Protection

And

Trust

Written By: Caladhiel Alcarin

Chapter 1

Unnatural Eyes

Have you ever heard of a skin-changer? No I do not suppose you have. We change into specific animals. There is a skin-changer I knew that can turn into a great black bear. He is my distant cousin and his name is Beorn. Skin-Changers do not age and we do not die for many, many, many years, unless slain in battle. Beorn is the only other skin-changer I know of. Though I have not seen him in many years.

My name is Vanmoriel, which means dark beauty. I am a skin changer and have lived for nearly 630 years. I have dark Sapphire blue eyes and long black hair. I am thin because I travel a lot and do not always find food. I remain alone, mainly because I do better alone. And I am an outcast to many people. I am not welcome among most elves. Only in the House of Elrond have I been treated as an equal. The Dunedein also treat me well, they have often asked for my aid, and have always been kind. I was also very good friends with Radaghast, although he believed me to be just another animal. Still he was kind and would feed me if ever I was near Rohsgobel.

I can turn myself into a wolf. My fur is pitch black. My eyes, though blue they are, are very dark blue. No other normal wolf has my eyes so it is easy for people to remember me. I steer clear from the towns of men, they would kill me and I already had many scars from their weapons. I rarely showed myself in front of people I did not know, for I was….different from many skin-changers.

It was on a lovely day in June that my life changed. I was drinking from the stream, as a wolf I might add, when I heard a twig snap. Many of my senses were heightened when I was a wolf. I only just had time to duck down when two faces peered over a nearby rock.

"I swear on Durin's name that it was right there!" said a deep voice.

"Kili the only thing there is a river and a few trees." said the other.

"But Fili…"

"Uncle told us to stay with the ponies!" Fili said.

I peered over the tall grass and saw two dwarves. Young dwarves, and quite handsome at that. I knew very little of dwarves, but I knew enough to know they were not often out in the wilderness like this. I silently followed them until a foul stench caught me.

Trolls!

I despised trolls! But for what they were doing so far down south was beyond me. I turned in the other direction and caught the scent of food on a fire. I was so hungry I did not know what I was doing. I followed the scent to a camp of dwarves!

This is definitely odd. I do not see dwarves on the road as such everyday.

I saw one dwarf standing away from the others. I was curious, so I silently moved so I was closer to this dwarf. He was facing me, but he could not see me. He was not young but he was not too old either. I had read about dwarves. They leaved hundreds of years, and this one could only be a little over a hundred. Perhaps 125. He had long dark hair that waved a bit and some streaks of gray. He had a beard like most dwarves but it was not overly long and braided, it was a very nice beard though. It was his eyes that caught me. His deep blue eyes. They were full of sadness, pain, anger, betrayal, regret and longing. I had always been able to read people very well, and this dwarf, he stood tall and proud, and he was tall for a dwarf. I was only about 5ft 6in. He would come up to about my shoulder or neck. He carried a heavy burden, yet I did not know what. At that moment he saw me and his eyes widened. He saw my eyes and stared into them.

"Not a warg…..a normal wolf."

If you ONLY knew!

He had a very deep voice, it was soothing to me, but when angry I knew it would sound fierce. I backed away and concealed myself in the dark forest.

"Interesting." he said.