One week later

After a whole week of relaxation Thranduil was enjoying the last day of complete company of his wife and child.

They all went riding together without the guards much to Thranduil's protests. They rode through the vast green lands of the property even riding up to Dale for a visit. There they saw the many merchants selling just about everything man could offer. Legolas was simply fascinated by the humans and their ways, a fascination Thranduil hoped was just a phase. After a long day in the city the elves left back for their palace.

After arriving back they had dinner, but this time like the rest of the week since the incident Thranduil simply let Lorraine feed little Legolas. However after dinner the family relaxed by the large fireplace in the palace as Thranduil read Legolas a story of the war of the ring, a toned down version as to not scare his little elfling, until he fell asleep. Lorraine and Thranduil then put him in his crib, and walked to their bedroom. They then got into their bed and chatted for a bit.

"I don't want this to end" Thranduil said quite clearly.

"Well unfortunately it has to for you are the king and have to run our kingdom"

"But I don't want to stop having time for you and Legolas, I mean he'll only stay a little baby for so long"

"You can always find more time for him and me, I mean it won't always be this busy"

"But I don't want to have to find it I want to have it, I don't want you and Legolas to resent me for not being around like my nana and I did with my ada."

"That won't ever happen, for unlike you and your ada, me and Legolas or at least he will know you want to be with us."

Thranduil began to feel better.

"How is it you always know what to say to me"

"It is because I am your wife and know what makes you tick, now good night my love I'll see you in the morning"

Lorraine kissed her husband then turned to the other side and closed her eyes.

"Goodnight my love"

Thranduil then turned to the side his wife was on and put his arms around her as if he would never let her go for all eternity and fell asleep. Little did either of them know that a greedy and destructive creature looked enviously at the shining silver palace.

All was silent and quiet nothing stirred but the guards on watch. Then there was suddenly the sound of large wings flapping. The guards looked around to see where it was coming from, but then heard nothing for it was silent once again.

Then a great ball of brilliant fire shot out of nowhere and hit the east side of the palace with much force. Shortly after a great thud and roar were heard, all the guards gathered to find the noise came from a great red dragon.

The dragon had great yellow eyes, large sharp claws, he was the size of mountain, with enormous and terrible wings, and scales more crimson than rubies.

"I was on my way to Dale to pillage it of its treasure, but saw this place and figured I should make a small side plunder!" Smaug laughed maniacally.

All the guards rushed to try and kill the monster, but had no black arrows in which to do so which resolved them to their arrows. To no avail the arrows were more like mere toothpicks to the beast.

All the noise of dragons and battle woke up Thranduil and Lorraine causing them to seek out the source of the noise. Thranduil went to their balcony to see the great battle going on between the elven soldiers and the dragon.

"You pathetic little elves clearly have nothing I want so I will take my leave"

The dragon rose from the ground and flew off into the distance away from the burning palace.

Thranduil was shocked by the sight, but the smell of burning wood brought him out his shock and called him to action.

"Lorraine come on we have to get out of here the palace is on fire"

Thranduil grabbed his wife's hand and pulled her to the door. As soon as he opened the door they saw the flames of destruction blocking their way. He then proceeded to cover his feet, pick up Lorraine, and run through the flames. They ran out of the palace as fast as possible dogging burning debris and flames on their way out. After five minutes of straight running they got out of the building and Thranduil dropped to his knees and let go of Lorraine as guards came and surrounded them.

Lorraine fell and quickly recovered as she looked over her husband and his burned clothing happy to find no major burns on him. Thranduil then proceeded to do the same to Lorraine after finally catching his breath.

"Are you alright, are you burned!"

"I'm fine I'm fine thanks to you" it was then a heart stopping thought came into her head "where's Legolas!" she panicked.

Thranduil's heart stopped and eyes widened as he quickly looked to the burning building. He didn't even think about it as he ran towards the burning palace only to be stopped by guards.

"Your majesty we can't let you go in there please we will fetch him" the guard insisted as he grabbed the struggling kings arms.

"My son is in their, let me go!"

Thranduil used all his strength to get out of the guards grasp and he ran into the burning building.

"Your majesty wait!"the guard yelled all too late.

The queen only sat there in tears at the fact she left her child without a second thought, and that this mistake may cause her to lose both her child and husband.

Thranduil ran through the flames and debri to the wing in which Legolas was in and as he got closer he could hear the terrified wails of his son. This only made him faster and more determined to get to his son. As he reached the nursery door he kicked it down with all his might. He then saw his son in his crib sobbing with fear, he rushed to his crib, and quickly picked up his crying son.

"It's ok adas got you adas got you" he said trying to calm the shaking and terrified elfling.

The elfling though still crying looked up to find himself in his ada's strong arms and curled up into his adas chest. Thranduil then proceeded to run out only to find the floor around him cracking and breaking as the palace started to collapse.

From outside everyone looked with anticipation at the burning building and hoped their king and prince would get out safely. It was then a guard knew what he had to do as he got up off the ground.

"I'll go in there for him my queen" he yelled as he ran towards the burning building.

It was then the burning building finally collapsed to everyone's horror and terror. The queen screamed as thoughts of a burned child and ada popped into her racing mind. She sobbed even more thinking that her husband and child could be dead out in the debri. Minutes past and there was no sign of life from anywhere in the burning debris. It was then they saw the king bursted from the burning rubble one hand over the left side of his face and the other tightly clutching Legolas. The queen rushed over to her husband and hugged him very hard causing him to wince in pain. She then removed his hand off his face shocked to reveal a sever and deep burn. Lorraine then quickly grabbed the crying Legolas from his arms and looked over him to find not a scratch as she tried to simultaneously to calm him down. Thranduil then started to feel weak and fell to the ground.

"Thranduil!" The queen screamed as she saw her husband collapse.

She handed Legolas to one of the guards causing him to wine a bit and reach towards his nana. The guard Lorraine handed Legolas to luckily had elflings of his own and knew how to calm him down quickly. This distracted Legolas causing him to be quite enamored with this guard. Lorraine put her head to Thranduil's chest and was relieved to hear a heartbeat. It was then one of the healers, they had on staff, came to look at the king.

"Well he's going to be fine, but that burn on his face will probably never heal, the best I can do is use an illusion spell on it"

"That's fine, I'm just happy he's alive"

"My queen, I would suggest we start our journey back to the palace" the guard who was holding Legolas said as he gently handed back the now sleeping elfling.

"I do believe your right, do we have any horses left"

Lorraine then strapped the tiny sleeping elfling to her back making sure not to wake him up.

"Yes my queen, we managed to get them out before the stable burned down"

"Alright then everyone to a horse we must get back to palace now!"

It was quite clear that Thranduil wasn't the only one capable of being a leader in tough situations, but then again that's one of the reasons Thranduil fell in love with her.