Legolas rapped gently on Katie's door late the next morning. He had seen to it that a room and some food were prepared for her before she had turned in the night before. She had seemed curious about her surroundings, but too tired to ask many questions. He hoped she would be more herself this morning.

In a moment, she opened the door to him.

"Good morning," he said pleasantly, "I trust you slept well?"

"Yeah, all except the part where I rolled onto my arm in the middle of the night." Katie grimaced. "That wasn't any fun."

Legolas couldn't help but smile. She was back to her old self. "Clumsy human," he said affectionately, invoking the old teasing again.

Katie grinned to hear the familiar phrase. "Shut up and take me to breakfast, Robin Hood," she answered him. A passing servant stared.

Legolas laughed. "Come along, then."

He escorted her through the passages, some of which were lit by shafts to the surface, and some by windows that looked out the sides of the hill. Every once in awhile he paused to allow her to examine the architecture or décor. She commented with surprise on how lovely and clean it was—not at all what she had expected from a cave. It was only a little darker than living in a house.

"Somehow, I never expected you to be living underground," she commented to him as they made their way into a small, private dining room.

"This cave is the palace, a strong place and a fortress," Legolas explained. "Most of our people live and hunt in the open woods. I myself spend only part of the year living here, and the rest in my own house, built in a great beech not far away." He pulled a chair out for her and began to serve her from the sideboard. The rest of the house had eaten already and were occupied elsewhere, so they had the dining room to themselves.

Legolas himself had waited to eat with Katie, and now sat down with her at the table. After awhile, he looked up and watched her.

Feeling his gaze on her, she glanced up. "What?"

Legolas shook his head. "You are different, now—like your grandmother. I know not how such a change could have been wrought in you." He paused. "But you have hardly changed a bit in face or form since last I saw you! How long has it been, for you? Surely you do not age as slowly as an elf."

Katie smiled. "No, although I wish I did. It's been nearly two years—more, really, if you add in the months I spent in Rivendell the last time. I get very confused about that. Anyway, it's been about a year and three months since the last time I was here." Legolas didn't answer. "Why, how long has it been here in Middle-earth?"

"Since last you visited Rivendell, it has been sixty-four years," Legolas answered quietly.

Katie's eyes widened. "Sixty-four years?" she repeated incredulously. "You're kidding! Holy crap!"

Legolas couldn't help but grin at her colloquialisms. But she wasn't watching him. She was shaking her head in wonderment. "Sixty-four years," she repeated quietly. Finally she shook herself. "Well, it's a good thing my friends were elves, then, isn't it?" she said brightly.

000

After she had finished eating, Legolas took her to the Great Hall to present her properly to the king. The passages which led to this room were lit with red torchlight, and the pillars of the hall itself were hewn of living stone. There Thranduil sat on a chair of carven wood, wearing a crown woven of slim willow wands and twigs of evergreens, for it was winter, and he held a staff of carven oak. Some of the elves of the court stood about the room.

Katie waited in the back of the hall while Legolas approached the throne and saluted in the elven manner. "My lord, may I present Katelyn Elvellon of Pennsylvania," he said formally.

Katie moved forward to stand before the king, and curtsied. Legolas was impressed. Her time in Middle-earth was paying off—she could curtsey quite as gracefully as any human woman born to it, and moved much more easily in a long dress than she used to. She also seemed to understand the kind of respect due his father. His friends in Rivendell had taught her her manners well—or perhaps it was the fact of living with elves for a few months. It tended to make one more like them, it seemed.

"Your Majesty," she said again, the same way she had in the woods the day before.

Thranduil rose and came forward to meet her. "Welcome to Mirkwood, my dear," he said warmly. "How is your arm?"

"Feeling much better," Katie replied gratefully. "I'm impressed at the skill of your healers. I've never seen a splint quite like this before."

Legolas had of course told his father where Katie came from and about his own visit there, so Thranduil understood. "Perhaps you would like to meet our healers and learn some basic care from them?" he suggested.

Katie nodded and smiled. "That would be—interesting. Thank you."

Legolas smirked. He was almost certain she had been going to say, "That would be cool."

"Now you must meet the rest of our family," Thranduil continued. Two elves, male and female, stepped up. "Katie Elvellon, this is the Crown Prince Taurion and Princess Feriniel." Katie and Feriniel curtsied, and Taurion saluted her.

"It is a very great, and by no means unwelcome, surprise to find you in our realm," Taurion said pleasantly.

"Surprises seem to be in the air this morning," Katie answered with a chuckle. "I didn't know Legolas had any siblings!"

Feriniel turned to her younger brother with a mischievous grin. "How like our Greenleaf to try and disown us!"

Legolas made some protest, but his siblings merely laughed. Feriniel turned back to Katie. "He has told me that you exasperated him very much when first you met, and that you tease him quite a lot."

Katie's cheeks went a little pink, and she opened her mouth, trying to find some polite but truthful reply. She finally nodded wordlessly.

Feriniel merely slipped her hand through Katie's elbow. "Good," she said confidentially. "We shall get along famously. He requires a bit of teasing to keep him in line!"

Legolas groaned and rolled his eyes, trying to hide a smile. "The two of them working together? Valar protect me!"

000

Legolas and Feriniel took Katie on a basic tour of the palace. "Of course, there are a multitude of smaller caves leading off this, and the main cave extends far back into the hill," Feriniel told her. "It would take a long time to show you all of it."

They ended up in the healers' ward, which occupied a central location not far from the front doors. As they entered, the elves working there looked up and greeted them gaily. Katie seemed bemused by the number of languages they had spoken in—Common, Sindarin and Silvan. She managed to answer back in Common and Sindarin, at least.

An elflings was there, having a scrape bound up by an adult elf, who was speaking soothingly to him in Silvan. The elfling looked up at the three who had come in. He saluted Legolas and Feriniel—Feriniel nodded back kindly and Legolas returned his salute gravely—then stared at Katie and spoke to her in Silvan.

"He asks you your name," Legolas translated for her.

"Katie," she told the child.

"Ceidi?" he repeated.

"Close enough," she laughed. "Was that Nandorin?"

Legolas was impressed. "Yes. How did you guess?"

"I took history lessons from Erestor the last time I was here," she answered off-handedly. "That didn't sound like Sindarin, so I figured it had to be Silvan."

"Hm. You are not as ignorant as you look," he said slyly.

She opened her mouth to retort, but Feriniel beat her to it. "Do not mind my brother; he is only jealous of your intelligence," she said conspiratorially.

Katie nodded mock-seriously. "Indeed, he hath more hair than sense, and more faults than hairs," she quipped.

Legolas tried to look insulted, but began to laugh. Feriniel was laughing already. "You know him well!" she hooted.

Legolas noticed that the one healer who had greeted them in Common had listened to this exchange with amusement, and a bit of surprise.

"Katie," he said, drawing her forward to the healer, "may I make known to you Doronien, a healer of Mirkwood? Doronien, this is Katie Elvellon." Doronien and Katie curtsied to one another. "Katie would like to learn a little basic field medicine," Legolas explained to the elleth.

"Of course," Doronien said immediately. "I see you are wearing a little of my colleagues' handiwork yourself," she added, gesturing to Katie's splinted arm.

"Yes, that's one thing I'd like to learn: how to splint things," Katie said, taking her up immediately.

Doronien gestured for her to follow her over to a table. As she was following, Katie bumped into another healer.

"Oh! Nin goheno," Katie apologized immediately in Sindarin. Legolas whispered to his sister, "Erestor has taught her well!"

The healer responded politely in Silvan. "He speaks no Sindarin," Doronien explained. "Most of our people do not speak Common, as we do not often leave our realm. Some of us speak Sindarin—healers in particular, for we have augmented the knowledge of our art from the teachings of the Sindar and Noldor. But most elves you will meet in Mirkwood speak only Nandorin." Katie nodded in understanding.

Legolas and Feriniel left soon after. Katie and Doronien were deep in conversation, discussing what Katie referred to as "First Aid". Legolas departed shaking his head. He was pleased with the changes he saw in Katie—the same joyful personality as always now seemed to be matched with a greater thirst for knowledge and wisdom, and a greater sympathy for others. Part of that, he supposed, had been developed from spending a few months in Rivendell. The other part must have come from the great change he now sensed in her. She was indeed her grandmother's child.

TBC

AN: Descriptions of the Great Hall come directly from The Hobbit.

In case you're wondering, Taurion and Feriniel are Sindarin for "Son of the Forest" and "Daughter of Beeches" (the Mirkwood elves' favorite tree). I just thought they seemed to match "Greenleaf" quite well. Legolas's own name is a wood-elf spelling of a Sindarin name. I don't know wood-elf spellings, but I wanted to do the same with his siblings' names. There's an article on councilofelrond dot com about the Ruling Family of Mirkwood, which is quite interesting, and I definitely recommend it to anyone know wants to know more. For instance, it notes that, "The Woodland Realm was founded as a political asylum, so to speak, for Sindar trying to get back to their roots." The article discusses why nobody in the trilogy refers to Legolas as a prince, how old the author thinks Legolas really is, etc. I'll be using info from it for this particular fic.

Doronien is a feminine form of "Oak". The name is actually Sindarin, but it wouldn't have been uncommon for elves to translate their names into other languages, so that's alright. Most of the Silvan Elves in Lórien spoke only Silvan, so I thought it likely that the same held in Mirkwood. Silvan Elves were not as noble, wise and powerful as the Sindar or Noldor, so I thought it was likely that the healers learned from the other kindreds, although being so close to nature, they probably knew quite a bit of herbal lore and medicine. Wow, fanfiction takes a lot of research, doesn't it?

RavensDestiny: I hadn't thought of that, but you're right. There isn't much fanfic written on Mirkwood. I had to back and read the bit of The Hobbit where they're in Mirkwood, just to get my facts straight. Thanks!

Friendshipanda: Thank you! I enjoy writing them.

Alaterial567: —sings— "Last night you had a dream you was the homecoming queen, Today you're eighteen, Happy birthday, Irene…" Creation East had TobyMac, too. :) lol During the summer, no, I do not have a life. And I have very little life during the schoolyear, either. My roomie will attest to that: she says I'm always either reading or writing fanfic. Yes, her reaction to hobbits should be interesting to witness. Joy Williams has such a beautiful smile!

theycallmemary: By this time, Sauron would've moved to Barad-dûr. Yeah, I was surprised when Tolkein described the elves galloping through the woods on a hunt; you'd think they'd run into trees. Yes, Katie's little time in the forest didn't end up a whole lot longer than last time, did it? I just couldn't pull it out any longer. It's very interesting that they didn't have chickens in Egypt. I'll add that to my little mental list of bizarre trivia. I collect that stuff. You'll find out about Elrohir and Aragorn soon enough.

Madd Hatter: Hmm, spiders… You may have given me an idea…

WeasleyWoman05: Thank you very much! I'm glad I seem to have achieved my goal of writing a non-clichéd "girl falls into ME" story. (BTW, I'm guessing from your screen name that you're a Potter fan—have you read my HP fic? I know, I'm advertising shamelessly.)

EresseElrondiel: I'll break the news now, this will not be a tenth walker fic. Because you're right, there's no reason Katie would go along. She's a bit like me when it comes to fighting skills—we'd both be more of a hindrance than a help to the Fellowship. (Although, we must remember that neither Merry nor Pippin had any fighting skills, either. In a way, they're the least likely candidates for the job…) I'm glad you find her "fairly brilliant". I'm never quite sure how she comes off to everybody. Always happy to collect your two cents!

Laer4572: Quite true. Must remember that: have them go off on each other while Thranduil's in the room. Heh.

IwishChan: All the arguing is now in the spirit of friendship. :)

Tara: Thank you! Do you have an account on ff dot net so I can read your work? That essay on death sounds interesting, too. When I got to the line you wrote about eating cheesecake and coke, I started laughing. I'm glad you feel like you can talk to me about anything! I always think it's awesome when I get to talk to a writer I admire, or to someone who reads my work. You can always email me (lunashau at hotmail dot com) or message me on AIM (screenname: Artekka)!

Thanks also to Fk306, Melisande Mab and RenegadeKitsune! Congratulations, you guys! You beat the stats! More than ten percent of readers of chapter two reviewed! Hugs to everybody from the author and the canon character of their choice!

Please review! Every time you don't review, a poor woodland elf gets eaten by a giant spider!