Disclaimer: Most obviously, I own nothing. Everything here belongs to J. R. R. Tolkien (well, Christopher Tolkien now, I suppose), R. A. Salvatore and a few other nameless people. I believe you can guess what is whose.

Dedication: To She-Cat. And not just because I simply love her stories. It was because of her slip of pen (keyboard?) the story came to be in the first place. That mistake is now corrected and long forgotten but it gave me an idea to write this some time ago.

A/N: I'm not a native English speaker so the text may contain a few mistakes (It's good thing to say to excuse myself, especially if that's true, never mind I've had contact with the language for about as long as I remember). And even if I was one I couldn't probably avoid a few misspellings during typing. Unfortunately computers still aren't smart enough to point out all the mistakes.

This fic was written some time after I got the idea for it (see above) but at first it wasn't meant to be published. Or at least not before I had the ending for it (though I do have a few ideas – I just haven't decided which one to choose yet) and time to update at least one chapter a month. But not long ago I decided to send it and give all those who miraculously found liking for my writing a sign that I am still alive and something to read until I have time to type and send next chapters for my other fics.

Summary: Most obviously AU (double, I guess). Basically two most famous elves in fantasy switch places. And they are not necessarily taking it well. How much does it take to convince someone he is someone else when everything seems to be in opposition to his memories? Well, I offer you a chance to find out in this case. Rated PG-13 just to be safe.

Switched Places

Chapter 1

Drizzt and Bruenor were just heading home after a short hunt, they decided to went on when the dwarf felt a bit tired by the never-ending dealing with merchants and issues that suddenly seemed to inquire his expertise. They were already getting close to the edge of a forest when Drizzt heard some kind of a sound. It wasn't unpleasant, on contrary. It was mysterious, yet somehow felt familiar. It could be defined as some sort of music but it wasn't played on any instrument known to him. Possibly it could be sang by some sort of choir but not a choir of any creatures he knew of. The melody was calming and monotonous nearly like a lullaby.

He closed his eyes for a second and the melody stopped abruptly. When he opened eyes again he was sitting in a completely unfamiliar place with an unknown man staring at him. That at least was explainable. After all it isn't every day that you see a drow appearing in front of you out of thin air.

Drizzt rose his hands in a calming gesture in order to stop the man from attacking him before he has a chance to explain and gasped as soon as he saw them. Skin on his hands was milk-white. He turned a bit to meet Bruenor's gaze in order to find out what does his friend have to say on the matter and nearly gasped again upon realisation that the dwarf whom he took for Bruenor at first actually looks nothing like his friend. At that moment the man decided to speak.

"Legolas, are you all right? The blue light that came upon you seemed very strange. I haven't heard of anything like that happening ever since Angmar was defeated"

At that point Drizzt decided it's high time to clear up some things.

"What did you call me? What light? And most importantly, who are you anyway?"

Those questions left Aragorn with his mouth hanging open.

Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas had been following the orks that took Merry and Pippin for about a day. They were racing with time not thinking much about anything but the chase and the happenings that led to the end of their fellowship. They only stopped when the setting sun made it possible not to notice any important tracks.

At their stop for a night Legolas felt suddenly a wave of overwhelming warmth and noticed that a strange light surrounded his body. He blinked and realised that he is walking through a forest he had never seen before. He thought, that maybe against his all customs he drifted away getting completely lost in his thoughts during the chase, without even realising it. Even though he wrote the thought off as hardly probable he looked at the sun to find out what hour it may be. Very soon he realised that it was one of the worst decisions in his long life.

He felt as if a white hot iron was just pressed to his eyes. Hissing quietly in pain he shut his eyelids tightly in hope to lessen the pain a bit. He walked like that for a few moments using the sound of heavy dwarvish steps to guide him. When he opened his eyes after a while the whole world was blurry to him and there were multi-coloured spots dancing before him. His eyes still hurt but noticeably less then before. He made an attempt to look around a bit.

On his side he could see someone walking. From what he could work out the person was a dwarf. He decided that it must be Gimli. Aragorn was nowhere in sight at the moment but it wasn't impossible for the ranger to run a bit sideways to examine some track. He was about to speak to ensure his suspicions when suddenly another person appeared. She sounded like a woman but he still wasn't able to see clearly enough to say as much as what race she belonged to. The only thing he could be sure about was that she was neither a dwarf nor a hobbit.

"Here you are. I've been searching for you for quite a while. You weren't back on time and those merchants came asking to speak with da so I decided to look for you. You nearly got me worried."

Legolas was having a hard time trying to fully comprehend what she said. She seemed to know them somehow but he could have sworn he has never met her before in his life. Even if he couldn't see clearly her voice was completely unknown to him. He decided to answer sticking to the part of the sentence he could understand.

"But my lady, what could possibly happen to us in the woods? I remember, that when she was still alive, my mother used to say that. . ."

he stopped when he heard a sudden gasp.

"Are you all right?" the woman asked

"I believe so. What made you think otherwise?"

"You were about to quote your mother."

"And what is possibly wrong with that, my lady? She was a very wise person. I held a great respect towards her and my love for her still haven't died in my heart. . ."

"That does it! I don't know what happened to you but most definitely you are not well. You need to rest. Come on, you are coming with me."

He felt himself being dragged by the woman in the direction unknown to him. The situation was at best strange and he slowly started loosing hope for any clarification in the near future.

"Beg your pardon, my lady, I won't object to following you but would you be so kind to remind me who you are?"

He heard another gasp. Most obviously he said something wrong again. To make the situation worse his eyes still refused to work properly.