Their journey to the Palace would not have taken more than three hours if the horses had not stopped dead from time to time, sensing the dangers hidden in these woods. They were very difficult to calm down. The Noldor and Galadrim soon became nervous, too: though they said nothing, Amariel could clearly feel the tension in the air around them.

Only the twins, the sons of Elrond, seemed more delighted with the mysterious forest than frightened. It was not surprising that the forest first turned it's full and undivided attention to them.

- Did I hear something? - one of the twins looked back warily.

- Something like a voice? - Legolas asked. - Ignore it, please. And don't turn around, for everyone's sake.

- And if you turn around and see something that can't be, don't go to it, - Amariel continued, recalling the rules that had long seemed obvious to her.

- Even if it calls you, - Sellian said.

- Especially if it somehow knows your name? - lady Celebrian asked tensely.

- Right, - the three grinned together.

They walked on in silence.

Amariel couldn't tell exactly when she sensed that they were being closely watched. It started with a thread-thin sense of unease, but it grew until she almost lost her composure in a fit of anger and panic. The farther they went from the border, the darker the forest became. The further they went from the border, the more intently the eyes of others were fixed.

She ignored the eyes, the voices, as she always did. If you ignored them, your chance to survive was much higher. But ignoring didn't help that time.

She quickly lost contact with the king, and the trees refused to transmit messages. It was bad. Especially bad if you considered the presence of those who were not familiar with this place.

- Legolas, - she said to her brother very quietly, - does father feel this?

- I can't say, - he shook his head. - The voices keep me from listening.

The next second, he ordered everyone to stop.

- Lady Celebrian, let the horses go, they will find their way to our friend Beorn. I'm afraid you'll have to defend yourself with all your might.

- What will we have to do? - someone said in surprise. Amariel followed the direction of the sound and narrowed her eyes warningly at Arwen Undomiel:

- Hide. We're surrounded.

-I'm pretty sure the site will remove special characters, so just know that another passage starts here-

The arrow was fired without any hesitation, when she found out one of them, and reached it's goal.

The enemy's arrows were fired at the same time. Obeying Sellian's order, the wood elves grouped and closed their shields, leaving only Amariel, Legolas and Sellian as the most experienced warriors unprotected outside. There were so few of them against their brainless but incredibly strong opponents.

They were about three dozen of orcs. Standard situation. What are two dozen out of twenty thousand?

- Marie, up! - Legolas ordered. His bow had been snapped in half, and now he couldn't shoot from the trees. She had to take his position.

No matter how many times Legolas practiced close combat, Amariel was always afraid for him. Because it wasn't his usual job. He had to shoot from above, just as she had to get as close to the enemy as possible so that she could easily drive the sword into their heart. But that day, everything went wrong.

Her arrows hit live targets from above, but not as accurately as necessary. Legolas and Sellian desperately tried to break through the surprisingly strong armor.

She was not entirely aware of what was going on around her, but the other warriors had also been forced to scatter across the battlefield, leaving both the Noldor and themselves almost defenseless. And soon there was black blood everywhere.

But everything ends, and this battle has found its end. They needed to move on as quickly as possible, but they were all too tired and had trouble keeping their feet. Legolas counted his warriors, one of whom was wounded in the shoulder and one other was scratched; terrified lady Celebrian and her elves were also hastily checking to see if all were safe.

- Wait! Where's Arwen?