I'm Staying With You (A Hobbit Fanfiction)

Chapter 31

I hear heavy footsteps and I jolt awake just as Thorin is dragged past our cell by two elven guards. I quickly pick up my knife, but remember that it's not going to help and put it back in my coat.

"Thorin!" I yell.

He just groans, unable to respond. The sound of boots being dragged on stone is heard for a while, then two voices speaking to each other. Thorin is brought back a while later, and the clanging of his cell door is heard.

"Did he offer you a deal? Balin asks.

"He did," Thorin replies. "I told him he could go îsh kakhfê ai-'d dûr-rugnu! Him and all his kin!"

I hear Balin sigh. Of course he would. Thorin told our only ticket out of here that he was going to sh*t on his head.

"Fantastic, Thorin," I mutter.

"Well, that's that, then. A deal was our only hope," Balin says.

"Not our only hope," Thorin says.

I believe he's talking about Bilbo, but we don't even know if he's alive.

Later on in the day, as I'm pacing around my cell, the same female elf as before comes by our cells to check on us. Fili is asleep, his head resting against the wall.

The elf stops by our cell and looks at me.

"I have been curious about you since I saw you, a female, with a group of 14 males. What is your name?"

"Nossa Stonehelm," I reply. "And a few people have been curious about my motives." I look back at Fili. "Honestly, I don't mind being the only girl."

"That is good. Anyway, how did you earn that name, Nossa?" the elf asks. "A helm is used to steer a ship."

"When I was younger, I was on a ship with a few other dwarves on a journey to the Iron Hills. We ran into trouble and our ship got wrecked on a seacoast. Orcs attacked us, and I used the helm from our ship to fight after I had gotten disarmed. The stone part comes from the axe I used to use in battle before it broke and was replaced by my current one," I explain.

The elf laughs.

"My name is Tauriel."

"Nice to meet you, Tauriel. Is there any chance you could get us out of here?" I ask.

She shakes her head.

"That would be pushing it, Nossa. You are still my prisoner, after all."

She continues to walk, checking on the dwarves. I hear her stop at Kili's cell.

"The stone in your hand. What is it?" she asks.

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

I chuckle to myself as Tauriel's face goes white and she steps away from the cell. I can almost see Kili grinning. Tauriel begins to walk away, and Kili chuckles.

"Or not."

Tauriel looks back at him.

"Depending on whether you believe that kind of thing," Kili continues. "It's just a token." He laughs. "A rune stone. My mother gave it to me so I'd remember my promise."

"What promise?" Tauriel asks.

"That I would come back to her. She worries. She thinks I'm reckless."

"Are you?" Tauriel asks.

"Nah," Kili says.

"Yes you are," I say. Fili comes and stands next to me.

"Especially around us," he adds.

"Shut up," Kili laughs. That's when I hear something hit the floor and Tauriel bends down to get it. Chattering and laughing can be heard from upper levels.

"That sounds like quite the party you're having up there," Kili says.

"It is Mereth e-nGilith. The feast of starlight," Tauriel explains. "All light is sacred to the Eldar. But Wood Elves love best the light of the stars."

"I always thought it is a cold light. Remote and far away," Kili says.

"It is memory," Tauriel contradicts. "Precious and pure. Like your promise."

Tauriel hands Kili his token.

"I hope to see you three again," she says, looking at Fili and I before her eyes flutter back to Kili. "You are not like some of the other dwarves I have known."

With that, she walks away.

(Yes, I'm leaving out the whole "walk with starlight" thing. I'm sorry. I might add that in later with someone else, but it seems too romantic to happen between Kili and Tauriel. Since I DO NOT ship them, I'm not giving them a romance in this book. Sorry to all the Kiliel shippers).