Chapter 1

The orcs came upon us as quickly as falling rain, roaring their dark battle cries and waving their ruggedly sharp-looking weapons at us with a strangely inspired blood-lust. Well, I didn't judge them...orcs and elves weren't the best of friends. Especially Mirkwood elves...let's just say they weren't the friendliest neighbors, so we wanted to return the attitude.

My company was slightly altered, shaken by the sudden attacks but I really didn't cringe. Living in Mirkwood for more than three thousand years made you aware, made you fearless, made you prepared and it gave you a sort of...sixth sense. You knew when stuff came and you knew when it was all right to rest. And even without Mirkwood involved, my father has obviously been training me up as a prince, and a prince has to be ready for anything. However, there was one other person who was just as ready as I was.

Tauriel.

Really, she was a baby to me. About six hundred years old was very little for us, elves, although for humans it would have been an impossible feat. Yet despite being a baby, she was the most capable person I knew. She had the speed of the wind, amazing archery skills and accuracy, a cunning ability with knives and a good tactical deviser. She was a perfect warrior and exactly why my father eventually promoted her to captain of the High Guard of Mirkwood.

Six hundred years ago, we found a bundle in an abandoned caravan, attacked by orcs. All right...I found the caravan and killed the remaining orcs but my point is that in that day, was where I found Tauriel, a squealing babe. My father, having no daughters, quite favored her since the moment I brought her forth. Of course, he favored us more and always reminded himself of Tauriel's common Silvan elf status but still...she was in the best hands.

I looked around the battlefield. Mirkwood was a challenging place to fight in, full of tangling roots and skinny barks where you had to be incredibly light and agile to fight in. They were slippery from all the webs those...ugh, spiders made. Spiders have grown as an annoying word for me. And it was dark, not much light came in through the cold branches of Mirkwood and really, anything could happen. Fortunately, I could handle all of those problems swiftly.

My head zoomed around. We were roughly twelve elves, Tauriel and I being the most skilled and the rest being common Mirkwood warriors. And there were roughly thirty five elves...so we were in a good situation. I could probably kill more than eleven of them and probably Tauriel as well, and we could let the others do some of the fighting.

I didn't think of anything else when the fighting started. An arrow flew from my bow and stuck an orc in the forehead, the target. Tauriel looked into my eyes, smiling that blood-thirsty ginger elf warrior face and followed my lead. Everything was a blur of hands and blood. I shot some more arrows to my right, all of the arrows hitting their target and one of them even killing two orcs at the same time! I stuck some of the orcs with my arrows and fighting continued. Tauriel was a blur of arrows, shooting them almost as fast as I did, sometimes ditching her bow for her knives.

About twenty minutes later, after I'd sliced open an orc with one of my twin knives, we were standing in an ocean of orc bodies...a very satisfying thing. Not so many victories had been fought in Mirkwood, father hid it from me but dark times were coming and I knew... At least a bit of it.

We had no casualties, only two elves suffered some cuts which weren't very serious. There was no Mordor poison involved either so we were fine. Most of them were slightly panting, the fighting had been quick and sudden, probably a bit energy consuming.

I grinned a sideways smile at Tauriel, storing my knives in their sheaths and my bow in my back. "Well, that was refreshing, wasn't it?"

That brought a small round of smiles from my fellow company. Father told me when I was a young elfling, that I was one ray of sunshine to the elves. I could cheer from the gloomiest warriors coming from war to the kitchen maids. I was always charming, really.

Tauriel rolled her eyes and allowed a small smirk. She usually wasn't up for emotions. "Refreshing, huh? You really want refreshing Legolas? Then you'll have refreshing, I bet they're more orcs ahead for you to 'refresh' with."

"Indeed," I say smiling, but suddenly quieting down and then I lean forward. "Wait..I hear noises."

"They don't sound very orc-like, Prince Legolas," said a warrior looking at me concerned. "There aren't many creatures in Mirkwood...and they don't sound very elf-like either."

"And spiders don't really talk that much," said another. "Mostly they just hiss at you and sharpen their teeths at your direction, waiting to rip you apart for supper."

A ripple of insecure laughter went through the men but I had more concerns. Tauriel looked at me and held a hand at the warriors, silencing them and letting me think. I beckoned them to go forward, silently and I held the lead. My feet were silent, hopping through some rocks and twigs without snapping or creating noise. They followed my footsteps right behind me, aiming their bows though not succeeding as well as I did.

And then, we had our target in sight.

For a while, the entire company is too speechless as the clash of swords rings through the air and the clumsy noise of footsteps thumps. Slashing is continuous, but the target, or rather, targets, were slowly weakening.

"Prince Legolas," squeaked silently one, aiming their bow. "May I ask, aren't those-?"

I grunted with hatred in my eyes and my look confirmed the answer. I whispered it for him, really. "Yes...those are dwarves. And a rare occasion it is, to see them here in Mirkwood."

"And what do you suppose we do with them Legolas?" said Tauriel, her dark eyes penetrating mine. "This search is led by you, by your command...even though we weren't actually hunting dwarves. And those dwarves are already fighting those spiders...and they don't look like they're handling it well."

Indeed, they looked quite bad. In the midst I saw the dwarves, kicking and swinging their axes and swords against the spiders, who were pretty much overcoming them. One was shooting arrows though.

I nodded, as much as I didn't like bossing people around because I thought it was quite rude, I still had to do it once in a while. "All right...these are my orders. I want all of you to surround the area, I want you to move fast and cover the entire area with a circle of archers. Tauriel and I will go straight, kill the spiders and you'll act as backup when we take the dwarves to my father."

I looked at them gravely. "I am sure my father would adore having these prisoners in Mirkwood...especially these prisoners. It is not often that dwarves have stepped into our kingdom. We will keep them locked for interrogation. My father will want these dwarves under his control."

My eyes faced Tauriel, who was right beside me in deep thought. I wouldn't want a plan without her blessing made. Her blessing just made me a bit more secure.

"Fair plan," she says looking up suddenly into my eyes and she smiles. "We must not tarry then, time is the most precious gold. You heard what Prince Legolas said!"

The elves scurried across quickly as her words rung quietly and I grinned at her. "Thank you Tauriel."

She smiled and put a hand on my shoulder. I felt as though my eyes were melting with that kind, comprehensive look. "I'm always on your side Legolas, you know that, but thank me later. We have larger issues at hand."

I shook my head, getting myself out of dream. I was more frequently doing these things...and I had no idea why. I once viewed Tauriel as a friend, a fellow elf...and now, I know not how to title her. "Of course, I'll lead the way."

Then my plan went to work.

I slid forward and immediately brought a spider down with an arrow through the head. The dwarf looked up surprised but I paid it no attention as I loaded two more arrows and shot the spiders. Tauriel, at my left, was doing an incredible job at stabbing the spiders and killed a handful by herself as I was doing my thing. Arrows flew, knives stabbed and before we knew it, all spiders were gone. They had shrieked and now lay dying before us. Then in cue, my other men came forward, pointing at them.

I slid forward, my arrow aimed straight at the forehead of the tallest dwarf's head.

"Do not think I won't kill you, dwarf."

AN: Yeah, I am including the slight Legolas attraction for Tauriel because this is based on the Peter Jackson movie. Yes...I despise Tauriel but I still have to do it the way the movie is. But Legolas and his company fighting those orcs were just something I invented. Besides, if some scenes aren't accurate enough, it's probably because I forgot the details about the movie. Like dialogue and stuff.