Whether she wanted to or not, Intara found the wraiths.
She swore silently as she worked her horse into a lather in order to stay away from two of the wraiths on her trail. The two turned to three and then four. She had half the wraiths chasing her. Somehow, while keeping the wraiths following her, advancing, and then lying in wait, she had managed to send a message to Rivendell asking for reinforcements and telling them of the predicament she and Strider found themselves in.
Unbeknownst to Intara, Arwen intercepted the message. She raced from her father's house to the stables and went out in search of the Hobbits and the other Ranger, knowing full well that Intara would never forgive her for trying to help. Intara was far too independent to allow for that.
When Arwen found Strider and the hobbits, the situation was grim. Frodo was slipping into darkness, injured by a morgal blade. No one knew where Intara was, and the remaining wraiths were baring down on them.
Arwen filled a stressed Strider in on what had happened. "Five wraiths are behind you…where the other four are, I know not." Strider met Arwen's eyes as he lifted Frodo into the saddle of her big white horse. "I fear for Intara as well…she must be diverting them."
"Get him to your father. We have to save him." Strider said, re-directing the conversation to the problem at hand. "Intara can care for herself."
Arwen rode away with Frodo with all haste for the city, leaving Strider behind to worry about two of the most important women in his life.
Intara felt the arrow dig painfully into her shoulder and quickly diverted the path of her horse. The wraiths who had been pursuing her had been replaced by orcs. Now all Intara cared about was finding the four wraiths and keeping them distracted. She crested a large hill and looked down to see all nine wraiths racing over the open plain in hot pursuit of a rider in silver, long dark hair flowing behind them.
"NO!" Intara pounded her fisted hand into her thigh and watched as the wraiths started to close in on the figure, sure that it was Arwen "Damn that girl! Why did she not send Glorfindel?"
Intara kicked her horse fiercely and the creature reared before diving down the slope and out across the plain in an attempt to catch the other ten riders. She nearly came un-horsed when the arrow in her back was hit by a tree branch. She tried to reach around but couldn't get a firm grasp on the shaft of the arrow. Finding a forked tree trunk, she grasped the shaft as best she could, wedged the fletchings into the fork and forcefully wrenched her shoulder causing the shaft to break.
"Damn if it hasn't hit bone…" She said as she picked herself up off the ground. There was no time to lie about and fight the pain of it...she had to get to Arwen.
Intara remembered little of the chase. She didn't know where she was or how she'd managed to get there. What she did know was that she was cold, wet and in pain. She could see little except that it was nearing dawn, the sky in the east was colored a pale lavender and the air was still and heavy with the early morning dew. The sound of her horse chomping on grasses nearby overshadowed the sound of birds in singing softly in the canopy. She tried to orient herself to what was around her but only got so far as to realize she was slumped on the ground, her right arm pinned behind and beneath her.
"Dislocated…again." She muttered. "That's the second time in a week…." She could not move and dared not do so without assistance. The sun was just beginning to crest the sky as a bright orange disc when a disturbing thought hit her.
I was chasing them in the afternoon…if it's sunrise now, I've been out here all night, and there's no knowing where Arwen might be.
Now she was desperate to move, and didn't care how much pain she inflicted on herself as long as she was able to get up. Her horse lifted its head form the grasses it was chomping on and looked back over its shoulder. Its ears twisted about and Intara too heard the sound of hooves moving gently over the packed ground. The horse whinnied at the new comer.
"You had better hope they're friendly, or I'll turn you in to stew." She muttered, still trying to push herself up, in spite of her incapacitated abilities.
"Who's there?" The voice was male, but soft—she hoped it was an elf and not a man. An elf could at least take her in to Rivendell and she could get either more help for Arwen or berate the girl herself for doing something so foolish. "Is someone out there?"
"Aye!" Intara blurted out, hoping for the best. "Here!"
Intara watched as the figure approached in the dawn light, bow to the front and hand hovering over a full quiver. She watched as the elf approached in the morning light, almost seeming to cast a glow off of him. He placed the bow beside her as he knelt down.
The woman was clearly incapable of harming him in her present condition. He looked into her dark eyes with his own blue ones. At first she thought she must be dreaming, and that she could see through his head, his eyes were such a dark shade of blue. Then she realized she was worse off than she originally thought.
"I need help." Intara blurted out, focusing on him as best she could. "I can't sit up…my shoulder is dislocated."
"Here," She felt his gentle hands upon her shoulder as he helped her rise from her prone position. "What happened?"
"I don't know, I don't really have time to explain." Intara said trying to catch her breath. Even with assistance, the exertion of trying sit up had drained her. "One moment I was riding hell bent for leather, and the next I was here."
"Well then, it would seem you…." Intara grasped the elf's cloak with her good hand and pulled him down to her level with a surprising amount of strength.
"I have to get to Rivendell…with all haste." She said through gritted teeth.
"I will oblige you…it is just beyond yonder cliff." He said pointing at the bluffs that were just becoming visible in the dawn light. He helped her to her feet and half carried her to her horse. They rode side by side down the twisting trail before finally coming to the river's edge. Intara suddenly remembered a wall of water rushing through the valley, and her trying to beat it and get to the other side.
"I'll box that girl's pointed ears…."
"Pardon me?"
"Nothing." Intara grew dizzy during the ascent and slumped forward. When she again pulled herself up she could see the city below her, glowing in the early morning light.
"Thank the Valar…"
"How fare you?" Her riding companion asked.
"As well as can be expected." Intara tried to sit taller in the saddle, but couldn't for the pain tearing through her body. Her cloak was gone and she shivered involuntarily as the sun tried to dry her heavy clothes.
"Come, we must get to the healing halls…." The blonde elf watched as sweat beaded upon her brow. "You are unwell."
"The healing halls…the bane of my existence."
"Excuse me?" The elf's brow furrowed deeply a he tried to understand this strange woman he had found.
"Nothing…" Intara again slumped forward in the saddle and groaned. "What's you name?"
"I am Legolas Greenleaf, of Mirkwood." Intara turned her head and stared at the elf beside her.
Yes, now that the sunlight was better she could see the regal baring with which this elf carried himself. She had never met Thranduil, but she'd met a few Mirkwood elves while in Lothlorien, and he certainly bore the color of a Mirkwood Archer.
"Who are you? How is it you come to be so familiar with the city?"
"I am Intara…of the Dunedain. Most call me Shadow."
"You?" Legolas looked shocked. He'd heard legends of a woman named Intara who guarded the Rivendell pilgrimages to the sea. He hadn't thought she mightbe real. "You can not be…"Legolas never got to finish his sentence before she started to fall from her saddle. He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her onto his own horse. He rode quickly into the city and right up to the healing halls, delivering his charge into the hands of the Rivendell elves.
Intara roused slowly and looked up at the ginger bread details of the ceiling. Her arm was so heavily bandaged she could not move it. She rose from the bed slowly and with great difficulty.
"You just can't rest, can you?"
"When I try, you send me seers to bring me back." Intara snapped as Elrond stood in the doorway with a bowl of what she assumed was some sort of poultice. He smiled as he watched her grouchy expression deepen. "Or on some fool's errand!"
"Do you know who you saved on that fool's errand?"
"Some hobbits who couldn't manage to stay out of trouble for five minutes." Her jerkin was thrown over a chair next to the bed and she fingered the hole in the back of it where the arrow had pierced the leather. Someone had tried to patch it. She struggled to get it over her bad arm, but managed, Elrond staring her down the whole time.
"One of those hobbit's was carrying the Ring of Power." Intara's head snapped up and she stared at Elrond, her fingers hovering over the buckles on her tunic. "Aye, the one they call Frodo."
"Then the rumors were true." Intara whispered as Elrond nodded.
"Gandalf was supposed to meet them in Bree, but he was detained.""
"Detained?" Intara knew Gandalf. It took a force of nature to detain him, and even then he was as stubborn as she and would power through it.
"Isengard and Saruman have fallen to the darker powers."
"What will you do?" Intara sat back against the headboard as Elrond took up the chair and set the bowl down.
"I have asked a council to convene to discuss just that. The ring can not stay here. But you must rest, Intara." He leveled a stern and fatherly gaze at her. "You must regain your strength." Elrond rose and made for the door.
"Arwen…is she…?"
"She's fine, why do you ask?"
"I was behind her, I saw the Nazgul chasing her…."
"She is well. Her fast actions saved Frodo at the Ford." Elrond saw the grimace cross her face. "Shall I send her to you?"
"No." Intara shook her head. "Not yet, thank you."
"Very well." Elrond nodded and moved down the hall.
Intara took her time getting out of bed but was wandering the halls later that day. She managed to avoid everyone until she came to a secluded courtyard where Elrond's council sat. From her elevated position on the walkway, she could see the assorted groups of men, dwarves and elves sitting in a circle around a stone pillar. She could see the fat hobbit hiding behind a bush trying to eavesdrop on the 'secret' council. She smirked, for a hobbit, he was certainly an adventurous sort. Intara brought her attention back to the council as a red headed dwarf suddenly rose and swung his axe down upon the stone pedestal in the center of the circle. Her vision was bathed in fire for a brief instant and she saw herself standing in a world full of destruction and peril. When everything cleared, and argument had ensued between the dwarves and the elves, Strider was trying to maintain the peace and Gandalf's voice boomed out across the courtyard, clear even to her ears.
She had no part in this. She wanted no part in this.