Here we are with Legsie's story. Hope you like it.

Disclaimer : Don't sue me. I don't own it.

'Small cave' apparently meant 'intricate labyrinth of tunnels that look exactly the same' in the Valar's minds, Legolas mused as he walked down a narrow passage that he could have sworn that he had walked down about fifty times before.

Meandering about boring, uniform places tends to make you ponder things, and form conclusions, and Legolas had come to some (not very surprising) realizations about the powers that be. The first was that they hated him, and the second was that they enjoyed tormenting him in order to gratify their own sadistic senses of humor.

Legolas soon came to a fork in the 'road' and was about to turn right when he suddenly stopped. Going left felt, wrong, somehow, and when Legolas went to continue on he was unable to shake the feeling that he was meant to go right.

Telling himself that the effects of the underground were really starting to set in and he had to get out before he lost and more of his sanity, Legolas embarked upon (what he hoped was) the right path.

He had traveled about half a league into the right tunnel, when he began to hear sniffling noises. He reached toward the quiver at his back, and cursed softly when his hand met air.

He didn't however, curse softly enough, for soon after a wavering voice, trying, and horribly failing to be brave, asked:

"Who there?"

'Elbereth!' Legolas thought in shock. 'It's a child. And a very young one too.' Apparently he wasn't the only one that the Valar detested enough to put in this Iluvatar-forsaken cave. 'Cave really isn't the right word though' came the absent minded thought, 'I did proclaim it to be rather more of a labyrinth.'

Shaking his head of the wayward musing, and at the same time deciding that he really needed some fresh air and sunlight, Legolas hurried forward around the bend.

He was right in his assuption that it was a child, and the tear track on the child's face explained the sniffling noises. The boy had dark curly hair, that when moved aside revealed rounded ears. Ah. So the boy was human.

Legolas stared at the child, and the child stared back. Finally, after a rather long time the boy broke the silence.

"Who you?"

Legolas smiled disarmingly. "I am Legolas of Mirkwood. And who are you tithen pen?"

"Swulad Le'las. I Estel." Estel replied.

Legolas chuckled. "Suilad, Estel."

"Lost. Le'las help out?" Estel asked hopefully.

"No. Forgive me, tithen pen, for I am just as lost as you are." Legolas replied. "I have a thought. Why don't you come with me, and we'll see If we can't find the way out."

The child took his hand and they went on together into the ever darkening tunnel.

"So Estel, where do you live?" Legolas asked, trying to piece together the mystery of where the boy had come from and why he was here, of all places.

"In biiiiiiiig house." Estel replied, spirits lifting at the thought of his home.

"Yes but where is the big house?" Legolas tried a different approach.

"Near fally-river."

"Near a water fall?"

Estel nodded.

"You live in Imladris?"

Another nod. And a smile.

"Who lives in the big house with you? Who is your family?"

"Ada, El'dan an' 'Ro-er, Glorfy, an' 'Restor."

"Ah. So your brothers are Elladan and Elrohir, and your father is Lord Elrond?"

"No." The child looked confused. "Ada Is Ada."

The child frowned suddenly and looked up at Legolas.

"Ada says no talk to strangers. You strange Le'las?"

Legolas smiled. "No Estel, I don't think I'm strange." Though there were many that would certainly disagree with that statement, Legolas conceded to himself.

"Okay." The boy agreed happily. He frowned suddenly again. "Ro-er calls me strange. You no talk me no more."

"I will certainly talk to you Estel! I expect your brother was just teasing you. I do not think you are strange."

They continued on in silence for a while until Legolas' curiosity got the better of him.

"How in Elbereth's name did you get down here Estel." Legolas did not think that Elladan and Elrohir would be negligent enough to let any child just walk underground to get lost in a never ending tunnels, especially not one they had accepted as a little brother.

"Me an' El-dan, an' 'Ro-er, ans Glorfy's pet roll, comes to meet Mirkwoody pwince. You know?"

"Do I know the prince? Yes I know him quite well, but what does that have to do with this?" Legolas gestured at their surrounding with his free hand. They could save the revelation of his true identity for a later time. It was good to hear that there was a contingent of warriors searching for them, however. Maybe they had a chance of being rescued… Legolas quickly squashed the notion before he could jinx it and turned his attention back to the child's story.

"I chase buterflee, an' it flees here. Then got lost." Estel looked sad for a moment, before curiosity got the better of him.

"How you get here?"

"I… I, well, I got lost, and thought to seek some shelter for the night." Legolas was a horrible liar.

"It not night yet."

"I suspect that you have been in here for quite some time, titthen pen. By the time I arrived, It was indeed night."

"Kay."

It had been almost an hour before Legolas' keen ears were able to detect the gutteral sound of orc voices. The orcs had followed them in! Legolas cursed loudly in dwarvish. Estel cocked his head upon hearing the strange language.

"What that?" he asked.

"Dwarvish." Legolas replied absent mindedly, still listening for the orcs. He sighed in relief, and returned his attention to the boy beside him.

"Dwaf!" Estel exclaimed happily, and began to repeat the vulgarities that Legolas had uttered.

"No Estel!" Legolas exclaimed in alarm. "Those are very bad words!"

"Then why you say." Estel queried, confused.

"I.." Legolas wracked his brain for a suitable answer "I hit my toe on a stone. But the point is, those are very bad words that I should have said, an neither should you."

Estel appeared to be pondering something.

"You Ada be mad?" Solemn gray-blue eyes looked concerned at the prospect.

"Yes, most likely he would be, tithen pen." Angrier that his son had used the language of the 'Stunted ones' than the fact he had sworn.

Estel stopped and turned to face him.

"Le'las time out." Estel commanded, pointing an authoritative finger to a secluded nook of the cave, where, Legolas assumed, he was to serve his 'time-out'.

"What?!" Legolas exclaimed. The orcs were probably still in the tunnels somewhere, and besides, the thought of a mere toddler punishing him for swearing was preposterous! "Estel I do not believe that is such a wise id…"

"Le'las say bad words, Le'las time out." Estel explained patiently, putting his hands on his hips and raising one eyebrow in an uncanny imitation of Lord Elrond.

Legolas weighed his options. On one hand, they needed to find their way out quickly, but on the other, Legolas had only heard the foul creatures once, and very briefly. And the child was glaring at him.

Legolas sighed. "Very well, Estel." And went to sit in an invisible corner of an orc-infested cave for a time-out doled out to him by a three year old.

OoOoO

85 years Later

"And we have been friends ever since." Legolas finished.

"You taught Aragorn swear words?" Merry asked, shocked.

"Can I hear them?" Pippin asked excitedly.

"Most certainly not Peregrin Took!" Gandalf said sternly.

And they fellowship laughed, and ate together, and admired the stars in the now clear sky.

End.

Isn't it pathetic that the chapter containing the story is shorted than the chapter building up to it? Anyway feel free to rant about it in a review. I'm so shamless. Anyway, thank you for subjecting yourself to my madness.