"I will name my son after you."

Chapter 1

"Innocent games, lead to dangerous consequences."

"Ugh…" Confused, sky blue eyes blinked slowly against the harsh sun that shone down on them. The owner of the groan, pulled one of his arms from under his belly and used it to shield his sensitive pupils from the sunlight. The green-clad elf could now see that he was in some kind of forest, his vision being filled with mostly tree-like wildlife and small bushes and, even though he did not recognize where he was, he was happy it wasn't Dol Guldur.

With a sore groan Legolas pulled himself upwards from his awkward position on the ground. "What…happened?" The poor elf muttered to no one in particular, looking around the landscape around him. The archer's mind was plagued by questions that were left irritably unanswered. "Where am, I?" Being the most popular one amongst the rest.

Shaking his blond head as to clear it a bit, Legolas focused on the small details he could recall, before ending up in this unknown forest. A fer a minute, albeit slowly, the lost memories began to reappear.

He remembered talking with Aragorn about something silly, while heading to the common room in Rivendell. The journey of the Fellowship was about to begin in two days and Gandalf told all the nine members, to meet him there so that they can discuss the important matters concerning the way they were going to travel.

Legolas could remember chuckling at the sight of Merry and Pippin playing around with the wizard's staff, shouting unreal spells and curses at everyone they saw.

The elf could hear Boromir asking Mithrandir if it was wise to allow those two whippersnappers, to play with such a dangerous weapon, in the back of his cloudy head, and even himself seconding the question with a bit of concern. But Gandalf couldn't see anything going wrong, since Marry and Pippin don't know any real spells, and told them to allow the hobbits to have some fun before the hardships of the journey began.

The son of Thranduil, snorted.

Judging by the fact that he ended up in an unknown location, without remembering ever leaving the palace of Lord Elrond. He quested that both he and the Gondorian warrior, ignored their instincts deciding to listen to the wizard instead.

Concentrating harder on the events that happened before his awakening, the Crown Prince of Mirkwood could vaguely recall images of the rest of the Fellowship, joining in the fun. Pretending to be injured by the invisible orc-destroying spells, or changed into whatever animal the mischievous hobbits called out swinging the large wand.

He could remember shaking his head at the rest of the group making fools of themselves, being the only one with enough brain cells to know this was a terrible idea.

The Mirkwood elf couldn't remember if he was hit because Merry swung the wand at him or if he jumped in the way of the spell to protect Aragorn, but either way it seemed that his instincts were proven correct once again and he was, once more, paying the price for the people that didn't listen to them.

Sighting Legolas shakily stood up and looked down at himself to scan for any possible injuries.

His green-brown archer uniform was still intact, with his bow, arrows, quiver and twin knives all in their respectable places, without visible damage.

His arms and legs as well as his torso didn't seem to even be bruised, felling quite normal whenever he moved them around or prodded at them with his fingers.

The archer's neck and back were a bit sore from the position he laid in, but that was to be expected.

All in all he sustained no physical injuries, so the elf guessed the teleportation spell must have been one of the harmless ones, thank the Valar.

After thinking through the situation at hand, Legolas concluded that: he's in a forest he doesn't recognize, after being teleported via magic staff by two non-magic hobbits, with no way to know where he is, how to get back to Rivendell or how long he was unconscious.

"Well," Legolas muttered to himself, stretching his weary body. "I've been in worse situations before." The blonde tried to consult himself. "At least I'm not lieing somewhere half-dead after being beaten by a bunch of orcs, or held captive in Dol Guldur." He muttered. Even after his small attempt in cheering himself up, he had to say he wasn't happy with the situation he was in.

Estel and Mithrandir are probably torn between yelling at the hobbits and worrying frantically about me. The elf smiled at the image of a furious ranger switching uncontrollably between the 'I'll-kill-you-for-this' mode, and the 'Mother-hen' mode.

But the smile quickly vanished when he remembered the even that was due time, in two days.

Seeing that he had no way of telling how long he was out, nor how long will it take for him to come back to Rivendell, the poor elf had to accept the fact that the Fellowship will have to complete the mission, without him.

"I'm sorry I can't be there with you, Estel." He whispered into the bright-blue sky. "I just hope you can complete your destiny, without allowing the worry for me to cloud your judgement."

His small prayer was interrupted by a small voice.

"Who's, Estel?" Hearing it Legolas looked at the tree next to him, only to see a young elfling perched upon one of its branches, watching him with big silver-blue eyes. "And who are you talking to?"

The child couldn't be older than ten in human years, platinum-blonde hair and a similar warrior uniform to what Legolas himself wore, only difference were the colors. Where the prince's one was green, the boy's was silver and where his was brown, the child's was blue.

Looking into the sparkly irises of the elfling's eyes, the Mirkwood archer had a distant feeling he knew those orbs from somewhere. He also silently admonished himself for not sensing the presence sooner.

"A friend." The golden haired elf answered the boy's first question. "One I hold dearly in my heart that I fear, I might never see again." Legolas added looking back at the slow-moving clouds.

"Oh." The elfling nodded, lowering his head. "Did he go away to the Halls of Mandos?"

"No." The archer shook his head. "But I fear he may, soon."

"If you worry for him so much…why didn't you go with him, sir?" The boy asked curiosity heard loudly in his little voice.

"I wanted too, but…" Legolas hesitated. "An unfortunate event kept me from accompanying him and now…I have no chance of catching up with his party."

"Oh…" Was all the child could say to this and for a minute, they both stood there in silence.

Fortunately the elfling grew bored with the sober atmosphere and decided he wanted to cheer the stranger, up.

"I have an idea!" The boy clicked his fingers together, jumped down from his tree branch and began pulling on Legolas's sleeve.

"Do you really?" The archer raised an eyebrow, deciding to humor the child.

"Uh-Huh!" The little elf nodded in agreement. "Since you lost your old friend, I'll be your new one!" He stated proudly, happy with his idea.

Legolas chuckled and ruffled the child's hair.

"I admire your enthusiasm, little elfling," He said fondly. "But didn't your father tell you to, never talk to strangers?" He asked raising an amused eye-brow.

The child pouted.

"You're no stranger, you're from Mirkwood." The elfling stated pointing at the older elf's uniform. "And I'm Thranduil Oropherion, crown prince of Greenwood the Great. I can do whatever I want!"

The child was so busy introducing himself that he didn't notice Legolas's eyes widen in surprise and shock.