GRIMWINE was troubled. He looked out at the darkness of the forest. The insects chirped and the occasional pitter-patter of furry feet moved from one area to another. A snap here and a snap there. These were normal forest sounds.

If there was something out there, the forest would have been silent, Grimwine reminded himself. Yet he could not shake off the feeling that they were being watched.

He wished he could be gone. Tonight. But Shoddy was right. It was too dark to move all these men in the middle of the night, never mind that it could be dangerous with all the undergrowth that they have to navigate in the dark.

He glanced at the back of the camp where they had stashed the Elves. They looked so young. The three of them looked barely past their fifteenth summer. And the hunter, who his brother swore was older, could not possibly be older than the others by five or six years.

His grandmother had said Elves are magical creatures, that they are full of tricks and fancy and dangerous. And maybe she was right that they don't age. She had also said they are creatures of light and goodness. What they were doing, this couldn't be good. He was certain Roswyn would frown upon it.

"Not sleeping yet?" Grimshod pushed against Grimwine's shoulder. "Still angry?"
"I'm not angry, Shoddy. Just worried."

"You worry too much, Wino." Grimshod pounded his fist against his iron breastplate. "We have this. And when we give those creatures to Dernwulf, we'll get more of this. And more gold. And you will be closer to getting Roswyn."

"When will all these stop, Shoddy? You said once we took our revenge. You said we'll go back and rebuild. When, Shoddy?"

"When we have enough."

"And when is that? It's been fifteen years since we lost our home to those marauders. You said once we avenge the death of our family and friends. But five years have passed since that last one. And now we are doing to these youths what those raiders did to us. Those three look so young."

"They are Elves. Don't you remember what gramps said? They don't age. They all look like that."

"Not that hunter, and not those we captured before. They were older. They probably have families who wait for them."

"They are not like us. And look, they obviously don't want them back if they gave up chasing us."

"Wait, what? Were you discovered?" Grimwine felt something heavy settle in his stomach. "Dernwulf said we are to grab only those who will not be missed, at least not until we leave the forest. And now you tell me you were pursued. Why didn't you tell me this when I arrived?"

"You were upset about the changes I made to the camp." His brother took out his ax and ran his finger along the side of the blade.

"Durnwulf said not to stay long in this forest." They had been warned to leave the forest as soon as they have the Elves in their custody.

"Not a big problem. That young one? We didn't seize him. He walked into our camp while we were surveying the area."

"Grimwine scowled. "That is worse. We don't know how long it will take for his people to miss him."

"Soon, apparently." Grimshod shrugged. "Couple hunters came to my camp within two days and attacked. I had a right to defend myself. And I left soon after."

"But why did you build up this camp? What will the Elves think when they see this?"

"Why do I care? Why should we fear them? Dernwulf was right about one thing. These Elves are all spread out, doing separate things. I hardly saw more than five or six in a group. You had to see it, Wino. Their arrows did nothing, and they ran when we went after them."

Grimwine suppressed a groan. This was why he had wanted to leave the moment he entered the campsite. He had felt uneasy when he saw all the changes his brother had made. He had pleaded with his brother to move further south, out of the forest to the more open woodland. Dernwulf had said that Wood-elves would not leave their forest.

"Shoddy, please. Let's leave tonight. Camp outside this forest."

"You already said that, and I warned you not to say that again," Grimshod growled a warning.

Grimwine looked about him, trying to see through the darkness of the thick line of trees all around them. "I just don't feel right. Now that I know they know we are here…" Grimwine turned to his brother and grabbed his brother's arm. "Please, Shoddy. I don't think we should wait for the light."

"Great balls of the gods. Stop this whining already!" Grimshod stomped his foot with a decisive growl. "Haven't you complained enough already? We are getting gold, Wino. Not silver, mind you. Gold. Enough to win the hand of the daughter of that snobby goatfart! Do you want Roswyn or not? That is all you need to think about."

Grimshod's nose flared and his eyes burned.

Grimwine hated that his brother lost his temper so easily these days. Not that he didn't understand. Their entire village had burned in a raid. His brother had watched his young, pregnant wife die in the fires as he and his brother were dragged away in chains. His brother had never been the same after that.

Even after they had escaped the chains. Even after they had tracked down the last raider and took their revenge.

"Calm down, Shoddy." Grimwine threw a furtive glance at the group of men around the campfire, several strides away from them. "But the Elves…. What if the Elves are out there? Ready to attack us? You may place these men in harm's way. Don't you care about their safety? Our safety?"

"Stop right now. I am not having you talk this nonsense in front of my men." Grimshod hissed under his breath, lowering his voice. "My men are not afraid, Wino, because they trust me. Because they are with me." Grimshod's eyes were burning, the red of the campfires blazing like molten rocks. "Are you?"

"You know I'm with you." Grimshod dropped his eyes before looking up. "I'm always with you."

"Good." Grimshod nodded, his lips a thin line. "I love you, Wino. You are my brother, but I won't tolerate disobedience. I command; you follow. Got that?"

Grimwine nodded. Silence tore into the space between them. A stray wind from the treetops swept down, and Grimwine shivered.

Grimshod turned his head about, breaking the silence of the night with the sound of his neck muscles cracking. He cursed under his breath, then relaxed his facial muscles. "After this, we will have wealth enough to build a village of our own, a village we could protect from anyone who tries to hurt us. You will marry Roswyn and raise a family. I am going to make sure no one hurts you or your children. Everything will turn out all right. I promise." Grimshod elbowed him and pushed him toward his tent. "Go on, Wino. Get some sleep. You leave with the prisoners at first light."

"Aren't you coming?"

"Frumgar spotted a group of Elven maids east of here. They had some hunters with them…"

Dernwulf said…"

"Dernwulf. Dernwulf. What does he know? He's just our source of gold, some lord's mouthpiece. He knows nothing about real life. In real life, you make chances. Then, you take them when they come." Grimshod took in a long breath, then spoke more calmly. "Just get the gold for those four and wait. I will join you in a week or so. Once this is done, we are going back. I mean it, Wino."

Grimwine watched his brother march away. He laid down on the clump of grass where he had pitched his tent, but he could not sleep. Dernwulf had repeated several times that they should avoid catching the attention of the Wood-elves. But more important than that, he had promised Roswyn that he wouldn't involve himself with anything unlawful. But then, there was no law he knew that prevented them from taking the Elves from their home, no matter how young they seemed. Was there? The only thing that worried him was that he didn't know what Dernwulf wanted the Elves for.

Grimwine shivered again. He and his brother never asked questions. People like Dernwulf, those who had gold enough to spare, did not want people who asked too many questions.

A piercing screech ripped through the silence. Grimwine sat up and reached for his ax. As he scrambled out of the tent, the ground rumbled, then shook. Grimwine swerved.

Ear-splitting squeals rushed toward the camp and ripped through his eardrums. Grimwine had to hold his ears and clench his teeth to keep out the cacophony of screams. Grimacing, he looked around.

A sounder of wild boards charged into the camp, all the while squealing at the top of their lungs.

"Spears!" someone screamed.

"String your bows! Get some fire!" Grimwine heard his brother shout as the hogs rammed into the tents and trampled the camp ground.

He ran toward his brother as Grimshod came out of his tent and joined other men who scrambled up from where they had been sleeping only a moment ago.

Flash!

A bright light blinded Grimwine, forcing him to turn away. Quick as it came, it was gone. But before he could gather his wits, another blinding light flashed, this time from all around them before it disappeared again.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

A sound of metal on metal bombarded the campsite, adding to the deafening noise. It wrenched his attention away from the wild hogs which turned suddenly and rushed out of the campsite.

Grimwine's heart raced with each clang as the thunderous sound of marching feet rang all around them. Grimwine looked around wildly. A glimpse of something shiny flashed from the darkness. On all sides.

Then came the arrows. Arrows tipped with fire.

Screams of men running to and fro added to the raucous clamor and the chaos. The fire raged all around them. The entire camp was enclosed in the raging circle of fire.

The ground trembled and rumbled. Through the glint of fire all around him, Grimwine saw flashes of shapes in armor. Something was moving around the outer edge of the campsite. The firelight glared across their metal armor as they moved, encircling their camp. Grimwine tried to take a better look, but the heat of the fire all around them, and the smoke, combined with the flashing lights that came on and off, blinded him, making it difficult to see and hear clearly.

The ground trembled, the hogs squealed and the fire raged.

"Daro!" A command cut through the din.

The screams of the wild hogs disappeared into the forest, and the clanking of metal stopped suddenly.

Another flash of blinding light.

When he managed a glance, Grimwine saw that the campsite was burning, the tents, what were left of it, and the outer stockade, all the wooden beams and ladders were on fire. Only the inner posts which were made to hold the prisoners remained untouched.

Grimwine moved next to his brother, who had one hand over his eyes, trying to see past the burning pile of tree trunks.

"We are surrounded!" Frumgar, standing next to Grimshod said.

"It's the Elves! Their army is here!" Another man said.

"They are sorcerers. I've heard stories."

Grimwine could see the fear reflected in Frumgar's eyes. And like fever, that same fear spread among the men.

"Stand firm! Their arrows have no power against our armors." Grimshod stood, planting his feet firmly into the ground, holding his ax in front of him. But, his men stood back, hunched and unsure.

Something shot out from the outer perimeter and landed with hardly a sound in front of Grimshod.

"Shoddy! Watch out Shod…. "

His brother's name stuck on Grimwine's throat when he saw the warrior who stood before his brother. He wore a winged helmet, but he was not a man, that much Grimwine could tell. Men did not have such bright eyes that glowed as if starlight shone through them. Underneath the steel helm that shone like silver, a stream of hair reached down almost to the warrior's waist. And he was tall, taller than any man or Elf Grimwine had ever known. If he was Wood-elf, he was unlike any Grimwine had met.

"You think your armor can protect you?" The Elf's voice was like music, yet firm and commanding. He was beautiful, yet terrifying at the same time. And the armor he wore was something Grimwine had never seen before.

The Elf's hand moved as Grimwine watched him, open-mouthed. Before he could blink, something flashed in the Elf's hand.

The iron armor his brother wore came undone, the leather ties and the iron chains that held the plates together cut through cleanly. The pieces of plates fell with a thud under Grimshod's feet. The men who stood behind Grimshod shrank back further away.

"Drop your weapons and leave this forest, Grimshod. Then, I may spare you, your brother Grimwine, and your men."

Grimwine blinked. How did he know his brother's name, or that he and Grimshod were brothers?

"Keys." The Elf sheathed the sword as if the men in front of him were no threat. The Elf gestured toward Grimshod's belt strap, where his brother kept a ring of keys.

When Grimshod stood, unmoving, the Elf raised his hand. Two Elves, their scaled armors glinting in the firelight, flew over the burning logs and landed, one on each side of the commanding Elf.

"Gwenho den!" One of the two whipped out a gray rope. The rope, thin and silvery, seemed to have a life of its own as it wrapped itself around Grimshod's hands and feet, binding them. Grimshod's heavy body fell onto the ground. The Elf took the keys and threw them into the air. Another Elf flew over the burning wood and snatched the key in the air. When he landed on the ground, he disappeared behind the structure where they held the prisoners.

"Please." Grimwine stepped forward to go to his brother. "Please don't kill him!" But before he could take a step, cold steel slid under his neck, stopping him from moving.

Grimwine threw a side glance at the Elven warrior who held a sword to his throat.

The tall Elf gestured, and the Elf warrior pulled back, sheathing his sword.

"You think you can just walk in here, take my people and exchange them for gold with no consequence? Even as I speak, bows are trained on you, and not the light bows you are used to."

The commanding Elf held out his hand, and an arrow came out of the darkness and split the handle of a spear Frumgar held in his hand. The man dropped the spear with the arrow still on its handle. He stepped back and away, his face pale.

The arrow that struck the handle of the spear was not the light arrows they had seen from the Elves. This one was longer, thicker, and tipped with steel, the kind that could easily penetrate leather armors.

Grimwine swallowed. Who said the Wood-elves were lightly armed and armored? Not even the wealthiest lords Grimwine had seen wore armors like these. The metal looked fluid, almost as if it was made of a sheet of water, yet it was scaled like bird feathers.

"Do not think this forest is kept safe only by the hunters, Grimshod. I spared your life and the lives of your men because my people that you are holding are uninjured. Had any of them been harmed, none of you would have seen the rise of the next sun." The commanding Elf turned his bright and burning eyes to Grimshod. "Who sent you?"

"Not talking to you," Grimshod growled.

Grimwine kneeled next to his brother. "We do not know. I swear, my lord. A man named Dernwulf was hiring men for a job for gold. We never asked questions. He said to bring him Elves. That is all we know. Nothing more."

"Shut up, Wino!" Grimshod shot him eyes full of daggers.

"And he provided you with the armors and gave you gold in advance?"

Grimwine looked up. Fear sat heavily inside his stomach. He nodded. What harm in telling the Elf. It was all they knew about Dernwulf.

The commanding Elf's eyes turned to him. Cold as the ice was his gaze, and Grimwine felt a chill spread down his spine. Then, the Elf turned to his brother.

"If you value your life, Grimshod, you will take your brother and your men and leave this forest and never return. What use is gold when you have no life? No warning will I give you the second time." With that, the commanding Elf gestured to the two Elves beside him.

The two warriors outstretched their right hands. Bright balls of light appeared, then flew forward, over the heads of the men. Grimwine watched with fear and wonder as the lights hovered, then it moved forward.

"Go now. Once the light reaches the end of the treeline, anyone whose feet still touch the floor of my forest will find the arrows of my archers in their throat."

As the commanding Elf said so, the two Elven warriors next to him took out their warbows from behind their backs and threaded them with arrows. Along with them, sounds of bows being moved came from the darkness of the forest.

"Leave! Now!"

As if the command set it off, the two lights picked up speed. Four more Elven warriors jumped over the logs with their bows drawn. One of them took away the rope that bound Grimshod.

Two of the Elves turned, aiming their bows on him and his brother.

Grimwine helped his brother up from the ground. They glared at the Elves warily.

The two Elves, who held their bows aimed at them, turned their bows upward. The commanding Elf pointed to the balls of the light which were moving steadily toward the outer limits of the forest.

"Let's go, Shoddy." Grimwine pulled his brother away, then followed the other men, keeping wary eyes on the Elves. They were out of their camp and had gone several feet from their campsite when as he glanced back, the fires burning at the camp suddenly went out all at once.

They were thrown into a deep darkness briefly until the two balls of light glowed brightly, illuminating the path before them.

"Where did they go?" Grimshod stopped to look back.

The Elves had disappeared as if what they saw was just a vision. The forest was eerily silent.

"Come on, Shoddy, let's go."

Just as Grimwine pulled Grimshod's arm, arrows fell, one after another, at their feet.

"They are trying to kill us," one of the men said. "They are going to shoot our backs."

"If they wanted to, we would all be dead," Grimwine said. "Look around you. None of you are hit. Let's just get out of here."

As if on cue, the two balls of light picked up speed.

OROPHER and the hunters watched as the balls of light stopped at the edge of the forest. The men who had been running were walking now as they reached the open area of the woodland where the trees thinned.

Pale daylight crept along the eastern horizon as Enthir and Cendir who followed the men all the way to the forest's edge gathered their lights and turned back.

"Think they return?" Mellontaur asked as he hopped over to the branch where Oropher crouched.

"Perhaps. But they will think twice before they venture here again."

"You certainly frightened them. How you know they brothers?"

"I did not. Just a guess based on their similar names and the way the leader allowed him to talk back to him." He turned to the chieftain. "How are the young ones and the hogs. Any injured?"

Mellontaur shook his head. "Young ones are well. Gelen is with his father. As for the hogs, some needed calming, but none injured." Then he laughed. "I didn't think we could do this without losing or injuring some." He shook his head. "All thanks to you, lord. I am grateful. I didn't think we would be able to deceive them. They looked like hardened men."

"Whether hardened or not, it is easy to deceive when you take away their senses. When people cannot hear or see well, their perception can be easily altered. They gave in, without a fight, because they believed they were hopelessly outnumbered."

"Ah, I see. The chaos and the confusion added to their misconception."

"Exactly. Their confusion and fear made them see what wasn't really there. Sometimes, our fears are our own worst enemy."

Mellontaur nodded. "There is much I should learn."

"Hopefully, you wouldn't have the need."

"Our forest peaceful for a long time, but men spread all around us now. And if they think we weak, then I fear that it wouldn't be long until they try again. Times are changing. We need to gather and come up with a way to protect our homes before we regret it. Next summer solstice, chieftains from all over Greenwood Forest will gather at Emyn Duir (Dark Mountains). If you did not get an invitation, I invite you to come with me to attend the meeting. I believe this matter needs to be discussed further."

"If the king will be in attendance, I shall be as well."

"The king? You mean Lord Amdir of Lorinand? He is not our king. In Greenwood, we look to our own. And most of us look to Lord Laegir."

"Lord Laegir? Is he not King Amdir's father-in-law?"

"Aye. Lord Amdir rules Lorinand with Laegir's daughter, and his son is the chieftain of the largest settlement in Greenwood Forest, the one on the slopes of the Dark Mountains. Please say you will come."

"I will think on it."

Oropher frowned. Amdir would not appreciate him going to some meeting of the chieftains, a meeting where Amdir was not invited, it seemed.

The translations below are from . I use this site and Parf Edhellen for most of my Elvish-related words and phrases:

Daro (Sindarin, Stop)

Gwenho den (Sindarin, tie him up)

Emyn Duir (Sindarin, Dark Mountains)—These are the tallest mountains in Greenwood. Later known as the Mirkwood Mountains, they are located in the heart of Greenwood Forest. This is also where Oropher moved the capital of his realm later when he was concerned with the rise of Sauron's power south of the forest.

Thunder and Lightning is my version of Shock and Awe. This particular maneuver where Oropher overwhelmed the enemy's perception by making them believe he had more manpower than he actually had is called Haitian or Potemkin move. Native Hatians used this tactic to fool the French military into believing that its forces were too large to fight against.

A/N: I really tried to fight my impulse to add these two new charcters: The Grim brothers. They will force me to add couple more chapters to this part of the story.

As some of you are aware, the focus of my story is on the Elves. The stories of Men will be limited to those stories that are entwined with the story of my four main POV characters. So, I will only lightly touch on Numenor. If you are interested in reading my version of Numenor, please read Amdir and Estel, the story based on Isildur's stealing of the fruit of Nimloth. (I haven't gotten around to posting it on fanfiction. It is on my AO3 site with same ID. Will get to posting it here-eventually)