This fic can be read on its own, but it goes along with my series 'The Strength of Silence.'

At first, Fili thought the prince of Mirkwood was a self-righteous jerk.

As soon as the company was surrounded, the guards asked the prince what his orders were. The prince had made a rather flippant gesture with his hand, and the guards immediately began to search the dwarves for weapons. The prince participated in the search himself, though he didn't say a single word to any of the company.

Fili felt that this strongly passed along the message that the elvish prince thought he was too good to talk to dwarves. His brother was apparently thinking the same thing.

"We didn't even do anything!" Kili shouted at the elves as they were bound, blindfolded, and led quickly in a line through the forest. "Is being lost and starving a crime?"

The prince did not answer Kili, and neither did the other guards. Fili fumed angrily alongside his brother. "What, you're not even going to speak? Or are you just too stupid to understand Westron?"

One of the guards shoved him roughly, but the prince himself kept quiet. Fili and the rest of the dwarves continued cursing and muttering insults at the elves. It did them little use to physically fight back, being as starving and weakened as they were from their time in the forest.

It wasn't until they were led into the cave-palace throne room when Fili's opinion of the prince became slightly altered.

The elvenking calmly ordered for the guards to unbind the dwarves, for they were clearly in no state to escape the fortress. Rather than start to immediately question the dwarves, the elvenking turned to his son instead. Without being prompted, the prince began making gestures with his hands, quickly and expertly, with the king watching attentively.

"Thank you ion-nin, you've done well," King Thranduil spoke aloud to the prince, except he was also moving his hands in the same way that the prince had been. That's when it hit Fili: they were communicating with the voice of the hands.

It was a universal language of Middle Earth. Not everyone knew it, but it was spread out among all the different races. There were several different variations, but all of them close enough to be understandable to those who are familiar with one.

The dwarves called their own variation of sign language Iglishmêk. It was primarily used among warriors for secrecy, but also for those who could not hear or had a speech impediment.

Fili was not completely fluent in Iglishmêk as many dwarves were, but he understood enough to get by. The prince spoke with his hands again, and this time Fili paid close attention and was able to pick up on multiple words: prisoners, tired, food.

"What's wrong with him? Is he deaf?" Kili asked his brother, his voice hushed but filled with curiosity.

"I'm not sure," Fili answered. He'd never heard of an elf who could not hear, nor of one who could not speak. He tried not to feel guilty about calling the elf stupid earlier in the forest.

"He's not," Dwalin cut in gruffly. Neither of the brothers get a chance ask him how he knew this, because King Thranduil and his son turned to focus on them once again.

The elvenking's eyes flashed at the dwarves angrily, as if he knew that they were talking about the prince. Fili fought the urge to shrink back at such an intense gaze. The prince himself, on the other hand, looked quite unperturbed.

"I will handle it from here," Thranduil said, without looking in his son's direction or using his hands this time. The prince took his leave without hesitation, which confirmed Dwalin's statement that he could hear just fine.

As soon as the prince was gone, the king's face hardened as he began to demands answers on what the dwarves were doing and where they intended to travel to.

"What have we done, O king?" Balin spoke. "We have been lost in your realm for days now, starving and thirsty while fighting off spiders. What crimes could we possibly have to answer to?"

"It is a crime to wander my realm without permission!" The king snapped. "You have disturbed my people and interrupted our feasting, three times nonetheless. Now answer my questions or you shall be locked up in my dungeons!"

None of the dwarves answered the king, and as promised they were soon imprisoned in the dungeons of Mirkwood.

There was food waiting for Fili when he was escorted to a cell. It was a tray that contained bread, dried meat, and water. As plain as the meal was, there was plenty of it, and so Fili wasted no time in devouring the meal.

Several days into the confinement, Fili received a visitor.

"How're you holding up?"

"Bilbo!" Fili sprang up from his bed, staring at the hobbit in amazement. Honestly, the further they ventured on this quest, the more the halfling surprised them all. "How did you get here?"

"That's not important," the hobbit said. "What is important is the fact that Thorin is being kept prisoner too."

"He is?!" Fili felt relief, knowing that his uncle was alive.

"Yes, they're holding him separate from the rest of you. I've been doing plenty of spying you see, and I managed to find him yesterday."

"Any ideas on how we're going to get out of this one?"

Bilbo frowned. "I'm working on it. You have no idea how difficult it is to navigate this place. Between the king, his quiet son, and the guards, I can hardly get around without risking getting caught."

"Do you have any idea what the prince's deal is?" Fili asked, for his mind has been troubled by the question ever since the startling discovery. Knowing now that the prince was silent because he could not speak had given Fili a different perspective. After all, the prince had told the king that they needed food and rest; he couldn't be as bad as the king himself.

The hobbit cocked his head. "What, you mean his sign language? All I know is that it makes him ten times more difficult to sneak around!"

They could speak no more on the matter, for Bilbo needed to speak to the other dwarves, and he had little time until the guards would make their rounds again.

Days later, as they made their escape and floated down the river in barrels, Fili encountered the prince once more as the elves and dwarves worked together to fend off the group of orcs attacking.

The prince, who Fili had learned was called Legolas, danced across the slopes (and the heads of several dwarves) as he killed orc after orc. There was a lot going on at the time, but the prince was in Fili's sight for a good portion of the battle. That was why, when he saw an orc coming up behind the prince, he whistled to catch the elf's attention.

'Behind you!' Fili signed, and the prince's eyes widened as he turned just in time to fend off the orc that had snuck up on him.

Fili breathed a sigh of relief as the prince easily shot the orc between the eyes.

The dwarf was then startled when Legolas turned back to him and lifted a flattened hand to his chin. 'Thank you!'

Fili never mentioned the small bit of interaction between himself and the prince to anyone, but using the voice of the hands had left him with a certain sense of solidarity, and possibly fondness for the elven prince. It really was a shame that things were so different compared to the old days, but at the same time Fili found it bizarre that elves and dwarves were once such good friends.

He couldn't truly imagine himself or anyone even remotely related to him ever befriending an elf, but it was still a rather entertaining notion.

Well, one thing was for sure. Fili couldn't wait to tell the people at home that he had encountered a mute elf! Apparently the legends were wrong, and elves were not as perfect as the world believed them to be.

Once they neared Laketown, there were more important things to think about. They were ready to take back their home, and his uncle would have his rightful place on the throne.

Great things were going to happen soon, Fili was sure of it.

This idea came to me after finding out that Tolkien's dwarves have their own variation of sign language called Iglishmêk.

Comments are greatly appreciated, as feedback often gives me inspiration!