So Comes Snow After Fire

19.i Her Face I'll Ne'er Forget

"You're not like any of the other elves I've seen."

Tauriel had been gazing at the misty horizon, just beyond the edge of which lay her forbidden Greenwood, but at the sound of Kíli's voice, she returned her attention to him where he sat on a boulder across from her. Bundled against the midwinter cold in a coat edged with thick dark fur, he looked rather like a very small, stocky bear.

"You're so quick and— And bright," he said in response to her curious look. "And I don't just mean when you're doing whatever it was when you healed me."

"Oh?" What had he seen then? she wondered, not for the first time.

"It's just something in the way you move. Like a candle flame dancing." He colored slightly, though he did not drop his eyes from hers, and Tauriel found herself fascinated once more by how he could manage to be bold and shy at once.

Still, despite all she had done for him in the past fortnight since they had first met, this was really only the second time they had been able to talk alone. It was no wonder he felt shy; she still felt very much so herself. But even more, she was glad; he had found her just as he had assured her he would on that emptied battlefield of Ravenhill before the noise and rush of life had surrounded them and swept them apart more surely than the chaos of battle had. She wanted more of him than she had yet been allowed, and she was both thrilled and terrified to be granted her wish.

"How many other elves have you known?" she asked. Tauriel supposed it was few, if she seemed so unique to him.

Kíli shrugged. "Well, not many. Before we went to Rivendell, only one or two, really."

"You've been to Imladris?" Tauriel demanded excitedly. She knew he had traveled from the west, but he certainly had said nothing of visiting that legendary house when she had spoken to him in her king's dungeon. Though of course, she realized, he had known better than to tell her everything then; she had still been his captor, no matter how friendly she might seem.

"Um..." Kíli was clearly perplexed by her question.

"That is Rivendell, in your speech," she corrected.

He smiled as he understood. "Of course! We came through there on our way from the Shire. Not that we really planned it that way; my uncle never has trusted elves much, I'm afraid." He said this last phrase apologetically.

"What was it like?" Tauriel asked, her tone somewhat dreamy.

"There are hundreds of waterfalls. And the house is built right on top of them as they cascade down the sides of the dale. In the morning, the valley fills with mist, and when the sun peeps over the Misty Mountains, the whole world turns to gold."

"Oh Kíli, I would very much like to see that some day," Tauriel breathed, her eyes still on his face, though she saw only the image he had described to her.

"You'll like it."

After a friendly pause Tauriel said, "I confess, though I have seen your people come to the Greenwood to trade on occasion, you were the first dwarf I ever spoke to."

Kíli grinned at her. "Really?"

"Yes."

"Well, I suppose I can't take much personal credit for being fascinating, then," he said in a humorously self-deprecating tone.

"Must I answer that?" she teased, not because she meant to disappoint him, but because she knew the truth to be quite revealing.

"Please don't; spare my pride," he returned in kind, once more flashing that unconscious, brilliant smile that had so captivated her from the first.