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“Are you a hunter as well as a guard?”
Tauriel stepped forward off of the steps, so that neither she nor the dwarf standing in the cell were out of each other’s view. She wasn’t quite sure why she had come back to the dungeons, or this cell in particular, especially without orders to do so. In fact, she probably wasn’t meant to be there at all.
“I did not think that dwarven ears were so good that you could hear the footsteps of an elf, especially over the stream.
“Other ways to see than with one's eyes. Other ways to hear than with one's ears.” The dwarf said flippantly. He pressed his body up against the bars of his cell, leaning up on his tip toes and cocking his head to the side. “Have you known many dwarves, to know about the abilities of our ears?”
“I assumed that all the mining would render you partially deaf, and besides that, elves are known for your light steps.”
“Only one deaf member of our company, and I don’t believe Oin has ever hoisted up a pickaxe for any reason other than to move it out of the way. I myself haven’t done any mining either.”
“And what did you do then, master dwarf, if not mine?”
“I was a hunter - that’s why I was asking you. Thought we could have something in common. You certainly are talented with a bow.”
“Hunting the spiders is part of a guard's job, but I have not hunted for meat since I became captain of the guard.”
“Except for the spiders.”
Tauriel shook her head. “The spiders are not eaten.”
“Why not? Spiders are great!”
Tauriel made a face of disgust, sticking her tongue out.
The dwarf continued to baulk at her. “Do elves truly not eat spiders? Even when you have such great large ones to feast on?”
“Do dwarves?”
“Of course! Though I will admit, it is not considered the best meat by any standards. I much prefer a good stage, but stags are trickier to come by. In the winter months, when the snow is too thick to even leave the mountains and we cannot hunt in the woods, we eat spiders, for they can be found in our caves.”
“And you simply pluck them off of the cave walls?”
“No!” Luckily the dwarf did not seem too offended by Tauriel's assumption, and instead laughed.“We have special caves where we farm them. From there they are harvested and cooked. You do know that we have an organised society within our mountains, right?”
Tauriel reprimanded herself, because she had been thinking something like that, subconsciously imagining the dwarf and his company huddled in a dark and dank tunnel. A foolish image when she had seen centuries ago the gates of Erebor, and the uncanny light which somehow shone from within the mountain. “Of course. Erebor was once a great stronghold of wealth and knowledge. Even King Thranduil, who has no great love for Erebor’s King, will admit that.”
“Ah Erebor. I did truly wish to see it, to know the halls in which my mother was born. All the way here I was imagining what sort of future that lonely mountain would hold for me, for my brother and people. Alas, now all I can see in my future is a cell in an elf lord’s pit.”
“Are you trying to make me feel guilty and release you Master Dwarf?” Tauriel dearly hoped that they were still joking around, she had been enjoying their conversation, and had almost forgotten the relationship they had, as jailed and jailer. The dwarf’s voice sounded fabricated and playful, but his eyes showed that all that he said came from his heart.
“Kili.” Said the Dwarf, and Tauriel almost sighed when she saw that he was softly smiling at her.
“Kili?”
“It’s my name. I’m not properly a master, so there’s no sense in calling me ‘Master Dwarf’. I’m qualified as a journeyman of leatherwork, and a journeyman as a hunter as well, as there was little work when I finished my apprenticeship for another leatherworker, but always more mouths to feed.”
“I am Tauriel.”
“I know.” Said Kili.”I heard the blonde one call you that.”
“Legolas,” Tauriel supplied. “That’s his name.”
“Is he your lover?”
Tauriel scoffed. “As if!”
“Former lover? Do elves take on multiple lovers in their lives as do men?” Kili teased.
“No. Legolas and I are friends, he is like a brother to me, as his father took me under his wing. That is why I reacted thus to your question.”
Kili nodded. “That would explain the familiarity. All the other elves call you only ‘Capitan’”
“Legolas is my closest friend, and I am his. Though some days it feels like I am his only friend, and only confidant beyond his father and the trees.”
“Is he so unfriendly?”
“A bit too friendly, in fact. Legolas has little care for others’ personal boundaries, and as such puts many elves off.”
“What is too friendly for elves? Standing too close together? When I was in Rivendell I thought all the elves were much too stiff.”
“You have been to the house of Elrond?”
“For a few weeks, and in that time I did not see a single elf embrace or sling his arm over the shoulder of a friend.”
“What would you consider too friendly for a dwarf?” Tauriel asked.
Kili thought about that. Then a smile crept onto his face and wiggling his eyebrows he declared: “If you come into my cell I can show you.”
Tauriel laughed at the ridiculous display. “I think not! Twice now you have tried to trick me into opening this gate, Kili.”
“I would never!” Kili declared in mock offence, taking a step back from the bars to lay a hand on his cheek. “Well… at least not for at least a week or so. We have been walking non-stop for months now, and it’s actually quite nice to have a little rest. Plus, I find you quite pleasant company, and would loath to cut our time short, for I know that when we are freed or escape it is unlikely that you and I shall ever see each other again.”
“So it may be.” Said Tauriel. “I must go now, Kili. Do not escape while I am away, I would like to see you again too.”
“Come visit me tomorrow then?” The dwarf asked with a hint of hope in his voice.
“If I find time.”
>>>>------> <—----<<<<
Maybe with whatever trick Kili had used to see or hear her when she first approached his cell the dwarf was able to track Tauriel as she retreated back up the stairs to the greater part of the elvenking’s halls. He would not, however, through any dwarven sense, be able to see that Tauriel carried a smile on her face all the way back to her rooms.
Tauriel did come back the next day, and the one after that as well, and a routine was formed where Kili was about to tell how many days went by marking each new one with a visit from his elven friend, for she was a friend now.
She told him about her days patrolling the forests around the elvenking’s halls, and a few stories about Legolas - who as it turned out was Thranduil’s son, and Thranduil himself.
Kili in turn told her more than he probably should have about life as a dwarf in the blue mountains. He just counted himself lucky that the more traditional dwarves - his uncle, Balin, and Gloin among them - were too far away to chastise him in case they considered what games he played as a pebble to be some great dwarven secret.
Around a week into their friendship Tauriel brought a bundle with her on her visit to the dungeons. She extracted a decorative pillow and sat down on it, right up close to the bars so that Kili could reach out and touch her if he wanted, then placed the bundle between the two of them on the ground.
Or rather, if he thought that she would allow, for Kili did want to touch Tauriel, but he remembered what she had said about elves and their distaste for those who were too friendly when it came to touches.
>>>>------> <—----<<<<
“Good evening Tauriel. Slay any spiders today?” Kili asked, as had become his routine in the past few days.
“Indeed I did, and then I did something that I have not done before in all of my years as captain of the guard, so you best be thankful for this, and left my work early.”
“Early! And here I thought that you were late coming down today. Maybe the dullness of imprisonment has finally caught up with me and turned my mind to mush.”
“I am late. But I come from the kitchen, not from work. I decided to try my hand at cooking. Here, I’ve made something for you.”
“A cook as well! You are an elf of many talents.”
“Do not say that until you have tried what I made. I have not cooked in decades, and never alone that I can remember, so do not get your expectations up.”
“That’s alright.” said Kili. “I can’t cook either. Bombur did all the cooking for the company, or Dori, and Bi- Bofur sometimes helped.”
Unwrapping the bundle on the ground, Tauriel revealed a bowl covered in wax cloth, and a charred tube sitting next to it, which Tauriel picked up and passed through the bars to the dwarf.
“What.. is this?” He asked, gingerly accepting it. “Is this a stick? Do elves eat sticks?”
“A stick! It’s a spider leg! I killed the beast earlier today.”
“And then killed it again in the kitchen, I think.”
Tauriel sighted. “I didn’t think I had done it right anyways. I had thought that I might try making you something dwarvish, like you ate in the blue mountains, and spiders is the only thing I could remember you mentioning. Here, give it back, I’ll get rid of it.”
“It was a nice thought, but I do not think anything like this has ever been eaten - in the blue mountains or anywhere in the world.”
“I’ve made something else, and this one I could actually ask for help, since there were people around who could help me with an elvish recipe. Not so much a dwarvish one.”
Kili passed the charred spider leg back. “I would not call this a dwarven recipe. We cook with spices and care. I’d say that this is probably closer to Orcish cuisine.”
“You don’t need to taunt me, I know that I messed up.”
“I taunt you with Love, Tauriel. Taunting is the highest form of dwarven friendship.”
“Is that so?”
“No. Well, there isn’t an official hierarchical list, but I’d say that if there was, laying on top of each other would be at the top. Though I know that elves do not care for so much physical touch so that’s out of the question for us. Maybe making things together?”
“Well, I didn’t make this with you, but it was made with you in mind.” Said Tauriel, holding the bowl out for Kili to take.
“It’s so… jiggly.” Kili rocked the bowl back and forth watching the light brown jelly inside wobble.
“Just try it!”
“Have you got a spoon?”
“It’s eaten with your hands.”
Kili quirked a skeptical eyebrow at Tauriel, but nonetheless dipped his hand into the bowl, prying apart a chunk of the jelly. He wobbled it again and it wiggled around in his grasp but stayed in one piece.
“Do dwarves not eat jelly?”
“No. We eat solid things.”
“What about soup?”
“Soup is soup. This is… something else entirely.”
“It’s like how soup gets when it cools.”
“How- What kind of soup are you elves eating?”
“Just try it. It’s sweet.”
Kili popped it into his mouth, not quite knowing whether he was meant to chew it on now. Instead he squished it down with his tongue.
“Oh! It’s like the syrup the hobbits have! I still don’t like the texture though.” Said Kili, but he went in for another scoop anyways.
“Yes, it’s made with maple syrup. I did not know that anyone outside of Mirkwood knew of it.”
“I’ve only had it twice. Fili brought some back from when he was working on the borders of the shire. It was quite different. Sticky. This is very different, not just from that, but from just about anything.”
“Because it's ‘jiggly’?” Tauriel reached into the bowl held in Kili’s hand and dipped her fingers in.
The two took turns taking bits of the jelly. Kili told Tauriel about the syrup that Fili had brought back to Thorin’s Halls, and how they had poured it over crepes. That had excited Tauriel, because the elves of Mirkwood also ate crepes.
“We usually have them with cheese. Or with blueberries. There are a lot of blueberries in the blue mountains. Wait.. is that why they call them the blue mountains?”
“We have them with cheese too, but not often, or not anymore. I think that we used to get the goat cheese from the dwarves.”
“You know-”
“Yes yes, if I let you go and you establish-”
“Reestablish the Lonely Mountain as a dwarvish city, you elves can have cheese again. In fact, as soon as some is ready I will personally invite you over and make you some crepes.”
“I don’t know if ‘desire for crepes’ will pass with Thranduil as a valid reason for your release.”
>>>>------> <—----<<<<
“What lovely braids you have today.” Tauriel teased when she arrived at Kili’s cell to see the mess of small, uneven braids that adorned the dwarf’s head.
“Thank you my dear elf, I spent all day on them. If there is one thing - besides of course getting to know you, for that is unmatched and unmatchable - that profits me from this imprisonment is that I’ve finally had nothing better to do than learn how to braid like a proper dwarf.”
“I noticed that you have the least braids of any in your company. Is that because of your youth?”
“Just how young do you take me to be? I may be youthful but I am not a youth, I’m a grown dwarf!”
“Of course. My apologies”
“There are no rules against me having braids if that is what you are asking. Parents start braiding their pebble’s hair as soon as it gets long enough. I’m just terrible at making my hair look presentable. If you would believe it, I look more unkempt with braids than with my hair all look and free. At least then I can count on there being no tangles and that it doesn’t set on my head in some unsymmetrical way.”
“Can you not ask another member of your company?”
“Why? Are you offering to open the gate and let me visit with my brother?” Hardly a day went by without Kili making some sort of half-joking request for his release, and each day Tauriel was more and more tempted to betray her position and set her friend free.
“My mother did my hair sometimes when neither of us were too busy.” Kili continues.
“Thorin is too clumsy and often pulls by mistake. Fili pulls on purpose because he’s a terror.”
Tauriel laughed. “You think I don’t believe you don’t do the same thing to him?”
“How dare you! I am a kind and loving brother. And have also never been asked to do Fili’s hair, because as you can see, I don’t have much to offer.”
“Maybe I could do it for you. I promise to be gentle.”
Kili made an unattractive noise in his throat. He quickly turned away from the elf and clamped his hands over his mouth, his eyes bulging.
“Kili? Are you alright? Did I say something wrong?” Tauriel reached a slender arm through the bars towards the dwarf.
“Nope!” Kili squeaked, and when he spun back around he had a smile on his flushed face.
“No this is- yes. Yeah.” He stepped forwards so that only the bars and the difference in their heights separated them and dropped his voice to a whisper. “Yeah, I’d like that, if you wanted to braid my hair. I just don’t think that any of my family would like it if they saw or heard that you were doing such a thing, or that you asked and I agreed.”
“Of course. Are you sure that you want me to? I know little of dwarven culture, but I can guess by your reaction and the pride with which dwarves carry their beards that it is unlikely that an elf has been allowed to touch the hair of a dwarf in many years.”
“Never in this age, I would guess.” Said Kili.
“None will be able to see us.” Tauriel assured him. “Or see any more than they have up until now - me sitting by you.”
Kili nodded his assent, trusting Tauriel’s word, and retrieved the cushion that Tauriel had left him the night of their first shared meal. He passed it through the bard to her and then pulled over his thin mattress and sat upon it, presenting the back of his head to the elf.
“Oh! Now?”
Kili looked over his shoulder. “Is now not a good time?”
“I supposed that it’s as good as any. Though I will need to unravel all of the braids that you made during the day.”
“Are they that unsightly?”
“They just don’t fit my vision.”
“And they are uneven.”
“Very uneven. I haven’t got a brush either. Shall I go fetch one?”
Kili took it on himself to unravel his haphazard braids himself while Tauriel is off searching for a brush. His hands needed something to fiddle with to dispel the excited and nervous energy in him while he waited for her. Of course, there was the option of making even more tiny braids - then Tauriel would have to sit by him all night and into the next day carefully pulling them apart…
Kili, thought young, prided himself in knowing a thing of two about the world. He knew that elves and men did not have the same traditions as dwarves, and so it was unlikely that Tauriel knew what else she was asking when she had offered to braid Kili’s hair. He was not so fooled by his growing fascination and affection for the elf to think that.
But how could she not know? Kili asked himself. Taking care of one another in that way was inherently intimate. A braid was the same as a kiss, an undeniable show of love.
More than a kiss, for you could kiss just for fun, but requesting to braid someone’s hair was asking that they see you as family, that they claim you as one of their own. More than that, requesting someone braid your hair could be asking them to adopt you as a sibling, but requesting to braid someone else's… that was very rarely done except for couples who intended to spend their life together.
Could Kili spend his life with an elf?
Could Tauriel spend hers with a dwarf?
Kili had just finished unravelling the last little braid, and was beginning to sink into fearful thought of how Thorin and his mother and Fili would react to him courting Tauriel when she returned. She quickly descended the stairs into the dungeon with feather light footsteps and dropped into her seat on the cushion, and held out an ornate carved wooden brush.
“Done.” Tauril finished tying off the last ribbon. She released Kili’s thick dark hair. It had been fascinating, so unlike the light hair of Legolas or any other elf she had known. And all the more special and fascinating because of the dwarf attacked at the end of it. She released the carefully woven hair and placed her hands instead on Kili’s shoulders. “I should have thought about bringing a mirror, so that you can see, and tell me whether it meets your standards.”
“I’m sure that they are the prettiest braids in all of The Mirkwood.” Kili playfully leaned his head back until the top of it rested against the bars of the cell and he could look right up into Tauriel’s eyes. “Can I do yours?”
Tauriel’s face gave away her hesitancy, and she could see disappointment in Kili’s bright eyes. He quickly scooted away, twisting so that they were once again facing each other. She couldn’t stand having brought that look to the dwarf’s face and quickly assured him. “No, of course! But maybe…”
Kili immediately returned to his usual cheerful demeanour. “Not a full hairstyle like you did for me, you haven’t the time, and I haven’t the skill. But maybe just one little braid? For you to wear thought the day and remember me by.”
“You are quite hard to forget.”
Tauriel made to turn around, but Kili stopped her.
“Stay this way. I’m just going to make it here, behind your ear.”
Tauriel moved forwards, as did Kili until their noses were touching. Kili bobbed his head forwards, bonking their noses together a few times making them both giggle. He reached forwards, bending his left arm at an odd angle to avoid having to move his face away from Tauriel’s. He sectioned off a few strands of thin orange hair and began to braid.
Neither spoke. Tauriel’s eyes, blown wide to try to take in as much of the low light as possible, watched Kili’s, which stayed focused wholly on his task.
“I don’t have any ribbons left.” Tauriel whispered when Kili came to the end. “I used them all on you. “
“Hold this.” said the dwarf, passing the braid to Tauriel. Unlike the messy ones that had decorated Kili’s hair before, this one was near perfect.
Kili retracted his hand back up to his own hair, and Tauriel assumed that he was going to bull out one of the ribbons that she had tied in place earlier, but instead he carefully pulled a few long black strands out from where they were loosest and tugged.
“Ha! That hurt!” Kili said, and presented his hairs - how in his fist - and gestured for Tauriel to pass her little praid back to him.
Speechless, Tauriel did. She could not think of what to say - or even what she was feeling - as Kili wrapped his hairs around the end of the braid, holding it in place in a thin band of black.
“See you tomorrow?” Kili asked.
“Yes. I will see you.” Tauriel whispered in reply.
>>>>------> <—----<<<<
She did see him the next day. Not in his cell, where they had met every day for almost a month, but disappearing down the river in a barrel with a poisoned orc’s arrow in his leg.
Kili’s hair comes undone in the river, but Tauriel is careful not to unravel her little braid until she sees her dwarf again.