“It’s getting worse!” Elrohir shouted to make his voice heard above the din of the storm.
“I know!” Elladan yelled back. “We need to keep moving, we have to get out of the forest, it’s not safe!” Elrohir nodded in agreement and urged his horse onwards.

No one had predicted the storm; it had simply come out of nowhere. Had they seen it coming, the twins would have stayed a while longer with the rangers they’d been travelling with. But they had not and now they were trapped in the densest part of the forest in the middle of the worst storm of the century.

A loud rumble of thunder, followed almost immediately by a huge flash of lightning, showed them that the storm was almost directly overhead.
“Elrohir!” Elladan shouted. “Try to go faster! I sense danger nearby!
“I know!” Elrohir replied. “I sense it too! But we are still many miles from the edge of the forest!”

Elladan cursed under his breath. This whole trip had been a disaster. The orc lair they’d been hunting for had turned out to be deserted and the only ones they’d caught had been a small scouting party they’d stumbled across by sheer luck. Add to that the cut Elrohir’s horse had suffered in the skirmish, delaying them by a whole week and the fact that his favourite bow had been broken when he’d been pulled to the ground by a bold orc, and you had a most unhappy elf. Elladan just wanted to get back home and into his nice warm bed, but it seemed that even that was just too much to hope for.

He sighed; at least Elrohir was with him. His twin was always by his side and that at least was some comfort. He turned and gave a grim smile to his brother who returned the gesture. Together they kept moving through the vicious storm.

Another roll of thunder sounded overhead followed by an almost blinding flash of lightning that was far too close. The bolt struck a nearby tree, sending it bursting into flame.
Elrohir’s horse reared in shock and he fought to remain on his mount. Uttering soothing words in the animal’s ear, he calmed it as quickly as he could and looked over to see how Elladan was faring.

His brother’s mount had become completely panicked, throwing him off of her back, and was now running in circles around the forest with Elladan trying desperately to settle the frightened horse.

Just as he appeared to be succeeding, a loud cracking sound was heard above the noise of the storm. Looking up, Elrohir gasped in horror as he realised that the tree his brother was standing under had been hit by the tree that had caught fire and that a large branch had broken off and was heading directly for his twin.

Elrohir tried to move, to get to his brother, but there was simply not enough time. The branch was falling too fast and Elrohir was too far away. The younger twin could only scream Elladan’s name as the branch fell to the floor, crushing his brother beneath it.

END PROLOGUE

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