Despite the pleas and exasperation of his court, Legolas threw his cloak around his shoulders and over his archery equipment. After the Stargazer's premonition and the strange things he had seen, he was determined to find out if his fate was indeed written out for him in Mirkwood.
But, many members of his court had learned that leaving the Prince out in the wild forest alone and armed with his equipment usually spelled danger in the future.
His jaw was set determinedly and he set out of his castle as silently as he could. Arrows in his quiver rocked gently across his back, the sounds muffled by a silk lining. Once outside, he strung his bow and ran across the white snow into the dark forest.
It was another cloudless night over Mirkwood with a half-moon throwing silver swords of light through the clawed branches of the ancient trees. The wind blew a bitter breeze through the land and whipped his cloak around him. It was quiet, with only the wind's voice whispering through the forest.
Suddenly, a bird took off from a branch on high.
Legolas gasped, looking towards the skies for the culprit and saw black wings flapping into the moon.
"A raven…" He said softly to himself as the silence descended upon him once again and he kept walking across the snow.
A chill ran up his spine when he realized that there were no overhead outposts in the area that he was walking through. It was considered still to be too dangerous to go through that area. Beasts, spiders and other creatures that lurked in the shadows were rumored to thrive there.
From underneath the hood of his cloak, he could sense that something was watching him from the depths of the forest. Feeling drawn away into the night, he stopped walking and looked around carefully.
The warm lights of the Elvish castle could barely be seen even with his sharp eyesight. Clouds slowly drifted across the moon and stars, dancing with the shadows beneath them. All around him was nothing but trees without any life: ravens, spiders or otherwise.
Safety was behind him, determination was with him, but a mystery wrapped in shadows was before him.
Risking all he had, Legolas continued to walk through the forest in the direction of the raven's flight. As soon as he could, he climbed up a tree and made his way through the branches.
After a couple hours of pushing through the thick foliage of the canopies, he glimpsed something that he knew didn't belong in his kingdom.
As quietly as he could, he ventured closer to it, seeing only a part of it. Smooth, scaly and brilliantly silver, it looked to have been about a meter above the ground, though the trees hid the rest of it.
As though it sensed that that he was nearby, it slithered away from him with agility that was almost impossible in the thick brush of that section of the forest.
A chase! Hypnotized, Legolas ran after it, jumping down to the ground for an easier path. The trees grew denser as the chase progressed, limiting his sight on the creature even further to mere flashes of brilliant silver in the patches of moonlight.
Just as the trees began to grow thinner, the glimpses of silver stopped appearing, leaving him without a path.
Skidding to a stop, he tried to get a bearing on where he was. From his surroundings, he could tell that it was an area where Elves rarely tread, most likely due to the thick trees and the high threat of spiders. This thought sent a shiver up his spine.
If he could not find what he was looking for fast enough, he could very well be trapped in and be killed.
Silence pressed against his ears and his senses heightened as his adrenaline rushed through his veins. Warily, his hand reached up behind his shoulder and touched the handle of his white knives.
A flash reflecting a moonbeam caught his eye! A white knife flew out of its sheath and streaked through the air in his hand. A metal on metal clash rang through the night, followed by a dull thud on a tree.
He ran as fast as he could to the thing that hit the tree, cloak whipping out behind him. He could hear three more things fly through the air and tear through his cloak.
He dived behind a tree, quickly yanking out the protruding silver out of the tree and looked at it in the cover of the branches.
Slightly bigger than his palm, it was a shiny silver five-pointed star with finely sharpened edges. Small, sleek and designed with slightly curved edges, it could clearly slice through the air and into its targets with immense power and accuracy. Tiny inscribed symbols made of small lines in elegant patterns sat at the base of each point of the star surrounding a twisting snake that looked like it was spiraling in the clouds.
Just out of the corner of his eye, Legolas saw a cloaked figure leap out of a nearby tree and withdraw two small weapons from within the cloak, diving to him.
He dodged around the tree just in time to see a thin metal prong explode into the trunk, exactly where his neck was an instant before. He ran back to the center of the small clearing with his own knives now fully bared. The silver star dropped from his hand into the snow at the same time the figure rushed out at him.
Hand-held, three-pronged metallic weapons slashed through the winter night at him. Using his agility and balance, he parried each blow that came to him with his knives.
Metal on metal clashing rang and echoed into the trees. Blow for blow, they struck and blocked each other, seemingly matching each other's strength.
The cloaked figure suddenly twisted around Legolas and, being shorter and faster, took him off-guard. The tip of the middle prong of one of his opponent's weapons bit into the back of his cloak, tearing into his tunic.
Rushing away by reflex, he kept a fair arm's length away from this opponent and threw his cloak off onto the snow. Luckily, only the hem of his sleeve was torn and got caught on the prong so he simply tore the sleeve off his arm, letting the cloth float down to the snow on top of his cloak.
The figure paused as Legolas' sleeve rippled down and moonlight struck his bare arm.
Without his cloak, Legolas could move much more easily and swiftly. He attacked with his knives with such speed and force that his opponent was merely blocking his blows with everything they had.
"You're holding back," he whispered in their ear when their blades got caught with each other and they struggled to get free. "Whoever you are, you trespassed into my kingdom and led me out here by some witchcraft. You will not escape from me."
He was suddenly pushed away in a surge of high emotion. A questioning thought fleeted across his mind for an instant before he twirled his knives and further attacked.
This time, his opponent couldn't – or at least, didn't – react quickly enough and the white knives found their target.
A small spurt of red blood sprayed out from the collar of the moving figure and their cloak now drifted down, near Legolas' own cloak.
Because of his acute warrior's reflexes, a second strike came upon his opponent before he could stop himself and instantly regretted it.
The figure yelped at the blow and fell back into the snow. A tear made by Legolas across the front of the silken black shirt barely concealed what was needed to be concealed. Two long, black braids sprawled from their head across the silver-white snow.
Legolas froze where he was standing when he realized that he was fighting a woman. Furthermore, he was quite aware that she was still wielding her weapons and she wasn't moving where she lay. He could see her blood slowly pouring out of the wounds that he had caused by his hands.
"My lady?" He asked tentatively as he sheathed one of his knives and cautiously moved towards her.
She lay across the snow with her legs sprawled across each other and her arms relaxed in front of her. She was clothed unlike any other that he had ever seen before in Middle-Earth. Her gray-brown leggings were made of a thick but soft material like cotton and her boots were made of leather in a fashion that reminded him of mountains grazing the clouds in the sky. A shoulder armor plate protected her left shoulder and breast under her robe-like shirts.
Knife gripped tightly in his left hand, he made his way around her to approach her from her back. Guiltily, he noticed the snow slowly turn red and sheathed his knife before kneeling down behind her.
When she didn't react, he put his hand on her bare arm, gently shook her and said, "My lady, you're hurt…"
With surprising force coming from a small build such as hers, she whirled her body around and pinned him to the ground with one leg on each side of his waist and her weapons thrusting towards his chest.
He grabbed her wrists, stopping his death, and looked at her face.
"… You're crying," he said gently.
Tears fell from her dark, almond-shaped eyes and rolled down her face, framed by strands of jet-black hair that had come loose from their battle.
She resisted against him for a moment but slowly stopped. She sobbed, unable to look at him and let her blades slip from her hands into the snow around them.
"Is that what I truly am, then?" She talked in a soft accented voice with a tone that echoed years of pain in her heart. Her tears continued to fall and sparkle in the light of the moon. "Everyone says that I am, so does that mean that I am…?"
Legolas managed to bring her into an upright sitting position in his lap while slowly sitting up himself to talk to her properly. He asked with deep concern in his blue eyes, "What do they say?"
She looked straight into his eyes with a shadow of the anger he had sensed before and said, "A witch. Even you, who tries to comfort me, accused me of witchcraft!"
"I… I apologize," he said with wide eyes and sincerity, "I did not mean to offend you in such a way that would cause such pain to you."
She said nothing but put her face in her hands and broke out in tears once more. She shook like a leaf in the springtime morning as he gingerly held her in his arms, trying to comfort her.
"I am Legolas, son of Thranduil, who is the ruler of this Elven realm of Mirkwood. Please, allow me to extend my hospitality to you for causing you such pain." When she didn't reply, he asked her gently, "What is your name?"
"Arashi," she whispered, head on his shoulder, "Long Arashi of the Xing Long sect. But why do you want to bring me into your home? I may be evil and wish to destroy you and your people."
"I do not believe so."
She pulled back and looked at him, puzzled. Only sincerity and kindness showed through his eyes as he smiled at her. She returned a small one of her own.
"Thank you… Legolas."
Arashi's eyes closed and she fell forward into his arms, limp. He caught her, startled and saw that his left arm was covered in her blood. Looking at her, he noticed that pointed ears were peeking out between the curtains of her hair.
"Arashi…!"
A/N: Okay, I edited some parts of this chapter because I realized that some parts were just horribly written and seemed way too much like a Mary Sue.
Please hope with me that she will not turn into a Mary Sue.
