Baptized in Blood and Flame

Chapter 4: Draw

Third Age: 2935

Kili pulled his bowstring towards his cheek. Standing as still as he possibly could, he aimed towards his quarry. His arrow flew, but only grazed the side of the deer, which began to flee. It had taken only a few steps when another arrow came from the trees and struck its neck.

"I assumed after last time, you would no longer wander alone in these perilous woods." A familiar, musical voice sounded from behind Kili.

Tauriel silently dropped from her high perch and walked towards Kili, who had smile spread across his face. "Lady Tauriel," he greeted. "You certainly have a talent for timing."

She scoffed lightly and tossed her head at the name, despite the smile creeping upon her own lips. "I'm no noble lady, Prince Kili." It wasn't entirely a lie. "Please, call me Tauriel, many call me by that name."

"Do you have others?" He asked in surprise at her odd wording. He thought that everyone was given one name, (except for humans, who oftentimes had a family name as well, which sounded awfully peculiar).

She laughed lightly, a silvery sound like water pouring over stones. "My mother named me Tauriel, but my father-name is Faerelon, and I have also been named Anduigil and Myrniel. In honor of my mother, I take the name she gave me; thus I am Tauriel of the House of Singollo." Alarm shot trough her as she realized what she had let slip. Tauriel cursed herself for forgetting who she was with. Kili seemed trustworthy enough, but he was a stranger who's kind held a long feud against her family. Thankfully, Kili was young, and often slacked in his studies in favor of his sword. He paid no mind to the name.

"What brings you to wander again in a dangerous forest?" She changed the subject, raising one eyebrow in a joking manner.

"What brings you to wander away from your homeland, stealing game from helpless dwarves?" He countered, perfectly willing to let the topic drop if it made her uncomfortable.

She gasped, putting a hand over her chest as if he had been hurt. "I come to offer my aid, and I am accused of stealing! My father was right, you dwarves are trouble!" Suddenly, Tauriel realized that, despite the fact that they had only met twice, her meetings with Kili were the only times she had laughed since she... Better to put that thought away. If some things are best not spoken of, then that shouldn't even be thought.

Again, she helped her new friend to the borders of his village, but this time she lingered within the tree line; she couldn't shake the feeling that something was different. All night the elf quietly kept guard over the houses of sleeping humans, and the entrances to the mines of the dwarves. When the moon sank into the grasp of the mountains to the west, she abandoned her post, but stayed within a few leagues.

•~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~•

"I don't get why you've been acting so risky lately, Kili," Fili warned, observing the casual nature with which his brother treated his weapons; the way he treated everything nowadays. "It's not as if you'll always have someone watching over you. Be careful once in a while!"

Kili only responded with a shrug. He cast a glance over his shoulder, smirking at the irony of Fili's worryings. "Maybe you shouldn't smother me so much. Honestly, you're worse than Amad."

Kili ignored his brother's heavy sigh and light shove to his shoulder, and casually tossed another knife into the air, watching it glint and flip before landing back in his open palm. He quickly tucked the knife away as he heard the approach of heavy boots. Both brothers straightened their backs as Thorin and Dwalin approached, still deep in conversation, with lines of worry crossing their faces. The secrecy and severity of their conversations quickly doused Kili's earlier confidence that his brother was being irrational.