Tauriel sat at the window, watching the rain come down. She wished that Kili was home. After the war, Kili had started mining again and she missed him during the day. She would often hunt or sometimes follow him down into the mines, but today was a quite unusual day. Tauriel was sick. She never got sick. As a child, she had never had a runny nose or a cough or a sore throat. Elves have some of the strongest immune systems of all. So early in the morning, as Tauriel crouched over the toilet, she knew something was wrong. And of course Kili would not allow her to go out sick. So there she sat, at the window in the bedroom of the tiny cottage she and Kili shared. As she sat there, that terrible feeling came over her again and she rushed to the bathroom.
"Tauriel, my love!" Kili sang as the door slammed behind him. He found her curled up on the bed. He seemed to be in high spirits despite the large bruise on his face that she guessed had something to do with Fili. The two were always wrestling like children. "How are you feeling?" he asked gently. She groaned and told him about the events of the day. He grimaced. "But I thought elves weren't supposed to get sick?"
"We aren't. So something is definitely wrong." Kili processed this for a moment. "I'll take you to a healer tomorrow." he offered. She nodded and he climbed into the bed with her.
Tauriel and Kili walked hand-in-hand. She held her head up high and tried to ignore the whispers and the staring. When they reached the little building where the town healer, a dwarf named Ora, worked, Tauriel could feel her heart pounding. Ora insisted Kili wait outside the door of the examination room. After about ten minutes, she called him in.
"I have certainly never seen or heard of anything like this in my life," Ora began, "But it seems as though the elf (she nodded at Tauriel) is carrying a child. A part Elf, part Dwarve child, that is." The healer did not seem to be particularly happy about this. Tauriel assumed that she, like many other dwarves (and elves) she did not approve of a dwarf and elven marriage. Kili whooped with joy. Tauriel felt faint. The healer was upset. The room was tilting. The sky was blue. Tauriel was pregnant with a half-elf, half-dwarf baby.