The Sea Calls Us Home

Tauriel Has a REALLY Bad Day

It was a sad realization for Tauriel that the closest thing she had to friends now were humans. But she was lonely, her only solace was the necklace from Lady Galadriel, and her brief visits with Kili and his human friends.

She feared the humans, and their world. The time she had spent out of water had been unpleasant at best, and had condemned to her to a life apart from her kind, from her family and friends. But now it seemed the humans were all she had left. She had been exiled because of them, now she had no choice but to be close to them.

And so she spent her days hunting and exploring the surface of the water, hoping she would run into Kili. Most of the time it was humans hunting for fish. She would scare schools of fish toward the surface and the boats and pick off the panicking remains as the humans above left with a full boat. But some days she couldn't manage to do that, instead floating listlessly near the bottom of the ocean. It felt uncomfortable, even hovering above the sand she could still feel the sunlight as the sand was not deep enough in the water to be out of reach from the sun. The lack of darkness made her feel exposed and vulnerable, it wasn't the true darkness of the abyss she called home.

Home.

She didn't have one of those anymore, and she found herself inscribing the word on every rock she bothered to pick up for something to do to pass the time. Maybe if she wrote the word enough times she would be able to find a new home, but what could she do? Where could she go? She could travel, explore the lengths of the ocean and leave the humans behind.

But that would mean leaving Kili, and she wasn't sure she could part with the few friends she had left. She had three of those now: Kili, Fili, and Bran. But she had no way of contacting them, she couldn't find them unless they came out to her. It made her feel cut off and isolated, and she often found herself desperately trying to hide in some rock wall or cliff near the shore just to feel safe and secure again.

But her hunger would force her back out of her hiding and attempts at security, and she would wander the open ocean. And when she was bored and dejected by her wandering she would simply float, letting the currents take her.

On one such miserable day she drifted aimlessly, looking up at the world above for any passing ship that might be of some interest. To her great relief she saw a human vessel dragging a massive section of colored seaweed. Kili!

She rushed to the surface, clicking in joy that her solitude was broken. Who had Kili brought this time? Did he bring more gifts? Maybe he had another human friend for her to meet?

She broke the surface and looked up the side of the boat, it was one of the larger boats she had seen Kili on, the one that dropped large cages to catch crab. Kili had never used the colored seaweed on a ship like this to get her attention, but she wasn't going to complain about a change in vessel so long as it meant Kili was here.

There were voices from the deck above her, and she could see the heads of humans looking over at her. How was she going to get up there? Or was Kili going to come swim with her today? The humans above threw something overboard, what strange things they do, and she moved toward it to see what it was.

A flash blinded her, making her scream and dart backward. What kind of thing was that? Why had Kili thrown-

It flashed again, stopping her thoughts and body as her eyes burned and she hissed in pain. This wasn't Kili, Kili knew light hurt-

Then came a sound so loud that she thought she would burst. Blinded, disoriented, she darted in a random direction. Why did the water taste funny? What were the humans doing? Her gills hurt, she couldn't see, the screeching continued until she was sure her head was going to split open from pain. She felt something on her skin, barely able to register that a net was now closing in on her. She wasn't sure if she was moving anywhere or if she was just twitching, she just wanted the pain to stop. Couldn't the humans see that they were hurting her? Couldn't they hear her screaming?

But the humans did see, and they did hear, and they didn't care. Tauriel realized this with a sinking feeling when she realized she was no longer in water, instead because pulled up through the air and onto the deck.

"Hurt..." she croaked, trying to make them understand. At least out of water the flashing and the screeching had stopped, but now she was surrounded by humans and still unable to see or hear properly.

"Amazing! It can speak!" She made out the words but not the meaning, but she was relieved to feel ocean water splashing on it. It helped clear the pain and sting from the strange water she had been in before.

"Humans hurt Tauriel..." she tried again, one of the humans squatting down and looking at her closely.

"Yes... humans are hurting you, aren't they?" the human crooned in a deep voice that Tauriel didn't like. This human was larger than Kili, much wider, and with less hair on the face. What did it want with her?

She shook her head and pushed herself up, twitching her tail and trying to get out from under the net.

"Let's get her wrapped up!" the large human shouted, the other humans jumping to action at the words she did not fully understand. What she did understand was the sudden weight holding down her tail as several humans dropped down and grabbed her, trying to pin her down.

She screeched at them, thrashing and turning on them to claw at them. They didn't stay on her long, underestimating her strength and flexibility, and they quickly retreated out of her reach as she thrashed out of the net. She panted and glared, teeth bared, not understanding why they were now standing back. Were they letting her go? If they were wise they would not try to touch her again.

For a tense moment nothing happened, the humans made no move to get closure to her, so she carefully pulled the net off herself. If they wanted to keep her captured, wouldn't they keep her in the net? Or did they have other tricks?

She pulled herself away from the net, looking at the humans on the deck surrounding her and at the railing she would need to get over. The large human wasn't even present anymore.

Deciding it wasn't worth waiting around to figure out what was going on, she darted for the railing and escape. But the humans didn't get out of her way, they had the audacity to stand their ground and even charge her. She reared up on her tail, matching their height, ready to kill to get out. She lunged at the one directly in front of her, surprised when something pierced her back that sent shocks of pain through her that dropped her back to the deck, twitching uncontrollably. What was this? Why were they doing this? Couldn't they hear her screaming in pain?

But the humans didn't care, binding her when she could not move and restraining her so she could move no further. Her arms were fixed to her sides, her tail was pinned down to a board, and her mouth stuffed so that they could more easily ignore she cries and protests when she understood them say:

"Let's go home!"