Disclaimer: I don’t own anything.

From far away

Chapter 1: Goodbye

The ground was wet with all the blood that had been spilt and covered with unmoving bodies. The air was stagnant with all the magical power that was still swirling in the air. A lone figure stood in the horrible scene. A wizard with a lightning bolt scar engraved on his forehead. His eyes were empty, a void of emotions. Though there were tears falling from his eyes, big pearl-like tears. Tears that could heal the most fatal wounds. Tears of a phoenix. For his animagus form was a phoenix. But those tears did not heal his wound, both physical and mental, for the tears were sucked to the clothing before they reached any flesh wounds.

He looked up in the sky. There was a fire colored bird soaring high above. Fawkes. Harry Potter raised his hand, beckoning the bird to land to his arm. Fawkes let out a sad chirp. “I do not want to stay, I cannot stay”, the wizard said in a haunted voice. He couldn’t stay, for there had been too much sadness for him here. Too much death and loss, there was nobody here anymore. No one that loved him nor did he love them. They were all gone. He had fulfilled the quest that was thrust to him. The phoenix tilted his head as if to say ‘where would you go?’ Harry’s eyes were glaze over as if he was in a daze. “Wherever my magic will take me… will you come with me?” The phoenix gave a soft nod with a soothing chirp.

There was soft, glowing light surrounding the magical pair before they disappeared from the face of the Earth.

Goodbye…

The Valar, higher beings of the Middle Earth who also guarded that place, watched with mournful eyes as the young wizard was on the borderline between his and their world. He was unconscious, but that was expected as he had used tremendous energy to transport both himself and his immortal companion.

“The wise one, tell us for what reasons have come here?” the Valar questioned the immortal bird. ‘My charge is hurt, not only physically, but wounds far greater and sadder than any physical wound can ever be’, the higher beings looked each other with saddened eyes.

“You wish to heal him in our lands”, Fawkes nodded his head. “For such a deep wound would take more than his lifetime will allow him to.”

There was infinite sadness in the eyes of the fiery phoenix, for he loved his wizard charge more than life itself. ‘Then… if I were to give you compensation, would you be able to help him?’ The Valar looked the immortal bird for a while with pondering eyes, “we could give your immortality to him, if you truly are willing to give it to him.”

A determined glint was in the eyes of the phoenix, ‘yes’, there wasn’t even a moment of hesitation. The Valar had decided. Fawkes threw a lingering glance to Harry before his immortal life was given away, ‘goodbye…’

Harry woke slowly up. His eyes were heavy with exhaustion and emotional wounds. He struggled to sit up and leaned up to a tree that was next to him. He surveyed the scenery before him, he was in a forest. It was a forest that he definitely did not recognize, so he instantly knew that he was no longer in his own country if even in his world. The air felt too different, even his magic told that the place felt too different to be on the Earth. Suddenly the wizard’s head snapped up, ‘I cannot feel Fawkes… did I not manage to transport him also? Or… has he left me also…?’ The sadness that he felt was immeasurable. His big tears were shed again like a flooding river.

The young one decided to clean himself up as he noticed a pond quite next to him. He cupped the water in it to his hands, before he froze completely up. Those hands were not his. The face that was reflecting from the surface of the water was definitely not his. The hands were too small, too delicate. His face was too young and too delicate as well. He was a child… A child that was probably four or five years old. Next thing that young wizard-turned-child noticed was almost enough to make him fall face first to the pond. ‘I have… pointy ears?! I’m an elf?!’

Harry was confused, for a long time he just sat there, gazing at his reflection. His eyes were big pool of emeralds, so green even the most luscious grass or finest cut emerald couldn’t rival. His skin was pale and luminous where there wasn’t covered with bruises or wounds. His features were as delicate as paper-thin glass, so easily breakable. His hair was a flowing mass of midnight silk. One could even call him effeminate, because he definitely was one. The young elfling would probably stand at 3’6 feet. While Harry had never been tall 3’6 was definitely a midget compared to his previous 5’7. He could find one positive thing though; he no longer had the lightning bolt scar engraved to his forehead. He was also wearing different clothes than he had been before he came here. Before he could waste more of his time looking at his reflection, he quickly splashed some water to his face and rose to his feet.

He was hurting everywhere and he suspected that he was beginning to have a fever. Nevertheless he walked forwards and away from his landing site. The forest was beautiful, something Harry hadn’t seen for a long time. The trees were tall and thick. The grass beneath his feet was corpulent and slightly wet, but not overly so that water would be extracted.

There was a sound of metals clashing. A sound that the young elfling recognized as a very familiar one. He crept closer to it, crouching carefully since he still did hurt all over. He put on his Invisibility Cloak on him, “I actually remembered to take this with me”, he murmured softly, barely even reaching his own ears. Harry hid behind a thick tree and peered from there.

There were miniature troll-like creatures swarming around two tall men. The trolls were uglier than Harry had seen back in his own world and it made him wonder, what exactly those creatures were called. The two men had dark and long flowing hair and… they also had pointy ears just like Harry now did. The trolls were no match for the elves even if they did outnumber them by quite a few numbers. Harry moved slightly away from the tree so he could watch more closely what was happening.

There was a soft sound of feet moving. Barely even hearable, but Elladan heard it none the less with his sensitive elven ears. He signaled his twin brother Elrohir inconspicuously. The other twin nodded when he too noticed the soft sound. They turned around so quickly that couldn’t have been seen with normal human eyes. They saw nothing, but they knew that there was definitely something. Was it hiding in the trees?

Harry startled when they whirled around so suddenly he almost had completely missed it. They had their swords raised and ready to strike. Harry backed further away from the pair. He didn’t exactly wish to get slain by the twins, even though he could’ve materialized his sword, he didn’t think that he would’ve stood a chance against them with his current height. He still needed to get used to his new body after all.

They couldn’t see anything, yet they still could hear the faint rustling. That was until they saw a distorted sight further away from them. It was like seeing a cloth move yet there was nothing to see. Had the orcs come up with a new method to conceal themselves from the sight? If so, then they couldn’t let this one get away. Not that they would’ve allowed the orc get away anyway. The pair charged up on the invisible force quickly, having their swords pinned to what they assumed would be the creature’s neck.

Harry hadn’t had any time at all when the twins ran up to him. He didn’t expect them to be that fast, so fast even his intensified sight couldn’t follow them properly. The edge was cutting to his neck where the swords were pressing and metals had a little bit of blood ooze down. “Who are you?! Do not move!” the elf to Harry’s right-side bellowed. The elfling didn’t dare to move even if he hadn’t been told to. The other elf reached for his head and grasped the fine clothing that was covering the child.

The invisible creature held some amount of intelligence when it stayed still as they had commanded it to. Elrohir could feel the fine unidentified cloth beneath his fingers. It was like silk sewed to flowing water. He pulled the hood down to reveal the creature beneath it. They gasped in surprise; it was a small, delicate looking child that was revealed to them. Instantly their swords were removed from the child’s neck. Elladan squatted down to look the child in the eye and also to inspect him. Regret filled both of the adult elves when they noticed that they had left two wounds on the neck. Elladan moved his hand in order to wipe away the blood, but the young one withdrew quickly away from him. The sadness was palpable in the twin elves, what had they done…

“We mean you no harm”, Elrohir tried to coax the child, but there was a distrustful glint in the young one’s eyes.

Harry eyed the older elves calculatingly, he couldn’t understand a word what they had said. But he had expected that a little bit since he was in another world. The air was tense with silence. The twins wanted so badly to reach out for the child so they could heal him and help him go home. What was a child doing so deep in the woods anyway? A thought was ignited in Elrohir’s mind; perhaps the child didn’t understand what they had said. Both of them tried various languages to communicate with the child but he remained unresponsive. They sighed, “that’s all the languages anyone could ever learn, young one.” Elrohir extended his hand to run it through the child’s hair. “Stop!”

Elrohir and Elladan were shocked; the child spoke Sindarin. Had some elf taught the language to the young one? “It is okay hén, we won’t hurt you”, Elrohir murmured soothingly to the emerald eyed boy.

The child was still unresponsive. The twins tilted their head slightly in sadness. Elrohir was shocked second time that night; the child had delicate pointy ears. Ears that definitely belonged to an elf. “An elfling!” Elladan’s eyes widened with utter surprise. An elfling? Surely they would have known if one was missing, not to mention born! The last elfling to born was Legolas of Mirkwood, who has been in an adult status for awhile. If an elfling was born it surely wouldn’t have escaped anybody’s ears. An elfling’s birth would have been celebrated for many months! For elves didn’t give birth easily granted for their beauty and immortal life, therefore elves protect their offspring cautiously. To find an elfling wandering in a forest all alone was definitely very worrisome.

“Dear child, where are your parents?” the closest elf to Harry asked him in a language that he understood. ‘Weird, it’s not English yet I can understand it…’ Harry shook his head slowly, keeping his eyes firmly on the pair. He still offered no further words. The twins sighed again; they seemed to do it quite a lot in a short time that they had spent together. “I am Elrohir”, the closest elf to Harry said, “and this brother of mine is called Elladan, little one.”

Harry darted his eyes between the brothers, but still he offered no further words. He held no illusions of peace between them. The twins threw a glance to each other. No elfling should ever be afraid of their elders, what ever had happened to the child to make him so cautious around his own kind? The young one did look battered, which was extremely alarming already, but they couldn’t see the full extent of the elfling’s injuries since the cloak was still concealing the child partly. Also his other clothes prevented the brothers from examining the full extent of the damage. Whoever dared to harm an elfling would suffer the rage of all elves. “We swear we mean you no harm, please, let us go somewhere else to rest rather than here among the dead orcs”, Elrohir tried to coax the quiet elfling. But they also realized that few moments ago they had their swords pinned to the little one’s neck and made twin wounds to the neck. What had they done?!

Harry pondered on it for awhile, speculating what he could lose. The twins did have swords and they could have easily forced Harry to come with them if he did not consent. The young elfling nodded slightly to the twins. Elladan chose to walk in the front so the elfling would follow him. Elrohir decided to be the tail of the small queue. The both of the adults had a small doubt that the child would try to run away from them if given a chance. They didn’t want the injured little one to run off and possibly harm himself further or worse be found by orcs. They stopped after a small trek, arriving to a small clearing. Elladan decided to make fire for Harry so he wouldn’t be cold.

Harry sat on the ground, leaning on a tree behind him. He was so exhausted, the injuries were a hindrance and now he definitely knew that he was beginning to have a fever. It probably would be a high fever too. Elrohir watched the young one with worried eyes; he suspected that regardless of the late hour the elfling’s exhaustion wasn’t based entirely on it. Elladan sat next to his brother with contemplative look in his eyes. They had to get the little one to their father lord Elrond so he could heal him.

Harry folded his Invisibility Cloak away since there was no point in wearing it anymore. The twins offered Harry some food that he took it with extreme cautiousness. It truly saddened the twins that an elfling was so wary of them. No elfling had ever been afraid of them before. The young elf had recoiled from any advances that twins had tried to make; he hadn’t let them examine him at all. The elfling had proceeded to resist sleep, constantly keeping an eye to the elven pair, eventually though the exhaustion won over and the little one fell into a trance-like state that was associated with elves when they were resting.

It had shocked the twins to their very core how little the elfling trusted them. Certainly the young one knew that they would have never intentionally harmed him. And in the end they had not even gotten to know what the little on was called.

Elrohir sighed in exasperation and tugged his hair while he lay down on the ground. He drew his eyes to the little one I despair; he wanted nothing to go over and heal him, avenge his injurers but the elfling would surely not allow him to. At the moment what the twins needed was the young one’s trust and doing something like that would surely alienate the little one more than he already was. “I can feel your frustration Ro”, Elladan said from beside him.

Elrohir switched his eyes to his twin brother, “how can I not? An elfling is afraid of us! No elfling should be afraid of another elf!” He ran his hand through his hair in exasperation.

Elladan looked contemplative. “Do you suppose that orcs had taken him?” Elrohir looked pained, “for the sakes of Valar, I truly hope not.” The issue of orcs was still a sensitive matter to them. After their mother had set sails to Valinor they had hated the orcs from their very core. They hunted them whenever they could, wherever they found them. Although lately that had decreased quite a lot, ever since their father had adopted young Estel, Aragorn, son of Arathorn. The young heir of Isildur that was gifted with long life.

They decided that Elladan would be first to watch them over, so that Elrohir could rest for awhile before waking over. Elladan looked in fascination at the young elf. He was a beautiful child with his sparkling green eyes even if they were clouded in trance. Even the lushest grass on the face of Middle Earth wouldn’t be able to rival with his eyes. If they tried they looked dull and washed out in comparison. His hair was the most beautiful hair Elladan had ever seen. The child looked innocent in his sleep. Elladan decided that wariness didn’t suit the elfling at all. He looked so adorable when he was relaxed. Elladan could already tell that when this little one grew up he would be devastatingly beautiful, sought out by many elves, female and male alike.

Harry jerked harshly awake next morning at the same time aggravating his wounds. The sunrays were seeping to the ground from high above, peeking from the leaves of trees. Harry remained laying on the ground just watching with unseeing eyes the green forest. He was recollecting what had happened yesterday. The elves hadn’t made more advances towards him after he had gone to sleep. He would have woken up if they did. He slept very lightly after all; it was a result from long waged war between the Dark and Light.

Elrohir was wide awake when Harry had jerked awake. He had watched with worry clouding over his eyes as the young elf just laid there on the ground with empty eyes. Such eyes didn’t belong to someone so young. Elrohir longed to reach over and take the little one in his arms so that he could chase away the troubles that were in his young mind. Even Elladan woke early enough to witness the empty eyes of elfling. The brothers exchanged a look with each other. Elladan reached out to the young one and touched lightly his shoulder. The elfling jerked upright with gasp. His eyes darted wildly between the twins. Elladan withdrew his hand quickly as not to frighten the young one more.

Harry had been in a daze when suddenly he felt a hand touching his shoulder. He acted out of instincts and his eyes fell on the elven brothers, Elladan and Elrohir, as he recollected. He easily detected worry in their eyes, but nevertheless he still couldn’t bring himself to trust them. It could have been all an act after all. Harry tilted his head as a sign to ask what they wanted. “Would you come with us to our home?” Elladan asked him.

The brothers have been suspecting that the elfling no longer had parents. Otherwise he would have been looked after more carefully. Other elves would take the young one under their wing with open arms, but first he needed to be healed. They watched as the little one thought on it, still holding a distrustful glint in his eyes. Finally they received a slow nod. They blew out a quite sigh of relief. Two horses that obviously belonged to the pair came trotting over. Harry watched the horses with wary glint. They looked so enormous and he wasn’t going to deny that they scared him with their size. But regardless of that, Harry still stepped next to the horse. Looking up to the saddle he wondered however he was going to climb up to there. Suddenly he was picked up to his destination, he looked down and saw Elrohir gazing back at him.

Elrohir looked at the small elfling standing next to the horse gazing at the saddle with pondering look. He was so small for an elfling… Elrohir lifted the little one to the saddle and found himself looking at the amazing green spheres. Those eyes held an unreadable look. Elrohir almost shuddered; it felt like those eyes could pierce you and see your bare soul. The elfling shifted his eyes away from Elrohir as Elladan climbed behind him. Elrohir lifted himself to his own horse. He realized something; the little one’s eyes were far more aged than they should be. What ever had the elfling seen and experienced to force him to grow so mature? His eyes were almost those of an elite warrior; a warrior that had seen too much.

Harry held himself quite rigid while they rode. He couldn’t help it; he couldn’t relax no matter what. They had travelled probably for a few hours already. The twins tried from now and then to have a conversation with him, but he offered no answer. If the older elves hadn’t much earlier heard one single word from Harry’s mouth, they would have thought that the little one was mute and so unable to respond. The ride was exhausting to Harry. His open wounds and bruises and other possible injuries didn’t exactly agree with the pouncing ride and they were going on a quite speed. They couldn’t have been riding more than three hours or so before Harry passed out.

The little one almost scared the life out of Elladan when he slumped to him. They stopped immediately and they saw that elfling’s eyes weren’t even open. Elrohir reached out his hand to feel the forehead, “he has a fever, quite a high one too.” This had them very worried. It was very fatal for elflings to get sick because they didn’t have the same immune system that adult elves had. For an elfling to endure all this, it must have been painful. They had to immediately bring the young child to their father as soon as possible.

During their voyage the little one was unconscious or half delusive. Although the twins had kept him sedated with herbs that they found along the way as to ease his possible discomfort. They had arrived to Rivendell on fourth day. It was a little bit saddening that the elfling wasn’t awake to witness the beauty of the elven city. Elladan had wrapped a blanket around the young one to conceal him from curious looks from other elves. Given the nature of the little elfling Elladan and Elrohir assumed that he wouldn’t have appreciated the intrusive looks. Also they could move more easily if no one witnessed the injured elfling. They would be enraged once they learned of the elfling’s state.

The twins swept swiftly inside the castle. They were greeted by a blond and muscular elf, Glorfindel. He threw them a surprised look, “back so soon, you hooligans? What are you carrying with you?”

They didn’t stop as they replied so Glorfindel had to turn around and follow them, “we need to see father immediately, where is he?!” Glorfindel frowned with slight worry, “he’s in the library. But why are you two so eager to find him?”

It was Elrohir that answered with a quiet voice to his question, “we found an elfling wandering deep in a forest.”

Glorfindel was momentarily shocked to stillness before he caught up with the twins again and threw a frown to the precious bundle, “you’re looking for lord Elrond, because the little one is injured.” It was not a question. He was enraged. Who ever had dared to touch the elfling in such a way?! It was unforgivable. He wanted to avenge the little one.

They burst in to empty library expect for the lord of Rivendell. Said lord lifted his head from the book in his hands too look at what had disturbed the peace in the library. If he was surprised to see his sons and Glorfindel bursting inside with no dignity he certainly did not show it, he merely raised one of his eyebrows. “Not that I am not happy to see you back so soon again, but for what reasons have you come in so urgently?” His voice was hinted with sarcasm.

Glorfindel strode quickly to him and explained everything. Lord Elrond raised his eyes to the mass of blanket that Elladan was holding. They swiftly walked to an empty room that was away from curious eyes of other elves. It was an elegant room with large windows so you could see outside with ease. Elladan had stripped the blanket away and laid the child to a bed occupying the room.

“What is the extent of the elflings injuries? And what is his name?” lord Elrond inquired as he walked closer to the bed.

The twins glanced at each other. “We’re not certain… the little one didn’t allow us to approach him close enough, we also don’t know his name since he didn’t speak to us at all”, Elrohir offered.

Elrond threw them a look, “an elfling was distrustful of you? Why ever would that be?”

“It might have had something to do with the fact that we had pinned our swords to his neck”, Elladan babbled. Both Glorfindel and Elrond had a disappointed look in their eyes. The twins lowered their eyes to ground in shame.

Elrond had shed the elflings clothes, the sight that was greeting them was horrible. Glorfindel had his eyes wide as saucers, “who could ever do this to a child?!” The twins raised their head to look at the damage. It truly was horrible; there was long cut from the elfling’s shoulder to his other side of chest. His luminous skin was marred bruises of all kinds of colors. The elfling was worriedly thin as well.

Elrond held a grave look, “this healing will probably take quite awhile. Why do you two not go and greet Estel, he has been missing the two of you.” The twins nodded, still slightly in shock of the extent of the injuries. If they ever found who did this to the little one those creatures were going to pay.

Glorfindel remained with Elrond. He watched intently as the lord of Rivendell worked with the young elfling. He was not about to go away before the little one opened his eyes and even then possibly not. “You do not need to stand there. You might as well sit if you intended to stay which I suspect that you do”, Elrond called him without turning around, working furiously with the wounds.

Glorfindel sighed but nevertheless he sat next to the bed, opposite of Elrond. “It is strange that a birth of an elfling had escaped from our ears”, Glorfindel muttered. “Yes, it truly is odd. A birth of an elfling would have been celebrated for months. Everyone would have heard of it. Everyone would have guarded the little one more carefully than he obviously has been”, Elrond answered as he continued his healing process. ‘Where did you come from, little one?’

“Dan! Ro!” a child’s voice was carried to the ears of the twins. They perked up slightly as they saw a boy, who looked to be 6 years old, run towards them with open arms. “Welcome home brothers!”

The twins hugged their adopted little brother, “how’s our midget brother?” Aragorn threw them a dirty look, “don’t call me a midget!” The older ones chuckled quietly as they gave him a squeeze before letting go.

“I saw you two earlier but you ran away so fast I couldn’t keep up. What were you holding Dan?” Aragorn asked with a curious look from his brother Elladan.

The sorrow came back to their eyes. They took Aragorn to somewhere quiet and not so open place before they told him what had happened during their journey. Now even Aragorn held a sorrowful look, he knew how much the elves treasure their young. Even though he wasn’t an elf he was treated as preciously as any elfling. “May I see him?”

The twins shook their head. Aragorn’s face fell. “Not now we mean! As soon as the little one is better, then you can go and see him!” Elrohir hastened to say. Aragorn perked up, he hoped that the elfling was going to get better soon. Then they could get to know each other.

AN: I suppose this is a story that many has written before but I wanted to amuse myself a little bit so I decided to try…