"Elrond!" The druid called out to him pulling him out of his trance.

He wasn't sure but it was better to die in the hand of the man that stood before him like a human with his words that we're unbelievable than these creatures. His heart thudded against his chest, knots upon knots, the terror was too incessant and mixed with the pain of not being able to do anything to save his father that if he had gone hungry for months he won't realize the need for hunting anymore quickly he grabbed the man by his wrist.

The light glowed so brightly that the pile of trollocs coming in disintegrated to ashes at the thud of his sceptre. Close to his side and shaking was Elrond, just a boy, a boy that knew the weight of his burden, that wanted to save his family from hunger and had now seen things only told as tales. His town turned over. Fire burning down the coven. People running for their lives, weeping at the death of loved ones.

The winter moans through the street rattling the leaves outside and nothing but the village was left in total ashes, flames burn amidst the snowfall, the scream of the living fades quickly and those of the dead echo for longer.

The remaining trollocs had retreated; they watched from above the mountain with anger as the light destroyed their kind into dust.

Elrond don't know what to say, gone dumb he tried to run.

"They are probably dead by now and you would be risking yourself should you set out to look for them." The druid word made him stop.

"No, they're still alive, I know it." His heart breaks into crumbs.

What Elrond once knew as home was nothing but ruins now, tears scourge his eyes as he looked back.

“Stop staring.” The druid tucks a knife beneath his tunic and nudges toward the pathway.

"No! I will find them. They're my responsibility." Elrond let the sounds of the snow crunching underfoot drive out the druid words as he followed back to the cottage.

The druid walked towards him and jerked him by the arm. "You can't do as you wish anymore. I am now to protect you." He dragged him to face him.

"Why would you protect me? I don't need your protection."

"The trolloc came for you and they will still come for you you can't deny that." He said calmly.

"Why? Is it because I killed a deer for venison or a wolf in the woods? I didn't fucking ask for any of this." He hissed.

"It's only a matter of hours until they're back but before then we should have crossed the border." The druid said.

"Why would they want me? If it's the hide I have sold it."

"The wolf is no ordinary wolf in the thicket, it was there and that is its first appearance after a decade now." He sighs and continues. " it is the last of its kind and the only magic that had kept the elves from invasion by the trollocs. Its disappearance had made them creep out of the Nug. You've killed it and you now bear its mark, Elrond, you are supposed to protect it from the darkness, not give it to darkness."

"Well you're wrong I would say."

They entered the line of trees and darkness hovered beyond.

The ground was chilly and he couldn't ward off the thought of how his siblings will be feeling at the shore should there have been alive.

He was calm and quiet as they headed towards that direction unknown to him. He wasn't surprised they were heading deeper into the woods, northwest, towards the high elven city, the man beside him was nothing of the elves he had traded on occasions with.

"You're not an elf, are you? What are we doing in Cirdanoth?" He asked though his stomach clenched so tightly it ached, he didn't see the pointy ears that made him differentiate and the fact that he had magic which was the sole possession of the elves. "Those creatures feel they've accomplished and do not need anyone on their land. Proud and pompous." He scoffed bitterly.

They had kept their distance far from the high elves, no one knows of the outcome of the war but they were spoken to by their super wealthy and highly developed council.

Cirdanoth, the word was a death knell that echoed through him again and again. He had heard of the beauty, but they were only kind to their own this attitude of theirs he had witnessed first-hand for himself. Never heard much about anything except their deadly abilities and appetite. He clenched his hand tight to keep it from shaking as he thought, he can't be a safe confidant to work for his hand out of the dirt repeatedly until he is wasted to grey.

"I thought about your appearance, you look too old and too plain to be an elf." He tried the word nearly swallowed by the tree and star-filled sky."They have the fairest skin, more of collagen to say." Jealousy and hatred were in his voice.

He didn't bother to turn around, he didn't bother to say anything at all, fair enough. He was now the talkative he wasn't, curiosity and fear, different elements mixed.

"Do you have a name?" Or anything to curse him by.

At a steady halt, the snow crunched underneath his shoe. "Does that even matter to you? Boy."

Elrond was too pragmatic not to answer, he might have very well changed his mind after saving him.

But they had been on this path for more than hours now and yet no sign of the dark creature, perhaps since he saw how they reacted to the light and the snowfall wasn't too heavy before dawn he would find a route to escape through and find family. They would stow away a ship and sail far away to the Flame island where only your possession is all that matters, they have him he won't mind squeezing himself in with the little manpower he had.

Elrond opened his mouth again to ask for his name, but a growl of annoyance rippled out of him.

He didn’t have a chance to struggle, to fight back,

when a charged, metallic tang stung his nose.

Exhaustion slammed down upon him and blackness

swallowed him whole.

"We shall camp here for the remaining hour of the night." The grey-haired man muttered more to himself.

>>>>>

"Even if you're adopting me you would be so kind to tongue a fake name." Elrond relentlessly roll up with a banging headache, secured by invisible bonds the sun was already high.

The tang was suspicious to him and after verifying it was all he thought it would be—magic

"Allanon." The man muttered, sharpening his blade beside the fire he had made. The blade true metal reflected the fire. It was the druid sword, carved out of the elven fire, made of his family heritage.

Elrond chuckled at the name the man gave. "Allanon? Like the legendary Allanon? How ridiculous. Well let me introduce myself, I'm Hercules then." He joked, he had read books by the great Hercules, one he traded his father carving for, he grunted, nothing good ever came out of his skills.

The druid lifted a brow and continued with whatever it was he was doing.

Elrond grunted forcing himself to sit up. He recognize the power deep inside of his bone from some collective memories and terror and the pain of the cut that went through him. Unnaturally there was less pain. Humans don't heal faster at this rate. Elves are known to heal from injuries faster than any creature they had known of, he couldn't contrast them and the gin, his principle, judge what you've seen first.

His face twitched. "How long have you kept me unconscious rather than speak to me?" The sun was high up he could only imagine being knocked out for a long.

"You get up we make a journey now through the wolve territory to Cirdanoth."

They walked through deeper, Elrond gritted his teeth, a company would have eased the tension felt.

"So you're claiming to be a druid, like a reincarnation?"

"Believe whatever you wished to." He said.

"I don't believe you're a druid and those were trollocs."

"Humans had a tendency in denying the truth despite having a view of it."

Elrond sighed, maybe the druid was right, just as his father knew the implication of settling in charevibe.

"Those creatures came for me ain't they? I have the blood of the village I grew up knowing as a family on my hand." He wiggles his hand staring at it.

"I can't tell, from what I know you couldn't have known, providing for your family will cause such chaos. Be at ease that was an accident."

He nods, he tried to believe the druid theory. They are quiet for a long.

"Druid aren't you? Only his light could blaze as bright as gold and silver in the heart of darkness. Those were true of you." His awe had subdued his fear, of course, it could be magic. The druids were not human but high elves of the Aylaid clan.

"You saw for yourself."

Elrond rolled his eyes. "Stop giving me a blunt answer, I mean you're a freaking druid at my doorstep."

"What entices you about druid? There are more pressing matters you should put to heart. Like how to harness the power in you and protect yourself."

"Protect me? I thought companions of the great druid are meant to save the world, while he protects and delivers them. Our fate bonds together aren't it?"

The druid couldn't hold himself back from chuckling, and Elrond's heart sank. "Can you defend yourself at this moment? You're just like a wet puppet, not my responsibility to bear."

"I can hunt, I have killed boar, deer and even the mysterious white Wolf."

"Did it leap at you? Did you fight with it?"

He opened his mouth and said. "No." The wolf was only aiming for the deer.

"You couldn't have killed him you see. So you're going behind those walls and helping yourself not the world boy. Not that you're ready."

"I'm no boy! I have fed my family for a year and six that is no quality of a boy."

"Yet you're still a boy that has a lot to learn." His understanding voice pierced Elrond through the chest.

He called out to him. "Hey! I don't know what's your idea of a family but! I have lived through hardship with them for you to read me to some Land claiming to protect me!"

The druid rolled his hand in the air and muttered some spells. Elrond's lips got tight together his struggle to talk turned to mumble. He walked against his will like a camel in the desert. All that was in the poor boy's mind was a million ways to kill the druid and get away with it. He is not a saint or a lifesaver as he thought, Elrond felt useless and vulnerable.