A/n: Hello there! This is my first LoR/Hobbit fanfiction and my first time to write after two long years of a writer's block.

Please, leave a review. That would make my day and would help inspiring me and encourage to keep writing. But no flaming.

I don't own any character except for my OCs. Their names may change, and if so it'll be announced. I'm terrible with names...

Pss. The quote in the summery belong to Stephenie Meyer, Twilight.


Prologue: ~Mirkwood~

Mirkwood!...

It wasn't dusk yet when Lilith reached the dark wood, though the darkness crept over everything through the air making it almost tangible.

Lilith winced as she stared in disbelief to the wood surrounding her. The sun shouldn't be down yet –she knew- for it was high noon still, yet the shadow seeping through this wood was heavy so that Lilith could almost feel a bit of a hitch in breathing, even if it seemed that technically, she was still within its inner border.

It was a slight discomfort that she felt while her chest trying to stretch to get as much air as it needed but instead it was met with this bit of inconvenience in the availability of the amount of oxygen and fresh air. If any further indication, her involuntary tensed muscles confirmed only one fact: this wood was sick!

No, scratch this. This wood was SERIOUSLY sick…. It's dying!

Realization came down to Lilith like a piercing dagger to a heart.

She suddenly turned her wary gaze around her, to the enormous old trees as grief started crawling its way over her.

Still, fortunately, after a bit of perception, Lilith could hopefully sense some obvious traces of a struggling spirit left suspended in the air.

As if the wood itself refused to simply surrender to the darkness that took over it, the trees denying submission to the shadow's dust spreading all over their tired branches and amber foliages.

Those same foliages that Lilith was quite sure were once the renowned lively greenery of Mirkwood. Formerly known as Greenwood The Great, this ancient proud wood was well known of its unique green color of the leaves of its trees and the variance of its shades, the legendary liveliness its greenery that no other wood in the whole Middle Earth was gifted with. And that was where its former name had been derived from, only changed to Mirkwood after being persistently invaded with such darkness that Lilith witnessed right then.

Or, at least that was what the rumors coming from the far west claimed!

As an elf, Lilith was instinctively connected to all forms taken from Mother Nature, especially the woods, the trees, and even the Ents.

Away from the green and the brown scenery, an elf lost a fraction of their soul which was born tightly bound to this side of nature and which only to be restored at their return.

An elf distant from the wood was the same as a fish out of the water, as a plant apart from the sun, however with much slower lasting effect, was a fundamentally well known fact of nature. Not being able to withstand the parting, the elves would gradually fade away had it lasted for a considerably long time; which in case of the elves, that would be centuries.

The longer the separation was, the more the elves lost their famed composure. In terms of decades, may be, but eventually they really reached that level where they would lose their inhuman temper. They would start to feel indifferent towards the variant pleasures of life; the food and the beverages would just satisfy their hunger and thirst lacking any taste whatsoever.

Even love would fail to make one elf feeling complete… There would always be this tiny part missed out. They would always fall into homesickness; to eventually they faded away to the Undying Lands.

And, that was how it can be easily summed that any elf's soul fairly equaled a simple wood life.

However, for a Dark Elf… the equation certainly came out quite different.

Dark elves, like Lilith, were more involved with Mother Nature to such depth that they had no rivals.

For dark elves weren't only bound to the green and brown landscapes, but to each and every single creature and being related to them as well. The link extended over the trees and Ents to the rivers, the waterfalls, to all the wildlife's flora and fauna, even to the soil, even to the dew.

Dark elves were even the only living race that was exclusively connected to the respective spiritual relatives of all the formerly mentioned beings! Trees' spirits, flowers' spirits, water's spirits, etc...

They were bound by the Valar into a deep intimate relationship with all different figures of the wildlife in general, though specifically with those of the wood-lands. Such depth that the fair elves -including those who resided into the three famous and great colonies of the west of Middle Earth- were deprived of.*

While a fair elf could sense many of the trees' feelings, a dark one felt them as their own. They also could communicate with all the living and spiritual creatures, not only those who were able to speak, like Ents. In the time that a fair elf might hear the sounds of the trees' whispers and moans, a dark elf could clearly make out their speech and participate in as well.

A broken branch could echo into a considerable pain to a dark elf, without leaving any physical damage or a bruise though.

Thus, coming upon Mirkwood, any sensible being at Middle Earth –a human, a dwarf or even a hobbit- could recognize the damage which cursed it. A fair elf could feel the extent of the darkness that plagued it.

And so, it's only to imagine the amount of the pain, felt by the whole wood, and that was invading Lilith -as a dark elf- as she stood there, wandering her gaze over the several shadowed abnormalities that were imposed as parasites upon the wood, and assessing the amount of the damage and the sufferings that were held within its depth.

The giant spiders' webs weren't the only diagnostic features of this parasitism. Those gigantic arachnoids swarming from Dol Guldur brought with them a whole different scent of evil.

They spat these poisonous shadows upon the enormous ancient trees, which grew old and tired from the suffocation fostered by the sticky tight threads of the webs.

The same sturdy threads that were pressing down the trees' branches, were stifling all the foliages, were reducing the pure air and were prohibiting the sunlight from ever reaching the inside of the wood.

The trees, out of despair, entangled their large branches with each other, causing the leaves to turn into sick shades of amber and brownish yellow, in a desperate attempt to shut out the way in face of the titanic arachnoids. But, unfortunately, that turned into failure by leading to impose more injury to the wood as a whole entity.

Lilith felt the ache in her chest spreading over her body, her stomach clenched and soreness tingled her limbs. She couldn't stop the despair from overwhelming her.

She frowned and clutched her tunic over her chest in an attempt to focus on calming herself out. After a few moments of regulating her breaths and trying her best to summon all she could from positives thoughts along with her courage, she could feel her heart's beats started to steady as the pain gradually subsided.

Ignoring the knot in her stomach, she tried to remember how she ended coming here from all other places in Ennor? The fact that she really pitied the wood didn't change the extreme pain she just went through. As a dark elf, it almost got her!

Had anyone warned her of the extent of the misery and the darkness existing on this land, she would be prepared and relieved from the shock and the heart attack.

She always knew it was a bad idea, to come here.

Mirkwood, the Elvenking's realm of all the places?!

And how was it even possible for anyone to survive in such dying wood? One of the great western elven realms at that! And why wouldn't the woodland elves perish such darkness that was taking over their home? How could they leave their home in such state?

May be they really could use of her help…

Such a thought brought to her memory the proposal that her friends just suggested to her, not a few weeks ago.

The proposal!

She felt the blushing taking over her face, and it suddenly grew hot around though it was already the middle of the spring.

"What a silly girl are you, Lili?" , she murmured in embarrassment. "You're no longer a teen. Grip a hold on yourself girl!"

No, there was no way that Thranduil the Elvenking or his son, the prince and his only heir would agree to such a proposal, or even coming in term with a dark elf such as her.

After all, they are fair elves, and from her kin's unfair reputation she wouldn't expect much from any fair elf but rejection and ignoring.

'Forget about that silly proposal already.' she scolded herself. 'There are more important issues than that.'

Yes, that was it. A request from Morinehtar, one of the blue wizards and her mentor for decades, was made with such an urge and seriousness that she couldn't even stall a bit to prepare herself for her first journey to the West, and to Mirkwood at that! And that haste cost her, didn't it?

She couldn't delay nor reject her old friend's request. She was to carry an important message to Mithrandir, also known to some people as Gandalf, the Grey wizard. It didn't need much of wit to realize that it was something related to the rising forces of darkness.

And, just after rejecting her friends' idea of the 'proposal' and to travel to Mirkwood, Morinehtar came and she found herself agreeing to deliver his message. The blue wizard recommended for her to take the way to Mirkwood, as it was the nearest safe way from Lilith's camp.

The Elvenking might even help, if she mentioned the purpose of her journey and the names of the wizards. That was what Morinehtar thought, though the rumors about Thranduil that reached Lilith made her really doubt it. But, she refrained herself from arguing with the old wizard, and the years she spent learning from him made her trust his judgment and wisdom.

However, he warned her not to reveal the contents of the message to anyone other than Mithrandir, not even the Elvenking himself!

And that was how she found herself at Mirkwood's boundaries, with a new mission, starting her first adventures in the West of Middle Earth.

Though, from what she was witnessing of the woodland realm, it didn't really seem to be a good start!...


*Imladris, Lothlórien and Mirkwood.

A/n. the prologue still continue next time, may be with more details about the proposal :)

TetiSherii