Hello dear readers! Welcome to my new story and if you are lazy just skip the Author's notes :)

More rambling from me at the bottom, but I'll just summarise the important stuff here.

This is officially the sequel to Only Spiders for Company, the fic I wrote almost a year ago. If you have not read that, you can either go and read it now, though I will warn you that my writing gradually improves as the story goes on, or you can read the summary of the stuff that matters in a minute.

There will be no outright slash in this fic, and all the characters have important parts to play, but in this universe Kili and Tauriel do have feelings for each other although they are unwilling to act on them yet for various reasons. Perhaps there will come a day when I will write another story solely centred around them, but it is not this day.

The background information:

In my previous story, the spider attack went a little differently and as a result Fili and Kili ended up spending an extended time with the elves, but not as prisoners. Kili and Tauriel got more bonding time, and Fili managed to befriend Legolas and some other random members of the Mirkwood Guard. With many, many events in between, all the main characters survived the Battle of the Five Armies (because come next month we will all need a few more BOFA survival fics in our lives) and this story is set the summer after Erebor is reclaimed, with Thorin cured of dragon sickness and reigning King Under the Mountain.

I don't own anything.

At last, on with the story!

Tauriel readjusted her grip on her bow as she ran lightly through the forest. Streaks of morning light drifted through the canopy high above, trailing yellow ribbons across the dark trunks around her. The morning smelled like dew on leaves, of a healthy growing forest, and Tauriel smiled at what her home had become in the eight short months since Mithrandir expelled the Necromancer from Dol Guldur. Of course, darkness would still linger for a long time yet in the Greenwood, and the occasional party of orcs or spiders would provide some interest in Tauriel's job, but in the area directly around the King's palace and, perhaps more significantly, in the area directly north of it, the darkness had retreated to a mere shadow of a memory. Tauriel herself refused to take any direct responsibility for this, but Legolas and many other elves (and a small number of dwarves, in fact) insisted that it was by her diligence and determination to eliminate all remnants of the enemy that Mirkwood was finally becoming know as the Greenwood once more.

It was also her fault, according to a certain son of Thranduil, that relations with the dwarves newly reestablished in Erebor were going so swimmingly. Tauriel smirked to herself as she continued to run through the forest. She would give herself no credit for that at all; in fact, it was almost entirely down to the two dwarven princes that things were going so well in both the Greenwood and Erebor. As if their unexpected stay in the palace just over half a year ago wasn't enough to convince Thranduil that dwarves could be good allies, they had somehow managed to convince their own uncle that the elves were not to be avoided at all costs, but rather to communicate with and to establish new, if tentative, connections. It was through Fili and Kili that the King under the Mountain extended the (reluctant) hand of friendship to Tauriel's folk, and it was to those two that Thranduil offered his people's friendship back.

An opportunity not to be missed, in Tauriel's opinion. Right now she was headed to the new guard training outpost, quite far north of the palace for the simple reason that it was equidistant from her home and Erebor. It had been her idea from the start, and one that she was quite proud of, to merge the training of dwarves and elves in order to broaden the young warriors' horizons, and it had been quite a surprise for her when the King had announced that he approved the new construction as long as Erebor did. Actually, Tauriel had a feeling that 'Erebor' hadn't approved it at all, but Kili had agreed anyway on behalf of his uncle and Throrin didn't have to know anything about it.

Dwalin was the official head of guard in Erebor nowadays, but it seemed that Kili had taken it upon himself to get quite involved in the weapons training of young dwarves in the past months as they trickled in from the far corners of Middle Earth. His excuse, the last time Tauriel had asked him why, was that his brother had many more duties as crown prince and that gave Kili a lot of free time on his hands. Tauriel suspected it had more to do with the opportunity to leave the confines of the mountain now and again. The cadets went on a lot of expeditions in the newly-made-safe lands around Erebor, which no doubt Kili enjoyed just as much as the dwarflings did.

He would be at the new training outpost, she knew. He had promised to be there at its opening. She just hoped she wouldn't be late.

Glancing up through the branches, she realised that it was probably futile. The first young elves and dwarves were supposed to be arriving there at noon, and despite the fact that she had another couple of hours to get there, she still had a long way to go. Why couldn't she have gone with the cadets like Amras suggested? They had camped overnight in the forest to do the journey in two manageable legs. Instead, Tauriel had elected to rise long before sunrise and run the whole way in one morning. Her legs felt like they were dying. Her lungs were burning up and there was the distinct taste of blood in her mouth. But her head felt clear and she was happy. She was going to see Kili again for the first time in...well, only two weeks, actually - but still, it felt like a lot longer than that.

"Tauriel!"

Her head whipped round at the sound of the familiar voice, and she almost stumbled on a tree root, coming to a halt just in time and peering through the trees in the direction of the voice.

"Cellissel?"

"Here!" a young female elf, shorter than Tauriel but tall nonetheless and sporting a mischievous grin, slid down from a tree with grace only an elf could ever manage, then spoiled it immediately by stubbing her toe on a tree root and giving a clumsy hop while uttering a dirty curse.

"Language," chided Tauriel with an amused smirk, "otherwise you'll be turning into a dwarf."

"And you know just what they're like," Cellissel's grin was back and she winked cheekily at her leader.

Tauriel tried to keep her face neutral, but a small smile made its way there nonetheless as she thought about Kili. The young guard's grin widened as she spotted it, and Tauriel sighed. After the Battle of Five Armies, there had been several spaces in the palace guard which, as captain, Tauriel had been obliged to fill with hand selected young warriors. Needless to say, it hadn't been easy. Many elves had been lost in that battle, and not many were willing to join up after witnessing the carnage that combat brought, and Tauriel herself had found it hard with the knowledge that whoever she selected, she was putting their life in danger simply by the nature of the job. It had never bothered her before, but after the loss of so many friends... She had sworn to do her utmost to protect her warriors, her King, the forest that had always been her home and the people she loved. At one time, she would have said that there was no one left she loved. Now she knew that to be far from true. However, in the end promises never meant much where the enemy was concerned.

Cellissel was one such elf whom Tauriel had recruited for her surprising stealth. Despite being mediocre with a bow and rather dismal with a sword, the young she-elf could sneak up behind pretty much any creature and take it out with a knife before it knew what had hit it. This was why Tauriel had put aside her reservations about Cellissel's age - barely over a century old - in the knowledge that in a dangerous situation, it would be second nature for her to sink into the background unnoticed. Not that you would be able to tell from Cellissel's extroverted nature - but Tauriel knew it was all just an innate judgement of what risks are worth taking.

"Are we going to get going then? You're already late," Cellissel remarked, reaching up and swinging casually from an overhanging bough.

"You're right, I didn't realise it would take me this long," agreed Tauriel, "Did you wait all this time for me?"

"Amras told me to. Oh, yes, I forgot. There was a message to pass on," her brows drew together for a moment. "Amras was sure it was for you. It's written in dwarvish, though."

Cellissel brushed her light chestnut hair back and at first Tauriel thought she was going to draw an arrow, but then her hand returned with a folded piece of parchment. It was small, but Tauriel unfolded it with excitement nevertheless. There was only one dwarf who ever wrote to her, and if her suspicion was correct, it wouldn't be in dwarvish at all. Due to the barrier that prevented anyone other than a dwarf from learning the dwarvish language or the runes used to write in it, and due to Kili's somewhat puzzling inability to decipher elvish writing (not that Tauriel had ever cared for the intricacies of language anyway), they had come well on their way to creating a new shorthand for the common speech, only known to themselves, and, of course, Fili, since Kili could keep nothing from his brother. Legolas had found out and expressed a desire to learn it, however so far he had not found the time. Now Tauriel's eyes skimmed over the sharp, rigid lines of Kili's handwriting, strongly resembling carven runes, and read:

Dear Tauriel,

Meet by rocks SE of outpost noon.

Kili

Tauriel frowned. What did Kili want to see her for so desperately that he wanted to meet her in private before the opening? It could be something about the King. His King. His Uncle. That was the most likely explanation, Tauriel decided, since she knew Thorin had been a cause of worry for both brothers ever since the initial episode of dragon sickness. It couldn't be anything worse, surely? The possibilities were numerous, though, Tauriel knew, so with a nod and a beckon to Cellissel she set off at a faster run than before, towards where Kili waited.

Kili paced the clearing anxiously, ears alert for sounds that weren't the leaves rustling or the birds singing. The sun was almost overhead, and Tauriel should be arriving any minute now. He hadn't been sure at first whether it was a good idea to send word ahead by way of raven, but then a part of him that sounded uncannily like his brother reminded him that the worst that could happen was Tauriel not turning up. He didn't know why he was listening for sounds though. His inferior dwarven hearing would never pick up the almost silent footfalls of elves in their own forest.

He continued pacing. His fingers jerked periodically towards the bow on his back whenever he thought he heard a sound louder than the faint voices in the background belonging to the rowdy group of dwarflings he had brought here. Movements caught out of the corner of his eye kept him on high alert. But there was a difference between being on high alert and just plain jumpy, and he feared he was edging closer to the latter by the minute. How much longer would he have to wait?

Distraction came unexpectedly. A loud caw sounded from overhead and a raven swooped down onto Kili's hand, which he had flung out in surprise but now held steady as the surprisingly heavy bird landed on it. The prince of Erebor's eyes widened as he took in the raven's bedraggled appearance.

"What has happened?" he asked urgently, "Is it Fili?"

Fili was supposed to be in Dale for conferences regarding rebuilding and the aid of the dwarves in that matter. Though the men had carpenters and stonemasons aplenty, it was common knowledge that the dwarves were more skilled at the various crafts, particularly when it came to stone and metal, and Bard had not been so vain as to refuse the help when Fili persuaded Thorin to offer it. Now all that remained was sorting out the finer details, which were infinitely more complicated now that the kingdom of Erebor was all but up and running.

"Left man-town! Left man-town!" croaked the raven.

"Fili left Dale?" frowned Kili. Fili hadn't meant to leave until this evening at earliest.

"Ride this way! No guard!" the raven continued.

"What? Why would he do that?" exclaimed Kili.

The raven ruffled his feathers in what looked like a shrug. "Bad men on road! Steal! Take things! Needs help!"

This jolted Kili into action. Without a second thought he threw the raven into the air, and it circled around his head a few times, cawing mournfully.

"Show me which way!" ordered Kili, forgetting for a moment all about Tauriel and the reason he was in the clearing to begin with. The raven flew off, and suddenly remembering, Kili scratched a hasty arrow into a tree so that Tauriel might follow him. Then, with no time to lose, he set off at a sprint after the frantically flapping raven.

Legolas was in his father's halls, but he was not at ease. Far from it, in fact. Back and forth he paced, back and forth, and yet there was still no sound but the soft pad of the soles of his feet against the cool stone floor. How much longer until the doors to the throne room opened and he would be granted entry? How much longer until he burst in of his own accord, unable to take it any longer? Back and forth, back and forth.

Looking at it from his perspective, it was ridiculous. Why on earth would the envoy from Laketown want to talk to his father completely alone, on a matter of simple trade? It didn't sit well with Legolas, but the Lake man had seemed quite adamant and Thranduil had seen no reason not to oblige. A simple merchant hardly posed a threat to the King of Eryn Lasgalen. Legolas had been ordered from the throne room and told to wait outside - and he could hardly disobey his own father in such a mundane task. But what on earth could be taking so long?

Finally, after what seemed like an age, the doors were flung open wide and the prince of the Greenwood took a jump backwards to avoid being stumbled into by the Laketown envoy, who didn't look very happy and shot Legolas a dirty look before striding out of the halls and the open gates. Thranduil stood a few feet back from the arched doorway, arms folded over his chest and eyes glowering quietly. Legolas looked from the man's retreating form to his father and back again.

"What did he want?"

"It is of no importance. You will learn in due course," Thranduil dismissed with an airy wave and an expression of disdain, sweeping back round and gliding to his antlered throne, not bothering to look at his son.

Legolas frowned, but he knew when it was time to depart his father's company, so with a final glance towards the closing gates he sighed and began to walk away. That was when something on the ground caught his eye: a piece of parchment. He looked swiftly around, but seeing that no one was paying him any attention, he stooped down and picked it up. It looked like it had fallen out of the Lake man's pocket.

Checking he was not being followed, Legolas walked quickly down a narrow passageway and unfolded the parchment with deft fingers. In the dim light it was hard to make out the exact nature of the runes, but they certainly weren't elvish, or indeed any type of lettering that he knew. To be honest, they looked dwarvish, but he wouldn't know - the dwarvish laws forbade any other race from learning their language or their script, so though Legolas had asked Fili about it a couple of times, the prince of Erebor had been unable to tell him anything except that it was a closely kept secret.

Perhaps Fili would be able to read this letter, then, if it was some sort of dwarvish. Since the letter had been dropped by a man, Legolas had his doubts - but still, Fili had a better chance than any elf of decoding the message, and Legolas wasn't sure who else he would trust with it.

His decision made, the prince of Eryn Lasgalen folded the letter and strode away towards the higher levels. He knew several secret exits which would get him out of the palace and into the forest without relying on the magic gates, and he preferred to use these at most times because it meant no one needed to worry about when he would return. This errand would not take long.

The halls grew cooler the higher he climbed, and the air fresher. Soon the deserted corridor he was following came to an abrupt end and the ceiling stooped down to almost meet the rising earth floor. This was where Legolas slid onto his front and began to wriggle along, pressed hard against cold ground on all sides. The tunnel narrowed sideways too and the only reason he did not get stuck was his elvish leanness; a dwarf would never fit down here. Ahead it was pitch black, but he knew what was coming, having used this route out of the palace for hundreds of years. It never failed. In fact, it was one of the easier and safer secret passages into the open, the others having either steep climbs, freezing swims or too many oblivious elves to get past. If getting into the King's palace was easy, the kingdom would have been lost long ago.

Finally he reached the place where he would make his exit, signified by a sharp turn in the tunnel which he knew, should he continue, would lead to an overhang above the underground river right next to a treacherous waterfall. He had only been that way once, and never planned to go down there again. His pale fingers searched above him for the lever, and sure enough, there it was. A wooden board swung upwards as he pushed it, just high enough for him to raise his head and let his eyes adjust to the sudden bright light of midday. Checking all around, he confirmed that the coast was clear, and in a moment he had hauled himself out of the tunnel and onto the convenient root of a tree, letting the trap door click into place behind him. The other good thing about this tunnel was that it led into the middle of nowhere - a place in the forest just like every other, beside a tree no different to the thousands that surrounded it except for the particular way that the ivy grew over it. No one who stumbled through this place by accident would have any clue what lay just under their feet.

With practised ease, Legolas slung his bow and quiver of arrows onto his back, then tightened one shoelace absentmindedly. It was the sort of sunny summer weather that made some people drowsy and other people more awake, and Legolas fell without a doubt into the latter category. Leaping through the forest with the ease of a wild animal, Legolas could feel the life around him, the flourishing trees and carefree creatures of his home, bursting from the cracks in the darkness that had smothered Mirkwood like a blanket for so long and living as if to make a statement that however long you try to suppress the good, it will always find a chink in the armour and break through again. It always made the Elven Prince smile.

The tree he was aiming for was fairly near the river, and almost at the edge of the forest. The ravens seemed to like this tree the most, and Legolas wasn't going to complain since it wasn't too difficult to climb. The lowest branch was only a few of feet above his head and he could easily grasp it with his hands if he jumped a little. From there, he swung himself up and rose to his feet, balanced perfectly on the thick bark, and reached for the next branch, which was also just above his head. After that it got a lot easier, as the branches became more numerous and closer together, but also just far apart enough for him not to snag himself every time he made to move. Before long, he was as high as he could get without the risk of snapping a branch and falling. Unsurprisingly, there were several ravens perched on trees nearby, and at Legolas' call a few of them turned their heads and flew over to sit on the thin branches above him. The tip of the tree swayed lightly under their weight, but neither Legolas nor the ravens were perturbed.

"Would you take this..." he pulled the piece of parchment folded up several times from his dusty pocket, "to the mountain? Give it to Fili, the prince." He handed the letter over to the nearest raven, who took it in its beak and gave a sharp bob of its head. Legolas smiled. "Thank you. If he cannot be found at the mountain, go to Dale. I recall something about a meeting. Now go!" Legolas threw up his arm and the ravens all took flight, soaring away towards the distant peak which was the Lonely Mountain. He watched them go until they were mere specs against the cloudy sky, then turned to go home.

I hope you enjoyed it, and please review even if you don't want to read the next author's note!

I promise I will update AT LEAST once a week, so even if the plot seems a little slow at times, it will definitely get somewhere soon. :)

I will also start to include a chapter summary at the end of each chapter, so the characters I've invented don't get too confusing and you can try and guess where I'm headed in the end. :)

I can promise eventual whump in this story, though I won't give away who it is (you might be able to guess from my history) so you can look forward to that! I know I am!

(I admit to being evil when it comes to things like this)

P.s. Reviews? Pretty please? :)