A/N: All characters that you have heard of in other places than this story belongs to Tolkien. With credit to SilverWolf7 for letting me borrow Sarn.

Thank you to all those who have reviewed. My bunny wishes to let you all know that it pleases it greatly, although it has hinted of the fact that an increase in the amount of reviews would result in even faster typing.
Chapter 4: Saviours

The sudden whiz of an arrow flying through the air was the first thing that alerted him, and for a few seconds, Legolas feared the arrow came from an orc's bow. Yet, as the long, slender arrow struck true within the forehead of one of the larger orcs, Legolas could not keep a wide grin from crossing his face, just about the same time as the first of the riding elves attacked.

The orcs quickly lost their will to continue the attack, suddenly finding themselves trapped between Mel, who still had flames licking his hands, and the elven riders. Within long, the few remaining orcs dropped their weapons and fled, screaming, from the camp, clearly preferring their lives over the glory of battle.

Using the bow for support, Legolas climbed to his feet, flashing a broad grin at the elven riders, who he easily recognized as belong to the guard of Mirkwood. However, his smile quickly vanished when he saw three of the archers draw their bows, arrows aimed at Mel.

The dark elf cast a short glance over his shoulder at the wood elf, as if asking if it was someone he knew, before shrugging and did a short movement with his hands, extinguishing the fire. However, the archers had still not removed their aims from him, though it appeared it was more because they did not quite know what to make of the dark elf.

"It's alright," Legolas called out. "He's a friend."

Slowly, the three elves lowered their bows, though it was clear to all that they were still not entirely comforted.

"Are you well, my prince?" Sarn, the commander of the guard, asked as he slid off his horse and walked towards Legolas, carefully walking past Mel in a safe distance. "We heard that you had been captured by orcs."

"Aye, I am well," the wood elf replied. "The only wounds I have are what I received at the hands of the orc, though those have been taken care of by Mel," he continued, nodding towards his dark companion, who appeared to find the whole situation amusing.

"What.. IS he?" Sarn carefully asked, glancing over at Mel as if studying a rare animal.

"He is my friend and saviour," Legolas replied, suddenly realising that he was not truly aware of what his friend precisely was. However, he decided, it was not important at the moment.

"Dakkita," Mel chuckled. "Your kind not nice greet strangers… Yrch be all I hurt."

"In any case," Sarn continued, turning his gaze back at Legolas, seemingly trusting the dark elf to be on their side. "We have been searching for you these last days. It was only by chance we heard the commotion, though, thankfully, it seems we arrived in time."

"If you mean that we're unharmed, then you're correct," Legolas said with a smile. "Are you in for giving us a lift back to the Halls?"

Sarn grinned, scratching his chin as if deep in thought.

"I don't really know," he slowly said, as if truly considering the idea. "We'd travelled for a very long time, and I don't really know if the others would be up for taking two extra persons with them…"

"You want to be used for target practice?" Legolas retorted, fighting hard to keep a smile from showing on his face. He and Sarn had grown up together in the Halls of Mirkwood, and nearly everyone knew that their banter was nothing more than for fun.

"Well, since you're putting it that way, allow me to help you to get onto the horse, my prince," Sarn grinned, his smirk growing wider when Legolas scoffed at the sound of his title.

"Do you want to come with us, Mel?" Legolas asked, looking at the dark elf. "To Mirkwood?"

"Takalita gelin reasta," Mel replied with a smile. "I glad go with you."

"Can you ride?" Sarn asked, raising a sceptical eyebrow as he looked at the dark elf.

Legolas had to bite his lip to keep himself from bursting into laughter when Mel gave the elven guard a scowling look that clearly told the dark elf considered him to have just asked the most stupid question in the history of Arda.

"I think that's a 'yes'," one of the other elves sniggered, not as able as Legolas to hide his amusement.

Two spare horses were brought out from the forest, and, after Mel had packed his few belongings, they prepared to set out. Legolas was aided onto one of the horses – a fine, brown mare with an easy spirit. She was a good steed for those hurt, as she would just follow the other horses in the flock. However, as he saw Sarn drag forth one of the younger, wilder stallions for Mel, he felt a slight twinge of worry for his companion.

Sarn apparently believed to have bested the dark-skinned elf, as he smirked while watching Mel attempt to strap his pack onto the back of the animal. However, the horse would have nothing of that, and continuously moved, resulting in the pack falling to the ground.

Yet, before anyone could begin to find it entertaining, Mel walked around the horse, grabbed its head and forced it to look at him. For seconds, they were watching each other, before the stallion, all of a sudden, lowered its head and stood still, waiting for the elf to finish tying the pack to its back.

For the second time within the hour, Legolas found himself sorely pressed to contain his amusement when seeing the disbelieving look on Sarn's face – though the elven guard's eyes only grew bigger as Mel, supporting himself only with a single hand on the tall stallion's back, swung himself onto its back.

"He's good," another of the younger guards whispered to the one next to him, all of the elves clearly finding Sarn's current expression to be one of the more funny things since the day where Thranduil had mistaken the ink for soap, and had spend three days wandering around with blue hair.

Legolas allowed a smile to cross his face, fondly recalling how his father had ensured each and every elf who made fun with his new hair colour had found their soap containing water-proof colours in the shades of green, purple, and, the most dreaded one, pink. Glorfindel, who had been visiting at that time, had refused to leave his room while his skin was still dyed in the fine shocking red colour of cherries and his hair in a beautiful auburn colour.

Legolas could only guess what might happen to Mel's fine, white, colour-accepting hair, should his father decide to pull that trick again…

The camp had been cleared, and Sarn, taking up the lead, spurred his steed into motion, setting the course towards the halls of Thranduil. Mel gave the stallion a light pat on the side of its neck, and it whinnied happily, setting off in a gallop after Sarn. Legolas' mare quickly caught on, and followed in the same pace, while the rest of the elven party formed up behind them.

It took them nearly three hours, riding in the fastest pace the horses could provide in the forest, before the gates to the Mirkwood Palace finally loomed in the horizon.

"Yakka sharii!" Mel exclaimed, eyes wide in amazement as he looked at the entry.

"That's my home," Legolas grinned, slowing his steed to a light trot as they neared.

The gates swung open at their approach, allowing entrance into the halls. Though it had been years since Sauron had been defeated once and for all, Thranduil still kept the humongous gates, seeing as they had not yet managed to clear out Mirkwood of the oversized spiders that inhabited it and the randomly passing groups of orcs.

They had barely managed to get inside, before Legolas nearly found himself pulled off the horse by a concerned Aragorn, Thranduil and Arwen. Laughing, he quickly assured them that he, despite his injuries, was well, and would soon be completely healed.

Aragorn, being Aragorn, immediately started fussing over the elf's wounds, while Thranduil was issuing orders left and right for rooms to be readied, the healer's hall alerted, and food to be prepared. The only sane one at the moment, Legolas noted, seemed to be Arwen, who grabbed the arm of one of the guards and made him help the woodelf dismount.

All the while, Mel, staying back from the bulk of the commotion, was watching it all with a light smile and eyes that oddly enough appeared to glow in the dimness of the entry hall. He stood by the head of the stallion he had borrowed, stroking its muzzle, and appeared to be talking to it.

Legolas quickly pulled an arm from where Aragorn was clutching it while blabbering feverishly of how they had feared the worst when getting the message about the orc attack, and waved the dark elf over. Immediately, the people surrounding him turned their eyes to Mel, apparently not having registered the entry of Legolas' dark-skinned friend before.

Mel stopped a few paces from the group, placed a hand over his heart, and made a deep bow that clearly was directed at all of them, before straightening up and taking the final step to join their group. Legolas, very briefly, told his family and friends who the dark elf was, and in particular what he had done for him.

Arwen, almost immediately after hearing that Mel was the one who had brought Legolas out of the orcs' camp and taken care of him, wrapped both arms around the dark elf's neck and pulled him into a bruising hug, all the while thanking him from the bottom of her heart for bringing back the wood elf safely. Mel's expression quickly went from surprised to happy, and he gave Arwen's shoulder a light pat, as if assuring her.

"Leglas nakatia rea," he told with a smile. "Need help. I give."

"Leglas?" Aragorn silently mouthed, raising a querying eyebrow .

The wood elf shrugged with a grin. Mel had never really spoken his name correctly, but had, for a reason he had yet to discover, dropped the 'o' in his name. Then again, he had merely called his friend a short form of 'mellon', so he had not exactly found any reason to complain.

"Well, I'm very happy that you saved my son, Mel," Thranduil said with a broad smile. "Will you be staying long?"

"Long as I allowed," the dark elf replied with a light dip of his head at the Mirkwood King.

"Watch it… If you make Ada like you, he'll make you stay until we sail West," Legolas sniggered, undaunted by the fact that he was currently leaning onto both Aragorn and a guard for support.

However, before Mel could manage to reply, they were interrupted by the sound of legs skittering over the stone floor. A huge spider, rising two feet into the air and with a body three feet long – not counting in the legs - came running down the hallway, its palps clicking excitedly against each other as it headed towards Legolas.

"Tarantoun!" the wood elf happily exclaimed, reaching down to scratch the spider's back while it affectionately rubbed its furry head against his knee.

Despite her size, the spider acted more like a dog than a spider, and had always loved to trot at Legolas' heels, ever since she had been allowed into the Halls. She had even taken to go hunting with him and his party, attacking orcs, wargs and other spiders with the same fierceness as the elves and returning to its master for praise. Though Thranduil, in the beginning, had been doubtful about allowing Tarantoun inside, it was a fact that there had never been fewer mice and rats within the Halls as after the spider had moved in…