Leo pushed his way through the crowd and opened his locker. He zipped open his bag and started tossing the textbooks he didn't need onto his shelf. His bow and quiver sat at the bottom of his locker, next to some of his binders.

"Hey."

"Oh, hey, Aaron. What's up? How'd you get down here so fast?"

"I literally threw everything into my locker," he explained. He looked into Leo's locker and saw his bow. "When's the next time you're going to play with that?"

Leo grabbed his recurve bow and quiver of arrows and slammed his locker shut. "Right now. You coming?"

"Sure, if you'll come with me to get mine in my locker."

Grumbling, Leo agreed and followed Aaron to his locker. Aaron looked at him cockeyed as he picked up his own compound bow and arrows.

"You okay, man? It looks like you were handed shit today."

"I was. Motherfucking supply teacher for my goddamn homeroom just wouldn't fucking leave me alone! Then, in math class, that asshole, Jack, and his stupid gang of Neanderthals kept flicking shitty pieces of paper at me. On top of all that, my motorcycle hasn't come in yet!" Leo ended his rants with a huff.

"You ARE in a bad mood," Aaron commented as his shut his locker. "I haven't heard you swear like that since that big fight in grade 8."

"That's why I want to do some shooting. It calms me down enough so I don't have to go psycho on someone."

They made their way to the field next to the forest and began taking shots at the targets that were available in the equipment locker. They had each taken five shots when a girl sauntered onto the field.

"Hey, Leo!" She called to him as she came closer. He looked over and saw that it was his cousin, Aiden Evans. Good genes must have run in their family because she was also a vision of loveliness. Her wavy brown hair, which she often wore down, fell down her shoulders and flashed in the sun when she shook her head. Whenever Aiden was around, Aaron would suddenly get a little nervous and stumbled over his words.

"Aiden! Long time since I saw you around school," Leo greeted. He let his arrow fly from his bow. "Bull's eye. So, what do you want?"

"How very nice of you," she said sarcastically. "No small talk, even though I'm your ever-loving cousin." Leo laughed at he pulled back his string and took aim. "I just came here to watch you two shoot."

"That's it?" His arrow flew through the air.

"And your mom wanted me to tell you that your BMW's ready to be picked up. She tried calling your cell, but it wasn't on."

"That might've caused a bit of a problem," he chuckled.

"Hey, Leo," Aaron called. "We got company."

Jack and his gang, including Boris, were strutting towards them across the field. Boris was looking particularly sullen and worried as he walked on the grass. His eyes kept on darting from one side of the forest to the other, like he was expecting something to jump out of it and attack them at any time.

"Well, well, well," Jack sneered. "If it isn't one of Santa's elfs and his associate." Aiden caught his eye. "Hey, baby. How'd you like to hit it harder and faster than these two wimps?"

She looked at him as though he was unidentified slime on her shoe. "Like you'd be able to get that far," she shot back.

"Ooh," the crowd groaned. Every pair of eyes in the area turned to Jack to see what his reaction was. His jaw was tight, his eyes were narrow with anger and his fists were tightly balled. His short temper had been triggered after a long day of stress and everyone could tell that nothing was going to stop him.

"Don't think I'm going to go easy on you just because you're a girl," he growled. He drew his fist back to throw a punch, but Boris wasn't fast enough to stop it like last time. Instead, Aaron jumped in front of Aiden and took the blow.

Everyone stood still for a moment to fully register the situation. Jack, eager for a fight, just delivered a right hook to Aaron, one of the weird kids who nobody knew anything about. Everyone stayed where they were to see the end of the inevitable fight.

"Didn't your mom ever tell you to never hit a lady?" Aaron panted. He squared his shoulders and put up his fists.

"The pretty boy wants to fight," crowed Jack. "All right. Just don't crying to your mommy when I rearrange that face of yours."

Just like that, a fistfight broke out between them. Jack had the upper-body strength of a decent football player and had a mean punch, but he lacked the speed and agility to make him a good fighter. Aaron didn't have strength like Jack's, but his feet were quick and reliable, and his fists were fast and hard. At any given time, Aaron landed a rapid succession of hits before Jack knew what had happened.

Leo stood a few meters away from the brawl, watching. Aiden came and stood next to him.

"Aren't you going to stop them?" she shrilled. "He's going to get seriously hurt."

He scoffed. "No. I've done more damage to Aaron lots of times before. Anyway, the Jackass needs a good pounding to teach him a lesson."

A noise in the forest attracted his attention. As an instinct, he slid an arrow in his bow with lightening-fast reflexes. He pulled back his bowstring when he heard a distinct growl and clink of something on metal. He started to back away from the forest.

"Aiden. Get away from the fence. Don't make any sudden movements," he instructed. They both backed away slowly to the fight. The bushes rustled violently with faint screeching and growling behind it. All of a sudden, the shrubbery exploded and two vicious, spindly creatures destroyed the metal fence with their tearing claws.

Screams shook through the air around them as everybody scattered across the field. Aaron and Jack stopped fighting to see what was making them run away and they froze with fear when they saw the menacing beasts. Aiden clearly wanted to run away, but she couldn't bear to leave her cousin and Aaron in the clutches of the demons.

"Go, Aiden," Leo ordered. The creatures advanced towards them. "We'll be all right."

"But--"

"GO!"

She turned around and sprinted down the turf. The sudden movement attracted one of the creatures and it went screeching after her. The other one stayed back and hungrily eyed Aaron and Jack.

Leo took careful aim with his bow and released the arrow into the air. It whistled as it soared through the air and the arrowhead impaled the creature's body. But, it didn't die. It emitted a high-pitched shriek and turned to face Leo. Automatically, he drew another arrow and pulled back his bow.

But, before he could let it fly, the creature leaped through the air and positioned itself so that it fiendish feet would slice Leo into ribbons. Leo just as quickly took aim and released another arrow. It pierced through the creature's skull and it fell to the ground in a heap. It writhed in contempt until all the evil life had drained from its body.

Leo turned his attention to Jack and Aaron, who were having trouble with the remaining monster. Jack lay dead, eyes and mouth half-open in frozen terror, with his blood spilling onto the grass around him. Aaron was parrying the fiend's blows with a scrap piece of metal from the destroyed fence. He held the metal rod in his hands like an expert swordsman, although Leo had never seen him take sword lessons.

Aaron beat the monster to the ground and stood back from the body, panting and sweating. He saw Leo in the distance, horror and grief in his eyes. He didn't notice that the beast that he beat with the metal pole wasn't dead and was preparing to make a final surprise attack.

Boris noticed this as he looked out from around his hiding tree. He ran out, without thinking, to protect Aaron.

"Aragorn, look out!" he yelled. He pushed Aaron away from that spot just as the monster jumped up and buried its claws into the being in front of it. Boris was thrown onto the ground with the creature on top of him, claws deep into his chest. With a victory cry, it pulled them out, red blood dripping from its claws. A whistle came and an arrow appeared through the creature's head. It keeled over, off of Boris, dead.

Aaron ran to Boris' side, hoping that he might make it. Leo started running to them.

"Don't-don't worry, man," Aaron stammered. "The doctors will be able to get you back together, j-just hold on."

"No, Aragorn," Boris gasped. "It's too late. I can feel it. They won't be able to help me."

Leo arrived on the scene as he said those last words. "What? What do you mean? Don't give up, man! Hang on, they'll be here soon."

"No!" He coughed up blood. "My friends. Let me leave with a promise from you. Especially you, Aragorn." They both nodded. "Find the Horn of Gondor and The White Tree. Promise me that you'll do that."

Aragorn appeared in Aaron's mind for this important event. Aaron felt his wisdom, humbleness and virtue of him. When he appeared, for the first time in his life, he felt complete. It was like he was born with a missing piece of his soul and he had found it in the new being that was present.

"Boromir," Aaron, as Aragorn, solemnly said. "I give you my word, brother. I promise I will find the heart of Gondor again."

"And I'll help him," Leo added. "With any way that I can."

Boromir smiled weakly and chuckled. He looked up at the blue sky and left the mortal world once more.

In the distance, Leo could hear sirens coming to the school. He left Boromir's side to stand up and he could see the flashing red and blue lights of the police cars.

"Cops are coming," he said simply. "Staying or going?"

Aaron paused on the ground and blessed Boromir's soul into the next world. "Going. I have a feeling that we'll cause more trouble by staying. Let's go through the woods."

Aaron led him through the forest at a remarkable speed and with amazing silence. Aaron didn't take his quiver of arrows with him, so that obviously made his traveling easier, but Leo was always the swifter one of the two of them. It puzzled Leo as the went through the bushes.

"What's the matter, Legolas?" Aaron asked him as he had to catch up with him for the sixth time. "You were never this slow before. The forests were always places you outran me. But now..." He gained distance ahead of Leo again. "Now, you seem like you don't know where to walk. It's impossible for you, of all Elves, Legolas, to forget how to walk in a forest."

"What are you talking about, Aaron? I don't usually take strolls through the wild parts of the woods. And why are you calling me 'Legolas'?"

Aaron stopped walking right on a rock. He turned around to face him. For a fleeting moment, he looked straight into the eyes of a pure nobleman, not another teenager. Aaron frowned and shook his head.

"I don't know," he said pensively. "But is seemed so right..." He turned around to resume walking and immediately tripped over a large root. Cursing, he picked himself up and continued to walk through the foliage.

Leo let his feet guide him as his mind drifted off into his own world. He turned over the peculiar name in his head several times, like he was handling a forgotten family heirloom. It was new and exotic, yet old and familiar to him. Each time he thought of it, the name wrapped itself around him, stimulating his sense and disturbing a feeling inside him. Whenever it did that, he could almost feel the life of the forest. He could almost hear the trees talking to each other. Each time, he sensed a deeper spirit that lived in the forest.

"Leo."

Aaron's voice brought him away from his thoughts. The trees' voices were gone. The ancient spirit couldn't be sensed anymore.

"We're home."

They each went to their own homes, which were less than a block away from each other. Leo didn't hear his mother scream with relief when he came through the front door. Nor did he feel the tears of joy his parents laid on him as they hugged him. He could only hear a name in his ears and he could only feel a hidden part of him that nobody knew about.

Legolas...