Chapter Two: Who Are You?

Author: LegolasBuffy, a.k.a Mel

Genre: Fantasy/Action/Adventure/Romance.

Pairings: Buffy/Legolas

Summary: Buffy is sent to Middle-Earth Post The Gift to help a ring-bearer with his burden and maybe find some happiness in the end.

Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer belongs to Joss Whedon. The 'Lord of the Rings' book series belongs to J.R.R. Tolkien and Peter Jackson. The plot is my own.

Timeline: Set before the Fellowship by about 23 years, and is set in the movie verse.

Feedback: Yes! Please!

Author's Notes: Thank you to all that have reviewed this story so far, special thanks goes out to goldenshadows, DiMeraslover, Dreamer with a Dancer's Heart, Claddagh, spk, BuffyandDracoLover, Toniboo, enchantedlight, shirarock, and Exiled-Away. I would also like to say that I don't have a beta, so sorry for any errors on my part. And that I don't know that much elvish, so just pretend that the elves are having hole conversations in it, K. Thanks to everyone for taking the time to read this little story.

It had taken Legolas most of the day to convince his father that he had if fact saw some strange vision, then it took the rest of the day to convince him that his youngest son needed to go see the Lady of the Light for help. Needless to say his father was not pleased with him. He had set out early this morning with two bodyguards and a small battalion of elves that would take him to the edge of the forest. It had been two days since that strange vision with the even stranger women in it. And he had seen the woman again. He was pulled into it by some will other then his own. But he can clearly remembered the woman with her long blonde hair, her small frame and her eyes. They were an odd color, a green with brown in it. He had never seen anything like them but her eyes told him that she had wisdom for one so young. And they also carried pain and grief as well. Her eyes were far older then they should be for any mortal person. If she was if fact in the forest of Mirkwood, like she claimed to be early today, then she was a good as dead already. There was no way that one mortal, let alone a woman could survive the dangers here. But he had to look, he felt a pull with this woman that he didn't understand and hopefully The Lady would be able to explain it all. But first he had to see if he could find the strange woman.

"Ernil ní n" (my prince)

Legolas was pulled out of his musings by Sadron, one of his bodyguards.

"We should stop here to let the horses rest. The dangers will be great once we leave the path my Lord." said Sadron.

"We cannot linger for long, mayhap an hour no more." said Legolas.

Sadron gave the command for the group to rest and everyone disembarked from their horses and went about getting them water and feed. Legolas took a look around and sighed. He had no idea if he was going to be able to find this woman or why he was even going to try really. The area that she had showed him was to the south and was full of dangers. It took him some effort to get the others to help him look for her, but once he said he was going with or without them they all soon agreed to go into the depths of forest. If the Orcs haven't killed her already it would be by the grace of the Valar that he found her at all. Night was falling and it would make the road all that more treacherous for them and her. He was once again drawn into thinking about her eyes and what kind of pain they held. What had she been through, what had she seen that would put that pain there. He wanted to know more about her, and he felt a need to protect her and remove that pain from her eyes. The hour pasted quickly for him lost in his thoughts as he was and they were soon back on the road. They turned from the elf path and headed into the woods with torches held by each to light the way and keep the spiders at bay.

Buffy look over at the giant spider in front of her with a look of horror. Never in her life had she seen one so big. It was the size of station wagon with eight hairy legs, its mouth was three times as big as her head with fangs that dripped with saliva. With a multitude of eyes above it, eyes that gleam in the small amount of moon light that filtered through the trees over head. It let out a sound that made Buffy shudder. I never knew spiders could make sounds, she dumbly thought as it lunged for her and she barley dodged out of the way.

She pulled out one of her draggers and face the monster as best she could and suppressed a giggle when she thought of Dawn facing this with her fear of the small spiders back home. She always screamed a high pitched scream and ran from the room calling for help along with kill it, kill it. As it scurried around to face her, Buffy jumped into the air and brought the dragger down to land a blow to it's head. But she underestimated it, it was fast. She landed on the ground with a soft thud and rolled to her right as one of it's legs came slamming down on the spot she use to be in. She threw her arm out and sliced into it's leg, but it made no wound that would stop the creature, it only screamed and kicked Buffy a good twenty feet from it right into a tree.

Buffy hit the tree and slide to the ground, the wind knocked out of her, with spots dancing in front of her eyes for a second. Her broken arm had slid out of her make shift sling and was hanging uselessly at her side and fresh blood pooled out of her wound in her shoulder. She pushed herself to her feet and looked up into the spiders mouth as it came dangerously close to biting her head off, instead it only got the tree. Buffy rolled under it and shoved her dagger into it's belly as far as it would go, then repeated it as fast as she could. It screamed in pain and Buffy was almost impaled by it's stinger as it striked out at her. She rolled one way then another to avoid it all while trying to inflict as much damage as possible with one hand.

The elven search party went on high alert when the sounds of the screaming spider reached their ears. It was far off in the distanced, but it did not bode well for anyone in the forest. Legolas looked over at Sadron with a mix of wonder and despair in his eyes.

"The trees are whispering, my Lord. Do you hear it."

"Yes, Sadron, there is a battle to the south of here, the trees are weary. They don't want us to go further then this."

"Perhaps we should make camp here for the night. It is always best to heed the warnings of the trees."

Buffy was trapped, the spider was laying on top of her as dead as can be, but she couldn't move it, at least not with her one arm. She was on it's left side between it's second and third legs and it's dead weight was more then her damaged body could handled at the moment. She tried again to push her was out from under it and gave a sigh when it didn't move at all. Well this sucks, she thought. Her eyes glanced to the trees above her and tears formed in her eyes. The fact that she was utterly alone in the wilderness, in a new world with no help in sight finally hit the slayer and it hit her hard. The tears flowed freely down her face as the depression wormed it's way through her mind and body. She beat uselessly on the spider and took out all of her frustrations on it blindly by the tears that had overwhelmed her.

"I shouldn't be here, I did my job. I died to save the world, to save Dawn. Why can't they let me go," she whimpered as exhaustion worked it's way through her limbs.

Her pack was digging into her back and the spider had her trapped from the chest down. Buffy felt her eyes grow heavy and she forced them to stay open as long as she could, but it seemed that the Slayer was not up to the task , both physical and mentally and soon her eyes shut.

Legolas sat on a fallen log in front of the camp fire. The pained screams of the spider had died down a long while ago, but the trees still whispered a warning of danger to the group of elves that they didn't take lightly. There was something down south that the trees were unsure about. He looked around the campsite and sighed, this was not going how he wanted it to. He felt an urge to find the woman, Buffy, she had said her name was. It was a feeling that he had never felt in all his long years that was driving him into the darkness of Mirkwood. He felt a familiar tug in the back of his mind and the campsite faded away around him. He blinked his eyes a couple of times and looked around. He could tell that he was still in Mirkwood, but he was further south. He took a couple of steps forward and soon came across the body of a dead spider sprawled upon the forest floor. And laying under that body was the woman that he was searching for. Her eyes were closed and there was blood from a rather nasty cut over one side of her face. His eyes flowed down to her shoulder and saw the arrow protruding from her right shoulder and he knelt down to examine it further.

It was an Orc arrow that much he could tell, but it didn't look like it was laced with poisons. Her breathing was slow, so he knew that she was still alive. One of her arms was swollen and looked to be laying on the ground at an odd angle and the other was holding an elvish dagger close to her. She was covered in her own blood in many places and she was dirty and looked nothing like the last time he had saw her in the dreamscape. He brought his eyes back up to her face and found her staring up at him. He let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding and tried to think of something to say, but she spoke up first.

"You know, you could help me out from under this thing, instead of just staring at me."

"I don't know if I can, my Lady. This is a dream. But mayhap I could help your dream self out."

"Oh, well that's just peachy. I finally see someone I think is real only to be told I'm dreaming it all up. Stupid Powers sending me here with no civilization in sight" she muttered.

Legolas reached down and lifted the spider a few inches off of Buffy and she pushed her way out from under it with her feet all the while listening to what he was saying. She ginger stood up and looked over at him.

"I'm real, Lady Buffy. And there is civilization here as well."

"Wait a minute, I've seen you before. The river in my last dream. So if your real then who are you?"

"My name is Legolas son of Thranduil, Prince Of Mirkwood."

Buffy blinked for a moment, wrapping her mind around the fact that he was a prince when she caught sight of his ears.

"What are you, exactly. I know your not human with those ears and all."

"I'm of the Elder." And at her blank look he add "An Elf."

Buffy looked the elf up and down and busted out laughing. "That's the funniest thing I've heard in a long time. Shouldn't you be short and work for the bearded guy named Santa."

Legolas didn't know if he should take offense to her behavior or not. "Who is this Santa that you speak of. I've never heard of this elf. There is only one elf that I know of with a beard

Buffy laughed even harder at this and was able to sputter out "No, I guess you wouldn't of. And it's a long story, that I won't get into."

"Did you do this to the spider?"

"Um…yeah. It's kinda what I do."

"That's impressive for a mortal woman of your size."

"Hey, watch it. Size doesn't count all that much."

"You have great strength in you is all I meant. But the woods are not safe. The we reached you the safer you will be."

"Well I have to agree with you there. But I have no idea were I'm going."

Legolas took a quick look around them and pointed in one direction. "You need to be heading north."

"What…I just came from that way."

"You are heading south….that path is filled with dangers from Dol Guldur. The mountains are treacherous for anyone. You must head north. Keep a close watch out for Orcs, wargs and of course spiders. And the worst of all is the Nazgûl. You must be extremely careful of them."

"This just keeps getting better and better."

"Do you have any supplies with you?"

"Yes, a few things, but not much."

"Then you will die all the much sooner. You must heed my words if you are going to survive; travel as fast as you can, north away from the mountains. I will find you along the way. Only rest for a few hours a best. Mirkwood is home to great evil; do not let your guard down. Travel during the day, and rest at night with a fire, it will help to keep the evil away. I will be able to find you again in your dreams as well."

"Wait….this is just great. I don't understand any of this. How are you going to be able to find me in this hellhole? And how can you find me in my dreams. How do I know any of this is real? I just want to go home," Buffy sobbed out at the last second.

"Trust me, I will find you."

Buffy looked up into his eyes and knew that he would find her and that he was real. She wasn't sure how she knew this she just knew it. She reached out and grabbed his hand as he started to turn away. Buffy felt a surge of pleasure go through her when they made contact and she looked up into his questioning eyes.

"I don't know why, but I do trust you," she said as she let go of his hand.

"That is good to hear. I am traveling south with a small band of elves. We should meet up soon. In a few days at the least."

Buffy saw that Legolas was slowing fading from in front of her. "Wait, don't go...not yet." But it was too late. Buffy opened her eyes and looked at the forest with the trees that were huge and gnarled, with their twisted branches and dark leaves. She let out a sigh and looked down at her chest prepared to try lifting the spider again, but found that it was no longer on her. It was laying harmlessly on the ground a few feet from where she was. Now how the hell did that happen, she thought.

TBC….