess, prince, and future King of Gondor went to go meet the Lord of Imladris, Shadow had her own places to go. A couple of hours passed...
She had been wandering around for a while when she met a man in one of the gardens. He was merely standing and looking around, deep in thought. He had deep auburn hair and light gray eyes, and he was wearing fine clothes of Gondorian design. Shadow, of course, had no respect for the silence. She walked right up to him.
"Hey, you're Boromir, aren't you?" She asked casually.
The man looked startled as he turned to look at the fiery-haired girl. "Yes, I am," He replied finally, wondering how this stranger knew. His eyes narrowed as he noticed the odd dress of this girl. Her tight black shirt and baggy black pants weren't something one saw every day, in Gondor or Rivendell. "Who are you?"
"My name isn't any of your business, but most people call me Shadow," Shadow said with a smirk.
"You carry a sword," Boromir pointed out. "Why? You are a woman. Women do not use such weapons," He scoffed. This was not such a unreasonable announcement, as most women in Middle Earth don't carry around swords. Of course, according to the logic in use here, that was a very pig-headed comment.
Shadow's emerald eyes flashed dangerously. "Oh? Why not? I bet I could beat you, if I wanted to."
"We could see about that," Boromir drew his own sword. You can probably imagine now that this entirely pointless and very unfair little sparring match was doomed from the start for poor Boromir.
"Fine," Shadow snapped. Boromir leapt forward to attack, but Shadow skillfully deflected his sword, and before Boromir could react, she hit the hilt of his sword and knocked it out of his hands. How exactly she accomplished this is beyond my mere mortal imagination, so you'll just have to trust me on that. She held her blade to his neck for a moment, just long enough for him to realize what had happened. She then pulled back and laughed.
Boromir scowled and then bent to pick up his own sword. This "Shadow" obviously had some sort of witchcraft to be able to do something like that. Poor Boromir, as indeed, this was the case. Of course, this was a different kind of magic than he had ever imagined. He decided immediately that he did not like this odd girl, clad in strangle clothes, and who spoke in a very peculiar manner.
Shadow frowned as she heard something that sounded almost like a stifled growling and rustling coming from the bushes just over to the side. It stopped abruptly with only a slight rustle of leaves. She shrugged, deciding that it had been a squirrel or something.
"Well, that'll teach you to assume someone's weak just because they're a girl," Shadow said to Boromir as she sheathed her sword. She then resumed her completely aimless wandering, heading off back down the path from which she had come.
It was then that a bell rang somewhere in Imladris. Boromir recognized this as the signal that the Council was going to start soon. Muttering a little to himself, he also headed down the path. He was completely unaware of the fact that two shadows followed him more-or-less quietly.