Barduil Secret Santa - The Vampire at the Edge of the Woods 

Merry Christmas @sharalock-holmes. I'm your Secret Santa stand-in and I come bearing a gift for you.

Bard was terrified, thought Thranduil, and he had every right to be. The vampire appeared from nowhere grabbing Bard by the arm with it's bony fingers taking both fabric and flesh in the same swift motion. They were every bit the last visages of the people they once were, surfacing like a memory from around the bend. Raising like ghosts better forgotten from their graves. He'd pulled back and let loose an arrow into one of the vampires eyes before Thranduil had a chance to turn from the tiny blue mushrooms whose virtues he'd been absorbed in describing to Bard only a second ago. A second swipe and his bow was broken and he was backing away quickly, holding his arm, terror in his eyes. Thranduil had his sword draw now, and managed one good slice to the side of the vampire before the it was on top of him, forcing him backwards into the bush and Bard back with him. The vampire slain, decapitated and then stabbed in the heart for good measure. Thranduil would have it burned and the ashes scattered after. Thranduil turned his attention now to his husband, trying to remain calm. Now that the fight was over it was difficult. He hadn't expected a vampire. Spiders and Orcs sure. They hadn't gone on this walk unarmed because in his woods there didn't lurk all sorts of monstrosities. Bard had even joked about a hunt, and the practicality of eating giant spiders. But vampires, vampires he hadn't encountered in any living mortals memory. He'd never even mentioned them to Bard. If he'd only ever heard legends of them, he preferred that remain the case. Bard had accepted the dangers of his forest home, and hadn't held it against him, but he didn't need to burden him with the knowledge of creatures Thranduil never thought even he in his long life would ever have to face again. Now his woods had attracted a vampire. again. And they would likely be attracting more soon enough. "You're fine," Thranduil told him, trying unsuccessfully not to show the dread he felt raising in his heart. No more walks with Bard in the woods. His woods. Not now that those things were back. "There's a poultice for that" Thranduil assured, inspecting Bard arm "It's not that deep either, you'll be fine." Bard wasn't looking at him, instead he jerked his chin at the crumpled heap that had dealt that damage to him. "I've not seen another in a while." "A vampire? You've seen vampires?" Thranduil asked quickly "Where? When? By the Lake?" "What?" Bard looked back at him in surprised, blinking. Shock maybe? Thought Thranduil, he should hurry him back to the castle. "Oh vampires. Yes. Not here though. Not recently "Bard said evenly, assuringly, "Not for an age." Thranduil nodded. Of course. While he hadn't expected Bard to even know that vampires were real, but he was pleased that he would have to explain what they had just encountered to him, right after it had harmed him so. It was only later after Bard had gone to sleep, mortals always sleeping half their lives away, arm wrapped up that he thought about how Bard wasn't afraid of the vampire after it was surely dispatched. He wasn't afraid that it had it had got its claws into him, the most common ways that people became Vampires themselves. Usually men, occasionally Dwarves and rarely Elves. They all think they luckily managed to survive being torn to pieces, the most common result of a vampire attack on unsuspecting untrained people, only to find that some of the vampire own blood had tainted their wounds, corrupting them from within. A corruption that causes them to forget themselves and become the blood-thirsty animals all vampires become. A plague upon the land and her people coming from what was once their very own neighbours. Bard hadn't been afraid of that all, hadn't even voiced that concern. He allowed him to take him back home and have the healers give him the medicine he would need to avoid corruption should some of their attacks blood had mixed with him, all while voicing questions about the history of vampires in his woodland kingdom. If they were common? When was the last time anyone had seen one? Would Thranduil be able to comb the woods to flesh out any others that might be there? Thranduil indulged him, thinking it was only him trying to protect him. Not voicing the concern that was on both their minds. But maybe it was only on his. The thought that Bard was afraid that he could become a vampire like that which had attacked him, didn't seem to trouble Bard at all, but he had been terrified when the vampire had first appeared. Thranduil was sure of it, sure it wasn't only for the surprise of it. He had been scared of that vampire but he hadn't been afraid of becoming a vampire. Hadn't even been afraid that Thranduil himself could have been corrupted, and Bard had been concerned to find that he enjoyed walking barefoot sometimes in the woods. Thranduil resolved to ask him about it later, in the morning or the next day perhaps but then dismissed the thought. It was silly anyway. Bard was alright, and it didn't particularly matter why he was more afraid of the appearance of the vampire then the idea he'd come so close to becoming. He was worrying over nothing.

On AO3 here

Exists in the same universe as this one.

Barduil Secret Santa gift for @sharalock-holmes​ A Barduil Vampire!AU with a side of protective Thranduil

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okay, so I have a couple of shapeshifter fics for you! 

When Life Hands You a Glemondirink by @curmudgeony​ thank you to @piyo-13​ for jogging my memory! this fic must have turned up in two dozen searches, but for some reason I thought, ‘no, that’s not it’ every single time! 

Shortly after killing Smaug, King Bard discovers he has developed a little problem. Featuring mysterious disappearances, poor coping mechanisms, and unsolicited gifts of Dwarven sex toys.

Forgotten Roads by @acebarduil​

When Bard’s secret was revealed, he had no choice but to accept exile. Sent away with no hopes of ever being trusted or seeing his children again, Bard wandered across the country without purpose. Now comes a man with the promise of a new life at the end of a long journey, should he accept the stranger’s request: to lead him through lands and dangers long forgotten, in quest of hope long lost.

Black Wolf-White Stag by @themirkyking​

Thranduil and Bard are bound by a evil spell.

sorry I don’t have more to recommend, but I haven’t read a bunch of shapeshifting fics..  here are some non-human stories I think you might enjoy:

In the Woods Somewhere by @curmudgeony​ (vampire!Thranduil)

These country roads were rarely traveled by any that didn’t need to. When Thranduil pulled up beside the man’s stopped vehicle and offered him a smile and a ride, there was no one to see the man’s grateful expression as he slipped into Thranduil’s car. No one to stand by and call out a warning as the taillights were swallowed by the dark branches of the trees.

Between the Pines by @northerntrash​ (vampire!Thranduil)

He is a lost spectre, a thing of fable, and when he hears the wolves howl their melancholy chorus, announcing a presence in his forest, he rests his head in his hands, and wonders how long it will be before he is burying another pile of clothes and chipped bones in the part of his garden where once his ancestors were buried, before they ceased to live.

Dragon of the North by @blackstoneirregular​? (vampire!Bard)

Ten years after the Battle of the Five Armies, the forces of the enemy returned to Dol Guldur and threatened the new-found peace of the peoples of Rhovannion. In the chaos of battle, Bard, King of Dale and dearest friend of the Elvenking, was lost. Since then, Thranduil has watched the world change around him. He witnessed the final defeat of the Sauron, watched Bard’s children grow and fade, and said goodbye to his only son as he sailed away to the Undying Lands.

A rumour grows of a great red serpent, come down from the North and the Fourth Age, with the destruction of the One Ring, has begun. It is an age of men; men who have grown over-confident and too accustomed to living without threat of darkness, men who do not remember what it is to be frightened of anything but their own shadow. They have forgotten what can grow in the darkness, so used to the light. They have forgotten evil. But evil has not forgotten them.

BRIBERY.

NEW CHAPTER

I’ve just seen Pushing Daisies 2x03 and I can’t stop thinking about a barduil modern!au in which priest!Thranduil falls in love with Bard. And then angst. A lot of angst.

And then it reached 20+ notes (thank you I tought it was kinda stupid when I posted) so here we have more (and more angst, of course):

so what if we add a vampire!Bard to priest!Thranduil? Maybe with a vampire!Bard that tries to escape from some vampire hunters (or sort of. I don’t know.) and so he hides in this little town called Mirkwood hoping that there they won’t find him. He slowly get used at his new ‘town routine’ and slowly starts to meets people and OF COURSE someone talks to him about this young priest of the town (Thranduil) and Bard starts getting curious about. Until one day they the meet (I don’t know how) and something starts between them. AND THEN ANGST AGAIN (because Bard is a hunted vampire y’know and Thrandy is a priest so he isn’t allowed to fall in love).

Hours later, Bard quietly pulled away from his Elven lover reluctantly, but with a purpose that had settled deep within him.

“Meleth nín?” Thranduil's softly questioned, his hand reaching out for him. Though Bard knew nothing of Elven tongue, he looked back at Thranduil with a soft smile at what he assumed was an endearment. “Where are you going?”

Bard threw the tunic Thranduil had gifted him over his head, claiming a King could not wear the rags the Bowman wore. “I am going to find a way to win this war.” At this, Thranduil sat up straight in bed, furs pooling low around his hips and his silver hair falling over his bare shoulders, not a strand out of place. “Were you not saying that it would not come to battle just hours ago?”

“That was until I heard of the Orcs,” Bard leaned over to pull up his boots. It was a few moments before Thranduil finally replied, Bard already halfway out of the tent, but his words brought him pause.

“What could possibly help us defeat this evil?”

Bard did not look back as he stepped out, the question left unanswered, but hung heavy in his heart.