Playing with Fire [Legolas/Tauriel]

11: The Feast of Starlight

"I always thought of it as a cold light," Kili mused, his face pressed close to the bars. "Remote...and far away."

She looked at him incredulously. "It is memory. Precious and pure."

She looked at the stone in her hand for a moment longer. "Like your promise." She offered it to him, and he grinned as he took it.

Tauriel could have left him, could have gone on, but their conversation seemed unfinished. He watched her with the same hopefulness that she felt within her heart.

"I have walked there, sometimes," she said excitedly. "Beyond the forest and up into the night. I have seen the world fall away. And the white light of forever fill the air..." She trailed off, smiling as she imagined the white moon echoing across the sky, filling her life with light and happiness.

"I saw a Fire Moon once."

She was so intrigued that she turned away from her memories of starlight.

"Red and gold it was. It filled the sky."

She sat down by him, nodding, so that he might tell her more. She had finally smiled again. She felt rejuvenated. Who would have thought that a Dwarf could help cure my loneliness?

He was a Dwarf, and yet...he felt like he had been her friend since the beginning.

*************************************************

Legolas took a sip of wine. He had not bothered to change out of his armor; in it, he felt more comfortable. Besides, with that Dwarf in the dungeons, one never knew when he might try to make an escape.

Eyela sat to his left, watching him. He could feel her azure gaze, piercing through his armor.

"Eyela, why do you dislike Tauriel so much?"

She stiffened, as she always did when Tauriel was mentioned. "What are you talking about?"

"You and Tauriel are very wary of each other and I want to know why." He couldn't understand her reaction. She looked as though he had greatly insulted her by bringing up this topic. Maybe I did.

"I just can't believe that you spend so much time with a commoner like her," Eyela said, fingering the jewels around her neck. "You know her greatest desire is to be the Queen of Mirkwood and inherit your money and title, right?"

She would have offended him less by just slapping him.

"What did you say?" His voice was barely a whisper.

"Poor thing. She was just sitting in my bedroom going on and on about how she was simply friends with you so that she could become your queen. It's adorable really. She was talking about your money and title though...maybe that's all she's interested in?"

"Eyela-"

"She seems so set on marrying you and inheriting everything. I wonder what she meant by 'I'm not really friends with him for the sake of being friends'..."

The rest of her words blurred together. Legolas sat, dumbfounded for a moment. He felt as though he was underwater; everything sounded so far away.

He heard himself making some excuse to leave, and standing up. He could feel his father watching him, along with many of the other lords at the table but he didn't care. He had to get out.

It wasn't what Eyela had said that was bothering him, but rather that she felt the need to tell such lies about Tauriel in order to get her way. He knew this wasn't Eyela's normal behavior, and that she was probably jealous, but it hurt him that she would say something so absurd. It hurt him that such a jealous elleth was about to be his bride.