Intara stretched slowly, the stiffness slow to leave her sore left knee. Warm fingertips trailed across the flesh on her hip as light as the breeze blowing outside. She smirked and turned into Haldir's warm chest, her dark hair spilling over her shoulders in dark waves.
One thing was for sure, if there was an elf in Lorien that did not know Intara had returned, they certainly knew after last night.
Haldir ran his fingers up her spine, the smooth skin marred by old scars that hadn't been allowed to heal properly. She'd had many of them when they had met years ago. She had far more now. One scar stood out, a bright, fiery white against the muscular flesh of right arm; another marred the perfect skin of her chest. The worst was an angry looking gash that went across her entire waist, just above her belly button. It was bisected by another, shorter gash that went from the bottom of her sternum to just above her navel. He'd found those the night before.
"Do they hurt?" He asked, his fingertips dancing across the scar on her arm.
"No. Not anymore." She murmured. He leaned back and let the early morning sunlight wash over her. He reached between them and fingered the vertical scar above her navel.
"This I remember, but this one…" He fingered the longer scar. "This one is new since the last time."
"You must be a warrior. Only warriors would share battle stories in bed." She said trying to evade his question as she drew the bed coverings up over her body. She was not self conscious about her scars; she just did not wish to remember the stories behind them all.
"Tell me when you wish to. We have plenty of time." He pressed his lips to hers and enjoyed the sensation of her tongue dueling with his. They were both dominant beings, and neither wanted to submit to their partner.
But Haldir was wrong. They did not have plenty of time.
Haldir had requested a leave of absence from the fences and orchestrated the watches from the city. Galadriel smiled knowingly, but allowed the absence. She understood they were making up for lost time.
Rumil and Intara finally made up. Rumil had come to her apologizing for his harsh words to her.
"I deserved every syllable." Intara had said. And it was true. She'd needed to hear everything and come to terms with the world around her.
Haldir and Intara were lying in bed late one morning when the sound of horns trumpeted through the woods. Both warriors were out of bed in an instant, pulling on trousers, boots, jerkins and shirts. They both exited the talan; Intara fastening her sword around her waist and hair slightly askew, Haldir looking Regal in his warden uniform and not a hair out of place.
"Elves," Intara grumbled mentally. "never look rushed or hurried. I could live a hundred years more and still not understand how they manage to pull it off."
The gates to the city were flung wide and several hundred dark haired Rivendell elves marched into the city, pennants flying in the gentle breeze.
"Why does Rivendell send an army to Lorien?" Haldir asked, looking for the captain. "What are your orders?"
"They are to join forces with some of our men and help the men of Rohan defend themselves against Saruman's army." Galadriel said descending from the great heights of one of the trees. "See that they are well rested. You all depart for Helms Deep within a week."
Intara and Haldir passed a nearly imperceptible nod between one another and departed to prepare themselves for a busy week.
"I should have known better. I should not have tarried." Intara paced back and forth across the floor of her talan as Haldir unbuckled the sword belt from his hip and loosened his tunic. "Something has happened."
"It is not your fault. There is nothing you could do."
"I was entrusted to follow them. I delayed." Intara fumed. "I failed Rivendell."
"You did no such thing. Your leg took a full three weeks to heal properly. Not that you didn't try to make it take longer with your stubbornness." Haldir enjoyed that she bristled slightly. "You would have done them no good if you had followed. You'd probably have…." He would not say the last part. He might have been an immortal being, but he did not speak lightly of death. He had seen it take many of his people in spite of their immortality.
"Gotten myself killed?" It was Intara's turn to take satisfaction in the reaction she got out of Haldir. "I am mortal Haldir. That is my destiny."
"You are destined to do other things than just die, Intara." He said shortly. He did not wish to argue with her when their time together had been cut so short.
"But it all leads up to the same thing. I will not die an old woman, Haldir. That I know. I have killed far too many people in my life and reined down far too much anger and unhappiness on Middle Earth for the Powers Above to allow me that end." She looked out across Lorien and listened as Lorien and Rivendell elves mingled with one another in the twilight, catching up on news between the two cities, and singing happily. She jumped slightly as Haldir wrapped his arms around her waist and rested his chin against her shoulder. "I will die in battle. I am a warrior….as such, it is my destiny to die." She whispered.
"Let us not talk about such dark things in the golden wood." He whispered into her ear. The feeling of his warm breath against her neck sent shivers down her spine and she allowed Haldir to guide her to bed.
In the silver moonlight Intara opened her eyes and gazed at the leaves of the tree above her. She stared as they rustled and moved slowly in the breeze.
"What are you thinking of?" Haldir was lying beside her, also staring at the leaves above them.
"About how all the time in the world never seems to be enough." She clicked her tongue against the back of her teeth and sighed. Slowly she grasped his hand in hers brushed her thumb across his knuckles. "Do you really want to hear about what I did after leaving here?" He turned his head to look at her, silver eyes meeting emerald.
"Only if you truly want to tell me."
"I do….really." And so Intara launched into the long saga of what she'd done since leaving Lorien and the situations she'd thrown herself into in an attempt to forget. She left the scar on her stomach until last.
"I was with a regiment of rangers and we had been tasked with finding a marauding band of wild men up in the westfold of Rohan. We had been ordered to put a stop to their reign of terror. We were unable to find them for days….we just couldn't manage to locate them, and then we realized that they were tracking us." The sun was just beginning to lighten the flet and Intara paused to take in the beauty of the dawn. "We came up with a plan and I volunteered to be the bait. One of the wildmen came up to where I was feigning sleep. He towered over me, but I had been told not to move until the others in his party were visible. I saw him pull the knife, and still, I did not move. And then…" She paused momentarily as the scenes from that long ago night danced in her mind's eye.
Haldir watched and saw the distant look in her eye, knowing she was no longer in his bed, but in some distant clearing, reliving the attack. "And then what?" He asked, drawing her back to the present.
"And then the others leapt from hiding. They had suspected the trap and had surrounded us. They killed the rest of the rangers or injured them. The one above me slashed at me but I fought back. I had to kill him. I was so weak…I'd lost so much blood that I almost didn't make it out…eventually I met up with the survivors of the band and they tried to patch me up, but it was no use….not much could be done for something of this length." She fingered the scar absentmindedly.
"I'm sorry."
"It was not your fault." Intara said lacing her fingers with his again. "What could you have done?"
"I should have followed you." Intara leaned up and placed a soft, loving kiss on his lips.
"If you had followed me and protected me, then what would we be talking about in bed, if not my scars?" She whispered against his lips. He kissed her fiercely, silencing her thoughts and words for the time being.
The day before they were slated to leave, Galadriel called Intara to her flet.
"I have a gift for you." She said with a twinkle in her eye. "I gave the other members of the fellowship gifts…it is only fitting that I bestow one on you as well."
"I am honored." Galadriel turned and pulled a piece of fabric from the table behind her. It was a set of lightweight battle armor. All of it was brushed a dull black.
"I believe black is your preferred color, is it not?" Galadriel asked as Intara stepped forward to inspect the items. The breast plate covered her chest, shoulders and sides and stopped just above the bottom of her rib cage. It would not hinder her mobility. Beneath it she could wear her chain mail shirt and be remarkably well protected. There were a set of finely crafted gauntlets on the table, simple, with no adornments. The last item on the table was a pair of trousers, padded in all the right places for riding and with the added protection of chain mail sections on the out side parts of her leg where she'd be most likely to be attacked. Lastly, Galadriel handed Intara a helmet to match the rest of the armor.
"I can not accept this." Intara said. "As usual, the elves are far too kind to me."
"You will accept it since I asked Lord Elrond to send it on with the army. He would not send you after the Fellowship ill prepared." Galadriel smiled. "I just took the liberty of having it polished black for you."
"I shall never be able to repay your kindness." Intara whispered as she brushed her fingers over the three stars that were carved into the breast plate. Arwen must have known about the armor as well, for that would have been her special touch. Intara took the pieces and carried them to where she was now sleeping in the camps with the rest of the soldiers.
The next morning all of the warriors who were to leave gathered on the shore of the Nimrodel and climbed into long boats. They would row through the woods and into the Anduin where they would move with all haste until the reached the falls at Rauros. From there they'd leave the boats and travel over land to Helms Deep where it was said that Saruman's army was heading.
Intara knew all this for she had been at the council of war with Haldir. She awoke early in the morning and donned her new armor and tucked the helmet beneath her arm. The parting ceremony was brief and Intara climbed aboard the ship with the others.
"To oars!" Intara took up her place at one of the oar locks and started to row. The boats were constructed with enough space for half the soldiers to row, and half to relax, or be prepared to defend the boats against attack.
Just after noon, the boots pushed out into the Anduin and one by one made the slow turn with the cross current and sped away. Half way through the day they all switched places. Intara's shoulder ached, but she made no mention of it. She sat against a barrel in the middle of the ship and watched the shores with a keen eye. She did not feel safe being stuck in the middle of a river. There was no real way of protecting themselves should someone decide to attack. It was just before nightfall when the elves switched places again and Intara took up a place at the oars. By the end of her stint at the oars her shoulder was on fire and stiff with fatigue. She stumbled across the moonlit deck and rested her head against a barrel, falling quickly to sleep with the dawn.
By dawn the next day they had reached Rauros. It was amazing what fifty elves at the oars of a boat could accomplish in a day. They moved quickly onto land and on the second day made it as far as the Entwash. Haldir decided to rest for the night and be prepared to march the next day in to Helms Deep. Intara made her camp separate from the rest of the elves and stared into the embers of her small fire. A hand clamped down on her shoulder and she groaned at the sharp pain it caused to stab through her arm.
"Tula sinome." She turned her head and saw Haldir walking towards his tent, his hair taking on a silver glow in the starlight.
Intara moved through the shadows and arrived at Haldir's tent before he did.
She stood at the center and looked around her. How they'd managed to pack a tent across land and still keep up the pace they had, Intara was not sure of, but she had often been surprised at the ingenuity of the elves. Haldir walked in and smirked when he saw her standing in the center of his tent.
"You're far too stubborn for your own good." He said removing his sword and placing it against a small table beside the door. "Why did you not say something sooner?"
"I'm sore." She responded without looking at him. "I'll not deny that."
"You can barely move your arm." He barked as he dug through a box beside his cot. "You never should have rowed as long as you did."
"I'm fine. Nothing a little salve won't cure." Haldir found what he was looking for and tossed a small container of salve to her. She reached across with her left hand and caught it easily.
"Damn woman!" Haldir swore. "You can not even move your arm!"
"I will be fine." Intara strode forward and glared at the March Warden. "I don't need you to baby sit me, Haldir of Lorien. I did just well enough on my own without you!"
Haldir reached out quickly and grasped her right shoulder and applied only a bit of pressure and watched as she winced and nearly dropped to her knees. It was a cruel trick, to use his elven reflexes against her, but it needed to be done.
She would not accept his help otherwise.
"Take a seat, and remove your shirt." Haldir ordered. Intara glared icily at him, cursing, but did as he asked. "And do not curse at me in that vile dwarf tongue. I did that for your own good."
Intara sat heavily on the stool and unlaced her shirt, but did not remove it.
"I can't get it off myself. I can't raise my arm up." Intara said softly.
"What was that?" Intara's skin bristled and she clamped her jaw tight. She could almost hear the mirth flowing in Haldir's voice. She knew his keen ears had caught her words. He just wanted her to say it again.
"You heard what I said. I'll not repeat myself."
"Very well." Haldir almost laughed outright as he reached for the bottom of her shirt and lifted it up over her head and carefully slid it down her other arm. He rubbed the salve into her shoulder, trying to be gentle until it eased the muscles, and then working deeper. She hissed as his fingers dug into the muscle, but did not complain. The silence and tension in the tent was potent and Haldir finally felt the need to break it. "Does it pain you often?"
"Pain? No. It is just an annoyance I wish I did not have to live with." She leaned forward trying to get away from the prodding fingers as Haldir rubbed deeper, but he held her in place. "It would seem to dislocate of its own accord and at the most inopportune moments."
"Such as?" He was just glad he had her talking instead of cursing him.
"Oh, once in the middle of a fight." Intara said concentrating on a pill of lint clinging to her pants. "One time, it dislocated itself while I slept. I'm not sure how that happened…actually it happens quite often. But I was ambushed in the night and was at a distinct disadvantage that time. Ouch! Tanya arwa!" Haldir stopped massaging her shoulder as she wrenched away and her shoulder popped loudly out of place. Intara let out a string of curses that would have made a balrog blush before she popped her shoulder back into place.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean…"
"No, that was my fault." She said sitting back down. "A little softer this time, if you don't mind." She sighed as Haldir's fingers ghosted over her shoulders. He fingered the spot where she'd been struck by the orc arrow during her chase of the nazgul.
"This is fresh…it's still red." He moved his fingers over the slightly raised place on her back where the Rivendell healers had had to cut the shaft and head from her back.
"Don't….part of the arrow is still imbedded." She said stiffening and pulling away from the touch.
"Intara…" Haldir brushed her dark hair away from her back and over her left shoulder. "You are a reckless, fool hardy woman." He whispered in her right ear. He took pleasure in the shudder that went through her.
"I try hard."
"Promise me….promise me you'll be careful tomorrow." She stood and put her shirt back on, but did not answer him until she was dressed.
"I'll make no promises, Haldir. I can't." Intara laced the shirt back up and then stood close to the warden, looking up into his wonderful silver blue eyes. Lacing her fingers into his long, silky blonde hair she pulled him close to her and kissed him softly. "Good night." She whispered against his lips and she walked out of his tent and back to her own camp to prepare for the battle that was sure to come.
Tula sinome--- Come here.
Tanya Arwa--- That hurt!