A/N: So this is my first Legolas/OC fic. I wasn't originally planning on writing one of these, as there are just SO MANY here, but this idea of a language barrier has been rolling around in my head for a bit. It was actually Caladhiel999's story, A Warrior's Heart, that inspired me to write this. So the beginning of the fic (aka however many chapters it takes me to get through Desolation of Smaug and Battle of the Five Armies; I plan on it being 3 or 4 chapters) might be pretty similar to that, but I'll be taking my own liberties with this story. You'll see what I mean.

I am amazed at the response this is getting! I'll be doing review responses here instead of sending private messages. Why? I just feel it's easier. (plus with anonymous reviewers, you can't exactly send them private messages).

Victoria: Holy crapballs might be my new favorite thing to say. I might have to use it when I'm with friends and see something surprising (speaking of surprising, did you see Avengers: Endgame? Holy crapballs, was that surprising and amazing and all kinds of emotional!). Seriously. Anyway, I'm glad you like the story! Here's another chapter!

Caladhiel999: I'm glad you like this! Feel free to call me out on it if it becomes too similar.

kanna does not own A Warrior's Heart or Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit. I'll be incorporating elements of the Lord of the Rings books, but the story will primarily follow the movies.

I don't really remember much. I just remember getting shot with an arrow. Ugh, my head hurt as I struggled to sit up. "Easy," a voice said in English as I finally sat up. "You should not move too fast." I looked. It was Tauriel. I looked down and saw I was still wearing my clothes. I didn't care about that, though. There were only two things I cared about: getting home and making sure Thorin and his men were safe.

I took a deep breath and tried to use English. "Prince?" I asked. "Thorin?"

"The prince is safe. You saved him, my lady," Tauriel explained. She didn't answer my question about Thorin, but she continued on. "You do not know the prince. Why would you save him?"

"Important," I tried to explain. My expression changed to one of determination and a hint of assertiveness. "Want leave."

"My lady, you cannot leave just yet; your wound has only just begun to heal—" I cut Tauriel off as I stood up and took off on my own. I silently cursed my inability to swim as I speed-walked the best I could back to the river that Thorin and his men went down. I looked down the river and saw several boats sailing towards a town. I could only assume Thorin was in one of those boats. Did he and his men make it out? If I recalled correctly, one of them was wounded.

I noticed a small boat big enough for two on the shoreline. I couldn't swim or...pretty much anything in water, but rowing couldn't be that hard, right? All you had to do was push the boat off the land and...well, I'd figure it out from there. I was lucky there were two oars nearby. I walked to the boat, and then I pushed the boat into the water and jumped into it. The boat wobbled a bit when I landed, but it steadied itself seconds later. I smiled to myself. Step one was done. What the hell was step two?

Right. Rowing. I tried to move the oars in one direction, but that didn't work. "What do I do now?" I sighed to myself. I moved the oars in the other direction, and succeeded in getting away from the shoreline. Great! Now how was I supposed to turn? I shook my head and figured I'd cross that bridge when I got to it, if I got to it. The river just seemed to go straight, so I continued in the same direction.

I wasn't sure how time passed here, but it had to be at least an hour before I reached land, and I was out of breath. I splashed some of the river water on my face after I got out of the boat. I looked up, and there was a mountain. Was this the mountain Thorin was talking about? There was only one way to find out: climb.

I climbed the mountain in silence. I was ready to pass out from heat exhaustion (and just exhaustion in general) by the time I reached the top. There was no water nearby for me to cool off. At least, not that I could see.

Suddenly, I was swarmed by several dwarves. "State your business, elf," one of them said with an axe pointed at me. My eyes widened in fear as I searched for a word I could understand. "Hurry up!"

"Thorin!" I said fearfully with my hands up in surrender.

Thorin walked forward and said something in another language. The dwarves lowered their weapons (some of them were a little reluctant). Thorin turned to me and said, "Lady Yue! You live! When I saw you shot, I thought the worst!"

I took that to mean that I had survived and I nodded. "I okay," I said

"Yue, these are Oin, Gloin, Dwalin, Balin, Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, Dori, Nori, Ori, and Master Bilbo Baggins," Thorin introduced. "This is Lady Yue, the woman I told you about." I quickly matched the names to the faces. "She does not speak the Common Tongue." I assumed he meant English.

"Does she understand it?" the one called Balin asked.

"Somewhat," Thorin sighed. "Communication with her has been a struggle, but we have managed."

I looked around and noticed some of the other dwarves were missing. Kili was the first one I remembered. "Where Kili?" I asked.

"Kili was wounded, so we left him in the safety of Lake Town."

"Lake Town...place?" Thorin nodded. Then I realized something. If I had been shot with poison, what prevented poison from being shot at Kili? "Arrow poison! Kili poison!"

Thorin's eyes widened. "Kili is in Lake Town with his brother, Fili. They are my nephews!" Thorin's tone turned to one of fear. "I do not know if anyone can help him."

"Lake Town where?" I asked. I wasn't sure what I could do, but Thorin needed my help. I wasn't going to let him lose anyone if I could help it. Thorin was confused, but asked Balin for some parchment and something to write with before he drew a map. He probably assumed I wouldn't understand directions in English, given my broken ability to speak it and understand it.

"Why do you wish to know?" Thorin asked as he finished the map.

"I save Kili," I said with determination. "No want you lose more."

"Why? You do not know us."

My response was two words: "Good people." With that, I turned and bolted down the mountain. I jumped into the boat and I began to row until I saw a town. I sighed in relief upon reaching the land the town was on. That had to be Lake Town. The town guards aimed arrows at me, but once I mentioned Thorin's name (that seemed to do a lot), they lowered their arrows and let me in. I walked through the town that seemed to be dead.

Suddenly, I heard screams of pain. I ran towards them and urgently knocked on the door of the house where the screams were coming from. The door opened and a blonde dwarf stood in the doorway. "Kili?" I asked.

"I am Kili's brother, Fili," the blonde dwarf introduced. "An elf?"

I gave up trying to understand things like 'elf' and 'dwarf.' I just nodded and said, "Want help. Let me."

After much talking, most of which was drawing pictures for me so I could understand, I learned that there was a plant called Athelas, or Kingsfoil, that could save Kili's life. I didn't know where it was or what it looked like, so Fili said he would go. "Not alone," I said after Fili spoke. "I with you."

"Can you fight?" Fili asked me.

Fight? I nodded in response. However, I had little to no experience with weaponry. Things like swords and daggers couldn't be that hard, right? I fought hand to hand back at the river, but these creatures, whatever they were, had weapons. I couldn't go in unarmed. "Sword? Dagger?" I asked.

Suddenly, I remembered something. I scrambled around the house and found paper and a quill. I drew a picture of a sword that had a slit in the middle that another blade could easily fit into. "This?" I asked Fili. "Have this?"

Fili shook his head. "If you save my brother and we survive this, I'll see to it that we dwarves make you a blade the finest Middle Earth has seen," he said as he handed me two daggers in their sheaths on a belt. "Let's go."

We left the house, but it wasn't too long before we heard growling above us. I did my best to hide my gasp as Fili pulled me behind some barrels. "Orcs," he said in a voice laced with venom.

"Orc?" I repeated. "What orc?"

"They are creatures that hate everything and kill without care or remorse. They serve Azog the Defiler; he wants Thorin, my brother, and I all dead."

How much of that did I understand? Not much. He said it pretty quickly, too. "No understand," I sighed. I really wish I understood more English, but nothing made sense. All I understood were the names Fili listed and the word 'dead.' I looked up and could see the orc was sniffing out his prey.

We decided to silently follow the orc, but when we realized he was headed towards the house that Kili was in, we had to do something fast. "Athelas," I whispered as I pointed to Fili. He raised an eyebrow. "Azog want you dead. Go!" I think Fili understood my broken English, because he quietly ran off in search of the plant.

I tried to climb up the side of one of the houses as quietly as I could. I prayed that that creature wouldn't smell me. Unfortunately, my luck ran short, as when I reached for the edge of the roof of one of the houses, a piece broke off and I screamed as I fell. The orc turned in my direction. The height wasn't that high, but I knew a fall from the roof would more than likely kill me and the orc was more than likely going to eat me for some meal.

I closed my eyes and expected to feel the ground. Instead, I felt a pair of hands holding me. Did someone catch me? I opened my eyes and looked up. It was the prince! Tauriel was there, too, but she was fighting more orcs. "You really need to be more careful, Lady Yue," the prince said once he put me on my feet. I could feel my cheeks going red. What was this feeling? What was going on?I had no time to ponder this, as it wasn't long before we were quickly surrounded. I unsheathed my daggers nervously. "Can you fight?" the prince asked as he put an arrow on his bow.

"Little," I answered. "No want die. Scared." What I wanted, more than anything, was to go home. Back to Guilin, where there were no elves, dwarves, orcs...nothing. Just regular human beings. I wanted my parents. I wanted for this all to be a nightmare that someone would wake me up from. But it didn't seem like anyone could give me that. I angrily shoved one of my daggers into the throat of one of the orcs and pulled it out. The orc fell to the ground, dead. One down, about what seemed like a million more to go.

The prince (I still did not know his name) and I continued to fight off the orcs and kill them. Once two more fell down, I saw Kili up and on his feet killing orcs. "Back!" I shouted in the hopes that he would understand. "Back in house!"

Kili killed the last orc and fell to his hands and knees. Did Fili not make it back yet? Probably not, because Kili still looked quite pale. I ran over to him, and Tauriel made her way over as well. "We need to get him inside," she said. "Hurry!" I nodded and picked up Kili's arms while Tauriel grabbed his legs. We carried him back into the house. Fili still wasn't back, and I was getting very concerned. I sat down and I noticed I was sweating from the whole ordeal, as well as my anxiety over whether Kili would be okay. Legolas stayed outside.

"No die, Kili," I muttered as I prayed to some higher power that would hopefully hear me. Was there a higher power in this strange world? I wasn't sure. However, Kili couldn't die. Sadness followed Thorin, and, though I didn't know him well, I wanted to see him smile.

A tap on my shoulder jolted me out of my thoughts. I turned. "Fili!" I exclaimed in recognition of the dwarf. He nodded and triumphantly held up the plant. "You got it!" Fili quickly gave the plant to Tauriel. She quickly smashed up the plant and spread it over the wound where the poison came from. She said some stuff in another language that I didn't recognize as she did this. Kili was moving and screaming and thrashing from so much pain, Fili and a couple of other dwarves and I had to hold him down. It took some time, but his breathing evened out. He collapsed into sleep. He was no longer in pain.

"It work?" I asked. Fili nodded. "Thank goodness," I said in Mandarin as I sat down in relief.

I fell asleep for a few hours in the house. I didn't realize how much I needed the sleep until I noticed how much better my body felt. I looked down and noticed my clothes were different. Instead of the flowery dress I wore before, I wore a powder blue tunic and black breeches. I hoped it was Tauriel or another female who dressed me in my sleep.

I slowly sat up and looked at Kili. His leg was bound in a cloth and he was still asleep. Clearly, he needed sleep more than any of us. I got up and walked through the house. Oin and Fili were in the kitchen watching a pot of water boil. "Oh, good, miss, you're awake," a man said. I learned that the house we were in belonged to a father named Bard and his daughters, Sigrid and Tilda. This man must have been Bard. "I am Bard, and this is my home."

"Yue," I said as I pointed to myself. I needed to find the prince. I needed to thank him for catching me from my fall off the roof. Not only that, but I had a feeling something bad was about to happen. If I was going to keep Thorin and his men safe, I had to figure all of this out. Hopefully, the prince would have some answers. "Where prince?" I asked.

"He is—" Bard was cut off when no one other than the prince himself came through the door. Bard bowed to him and I curtseyed.

"Come with me," the prince said. How could I refuse? He was royalty. However, Kili was still resting. I looked back nervously and saw Tauriel sitting near Kili. The prince seemed to sense my nervousness, because he said, "Fear not, Lady Yue. The dwarf is in good hands with Tauriel."

I didn't understand what he said, but from his tone of voice, I could tell he was trying to reassure me. I looked at Bard. "Go, Lady Yue. We can look after Kili," he said as he pushed me forward and shut the door behind me. The prince and I walked away from the house in silence. I eyed him warily as we walked.

We stopped on the outskirts of the town in front of some trees. "Why did you save me?" the prince asked. "Before, with the arrow. You do not know me. I mean nothing to you."

That was something I managed to understand. "No want die," I nervously said as I looked him right in the eyes. They were blue, like the ocean, but I could tell they had seen a lot of things over many, many years.

"I can take care of myself."

"Strong, yes. But..." I trailed off. I was unsure of how to say the next part.

The prince looked at me and waited for me to continue. "'But?'" he repeated.

"Bad feeling. Death," I explained as I tried to get the words out. I sighed as I wished my English was better.

"I do not plan on dying. However, if I am to find out where that creature came from and why he wants those dwarves dead, I must follow after him."

I sighed. There was no dissuading him. I couldn't let him go alone, though. "I with you," I said. I could be stubborn when I wanted to be. The prince raised an eyebrow in confusion. "I protect you, Prince..." I trailed off in the realization that I didn't know his name.

"Legolas," he introduced himself. "You must be strong if you want to protect me, Lady Yue."

"You know me?" I was surprised. I couldn't recall ever introducing myself to him.

"Tauriel told me about you. Yue...that is an unusual name, but unique. Does it mean something?"

"Moon," I answered nervously. So Tauriel told him about me. Now wasn't time to discuss names. "I protect you, Prince Legolas."

Prince Legolas sighed as he realized he couldn't get rid of me that easily. He nodded and led me to a white horse with reins but no saddle. He held out his hands towards me and asked, "May I?" It was then that I realized we would be going on horseback to...wherever we were going. I had never ridden a horse, but as long as I didn't fall off, I didn't think it would be that hard, right? I nodded, and then he picked me up and put me on the horse's back before he sat down in front of me on the horse.

Prince Legolas got the horse to charge forward and I quickly wrapped my arms around him tightly so I wouldn't fall off. We were going so fast; I thought I was going to be sick.

We rode in silence. I assumed Legolas was concentrating hard on guiding the horse to where we had to go. I tried to look at my surroundings, but they were a blur. There was one thing I did notice once the horse came to a sudden stop, and Legolas and I got off the horse. The sight of it made me scream.

"Spider!" I screamed in Mandarin. My eyes were wide in fear and I could feel my body begin to shake. That spider was HUGE! I couldn't take my eyes off of it. Legolas looked at me with confused eyes before he looked past me and saw the spider. He shot an arrow right into its mouth and it collapsed, dead.

"Lady Yue, you need to breathe," Legolas said calmly as he sat me down. He sat down in front of me. Breathe. That was something I understood. "Deep breaths, Lady Yue." I took some breaths in through my nose and then exhaled the air out of my mouth. I couldn't afford to panic. Not if I was going to protect Prince Legolas. "Are you alright?"

I nodded. "Where are we?" I asked.

"Near a place called Dol Guldor," Prince Legolas explained. "We cannot go there. It is dangerous."

"Dangerous? Because spiders?"

"You learn quick. The spiders are one of a few reasons why I cannot go to Dol Guldor."

I nodded in somewhat of an understanding. However, I knew we had to go. I wasn't sure how it happened, but I was suddenly somehow able to understand the birds in the trees above. They were talking about an old man. No, not an old man. A wizard. A wizard who was trapped in that place and needed help. "Hear that?" I asked Prince Legolas. "Birds talking to each other. Wizard trapped. Old man. Grey beard. Need help."

Prince Legolas clearly knew something I didn't, because his eyes widened as he gasped, "Mithrandir?"

"Who?"

"The wizard you described. His name in Westron is Gandalf the Grey."

I looked towards where the spider's carcass lay and realized I had to go into Dol Guldor if I had any hope of saving Thorin and his men, as well as protecting Prince Legolas. I sighed and ran my hand through my hair. "I help him," I decided. Was it dangerous? Yes. Could I die? Yes. Did I have a choice? Not really.

I turned and began to walk away, before Prince Legolas grabbed my arm and exclaimed. "It is too dangerous, Lady Yue! Even if it was not, I am forbidden to go near that place."

"Forbidden? Mean what?" I had never heard the word, so I was unsure of what it meant. However, he looked torn.

"Not allowed." It was then that I realized he was following his father's orders. It looked like I was going on my own.

I wrenched my arm out of his firm grip. I was determined. I didn't want to see anyone die. "I come back soon. Promise," I said. I held out my arms and asked, "May I?" The prince raised an eyebrow but nodded all the same. I wrapped my arms tightly around him in a big hug. I let go after a few seconds, spared him a parting glance, and ran in the direction of the dangerous place I could not pronounce.

When I finally reached the place, which appeared to be an old, crumbling fortress, I was out of breath. I knew I should have gone on horseback. Then again, I didn't know how to ride by myself. Suddenly, as if by magic, a large, buckskin horse whinnied behind me. "What's going on?" I whispered to myself in Mandarin as I carefully reached out to pet it. I stopped myself. I couldn't ponder on this. Time was of the essence. That old man the birds spoke of could be dying, and if he did die, I would never forgive myself.

I steeled my nerves, unsheathed my daggers, and went into the fortress. It wasn't incredibly well-lit. Well, it wasn't, until a small group of fireflies swarmed in front of me and lit up. "No way," I muttered to myself. It was as if I was in tune with most, if not all of the animals, of this world. I silently thanked the fireflies as they led me forward.

After a few minutes, I saw a cage with an old man slumped against the bars. I silently gasped and took note of the orcs that I could see marching away from the cage. Whether they were supposed to be guarding it or not was something I didn't know, but what was important was that they had abandoned their post.

Some of the fireflies flew to the old man and flashed, while others were in front of me and flashed. The man noticed me for the first time and I looked around before I made my way forward. "Help you," I said just loud enough for him to hear me but quiet enough so no one else would hear me. There was a lock on the cage. Whoever was in charge of this place was doing a pretty bad job of guarding it, given all the orcs left their posts. I wasn't complaining, though.

The fireflies guided me to a rock about the size of the palm of my hand. If I banged on the lock hard enough with it, it would come off. I nodded in understanding before I picked up the rock and followed the fireflies to the old man. I looked at the lock, then at the old man, then back at the lock. It looked ancient, like the metal it was made from was starting to rust. Nevertheless, I used the rock. I couldn't afford to make any noise, but I had no choice if I was to save this person.

I banged once, twice, three times, and the lock came off. The old man collapsed into my arms. I wasn't Superman or any other fictional character with super strength. I needed help, but there was only so much the fireflies could do. I hated to drag the poor guy, who looked like he was in desperate need of something to eat and drink, but I had no choice. I got him to lean on me and we made our way behind a crumbling wall.

Suddenly, I heard something. I carefully looked around one side of the wall and saw orcs, lots of them. They were back! That wasn't a good sign. They sniffed the air and I could tell they smelled something, but I suddenly saw another orc. This one was pale and seemed more sinister than the others. This particular orc barked something in a rough language that I didn't understand, and the orcs left with him. Whatever that orc was, I didn't trust it. I was alive, but only for now.

I made a run for it back to the entrance with the old man leaning on me for support. We followed the fireflies. Once we were safely out, the fireflies flew away. I silently thanked them. Then, I saw the large, buckskin horse from before. It waited for me? It whinnied and galloped towards the old man and I. What was going on?

I couldn't ignore the old man. I sat him down against a tree trunk. "You Gandalf?" I asked warily. I hoped this was the right person.

He nodded. "That was very brave of you, Lady Yue," he commented. I understood the words 'you' and 'brave,' so I took that to mean he was complimenting me. I nodded in thanks. I figured by this point, everyone knew me. I had hoped to meet someone who didn't.

I helped Gandalf to his feet and we went in search of a body of clean water so we could both wash up. "My lady," Gandalf started, "I think you have a new friend." New friend? I turned to see that the horse was following us. The horse just wouldn't leave, would it?

I sighed. I went up and pet the horse on his nose before I said, "Name TaiYang (太阳)." TaiYang meant 'sun' in Mandarin, and it seemed fitting because of his color. It reminded me of the sun. He bent down. Gandalf was surprisingly strong for an old man, as he helped me onto TaiYang before he climbed on. I remembered what Prince Legolas did to get his horse going, so I did the same thing only a little more gently.

Gandalf and I rode TaiYang in silence as he carefully trotted along. It was as if he knew where he was going, because not only was I able to see a small body of water in the distance, I could see Prince Legolas next to it holding something. After a few minutes, we arrived in front of Legolas. I led Gandalf to the water so that he could wash up. "You are very brave, Lady Yue," Prince Legolas commented. It was then I noticed what was in his hands: my dizi bag! I held my arms out and he gave it to me. "It gave me hope while you were gone, my lady."

All I could do was smile and pray that the instrument wasn't cracked or damaged in any way. "Thank you," I said.

"Prince, I bring grave news," Gandalf said when he came over from washing up. "Sauron has returned. He is the necromancer. I saw him myself." Too many words, and big ones at that. Did English-speaking people always use so many words in their sentences? "I need to get to Erebor."

My eyes widened as I understood what he meant. Thorin and the others were probably in danger! "Thorin!" I exclaimed.

Prince Legolas and Gandalf looked at me before Gandalf asked, "Do you know him?"

"Um..." I wasn't sure how to answer his question. Not because I didn't understand him, but because I wasn't sure of my relationship with Thorin. He wasn't a friend, but he wasn't an enemy, either. He was more of an acquaintance, but I couldn't pronounce that. "He is friend," I tried.

Suddenly, I heard a loud roar that came from up in the sky. I saw fire. "Dragon," I whispered in awe and fear. It was terrifying and amazing to look at. My eyes were the size of dinner plates. "TaiYang," I shouted. The horse in question ran to me and bent down. Having seen Prince Legolas and Gandalf do it a few times, I climbed onto TaiYang's back. "请问，我想帮助跟回Erebor!" I shouted in fear. Gandalf and Prince Legolas looked at me with confusion all over their faces. I must have been so scared, I forgot that they didn't speak Mandarin. "Um...请问，help get friends!"

"Do you mean to say 'please help me get to my friends?'" Gandalf asked. I nodded. I could work on English later. There were more pressing matters. I nodded.

"I will take you to Erebor myself, Lady Yue," Prince Legolas said. He got on TaiYang in front of me.

"I must speak to the king," Gandalf said to Prince Legolas, who nodded in understanding.

"Take my horse," Prince Legolas offered. The white horse walked up to Gandalf, who quickly got on its back.

"Fly, my friends. And Lady Yue, I can only hope you will be able to help Thorin see reason." Gandalf said to me. I raised an eyebrow.

"What reason? Something happen?" I asked. Gandalf could only sigh before he heeled his horse and went in the other direction. I looked behind me at Prince Legolas. "Go?" I asked. He nodded.

Off to Erebor. I prayed to whatever higher power would listen that everything was alright.