As the guards led him deeper in to the heart of the Greenwood Minyaiwe couldn’t stop himself from gazing around at his surroundings, taking them in with a mixture of awe and horror. The young ellon had read many books about King Thranduil’s realm, some written before the darkness and some written after, but nothing he had read, nothing he had imagined, held a candle to the reality he now saw before him. Trees stood tall and proud and magestic with large branches that spread across the sky and twined together; small rivers and brooks appeared here and there, their clear waters snaking through roots and underfoot; birds and animals chittered and chirped just out of sight; a breeze blew through the tree trunks.

It was beautiful

And yet.

The tress stood close together, as though they were attempting to trap any traveller how strayed of the path; the canopy above was so thick that it blocked out the sun’s rays and cast the forest floor into gloom; the rivers seemed strangely sluggish and the water lacked the sparkle the young ellon was accustomed to seeing; the calls of the birds and the animals were strange and foreign and eerie in his ears; despite the breeze the air was thick and heady and Minyaiwe felt almost drunk as he breathed it in.

It was terrible.

Beautiful yet terrible. Beautiful and terrible. Minyaiwe found that he could understand why those who had passed through the realm had renamed it Mirkwood.

He was so caught up in his thoughts that his usual grace deserted him and his foot caught in a root. He managed to catch himself before he fell face first on to the floor but the shock was enough to shake him from his reverie. Looking ahead he realised the gap between him and the guards had widened considerably and some of them were giving him strange looks. He couldn’t really blame them, he’d made them wait for ages at the river’s edge and then had proceeded to dawdle through the forest. He hadn’t really made the most impressive first impression.

---

For Ettelëamë. I apologise for the rather rubbishy starter but I've never been very good at them Can't wait for the rest of the thread!

Ettelëamë had been wandering around the forest,or that's what she said she was doing. She actually had launched a mission against the guards,she would follow them to their duty stations and then promptly prank them. Probably by making a terrifying noise or throwing berries at them when they got close to the gate. She was doing a fairly good job of following them unnoticed, tracking them by tree,standing upon the branches. She gathered her "Ammo" , black berries,then returned to her spot.Laying in wait.

It was taking forever, how the heck was a bunch of elves moving so slow?
She was about to just get up and go use the berries for something else when she saw them, the guards were coming back! She almost leapt for joy as she readied herself to throw,she was close,so close. But then something caught, no rather stole,her attention.

It was a Ellon, a young ellon,one around her age or even younger. She started at him in disbelief as her targets passed her,leaving the male to stumble over himself. She noticed how far away he was and shook her head. This lot was not very good at watching guess and so,she decided she would intercept him.
As he got to where she was waiting she hoped from the tree with ease,landing about a foot away. She smiled at him "When one's being escorted I believe he should keep up with the host" she jested and gave a friendly bow. She straightened up,examining his features As she did but quickly froze in place
His eyes. ......his eyes were brown, brown. ....that rare color,like hers. Her cheeks slowly reddened as she stared at him,her own doe like browns widened in surprise. "I-I um....I " she suddenly wasn't so confident anymore and blushed harder "I'm from mirkwood too so I could ugh so you to the gate if you don't want to try to catch up to the guards I'm in training so.....I can protect you if anything comes up. I um,I. ...,my name is Ettelëamë " she played with a lock of her short Bob cut hair for a moment, waiting for his answer.