It did not take us more than a few hours to reach the battleground. We smelt it before we even saw it. The stench was thick and reeked of death. The first thing we saw was the severed head of one of the Urak-hai stuck on a spear, its dead eyes watching us approach. I felt Idril shudder.

The Urak-hai corpses were heaped in a pile, parts of which were still smoldering. Gimli circled the heap and suddenly stuck his hand between two of the corpses and pulled something out. "It is one of the little one's belts," he said quietly.

Aragorn let out a strangled cry and kicked out at a piece of charred armor. In defeat he dropped to the floor. For several minutes we all were quiet and still. "Dead". Gimli muttered sadly. Idril put her hand on my arm. "I'm sorry." she whispered to me.

Aragorn straightened up and shook his head. "No, not dead! Look there are tracks, they wriggled away, hands bound till they reached here," he pointed to a point on the ground were two small ropes lay "they somehow got free, the tracks lead in there, to Fangorn forrest!" We all looked up towards the twisted trees that lined the outskirts of the forrest. "They say the trees are alive. It's a dangerous place." said Gimli. I felt a new resurgence of hope, if they had escaped then there was a chance they were still alive. "We must follow them, we may find them yet!" I said. We left the horses to graze and made our way in to the forrest.

We slowly crept through the undergrowth looking for signs that the hobbits had been there. Gimli swung his axe through the air twice grumbling. All at once I could hear the trees murmuring, they got louder and louder until the others could hear it too. "Lower your axe Gimli!" I hissed. The mummering died down again but I still felt uneasy. I strained my eyes to see if I could spot any sign of Merry and Pippin. A wave of fear passed over me when I saw the figure dressed in white emerging slowly from the woods. "What do you see Legolas?" asked Aragorn.

"Saruman the white approaches. Be ready with your weapons and do not let him speak or he will have you under his spell!"

We all raised our weapons, ignoring the trees angry murmuring and waited for the wizard to approach.

The light was almost pulsating off who we at the time thought was Saruman, we all squinted as it got brighter and brighter. The forrest around us was illuminated and looked like my home Mirkwood before evil overran it.

We all stepped forward to start the attack and stopped just as quickly. Aragorn yelped and dropped his sword that had turned red hot, Idrils sword flew out of her hands. I fired arrows that were batted away like they were no more than moths. Gimli's mouth fell open with shock, I do not think he really saw the point in attack when we had all failed. I tried to open my mouth to yell, speak or even whisper but no sound would escape my lips, I was paralyzed staring at the figure in white. As the wizard came closer, the light faded around his body and his face came in to focus. "Gandalf!" I heard Aragorn shout. I felt my body become looser and was able to smile at him. "I am no longer Gandalf the Grey, I am now Gandalf the White. I have seen your hobbit friends. Do Not worry they are safe and well." he said. Idril cleared her throat and nervously asked, "I know I probably should have asked this earlier but I didn't know if it was my business but now I have to ask, What is going on?"

We all sat and exchanged stories of our adventures until the sun started to set over the trees. "We will camp here tonight, we will travel to the King of Rohan tomorrow I only hope it is not too late." said Gandalf gravely. The others set up places for them to sleep. I did not, elves never sleep we have no need to. I instead sat down by a tree and drifted in to my thoughts.

Hours later I was snapped out of my trance by the sound of one of the others getting up and walking around. I turned and saw that Idril had awoken and was wondering away from the campsite. I got up and followed her.

"Idril these woods are dangerous you should not walk off alone."

"I'm sorry I just wanted some time to think. So much has happened over the last few days it doesn't feel real!"

"It won't be long before the war is over and the outcome is decided. One way or the other". I said bitterly.

"I suppose in the grand scheme of things I must appear so selfish. I'm trying to save one small minority of people when the rest of you are trying to protect the whole of middle earth."

"That's not true. It's all you know you can't help wanting to protect that."

"Can we talk about something else please if I think about it I know I'll only cry." she lowered her head and her shoulders started shaking gently at first then as she started crying harder and harder her shoulders shook more and more. I took her in my arms and gently rocked her back and forth making soothing noises in her ear. Her tears gradually subsided but neither of us moved. She tilted her head back, looking up in to my face. I gently brushed the tears away from her face keeping one arm around her and our bodies still pressed against her. My fingers moved from below her eyes and down her cheeks, down to trace the outline of her lips. My mind went blank except for the sight of her lips; my head lowered to hers and captured hers in a kiss. We devoured each other's mouths with our own, my hands in her hair, hers on my back. My lips moved down nibbling on her neck, her head fell back slightly further inviting me to keep going.

"Legolas." she whispered softly.

The sound of her voice had the same effect as a tidal wave of ice hitting me. I realized what I was doing was wrong. I was letting myself fall in to something I knew I could not get out of if I let it continue.

I jumped back from her and stepped backwards putting a safe distance between us.

"What's wrong?" she said softly.

"This. I can't do this."

She bit her lip and looked worried. "Why" she asked shakily.

"Because it was a mistake". I said in a harsh tone, more to convince myself than her.

"A mistake. Right. I see." Tears started to fall from her eyes again. She did not even seem to notice them she just turned and ran back to the campsite away from me.

I wanted to call her back, chase after her and apologize, kiss her again. But I could not bring myself to.