The elves were nearing Imaldris. On Evelyn's last flight, she spotted the city in the distance. It was as beautiful as she always imagined it; shining stone crated elegant structures rising atop waterfalls which cascaded down to streams diverging towards the river. It was like a hidden jewel thrust agains the valley, a private and serene home for the elves that lived there.

Evelyn's stomach turned into a knot of fear, and she turned back.

That night was a restless one, she sat, curled up into Nightshade's flank as she debated the merits of continuing. The night air was warm, but she clung to the wolf as if she needed the creature's body heat to survive.

"Tomorrow they cross the river... they'll be safe... we should go home."

The wolf snorted lightly in reply. Evelyn swore the she was mocking her.

"What? You don't believe me? Tomorrow we make for home."

Nightshade merely closed her eyes, released a light huff of annoyance. The wolf knew that Evelyn was lying to herself. She waited patiently for the girl to continue.

"I mean... at the same time... why am I in such a rush? Things have been getting pretty dicey around there and we're probably going to have to move soon anyway... and that wound was pretty deep. Even with his elvish healing he's not 100 percent yet. I'm sure Elrond is great and all, but it's not like elves know what the heck trauma surgery is..."

Nightshade exhaled deeply, knowing exactly what was to come. She wasn't going back to her favorite hunting grounds anytime soon.

"Maybe we should hang around... just for a little while. After how much we've done, it would be a shame for him to die now."

Nightshade leaned back, giving Evelyn better access to the crook of her elbow where she snuggled deeper. They were close enough to the boarders of Imaldris that they could feel a slight pulse of power in the air, the force of Lord Elrond's ring that held back dark creatures, keeping the city safe from orcs and all manner of dark things. Part of Evelyn was a bit surprised that it felt so comforting to her. She halfway expected to be repelled by it. She was... after all, a dark creature. Right?

Glorfindel's return to Imaldris was surprisingly without fanfare. He and the twins neared the city in the late evening and loathed the idea of a crowd. All three of them had a lot of explaining to do to Lord Elrond, and they preferred to face his scowls in private. This being so, they dismounted and walked through a back entrance, dropping off their horses to a rather startled stable hand and making their way slowly through the main house. When they arrived at Lord Elrond's study, the hearth was already lit and tea for four was set up.

Of course he saw them arriving.

"Glorfindel," Elrond opened the door with a broad smile. "Welcome home."

He embraced his old friend, grey eyes gleaming with delight. It had only been a few hours since he senses his sons and Captain crossing the Brunin, but he had that time to ease his heart in knowing that Glorfindel was alive. Seeing him standing and walking on his own was honestly more than he expected. After running a quick and appraising eye over Glorfindel to find that there was nothing urgently ill about him, Elrond turned his focus on his two sons.

"Elladan," he pointed an accusatory finger at the older brother. "What could have possibly possessed you to climb from your window in the middle of the night, with an arrow wound in your sword arm, to go rushing into the wild without telling a soul."

"Ada-" Elrohir tried to come to his brother's defense, but was stopped by Elrond then turning his wrath on him, pointing another finger.

"And you," Elrohir and Elladan both gulped slightly. It was rare for them to see their father so angry and uncomposed. "Going along with your brother's half mad plan and risking both of your lives. Glorfindel was already lost. Have you any idea how much you worried me?"

At that accusation, both of the twins hung their heads in shame. In truth, they knew that their father would be mad at them leaving without telling him, but they always did it. They hadn't however, factored in the fact that with Glorfindel missing as well, their father would be even more worried. Glorfindel really was an anchor for their father, the reborn elf was always the most confident and sure that no matter what wildness possessed the twins in a moment, that they would come to their senses and survive long enough to haul themselves back to the Healing Wing of Imaldris. Without Glorfindel, their father was left with Erestor who was an even greater worrier than himself.

"If I may my Lord," Glorfindel interrupted with a light cough. "I do believe that they climbed through Elrohir's window this time." He spoke with a mischievous smile and was met with Elrond's stern glare. Instead of shirking back however, Glorfindel maintained his gaze and his grin, until Elrond finally relented and smiled.

"Go," he ordered his sons. "Bath and rest. We shall discuss this tomorrow."

The twins bowed to their father and fled to their chambers before he would change his mind. They both planned on sleeping in as long as possible to avoid their father.

"Strange," Elrond hummed lightly, his back to Glorfindel as he gazed out the window. Glorfindel seemed to have gained a second surge of energy upon returning home, and despite his injury, felt far too invigorated to sleep. Instead, he had spent the last few hours recounting his experience from his desperate chase to his awakening in the care of Elladan and Elrohir. "She did not say anything when she drugged you and dropped you off."

"Not a word."

"And she was like the one from Gondolin?"

"Exactly like her."

"But you never saw her face?"

"Only her eyes..."

"Yes, you mentioned them several times."

"They were so strange... I swear... by Eru they glowed."

Elrond turned his head sharply, gaze intensifying as he looked at Glorfinded.

"Do you mean like..."

"Brighter."

Elrond made a hmmmm sound as he took a seat in the chair next to Glorfindel. He slowly sipped his tea, and after a stern glare, Glorfindel did as well. Elrond's mind was racing. He had not had a moment of peace since Glorfindel first disappeared, and now he was returned and bearing yet more questions.

His mind was in turmoil.

Foresight is a gift that is both blessing and cure, for Elrond he was finding it as a curse. He kept seeing snatches of hair, as black as ebony, wings like a great crow, and glowing brown eyes. This figure was flitting in and out of his visions, it had been for the past few years, thought its appearances in his mind had grown more and more frequent. Elrond could no longer deny that this figure was the mysterious "Raven" who rescued Glorfindel.

There was however, a problem. This Raven seemed to always appear in vision plagued with chaos and bloodshed. He saw her standing over Glorfindel's body, blood slashed across his stomach as a gaping wound that not even elvish magic could cure. But, as oft the sase with visions brought on by foresight, not all is as it appears. She saved Glorfindel, she was not his slayer.

As for the rest of his visions, who could tell. Elrond got glimpses of her flashing through battle scenes of pure carnage, broken bodies of men and elves alike scattered across the hillside. He saw her flying past a village filled with flames, children of men crying in anguish. And perhaps most troubling, he had seen her in Imaldris as orcs and wargs overran the peaceful halls, elves of his own household fleeing in fear. And, always beside her, was a black shadow, a flash of fur the color of the night, claws and teeth, yellow eyes and snarling jowls.

Whoever she was, she brought chaos and destruction.

Whoever she was, saved his friend.

"I think it best that we keep her part in this story quiet for now. If she does not want to be found, then I am rather inclined to believe that she would not appreciate a city of elves knowing her," Elrond spoke at last.

"I have to agree..." Glorfindel hesitated, but continued. "But, when I am well enough, I will find her."

"That is to be discussed another day," Elrond spoke firmly standing and holding out his arm to guide Glorfindel to the Healing Wing.

He saw the way that the elder elf groaned and could not help but chuckle. His friend thought that he had forgotten the description of an almost certainly fatal wound. Elrond would certainly not let such a thing escape his attentions. This being so, he made sure to conduct a thorough examination of Glorfindel's side, taking careful note of how neat and precise the stitchings were.

He felt along the length of the wound, pulsing healing magic through it as he felt how the organs beneath were wounded. Such a thing was meant to be fatal, yet somehow by some miracle, Glorfindel's savior managed to stitch him in such a way that his organs remained intact. Something she did helped him heal in a way that should have been impossible.

Once Elrond forced Glorfindel to choke down a foul tasting painkiller, he send the wounded elf off to bed and informed him that they would be announcing his return at breakfast the next morning, but he and his sons would inform Imaldris that Glorfindel was wounded and thus would not be seeing visitors for a few days. Elrond himself personally guided Glorfindel to his chambers inorder to ensure that the elf would not wander off or find something to overexert himself with. Like his twin sons, Elrond knew that Glorfindel had a penchant for getting into trouble.

4 weeks later

Finally, Glorfindel was given a clean bill of health and allowed back out on patrols. Elrond requested that he stay close to the boarders and Glorfindel reluctantly complied. Although he longed to go out in search of Raven, he still felt slightly guilty for the worry that his absence caused Elrond. Plus, if he left Imaldris on guard duties, then that would mean that he would be traveling with a company of warriors. Considering that Raven refused to unbind his hands when he was too weak to even lift his own arms, he didn't imagine that she would take kindly to a troop of elvish soldiers.

On one particular day, Glorfindel was riding Asfaloth on the open plains near Imaldris when something caught his eye. Luckily, he had a keener gaze than most of his brethren, and it was only this superiority that allowed him to perceive the slightest hint of something in a small briar. He pulled Asfaloth into a quick turn and cantered back, hopping from his steed's back to investigate.

There, among the thorns of a bush bearing bright red berries, was a single feather. He carefully reached into the shrub and pulled it out, admiring the length and silken quality. He held it up to the light and marvled at how one side seemed to absorb all light with the darkest of black, while the other side held a slight sheen, reflecting colors to be more midnight-blue than black. He turned it gently in his hand, caressing it with great care. Instantly, Glorfindel knew who it was from. No bird save the Great Eagles had feathers of that size, but no eagle had colors such as those.

It was Raven.

The feather was fresh, newly dropped within the last day or two. This meant that she was near.

She's hanging around Imaldris. She's curious.

The thoughts floated through Glorfindel's head and he smiled. Hopping back astride Asfaloth, he made haste back to Imaldris where he informed the only other elves of her existence: Elrond, Elladan, Elrohir, and Erestor. Upon his arrival back at Imaldris, he informed them of his find and showed them the large feather. Erestor made a remark about how beautiful of a quill such a feather would make, but Glorfindel sent him a withering glare that could have made the Peredhel proud.

Their little impromptu meeting did however prove fruitful in a pact between the five of them that they would keep an eye out for Raven. They would not openly search for her, as such a thing was likely to spook the rather apprehensive girl. However, they would keep watch. They would search for stray feathers, glimpses of shadows moving too fleetly at night. The twins spent much of their time patrolling the boarders of Imaldris and thus would be capable of easily watching for signs of a winged guest.

Over the next few weeks, their efforts did indeed prove fruitful. They never found another perfect feather in such a manner, but they did find more sighns: broken feathers caught in trees, flashes of black in the night, birds flocking with a companion who was slightly too large, abandoned camps left in a hurry, and most notably, corpses of orcs near the far boarders- killed with the same precise arrow wounds and slashes as the ones at Glorfindel's battlefield.

It had to be Her. For some reason unknown to the five, Raven was indeed lingering near Imaldris. She refused to show herself, but as time passed, evidence of her was becoming more and more obvious. There were little tiny breadcrumbs left everywhere, in all directions. She was not sticking to one singular place, but instead rotating around the area in an unpredictable elliptical, never lingering in one spot for long. Eventually, after a longer period of time than Glorfindel cared to admit, they noticed that her patterns of movement roughly followed Glorfindel's. When the captain was on patrol, she would be following them from a distance. When he was in Imaldris however, she seemed to slip away to the far boarders where she killed orgs and the occasional deer (as evidence in the pile of field dressing that they found).

All this time, she was a mystery.

At one point, Elladan grew frustrated with their endless chase. He found it too much like they were chasing a ghost who did not wish to be found. And so, one night when he happened to be on the same patrol as Glorfindel, she slipped away from camp and walked until he found a relatively dense patch of trees. There, he dropped a satchel filled with spare clothes, water skins, preserved jams, and bandaging. He looked up to the trees and called out,

"Hello, I am Elladan, son of Lord Elrond of Imaldris. You may remember me when you deposited my Captain and friend in a place where I am certain you knew my brother and I would find him. I would like to thank you for caring for him. I know you're up there somewhere, keeping an eye on him, but I wanted to offer you a gift of gratitude and to inform you that on my word, you are welcome to come to Imaldris. Our doors are always open and you need not to suffer in the cold, for winter soon approaches. I bid you good eve, Lady Raven."

When he returned and informed Glorfindel of what he did, the elder was furious. Even Elrohir wicked him upside the head for his stupidity. They had spent so long observing Raven's movements with care, and now Elladan walked in and blundered his way right into yelling at her in her hiding. He could have ruined it all.

Just as they feared, after Elladan's little stunt, they stopped finding signs of Raven. Broken feathers no longer popped up, campsites all were old and from times past. Even the boarders seemed a bit more treacherous as they were finding more live orcs than dead ones. Glorfindel's mood turned sour. He became anxious, pacing the halls of Imaldris though the day and night. His duties in training the guard were taken over by his lieutenants after he vented his frustrations on a practice dummy and was thus banned from trainings by Erestor. He rode Asfaloth for pleasure less and instead took to sweeping searches of Imaldris' grounds. But it was no use, there was not a sign of Raven about. Glorfindel's short temper soon resulted in the residents of Imaldris avoiding him, but he did not notice as he was too consumed in his desire to leave, to fo out and find Raven.

And, perhaps it was because his mind was wandering elsewhere, perhaps it was because Imaldris no longer had her secret boarder guard, or perhaps it was because it was just inevitable to occur, but eventually, Glorfindel's wish for anything to happen did indeed come true.