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It was difficult to determine his date of birth with the shift in calendar from Middle Earth to the Nexus and, furthermore, Legolas had been alive for so long that the years had all become something of a blur. Still, this was the time of year that he usually celebrated his birthday and it felt wrong to let the occasion go without even a passing mention.

Birthdays among elves were normally quiet affairs. Unlike the hobbits who loved to give lavish parties and bestow gifts upon their friends and families and unlike humans who lavished the celebrant with their own gifts, elves used their days of birth to reflect upon the world and how much had changed in it over the long years they had been alive. The older an elf was, the harder it was for he or she to remember what it was like when the world was young and the forced contemplation on a birthday was a good reminder.

When Legolas had left Middle-Earth, it was in the autumn of the world. The world was changing, swiftly, and the age of elves was ending to make way for the age of men. He had left the relative isolation of Mirkwood and embarked on a grand journey with the company of nine, only to get separated at Amon Hen and cast his lot with Gimli and Aragorn. They fought for Gondor and for all men, seeking to end Sauron's reign of terror, and Legolas did not know if they were yet successful - all hinged on the will and heart of a hobbit and his ability to bear the ring.

Not knowing the outcome of the war was something that disturbed him but Legolas had, as of yet, been unable to return to the battlefield. The few times he had made it into Middle-Earth, it was a younger Middle-Earth and the world seemed less troubled. The leaves shone with spring green and not the autumn he knew was the harbinger of war.

So today, he had decided to set up a target in the gardens and loose his arrows into it, wanting to hone his skills even if he could no longer go home and fight for his people and all the peoples of Middle Earth. When he heard the soft footsteps of someone behind him, he did not turn and, instead, merely spoke softly and evenly.

"It is impossible to startle an elf, even one who is far from home. Careful that you do not wander into the path of the arrow, please?"

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Fili could not believe such a thing and yet, the details were convincing and were enough to plant the seed of doubt within his mind. "I am part of a company that includes Gloin, which would have included Gimli were he ten years older," he said, eyes flashing with confusion. "And you call him friend?"

"And which caves does he intend to take you to?" Fili wondered, for they had only reclaimed Erebor. Surely Gimli would not bring an elf to such an unstable place, where Thorin was perched on the edge of gold sickness and prone to snapping at any moment.

"Caves beneath the fortress of the Rohirrim called Helm's Deep. We fought through Moria together and he assures me these caves have no danger in them, only beauty. I remain unconvinced," Legolas said, a smile touching his lips.

"I suppose you have never encountered a Balrog?"

He shook his head, a dark look in his eye. "Moria is a name I faintly know, only as Azanulbizar, a battle which stole many family members away from their dear ones," Fili said. They had fought to reclaim it, fought so hard, but had barely won it. "I have only lived in the towns of men and briefly in the Blue Mountains, but there was no trade there."

"I could see where Moria was once beautiful," Legolas said. Objectively, it must have been, even though elves tended to like trees and the open sky over mountains deep beneath the earth.

"In her glory, she must have been a fine dwarven city. It saddened me to see it overrun with evil."

"I have never seen it otherwise," Fili said, heart heavy with grief to admit such a thing. For he had not seen many of their homes without the pallor of war and battle hanging heavily upon them. Strange, yet, to think that this elf would know more than a dwarf. "And you say it is Gimli that you know? It is very odd to me that you know him and I know his father, but know not of you beyond being our captor."

"We formed a company some time after your sojourn in Mirkwood," Legolas explained. "We travel with four hobbits, a dwarf, two men and a wizard, in addition to myself. Our Company is broken now, though, and I travel with Gimli and Aragorn, son of Arathorn, one of the Dunedain."

Legolas could not help but smile. "Your kinsman is brilliant with an axe. Such mastery."

"He has been practicing, though I dare say he has a ways to go," was Fili's numb response, feeling very out of sorts to think of Gimli grown up and on a quest with such characters. "You are from the future, then, from a time beyond mine."

Legolas nodded. "It seems to be that way. I have been unable to return to Middle Earth during the battle which I was engaged before coming here the first time. All of my journeys through that door take me to earlier days over the span of my long life and I fear I will not get back to aid Gimli on the fields."

"I have gone back," Fili confessed, and he had even stayed long enough to aid in the progress of events, though he still found himself trapped in the inn, as though something terrible loomed above them and ahead of them, something that he could hardly put a name to. "Perhaps the next time I do, I might show it to you," he offers, a begrudging truce.

"I would like that," Legolas said quietly. He knew that bridging the enmity between elf and dwarf would take more than one meeting but this felt like genuine progress.

"It would remind me of a dear friend I have been unable to get back to."

Fili remains somewhat unconvinced that Gimli could be such dear friends with an elf, but the proof seems to be before him and the elf seems sincere. "I do not recall if you have given me your name properly," he said, "but I know you to be Legolas, son of Thranduil, because I have spent time in your dungeons."

"I am he," Legolas confirmed. "And I apologize for that. My father is narrow-minded and arrogant and thought he was doing best by locking you up. I see now that dwarves are not enemies but fine friends and can almost outdrink an elf. Almost."

Fili had not tried to prove his weight in drink in some time, the quest having taken much of his joy and boiling it down into something far more responsible and serious. He had already been steadier, given that he was the eldest, but it seemed magnified now. "And your thoughts on the matter have changed, then? All thanks to Gimli?" he asked, with lingering suspicion at the great wonder of such a thing.

"There is a great evil in Middle Earth, much bigger than a dragon or the enmity between our races. Gimli and I learned to put our arms down and respect one another in face of it," Legolas explained.

"In doing so, we discovered that there were good things about each of us that we had never thought to look for before."

Fili had not thought there to be much to speak of kindly for the elves, but perhaps if Gimli had seen something of worth, then Fili ought to reconsider. He greatly valued his friends' opinion, after all. "And is this what you do here, then? Practice your archery in preparation for this great enemy?"

"What else is there? I cannot get back to the fields of battle and I want to be prepared should I ever return," he said.

"I am honing my skills to use as a weapon against evil. It is as good a way as any to pass the time."

"Perhaps be restful, mind your energy so that when you do return, it is not to a swift death," Fili was of the opinion, seeing as he thought that being restful mattered just as much as honing one's skills. "There are many other worlds, as well, and I have found myself somewhat trapped in several of them."

"I have not explored them in much detail though I did find one full of ice and snow," Legolas said, remembering the place where he glided across the ice with Elsa. It had been absolutely beautiful.

"It was much more pleasurable than my trip over Caradhras."

It was odd to hear talk of such places that he knew the name of, but had never personally seen himself. Fili thought perhaps he was in a stranger world than he knew how to deal with. "I do not know of such worlds, though I have found myself a stranger in many. It seems a continuous trick played upon me, to restrict me from home."

"And I as well. I long for the forest the way I am sure you long for the mountain." Legolas knew from Gimli's words that all dwarves were happiest when in halls of stone deep beneath the rock of a mountain. Gimli had been sorely disappointed to see Moria in ruin.

"It is here, somewhere," Fili said, so convinced and believing such a thing that it would take everything in the power of all the dwarves to make him stop believing it. "I know it is. That door led me here and it cannot be gone. I will find it, much as I believe you convinced that you will find your forest."

"I will aid you in any way that I can," Legolas said, dipping his head lightly in reverence.

"You are of Durin's line and Gimli's kinsman. I am bound by that friendship to aid you if there is any way possible that I can do that."

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