Celeborn's Nine - Riders of the Night

Author's note: thanks for the reviews. Yep, we're going to have to do something about
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Scopias and Tomy were determined to go back and look for their man, just in case it wasn't something evil but an accident. Glorfindel and Melanipus offered to go with them, while the others set up shelters. With the ground covered in snow, and the Saka horses exhausted, it was decided to rest a couple of days. Glorfindel was certain the centaur was also tired, but he was curious about the man's disappearance and wanted to go along.

Glorfindel wanted one other to come along. "Haldir," he said as he approached the elf who was taking care of his horse, "lend me Tiger."

"Lend you Tiger?" Haldir asked curiously. "Why?"

"She can see into the supernatural. If there is something evil following us, maybe she can see it."

"Maybe I should go too?"

"I don't want you to," Glorfindel answered, although he knew it would raise Haldir's hackles. "I need you to stay here and make sure everything is done is right. If we are not back by dark, you will be in charge."

Haldir stared at Glorfindel in amazement and then jerked his head around and called Tiger to him.

"She's our best weapon against the spirit world," Glorfindel told him, "and you know it."

"WE should not be tempting the spirit world," Haldir replied tersely and wrapped an arm around Tiger's shoulders.

"And what of her?" Glorfindel asked. "She's of that world." Changing his tactic, the elflord said, " I'm not asking you give her to me. I just want to take her with us."

Melanippus, edging forward, said, "Hal-dear, she can..ride..me....with me. I will protect...her."

Haldir looked up at the centaur and then down at Tiger who was staring up at him.
" They need you to go with them," he said finally.

"Ride with me Tiger," Melanippus said and offered Tiger his hand, and not a few female eyes turned enviously her way. Tiger didn't notice them as she grabbed his arm and was swung up on his back. Tiger wrapped her hands in his mane and smiled down at Haldir.

"Be careful," Haldir told her as they followed Glorfindel to his horse.
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Following the trail left behind by the Saka horses and the riders was not hard, even after the show storm. And with the weather clearing, they were able to move a little faster. But it still took them several hours to find the remains of the dead Saka, his throat ripped out, his body drained of blood.

"It looks like an animal attacked him," Glorfindel said uncomfortably, his eyes quickly noticing that there were no animal tracks in the snow. He looked around more carefully, but there were not animal tracks. "Tiger, do you see anything?"

Tiger looked around but didn't see anything.

"There is no blood anywhere," Tomy said from her horse.

Scopias climbed off his animal and knelt in the snow by his man. A gust of cold wind whipped at his long hair and furs, sending a shiver through him, but not all of it was from the cold. "We need to take him back with us and bury him."

"The ground's too cold to bury him in," Glorfindel said and dismounted.

"We'll cover him then," Scopias said. He and Glorfindel placed the body on the back of he extra horse and tied him in place.

Keeping her face in Melanippus' mane to protect it from the cold wind, Tiger looked up and squinted her eyes. She couldn't look around the centaur's human body, but she could see off to the side, and something unusual had attracted her attention. Standing in the snow, far enough away that she had been unnoticed at first, or maybe she had just appeared, stood a gray haired, fang toothed hag. Sitting up straight, she glared at the hag.

Glorfindel noticed the Tiger's death stare. "What is it Tiger?" he asked anxiously, unable to see what she was seeing.

"A hag," Tiger answered.

"Where?" Melanippus asked and looked around.

Tiger pointed but no one could see it.

"That's what killed him," Tomy said, a shiver of fear in her voice. Hags preferred man flesh and blood, but they were not that picky. And every taste they got, the stronger they got. And worse, they often traveled in threes. The three males in the group were not particularly pleased with their piece of information.

"How can we fight them if we can't see them?" Scopias asked angrily. "And we dare not lead them back to the camp."

"Don't you have magic or a charm to help us?" Glorfindel asked the Saka woman.

"I do not know how," she admitted, an edge of fear in her voice.

"Perhaps I can help," a voice spoke up a moment before the god materialized.

"Himeros," Tiger said, not completely surprised by his arrival. After all he was the god of longing, and some longings are not sexual. "We need to see the hag."

"You can see her....and her sisters," the beautiful god, dressed in heavy warm furs, said, amused by the expressions on the faces of those around him.

"Tiger can not fight all three," Tiger said as the god looked the group over.

"Tiger should not be fighting any of them," Himeros said as he circled the centaur.

"None of us should," Glorfindel spoke up, "but we dare not take them back to the camp."

"True," Himeros answered and stopped, "but I am not charged with protecting you."

"You protect Tiger?" the jinn tiger asked, disbelief heavy in her words.

"Well, not literally," the god admitted, "but I am to grant you what you long for. What do you long for Tiger?"

"Your mistress," Tiger answered readily. Enyo was a warrior goddess in the entourage of Ares. She was the one who had saved the Spartan prince from death and had him accepted as a god by Aphrodite. Only now the man of war was now a god of love and longing. And his attention could drive one insane.

Himeros smiled, almost blinding all of them with the beauty of that gesture. "She can not come, and you know it. Something else."

"Everything we need to fight the hags."

"Everything? Good wording," the god said. "You already have you need. But I can give you a little in sight." He laughed softly as if enjoying his little play on words.

"You should have kept your sword," Tiger growled softly.

Himeros gave her a look that said he was offended. "I should have kept my life," he said softly and laid a hand on her thigh. Tiger met his gaze and froze. Himeros could destroy nations with his power. "What do you long for?" he seductively asked the jinn tiger, his words sending shivers through all that heard him. "What do you most want?" Tiger didn't answer but he could feel the surge of lust blaze through her body. It wasn't him she wanted because that would have led to insanity, lusting after the god of longing, but her Master. Thinking of him was distracting her from everything. She wanted Haldir.

Glorfindel stepped back as the god and the jinn tiger stared at each other. "What of the Titan?" Himeros asked softly. "What of his flesh?"

Tiger's eyes grew wider. Prometheus? Prometheus! She remembered their joining in detail, the merging not only of their bodies but of their souls as well, and she remembered that she loved him. How could she want both of them? With a sudden hiss, Tiger swiped a clawed hand at the god. "You play games with mortals and immortals," she growled. "Do not play with Tiger."

Himeros, stepping back, grinned and said, "I have not begun to play with you." And with that he disappeared.

"That was different," Melanippus said uncomfortably. "Are you all right, Tiger?"

"Tiger fine," she answered, but that wasn't entirely true. When the god of longing fixes his attention on you, it is hard to go back to being just 'fine'.
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Darkness began its assent in the sky as the sun melted in the west. With nothing to make a good fire out of, they made several small ones and waited.
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Gortha waited for Hagga and Messa to join her. She knew why the Sakas and their companions were not leaving the body behind. They knew she was there; the jinn tiger had seen her, just as she had seen the true form of the jinn tiger. She had also seen the meddling Hellene god, but at least his mistress was not here. No one in their right mind wanted to fight Enyo.

"Why do they not run?" Messa asked, a set of long tushes sticking out of her lower jaw.

"They do not want us to know where the others went," Gortha answered.

"Meat is meat and blood is blood," Hagga added. "The man horse is mine.......I like horse." And the sharp teeth in her long mouth snapped in anticipation.

BUt they were armed with more than just their teeth and claws. Each Hag had a bone handle sword, its blade forged with the blood of a dragon in the pouring.
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Glorfindel stood a little ways from the fire, his eyes on the darkness. Himeros had given them the ability to see the evil that was coming, but now he couldn't see it. Scopias and Tomy were great bowmen, but he suspected they were going to be at a disadvantage this evening.

"They're coming," he said as three black mists started to crawl over the snow. Armed with the Balrog Slayer, he wasn't too concerned, and the look on Tiger's face told him she wasn't afraid either. "Shouldn't you be tiger now?" he asked curiously.

She looked up at him, a wicked gleam in her golden eyes. A moment later she was tiger. Her roar flew across the snow as she sprang forward.

"Stay with us!" Glorfindel yelled, but Tiger was gone.
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Tiger crashed into one of the ebony mists and threw Messa back in the snow. Armed with Fire Wand, Messa slashed at the jinn tiger and drove her back.
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Glorfindel heard Tiger's roar and knew she was already fighting one of the Hags or maybe all of them, he didn't know.

"They still come," Melanippus said. "Tomy, bring your bow and come on!" the centaur yelled as the Saka woman leaped on his back. He was not going to wait for death to come to him, he was going to meet it face on. And with Tomy on his back, he knew he wasn't going to have to risk running into her horse.

"This leaves us," Scopias said with a grim smile. He hated waiting, and now it was over.
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Tomy readied her bow as the centaur bore down on one of the mists. He was bigger than any horse that she had ever ridden, but his stride was smooth and she had no trouble preparing herself.

The Hag materialized and swung her sword at the cantaur, slicing into his flank as he sped past her. What she didn't count on was the Saka woman turning back and firing. The arrow struck flesh and the Had screamed a blood curling scream.
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Hagga ripped the arrow out of her shoulder, and then looked to see what damage she had done. The centaur was bleeding, but he was still moving, spinning back with his spear at ready. Hagga raised her sword and deflected the spear as the centaur tried to run her down. The Saka woman, carrying a short sword, swung at her and made her duck, which saved the centaur from another strike.
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Messa and the tiger were getting nowhere, neither one risking a blow from the other. But Tiger was keeping Messa away from the others, and that right now was important.
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Glorfindel and Scopias faced the Hag who seemed amused by their bravado. She played with them, waving her sword at them, looking for a weakness. The man would be easier to kill, and he was the one she attacked first.

Scopias deflected the blow as the Hag lunged at him, but she suddenly turned as Glorfindel countered her attack. AS quick as thought, she took on both males, her sword of bone, steel and dragon blood striking repeatedly at theirs. Glorfindel found the speed to match her, his elven body capable of such feats, but Scopias was unable to keep up, and even as brave as he was, the Hag sword found meat. He grabbed his body and collapsed in the snow, his blood staining it red.
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The snow was bloody under Melanippus and the Hag, both of their bodies bearing the wounds of battle. She was trying to get close enough to the centaur to bury her sword in his equine side, but Tomy and her wicked short sword was keeping her away. Enraged that mortal creatures could thwart her so effectively, she lunged at the centaur, opening herself up for something more. Melanippus suddenly stopped infront of her, skidding on his haunches and half rearing. His spear went through her and pinned her to the ground.

Her scream of rage and pain echoed over the field of snow. Tomy leaped off Melanippus' back and slit the Hag's throat, her blood spewing. BUt that was not enough. Tomy behead the Hag and held it up as a symbol of victory.
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Messa heard the death scream of her sister and hesitated just for a moment. This gave Tiger the opening she wanted. She leaped just as Messa brought the sword back up. Sword sliced through skin, a fire igniting in the jinn tiger's body. She stumbled on the ground, her own red blood coloring the unyielding whiteness of the ground. Messa lunged again at the tiger, driving her backwards.

Tiger reared up, slicing at the Hag with her claws, but the Hag sensed victory, her sword doing more than cutting through skin and meat. Messa flew into her battle rage, pushing Tiger backwards over the snow. And somewhere in Tiger's mind, she knew this was going to be her last battle. Excruiciating pain was running through her and blood ran from her body like water. That was the effect of the Hag's sword.

Messa raised her sword up for the killing down stroke, when out of the corner of her eye she detected a shape that filled her with terror. A second later, little more than a heart beat, her head was rolling on the snow.

Tiger looked up in amazement. Shifting back into a woman, her body wracked with pain, she asked, "Enyo, Why?"

The dark goddess of war, mistress and master to Himeros, wiped the blood off her sword and said, "I promised to help you when I could..once only. You looked like you needed the help."

"I thank-you," Tiger replied gratefully. "May I ask who you promised this to?"

"Prometheus," she answered. "He was the one who told me how to save Himeros. Now that I have saved you, we are even." Then seeing that the jinn tiger was hurt, she said, "I can not heal you, that is not in my power, but I will send one who can." With that she vanished.
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Gortha heard the pounding of the centaur's hooves behind her as Glorfindel met her sword for sword, move for move. A moment later a Saka arrow buried itself deep in her back. Screaming in pain, she reached for it as Balrog Slayer slashed across her throat.

Glorfindel stopped and watched the head roll across the snow. Pulling himself out of his battle trance, he looked up at Melanippus and then down at Scopias. The Saka chieftain was still alive but seriously hurt. Not hearing Tiger's roar, he looked up and yelled, "Tiger! Tiger!"

Weak from blood loss and in pain, Tiger stumbled into the camp and fell in the snow.
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Asclepius couldn't stay long, least he arouse the ire of certain Olympians. Scopias was the most seriously hurt, and he was healed first, although his body would always carry the scar of battle. Tiger was healed next, but weakness would plague her until she replaced all the blood she'd lost. And lastly Melanippus was healed, his lean bay flank bearing its own fresh scar of battle.

Then, accepting their thanks, he disappeared.
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Haldir was looking for them when they appeared in the distance. Spurring his horse, his brothers riding with him, he stopped them and asked, " Why is it taking you so long to return? I was getting worried."

Tiger moved from Melanippus to Master's horse, her hands sliding under his tunic, even as he demanded answers for their tardiness. She was too weak to think of anything other than sleep, but Master's body still felt good. And she liked the way the little hairs stood up when she ran her hands over his warm skin.

"Haldir," Glorfindel said as he urged his horse forward, " You won't believe what I am about to tell you."