Disclaimer: I own nothing of Tolkien's works, however all original characters and story concepts solely belong to me. The Grigori and all documented characters associated with them belong in the public domain. Any references to the original book, The Serpent and the Peacock are copyrighted to A Selby. Any references to the world created by Joss Whedon belong to him.

Author Note: I've had some interest in the story from those who don't normally read Tolkien fanfiction or who haven't read Lord of the Rings or may not have seen the movies. Because these readers won't be au fait with the characters from Tolkien, I have put a glossary of characters at the end of this first chapter. Please scroll down and read if you are not familiar with Tolkien's work or characters.

ooOoo

" Buffy: Well, I gotta look on the bright side. Maybe I can still get kicked out of school!
Xander: Oh, yeah, that's a plan. 'Cause lots of schools aren't on Hellmouths.
Willow: Maybe you could blow something up. They're really strict about that.
Buffy: I was thinking of a more subtle approach, y'know, like excessive not studying?
Giles: The Earth is doomed! "

- Welcome to the Hellmouth, #1 Buffy the Vampire Slayer

The Hellmouth

Chapter 1 – From Beneath You It Devours

Somewhere in the North West of Scotland...

Thin whip-like branches lacerated her face spraying droplets of water into her eyes which she tried to dash away with one free hand; she could feel the sweat pouring down her back and could hear her heart hammering and the blood whooshing around her body as she pelted through the underbrush and darted along paths using a zig-zag pattern in an attempt to avoid capture.

A row of grey headstones appeared amorphously through the sheets of rain in front of the path of her headlong flight from danger and she cleared them in one bound. She couldn't hear any sounds of pursuit any more, not that they had been loud anyway; she was making more noise than her pursuer, but just because it was quiet didn't make it any less deadly. She had no idea what it actually was, just that it had come from below, possibly from the network of sewers that ran under the cemetery and the adjoining town.

A building with dimly lit windows loomed up a few hundred yards in front of her. It looked like a house of some kind, probably where the caretaker lived. Now she had a choice. She could either hammer on the door and hope to god that the people inside wouldn't think she was a complete lunatic or she could run on and scale the eight foot fence that surrounded this particular cemetery. Once outside the gates there were cheerfully lit streets, shops and houses. It was only just after nine o'clock in the evening, restaurants, cafés, bars and cinemas would be open. It was a big town and there would be people...lots of people.

Where there was life, there was hope.

Just a little further. She urged herself on despite the fact that her breaths were now coming in heaving gasps. She was no slouch in the running department, being pretty athletic, but she knew that whatever was chasing her was faster still, it would eventually catch her and swallow her up.

She threw a swift glance over her shoulder and nearly froze in terror when she saw how close it was; she would never make the gate, not before it got her. Then out of the corner of her eye she saw two things.

Firstly she saw a man wearing a hooded puffer jacket, carrying a torch moving across the ground in front of her. Almost as if time had decided to go slow to allow her to take everything in she saw him pause and swing the torch in a leisurely arc around him as though he had heard something and was trying to peer through the rain and the gloom to see what it was. If she'd had enough breath left in her, she would have shouted a warning to him, but he probably wouldn't have heard her through the drumming of the rain anyway, so she saved her breath for running.

The man walked on a bit further and she strove to close the distance between them, but now she felt as though she was running through treacle with her doom following behind her, dogging her heels. An involuntary sob erupted from her but the small desperate sound was lost in the depths of the darkness and the incessant thrumming of the steady rain. Then she saw him stop dead and turn around. He had obviously heard or saw something because lifted the torch and played it on one of the stone mausoleums, she prepared herself to shoot past him to get to the fence, but instead found herself slowing down. Panic hit her and she desperately tried to move her feet faster.

Even when she felt a burning sensation on her shoulder followed by searing, intense pain, she couldn't make herself run faster, so instead she tried to change direction just as the man, obviously some sort of caretaker for the cemetery reached the door of the mausoleum and put out a hand to turn the large ring handle in the middle of it.

Secondly, as he reached out to turn the handle, she saw the door fly open and a bright bluish coloured light streamed out, bathing the immediate area in front of the mausoleum in brightness. With a final sob and spurt of effort, she managed to drum up the adrenalin to speed up and head for the light. Surely where there was such bright light, the darkness couldn't prevail? As she hurtled past the now startled caretaker she saw his mouth move but had no time to listen to the words. She flung herself into the mausoleum; the darkness which had attached itself to her and had been preparing to draw her in withdrew as if burnt and she lay in a sobbing, breathless heap against one of the stone sarcophagi.

The caretaker was still standing in the doorway, mouth hanging slackly open and torch held loosely in one hand. "What the fuck? What the hell is going on?"

He didn't manage to say any more and to her horror and even as she opened her mouth to shout a warning, a finger of the billowing, shapeless blackness that had pursued her across the cemetery clutched his shoulder and dragged him into it. His scream of agony petered away and she scrabbled backwards against the far wall trying to make herself as small as she could.

Where the light was coming from was anyone's guess and in another time or situation she might have wondered at it, but right now she was just thankful it was there. She curled up in a small defensive ball and tried to conceal herself as best she could even though it was quite clear that just as it couldn't come in, she couldn't leave. She lay there shivering as though she had a fever until reaction finally set in and the pain from her shoulder came back a thousandfold. It was beyond any pain she had ever felt before, and she was no slouch in the pain department either, and she literally passed out as wave after wave hit her.

She never saw the metal grille door which led down to the sewers slowly creak open. If she had, she would have seen that the light was emanating from there and it was getting stronger. As it was she was too unconscious to care.

ooOoo

As a general rule graveyards and cemeteries are quiet places inhabited as they are by only the dead. At least that was the commonly held opinion by most of the living. During the day they were host to scores of stately black funereal vehicles, people dressed in mourning and sombre of demeanour and, incongruously, bright sheaves and bunches of gaily coloured flowers. By night, the gravestones that were placed by grieving relatives as a way of marking the existence of their loved ones became eldritch things. They reared up in the gloom like broken greying teeth intermittently placed between the much grander mausoleums which could often hold a whole family for the last few generations. It had the silence of death when the sun when down

All in all, they weren't places where people usually hung out by choice, unless of course a courting couple decided to take advantage of the silence and emptiness in order to make out. Sometimes teenagers would come in on a dare to spend the night if they could manage to avoid the caretaker who regularly locked the gate at nine o'clock in the evening sharp, come rain or come shine.

This night was no different to any other, except that it was raining. Not a light drizzle, but a downfall that fell straight from the heavens and soaked everything in its path. The caretaker slowly walked from his grace and favour house beyond the main cemetery gates wearing a hooded jacket and carrying a torch. He stopped once or twice on his way to lock the gates and casually played the torch around. Just lately there had been a few rather unsettling grave disturbances and the local council had instructed him to be on his guard for...well...anything at all out of the ordinary.

The rain pattered down on his hood and trickled down past his collar. He took out a large handkerchief and wiped the rain from his face, then he sighed and carried on. Any grave robber or teenager who came out in this weather was welcome to the discomfort in his opinion. He had just passed the second row of graves which also had the Robertson Mausoleum at the end of the row when he heard a soft grating noise as if from metal grating against stone. He stopped dead in his tracks and his head swivelled around slowly.

Normally nothing in this world or the next would have induced him to go into any of the mausoleums at night, a fact which caused his teenage son and daughter to regularly mock him. Yet still, there it was, something that he as caretaker was duty-bound to investigate. He looked longingly over his shoulder at the house with the warm glow behind the windows. Inside his wife would have dinner waiting. They would eat and then watch the television while the elements howled outside.

A bright bluish light could be seen in the slits that served for windows in the mausoleum. It had been built in the style of a small mediaeval castle; a folly which never ceased to amuse visitors. There was an arched wooden door studded with metal studs and a heavy iron ring for a handle. However there was something a little more disturbing than its similarity to times past, and that was the fact that nobody from the Robertson family had been interred there for at least fifty years. The heavy door was generally locked and there was a heavy chain and padlock stretched across it for added security. The only key was held by the Robertson family solicitors. Nobody should have been able to gain access to it and yet there was both movement and light inside.

What was more...the door was ajar

He changed direction and splodged through the puddles towards the mausoleum. He never even heard the pounding of feet behind him until a slim figure hurtled past him and flung itself into the depths of the small building. He marched up to the door, fully intending to grab whoever it was by the collar, or ear, whichever presented itself and drag them out. However when he got to the doorway the door flew open and light was so bright that his eyes were watering that he couldn't see where the intruder was.

"What the fuck? What the hell is going on?"

He never saw what took him from behind, which was the only mercy he was granted that evening.

ooOoo

Down in the sewers below the Cemetery...

"Whose bright idea was it to come through the sewers?"

"For the love of Eru stop whining. The smell in here is enough to shrivel a man's testicles."

"...Or would be if you were an actual man."

"That is hardly fair. I cannot help it if I am of the Eldar bound to Arda till the end can I? Anyway, Elves have testicles!" The tone was snippy and irritated.

A gleam of both laughter and satisfaction out having got a rise out of the Elf appeared in the other's eyes, but before he could comment there was a sound of swishing behind them and they turned to see a huge form rising from the murky, smelly waters, like the Kraken rising up in the harbour at Argos.

Gleaming sea grey eyes stared piercingly at them through ropes of dripping silver-green hair wound around with seaweed. The being, for it was clearly not human, stepped onto the narrow cement ledge that passed for a path which lay on one side of the wide and deep sewer which joined the main sewer and which ultimately wound onwards into the ocean. Neither seemed particularly bothered or concerned at the sight.

"Trust the Secondborn to spend their effluence into the oceans. The stink is almost evil all by itself." The being grumbled and there was a bubbling note to his voice which made him sound as though he spent the whole of his existence under water. "And coming across country through the sewers was the safest way. It's not like you could sail all the way back here is it? It's not my fault that I ended up transporting us into the sewer system. Incidentally we are all three of us bound to Arda till the end, so nobody should think themselves special in any way."

Celeborn of Doriath and Earendil the Mariner, lately of Valinor, looked at each other and then at their companion.

"You're going to have to take on a different form if you're going to stay with us." Celeborn pointed out. "Silvery green skin and hair just aren't usual among the races here and I doubt they've ever heard of Maiar."

Osse rolled his eyes, reached out with his hand towards the Elf and flicked a lock of long silver hair back to reveal Celeborn's delicately pointed ears.

"Look who's talking." He scoffed. "I doubt that many modern Edain have pointed ears either or remember the Elves."

Celeborn yanked the hair back down over the offending organs. "At least I can hide them with my hair." He retorted. "But I do think that silvery green skin will draw rather unwanted attention to all three of us. We may have quite a way to go yet and we are still not sure how to reach the Herald."

Osse sniffed the air like a bloodhound and closed his eyes for a moment. "He's not close, but I can feel him. We're in the right country at any rate."

The air around him abruptly started to shimmer and Earendil grabbed onto Celeborn's arm in alarm.

"He's going to do it again isn't he?"

Celeborn braced himself against the wall and Earendil gritted his teeth and hung onto him. "I think so, just hold on. Eru's balls Lord Osse, could you at least give us some warning before you start changing form?"

The atmosphere compressed as Osse abruptly altered his fana to one more suited to modern Arda and the race of Men. Out in the open this wasn't usually a problem, but in the close confines of the sewer, the displacement of air caused by the alterations had quite spectacular effect. Celeborn and Earendil ended up flattened against the wall, still clinging onto each other.

"Did it work? How do I look? A little less inhuman and definitely less smelly I hope." Osse turned towards the other two eagerly only to double over with laughter at the sight that awaited him. The pressure had died down, but now both Celeborn and Earendil were glaring at him and their hair was standing on end as though they had received the fright of their lives or stuck their fingers in an electric socket. "Ha ha ha...you two look so funny. That hairstyle suits you Celeborn, sets off the ears nicely."

Celeborn glowered at Lord Ulmo's Chief Maia. "Very funny...ha ha. Remind me why you came along with us again?"

Earendil shivered. "I think perhaps we should try to get out of the sewers. Something feels very wrong about this place...apart from the smell that is. There must be some way out surely?"

Osse looked around him for a moment and then strode along the narrow cement ledge as though he was strolling along a wide pavement. He still looked like himself, but his skin was now pale and his hair was pale blond. He had reduced the size of the fana to taller than the average tall human male and his eyes were a pale blue in colour. "There's a grille up here; a door I expect. It leads to a passage, I believe this is the way out. It's locked of course or rusty with disuse."

He rattled the grille door and yanked at it. Some of the cement that the iron grille door was buried in crumbled away and flaked to the ground.

"That's right, make enough noise so that everyone hears us." Celeborn commented sarcastically.

Osse stared at him scathingly. "And just who do you think is going to be wandering around down here in the middle of a raging storm?"

"You don't even know what's up there." Celeborn said, blithely ignoring the scathing note in Osse's voice.

Earendil pushed at the door using all of his strength. A few more flakes of dust scattered everywhere. "Well up there surely can't be any worse than down here. Onwards and upwards, that's what I say...ah...there we are..." The door creaked open an inch with a grating sound.

Osse pushed past him. "Better let me go first." He pushed the door open further with little effort and disappeared through the opening.

Celeborn and Earendil looked at each other and shrugged.

"Yes, let him go first. After all he's bigger and a lot more resilient than we are." Celeborn said as he stepped into the tunnel behind the Maia. "Not to mention being a Maia.

"And he glows a lot more." Earendil added as he followed him. "Which is always handy in the dark."

ooOoo

A large manor house some five miles from the cemetery...

"What the hell happened?"

The four girls who were currently dripping all over the black and white marble tiles of the entrance hall hung their heads as they faced a small blond haired woman who was glaring at them with hazel-green eyes, hands on slender hips.

"We lost Jocelyn." One of them said in a small voice. "We were patrolling... she said she heard something and went to investigate while we carried on with the patrol. When she didn't come back after a few minutes we traced her steps, but there was no sign of her. We went as far as the gate but there was nothing. A few minutes later the place was crawling with cops."

A look of real worry flickered across the blond girl's face replacing the irritation of earlier. "Great...just great. We lose a girl and the cops are involved. Could it get any better?" She glanced over at the tall dark-haired girl standing at the bottom of the wide staircase which ran up to the upper levels. "We need to find out if she's been taken. Dawnie?"

The other girl nodded and ran up the stairs. "I'm on it. I'll knock on Will's door as I go past. Do you want me to wake Giles?"

The blond girl shook her head. "You won't need to, I think he's awake anyway, he's in the library. I'll fill him in on the situation." She turned back to the other girls. "Okay, you guys get a shower and something to eat. I take it that you didn't find anything?"

They all shook their heads. "There was nothing to find." An older girl with close cropped red-gold curls spoke up, she had a light Scottish brogue. "Bit of a wild goose chase if you ask me, unless Joss found something of course."

"Buffy...Jocelyn..." One of the other girls started to speak, about to voice the concern that they were all feeling, but was stopped in mid- sentence.

"We'll find her." Buffy said, aiming for a confident note in her voice, but knowing that her concern was showing through. "It's not your fault Lisa, it's none of your faults, she knows the rules...or she should know the rules by now. She should have taken someone else with her for backup especially since we have no idea what we're dealing with here. What's the first rule?"

"Don't die..." They chorused back at her before following the dark haired girl up the stairs taking them two and three at a time.

"Don't die..." Buffy murmured to herself. "If only it was that simple. Let's hope it was only the police who took Joss."

She huffed a deep sigh and went to find Rupert Giles who was, as usual, burning the midnight, or at least the early morning, oil buried under books in the library.

Apocalypses and big Evils came and they went, but some things never changed.

ooOoo

GLOSSARY OF TOKIEN CHARACTERS AND HOW THEY FIT INTO THE STORY

From the top down:

Eru Iluvator- God, The One. An all powerful but non corporeal entity who can take on any form it wishes in order to interact with corporeal beings.

Lord Manwe Sulimo- Known as The Elder King, Lord of the Breath of Arda (Earth), head of the Valar (the equivalent of Archangels) who along with his brothers and sisters among the Valar was sent to earth to be caretakers of the planet.

Melkor -One of the above Valar and brother in thought of Manwe who broke away and decided he wanted sole charge of earth. He came to be known as The Enemy or First Evil and his designs on earth were dark. He wanted to create his own races, but found that he couldn't. All he could do was marr other races and make them different, e.g, the Orcs were held originally to be Elves. Melkor carried out an early form of genetic engineering. He was taken prisoner by the Valar in the first war against them and imprisoned in the Halls of Waiting and finally set free after a time by Lord Manwe when he pretended to be rehabilitated. This didn't last long and he eventually went back to his old ways, sowing seeds of discord among the Elves the majority of whom now lived in Valinor which at that time was still part of Middle-earth. Above all he coveted the Silmarils created by Feanor (whose face and form he takes on in my story) and he encouraged Feanor, who was the eldest son of the King of the Noldorin Elves to rebel against the Valar. After destroying the light of the Two Trees which was the only form of light in the whole of Arda at that time other than the stars, he eventually stole the three Silmarils aided by Ungoliante (A monstrous spider and the foremother of Shelob from the Lord of the Rings)and in doing so killed Feanor's father, King Finwe. They then fled across the Helcaraxe (the ice in the north of Valinor) to Middle-earth.

Feanor -The eldest son of King Finwe, the Noldoran (King of the Noldor Elves). He followed Melkor to Middle-earth in rage to get the Silmarils back and avenge his father. He took a large part of the Noldor with him after swearing an oath to Eru that he would avenge his father, an oath that his seven sons all took hence sealing their fates. He didn't want to cross the ice, so he went to the city of Alqualone to ask King Olwe of the Teleri who were shipbuilders if he could take some of his ships. Olwe refused because he perceived that Feanor was going against the will of the Valar, so Feanor and his people killed the Teleri for the ships thereby instigating the first kinslaying, i.e. Elf killing elf which had never happened. This event plus the destruction of the Two Trees by Melkor was called the Darkening of Valinor. He renamed Melkor as Moringotto or Morgoth.

Eonwe- Is a Maia, a lesser being, but still powerful among the Ainur, equivalent to an Angel (Angels and Archangels who serve Eru in the Timeless Halls). He is the Chief of all the Maiar and the Herald to Lord Manwe.

Kim- She is one of my original characters and Eonwe's human wife. You would have to read A Singular Honour to hear their story. They have two children, a girl called Almare, Allie for short and a son called Daeron.

Osse- The Head Maia for Lord Ulmo, a Valar who was Lord of the Seas and Waters of Arda.

Earendil - Father of Master Elrondof the Lord of the Rings fame. He was part Maia, part human and part elf. Originally born in Middle-earth, his parents were Idril, the daughter of Elven King Turgon, and Tuor a warrior from the race of Men. Earendil married Elwing who was half-elven, the daughter of Nimloth (an Elven maiden) and Dior (half elven son of the mortal Beren and the Elf maiden Luthien). So Elrond and his brother Elros were descended from all three of the major races of Middle-earth) Earendil was a mariner and he sailed his ship Vingilot to Valinor to plead for help from the Valar to stop Melkor from spreading his darkness and evil all over Middle-earth and enslaving all the other races. It was his plea that led to Eonwe being in charge of the armies of Valar in the War of Wrath in Middle-earth. The army of the Valar fought against Melkor and eventually captured him, but unfortunately the battle was so fierce that part of Middle-earth was plunged under water. Melkor was returned to the Valar for his second judgement and was then thrown into the Void, where, in my story, the hell dimensions that have the demonkind that Buffy fights, exist. The humans who fought for the Armies of the Valar were then taken across the sea to an island that Lord Ulmo rose from the waters. The island was shaped like a five pointed star and was called Numenor. Earendil and his wife Elwing who had possessed the third Silmaril and who had jumped into the ocean with it leaving her two young sons, Elrond and Elros, behind rather than give the Silmaril to Feanor's sons, Maglor and Maedhros, were not permitted to return to Middle-earth and were given what was known as the Doom of the Eldar, i.e. they were counted with the Elves despite their human blood and were made immortal.

Celeborn- Father in law of Elrond. He is what they call a Sindar Elf, originally born in the city of Doriath. Doriath was the Kingdom of the Elven King Elu Thingol who was the brother of King Olwe (the Elven King with the ships that Feanor took). He is married to Galadriel, who was the daughter of Arafinwe and Earwen and the niece of Feanor who she followed to Middle-earth.

Finrod Felagund aka Detective Sergeant Finrod of the British Metropolitan Police from my stories - He is Galadriel's eldest brother, Feanor's nephew and the grandson of King Finwe. His father is Arafinwe, who was Finwe's son from a second marriage to an Elf maiden called Indis. His mother is Earwen, daughter of King Olwe (the elf with the ships). Finrod was also known as Prince Findarato Arafinwion. The patronym on the end means that he is the son of Finwe.

Amarie- Is Finrod's wife. She doesn't have a large part in my story, but she is mentioned.

Jim Moore- Jim is not one of Tolkien's characters. He is an original character and a young British police officer who got involved with Eonwe and Kim in my first story, A Singular Honour. He was a police constable in the first story, but is now a Detective Sergeant. His best friend and partner in crime is Finrod.

Sauron aka Rupert Giles- Is of course Buffy's Watcher, but in the times of Middle-earth, he was a Maia and followed Melkor to Middle-earth, where he became his second lieutenant. At the end of the War of Wrath Sauron went to Eonwe, the Commander of the army of the Valar and begged for mercy and forgiveness. Eonwe said that he didn't have the remit from the Valar to give such forgiveness to one of his own kind and that Sauron must travel back with the army and seek such forgiveness with the Valar themselves. Unfortunately Eonwe didn't imprison him, but let him go on his own recognisance. Sauron fled the battlefields and disappeared only to re-emerge a few thousand years later, as the Dark Lord of Middle-earth and maker of the One Ring.

He was of course finally defeated after Frodo threw the Ring into the fires of Mount Doom, where it was forged. In my story his spirit was taken by Eru's command directly to the prisons on the seventh level of the Timeless Halls instead of facing the punishment of the Valar in Valinor. The Valar would have thrown him into the Void along with Melkor, but Eru decided to give him a chance to make amends, which he did, after eons of being prisoner by Eru, by rescuing Eonwe and Kim's small daughter, Almare or Allie as she is known, and an American CIA agent called Catherine from a rapidly arising new Dark Lord called Herumor (You would have to read Dark Power Arising for that part of the story). Sauron was then given the choice by Eru and his chief Ainur to make final recompense by becoming the Watcher for Buffy Summers on modern earth. He accepted and finally, after one heroic act at the end of Dark Power Arising (second of my stories), he sacrifices his life as Rupert Giles and is taken back to Valinor where he undergoes judgement by the Valar who offer him a choice between remaining in Valinor as a Maia or returning to earth in a wholly mortal form to continue to help Buffy, who is, as you know, the warrior of the people. He chooses to return to her and this is where he is at at the beginning of The Hellmouth. So Giles is originally one of the Ainur and part of the Powers That Be and was originally one of the Maia who went to earth along with Lord Manwe, the other Valar and Maiar.

Ereinion Gil-galad - Gil-galad was the last High King of the Noldor in Exile, i,.e. those Noldorin Elves who fled Valinor with Feanor. He never married. He went to war along with the exiled Numenoreans and descendents of Elros, twin brother of Elrond, King Elendil and his sons, one of which was Isildur in order to defeat Sauron on the battlefield of Dagorlad just outside the gates of Mordor which was Sauron's stronghold. This was called the Last Alliance of Men and Elves. Both Gil-galad and Elendil died fighting Sauron. Elendi's sword, Narsil was taken up by Isildur to fight Sauron. The sword was then shattered by Sauron and Isildur picked up the remaining shard of the sword which was still attached to the hilt and sliced Sauron's finger which held the One Ring, off.

Elrond, who was Gil-galad's Herald, tried to persaude Isildur, who of course was now King after his father's death, to throw the Ring into the fires of Mount Doom, but he refused and took it as were-gild for his family. The rest of that story is Lord of the Rings history of course. The title of High King of the Noldor in Exile died out after Gil-galad's death, although Elrond would have had the right to take up the title. He refused it and withdrew to live in Imladris, translation of which is Rivendell or commonly known as The Last Homely House before the West.

Gil-galad would have spent time in the Halls of Waiting after his death and would then have been reborn, as all Elves were unless they had committed terrible crimes against the Valar or their own race.

Maedhros (Maitimo is the Quenya elvish translation) - He is the eldest son of Feanor, nicknamed Russandol because of his unusual flame red hair. He and his brother Maglor were the only remaining sons of Feanor alive at the finish of the War of Wrath. They conspired to go to the camp of Eonwe and steal the two remining Silmarils (the third one was taken to Valinor by Earendil's wife Elwing as explained above). They slew the Elven guards outside Eonwe's tent and stole the two jewels but were confronted by other Elves who wanted to slay them and Eonwe himself, who let them go. They slunk away, each with a jewel which was wrapped up and when they unwrapped the jewels and each held one in their bare hands, finally after a couple of thousand years of striving to get them in order to fulfil their terrible oath that they took to their father, the jewels were too pure to be held in hands that were staned with blood and they burned their way through the flesh. Mad with pain, Maedhros flung himself into a chasm of fire and died with the Silmaril, Maglor flung his in the ocean and lived, but his hand never completely healed.

Maglor (Makalaure, is the Quenya elvish translation) - He is the second eldest son of Feanor. He was known for his musical ability and his wonderful voice. He composed The Noldolante, or The Fall of the Noldor which tells the story of his father's rebellion against the Valar in which Maglor himself took part, and the exile of the Noldor from Valinor. It is particularly associated with the Kinslaying at Alqualonde, which saw Fëanor lead the first slaying of Elves by Elves in the history of that never sailed West. He remained in Middle-earth wandering the shores and guilt ridden.

Elladan - One of the twin sons of Elrond and his wife Celebrian. They also had a daughter called Arwen, of Arwen Undomiel fame. She married Aragorn after the War of the Ring and gave up her immortality to remain with him. After Elrond left Middle-earth, Elladan and his brother Elrohir remained behind with their grandfather Celeborn in order to stay near their sister, because they knew that once Aragorn died she would be alone and eventually would die a mortal death. There is no record of them sailing to Valinor left by Tolkien, but it was inferred that the twins later sailed with their Grandfather across the Sundered Seas and were eventually reunited with their mother and father.

Haldir - Haldir is the famous Elf from the Two Towers death scene in the movie at Helms Deep. This death is, in fact, a fabrication by Peter Jackson, as no Elves fought at Helms Deep during the book. Haldir is a Lothlorien Elf and although fanon fondly has him as a March Warden of Lothlorien, in fact it doesn't say that anywhere in the book. It does say that he fought on the Northern Marches along with his brothers Orophin and Rumil however. His exact origins are unknown, but along with his kin it's likely that he was born in Middle-earth.

Nerdanel - Mother of Maedhros and Maglor and wife of Feanor. Now in Middle-earth, living with Eonwe and Kim in my story.

Celebrian - Only daughter of Galadriel and Celeborn, wife of Elrond and mother of Elladan, Elrohir and Arwen. Currently staying in Aldershot at the home of Eonwe and Kim in my story.

Thranduil - King Thranduil is the Elven King from the kingdom of Mirkwood and he is the father of the famous Legolas who was one of the Nine companions who set out to destroy the One ring. In my stories he did not sail to the West like his son, but remained in his beloved woods until the modern world encroached on him and he was forced to interact with humans. In my stories he is fabulously wealthy, having had thousands of years to build up his riches and when Eonwe reveals himself in Middle-earth he goes to help him, alongside Elrond and the others.

Elrond of Rivendell - Most of his history is given above in the section about Earendil. He was known as Elrond Peredhel, which means Elrond Halfelven, since his bloodlines, like those of his twin Elros who gave up his immortality to became the King of Numenor, were of mixed heritage i.e. Maiar, Human and Elven.

At the end of the War of Wrath Eonwe gave the twins a choice, either to be counted with the Elves, as their mother and father were, or to give up their Elven heritage and become wholly human and mortal. Elrond chose to be counted with the Elves and Elros chose to be counted with the Humans and he became their King on the island of Numenor while Elrond remained in Middle-earth and became friend and Herald to Ereinion Gil-galad.

Glorfindel - Once Glorfindel of the House of the Golden Flower, he was an Elflord in the court of King Turgon who was an Elven king of the Noldor, second son of Fingolfin and brother to Fingon, Aredhel and Argon, and ruler of the hidden city of Gondolin. He is described as tall, wearing white with a gold belt and a crown of garnets, holding the Staff of Doom in his hand. He was often called "the Wise".

Although Turgon was originally against the departure of the Ñoldor from Valinor, he eventually did set out on the journey. After Feanor and his sons departed using the only ships, he took his people across the dangerous Helcaraxe with his father Fingolfin. He lost his wife Elenwe in the crossing and settled at Vinyamar inNevrast initially with his daughter Idril, whoeventually became the wife of Tuor and who were the parents of Earendil, before building his hidden city called Gondolin.

When Gondolin was attacked by the armies of Melkor (Morgoth) Glorfindel was among those Elven warriors who were charged with protecting Earendil and other Elves in their flight from the city. . It was at that time that a balrog and a contingent of orcs ambushed their company. Glorfindel there accomplished his greatest deed, for he saved the lives of Tuor, Idril and all the company when he defied the balrog. They fought long. Glorfindel stabbed it in the belly, but as the balrog fell it reached out and grabbed his long golden hair, pulling him back down over the edge of the cliff. He perished in the fall, but his body was borne up by Thorondor, one of the great eagles, and they buried him with a mound of stones in the pass. On that mound grew yellow flowers (possibly celandine), despite its remote location.

Glorfindel's spirit passed to the Halls of Waiting, where he waited with the spirits of the other Noldor who had died during their war against Morgoth. But because of Glorfindel's noble actions in life, his reluctance at the Exile, and his furthering of the purposes of the Valar by saving Tuor and Idril, he was re-embodied after only a short time. He had redeemed himself, and was purged of any guilt. Not only did his sacrifice get him an early pardon, it earned him great powers, so that he was almost an equal to the was eventually sent back to Middle-earth to aid Elrond and his family in their efforts against Morgoth. He was the only Elf to be allowed to do that after rebirth.

Obviously in my stories quite a few of the Elves have gone back to Middle-earth!

The Grigori - Any of the Grigori who appear in the story are characters from my own book and are from my imagination, not Tolkien's.

Maksim - Is a vampire in one of the old Eastern European covens. They are not like the vampires of Sunnydale that Buffy and the others fight. Maksim is a warrior in the coven which is run by an ancient vampire called Kiril. He ends up helping Thranduil, Elrond, Glorfindel and Celebrian as they travel through Europe in modern times in seach of the burial place of Arwen Undomiel. He assiss them and ends up working for Eonwe during which time he begins to redeem his soul, making him a third ensouled vampire in good company with Angel and Spike and currently the only ensouled vampire in existence since everyone believes Angel and Spike to have been killed in LA. Maksim is now a trusted aide in Eonwe's household. He is an original character of mine and owes nothing to Joss Whedon or Tolkien!

Any other characters will be introduce as the chapters go on.