Of The Earth And Starlight (A The Hobbit/Kili fanfiction)

Emeril

'The world is a dangerous place, Em, it is tainted, tainted by evil that no one can comprehend, a shadow that moves across the world, consuming all life, down to the last child. You are strong, however not strong enough to face this evil alone. But alas, your time will come when you must face it and what you choose to do with the time you've been given, who you choose to meet and avoid, will decide your fate. You have your father's spirit and my skill, and both of our love. Be strong, Emeril, be brave.'

The last words that mother said to me before she died echoed throughout my mind, even now eight years on. My ten year old self had not understood the significance of those words and I still did not understand them now. There had been no evil in Middle-Earth for centuries, every elf, man, woman, dwarf, hobbit and child knew that, at least not of a power like Sauron or Morgoth, for they had been vanquished from the world. I knew of the lesser evils, the trolls from the mountains and the orcs and goblins that still roamed the wilderness, but they were not a 'great evil'. I had killed plenty of orcs in my youth, after the pack that had attacked me and mother when I was a child, and given her the wound that had killed her I had sworn to slay any orc that crossed my path.

My life hadn't been what anyone would call normal for any child in Middle-Earth. My mother was an elf, a wood elf to be exact and rather than staying anywhere for a long period of time, she kept us on the move reguarly. We would build tree houses together in the forests and make that our home for a couple of months and then move on. My father had never been a part of my life so I didn't know him at all, it had always been me and mother. After she had died I had continued to live in the wilderness for another few years before I took to moving between cities and villages as well as the forest land. I would spend a couple of weeks in a spare bedroom of someone's house in exchange for help and work as I didn't have any money to pay for things. I remember the buzz in the air of Osgiliath, the noisy streets of Bree and small thatched houses of Rohan best, but those places were long behind me.

I felt the cool night air sweep at the loose locks of golden hair that tumbled over my shoulders and I smiled. This was where I felt at home, at one with nature. I let my gaze fall over the landscape before me, taking in the breathtaking sights. My current perch was a small stone jetty, that jutted out of the side of a steep stone rockface, some hundreds of feet in the air. From it I could see for miles around, over the small forest that stretched out before me and into the horizon. The moon was high in the sky, a silver, almost round beacon of light in the dark blanket that enveloped the earth, illuminating the landscape in a soft pale glow that glinted off of the top of the trees that were still wet from the rain shower that had poured down the day before, the rain drops sparkling with beautiful life. Specks of glitter seemed to also fill the sky, a flurry of stars in the midnight night, twinkling from their godly homes, shining down on the tranquil earth.

A small disturbance in this silent night caught my eye. A small pillar of smoke rose from a clearing about a mile in the distance, a sign of a campfire and life. Curiosity overcame me and I decided to explore what this intrudence was. I walked back towards the cliff face and then took the small foot path that led down to the forest floor, my thick but feminine boots thudding lightly on the hard rock of the path, dying out so that they glided soundlessly over the soft forest floor.

Once I had begun walking away from the intimidating rockface, I paused to gain my bearing, recalling in my mind where the smoke had come from and then, gripping my elvish long bow in my left hand, I set off in the direction of the campfire.

The forest was still, most of the wildlife had settled down the for night, only a few night creatures were still awake at this midnight hour. The sound of insects reached my well sculpted ears, small fireflies and the like flying around doing their nightly business, which I let them do. My elvish heritage had not only allowed me to be more in touch with nature, but helped me learn to respect it. All nature, animals and plantlife, had just as much right to be on this Middle-Earth as the races of men, elves, dwarves and other free folk, and therefore relished in the peace that they got from the elves. I had often seen young human children wander into the forests and take back with them a caged firefly that they had managed to catch in a jar, or even a baby bird or animal that they had found on the forest floor and, whilst their intentions were noble, they did not mean the small life form any harm, it still disturbed the peace that was here. Look, but do not take, my mother had always told me, and she was right; the beauty that I had witnessed in nature, by simply observing was unmatched and the animals respected my ways and would come to me if they wanted to be touched, but often they would simply keep their distance and go about their business as if I was not there.