The Ranger ➵ Kili Durin

PART 2 : CHAPTER 4

The cells in Mirkwood were dark, but sturdy. The dwarves were constantly banging on the cell doors, but to little avail. Elvira knew that they would not be getting out of this one without King Thranduil releasing them, and by the way Thorin came back after meeting with the King, she knew he would not do any such thing. Elvira and Fili were in the same cell together, Kili in his own cell right beside the pair.

"Where do you think Bilbo is?" Fili asked Elvira, breaking the melancholy silence that had overtaken them. Elvira sighed.

"I don't know," she said, as she stood up quickly and began pacing the cell. "I should have been more careful, I should have watched out for him. He could be out there, becoming a spider's meal for all we know," she sighed and sat back down, her head in her hands.

"Now," Fili said, "if I know our little hobbit, I know for a fact that he is still alive out there. He's coming for us, don't you worry," he reassured. "Can I ask you something, princess?"
"Of course, Fili," she said.

"How is it you know the elves here?"
Elvira knew this question would be asked eventually. She had been dreading the moment she needed to explain, but she wasn't taken aback by the question.

"As a Ranger, my job was to protect different lands from evil forces, to help where I was needed," she said slowly, and he nodded in response. "The spiders in the forest have been a problem for a long while. I was sent to Mirkwood to help defend the woods against the beasts. I spent a few years in this kingdom, in fact," she smiled thinking about it. "I never thought I would come back as a prisoner, though." Fili chuckled at this.

"We're so close, too," he sighed, his mood dampening again. "We're so close to the mountain, but now, it seems like we're so far away." Elvira said nothing. She looked up from the ground to observe the prince as he spoke. Even in a prison cell, he held himself together in a way that only showed his royalty. No doubt, Elvira knew Fili would make a fantastic king one day.

Time passed slowly. Fili fell asleep, and Elvira sat in her thoughts, her legs curled to her chest. She missed being able to sit and think while she spun her knife around her fingers, but they were taken from her. She had nothing.

"The stone in your hand," a feminine voice echoed, "what is it?" Elvira didn't move, staring at the wall of the cell across from her.

"It is a talisman," she heard Kili's voice echo across the stone walls. "A powerful spell lies upon it. If any but a dwarf reads the runes on this stone, they will be forever cursed," he said menacingly. Elvira's lips quirked into an amused smirk at his antics. Fili, who had woken up at the sound of voices, silently noticed Elvira's expressions.

"Or not," Kili said again. "depending on whether you believe that kind of thing. It's just a token," he chuckled almost nervously. Elvira continued to listen to their conversation, her head leaning lazily against the stone wall behind her. She listened to how Tauriel described Mereth-en-Gilith, and how Kili described the firemoon he saw.

"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," he continued, and Elvira knew Tauriel was sitting beside his cell, hanging onto his every word. It was what Kili said that appeared to be echoing through Elvira's mind repeatedly: "I wish I could show you".

Something strange bubbled up inside of Elvira. It was a kind of hatred, a dark feeling she normally disliked, but something inside her was struggling to keep it down. It kept filling up her insides, growing stronger and bolder with each passing moment she listened to the pair talk as if they'd known each other for years. Elvira closed her eyes, and gently but harshly hit the back of her head against the stone wall a few times.