The three of them rode desperately to Mirkwood. Each forgetting everything else they desired to ask when they met along the road.

Elrohir decided not to ask them why they were headed to Mirkwood. When he had arrived at Calaer a few days before, he was not surprised when he was told Laralen had left with Ari to gather some sort of plant. Despite his fathers cryptic messages, he understood fully well that Laralen was in trouble and he made it his responsibility to bend destiny, even if it may seem impossible. He cannot simply let his father's visions come true without a fight.

They reached the borders of the forest as the black smoke lifted up into the air. The fire blazed in front of them and noises filled the air. Elves were scattered around fending off an enemy they had never seen before. Ari stopped short but the horror reflected in her eyes was enough for Elrohir to know that she has seen this before.

"What is happening?" Laralen's voice called him out from his own worry. She pulled her horse to a stop in front of him. The horse started kicking and moving, almost as if telling her he would not go forth any further. She brought her hand to its mane and stroked it gently, soothingly murmuring words of comfort.

"It is happening again," Ari answered as she tried to keep her horse under control. "Only this time it is just fire. Not the black fire," she scanned the surroundings, creatures that looked like orcs scrambled towards them, making horrible screeching sounds.

"We must head for the palace," Elrohir states at once before instructing his horse to go. Laralen and Ari followed him without complaint as they rode through the thick burning forest filled with haunting echoes of screams.

The creatures may look like orcs but they were not. Their limbs were long and hanging as they seemed to drag them as they ran to catch up with the three of them. The elves continued their fight, they fought to protect their kingdom with only one thought in mind, where was their king?

"Do you see Legolas or Elladan anywhere?" Elrohir asked as they approached the grand doors of the palace to see the bridge almost crumbling. Laralen shook her head as she scanned the war zone they had rode into. Ari remained focused on the door of the palace.

"Over there!" Laralen exclaimed, tilting her head towards the direction of what appeared to be a heated battle between the King and his son. Elrohir let out a breath before managing to instruct his horse to go into that direction. Laralen made a move to follow but stopped when she noticed Ari unmoving and silent.

"Ari?" She called out as Ari seemed to mimic the same horrified expression she had upon seeing the fire.

"She's here," she spoke quietly, her voice shaking and weak. Laralen did not understand what she meant as she fought the urge to leave her and aid Elrohir with whatever he was planning to do.

"Ari-" she began again but was cut of by a loud sound, like a blade running across a metal plate. She grimaced at the painful sound as the horses seem to grow even more restless.

"Dear heavens, Lara we must get you out of here!" Ari shouted before the bridge collapsed before them. Laralen lost the grip on the reigns of her horse as he was thrown off. She fell to the ground with a crack as her horse panicked above her. Stomping everywhere as she desperately tried to evade it. She stood up quickly, rolling away and before the horse could run, she managed to grab the satchel she had hanged on him. She watched the horse go as she failed to realize her hood had been pulled away from her face.

Her triumphant grin was wiped off immediately when an arrow struck her shoulder. She hissed but gripped the bag tighter as she whirled around to see her attacker. It was a hooded figure that looked almost ghost like.

"Lara, get away!" She heard Ari scream before she ducked and ran in a random direction. Laralen could feel her blood running cold and her heart hammering inside her chest as she ran through the forest and away from that black shadow. In its presence, she felt the oddest feeling. The sound of swords clashing and horses neighing caught her attention. She spotted the King and his Son a few feet away from her. She ran towards them, knowing Elrohir would be somewhere within their vicinity. She noticed a wagon situated near them. What she would do to know how to fight right now.

"Lara, get to the wagon!" Someone screams as she was shoved violently in the direction of the wagon. She staggered towards it, the world spinning around her. When she reached the wagon, opening the flaps, she stifled a gasp, seeing a body inside. He appeared to be alive. She climbed up hesitantly and looked upon the elven man. His hair was a color of wet wood. Injuries painted his features. She heard him groan as the wagon roared to life only to stop a few moments later. She hid the small pouch inside her tunic, hoping it would be safe there, as she stuck her head out of the wagon to see the fight still going before her. She had to do something. In that instance, something caught Laralen's attention. The prince was unfairly outnumbered. Where was Elrohir and Elladan? And Ari? By gods, why did she have to be so useless? She stepped out of the wagon, pulling her hood tightly around her. She snatched the stone from her pocket, gripping it tightly and praying it would somehow work this time.

She walked slowly towards the battle, noticing how an elf, much larger than Legolas, who she immediately assumed was the king, towered before his son, his sword an inch away from his neck. Laralen pulled her hood more, the stone growing warm in her hands. She noticed three more figures by the King. One was an elven maid, she looked menacingly beautiful under the glow of the forest fire. The wicked grin on her face was enough for Laralen to know she was an enemy. Laralen kept herself hidden behind a tree, her mind panicking. She was about to step out when a hand reached out to her, pulling her back. She kicked hard but she was easily pinned against the tree and her fear and panic bubbled inside her throat as the elven man looked down at her.

The Lord Aerendyl had no idea why he did what he did. Somehow, watching this little figure about to jump into a mindless battle, rattled him. He had no idea what happened, all he knew was that his family had plotted against the Kingdom of Mirkwood. His sister, his sweet younger sister, had a wicked heart. And his right hand man, his best friend, betrayed him. He had no time to react or call them on their scheme because he found out just minutes before the fire had scourged the forest. Everyone panicked and he of all people was one of the suspects. Especially now. His thoughts were taken away from him from the constant writhing of the little figure he had in his arms. The figure refused to look up, the hood perfectly obscuring him from seeing his or her face.

"Stay here," he had whispered. Laralen nodded, to afraid to contradict him. She was almost paralyzed by being that close to stranger. She let out a breath when he seemed uninterested to know who she was as he stepped away from her and into the battle she had been so ready to jump into. She failed to notice the stone glowing brightly in her hand as she peered at the elven man who walked into the battle with sheer courage and confidence. Legolas was on his knees but his face remained stoic. Like being executed by his own father was nothing but boring to him.

"Do you really want this?" Aerendyl threaded carefully as he approached his family and their puppet, the King of Mirkwood. Their plan was well thought. First was to take away from the King the only person that could have probably made him see reason and the next was to create a rift between him and his son by poking on old wounds. What a conniving little family he had.

"The question is, do you really want to be the enemy?" His father replied. Aerendyl  could not look at him without shame. He used to adore the man but after this, he was not sure he could even see his father as a man and bringing poor Arlayna into it.

"I am not the enemy," Aerendyl stated angrily, his hand reaching for his sword when an arrow flew past him and hit Thranduil by the hand, giving Legolas enough time to stand and relieve him of his weapons. There was a moment of surprise before a younger looking elf stepped into view, an arrow at the ready. Legolas kicked his father hard on the chest, making him stagger backwards as Aerendyl poised himself to fight. Laralen watched the scene before her as the elven maid and the older elf seemed to walk away, leaving one figure to face the three of them, who she assumed was on the good side. She watched the King shake his head for a time as if trying to rid of something before he stood up straight and marched up towards his son with an intent to kill. She was so occupied with the scene before her she was completely unaware of the dark shadow behind her, watching her intently but not moving any closer.

"Lara!" A voice called and she spun around and held her breath. The shadow stilled for a moment its head like feature tilting downwards towards the glowing stone in her hand. She held it tighter as Elladan came to view. He stopped as he saw the shadow but before he could speak, it recoiled and disappeared. Lara swore she heard the shadow speak her name.

"What are you doing here?" Elladan asked, alarm in his voice as he walked towards her with every intent of taking her away from the battle field. Laralen opened her mouth to speak when the battle ensued behind her. She turned as Elladan followed her gaze. He cursed in Elvish before walking towards Laralen and gesturing for her to go. Laralen hesitated for a second before following his orders. She walked towards the wagon once more before hearing a sound that made her heart stop.

Ari was screaming. Laralen hesitated no more as she ran towards the direction of the voice. She found Ari squirming on the ground, screaming and fighting of an unseen force.

"Ari?!" Laralen called as she knelt beside her. Laralen touched her skin and she felt the burn at full force, making her stagger backwards with a gasp. Ari stilled, panting, before she went deathly still.

"Ari?" Laralen groaned, pushing herself up to check on her friend. "Ari?" she called again before noticing the stone was no longer in her hand. She searched around her frantically. Where was the stone? She was about to panic when she noticed the marking on her palm. A language she did not know of. It glowed ever so lightly before she noticed the small chunk of the emerald stone on the ground. It had shrunk in size. She picked it up, and tried to shake Ari awake but to no avail. Elladan found her and spoke no words as he lifted Ari up and told Laralen to leave with the Wagon. Laralen nodded her eyes flickering briefly around them. How did this all happen?

"Where is Lord Elrohir?" she finally asked the burning question. Elladan glanced at her over his shoulder.

"He went back inside the palace to make sure everyone has gotten out," he answered calmly. Laralen's eyes widened at the thought of Elrohir being in danger. Elladan noticed as he stopped walking and turned around.

"Do not worry, one thing I know well about my younger brother is that he never leaves anyone behind," he assured her. There was another scream, and another. The forest was filled with them and Laralen's heart broke at the sound of it. What was going on? What was happening?

She stopped walking when they were interrupted by a fight. The King had managed to take hold of a sword and was now backing the prince into a corner. Laralen's emotion kicked in as she saw the prince, the one person her closest friend held closest to her heart, being kicked and attacked by his own father. He was not going to give it his all. She had to do something. In the embers around them, a glitter of light caught her eye. The brooch clasped against the King's throat. That was it. She had to take it off. She started to walk towards them as Elladan tried to stop her but he could do little for he carried Ari with him. Laralen was beyond reasoning, something compelled her towards the King. Something she had never felt before. Hatred. Anger.

Legolas was once again relieved of a weapon. Laralen came just in time to stop the king from making the biggest mistake of his life. With all her strength, she shoved herself against his big frame. With the force of the unexpected blow, the king staggered backwards as Laralen reached up quickly for the brooch. She held it and felt the immediate pain that coursed through her body. She screamed but managed to pull it off all the same. It felt like her skin was burning. Thranduil sliced through her chest as she tried to step back. He shoved her away and she almost flew a feet away. The pain was unbearable and almost blinding. The brooch still inside her palm.

"Lara?!" she heard Legolas call her name as her vision blurred. Then she saw him. The man from her nightmares. His red hair almost one with the fire around them. He saw her. She knew he did. She always knew it when he looked at her. Always felt it. She wished in that moment that she was dying. She would rather be dead than ever see him again. She saw his blurry figure step towards her for a moment before he seemed to think better of it and disappeared into the flames behind him. Laralen felt a hand on her shoulder as she was turned and she faced the very same man that had stopped her from throwing her life away the first time.

Lord Aerendyl's heart stopped as he saw the woman lying on the ground below him. Her golden hair, her emerald eyes filled with silent and painful tears. He reached a hand to touch her face, watching the life leave her eyes.

"Elanor?" he whispered, the forgotten pain in his heart renewed. He knew it to be impossible but perhaps life had tricked him once again. What a cruel trick this was.

"Ada?" Legolas stepped hesitantly towards his father as the forest grew more silent. The enemies had scurried off, the elves were now trying to put the fire out. The young prince watched his father, on his knees and looking like he had just woken up from a horrible dream. The fire reflected in his eyes. Legolas watched the scene around him. They would survive this. He knows they would. It surprised him most when the fire had started as soon as he confronted his father with the intent of leaving the palace. It was as if something tried to prevent that. Now that they had found out Lady Arlayna was part of it and her family, there were only a few things they could do. The fire burned quietly around them as he approached his father, a hand to his shoulder.

"Ada?"

"What have I done?" Thranduil whispered back to his son.

"Ada, this was not your fault. The power, this dark magic was something no one could have imagined-" Legolas tried to comfort.

"Mantheniel?" This time, their was panic in the King's voice. "My wife, Legolas, where is she? She is not-" he could not even finish his sentence. He felt the heaviness leave him as his son smiled, with a shake of his head.

"She is alive, Ada. She is safe."

For the first time, in the young prince's life, he saw his father cry.

----

Days passed after the unexpected wildfire and the betrayal. The Mirkwood elves saw to it that their kingdom would not fall into its darken state again. The bridge had been rebuilt and the injured healed. The dead was all accounted for. They had lost too many.

It had such an affect on the King. He refused to eat and only permitted Legolas to see him. Despite Legolas' plea and explanation that it was not his fault. He had been under a dark spell, a dark spell that was now threatening Laralen's life.

Aerendyl had found her on the ground, seething in pain like fire was upon her skin. At first, her appearance had immobilized him. She reminded him too much of ghosts he had tried to run away from. Elladan had found them shortly after and called for aid.

Ari, who had woken up a few hours after the battle had almost pulled her own hair out at the sight of her. It was because she had touched the wretched brooch. She now sat beside Laralen's almost lifeless body. She has had fever for days. She would be in and out of consciousness.

"What is happening to her?" Elrohir had asked, not for the first time and it certainly was not going to be the last.

"Like I said, she should not have touched that brooch so openly and neither should she have tried to save me," Ari explained. She knew what was happening she just did not have an answer on how to save her. "The stone tried to protect her and as a result it tried to become a part of her. She may have not been aware of it and it probably is not her intention but she had just accepted immortality."

"What do you mean?" It was Elladan who asked this time. His mind had trouble grasping the whole situation. About magical stones and immortality. Of invisible fires and dark shadows. Nothing was making sense anymore.

"I honestly do not know," was Ari's quiet answer. There was a soft knock on the door before the young prince head popped in.

"We need to talk," he told them. All of them shuffled to their feet, all but Elrohir who refused to even move an inch.

"I can stay with her," Ari offered but Legolas shook his head. "We need you in the meeting, Ari," he explained. "We need to know more of the story. Of your kind. Of that black shadow."

Ari hesitated but she knew it was a fight she could not win. With effort, she stood and left, followed by a silent Elladan.

Elrohir replaced Ari beside Laralen's bed. He took her hand in his, almost like a routine, and held it tight. Her skin burned but he did not flinch for if he could feel the intensity of the fire that was burning within her, how much more did she feel? She groaned and he held her hand tighter. Her eyes flitted open for a brief second as if she awoke from a nightmare.

"He...he was there..." Her voice was dry and broken, her eyes struggling to stay open. "I saw...him...he saw me..." She sucked in a breath, a dry sob in her throat. Elrohir felt his heart constrict at the sight. Despite the burning fever, her nightmare still refused to let her rest. Her emerald eyes shifted to meet his and under the dim flicker of the lamp, they looked almost empty.

"Stay," it wasn't so much of a request but a plea. He felt her hand tighten around him for a second before her eyes shut once again. He held her hand tighter.

--

"Our kind are always ruled by four," Ari explained. "In our time it was me, my sister and two of our dearest friends."

"Your kind was ruled by women?" Falasdir queried.

"Yes," Ari replied without a second thought. "Our kind have abilities, very special abilities and no one ever has the same ability except for the fact that we are skin changers. Laralen's mother was the highest or the most powerful, followed by Rawena then it was I and then Leandra. We were known as the four guardians."

"Rawena was an adventurous one, she would go to far off places and well, she had fancied an elf lord from Myrin who she had brought to our kingdom but this elf lord fell in love with Laralen's mother. So you can see where the hatred had come from."

"Rawena, broken by what she called was a betrayal, had placed a dark curse on our kind. That no elf shall be allowed to fall in love with us or their lives would be forfeit."

"Then she vanished until Laralen was born," Ari paused for a moment as if the memory scared her. "She killed Laralen's mother with Black fire. It is the kind of fire that burns inside you. So you cannot simply put it out. It was a horrible sight. Our whole race was down to half its number after that one night. Me and Leandra managed to take Laralen from Rawena but at a cost. Leandra was lost. I had no other choice. I had to keep Laralen safe. I-"

"Do you believe Rawena is the cause of all this?" Elladan asked and Ari nodded without hesitation.

"She was there," she admitted. "She was there during the forest fire. Although she did not feel... Alive anymore."

"And Arlayna? And her father?" Legolas pushed on. Ari shrugged.

"Perhaps they are mere followers, they do not posses our gifts."

"I know someone who could give you an answer," Falasdir suggested and they all knew who he was talking about. The Lord Aerendyl who was now locked up in a dungeon.

"Those flowers did work wonders, huh?" Legolas asked Falasdir who rounded his shoulders with a smile.

"I can hardly feel any pain," he replied. The flowers did work wonders. Almost as if they were planted from magic themselves.

"Well, my father is planning to go to Calaer in two days time," Legolas explained.

"Do you think the queen will forgive him?" Falasdir teased earning a smile from the prince.

"Yes, after she will beat him half to death."

"Ah, reminds me of someone that would most likely finish the job if the queen refuses to beat him any more than that." Both of them shared a laugh before all turned quiet once again.

"I will go with him," Legolas informed them.

"I will go as well," Falasdir added. Ari merely nodded.

"I believe me and Elrohir should go as well," Elladan sighed. "Father would want to know of what happened. Now I have to convince him to leave this place."

"Highly impossible unless you plan to take Laralen with you, he barely leaves her side," Legolas pointed out with a half grin. Elladan shook his head, smiling slightly before catching the worried expression on Ari's face. Elladan understood that look.

He understood the curse.

He understood why Lord Elrond, their father, made him swore he would do anything to keep Elrohir from harm.

Now, Elladan was not so sure he could do it. Not when he was certain, his brother was in love with Laralen.

Elrohir's life had already been forfeited the day his eyes landed on Laralen.

Now, his only goal was to make sure the curse would be lifted.

---

Authors note: Yeah. this was the rest of it. lol.

MERRY CHRISTMAS YOU GUYSSSS. WWOOOOOOOOO!!