Tal heard the tree cracking from his truck as he rolled slowly down the road and resisted the urge to increase his speed and reach Seren's house faster. The road was all but gone in the feet of snow that blew across it and the wind pushed at him from different directions, nearly shoving him off the pavement. When he rounded the last corner and the cabin came into view, he nearly drove off the bend. He stopped for a moment and took in the sight of the tree that had been halved. One of the great pines was vertically split and the east facing half now lay in the yard. Several long branches were lying against the cabin. He also noted the absence of light from within his sister's home and looked again to where the power lines would have joined the exterior and his stomach dropped to see no sign of them or the pole they were anchored to.

He continued along the meandering drive and, after a doubtful glance at the trees straining under the weight of snow, he parked in the yard, closer to the trees that were protected by the mountain and thus were less burdened. Seren would complain about the grooves in the soil but it seemed a small penance for saving his truck. Besides, he knew he'd probably be helping her till it for flowers in the spring.

For a moment he wondered if he could convince her to grow lemongrass this year. It was a pain to cultivate in California unless done in late spring to early summer and well watered, but he loved cooking with it. Seren loved eating the food he made with it. He'd have to remind her of this when they went on their first nursery trip of the year. A sudden whistle from the wind shook his thoughts of an edible garden from his mind and he sighed at the view of the distance between his truck and the house.

After gathering the bag he'd brought with him, he pushed the door open against a gale of bitter cold and struggled free of the vehicle. The wind howled at him angrily, as if personally offended that he dared to be out in it. He breathed easier once he was shielded from the worst of it by the front porch.

He didn't knock. The scurrying he heard on the other side of the door told him Seren was busy and, through the window, he saw her rushing from a bedroom with a lit oil lantern. She was telling Legolas how the pipes would freeze if heat wasn't restored to the cabin while the elf followed her around.

"The central heater provides most of the heat but with the power out, it won't function. We have to light more fires to keep warm."

"I saw the tree that took out the power lines," Tal said as he entered the darkened kitchen.

His sister and Legolas stopped on their way to the next bedroom and looked at him. "Is it bad?" she asked.

"Half of one of the trees fell on the house. The lines are gone and I saw no sign of the pole."

Seren groaned.

"It'll be a while before you have electricity again. Why don't you stay –"

"No, Tal," Seren cut him off. "I'm not leaving my cabin to the elements. I have to keep fires lit or I'll return to a mess and I'm not leaving them to burn unattended or I may have no home to return to at all."

Tal sighed and dropped his bag on the table. "Yeah, I didn't think you'd go for it. How can I help?"

Seren shook her head at her brother but kept her retort back. "I need more firewood from the cellar."

She didn't wait for him to acknowledge her demand and continued to the next hearth.

Legolas followed her, watching her work for a moment. "You have an admirable brother," he said finally. "He only wishes to protect you."

The human didn't look at him as she wiggled the floo trap open and cold air rushed into the room.

"I know, but it's unnecessary. I'll be fine in the cabin if the fires are kept well-supplied. I'll need to run into town at the first opportunity and get more firewood, however."

A few minutes later, Tal arrived with a bundle of dry logs and set them down on the stone in front of the fireplace before heading to the next room and delivering a bundle there. "You're running low on firewood, sis!" He called from across the hall.

"I know, Taliesin!" She called back and started placing logs in the grate. "The great storm of the week was done yesterday, remember? I'd have bought more if I expected another whiteout."

"Seems odd," Tal said and returned to the doorway, watching Seren light the logs. "This storm wasn't on the forecast. And we've had far more snow than we usually get."

The room erupted in dancing orange light, making Legolas flinch. The flames were a far more agreeable luminance for him, than the unnatural lamps had been. "So this… electricity… what is it? You called it power, before."

Seren closed the screen to protect the room from flying embers and stood, thinking how best to explain. "It's energy. It's generated at a plant and delivered through long networks of cables."

Legolas frowned. "A plant makes this power? Is it a type of tree? Or flower? I would like to see such crop as this!" It was incredulous! A plant that made this thing called power and lit homes? He wondered if it glowed with light like the Two Tress in tales of old.

"No, not a plant that grows," Seren was quick to correct. "By 'plant' I mean a facility. It's a man-made structure. Fuels are burned there but the fires are used to spin turbines – great metal wheels with magnets on them. The motion between the magnets and the metal housing they turn in causes an electrical current to be generated and great metal coils made of copper absorb that current. It's carried to wires and travels along them and out to homes and other buildings everywhere."

Legolas blinked. "I don't understand. What manner of power is electricity?"

Seren sighed, and stared at her toes. How did one explain a concept to another who had no basis from which to understand? She stared into the flickering light on the floor as the wind howled outside and a thought struck her.

"You must have seen lightning?" She said, though she wasn't sure he would know it by the same name.

Tal gestured they should leave the room and went first. The elf followed with an incredulous look on his face.

"Of course, but only during fierce storms."

He stared at Tal's back as he opened the wood stove and put smaller logs inside and set them on fire.

"That's electricity," Seren said as she followed into the room.

"You have harnessed the light of angry gods? No one has such magic."

"It's not magic. It's engineering, science – there's no magic to it."

Legolas simply blinked at her.

"It's a force of nature, yes; but we've learned to generate it so we have no need to harness the lightning from the sky."

"It's difficult to accept such a claim. I cannot fathom how you even thought to attempt such a thing or how it is possible. The light of angry gods is unpredictable, wild and chaotic. Yet you claim to have mastered it so well you can make your own?"

Tal closed the wood stove with a clang and orange light flickered into the room through the grate as he stood. He looked at the elf and said simply, "Yes."

Legolas felt the room tilt again and pinched the bridge of his nose. He took a deep breath to clear his head before moving on to other questions.

Seren saw his lapse though and it worried her. His pallor greyed for a moment, as if a light inhabiting the flesh had dimmed and then returned, though ever so slightly faded. She kept the observation to herself for the moment as Legolas seemed to have found his tongue.

"You said fuels are burned to generate this… power?"

Seren let Tal continue the explanation with a wave of her hand. "Most plants burn coal or some other type of fossil fuel, some are nuclear –"

"It seems a lot of effort to make electricity," Legolas interrupted. "Why doesn't each home burn its own fuel for light and heat? Like this?" He gestured to the wood stove.

Seren ducked her head to hide her smile at her brother's dumbfounded expression. It was not unlike the argument she'd made a couple years past to Taliesin when she'd gone without power for a week one winter. She could manage without electricity, though it was nice to have in order to read or paint during the dark hours.

Tal, ever ready to impart whatever knowledge he possessed, tried to explain. "Not every house is built with fireplaces – some have none at all – and the need for firewood would lead to an unsustainable consumption of trees. Businesses, our places of trade, aren't designed to have fireplaces because fires are hazardous and the need for supervising and maintaining them is a cost that electricity eliminates. It's safer and allows for greater productivity."

Legolas stared wide-eyed at Seren's brother. "Not every home has a fireplace? Not even one? That's madness! And these… businesses; what kind of trade do they offer that they've no need of fire?" Every trade he could think of – smiths, bakeries, butchers – had need of fire.

Tal shook his head and scowled at his now openly snickering sister.

"I think, Legolas," she managed between giggles. "That this is something you'll understand only once you've seen it."

She glanced out the kitchen window and saw that the storm was dying down. Predawn was also upon them. "The sun will be up in a couple of hours. We should get some sleep. When we go into town, you will see for yourself what Tal is trying to say."

Legolas let her escort him back to the room he had first awoken in. Despite the many questions still churning in his mind, he knew he'd have difficulty grasping anything they said and would only be further agitated by the impossible things they told him.

"I must admit I'm unsure I'm not dreaming all of this." He sat on the bed and watched Seren throw another log on his fire. She stoked the embers under it until it caught and the room glowed brighter.

"I know." She looked upon him sympathetically and bent to place a hand on his shoulder. "You don't belong here," she said somberly when he looked at her. "I see it on your face when you're unwell. The dizzy spells you keep having."

Legolas stiffened at the mention of his weaker moments. He'd thought they were from his head injury at first but as they continued, they grew stronger rather than fading as his injury healed. Now that he'd felt the life draining spells several times, he knew his head trauma wasn't the cause.

"I fear this place is killing me." Whether it was the shadows draining his light or the absence of magic, he didn't know. He only knew that he was fading and it was happening faster as time wore on.

Seren gave his shoulder a squeeze and he looked up at her. "Tomorrow we will go to the clearing, see if we can't figure out how to return you to Middle Earth."

Legolas smiled sadly, though not without gratitude. The place he'd left was far less appealing than this little house in the woods but he needed to find a way home. "Thank you, Seren. But first, I would like to see the town you mentioned."

"Of course."

With one final pat, she released him and left the room, closing the door as she went. Legolas stared long at the fire in his hearth until the sky was just beginning to grey. He used to fire poker to flip the half burnt log over and tucked it deep into the embers before climbing under the covers and falling into a fitful sleep.

Sheriff Drecker wandered into the only morgue in Big Bear, cradling his coffee in frigid hands. The basement of the hospital seemed little improvement over the weather outside. "Alright doctor Sunney, whaddaya got?"

He stopped where the man was hunched over a corpse and jumped back a second later, his bored expression replaced by one of shock and then disgust.

"Good morning sheriff!" Sunney said brightly.

The sheriff clapped a hand over his mouth and pointed. "What is that?"

Sunney shrugged. "If I knew I wouldn't have consulted the federal medical records database."

"You did what?!" Drecker glared at him.

Sunney at least felt abashed enough to blush. "Yeah… I was contacted about an hour ago and told to have you here by six. They're sending agents to look at this."

"Oh that's just great!" Drecker glared at him for a long moment before looking again at the grotesque, bullet riddled figure on the slab. It stunk to high heaven, the skin was a dark grey color and the features were uneven and lumpy. It had no lips and barely enough cloth to call clothes covering its nether region.

"It was wandering the streets and some resident up the mountain called it in, scared half out of his mind and raving about it eating his dog. It came down from higher on the mountain apparently," Sunney said. "Officer Brown responded with Ty and said they couldn't reason with it – or him rather – and that they opened fire when he growled and ran at them swinging some rusty old blade. It took thirteen slugs before he stopped getting up. And... that was in his hands. X-rays indicate the rest is in the stomach." Sunney gestured to what looked like a canine leg, savagely torn to pieces on the bone but the white and brown spot pattern was definitely a match for Elias's dog.

The sheriff was stepping closer, daring to look again when the doors to the room swung open and six men in suits filed in.

The one that entered first held out his open badge bearing "F.B.I." on it and declared, "We need to see where you discovered this creature."

Legolas fiddled with the hair that covered his ears, frowning. It felt surreal to have his hair down like this. Seren refused to take him into town with his ears exposed. He could admit it was a sensible precaution. The humans here had never seen an elf and it would only raise questions. Still, he felt awkward with his blond tresses hanging loose. The hair concealed his ears admirably as long as he refrained from tucking it behind the pointed tips. The urge to do just that, however, was strong as the foreign sensation on the sensitive skin bothered him incessantly.

"Stop playing with it!" Seren said yet again from the front seat. She had to bite her cheek to keep from smiling when Legolas pointedly tucked his hands between his knees and tried to watch the passing scenery outside but didn't bother to hide his displeased scowl.

They were in Tal's truck and the roads were still snowed over so the trip was a slow one. Legolas wasn't used to being in the vehicle yet and it felt strange in his every limb to be moving without any effort on his part. The sound of engine turning over had startled him when he first heard it. He smiled to himself when he recalled that he had foolishly thought it sounded like some sort of animal and had prepared for an attack. He shouldn't have been surprised to learn these humans didn't use animals for anything either. Like the rest of this world, the oddity of the vehicle was a constant hum against his senses, but he was happy to be sheltered from the cold. A part of his mind couldn't accept the unnatural motion however, but he squashed it down because his curiosity was greater.

As the scenery blurred before him, his head began to feel strange again but it was unlike the previous times. Then he realized his stomach felt odd. "How much longer?" He suddenly couldn't sit still. His breakfast wasn't sitting well with him. He was sweaty and he had to keep swallowing.

Seren glanced at him, a laugh ready to answer him but her mirth died when she saw his colorless face. "Tal, pull over."

Taliesin started to protest but Seren raised her voice at him the second time, panic edging her tone so he stopped and set the brakes. She was out and halfway around the vehicle by the time he realized Legolas was about to be sick.

He scrambled out to open the door just as Seren came around and she tugged the elf toward the edge of the road where he retched pitifully. His eyes were wide, as if surprised with the phenomenon of being sick. Thankfully the road was not a well-traveled one and with the snow covering it, it was deserted save for them. Tal reached under the seat for a towel and bottle of water and handed them to his sister.

Being out in the air soothed Legolas's nerves and his stomach soon quieted. He took the water and downed a few gulps gratefully – noting but not caring that it also tasted strange – and accepted the towel to dry his mouth. "I don't think I like riding in an… automobile," he said shakily.

Tal chuckled nervously and scrubbed at the back of his neck. "It may take some getting used to. We're not far from town. If you prefer, you can walk. It's less than two miles from here." He looked at his sister who nodded and gave Legolas' shoulder a reassuring rub.

"I'll walk with you."

"And I'll drive along the road – slowly," Tal added.

Legolas looked from one to the other, feeling once again an incredible gratitude that the humans who had found him in this world were kind. "Thank you. I think I'd like that."

Drecker and the F.B.I. agents exited their vehicles and surveyed the road ahead of them. It was completely lost in the snow. Even the footprints of the creature that had been found here were gone.

"We were responding to a report of a suspicious figure out here," Drecker said to the agents as they walked deeper into the snow. "We don't know where he came from but he was reported by Elias Jones, one of the few residents higher up on the mountain."

"How high up the mountain is that exactly?" The agent in charge asked but didn't turn to address the cop. He scanned the landscape as if clues would just jump out of the snow.

"It's a few miles up this pass. It kind of boggles the mind that anyone could have made it that far down the mountain in the storm last night, without kicking over from the cold." Drecker thought it was a waste of time to try finding anything at this time. Even the blood and bullet shells from the night before were gone.

"Yes…" the agent agreed. "Very strange indeed."

The sound of an engine idling low and tires crunching the snow reached them and all six agents jerked up from their explorations and looked at each other. They didn't speak but seemed to be communicating all the same. Drecker shivered at their creepy behavior as they all stepped back from the bend simultaneously and slipped inside their black SUV.

The vehicle that appeared was one Drecker knew well. No one else in Big Bear had a truck that made his all-terrain SUVs look like remote control toys and Drecker's hackles rose as the dark blue monstrosity rolled right over what was essentially an investigation scene. He raised a hand for the truck to stop.

"Taliesin Evans…" He drawled as he walked up to the driver's window.

Tal lowered the glass and greeted the sheriff. "Good morning Drecker." He glanced at his rear view and saw Seren and Legolas through the trees as they walked in the tracks his truck made. Drecker saw them too when their voices carried to him.

"Hey there, Seren!" The Sheriff offered a friendly wave. She waved back and the person beside her awkwardly responded in kind a second later.

"So what brings you down the mountain? The roads are snowed over and half the town is closed," Drecker said.

"My power lines were taken out by the storm last night," Seren said, coming to a stop by the rear axle of Tal's truck. "I need more firewood if I'm going to keep my pipes from freezing."

Drecker glanced toward the agents hidden in their vehicle, thankful they weren't interfering. Yet… He looked at the blond man next to Seren and something about him made the cop want to stare. He was definitely a strange one – that much he could see – but he couldn't put his finger on what made him think so.

"Haven't you called the utilities to come out and fix the lines? It seems a bit odd to trek into town on these roads."

Seren smiled. He was being obtuse on purpose. "Come on, Drecker; you know they won't be able to get up here until the plow comes through and they'll clear the town first. It'll be days before I have power back."

"You said half the town was closed?" Tal asked.

Drecker raised his hands in a placating gesture. "Don't worry. Smith still opened his shop this morning. You'll be able to get your firewood."

"Oh good!" Seren breathed out a sigh of relief. Then a thought struck her. "Wait… Why are you out here Sheriff?" She took in the sight of the Sheriff's SUV and the other black SUV. She'd never seen it before.

Drecker pulled himself up as tall as he could stand – though he grumbled internally that he still barely came to Seren's nose. It didn't stop him from trying to come off as intimidating and important, however.

"This section of the road is part of an investigation. Last night your neighbor, Elias Jones called us about a suspicious figure lurking in his yard. He also reported his Great Dane, Bruce missing. By the time we reached this part of the road, it was snowed over."

"Did you find this suspicious figure?" Tal asked because it wouldn't be impossible that Elias called in a report rather than admit he left his dog outside to freeze to death.

"We did," Drecker said with a nod. "He came down the mountain, right through here, with… um…" Drecker swallowed and steeled himself. "He had one of Bruce's legs… and was… eating it."

Seren gasped and covered her mouth and Tal's eyes fell closed for a second.

"What did this suspicious figure look like?" Legolas spoke to Drecker for the first time since they'd stopped.

The cop regarded him warily. The stranger seemed far too interested for his liking. "I'm really not at liberty to say. We came back here to assess the night's encounter and this truck; Taliesin just might have rolled over important evidence."

Tal immediately apologized but Seren wasn't having that. "Why wasn't the road blockaded? Or an alert put out advising people it was closed?"

The cop chuckled without humor. "For one, Ms. Evans, these roads are impassible to everyone else. We weren't expecting any traffic through here. And two, we'd only just arrived when you came around the bend. Look, there won't be any trouble but I must insist that you not come back this way for a few hours while we look everything over."

"I have fires burning at home!" Granted they were purposely smothered in ash so that they burned low but she wanted to return before they went out and her cabin went cold.

"I'm sorry," Drecker said and he did mean that. "But we have to investigate this area."

"Seren," Tal called to her. It was a gentle admonition not to argue. Drecker could forcibly keep them away if he wanted and he didn't like the look of the other black SUV or the cop's use of 'we'. Something told him to just get away from this area. His sister's house wouldn't be helped if they were thrown in lock up for twenty four hours because the sheriff decided they were impeding an investigation.

Finally she nodded and turned to continue walking but Drecker stopped them again.

"I must admit, I'm curious as to why you're walking?"

Seren opened her mouth to answer but Legolas raised his hand. "It's my fault. I don't like traveling by automobile."

"It makes him sick," Seren added with a nervous smile, hoping the elf wouldn't say more.

"And you are…?" Drecker eyed the strange man again. His skin had an unnaturally pale complexion but it wasn't colorless. He would swear it was almost pearlescent. The evident injuries to his face also piqued his curiosity but they looked well along in healing so he didn't mention them.

"My name is Legolas Gr –"

"He's my friend from Montana," Seren added hastily. She tugged on the back of Legolas's borrowed coat, silently urging him to leave. "He's visiting."

Drecker thought that sounded unlikely but he had no good reason for his suspicions. "Do they not have cars in Montana? How do you get around?"

"On foot or horseback," Legolas answered as though it should be obvious. He couldn't understand why the reply made Seren groan under her breath, however.

Drecker brightened. "Oh! Do you live on a cattle ranch?" Being from Texas, the sheriff often waxed poetic about his youth at his uncle's cattle farm during his off time at the bar to any who would listen.

Legolas frowned, unsure what answer was expected of him. He nervously reached for his hair, tucking it behind an ear and then pulling it back as he remembered he was supposed to keep them hidden. Another tug on his back made him settle for simply agreeing. "Yes, a cattle ranch... We must go."

With that, he pivoted on a heel and strode past Tal's truck, continuing down the road.

"That boy's an odd one," the Sheriff said as Seren followed after her friend.

Tal shrugged. "Well, you know how it is, growing up on a ranch. There's nothing outside of that world. From sunup to sundown, life is about tending the herd. Legolas just isn't used to being away."

Drecker nodded and grunted his understanding. That was why he left after all. He clapped a hand on Tal's truck and sent him off.

The landscape before him made Thranduil's skin crawl. Behind him was the edge of the Greenwood – he refused to use the moniker his forest had been given when Sauron moved into his southern lands and turned the trees foul. Sadness swelled in his heart for a brief moment when he thought how very far any hope of restoring his realm seemed. He let go of the sentiment for the present as he had more pressing concerns. After two days of travel, he was about to leave his kingdom and enter a place that no elf could flourish in. In fact, some of his company had already been forced to turn back as the poisonous shadows made them too weak to continue. The influence of Morgoth's servant was strong here and many of the Silvan elves couldn't bear it.

Another of their inferiorities...

"My lord!" One of his royal guards called from a distance and began approaching him. He seemed almost eager.

Thranduil kicked his horse into a trot. The gait was wrong as he was used to riding his great elk but until another had reached maturity to replace its predecessor, he made do with an equine mount.

"Our scouts report no orcs in the area for the moment," his guard said when he was near enough.

"Then now is as good a time as any," the elvenking declared. He turned to address the company of his kin. "You all know my commands. We are entering orc territory to search for Legolas. It is hoped that he can be found and retrieved alive and well, but should you find him and he has been corrupted…" He paused to still his heart for his next words, hardly able to believe he had to say them. "You are to grant him the mercy of a swift and dignified end."

Thranduil swallowed hard against the imagery his words evoked and breathed deep. "Though he is my son; if he lost to us, he would not wish to be made to serve the Enemy. He would die rather than slay his kin. Any orc you meet you are to kill on sight. Be always on your guard. This is their land and you will find no second chances here."

Every elf around Thranduil clapped a fist over their heart and bowed slightly, each one heartily willing to give life and limb to rob the orcs of their prize and thwart their plans. There wasn't an elf alive that didn't relish foiling the Orcs. Thranduil took comfort in that. If some never made it back to the kingdom, he knew their deaths would have purpose.

The four who had gone with Haavelass were sitting quietly to his left and he turned to them now, his expression still as stone and equally as cold. "Lead the way."

They commanded their mounts to move and Thranduil followed behind as the group cantered to the front of their company and began the trek into outer reaches of Gundabad.