Kari passed the stables a week later and saw a few elves hovering over one of the horses. Her ankle had healed rather quickly much to her satisfaction. She decided to investigate what was happening inside the stables because it looked very odd. Upon closer inspection, she saw a dark brown horse was breathing laboriously and a thin trickle of blood was coming out of its nose. Her heart constricted. It was the horse Lord Elrond appointed to be the one she learned how to ride on since he was the gentlest horse. Since she had learned how to be a decent horseback rider, she used a different horse, but this one was the first one she had ever been on.

"What is wrong with him?" she asked one of the elves tending the horse.

The elf turned to Kari and looked at her sadly. "He is sick. It is doubtful he will survive," he answered.

Kari frowned deeply as she continued to watch the horse breath heavily. Life was too fleeting for mortal beings. She stood there as the other elves left the dying horse to see if they could find something to make his passing easier. She wanted to help, but there was nothing to do. Instead, she knelt down beside the horse and stroked its mane gently. It seemed to sooth the horse, but after a while the horse struggled, as though trying to fight off something. Its eyes widened with fright and he kicked his legs while lying on the ground, nearly bashing Kari's knee cap where she knelt.

"It isn't fair. Why should we die when everyone around us remains the same?" she whispered to the horse as it continued to struggle. "Fight. You are strong, you can fight this." She placed her hand on the horse's neck, wanting it to survive with all her heart. She looked into the horse's watery eyes and saw fear. She couldn't blame him.

Fight! she willed. She wanted him to be healthy again.

A light orange glow emerged from between the palm of her hand and the horse's neck. She panicked and removed her hand quickly. What was that? Did it come from her? Was it harming or helping the horse? She looked at her hand. It looked completely normal. It hadn't hurt her, but it scared her.

The horse had calmed down a bit and was now once again struggling to breath. Slowly, she placed her hand on the horse's neck again. Nothing happened. She sighed with relief. Perhaps the glow was just a figment of her imagination. Kari resumed her stroking of the horse gently. She hummed a melodic song she often asked Aragorn to sing to her as she brushed her fingertips over the horse.

But the horse's calm demeanor was once again replaced with struggles. Kari wondered fleetingly if the horse knew he was fighting certain death. She wanted to help him somehow. But all she could do was whisper to him to fight harder.

And then the glow did appear. And this time she didn't pull away. It wasn't part of her imagination. It was a part of her. She kept her hand there and looked into the horse's eyes. Be well, she willed. Suddenly she felt energy draining from her body through her hand and to the horse. It would not stop. More and more energy left her, making her more and more tired and scared. She didn't know what to do. She was panicking and tried to pull her hand away from the horse, but it was as though her hand was too heavy to remove. Finally she pulled her hand away from the horse's body and collapsed onto the ground. From the stable floor she could see the horse got up. As she watched him walk around the stable a bit, all signs of sickness gone, she realized her nose was bleeding and her body felt horrible.

What had she done?

That was her last thought before she blacked out.

She woke up in her own bed that evening. She immediately remembered what had happened to cause her to be in bed right then. The sick horse, the glow, the horse walking around. She panicked.

"Good evening, Kari," Lord Elrond said softly from the chair beside the bed.

"My Lord," she gasped, surprised because she had not realized he was there before hearing his voice.

"How do you feel?"

"Tired."

"Kari, do you remember what happened?" Lord Elrond asked as he moved from the chair to sit at the edge of the bed.

"The horse. He was sick. I touched him and he was…fine," she said.

Lord Elrond nodded. "Do you know how you did that?" he asked.

"I…I'm not sure. I wanted him to be healthy so badly. I wanted to help him," Kari explained.

"You seem to have taken on his symptoms," Lord Elrond commented. "Your nose was bleeding when they found you, but it quickly clotted."

"My Lord, what does all this mean?" Kari asked.

"It seems you are able to heal," Lord Elrond replied slowly. He looked at her critically, as though assessing how she would take this news.

Her mind, heart, everything lurched with surprise and confusion. "This is not the way I have been taught to heal," Kari said.

"Yes, I do not know how or why you have this ability. It is…unusual."

Kari inhaled, trying to calm herself. "What is to happen now?" she asked.

"It appears you have a gift. And you must now decide what you are going to do with it. But I must warn you, Kari, that there will be people who will want to take advantage of your abilities. You must be careful who you disclose this to. And you do not know your limitations. Healing the horse drained your energy so drastically that your body collapsed," Lord Elrond said.

Collapsed? Healing? Energy? Her mind would not stop racing. How could this happen? "I am scared, My Lord. I do not want this," she said, her voice cracking.

Lord Elrond smiled sympathetically and touched Kari's cheek gently. "We often do not choose the things that happen to us. What we can choose is how to move forward from them. But you cannot move forward if you refuse to acknowledge what has happened. You must accept that fact that you are different," Lord Elrond said.

Kari scoffed. One thing emerged clearly from the smoky confusion of her thoughts. "I am tired of being different. I am terribly aware that I am different. This is just another reason to add to the list," she said grudgingly.

"It is not a bad thing," Lord Elrond replied.

Kari did not respond.

Lord Elrond kissed Kari gently on the forehead. "Get some rest," he whispered.

She nodded obediently, but did not fall asleep.

"Come now, Kari, where is your stamina?" Legolas said harshly as they tumbled and ran from tree to tree the following morning. Kari was barely moving her feet anymore; she was too exhausted. Her usual light-footedness had disappeared within an hour of training and she trudged along as though her feet were shackled to each other.

"Please, Legolas, I am so tired," she heaved as she lagged behind him. She had not recovered from healing the horse the other day. Much to her dismay, she had awoken the morning after feeling just as tired as she felt the night before.

Legolas turned around and stared at the tired girl sternly. "Do you think that an enemy will care if you are tired? Do you think he will let you rest a while and regain your strength before fighting you? Before killing you?" Legolas asked, his voice harsh and commanding.

Kari bowed her head in shame. She knew it was silly to complain. Legolas never pushed her harder than he knew she was capable of. And she was usually capable of so much more than what she was doing that day. So, Legolas was pushing her.

She could just tell him about what happened the day before, and he would probably understand and be concerned for her well-being like he always was, but Lord Elrond's warning about who to disclose this new information to jarred her. Although she usually told Legolas everything, this was something she would keep to herself. It was for his own safety in the end. Was she not a liability now? Was she not something that would be coveted if the wrong people knew about her ability? This was what she had been thinking about last night before falling into a fitful sleep.

"Are you going to answer me?" Legolas commanded rather than asked.

"No enemy would do that. I am sorry for complaining," she said softly.

Legolas looked at her sternly one last time before continuing on with the exercise. Kari did her best to keep up with Legolas but continually faltered. By the time practice was over, collapsed on the field and fell asleep exhausted.

She spent anytime she had away from her apprenticeship and practice with Legolas at the library trying to see what she could find about this ability she had. She refused to believe this was the first time anyone had something like this. She refused to believe she was the only one cursed with something like this. Yes, cursed. This was not a gift. A gift would be something that made her happy, but this only made her tired, weak, miserable, and terribly resentful. She did not want the responsibility of having this ability – of saving life. She wanted to be normal, but normality was something she never had the privilege of having.

But the deeper she looked the more frustrated she became. Nothing similar was recorded, at least not in Rivendell. How could this happen? A freak accident at birth? Was it her mixed blood? No. She would find the answer. She would find out how to get rid of it as well.

All the implications of such an ability was too much for her to handle. Was she responsible for saving people now? Was she even able to save people? Were people going to start bringing their sick to her because they would want her to save them? She couldn't save everyone. She would feel guilty not being able to save everyone, so did that mean she should save no one? She couldn't handle this.

She slammed the book in frustration.

Author's Note: Aloha! In Maui and having a fantastic time. I haven't had the opportunity to update until now. I anticipate a lot of criticism from people about Kari's new ability, and that's okay. But I do have a reason for writing everything that I do. And I'm sure people will think she's a Mary Sue (esp. now if not before) and that's okay too. But alas, I have to write the way I see it. Also, I went to the website that's insulting my work and what I don't understand is that if my work is so god awful, why do people who hate my work torture themselves with reading it? If you don't like it, I'm sure there are other stories you would like to read instead of just tearing my work down. Also, I don't appreciate the personal attacks people make about me. You don't know me. You can criticize the work, but do not attack me as a person. To the rest of you guys, thanks for the support. I really appreciate it. It's so nice to see happy reviews, makes my day. Hopefully I will have internet access to update the next chapter soon. Kari is still going to be 15 in that chapter.