‘’Luthien?’’ A voice asks, gently shaking her with its hoof, but she is too tired to wake. ‘’Luthien?’’ It asks again, only a little louder this time.

Grunting a little, she is jutted awake from her sleep. She blinks her eyes a couple times, before finally leaving them open. However, as she does so, she hastily raises her hoof up to shield her eyes from the blinding light of the morning sun.

‘’Luthien.’’ A familiar voice speaks to her, gently shaking her with its hoof. She lowers her, looking up at the figure standing over her. She manages to conjure a gentle smile to meet him glancing down at her.

‘’Beren.’’ She calmly says, as her eyes are accustomed to the terrible light from above. ‘’Good morning.’’ She says as she raises herself up from the ground, blinking her eyes a couple times before being fully used to the sun. Her head turns, looking up to the side at him. ‘’How are you on this morning?’’

‘’Is breakfast almost done?’’

‘’I have just finished it. Some food would do us good.’’

‘’Agreed.’’ She said enthusiastic. She extended a hoof, awaiting him to take it, and help up.

Sitting around a small fire, both of them were enjoying their breakfast together, eating it mostly in silence. Looking up, while eating, Beren looked to Luthien, licking his lips from finishing his meal.

‘’How was it? Good?’’ Asked Beren. Luthien removed her food from her mouth, swallowing down the last piece.

‘’Good.’’ She replied.

‘’Good,’’ he said, before leaning forward, giving her a stern glare. His head turns, looking from side to side and behind them. He stands up, and trots towards her, and grabs her by the shoulders when standing in front of her, holding her tight. ‘’Are you okay, Luthien? Do you feel alright?’’ This confused Luthien, as her smile contorted into that of a confused glance.

‘’I am fine.’’ His brows raise up, and he gives her a suspicious look. ‘’Really, I am!’’

‘’And last night? What was that?’’ He asked her sternly.

‘’Beren, that was nothing.’’

‘’Really?’’ He raised his left brow a little higher than the other.

‘’Yes! It was just a dream, a nightmare.’’ She replied. ‘’Who doesn’t have them?’’

‘’And you’re certain that it was just a dream? It wasn’t something more important that was bothering you?’’

She shook her head, narrowing her eyes in confusion. His eyes trailed down, settling on the golden ring that was on its chain around her neck. His expression grew stern as he looked down at the thing around her neck. However, when looking back up, it was just a casual stare. He shook his head, eyes looking down once more.

‘’Beren? Is there something you are not telling me?’’ Beren shook his head.

‘’No, I am merely asking because one does not simply awaken in the middle of the night the way you did. You were obviously frightened of something, and it cannot have been the nightmare…at least, not a normal one.’’ He put one of his hooves on her cheek, making her look up into his face. ‘’If anything is troubling you, ever, no matter what it is, I want you tell me. I cannot honor the promise to your father if I do not know if you are troubled.’’ His frown shifted back into a warm smile, before moving in and kissing her on the cheek.

He backed away from her, going away from her to attend other things, leaving her shocked, and almost blushing, behind as his back was turned.

She reached a hoof up to the chain, touching the ring, grabbing tightly around it. Instantly a shape flashed in front of her eyes, surprising her! Her hoof quickly let go of the ring, quickly letting it drop and hang down!

She gasped, quickly looking down at the ring with a shocked, and horrified expression upon her face as she breathed heavily from her little…moment.

‘’I have got to tell Beren about this! This is not normal!’’

‘’Trusst me, Luthien, you do not want to tell Beren of thiss!’’ A voice started spoke, it’s voice echoing all around her. Startled slightly, her head turned looking in every direction she imagined that the voice would be coming from.

‘’W-who is there!?’’ Her voice being filled with fear and paranoia.

‘’Now, now, Luthien, thiss iss no way to sspeak to me.’’ The voice said. ‘’I too demand resspect, if you would be sso kind to provide me with that.’’ Luthien’s fear diminished slightly, getting a lot braver.

‘’Alright then, whoever you are, who are you, and why should I respect you to begin with?’’ A chuckle sounded all around her, it’s tone of voice becoming much more identifiable as being higher pitched.

‘’I am a friend, that iss all I can tell you at the moment…’’ The air started to become lighter, making it much more possible for her to breath, ‘’but fret not, child, we will talk again. Whether by your own choice or not.’’ Several voices whispered, their voices echoing in her head, before every turned silent.

‘’Hey!’’ She snapped back to the present, as she heard another voice calling to her. With a shocked look, she raised her head, looking up in front of her. In front of her stood Beren. ‘’Hey! You coming?!’’ He inquired to her. Nodding her head, she watched him smile back at her. ‘’Good…Then let be on our way then.’’ His head retracted itself back behind the small gathering of rocks. She started to trot forward, to catch up with him.

As she left their campgrounds, the central gem of the ring started to emit a fiery glow. A cold wind blew across the small fire, making the small remnants of fire to sizzle slightly, and return to life, if even for just a few seconds.

While she did not see it with her own eyes, her shadow fell upon the stone wall, and instead of resembling hers, it instead faced her directly with two white eyes, it’s mane became longer, blowing in the wind, with wings, and a horn, it was also much taller than her.

Sensing something was watching her, she turned back to see what it was, looking upon the rock. But there was nothing there, aside from her shadow, which was looking down at the rock where her shadow had fallen upon.

She swallowed down, and quickly turned back, and hurriedly trotted after him to catch up. When she finally caught up to him, she slowed her pace to much better trot. With a turned head, he looked at her, giving her a warm smile. She smiled back, trying to look as normal as she could to him. She wanted to tell him of the things that had just transpired, the voice, and the eerie feeling of her body feeling…cold, almost frozen with fear from the encounter. However, she couldn’t, she could not bring herself to let her jaw drop and speak the words ‘’Um, Beren, I don’t think I feel too good.’’ Those words alone would be enough to get his attention.

Meanwhile, far, far away, at the edge of the forest, a small, but deadly, group of figures were marching along the edge of the great woods. Large Equine shapes, with slender, distended tusks, with another pair emerging at the end of its jaw. The rest of the body greatly resembled that of an elephant, except for the head, which was unmistakably Equine. Atop these large lumbering beasts were wooden constructions, which were the mounted battle towers of the Equine-like creature’s masters who rode in the giant constructions atop the Equine-like creatures’ back. Their faces obstructed by hoods that shielded their true identities.

Down on the ground, beside the great beasts, marched long rows of other figures clad in similar attire to the ones riding in the constructions. Their numbers going as high as 200, and supporting 3 of the great beasts.

At the front of the group, there was a small group that was close to a lone figure who was dressed in a manner all itself. A golden headpiece crowned its head, with the front of the helmet having two sharp points pointing up, and a single, circular shape in the middle, and at its center there sat a red emerald, small points hung down, obstructing everything but the eyes. Its face was hidden behind a red cloth around its head, stopping at its neck. Its torso was clad in golden-looking armor. From the waist down, its lower body was hidden behind a skirt, on its front arms were shoulder pads that protected it from harm. Like its followers, it’s face was hidden, not giving any details that were to inform anyone explicitly about it’s true identity.

Behind it, two Ponies carried banners, triangular in shape, and red in color.

After some time of marching the front figure raised its hoof, showing that the end of its hoof-covering shoulder pad was a long, sharp blade.

‘’Company, halt!’’ A voice cried out. The loud marching came to its end, as the army stopped in place, the giant monstrous creatures coming to an immediate halt.

The front figure turned to face one of the banner-carrying Ponies, ‘’Order them to sweep the forest. Rip every tree if necessary.’’

‘’Yes, Master.’’ It replied, bowing its head before the figure. It turned, and went to go carry out its master’s orders.

Turning away, the frontal figure turned its back to the army, not witnessing as it turned to face the trees in front of them. With casual grunts and growls, the monstrous Equines started forward towards the forest. When either massive tusks touched against the trees, or their massive hooves stomped down against them, they collapsed, falling down in front of them as the beasts forced them down upon entering the forest, penetrating deeper into it. Behind them, long lines of five marched after them as they cleared the way.

At the front of one of the middle group, the front figures accompanied its forces into the thick forest, at the uttermost rear of the groups were larger than average, with ragged furred Equine forms. They wore no armor, nor did they speak. The only sounds to leave their mouths being low growls and snarls.