Tauriel has lived in Mirkwood for six hundred years and will live here for six hundred more.

And then another six hundred.

And then another.

It can go on for a long time.

Immortality isn't as fun as people think when one does the same things day after day, year after year.

Every day Tauriel braids her hair, puts on her uniform and guards the vast lands of Thranduil from both good and evil outside, for the Lord of Mirkwood wishes to see neither of them anywhere near his residence. In fact, she had been so good at guarding that a few decades ago she was promoted to head of border guards. An impressive achievement for someone so young and of lowly Silvan descent, and yet the taste of it wears thin eventually.

So does her love of all things elven. Sure, their music is sophisticated and beautiful, the wine is sweet and inebriates well, the feasts are full of poetry and light and polite conversations about the First Age and Tauriel likes all those. But she also can't help but wonder what these things are like outside Mirkwood. Probably neither worse nor better, just different, but it is the possibility of experiencing something unknown that's keeping her up on some nights and making her dream of things she's never actually seen on others.

The world beyond Mirkwood must be huge.

Tauriel sneaks out sometimes, travels a few miles beyond the borders, but she can never go very far for she must be back in time for her duties.

Elves do not really have a concept of vacation, not Silvan elves anyway, so they do not travel unless they get to accompany the royalty of Mirkwood on one of their journeys to visit kin. But Tauriel never gets picked out for these and she has a pretty good idea as to why. The Prince has been showing her a lot of attention and his stuck up father probably has a lot of objections to them interacting beyond border patrols. Tauriel is convinced that one day she is going to be called aside and told in a language not too delicate to remember her place.

Honestly, Legolas' affection is sweet but rather inconvenient.

He is not bad, per se, but Tauriel doesn't think she could have had feelings for him even if he weren't royalty. He is a little too rigid, a bit too composed and somber. Once she laughed in his presence because come on, that baby fox chasing its own tale was really cute, and Legolas looked at her like she licked her fingers at a royal reception. Tauriel doesn't need a man to be bored with, she can be bored all by herself.

Sometimes she wonders if maybe she descended from humans. A bit of mortal blood would at least explain her attitude and her desires. But then elves hardly ever marry outside their own kind…

Today she is on a forest patrol. The giant spiders have been coming more and more often and in greater numbers. This is not a good sign. There are too many of them and they must be bothering the surrounding lands a lot but Thranduil would not hear of helping neighbours. Tauriel has asked him enough times to know that but she keeps trying.

"Watch out," she warns the fellow guards as they jump silently from one tree branch to another. "Something is different today."

And different it is indeed. There are dwarves in the forest.

Yes, dwarves. Tauriel hasn't encountered them for a while but they are difficult to confuse with anyone else. Long beards, lots of tiny braids, short stocky figures… And loud. They are always loud.

Elves have them surrounded in no time. Tauriel watches her people closing in from above and makes a mental note of areas to work on, of things to improve.

The dwarves have been searched and have got their portion of insults from Legolas (Tauriel frowns at that because is there really a need to be rude?) when another creature reveals itself, screaming and kicking for its life. She spares a second to assess the would-be prey of a foul monster.

Another dwarf, just like she though. Young though, by the looks of it. Probably not particularly experienced in combat. That figures.

A moment later Tauriel is down on the forest floor, shooting some spiders and sticking her dagger into the gobs of others.

"Throw me a dagger!" the dwarf demands, clearly uncomfortable in the face of a giant spider approaching him, "Quick!"

Fool. Tauriel will not arm a prospective prisoner, she kills the spider instead. The dwarf looks positively gobsmacked. Well, Tauriel's fighting skills tend to have that effect on strangers.

Yes, yes, she wants to say, you have you ass saved by a girl. Deal with it.

When elves have to escort the prisoners to their respective cells Tauriel ends up taking care of the one she rescued.

"Aren't you going to search me?" he asks, looking at her with a great deal of petulance. "I could have anything down my trousers."

Tauriel is about to retort that if he were indeed armed with a weapon he would not have asked her for a dagger back in the forest. But then it hits her – the dwarf is implying something very very different.

Make no mistake, she can play this game, too.

"Or nothing," she says, making sure to match his tone. Then she closes the door with a loud clank but lingers in front of the cell just long enough to say "I win" with her eyes.

"Why does the dwarf stare at you, Tauriel?"

The question catches her as she is about to leave.

Tauriel smirks. Ah, so he does. In fact, he must be really staring if Legolas noticed.

Serves the dwarf right. Maybe it will teach him not to speak of indecencies to women he barely knows.

"Who can say," she tries to sound indifferent. "He is rather tall for a dwarf, don't you think?"

The Prince is not happy. "Taller than some," he concedes grudgingly, as Tauriel walks away, "but no less ugly!"

My, my, she thinks on the way to her chamber, aren't we jealous?

She returns to chat to the dwarf later that evening. She wasn't going to, not initially, but a heart to heart with Thranduil can be quite life-altering. Tauriel really can't bear to look at the King for the time-being. The sight of him makes her blood boil with something elves aren't supposed to feel: cold rage.

Oh well, the feast of starlight is not that much fun anyway. Not after nearly six hundred years.

The prisoner is.

She comes to talk to the dwarf again. No reason, just boredom, she tells herself this time.

He has a lot of good stories for her.

She always wants to hear more.

"You shouldn't come so often," the prisoner tells Tauriel when she settles on the steps in front of his cell for what must be the tenths time, "or your Prince will think you fancy me."

"That," she replies, "would be most unlikely, although not entirely impossible."

"Why, really?" he sounds curious. "Have elves ever mixed with someone of a different blood?"

Tauriel has to think hard about that.

"Well, not often, but there's been Beren and Luthien…"

The dwarf nods in recognition.

"… and a few centuries ago, just after I was born, there was a rumour that some Imladris maiden married a halfling… Although I don't know what a halfling is," she admits. "But they sound short."

"It's a hobbit," her prisoner offers most helpfully. "They look pretty much like humans but they are indeed much shorter, hence the name. Oh, and they have hairy feet and never wear boots. And live in holes underground. Very decent holes, mind you. Good folks, really. Nice and quiet, don't like adventures much, although there are some exceptions."

"Are they…" Tauriel is looking for a way to ask the question without being offensive, "how short are they?"

"Shorter than dwarves. By about that much." He indicates a good few inches. "They must have been a funny couple, that elf-maid and the hobbit."

Tauriel doesn't quite agree. "I don't think height mattered much," she says. "If they truly loved each other, that is."

"Yeah, like Beren and Luthien."

She pauses, unsure of whether to ruin the apparently greatest love story ever told or not. But then this guy seems to get her quite well, maybe he'll get her point, too. So she admits in a quiet whisper, like it's a big secret. "Actually, I have a problem with Beren and Luthien."

The prisoner seems shocked. "Why? They were of similar height."

"Love is not about height! Forget the height! Listen, if they loved each other so much, if Luthien loved Beren so much… Why did she need her father's permission to marry him? Why didn't she defy her father when he came up with an impossible task?"

"Well, I don't know. Maybe because it's a legend, the way it is being told nowadays anyway, and it needed some heroic stuff to catch people's attention?" the dwarf muses. "Two lovers who couldn't be together unless they achieved something grand… that sounds like legend material. Maybe in reality Luthien's father just said ok, marry her, be my son, welcome to the family… But no one wants to go on about that for centuries, right? It might have been fun for them but it's regular and boring to the rest of the world."

That is a fairly good point, Tauriel has to agree.

"Do you think this is what actually happened?"

The prisoner shrugs his shoulders. "Hard to tell. You are the elf here. What would your father say if you came and told him you'd like to marry, say, a dwarf?"

"Nothing," he raises a quizzical eyebrow, rightly refusing to believe that what she says is true and Tauriel has to explain. "He is gone. Both my parents are gone."

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to…"

She cuts him off. "It's ok. You didn't know. And your mother? What would she say if you decided to marry outside your kind?"

"She wouldn't say anything," the dwarf smiles. "But she would break all her plates over my head. Why? Are you interested?" He gives her an exaggerated wink.

Tauriel can't help but smile, too. "No, not really."

"Damn!"

"It's for the best," she tells him.

"True that," he teases, as always. "My mother has a lot of dishes."

Tauriel laughs at that and she doesn't understand why she wants to laugh.

She doesn't understand why conversations between them are so easy. They shouldn't be because she is an elf while he is a dwarf and she is a guard while he is a prisoner and they are meant to have nothing in common.

Yet they do. And it feels right.

Tauriel wonders is this is how Beren and Luthien came to be.

The stories her prisoner tells sound almost unbelievable.

Ok, Tauriel is not buying it, there's no way he and the other dwarves flew on eagles.

Just. No. Way.

"It is true," he insists. "If you don't believe me you can always ask my friends."

With that Tauriel realises that she has never ever talked to any of the other prisoners.

"So you say you rode the great eagles?" she asks, not willing to think about why she singles this particular dwarf out.

"Yes."

"And you tell me you met a man who is also a bear?"

"Yes."

"And you saw trolls turning to stone?"

"Just like I see you now."

"How old are you?" Tauriel blurts out.

The dwarf looks a little surprised by her question, like he had no reason to expect it. "Turned seventy seven a few months ago. Why?"

That is not fair. She is eight times his senior and she's seen… nothing!

She leans closer to the bars and the dwarf rises to his feet. Their faces are a few inches apart and Tauriel whispers in a tone dark and desperate. It's a secret, only he can know. "I am sick of here. I want freedom. I want to fly eagles. I am over six hundred years old and I've been doing the same things over and over for centuries!"

He stares back at her, his expression undistinguishable.

Tauriel would swear she can feel the blush covering her cheeks. He is the one locked behind bars and yet she complains about not having enough freedom. This was the most inappropriate confession of all.

"I'm sorry," she mutters quietly, not looking the prisoner in the eye. "I am talking a lot of rubbish…"

He cuts her off. "No, you don't."

Tauriel stares back in shock.

"I know the feeling," says the dwarf. "And I had to work very hard to come on this quest. There's no crime in wanting to see the world."

Tauriel is silent, but she does not move away.

"What's your name?" the prisoner asks.

She is a little surprised at the question but answers nevertheless. There's no harm in answering.

"It's beautiful," says the dwarf. "Does it mean anything?"

"Daughter of the forest."

"That figures. I'm Kili."

"Does your name mean anything?" Tauriel parrots.

"Why, yes, it stands for "he who will be stuck in an elven prison with a beautiful elf-girl". As you can see my mother chose very well."

She rolls her eyes at that but not in a bad way. This guy isn't afraid of being funny or silly and Tauriel finds it quite refreshing.

"Nah, I'm only kidding you," Kili says. "Our names don't have meanings like yours do. Probably a good thing because I doubt they would sound nearly as poetic as yours."

Now Tauriel is curious.

"Are you sure? How would I say "daughter of the forest" in your language?"

"You might not be happy with me if I answer," Kili warns her.

"I dare you."

He humours her and says something that sounds like he is telling Tauriel to go do naughty things to herself. Very dirty naughty things, that is. She bursts into giggles. "Next time I will listen to you," she promises.

Kili shakes his head. "There will not be a next time." He appears somewhat sad.

She wonders what he meant by that but doesn't dare to ask.

"I've been thinking about Beren and Luthien," Legolas says one day as they practice archery together.

"Have you? What a coincidence." Tauriel actually suspects he's been eavesdropping on her conversations but she isn't going to call him out on it, not yet.

"Yes. I don't know why everyone is so fond of that story. Luthien was foolish."

Tauriel narrows her eyes a little more than hitting the target requires.

"Is that so?" her tone is dangerous.

"Yes," the Prince speaks with conviction. "She threw her life away for a mortal. This is not how one should treat the gift of immortality. They were together for a few short years. And then what?"

Ok, now she is pissed off.

"They were happy together for those few short years!" she retorts. "Luthien was happy! Happier than she would have ever been if she had lived till the end of time but without her loved one!"

"Pfft, you really think so, don't you?" Legolas seems… disappointed. "I bet she was only happy in the legend. I bet in reality she deeply regretted her choice and her sacrifice. This is just how life works."

Tauriel glares at him, hands on her hips and malice in her voice. "And what, if I may ask, do you know about life?"

"More than you think, Tauriel," the Prince replies calmly. "A lot more than you think."

Kili turns out to be right, there is indeed no next time.

The dwarves escape somehow and end up in big barrels floating down the stream towards Esgaroth. The guards naturally stop them by closing the portcullis but then orcs arrive and hell breaks loose.

Tauriel doesn't think twice about saving the dwarf. Her body moves on its own when it shoots two consecutive arrows. The big ugly orc is dead before it hits the ground and Tauriel is back to fighting other vile deformed monsters that seem to pour out of nowhere.

A groan of pain reaches her ears and she turns around because the voice is familiar. It is her prisoner, floating away in a barrel. For a second Tauriel is unsure of what to do, whether to stop him or let him have his freedom, and one of the orcs uses her hesitation to launch an attack. It does not go well for him, for Tauriel is a skilled fighter with many years of practice and a quick reaction. She throws the orc off the bridge in what would seem like an effortless, smooth motion to most observers but deep down she knows that she got distracted by the dwarf and it could have cost her dearly.

She spares Kili one final glance and continues fighting with more ferocity, still angry at her foolishness.

After the orcs have retreated and the battle is over Tauriel stands alone on the bridge and watches the turbulent stream run downhill, towards Esgaroth, towards the Lonely Mountain where the dragon sleeps. The dwarves are long gone.

There's an unfamiliar, heavy feeling in her chest. Tauriel doesn't know what to make of it and how to make it go away.

Run, Kili, run, she thinks. The orcs are after you.

Get away from them. Kill the dragon. Get your treasure. Go back and marry a nice girl, one your mother won't object to. See the world with your chosen one.

Be happy.

Author's notes:

Thank you very much for reading. Here's just a couple of things I wanted to clarify.

I know I said this work is 'DoS'-compliant (rather than book-compliant) but I've decided to rely on the book to fill the gaps where the movie is silent or unclear. In 'Hobbit' the dwarves were imprisoned in Mirkwood for quite a while before Bilbo came up with the whole "hide them in the barrels" idea. So I went with that. Besides, I think it would have taken Kili and Tauriel more than one conversation to develop the kind of bond which made Tauriel effectively desert her post and her people and ruin her chances of ever coming back to Mirkwood just to save Kili. I mean, sure, he is a sweet lad but she is throwing her whole established life away to follow him. It's a fairly big decision to make so I wanted to establish more of a base for that.

I believe that Beren and Luthien are sweet but in my opinion they would have been something Tauriel can't quite relate to. I mean, apart from being one of Thranduil's subjects she seems to be her own boss so I don't think she'd agree with women being told who they can and who they can't marry and upon which conditions.

Naturally you may think differently.