It took them two full days of travel before they reached the great stone door at Moria. When Gandalf couldn't open the door immediately, Intara doubled back and checked their trail to be sure they were not being followed.
She felt uneasy backed against the mine entrance with the lake preventing an easy escape or defense. The dark woods were bathed in deep shadow; a perfect cover for anyone following them. All was silent. It was a stifling, claustrophobic feeling that made her skin crawl and sent an involuntary shiver down her spine. Intara took her time walking back, picking her way across the shifty rocks at the lake's edge.
The moon peaked from the clouds, a silver disc against the violet night sky, bathing the fellowship in cool silver blue light. She watched as Aragorn prepared to release the horses and talked with Sam. Gimli was boasting loudly of the reception they would receive once inside, and Legolas was doing his best to ignore him. Boromir was digging for something in one of the packs and Gandalf and Frodo sat staring at the door. The other Hobbits were skipping rocks across the black, mirror like surface of the lake. Intara observed their actions from the shadows.
"I wouldn't do that were I you." Aragorn said as he caught the wrist of Merry as he was preparing to throw a rock. "Where is Intara? She should be back by now."
"I am back." Intara took satisfaction in the way everyone jumped as she stepped from beneath the leafy oak beside the rock face. "I have been for some time."
"Shadow always was an appropriate moniker for you." Gandalf said laughing. Frodo sat straighter and stared at the elvish runes on the door.
"It's a riddle. Gandalf, what's the elvish word for friend?"
"Mellon." Gandalf said slowly. The door parted and everyone stood back as dust blew out of the infrequently used cracks.
"Well then…that was easy enough." Pippin declared. Gandalf was first to move into the darkness, setting a crystal in his staff he mumbled a few choice words and cast a sterile white light across the ancient walls.
"…They call it a mine. A MINE!!!" Gimli's voice echoed out of the cave as Intara picked up her pack. The Hobbits were still outside and as Intara stood up, she saw the lake ripple.
"I thought Strider told you not to do that." Intara said glaring at Pippin.
"Do what?" He was distracted as Gandalf called for him to follow inside Moria. Intara rolled her eyes and followed.
"It isn't a mine…it's a tomb!" Boromir said. From the place she stood in the door, she could see the mummified corpses of several hundred dwarves. Gimli ran from corpse to corpse crying out in agony at seeing his brethren in such a state.
"We make for the gap of Rohan, we should never have come here!" Boromir said as he back stepped to get away from the overwhelming sight of death.
Something slick whipped past Intara and grasped Frodo's ankle. He was pulled from his feet and dragged past her. She latched on to his outstretched hand and pulled a dagger from her boot with her free hand. She hacked at the fleshy tentacle holding Frodo trying to free him. The creature pulled harder and Frodo was pulled from her grasp as several more tentacles burst from the once smooth lake surface.
"Frodo!" Intara, Boromir and Aragorn waded into the water and fought the creature, waiting for Frodo to come within reach. The frightened hobbit screamed as he was swung about above the lake's surface. Intara heard the swift and soft 'whoosh' of an arrow fly past her cheek and looked back to see Legolas in the cave entrance with his bow at the ready.
"Arrows are like gnats to this beast…he should save them for another enemy." She muttered to no one in particular. Aragorn and Boromir managed to wrestle Frodo away from the creature and ran for the shore.
"Intara, move!" Intara didn't need to be told twice and ran behind the others. She was nearly to shore when she felt a tentacle wrap around her ankle.
"No!" Aragorn stopped and turned when he heard her shout and watched as she was pulled beneath the lake's surface.
"Intara!" She thrashed as she struggled to get back to the surface and keep a hold on her sword. Aragorn stood on the shore and watched helplessly as Intara struggled with the monster. He advanced towards the lake edge again, ready for another rescue effort, when Legolas called out to him.
"Aragorn!" The monster had reached out and had pulled away part of the supports for the door. The wall of the mountain was starting to crack and crumble with a horrendous shuddering. Aragorn didn't know which way to turn.
"Go you fool!" Intara shouted as she was dropped to the water's surface, the tentacle that had held her floating harmlessly in the choppy water. She hobbled towards the shore and salvation "Hurry!"
Aragorn turned his back on her and raced into the mine just as the entire mountain side came down behind him. Boromir and Legolas held him back as he lunged for the pile of debris.
"Even if she made it to the door, laddy, she'd not have lived through all of that." Gimli said softly.
"She never made it to the door." Legolas said, looking at the mass of rubble. "She was still by the lake when the rocks fell."
"We must endeavor on." Gandalf said leading the way deeper into the mine. "Come along. Intara must fend for herself now."
Intara crawled out of the water to the cliff wall and out of reach of the monster. It had grabbed her again as she'd reached the shore and she had struggled with it for the better part of twenty minutes before it had finally had enough of her. She lay beside the cliff and breathed heavily trying to regain her strength. She was sure that her leg was broken…if not broken then she'd certainly torn every ligament and muscle from her hip down to her big toe. She stretched, in spite of the pain it caused her, and latched on to a nearby branch. She stripped the smaller twigs from it and lashed it to her leg in a crude splint. She had to use the wall to pull herself to her feet. Once Intara caught her breath, she hopped slowly towards another branch and fashioned a crutch.
"Where's that damn horse." Intara swore. She made her way around the lake and back to the path. Following the tracks of the horses she had to leave the trail and wade through the foul smelling water in search of one of the beasts. She hobbled for some time before she found her horse grazing nearby, as if nothing had occurred.
"Come here you great beast, I'll not be able to make it to you. I'm far too tired to play games." The brown horse snorted indignantly, but did as it was asked. It turned its head to watch as its master tried to pull herself into the saddle. No matter what she did, there was no way she was going to be able to ride with her leg splinted. She rid herself of the splint and finally managed to get on her horse. She turned it slowly and let it pick its way back out of the valley as she fell asleep.
When she woke up she shivered. She hadn't changed out of her wet clothes and a slight breeze was blowing at her back. She didn't have much of an option but to keep going forward. She could stop when she was out of this accursed valley.
Horse and rider plodded on through the night and the next day, she found herself at the mouth of the valley. Her horse bent it's head to chomp at the greener grasses but she would not let it.
"Come on now, head up." Intara tugged at the reins and brought the horse's head up. "We go over the mountain. The evil forces that prevented Gandalf and the others from going over will not be paying attention to us." The horse moved slowly in the direction she indicated, unhappy that it's snack had been disrupted.
Intara didn't remember passing out again, but she suddenly woke up colder than she had been before.
"How long was I out?" She wondered aloud. She was on Caradras. Damn if her horse hadn't gotten her up the mountain. Snow fell heavily and was sticking in her dark hair and dappling her clothes.
"Ni ro lim." She whispered to her horse. It did not need to be told again and moved faster up the trail.
The mountain shuddered beneath them. It was their second day on the mountain and Intara and her horse were finally headed down the steep peak. The snow lay heavily all around them as they plodded slowly through the drifts. She had nearly fallen off her horse twice and had lashed herself to the saddle sometime yesterday. She was glad she had, for now her fingers were fisted around the worn leather reins and were a painful red color. She was so cold that she hadn't stopped at all in the three and a half days since the fight at the lake.
It took a moment for Intara to collect her bearings and focus on what was happening. The mountain shuddered a second time and the snow began to shift beneath the hooves of the horse.
"Go! Go! Go!" Intara shouted. She was unable to spur her horse to go any faster, but she still had voice. The horse, sensing that something bad was about to happen burst forward and tried to keep ahead of the avalanche, but found it a losing battle. Horse and rider were enveloped in a wave of snow and boulders.
Intara looked up into the afternoon sky and cursed as her head bounced off a rock. Her left foot, already pulled and injured from the fight with the lake monster, was stuck in the stirrup of her weary horse. The poor creature stumbled and limped across the rocky plain, just trying to move onward and get help.
"Tampa." She whispered. It took her some moments to find enough voice to gt the horse to stop so she could extricate herself from the stirrup. She lay on her back for some time, willing the pain to leave her. The sun was starting to set, and in spite of the warmth emanating from the rocks, she knew that the night would be chill. That, and if her gut were correct, she was on the Lorien side of Moria. If that were true, the orcs would be out to claim the land with the darkening of the sky.
She struggled up onto the horse's back and urged it onward. Her suspicions were correct when a few hours later she heard the sound of an orc horn echo across the land.
"Faster, we must go faster." She urged as she nudged the horse in the ribs. When she looked up, she could see the fringe of the woods of Lothlorien and, as if the horse understood what the trees meant, moved faster to get into the protective reach of the canopy.
"How I wish there was somewhere else to go." Intara thought. "But if I know Gandalf, he'll run to that witch in her great trees for protection from the orcs and whatever else he's awakened down there."
They were less than one hundred feet inside the ethereal woods when she was pulled violently from the saddle and found herself on the wrong end of an arrow.
"Shadow?" She tried to focus on the voice as it floated above her. "You look awful…mani marte?"
"Rumil….there are orcs…"
"Dina, amin sinta.." He said shortly. He picked her battered body up from where he'd shoved her and moved through the trees. "We'll get you up into a flet tonight and then take you into the city with the dawn. There's no time to take you now."
"I can't climb." She whispered as her head sagged, unable to hold it up any longer. "I haven't slept much in three days."
"Then I shall carry you. Wrap your arms about my neck…hold tight now." He wrapped a belt around her waist and secured her to him before ascending the thin rope ladder. It took everything in her to hold on as the elf climbed up into the talan and lay her down against the huge mallorn trunk. "Your cousin is about a day or so ahead of you---he and the others should be at the city by now."
"Aragorn is alive? He's here?" She struggled to lift her head and focus on what was going on around her.
"Aye. You knew of his coming?" She nodded slowly as he raised a water skin to her lips and let her drink.
"I was with him at Moria…the entrance caved before I got in. I had to come over Caradras…there was an avalanche…."
"Dina!" An archer hissed. Intara could clearly hear the sound of orcs moving below them, accompanied by the deadly sound of arrows. A few pained howls indicated that they'd reached their targets.
Intara shivered as the night passed slowly. Rumil wrapped his cloak around her and touched her fevered brow.
"You are ill." He whispered. "You need to get to the Lady Galadriel."
"I'm sure she'll be just THRILLED to see me." Intara coughed. Even talking was an exhausting activity and left her short of breath.
"Of course!" Rumil said with a smile he didn't feel. "She is always happy to entertain a guest."
Rumil was worried for this woman. She'd spent time in the Golden Wood before. Time recuperating from injuries she'd sustained. The two were close friends and he did not want to see her come to any harm.
The dawn could not come quickly enough.
Mani marte---- What happened?
Dina--- Be silent
Amin Sinta--- I know.