LARALEN

We are going to look for her.

For the one who caused all of this. I admit, I was feeling all kinds of nervous. I slowly clip my cape on, and make sure my daggers are with me before swinging my bow over my shoulders. I grab my pack and head out the door and to the courtyard where everyone else was preparing.

When I arrive, I see Turwaithiel and Legolas in some kind of whispered argument about Legolas' injuries and the amount of food Turwaithiel had packed. I smile before walking towards the horse that had been given to me. I approach it cautiously. Never would I have imagined I would actually be riding horses and into dangerous woods looking for someone I had never met.

The horse huffs as I approach, making me stop on my tracks. I reach out a hand and let it come to me, when it does I breathe out a sigh of relief.

"Even horses easily grow fond of you," a voice speaks behind me making me jump and turn around. I see Lord Elrond with his ever so kind expression. He looks at me before approaching and the horse quickly abandons my hand to ask attention from him. I manage a smile watching as he seemed to interact with the beast in a language I have yet to learn.

"What do you mean I cannot go with you?" The Queen's voice slices through the silent air around us. We all turn to see her appear from a corner, following an obviously disgruntled King. "Thranduil, you cannot simply expect me to stay here and sit about while all of you go out and risk your lives-"

"I expect exactly that, Mathaniel." The King replied, turning to face her. "Why must you argue?" This seems to quiet her for a moment as the rest of our hunting pack join us. Lindethiel seems to look more tired than usual, her blue eyes missing that familiar glint. I notice her move abruptly away from Falasdir as he approached her. My eyes travel to the twins then, as they seemed to be preoccupied with a heated discussion of their own.

"I am not arguing, I simply do not want to be confined behind walls-" Mantheniel continues but stopped when Thranduil took a step toward her. He seemed really tall then, but Mantheniel seemed really determined. I can see why they work well together, even if they look as incompatible as fire and ice.

"I need you to not argue with me right now," Thranduil continues, his voice dropping low, almost as if he was pleading with her. I look away, busying myself with fastening the pack to the horses saddle.

"Please, Matheniel. I cannot risk you, of all people. Especially now, with your condition," he says and I don't have to turn around to know he has one hand over her abdomen.

"But Thranduil-"

"Please, just for now. Just for now."

They fall into silence and I turn my head slightly to find him holding her close to him. Her face was still full of determination but I knew she would give in.

"I do not wish to lose you again, I have lost you far too many times to last a lifetime," he soothes, holding her closer to him. They seem so comfortable. Everyone seems so comfortable with their intimacy, It was hard to look away.

"But I can still help, I can still fight," Matheniel seems to say, a feeble attempt. I hear the King let out a chuckle before he sighs and places a kiss on top of her head.

"I know you can, I would never doubt your skills Mantheniel but now, just let me protect you...both of you."

This seems to win the argument as the queen childishly pouts and gives in. She then turns and finds Lindethiel who seemed not to eager to see her, despite it, the queen slowly makes her way over to her, leaving the King to talk to Falasdir. A small figure appeared and came bounding up towards me. I welcomed Bleon into my arms, his long hair seemed to annoy him as he kept brushing them off his face.

"Hello, my little soldier," I say as he smiles up to me and touches my cheek. "How are you fairing today? Big sister must go away for a while. Get everything fixed. You already know what to do right?"

He gives me a small nod, although a frown appeared on his lips.

"What is wrong? Do not be sad. Everything will be fine, you will be left with a very important role here," I continue, this seems to brighten his spirits.

"You would need to make sure the queen is taken care of," I say, brushing his hair out of his face. "Can you do that?"

He gives another nod before wrapping his arms around me in a tight embrace. I kiss the top of his head, sending a silent prayer to whoever was listening to keep him safe. Everyone starts to get on their horses, Thranduil with Falasdir leading us. Ari waits with them. Mantheniel walks over to me, a kind smile on her face as she reaches out a hand for Bleon.

"Come now, my guardian, let us bid them farewell together," she says and Bleon obediently takes her hand, his eyes never leaving me. I wave as I mount my horse and pass by Lord Elrond who was also going to stay in case things go bad here. The twins ride behind me and Turwaithiel and Legolas stay at the rear. I glance back only once to find Bleon still where he was, his hands gripping the queen's too tight, his eyes round and innocent. Too innocent. I never wanted this for him. He deserves a good life- a better life.  I raise my hand again in farewell and he does the same, making a small gesture that meant 'I love you'. It felt like a split in my heart. It felt like a warning. I watch him until I could no longer see him. The fear never leaving me.

---

The sound of the trickling river puts my mind at ease. We have stopped for the afternoon and everyone seemed to be exhausted. I dip my hands in the clearing and watch as it seemed to disrupt the flow of water.

"How on earth are we supposed to find some kind of shadow if we don't even know where it is?"

I turn to see Elladan arguing with Ari, who had her arms crossed over her chest and watched him with a grim expression.

"Like I said, I do not know! What gave you the impression that I would know everything?"

"Are you really asking me that?" Elladan countered and they are left in a heated staring contest. I sigh, almost wanting to laugh when something suddenly does not feel right. I stand, wondering if the others had felt it. I watch Turwaithiel and Legolas laughing. Thranduil was busy reading something. The ill feeling gets stronger and my mind starts to panic. What was going on? Ari and Elladan continue arguing but their voices are drowned and all I could hear was my heart beat. The wind that was barely whispering. The trickling water.

Noro, Iellig. Noro.

I scrunch my face in concentration, barely understanding what I was hearing. I was too concentrated I had not noticed everyone had stopped what they were doing and was looking at me.

"Lara?" I hear Turwaithiel's voice, although it seemed distant.

Noro, Iellig! Noro! Noro!

The voice sounded more desperate now, as if it was begging me to do something. I wanted to scream I could not understand. I could not understand what she was saying.

"What is the matter? Lara?" I feel a hand on my shoulder, nudging me. I gesture for the person to stop.

"What is it? What do you hear?" It was Thranduil's voice now, he seemed to have felt something too. Finally.

"Someone is telling me something but I do not know the elvish tongue..."

"Who? What is the voice telling you?"

I turn to meet them, the fear in my chest growing by the second.

"Noro, Ielleg. Noro?" I say quietly, this seems to bring panic into their eyes as Thranduil brandishes his sword.

I had barely asked what it meant when an arrow sliced through the skin on my right shoulder. I bite back the scream as everyone scattered all at once, grabbing on to their weapons. I do the same, as the horses became restless around us. The sun was setting and my heart was beating alarmingly fast. I grab on to my bow and quiver and bold directly towards my horse, as everyone did. Another moment passes and there were arrows raining around us. I could hear the chaos and my breathing as I turn and shoot aimlessly at what was after us. We ride fast and hard through the forest as I kept checking if everyone was still accounted for. Then Thranduil stops, pulling his horse into a full stop. We all do the same. Ari is about to ask why but stopped when she noticed the black smoke before us.

"We have to fight," Thranduil says as he turns his horse around. I jump off mine, and unsaddle it, letting it run away. No way I am letting a horse die. Besides, I was never a good fighter on horseback. There was a loud hissing sound and the flames that surrounded us felt neither hot or cold.

Ielleg...

I shake the voice out of my head as the creatures appeared before us. Each with white eyes without pupils. I felt my blood turn cold at the sight of them, sniffling and hissing as if their very skin was being burned and boiled.

"Lara, stay behind me," Ari instructs as she had dismounted her horse too and was now standing in front of me. She speaks in a language that sounded both dark and broken but the creatures seem to understand her and they seemed to get more restless.

"Is your stone with you?" She asks and I give her a soft nod in which she returns. "Good, keep it with you at all times."

"Well, well," A soothing voice speaks. I felt the hairs on my back rise. It was beautiful and melodic like elves but something about it seemed off... something about it seemed...demonic.

"Finally, we meet again, Ari...dear sister," the voice continues but I could not find where it was coming from or from whom.

"I am not your sister," Ari spits back. "You lost that privilege when you killed the rest of us for your own selfish needs," she continues. The shadow creatures do not engage, like they were being held back by invisible chains.

There was a shrill laughter and a figure suddenly materializes in front of us. Her eyes were dark red, her lips black. Her hair fell over her shoulders in dark waves. She looked pale as death with a shadow wrapped around her. I felt my heart still for a moment as her eyes met mine, and they grew darker.

"you..." she whispers, staring accusingly at me. "Your mother...is the reason for all this. Your existence is the cause of my downfall."

"You have no one to blame but yourself," I hear Turwaithiel say as she stepped beside me. Their was a flicker of recognition in the evil shadow queen's eyes.

"Oh, really Ari? Do you think gathering the four stones will do anything?"

Ari does not reply and I watch as everyone seemed to be in a stand still. The woman suddenly turns to Legolas. She closes her eyes and inhales, when she opens them again her eyes are glowing red.

"I can smell death on you," she says with a sinister smile as her eyes travel to Elrohir. I ready my bow, too tempted to hit her. "You too." She laughs then, shaking her head.

"Love, pain- one cannot exist without the other." she says, as she started pacing. She place with  black smoke, twirling it in her hands. "Although, you can only let one consume you." The smoke spins into a ball into her hands.

"All of you are chained down by your hearts, including you great King of the woodland realm," she continues, the ball of smoke spinning faster. "Those chains do nothing but weigh you down."

"Will you fight me?" she asks playfully. "Are you willing to die?"

"All of you have something to lose," she says as the ball of smoke stops spinning and the hissing grows louder. "All of you have something to give up."

"I don't," Ari hisses as she let her dagger fly.

-----------------

TURWAITHIEL

We cannot win this war.

I press on to my wound to stop the bleeding, holding on to a tree for support. I watch the fight before me, the black fire mixed with the soft glow of an ordinary one. I breathe hard and rapidly, holding on to my sword. It was an impossible fleet.

"Are you alright?" Lindethiel stalks over to me, her face decorated with blood that was as dark as the sky that now hovered above us. I give her a soft nod as he eyes drop low to my wound.

"Let it heal a bit, I will cover you," She orders and she is off, her arrows darting everywhere. We cannot win this war. I stumble away from the war zone hoping no one would notice but sadly that is a stupid thing to hope for.

"Where do you think you are going?" A familiar squeaky voice says and I glance up to meet the face of the one elf I had every reason to kill.

"You," I hiss and she smiles. She looked darker, her skin ashed grey. As if the very light inside her had been sucked out. She holds on to a sword, her skin stained with black marks. What happened to her?

"Let's dance, princess," She chuckles as she prepares her stance. I let out a frustrated groan and unsheathe my sword. She attacks first and she almost hit me if I had not lost balance and stumbled forward, my wound taking most of the impact. I groan in pain as I turn on my back and quickly get up before she lunges towards me again. I continue evading and blocking her since I highly doubt I had the strength to drive a sword right through her, especially with her looking like a dead person.

"Turwaithiel?" Legolas voice is clear in my ears, and hers too. She looked like she expected this as she turned and disappeared like smoke before my eyes. I almost dropped my sword. What was that?

"Turwaithiel," I feel Legolas clasp my shoulder but I still could not shake away the uncomfortable feeling of seeing Alyanna disappear into the darkness like smoke.

"Legolas, we must fall back. These creatures are impossible to kill." Elladan calls to us and I watch all of them run back towards Calaer. I follow them, barely keeping up when Legolas reaches out a hand for me to hold and we run through the forest together. The horses were long gone. This was a bad idea in the first place. Suddenly, there was a loud sound and the earth rumbled beneath us. I fell, dropping to my knees as Legolas seemed to wrap his arms around me. I heard loud creaking noises and realized the trees were falling down.

"What is going on?" I hear one of them say and the only reply was a distant scream... a scream that sounded so much like Laralen. I get up quickly, spinning into the direction to see her on her knees, her hands spread out and her head staring straight up at the sky. There was light coming from her chest and I realized it was the stone. I notice her lungs expand as her head falls and the light bursts into different directions.

"Damn it, its taking too much of her energy," Ari mutters as she runs past me and Legolas and towards Laralen, whose eyes were no longer emerald but were black as night.

"What's happening to her?" I scream out but get no reply as trees continued falling around us.

Ielleg, go back. Go back to Calaer.

What?

Go back.

"We have to go back," I whispered harshly as I struggle to stand up.

"What?"

"Legolas we have to go back I think Calaer is in trouble-"

"Okay, okay. Let's go, as soon as we get Laralen-"

He is cut short as shadows appeared around us. We were trapped. My eyes spot Laralen still overflowing with power a few distance from us with Ari, trying to control it. I felt Legolas hand reach for mine and gripped it hard. Was this it? Was this the end?

Everything moves in slow motion. I watch Thranduil fight off three of them at the same time. I see Lindethiel and Falasdir trying to get to him. I see the twins in battle with the shadow woman, whose smile seemed to never leave her face. I send a prayer to the Valar, hoping that at least Thranduil would be spared. Mantheniel cannot raise a child alone, nor will she be able to rule a kingdom in such a state.

My prayers were answered immediately by the appearance of the Lothlorien elves. Haldir came into view first, his arrow seemed to have a glowing tip as it seared through the shadow creature. I breathe out a sigh of relief before me and Legolas resume our fighting stance.

"Let me guess, this reckless plan was all Ari's idea," Haldir says as he readies another arrow. I couldn't help but smile, relief overwhelming me. I turned to find Thranduil still in the same predicament.

"Thranduil-" I start, "Thranduil needs hel-" I stop when I see what I thought to be part of the fire around us dart towards him. Her golden armor reflected the flames like her eyes did. I let out a breath as Mantheniel reached him and sliced through two of the shadows at once. He does not react upon her arrival as they continue to fight like they were merely dancing. The elves managed to drive the shadows away and at the last minute, the shadow woman was the last to disappear. We were then left in the carnage and silence of the burning forest.

"Do not go near the black smoke, it will kill you slowly but you will not be able to put out the burning sensation," that voice was familiar yet it should not be here... he should be in a cage in Calaer.

Lord Arandyl appears before us and his face looked as worn out as the rest of us.

"They attacked the city, but not for the purpose of destroying it," he continues, avoiding eye contact with Laralen who was being half dragged and half carried by Ari towards us.

"What was the purpose then?" I asked when no one seemed to want to. He turned around and we all find Lord Elrond standing there with something in his hands. It was a wooden sword.

"No," I hear Laralen cry out, her voice cracked and dry from all the screaming she had done. Her nose was bleeding, her eyes dull yet she managed to drag herself to Elrond to retrieve the sword. "No, please. No." She almost pleaded, shaking her head as she held the wooden sword. Then her body had had too much as she fell almost instantly to the ground, Elrohir was quick enough to catch her before her head hit the ground. She shook and breathed desperately in his hands as he tried to calm her.

"I...I must...Bleon..." she whispered before she finally exhausted herself too much and fainted.

"What do we do?" I ask, watching Elladan quickly work with Laralen. Everyone was silent, no one had an idea what to do.

"What do we do?" I asked again, this time looking at them straight in the eye. "What-"

Ielleg. I will tell you what to do.

"What?" I asked the voice out loud, receiving weird glances from them.

Find the emerald queen.

"How?"

Find where it all started. Find the symbol. Find the mark. Find her.

"Ari, where did it all begin?"

"What?" she asked, her face full of concern.

"I need to know where all this witch elves began!" I almost scream but held it back. She seemed unfazed and unwilling to answer.

"Ari-" I start again but she shakes her head.

"It is too dangerous to go back there, it is a desolate country. The Black Smoke never left it, it is a graveyard," she says ominously, but I can see the pain in her eyes as she turned away from all of us.

"It used to be so beautiful, with houses and structures made of gems. The trees glowed with different colors and gems hanged beautifully around our home...It was so beautiful." She says, as if she were in a dream.

"Ari, we have to. The voice I've been hearing, I think it is my mother-"

"How can you be so sure?" She snapped back, her eyes rimmed with tears and anger. "What if it was the enemy trying to mess with your head? Trying to set you up in a trap?"

"It does not feel evil-"

"That is what she is capable of Turwaithiel," she continued, "deceit, lies, betrayal. How can you be so sure?"

"I am not, but it is better than doing nothing." I counter, she laughs bitterly at the statement.

"You do not know what she is capable of," she seemed to say, "you do not know how she looked straight into her sisters eyes and watched as her sister burned right in front of her. She does not play games, she does not have a single kind bone in her body. She is evil, she is a murdered. She will stop at nothing, Turwaithiel, do you understand that? Would you risk it all? For a 'voice' that tells you what to do? For your mother? Who is probably dead?"

I am about to answer her, determination filling my veins when a new presence joins us. Ari's eyes grow wide, her breathing hitches and I turn to meet the woman whose voice had guided me for the past few days. Her hair was thick and dark like mine. She wore a white dress and a symbol was tattooed on her forehead. A black sun.

"She will, dear sister Ari, for she is my daughter and I am not dead."

---

Authors note: How is everyone? Sorry it took a while to update. Like a really long while. Hope you like the chappy? Yeah? yeah. Okay. xo