A/N: So this is my first Legolas/OC fic. I wasn't originally planning on writing one of these, as there are just SO MANY here, but this idea of a language barrier has been rolling around in my head for a bit. It was actually Caladhiel999's story, A Warrior's Heart, that inspired me to write this. So the beginning of the fic might be pretty similar to that, but I'll be taking my own liberties with this story. You'll see what I mean.

The story starts in Guilin, Guangxi, China, which is in southwestern China. I've been there and it's a lovely (and really hot) place.

As for the LotR/Hobbit timeline: Starts during The Hobbit and goes into all of Lord of the Rings. My OC MIGHT become a tenth walker, I haven't decided yet.

When my OC talks to herself, it will be in Mandarin (well, it will be written in English but spoken as Mandarin).

kanna does not own A Warrior's Heart or Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit. I'll be incorporating elements of the Lord of the Rings books, but the story will primarily follow the movies.

My name is Yue Liu. I was not born Chinese, but I was raised Chinese. I grew up in Guilin, which is located in Guangxi province in mainland China. I was adopted as a baby by a middle aged couple who found me abandoned near the Moon Pagoda (one of the twin pagodas in Guilin) on the night of the full moon. According to my father, that was why they named me Yue. It meant "moon."

My parents wanted me to grow up to be strong and graceful, so they taught me kung fu. They said it was how they stayed young, which made me laugh every time they said it. Whenever I asked why I was at the Moon Pagoda as a baby, however, they quickly changed the subject.

I was homeschooled because I looked different from the majority of kids my age, 24 years old. Whenever I went out, I wore a beanie hat to cover the tops of my ears; even if it was summertime. Why? My ears were pointed and my parents wanted to protect me from the awkward stares I was more than likely to receive. Then again, my long, thick, brown hair hid my ears pretty well, so there wasn't too much of a need for the beanie. Nevertheless, they made me wear it. At least I had a say in what it looked like and got to alternate beanies.

In addition to kung fu, I was also a musician. My mother taught me how to play several wind instruments because she said they were calming (and how she got my father to go out on dates with her, but that was beside the point).

It was a hot summer day. I was wearing light grey sneakers and a flowery dress and a light pink beanie. I was practicing my dizi (a Chinese bamboo flute) at a park near the twin pagodas, when I saw a rabbit limping along. My father always said we should respect nature and all living creatures, so naturally, I packed up my dizi and went after the rabbit. It looked like the poor thing couldn't even hop. "Poor thing," I whispered to myself in Mandarin.

Next thing I knew, one of my shoelaces came undone. I tripped and fell down and scraped my knees. Shortly after that, I was grabbed by strangely dressed people and taken into what looked like some sort of prison cell. Prison? What could I possibly be going to prison for?

"Stop! What are you doing? Let me go!" I shouted in Mandarin. "All I did was get fall over and get lost!"

I did not know whether my words were understood or not as the people walked away after throwing me into the cell. What I did notice, though, was the lock on the cell was extremely old fashioned. I sat down, took off my beanie, sighed, and noticed my dizi was gone. I figured they must have taken it. I sighed. How was I going to get out? Surely my mother and fatherwere worried about me. And I left my cell phone at home to charge. Not one of my better moves.

"So, he has started imprisoning young women now?" came a deep, rough voice in English. I jumped up in surprise and quickly turned around. While I could understand some English, I couldn't speak it myself. At least, not very well. The voice came from a man who was much shorter than I was, but he looked much older than me. He had thick eyebrows, long hair, and a long beard.

"Who are you?" I asked in Mandarin. The man raised an eyebrow. "Who are you?" I asked louder and more assertively in the same language.

"Do I look like I speak your language?" the man asked in English. "Where do you come from? The Grey Mountains? Rohan?"

I had never heard of those places. "Guilin, Guangxi, China."

"Never heard of it. Well, you are a prisoner of Thranduil now. I am Thorin, son of Thrain, son of Thror," the man said.

I started to understand what this man was saying more and more, but it was still hard, because neither of my parents spoke English and were unable to teach me. None of my friends spoke English. Still, I did my best. I pointed to myself and said, "Yue." I looked around and could see there were other men in nearby cells.

"Yue?" I was in shock. This man who did not speak my language was actually able to (somewhat) pronounce my name.

I smiled and nodded before I tucked some of my hair behind my ears. I took a deep breath and tried to use what English I knew. It came out a little shakily, but I asked, "Why here?" in English.

"My men and I were traveling through this forest when we were attacked by giant spiders. Shortly after, we were captured by the elves, and..." Thorin gasped when he noticed my ears for the first time. "Your ears! An elf!"

I was very confused, but I had to hide that when he began to walk towards me in a threatening way. I got into a fighting stance and shouted in Mandarin, "Stay back!" My words fell on deaf ears as he continued to walk towards me. "Stop!" I shouted in the same language, which he ignored. I was getting scared, but I did my best death-glare and he stopped. "What elf?" I asked in broken English and a shaky voice.

"'What elf?'" Thorin asked in disbelief. "You!"

"Guilin, Guangxi, China," I said. "No elf."

"Your ears!"

"My ears?" I softly asked myself in Mandarin as I felt my ears' pointed tips. I shook my head. "You talking about...?" I trailed off in English.

"Do you understand what I'm saying to you?" Thorin asked. I nodded and made a gesture that would hopefully be understood as meaning 'somewhat.' "Do you know where you are?" I shook my head. "You are in Mirkwood."

"Mirkwood?" I asked. "Where Mirkwood?"

Thorin's angry look was replaced by one of confusion. "Do you know what I am?" he asked.

"Man?"

"Yes, but what race?" I shrugged my shoulders as if to say that I didn't know. "I am a dwarf. The future king of Erebor."

"Erebor?"

"The Lonely Mountain?"

I sighed. This was getting nowhere and I silently wished I spoke fluent English. "You are different from the elves who captured us, Lady Yue," Thorin said. "You seem to hold no hate for dwarves."

"No hate. No understand," I replied. It was the truth; I had no idea what was going on. "What happening?"

I became even more confused when a woman with red hair came to the door of the cellar Thorin and I were in. She opened the door and spoke, "I am not going to hurt you. My name is Tauriel. My king just wants to ask you a few questions. I will bring you back when he is done."

The woman called Tauriel stood their in silence, as if expecting me to say something. I looked at Thorin in confusion, as I didn't understand all of what Tauriel said. Then I remembered he didn't speak Mandarin, nor did this woman who had ears similar to mine. I sighed and told her in broken English that I understood. I said to Thorin in broken English, "I come back." I switched to Mandarin when I said, "I will find a way to get you and your friends out."

I knew Thorin didn't understand me, but it was more important that Tauriel did not understand what I said. If I was going to get a lot of people out of this place, I needed a strategy. The language barrier, for once, was to my advantage.

Tauriel and I walked in silence for what felt like an eternity before I was brought to a room with a throne. A man with long, blonde hair and ice cold blue eyes sat on the throne. He wore a crown that looked different from the kinds you'd read about in books. This crown was intricately designed and looked to be made from an old metal.

The man looked really important, so I bowed uncertainly. "A well-mannered lady," the man observed. Whoever this man was, he was probably the king. I looked at Tauriel in hope of getting some form of interpretation, but received nothing. I looked back at the king and nodded.

I looked around the room, unable to conceal the fear in my eyes. I took some deep breaths as I looked around. There were several guards around, but that didn't catch my eye. What caught my eye was seeing my dizi case in another elf's hands. I silently prayed that the instrument was still in there and it didn't have any cracks.

The elf holding the instrument case looked almost identical to the king. Was he the prince of...wherever I was? Probably. He had an important look about him. I pointed to the instrument case and used English when I said, "Mine."

"What is it?" the king asked. His eyes were so icy, almost piercing. Still, I understood what he asked.

"Dizi," I replied.

"Do I look like I speak your language?" Clearly, he didn't understand Chinese. "What is it?" he asked, his voice laced with ice.

I thought as quickly as I could about how I could communicate in a way that would get me out of here and back to Thorin so I could help him. I had an idea. I mimed playing a flute and the king nodded in understanding. He motioned for the elf who was probably the prince to give my instrument back to me. "Thank you," I shakily said. I assumed that since they

The prince nodded. "Do you know where you are?" he asked. "Who we are?"

"In Mirkwood," I replied brokenly. I pointed to him and asked, "Prince?" The prince nodded. "King?" I asked as I pointed to the man in the crown. Another nod. "Um..." I trailed off. "Why here?" I tried.

"She doesn't speak Westron very well," the king muttered to himself. I assumed Westron was English. The king quickly shook his head. "Where are your father and mother?"

"Home," I replied. Finally, something I understood. "Guilin, Guangxi, China." I sighed. This was a waste of time and the language barrier was making me grow very impatient.

I was never one to go back on a promise, and I promised Thorin that I would try to get him and his men out of here. This was wasting time; time I could be using to help Thorin. Was he a friend? Well, he was more of an acquaintance, but if he and his men wanted out of this place just as badly as I did, I had to act fast. "Want leave." The king raised an eyebrow. "Want leave now," I said with more assertiveness in my voice.

The king muttered something in another language to the prince and Tauriel, who both nodded. "I am going to take you back to your cell," Tauriel explained to me when she approached me.

"No!" I shouted. I kicked her in the chest, which sent her backwards, and was surrounded by guards moments later. "Want leave!" The guards didn't move and had their weapons pointed at me. Was I scared out of my mind? Yes. Did I want out? Yes. But not even all the kung fu training in the world could help me with this.

That's when I remembered something I saw in an old TV show, ironically called Kung Fu. The protagonist was able to use his hands and concentration to get his enemies to back off. Would it work here? I knew it was only a TV show and special effects, but I had to try. I took a deep breath and stared at the king with my hand on my other wrist and concentrated hard. Next thing I knew, he yelled out in pain and the guards went running towards him. My chance had come at last! I ran out of the throne room and was outside in the forest. "Thorin," I whispered to myself.

I searched and searched and searched for a way inside without getting noticed by the guards, but I knew that my time was running out. The guards were sure to find me any second. I saw a river with several barrels floating down it and recognized one of the dwarves in the barrels as Thorin. I couldn't swim, but it was my only shot at escaping. I ran and jumped into the river and was lucky enough to be able to grab onto a barrel that a much smaller man was in. Whoever it was, he wasn't a dwarf, but he didn't complain as we all floated down the river in the barrels. I held on with all my strength and did my best not to scream for fear of being caught.

After a few minutes, I was pushed up against another barrel. That didn't feel good. There was a gate blocking our way. "Great," I muttered to myself. I was starting to lose my grip. "Help!" I said in a fearful voice. "No swim!"

A young and handsome dwarf tried to pull a lever that was probably going to open the gate and get us further away, but he was struck in the leg by a black arrow. "Kili!" a blonde dwarf shouted as the dwarf called Kili fell to the ground. What the heck was this place? A hideous looking creature walked forward out of the shadows. It looked like the stuff of nightmares. Other creatures followed. My kung fu was good, but it wasn't a killing art. I had to get out and help these dwarves and...whatever the other man was.

I did my best and used my strong kung fu technique to get out of the way. The creatures were knocked back, but not dead. I ran and ran as fast as I could along the shoreline until I felt a sharp pain in my shoulder. I fell to the ground and looked at myself, and I saw some of my skin starting to turn black. "Poison!" I shouted in Mandarin. I knew it was a bad idea, but I tried to get up. I managed to run a few yards before I fell over and someone caught me. It was the prince.

"Lady Yue!" Thorin shouted. The rest of the dwarves gasped, but they couldn't do anything as they were all still in their barrels going down the river.

I struggled to get out the word, "Why?" before I blacked out.