Author's note:

I've decided that I will try and update the story once or twice a week with a new chapter, depending on the response I get. As I mentioned previously I have already written a lot of this story, but it's just a matter of dividing it into chapters and adding notes etc.

Once again, I know my writing skills are very rusty. But if you decide to follow this story, I hope you will enjoy it nonetheless.

This chapter is a bit shorter...

Chapter 2

Penneth POV

Penneth walked through the forest. She was now fit and healthy of twenty five, although she would only appear a child of possibly seventeen in a man's eyes. She would hunt the smaller creatures with great care so as to ensure they felt no pain in their death. She was not yet strong enough to take on the bigger creatures of the forest. Through her hunting she had come to be able to fashion very basic clothing from the furs and hides.

Tree Beard had told her of a weapon used by men and elves that could shoot sharpened sticks or sticks fastened with sharpened stones on the end. She had fashioned one with his help and it was slung across her back, along with two freshly killed rabbits.

It was a dark afternoon, the forest seemed even closer than usual. Penneth decided she would hunt one more rabbit. She stalked her prey, watching it all the while, careful to stay down wind. It was not until she was no more than a foot away did she smell the damp smell of a creature her Pa had warned her about.

She straightened her back and tensed, ready to flee or fight at a moments notice. Her eyes scanned the forest, although she had very strong eye sight, she could not see what she feared was near.

She looked to her left and right as she began to back away and then she spotted them. Two small ice blue eyes stared back at her. Penneth froze once more, barely breathing as she tried to remain calm and keep her heart beat steady, not wanting to excite the creature that she was sure could sense the change in her desposition.

"Goheno nin, my furry friend. I was not aware this was your hunting ground," she whispered, more to herself than the creature.

The eyes moved suddenly, higher up from whence they started, and no longer narrowed as if sizing her up but in recognition and then confusion.

Penneth turned her head slightly, not sure what to make of it. "Peculiar..." She began to back away again.

To her surprise light began to shine through the tree tops as the clouds began move away from the early evening moon. The light moved to the shadow where the eyes resided. She soon found she was looking upon a wolf. She had never seen a live one before, only ones that had struck misfortune and had passed on. It was no ordinary grey wolf either, as Tree Beard had told her, was all that resided in the forest.

It was black and white, with a white mask and black shadows around its eyes. It peered at Penneth curiously and she at it. It was very fluffy, although it looked the size of an adult wolf.

It sniffed the air in her direction, as if not sure what to make of the odd scent coming from her.

Penneth slowly sat, she wasn't sure why she took that action but it seemed right. To her surprise the wolf too, sat.

"Peculiar," Penneth said again, as the wolf watched her with great interest. She felt her fear start to ebb away and be replaced with curiousity and excitement.

It was surely not that old, as its fur was so fluffy it reminded her of the fur on young rabbits not long after they start to venture from the burrow, its size, however, reminded her more of a grown wolf. It was so big. She had seen tracks left by its kin. It would surely have been the same size if not possibly bigger.

Penneth set to make herself more comfortable and pulled the make shift bow from her back.

The wolf saw the rough bow and arrows and suddenly was at its feet, fur on its back beginning to bristle.

Penneth dropped the bow very quickly and raised her hands to show she meant no harm. The wolf narrowed its eyes but its fur lay flat once more, it did not sit back down. Penneth moved her hands slowly back down, and then she had a thought.

"Are you hungry, Tithen lum?" she asked it.

It cocked its head to the side and seemed to look at her quizzically.

Penneth was almost certain it could understand her. She slowly began to move her hand to her shoulder once more, and pulled the two rabbits from her back.

The wolf's eyes went wide and it began to sniff the air once more, smelling the fresh kills scent. It sat again and watched her intently as she put them on the ground in front of her.

She released one of the rabbit's from the string that bind them together and then slowly and carefully got to her knees. The wolf tensed, flattened its ears and crouched slightly at the movement, making Penneth slow once more to a stop. She slowly moved to put the rabbit on the ground in front of her and pushed it closer to the wolf. It stepped back cautiously, unsure of what the elf-child meant by it.

"A gift for you, my furry friend," she murmured quietly before settling back on the ground beside her bow.

The wolf turned its head to the side, as if thinking about running away, but then it looked from the child to the rabbit and then back to the child. It sniffed the air in the direction of the child and then sniffed the air close to the rabbit. Deciding a free meal was worth the risk it crept forward and grabbed the rabbit in its mouth, skulking further away from the child but still close enough to see her.

Penneth was pleased with this and sat watching it eat respectively. Once it had finished it sat back up and watched her once again, much more at ease. She smiled and got up, heading back to the clearing where she knew Tree Beard would most likely be sleeping.

Older yet still had Penneth had grown. She was now a fair, young maiden, tall and slender. Her hair, a rich brown to golden ends draped down her back to her waist, often secured with vines in a single long braid to keep it from falling in her face as she leapt from limb to limb of the trees. She had fashioned herself clothes from the furs and hides of the rabbits and much larger animals that she and her wolf friend had caught.

The wolf, who she had come to name 'Tithen lum', because of her ability to blend into the shadows, rarely lingered far from the elf. She had grown to a large size, larger than any wolf Tree Beard had ever seen before. She quite enjoyed terrorising and teasing Tree Beard by nipping at his branches every now and then. Tithen Lum stood level to Penneth's waist, and if caught by her cold stare, the wolf would strike fear with a single look.

Penneth often found herself wondering about the outside world. She heard drums and strange noises from outside the forest on especially still nights. She never dared set foot outside the forest.

She was quite content there, although she often had vivid dreams, they sometimes contained war, beastly creatures and dark shadows. Other times it was filled with beautiful creatures, much like herself, but with skin of the palest colour she had never seen before and hair that shone like the moon.

Travellers had rarely passed through the forest in the past, and none had passed since the day Tree Beard had been gifted Penneth. The Ents never left the forest anymore either as more war raged on outside the forests borders.

The trees whispered of them, only when Penneth was asleep, although they did not know that their whispers were heard in her sleep during her dreams, and often she slept restlessly because of this. She would dream of wars and battles that they whispered, she would dream of the kings and elves they told stories to each other of, dreams of prophecies, dreams of horrifying creatures of black and darkness.

There you go, hope you enjoyed it. It's a little slow going at the moment but it will pick up