Seren arrived in her yard to see her brother's tall form through her kitchen window. She burst into the cabin and Taliesin's cheerful greeting died on his lips when he took in the state of her: muddy feet, pants soaked with snow halfway to the knee, small scratches on her pale face, loose pine needles in her dark red hair and without a coat.

"Seren? What happened to you?"

She didn't answer but gestured for him to follow. He all but threw the cup of tea he'd been cradling into the sink in his haste to do so.

He caught up to her, almost clipping her heels with his boots and again asked, "What's going on? Where's your coat?"

She shook her head, her breath still coming fast and deep from her run. "I'm fine." Really, she had been incredibly lucky not to have slipped and hurt herself. In hindsight it seemed a foolhardy thing to have done. She went to the storage room in the back of the cabin and began rummaging. "Help me find the litter."

Tal blinked at her. "What do you need that for?"

She stared at him. "Questions later. Look." Breathing was becoming less of a hardship as her pulse began to slow. "I'm going to put together some first aid supplies – did you drive your truck here?" She strode out to the bathroom across the hall and started taking out things she thought she might need.

Tal continued searching for the transport rack, trying not to ask more questions. "With the way the roads are? Do you need to ask?"

"Oh good!" She called out and then suddenly shouted, "Blankets!"

Tal glanced back to see his sister dash from the bathroom, her arms ladened with gauze, pressure bandages and antibiotic ointments. He went back to searching for the litter, mumbling about the weight of the old typewriter he had to move out of the way.

Dumping her cargo onto her bed, Seren fetched a satchel to carry it all in. She met Taliesin in the living room, dragging the litter out the front door and plucked another coat for herself from the foyer closet.

"Now will you tell me what's going on?" He took to the stairs of her front porch, tossing a look at her as she closed and locked her house.

Once everything was in the pickup's bed, they climbed into the seats and he turned the engine over. When Seren told him they were going to her usual clearing, he balked.

"Not even my truck will go all the way up there, Ren. I know you think I can work miracles but there are things even I cannot do," he said in his most patronizing Big Brother voice.

She hated it when he used the nickname that way. "I'm serious, Tal! And I didn't say we were going to drive the entire way. I wouldn't have asked you to get the litter if I thought you were that amazing."

Taliesin sobered a bit at that. "No need to be hurtful…" He muttered as they headed onto the road. The path that led up the mountain wasn't far and as he turned onto it and started up, he asked, "So obviously we're going to retrieve someone… who is it?"

"I don't know him. He said his name was Legolas."

At this, Tal almost stopped the truck but it skidded on the slippery incline so he had to continue driving forward.

"We're going to pick up some strange guy we don't know?"

"He's badly wounded, Tal. It'll take emergency crews too long to get here. Most of the roads are still closed after last night's snowfall." As it was, she'd already been away for nearly thirty minutes and it would take longer to drive through the terrain than she did running over it and still more time to hike the rest of the way. First responders would still be demanding answers from her over the phone before dispatching a truck that would take hours to get through. Big Bear didn't have the budget for many snowplows or a helicopter and the most populated areas were cleared first. Most people didn't go this far up the mountain.

Taliesin had more questions but the road was treacherous and he didn't dare ask them while he had to concentrate on driving in such conditions. When they finally reached the end of the paved road, he sent Seren out to chock the tires of the truck so he could set the engine brake. To further ensure his pickup wouldn't slide back down the slope, he used the winch and cable to anchor it to a set of thick pines.

Seren had the litter out and open and covered in blankets by the time he was done so they immediately set out, following the tracks she'd made in the snow earlier. Speaking was difficult as the terrain made breathing a chore so the hike was a quiet one.

When they came to her clearing, Legolas was still lying where he'd been left. Seren wasted no time, setting the litter down next to him and again checked his vitals for signs of life. His pulse was more difficult to detect and his breathing was shallow now. Too much time had been wasted. Seren tipped him sideways and lifted the blankets to fit the litter under the prone form. Tal helped roll the man onto it and they strapped him down.

Then he noticed the odd clothes, weapons and pointed ears.

"Jesus Ren…"

She just nodded. "I know… I know. Let's just get him to the truck, ok?"

Tal nodded. "On three."

Carrying the strange man who called himself Legolas back to the truck took longer than Seren and Tal had hoped it would. A bitter cold breeze had started up and drew clouds in, making their way darker and

more precarious. At times, the wind blew hard enough that they had to stop and just brace themselves and the weight they bore against the wind until it passed. Fresh snow began to fall when they finally came close enough to see the beams of the truck's headlights. Tal had left them running to guide them in the dark and Seren was grateful for his foresight.

They hefted Legolas into the pickup's bed and Seren grabbed the satchel of first aid supplies, hopping in the back with him. Tal almost protested but he knew his sister couldn't tend the man's wounds on the drive back any other way. And she wouldn't listen to him if he tried to dissuade her, so he unsecured his truck and drove very carefully back down the mountain.

Haavelas stopped his company at the edge of a clearing and the elves took shelter behind trees and rocks as a group of orcs passed through the expanse of dead grass and black stone before them. When they were gone, he motioned for his kin to come near.

"This is the very edge of the forest," he said with a gesture at the rocky landscape beyond. The greenish hue of the sky ahead churned and the wind coming from that direction carried foulness they all had trouble enduring. It was the land of orcs, one of their greatest strongholds. Gundabad laid just a few hectares beyond.

"None of you are being commanded to follow me into this wretched land," Haavelas said. "I will go, even if I must go alone. You know our king's command. To follow me would surely mean exile."

An elf by the name of Caireann stepped forward. "No sign of Legolas has been discovered in all our searches of the forest," she declared. "The king wants him found so desperately and will banish us all in turn for failing to do so. How can I not go with you?" She bowed her head, fist clenched on her chest.

Others began to step forward as well, first two and then four until every one of them had made the same pledge as Caireann and repeated her words, "How can I not?"

Haavelas smiled at them, both heartened by their words and saddened as the burden of bearing responsibility for their fates settled on his shoulders. "We go forward then." He turned toward the barren plains of Gundabad and began the journey into the orc stronghold.