Assasin's Shadow

[rohirrim TR]

Alatar and the rangers awoke the next morning to find 3 more sleepers by the fire that morning.

"so, how do you dwarves do it?"asked Hluor somwhat annoyed at their unnoticed appearance.

"well the dwarves long ago learned that without stealth, there is hunger" answered Gimli, "although in our case we might say that where there are dunedain there is hunger, we just went to get some supplies and some er..other things information that you," gesturing at Alatar " might be interested in"

"Such as" queried Alatar suspiciously.

"A certain witch is out for your head wizard, she heard about your run with those harad unfortunately; and that dratted friend of your is holed up on the border of the barrow-downs planning to kill you if this witch fails." Gimli informed them matter of factly as he roasted a duck over their fire.

"well, why keep them waiting" asked Hluor.

"we wait for a power from the south before we move on Morluin, but this witch hmm.... Alatriel of course, you're right ranger we shouldn't keep her waiting that would unwise indeed, she's not known for patience and is easily angered, that can be used against her " replied Alatar thoughtfully.

[Lady Willow Rose]

Alatriel stared at the town of Bree, small in the distance. She smirked. A horse was all she needed, really. And maybe an apple or two. Food wasn't a priority.

She stopped suddenly, eyes becoming glassy. Words floated through her mind.

"Alatriel of course, you're right ranger we shouldn't keep her waiting that would unwise indeed, she's not known for patience and is easily angered, that can be used against her "

Alatriel blinked once and then burst out laughing. "Mortals..." she said, still laughing. "Oh, mortals can be so thick-headed. It's quite amusing." She strode toward Bree, still grinning.

[Acalewia]

Elnar joined Cumaar with three full quivers and an extra bow.
"I have a feeling she can can us these," he explained at Cumaar's questioning glance. "I also have a feeling we may be getting more than we are bargening for"


************************************************** *

Acalewia watched Willow's face. Something was awaking within her. Then the memory that was tugging at Acalewia came to mind. A memory a thousand years old. Elnar laying in Elrond's house, fighting the darkness that had taken hold of him. How, he never told her.

[rohirrim TR]

"Evil times these are when Alatriel the furious is out, by the way Hluor would you mind getting the door for her we wouldn't want her to get erm angry and try to burn down the hut" went on Alatar conversationally.

"the door??" stared Hluor blankly.

"the door" repeated the wizard.

"oh...right" he said holding a dagger on his left side as he pulled back the bar and swung open the door to behold a rather tall dark looking woman who reminded him of a python he had seen in a cave once when he had been finding shelter out of the rain, cold dead black eyes; it gave him chills as she walked in the cheery little room, the others felt the same way as though the fire wasn't putting off heat any longer, only Alatar remained expressionless as he stood deceptively leaning on his staff.

[Lady Willow Rose]

Alatriel looked at the company she'd come across. Pitiful, really. So easy to intimidate the life forms in Middle Earth.

"Well," she said coolly, "does anyone care to offer me a quick summarization fo the situation. After all, I am here to kill only one immortal. The rest are just a bonus."

[rohirrim TR]

"my dear Alatriel the eldar are certainly amusing when they become evil, Kill? one of our party? were not even the ones you were sent to kill, yet you think that you can simply walk in here and defeat me?! servant of the valar, apprentice of Olorin the great; you think that yourself, a corrupted child of Feanor could do me harm? " asked Alatar somewhat scornfully.

"what do you mean you are not the ones I seek?" she asked icily.

"Why only that your bane has not yet arrived we await them before we move on old Morluin, you remember him don't you? Pollando we called him then like brothers we were, but he was powerhungry even as you are" replied the wizard sadly.

"MY BANE, you old fool do you think I came so far to die at the hand of Elessar I am not going to the south and I am assured that the King of Gondor will be much too busy to come here" she spit her words back at him enraged, "you lot are useless so I'll leave no witnesses" with swirl of her cloak she drew a wand-like staff and a dagger and brandished the staff screaming khelek hurro' the ice hanging off the eaves of the building suddenly became bolts of ice hurling towards Alatar the blue.

"naur tinchor osturra" shouted the wizard and from his staff came a wall of fire shielding them from the Ice and causing water out the door," templa pilini' " he shouted sending a arrow of blue flame at a very angry Alatriel.

Bringing up her dagger she shouted "lietha asca melloneamin" her dagger shattered but she was unharmed, then with a magical burst of speed she dissapeared into the southern woods.

"come on she's getting away" shouted Hluor.

"Hluor you don't chase a wounded mountain lion, she is only angry not hurt, if she is still out there after Morluin is defeated we will hunt her until then much would be against us if we tried to traverse the wild country the Icedrake still lives" answered Alatar as he closed the door and threw another log on the fire.

[Lady Willow Rose]

Angry? Oh, Alatariel was more than angry. She was bloody furious! Partly with herself and partly with that old fool who worshipped the Valar. She shouldn't have attacked when she had no real reason to. I mean, really. All she wanted was information. Was that so impossible to come by? Her prey was in Gondor.

Obviously, that's the direction she should head for.

Or... Icedrake... Alatariel smirked. That would be a good place to wait. And a safe one.

[Curubethion]

Three riders came out of the gates of Minas Tirith. A bronze-skinned man wearing a sword and quiver on his back, a fair-skinned elf wearing a quiver and a sheathed sword, and a beautiful woman with a quiver slung across the saddle of her horse. The sun shone on them when they left the Rammas Echor behind, turning north.

Curmaar looked back at the city, fixing everything in his memory. He had seen nothing so grand, and likely he would never see anything so fair again. After the evil in the north was conquered, and the Assassin defeated, he would perhaps settle in Rohan, helping the Rohirrim, living a new life. The south he could never return to.

Elnar shivered. He could feel something...he had felt something, when he had shouted the elvish defiance back at the unseen enemy. Something was there...something evil. Something that knew his kind, and something powerful enough to destroy him. To destroy much of Middle-Earth.

Lady Willow silently rode on her horse, her eyes betraying none of the thoughts she held within her. She was like a chest which held a great jewel-when the time was right, all would be told.
~~~~~~~
"So, they are gone," whispered Acalewia.

"Yes," replied Curamir, "but something tells me that their road may be the safer."

[Lady Willow Rose]

Lady Willow deliberately kept the memory of her disastrous meeting with Elessar out of her mind until she left Minas Tirith. She'd yet to tell her company that she remembered her name. Finduilas Tîwele. Hope Dragonslayer.

She had her name, at least. But the price she paid for it was unbearable. Lady Willow had given her heart.

Tears seeped in her eyes, trickled down her face. The pain of it was horrid. To love Aragorn was to be alone. For she couldn't have his love. And even if there was some sort of miracle and he did gift her with his heart... She would lose him. He was mortal. Time was his enemy. And now, it was hers.

She cried silently, but the men knew. They kept silent. Her pain was her own.

Forever.

[Acalewia]

Acalewia had no idea why her brother chose to go with Willow and the Southron. She had quit trying to figure it out. Their company had finally set out for Osgiliath. Elessar had brought his best soldiers with him. Acalewia rode beside him.
"Wait," she said. She drew the blade from her boot. It glowed blue.
"Orcs are near" Elessar growled.
"Do we fight them or bypass them?"

************************************************** ******

Faramir paced the room, the parchment from the Assasin in his hand. He had been pondering the meaning of the threat all the while his sons and Eruanna were gone. What could he mean by your time has come?

[Curubethion]

Somewhere near Minas Tirith, the drums beat. Few heard them...

Kur-Arag-Kad slowly stole up the mountain trail. It was the Druedain who knew the secret paths...for the Druedain had lived in those lands for years beyond reckoning. The small army behind him grinned.

"We retake our lands...lands the stone-carvers stole!" he shouted to his men.

A cheer rose in reply. They ran up the trail, and stopped. They were at the summit of the pass. Below them lay a street made of white stone. The streets of Minas Tirith. Kur-Arag-Kad leaped down, motioning his men to follow.

[Lady Willow Rose]

Lady Willow brought her horse to a halt. She felt something. Closing her eyes, she tried to identify it.

Darkness, hate... battle drums.

Her eyes snapped open. "Curmaar, Elnar, we go back to Minas Tirith," she said quickly. Her own mission could wait.

Her priority was protecting Aragorn. And that included Minas Tirith.

[Acalewia]

Elnar whipped his horse around and galloped after her. The three were pushing their horses to the limit.
"Willow! What did you see?" He shouted after her.

[Lady Willow Rose]

"Battle comes to Minas Tirith. The White City cannot fall! I will not let it!" Willow closed her eyes and spurred her horse onward. She trusted the beast with her life. Horses were her friends.

Concentrating on the glow of power inside of her, she mentally reached out for the man who was first in her thoughts. "Aragorn," she murmured on the winds, "Astalder, asca!" Then Willow threw her power into the King. "Elea i'dolen." A picture of the enemy moving into Minas Tirith opened in her mind and, through it, Aragorn's. She felt his shock.

"Cuamin linduva yassen megrille," she murmured before cutting the connection.



*Valiant one, hurry
*Reveal (a spell)
*My bow will sing with your sword

[Curubethion]

"Hold!" shouted Curmaar. "Where are you going?"

"We must help him!" replied Lady Willow. "The city is falling!"

"This is madness...why? How can we trust this dream?"

"I know, Southron! I know."

Elnar looked at them, and stopped his horse. "Curmaar, I feel it too. Yet I also know that something is calling us north. If shadow takes the north while Minas Tirith lives, the victory will be brief. Lady Willow, we must go north."

"But...Elessar..."

Curmaar glanced at her. "He and Captain Faramir can fight their own battles. They are great warriors."

He spurred his horse to the north, leaving the others, who hesitated.

[Acalewia]

Acalewia stopped.
"Listen." The others listened at first they heard nothing then...
"Drums!" Colomir cried.
"Orcs ahead and an army behind! What more could we ask for?" Curamir said sarcaticly, drawing a glare from Acalewia and his brother. "I mean, which shall we face?"

************************************************** ****

"Come, Willow!" Elnar said as he urged his horse after Curmaar. "Elessar left just after us. I don't believe he is in the City. The North needs use more."

[Lady Willow Rose]

Willow was torn. She had to go North and yet she couldn't leave Aragorn. What was she to do in this? Finally, an idea occurred to her. It might not be the wisest course of action, but she had no other choice.

Raising her arms, she began to chant.

"My heart is yours, but the power is mine
Let our hearbeats now entwine."

She felt the pulse of magic move through her and very suddenly a thread of awareness appeared in her mind. Aragorn was there, a quiet presence. Willow smiled. "I guard you now, my love. Safe you shall be."

She wheeled her horse around and charged off into the North.

[rohirrim TR]

"were gonna need some help," stated Colomir.


"thanks for stating the obvious brother," Curamir answered with a reckless grin as he rode off towards MT. Mindolluin's beacon.

[rohirrim TR]

"Curamir, wait" called Colomir, Curamir did not heed his brothers call and only urged his horse to greater speed. Colomir swore, and swung his horse to follow his impulsive brother.

"I hate it when they do that" Acalwecia thought as she spun her horse around and followed.

[Curubethion]

"Elnar, which way do we go?" asked Curmaar. "You know these lands far better than I could ever know."

"We will go northwest, through Dunland, and then north, on the west side of the Misty Mountains. We shall pass north, then, up towards Eriador and Arnor. Bree will be our goal, unless there is word of dangers elsewhere."

Dunland...Misty Mountains...Bree...Eriador...Arnor...the words danced through Curmaar's head like a dizzying spell of some wizard. These strange lands...

"Good," he replied. "Lead the way."