Fight Or Flight

Chapter 9: River Frozen

Ebony hadn't moved much or spoken since she had been shoved in the cell. Night had fallen a few hours ago and she knew that sleep would not come to her. Instead she played with her magic. Creating different animals, or misty clouds that floated around the top of her cell. At one point she had even attempted to fashion a key for the doors of the cells, but it hadn't worked. Curse that elf for knowing her secrets. 

Footsteps outside the cell made her feign sleep, watching through her eyelashes as Tauriel checked on the prisoners. She can hear the elleth pause at one of the cells. 

"The stone in your hand, what is it?" 

"It is a talisman." Kili. "A powerful spell lies upon it. If any but a dwarf reads the runes on this stone, they will be forever cursed." 

Ebony nearly snorts. She can see the pair from where she sits, and Tauriel steps back slightly before beginning to walk away. But the young dwarf's voice stops her; it's laughing tone and the sparkle in his eye catches Ebony's full attention. 

"Or not, depending on whether you believe that kind of thing. It's just a token." Tauriel meets Kili's smile with one of her own. "A runestone. My mother gave it to me so I'd remember my promise." 

"What promise?" The elleth asks him. 

"That I will come back to her." 

Tauriel looks down and Ebony can see the smile playing at her lips, even though she tries to hide it. 

"She worries." Kili tells her. "She thinks I'm reckless." 

"Are you?" Tauriel's voice is kind. 

"Nah." 

Ebony snorts at the same time Kili tosses the stone into the air. The sound distracts him and he drops it. It rolls out of his cell, but Tauriel stops it with her foot before it can roll into the deep pit outside the cells. She picks it up and inspects it. Kili goes up to the bars of his cell, watching her as Ebony watches them both. They hear the sounds of elves laughing in the distance. 

"Sounds like quite the party you're having up there." Kili says. 

"It is Mereth-en-Gilith, the Feast of Starlight." Tauriel tells him. "All light is sacred to the Eldar, but Wood Elves love best the light of the stars." 

"I always thought it was a cold light, remote and far away." 

"Kili." Ebony speaks with a slight scolding tone. "You know better." 

"Sorry, aunt E." 

"It is memory." Tauriel smiles at Ebony. "Precious and pure. Like your promise." 

Tauriel hands Kili back his stone, and the dwarf takes it with a look close to shock. Even Ebony didn't think she would give it back to him. Tauriel looks Ebony's way before speaking. 

"I have walked there sometimes, beyond the forest and up into the night. I have seen the world fall away and the white light of forever fill the air." 

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Ebony asks her. 

"Yes." 

"I saw a fire moon once." Kili says suddenly. "It rose over the pass near Dunland, huge; red and gold it was, filled the sky. We were an escort for some merchants from Ered Luin, they were trading in Silverbuck for furs. We took the Greenway south, keeping the mountain to our left, and then, this huge fire moon, right in our path. I wish I could show you." 

Ebony smiles at the young dwarf as Tauriel sits by the stairs of his cell, listening intently to every word he said. She felt someone watching them and her eyes rose. Legolas. He was watching the pair and Ebony could see the look in his eyes. He felt threatened by Kili. Oh great, just what they needed. She moved her hands and a shadow shot across his face, her voice whispering through the darkness.