Through the rainy streets of Bree stole a silent shadow of a man. His passage went unnoticed by the multitudes of townspeople as they hurried to finish the business of the day so that they could return to their warm fire-lit houses. Shadow paid no heed to the men around him, but instead, he reached out with his mind to the Force for any sign of the Riders he knew would be upon them this night.
Upon arriving to Bree, Shadow had placed the hobbits comfortably in the tavern at the Prancing Pony knowing they would eventually have a meeting with the ranger Strider. He instructed Frodo to look for the man, giving him a description and a myriad of verbal identifiers by which he could confirm the ranger's identity.
After staying with the hobbits for the better part of an hour, Shadow excused himself to go scope out the village. When the Nazgul did arrive here, the Jedi wanted to be the first to know.
It didn't take long before Shadow sensed that for which he was searching. It was faint, but the Jedi could just make out the impression of the Nine on the Force. He'd just turned to go back to the inn when, travelling on the wind, came the sound of the Nazgul's scream. Though it was quiet, even the men in the village stopped in their tracks to listen in fear before scurrying quickly to their homes. It was then that Shadow quickened his pace.
The Jedi headed not for the side of the Pony that housed the hobbit sized rooms where the one "Mister Underhill" had paid for lay, but instead to the other wing where he knew Strider would be keeping the hobbits in order to throw off the Riders.
Upon arriving at the room, Shadow opened the door and entered without hesitation. Immediately as he did so, a blade was strategically placed at his throat. He paused only for a brief second to remove the cold metal with his thumb and forefinger.
"Greetings, Ranger," he said absently as he moved to the hobbits. In his surprise, Strider only stood dumbfounded while the hobbits circled around their dark friend nervously.
"Shadow! How did you know we were here? We were worried you wouldn't find us," Frodo commented with relief.
"Remember that I have been to the future," Shadow replied, his attention taken with looking around the room, "And that I am a Jedi Knight…I sensed your life force here."
They watched the cloaked man as he continued to circle the room, obviously looking for something.
"Excuse me, but who exactly are you?" Strider finally came out of his shock enough to put his guard back up. The hobbits were apparently very comfortable with this person, but Gandalf had mentioned nothing of a character cloaked in black when he'd instructed Strider to come to the Pony.
"Where is Sam?" Shadow demanded, ignoring Strider's question. There were more pressing matters at hand than his backstory. He respected Strider's distrust and knew it would be a necessity in days to come, but being that Shadow was no threat, the Ranger would have to wait until later for an explanation of the Jedi's intentions. "The Riders have arrived."
Frodo froze immediately, color draining from his face. Shadow turned to look at him squarely.
"Frodo," he knelt before the hobbit to look him in the eye, "where is Sam?"
"He—he went for a walk…that was over an hour ago," Frodo began breathing faster, fear overtaking him. "Shadow, he doesn't know we're staying up here!"
"Alright!" Shadow stood, wheeling on his heel to face the door, "It's alright. I'll find him."
"Wait a moment!" Strider placed himself in the Jedi's path.
"I'm afraid I don't have time for this at present." Shadow half growled. "All of your questions will be answered, but right now, there are more important things to see to. Please keep them safe until I return."
"You're not going anywhere until I have an explanation," Strider put a hand out in front of him as if to keep Shadow from moving forward. Shadow took a calming breath and raised his own hand. When he did so, to Strider's utter shock, the ranger found himself suspended in mid-air while Shadow walked beneath him. On his way out the door, Shadow turned and looked at Frodo.
"Please explain everything to him while I'm gone," the Jedi instructed before heading down the hallway muttering something about how "this shouldn't be happening".
Soon enough, Shadow found himself in the wet, rainy streets of Bree once again. This time though, the Jedi was running. He could sense the presence of the Nazgul all around, and their evil drowned every other life in the Force, making it impossible to pinpoint Sam's location. Sam didn't have the Ring, but the Riders knew he had been with Frodo. If Shadow didn't find the hobbit before they did, Sam's life was forfeit.
Suddenly, Shadow's run was halted so quickly, it was as though he'd run into a wall. The angry screams of the Nazgul echoed mercilessly throughout the desolate streets of the town, but it was not their shrieking that froze the Jedi's blood.
Shadow turned and began running as he'd never run before, his black cloak billowing out behind him in the chilling wind. With long, desperate strides, the Jedi made for the hobbit wing of the Prancing Pony…where Sam's horrified screams mingled with those of the Nazgul.
Given a direction, the Jedi was able to lock on to Sam's tiny aura. In his mind, the Jedi pictured the hobbit with all his might, and instantly found himself in the midst of five of the nine Ringwraiths.
Without hesitation, Shadow reached for his belt and activated the humming blade of his lightsaber. He tried to ignore the sight of the room around him for fear that its horror would overtake him. Shredded bits of the mattresses lay scattered around the floor, and blood soaked the overturned beds and walls.
"You should not interfere here, Dai," the raspy voice of the Nazgul king sent a chill up the Jedi's spine. "You have done enough already to merit a place of infinite torture when Sauron is Lord of all Middle Earth. You should not make things harder for yourself."
"I'm quite certain I can prevent that fate," Shadow stepped forward fearlessly, "by ending Sauron before he has a chance to get ahold of me."
The Nazgul hissed and shrieked, advancing on the lone Jedi. When the first one reached him, however, Shadow whipped his blade quickly through the black robes, causing them to fall to the ground, but at a cost. The Jedi stumbled, clutching his chest.
"You know fully that you cannot kill us," the Nazgul king spoke again.
"Yes," Shadow huffed, "but my light does hurt you…and can you really afford the delay I'll cause you here?" With a shout, the Jedi sprang at the next nearest Rider, causing it to stumble back. A flourish of the green lightsaber and the wraith was gone, leaving behind only a pile of empty robes. Shadow spun, slicing through the blade of a third wraith and reducing him to robes as well.
The price of laying a blade to a Ringwraith was starting to take its toll on the Jedi as he stumbled forward again. He covered his moment of weakness with a tucked roll and brought his saber up through the chest of a fourth Nazgul. Shadow rolled to the side, dodging the sword of the king as the dark figure made its way through the open window and down into the streets. The Jedi ran to the window and watched as the Wraith King made off into the night to regroup his fallen fellows.
Shadow leaned heavily on the window, coughing and gasping for air. His chest burned with the witch king's magic and the pain of the recently broken ribs. Reaching up a gloved hand, Shadow wiped away the blood that had begun to drip from the corner of his mouth, its irony taste covering his tongue and making him frown.
Three times already he'd attacked the Nazgul. Goldberry did have a point when she said Shadow wouldn't be able to do this much longer. If they didn't get to Rivendell as quickly as possible, the Jedi would fall to the Nazgul, unable to heal between encounters, and his help along the journey would come to an end.
Just then, Shadow was reminded of why he'd attacked in the first place. A soft moan came from the corner of the room beneath one of the heavy beds.
"Sam," Shadow breathed, stumbling to the corner where he knew the hobbit lay. With the Force, he moved the massive wooden furniture, and gasped as he looked upon his little friend. "Oh, Sam…"
The hobbit was covered in blood, and obviously losing more of it. A ghastly wound on his side was to blame for the hobbit's condition, inflicted when the wraiths first attacked.
"Sh…Shadow," the hobbit struggled to speak, "where's Mister Frodo?"
"Shh," Shadow hushed him, "Frodo and the others are safe. Everything's going to be fine."
That was a lie, and the Jedi knew it. Sam was ghostly white from blood loss and would certainly die soon if drastic measures were not taken. Shadow looked around the floor and found the blade that had been used to strike the hobbit. He prayed silent thanks to God that it had not been a Morgul blade that pierced his tiny friend as he rolled up his own sleeve, exposing flesh of alabaster white.
"Wh…what…are you doing…?" Sam looked at Shadow with fear in his brown eyes.
"Hush, now," Shadow placed a hand on Sam's forehead, stealing away the hobbit's consciousness before a fit of coughing took his breath. Again, he wiped the blood from his lips and stared into the hobbit's pain filled face. "I'm so sorry, Sam…This wasn't supposed to happen, but I'll make everything alright."
With a steadying breath, Shadow laid the blade deeply into his own flesh, wincing as his own blood poured onto the floor. Using the Force, Shadow carefully collected every drop that had fallen from his injured arm and forced it into Sam's wounds.
When he'd given enough blood that color returned to the hobbit's cheeks, Shadow focused his mind on knitting the flesh back together around the knife wound on Sam's side. He found it difficult to keep his eyes trained on his work due to his own lack of blood and the lingering effects of the Nazgul magic.
When he'd finished the careful procedure, Shadow was exhausted. With darkening eyes, he dragged himself to a sitting position and tightly bound his arm with a piece of a bed sheet lying next to him. With the last of his waning strength, Shadow pulled Sam into his lap and watched the hobbit's chest rise and fall in an uneasy sleep before the world around the Jedi fell into complete darkness and was utterly lost to him.
~#*ITS*#~
A/N: OH MAN! Has Shadow gone too far? He's given much for the Middle Earth's cause…but has he given too much this time? You'll just have to wait and see! You know the drill. I wanna know what you think!