A/N: This one is a little heavy on the Sindarin, so bare with me.
Intara kept up as best she could with the elves as they ran across the plains and up the valley to Helms Deep.
The elves beside her were silent marchers and kept their eyes bent on the place in the canyon where torchlight flickered in the dim light. Intara rushed to the front, where Haldir led the elves. Penants snapped in the gentle breeze and the sound of marching feet reverberated against the smooth stone of the walkway.
"They are shouting to for the gates to be open to us. They are lucky we are not orcs in disguise." Haldir said solemnly.
"You mean you're not? You certainly smell like one." Intara muttered loud enough for him to hear. He grinned at that, but only for a moment before the solemn mask was dropped again.
Intara marched with the first rank of elves into Helms deep and followed the roadway around the curve and into the center of the keep. She followed Haldir and stood in front of the King of Rohan. She did not listen to what Haldir said, only that it sounded regal. He was good at sounding important. He'd be considered arrogant were he a human and not an elf.
Intara was distracted by Aragorn running down the steps and pulling Haldir into an embrace which the elf was slow to return. Legolas came down the steps and stood beside Intara without giving her a second glance or taking note of who she was. Aragorn looked over Haldir's shoulder at her and his face showed recognition.
"Intara? You as well?"
"I am bound to Rivendell…so sayeth the lord of the city, there shall I go." She said repeating that which she had told Gimli when their journey began. Legolas took a step away from her and looked her over. No more did she look like a dull ranger of the north, but a gleaming warrior, in spite of the discolored look of her armor. Her features were strong, her eyes shone with determination and she seemed stronger than he had ever before seen her. Aragorn stood before her and looked as if he wanted to embrace her as well, but was restraining himself.
"I'm glad you came." Aragorn said finally, and Intara bowed her head slightly.
The ranks of elves behind them suddenly turned, as one, and faced the men of Rohan who until that moment had lost hope.
Intara followed Aragorn in to the keep with Haldir to receive their orders.
"We assume that the orcs are going to come at us in solid waves. We can hold them off for some time with archers. That length of time can be extended with your help." Aragorn said looking at Haldir. "We were remarkably short on experienced archers."
"From what I saw when I entered, you are remarkably short on experienced anything." Intara growled softly. At the harsh look she received from Aragorn she changed the subject. "I can not pull a bow, you know that. What would you have me do?"
"Haldir, I will entrust the left to you. I will be in the center and Intara on the right." Aragorn said as he pointed out the map. "We will stave off the forces as long as we can with arrows, but when that fails, and surely it will, they will come up over the wall."
"And then it's hand to hand combat." Haldir said glancing briefly at Intara. "Not the most efficient plan…but the best considering our resources."
"What of Boromir?" Intara asked as she chewed on a hard piece of dried meat. "Is he off to Gondor to find us reinforcements?"
"Boromir is dead." Intara coughed on the piece of meat stuck in her throat and groped for water.
"When?" She wheezed.
"A week past."
"And the hobbits? Where are they?" She had assumed they were in the caves with the women and children, but with this news she was beginning to doubt that. If what he said was true, then the Fellowship was shattered.
"Merry and Pippin were captured by the Urukhai and taken towards Isengard." At the alarmed look that flickered in Intara's eyes Aragorn held up his hand. "They are well though…they escaped into Fangorn."
"Fangorn!" She rose quickly. Aragorn lay a hand on her arm to calm her.
"That is an ancient forest, and they are young. How could they survive in such a place?" Haldir asked. Aragorn looked at him as if he were only just now realizing the elf was still in the room. He cleared his throat.
"Haldir, a moment alone with my cousin, please." Haldir looked to Intara before he rose, bowed to Aragorn and went to make preparations on the wall. Intara sat back down.
"What of Sam and Frodo. Were they captured as well?"
"They are still going to Mordor….I think."
"You think?"
"When Boromir was killed, Frodo and Sam took their leave of the rest of us and made for Mordor without us. Gimli, Legolas and I went after Merry and Pippin."
Intara was silent for a moment. "I never should have let you leave Lorien without me."
"There was nothing you could have done to protect them." Aragorn admonished. "I have spent the last week berating myself for their capture. But we have bigger concerns facing us now."
"So says you, Aragorn, son of Arathorn." Intara's voice oozed with disdain. "The man who would be King was he to embrace his destiny the same as he embraced Haldir on his arrival." She leaned on the table and glared down at him. Aragorn rose from his seat and stood tall, but would not allow her eye to catch his.
"I think we should prepare for battle against the Uruk-hai and not fight ourselves." Aragorn said sharply. She paused a moment before she turned on her heel and made for her position on the wall.
The elves and men were stationed along the hornburg wall. Haldir, to the far left, Aragorn in the center, and Intara to the right, closest to the keep. Several rows of archers were behind the wall, ready to send a hail of arrows into the air and down into the Uruk-hai on the other side. Satisfied that things were under control for the moment, Intara left her position on the wall and walked slowly to where Aragorn paced between his position and Haldir's.
"Were I not to know what it is baring those torches, I might think it a beautiful sight." She said as she came to stop beside Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas.
The Urukhai were a thick black cancer filling the bottom of the valley. Thousands of them bore torches to light their way and the whole mass sparkled with the firelight as it moved over the rocks and crevasses filling the valley.
"I wish I knew what it was you were looking at lass. The elf here picked the worse possible spot." Legolas smirked.
Intara looked past the other fellowship members to where Haldir stood gazing at the approaching enemy as well. He looked calm and composed; as if it were a passing flock of geese and not an orc army of ten thousand.
"Lle Desiel?" She asked as she came to stand beside him. He took his eyes from the orcs and glanced at her, a smirk on his face. In the centuries she'd been alive, he thought she might be able to speak Sindarin slightly better than she did. She was just too stubborn to pick much of it up and when she did use an infrequent phrase or two, it was usually to curse someone or was so badly pronounced it was comical.
"I am ready. Are you though?"
"Very." She answered. Her eyes looked steadfastly out over the flat plain before the fortress and at the advancing orc army. He had seen that look on her face before; she hoped that her death was out there. "Uuma ma'ten'rashwe, ta tuluva a'lle." He grasped her hand in his and forced her dark eyes to meet his. "Amin sinta thaliolle e dagor. You will live."
"Tira ten' rashwe, mellonamin."
"Tira ten' rashwe, meleth." Intara pulled her hand from his before he could lean in and kiss her and dashed off to her side of the fortifications without a backwards glance.
The orcs stopped their advance on the fortress about three hundred feet from the wall. They beat their shields with their swords, stamped their feet in the dirt, and tamped their lances down in a terrible cadence. Several opened their gaping maws and let out hideous growls and groans.
The sky was cleaved in two as a bolt of lightening rent the air, adding its electric charge to that of the battle. Thunder rolled, barely audible for all the noise of the ten thousand orcs. Rain began to fall slowly, adding a delicate 'ping' to the symphony as it bounced off the armor of the warriors on the wall.
Aragorn shouted orders for them all to hold, Intara echoed them to her line. They all waited with baited breath, tense, knowing the battle was moments away.
Suddenly a single arrow pierced the night and struck one of the Uruk-hai in the neck. The creature groaned and then pitched forward into the muck.
Ten thousand Urukhai grew strangely silent, and then burst forth against the wall. Just as King Theoden had predicted they broke against the wall like water against the shores. The archers on the wall were able to keep many of the advancing enemy at bay, but eventually bows proved to be useless and the uruk-hai were able to place ladders against the wall. As they streamed over the wall, they were met with the blades of the defenders. Intara threw her dead enemies back over the wall and into the arms of their brethren. Elves cried out in pain as they were stabbed by the much larger Uruk-hai. The top of the deeping wall was a swirling mass of orc, man and elf. Blood ran across the smooth surface of the ancient wall and down the crevasses in crimson rivers.
It seemed to Intara as if the fighting would never end. Every time she killed an orc, ten more replaced them. She was fighting fiercely on the wall when she suddenly heard Aragorn shouting above the din of battle.
"Bring him down! Bring him down!" She did not have a chance to see what was going on but felt the wall shudder beneath her feet. Turning, she saw it blow out and up into the night. Huge blocks of stone, sharp bits of shrapnel and an incredible amount of dust rained down upon the unsuspecting defenders on the remainder of the wall.
Intara was thrown back into the wall by the concussion of the blast and covered her head to keep from being knocked out by the debris. When she stood again, her ears rang and sound seemed to be coming from the next valley over, not right next to her. It was as if her head were under water and she was forced to view the world from that perspective. She pulled her helmet from her head and let her dark hair fall over her shoulders, the ends sticking to her soaked armor. She thought that the helmet had been the cause of her hearing problems, but realized it was something else now.
Saruman's army poured in through the hole in the wall and started to fight with the defenders. Gimli leapt from the wall and began hacking at the advancing uruk-hai, swinging his ax furiously. Aragorn stood in the open, near what had been the shore of the lake and ordered the other archers to fire into the aggressors. Intara fought her way farther and farther down the wall, and as she came closer to where she could descend and get into the main part of the fray, her hearing became clearer and her ears quit ringing. Rushing down the stairs she went to Aragorn for orders.
She glanced at the top of the wall and saw Haldir still fighting there. It was easy to spot him, armor gleaming white gold in the shallow light, crimson cloak flowing behind him as he beheaded another orc.
"Aragorn! Fall back to the keep! Get your men out of there!" The voice of King Theoden echoed across the Horburg. Intara reached the place where Aragorn was fighting and helped him pull Gimli up out of the water.
"We have to fall back, Aragorn. There are too many of them here." Intara shouted as they pulled the dwarf from the water and passed him off to Legolas and another elf.
"I know. Get back to the keep." Aragorn said grasping her arm.
"Not until you're back. I'll cover you." Aragorn only stood and shouted his orders in both Westron and Sindarin, his voice echoing through the battle. "Haldir! Fall back to the keep!" Haldir turned and acknowledged the order and defended himself against an onrushing Urukhai.
For Intara, time seemed to come to a standstill. She watched from her place on the ground as Haldir drove his blade into another orc and shouted to his archers to fall back. She saw the soldier behind Haldir fall by the blade of an Uruk-hai who had just come over the wall. With one swipe, the Uruk came at Haldir's unprotected left said and slashed into him. Intara might have screamed, but she wasn't sure. Haldir killed the offender and looked down at his side where blood rushed over the once gleaming armor.
"HALDIR!" Intara and Aragorn rushed as one to the stairs to get to the top of the wall. Intara threw Uruk-hai out of her way but could focus on little. Her world seemed to be caving in around her, centering only on Haldir. When she reached the top of the wall she saw an Uruk bring an ax down into the back of Haldir's head. "NO!" She screamed..
She threw one of her knives and watched as it imbedded itself at the base of the Uruk's skull and the creature fell with a dull thud on the already crowded battlement. Just as Haldir started to fall, Intara grasped his shoulders and lowered him into her lap. His eyes focused on hers.
"Get back to the keep." He whispered slowly. Intara shook her head. "Melamin….go."
"No. I won't let you leave me." She said fisting his cloak in her hands. He smiled as he saw tears begin to brim in her eyes.
"It is…better…" His eyes started to roll back .
"Haldir!" She shook him and brought his eyes back to her.
"It is my time. Uumu dela. I will see you again. Tenna'…Tenna' ento….lye omenta, meleth."
"I love you." She blurted suddenly. She felt choked and could not draw a breath as she stared into Haldir's once sharp eyes.
Aragorn knelt beside her as Haldir's head fell back and he stared at the sky above them, a slight smile on his face having heard her last words to him. Aragorn placed a bloodied hand on Haldir's armor over his heart, blessing him and wishing him godspeed. Intara allowed one tear to track down her face and off her chin. It got lost amongst the rain drops on his armor.
"Lye nuqernuva sen e dagor I'narr en gothrim glinuva nuin l'anor. Amin mela lle." Intara wiped a tear from her cheek as she whispered to the corpse of the one person in all of Middle Earth who had brought her true happiness. "Get out of here." Her voice was flat and unnervingly cold. Aragorn stared at her, unsure if she had spoken.
"Intara, you can't stay here." He grasped her shoulder but she shrugged him off. "We must…"
"Get back to the keep." She said rising slowly, leaving Haldir's body where it fell. "They need you. King Theoden needs help." She pointed off to where the Uruk's were bashing the gates in. Aragorn turned to look and when he turned back, she had disappeared into the fray.
Lle Desiel?" --- Are you ready?
Uuma ma'ten'rashwe, ta tuluva a'lle--- Don't look for trouble, it will come to you.
Amin sinta thaliolle e dagor--- I know your strength in battle.
Tira ten' rashwe, mellonamin----- Be careful, my friend
Tira ten' rashwe, meleth--- Be careful, my love.
Uumu dela--- Don't worry
Tenna' ento lye omenta--- Until next we meet.
lye nuqernuva sen e dagor----- We will defeat them in battle.
I'narr en gothrim glinuva nuin l'anor.----- The bones of our foes will gleam under the sun
Amin mela lle--- I love you.