"Death cannot stop true love. All it can do is delay it for a while."
- The Princess Bride.
The two brothers sat on the mountain cliff together. Their uncle sat a space beside them, even in death the broodful look of King Thorin did not change. He had barely spoken a word to them since their awakening.
The three of them sat together with an eerie mist trailing over their feet, though it did not chill them, for they felt no longer. This is the fate that comes to dwarfs in death; to walk the world as ghosts unseen, while the other races of Middle earth flee to their Heavens. For dwarfs love the earth, ground, and stone more than any other creature of Middle earth and it is their duty in death to care and protect the world forever.
Fili was by far the cheerful of the group. They'd all discovered how their senses where now superior and awakened, better than any senses of any creatures of the living. Fili wanted to jump off the cliff edge right now; for he knew it would not hurt him. He could fly and soar across the Long Lake that lay below him and skim the top of the water, even swim the whole of the lake if he wished. But Fili's good mood was fading like the sunlight on the horizon before them.
Kili's mood was lower than the deepest of dwarf mines. Three times his life had been saved by the beautiful elf maiden Tauriel. His life had been in a dept to her. But when the time came and the cloud bust he could not save her, and he died trying to defend her fallen body with his own brother rushing to his side.
What was worse was that the dwarf prince was now doomed to spend eternity walking the earth without ever seeing her again. Her spirit had already flown away to her own Heaven with her kin. Far across the sea to the one place were no dwarf could go, neither living nor dead. That was where she belonged, thought Kili sadly. Even if they had both lived, would they still have a chance together? He had once had many years ahead of him, but he would have died eventually of old age if nothing else while Tauriel would have lived forever. Would she have given up her fuller life to spend a life with him? Kili was uncertain of everything.
His eyes lifted from the shimmering surface of the water and across to the small town built on the lake. With his new eyesight he could see far better than elf or eagle. He could see clearly the many people busy in the town. The wood-elves were preparing to return to Mirkwood, with a procession of their slain laid at peace to carry home. At the head of the procession was his lost she-elf. Even now he could see the elf prince mourning the loss of the daughter of the forest. If there was anything to be happy about it was the fact that now he wouldn't have her either. She was much better than either of us anyway, thought Kili.
Suddenly as if carried on the wind Kili heard a voice calling his name. A female voice that sounded like the sweetest song on a breeze. Kili almost fell off the mountain face as he jumped in shock.
"Kili! Are you even listening to me? What's wrong?" cried Fili.
Kili realised that his brother had been talking to him for a good ten minutes or so without him even noticing. What he'd been about he didn't know, probably trying to comfort him.
"Of course." Kili replied quickly and turned his gaze back to the horizon as the last light of the sun faded. It was just a dream. He thought. A trick of the night air. Who knows what sorts of things nature plays on you now that you're dead anyway? She was gone far, far away from him.
Fili continued talking for several more minutes with Kili only half listening to his brother. Suddenly the voice came to him again, much clearer now. It was her voice, he was positive. But how could this be? Had he gone mad in his loss?
Then he realised how quiet it was. He looked to his brother; he had stopped talking and was staring off in the direction of the voice. He could hear it too.
Kili jumped up on his stout legs as fast as he could. "Tauriel." He cried, waiting for an answer. He listened, but everything was silent. Even the birds of the mountain were at flight tonight.
The silence lingered on and Kili began to doubt the entire existence of everything around him and was half convinced they'd all gone mad in death. Then something stirred in the mist around them. The mist swirled at the movement and the something became a tall figure. The mist cleared and the three of them saw it was the figure of a woman. It was Tauriel.
Although thousands of emotions at once surged through Tauriel upon seeing Kili again, for a moment her face remained emotionless to him. Until she cried out his name for a third time with joy and ran towards him. As they met she dropped to her knees to embrace him, and Kili hadn't felt anything since he awoke after his life ended, but he felt a strange warmth from her now as he held her in his arms.
When they finally broke their embrace he stared at her perfect face in disbelief. "How can you be here?" He asked. "You died; you should be gone from Middle earth."
"I am dead." She murmured. "But I chose not to leave."
Thorin and Fili had been standing and watching the strange reunion from a short distance. Thorin gave a deep clear of his throat. "Fili." He said and nodded towards the mountain. "Come, we must investigate how deep the mines go. We've a lot of work to do."
"But uncle..." Fili started to protest, he wanted to hear more of Tauriel's tale. No one had ever heard of an elf choosing to remain on Middle earth instead of going to Mandos.
"Fili Now!" Thorin yelled, and it was clear in word was still law.
After shooting a glance to his brother Fili obeyed and trudged into the mountain after his uncle.
As the dwarves left Tauriel stood to her full height and went over to the edge of the cliff face, peering cautiously over the edge.
"You're afraid?" Kili asked as he watched her.
She turned sharply and stared at him. "No. I was, but not anymore."
Slowly she sat down at the edge of the cliff. Kili walked over and sat close beside her, he had many questions to ask her.
"I still don't understand how you can be here?" He started. "How can you choose to stay?"
"Through strong will." She replied forcefully.
Kili gazed expectantly at her. The elf maiden turned her gaze towards him and the corners of her mouth twisted into a small smile as she looked on him.
"I don't remember dying. Everything was just black and in darkness. The first thing I knew was a light all around me, and a song. A chorus of voices were singing from the source of light above me. It was the most beautiful thing I'd ever heard. It was the first song; the song sung when the world was first made, I just know it." She explained in her soft and steady voice. "I had every desire to follow the sound of the song."
"What happened?" The dwarf asked.
"I heard another voice, a single voice on its own, calling to me from the opposite direction of the song. It sounded so desperate and helpless, and somehow it alone was more beautiful than the entire great chorus of voices. I didn't want to leave it alone. So I turned and ran, ran away from the song and towards the voice. The light faded and as I ran the chorus became distant and disappeared. But soon after I lost the sound of the voice also, and I was left searching among the darkness, until I found you."
"The voice that was calling you, what did it say?" asked Kili as he looked upon her.
The line of her forehead creased and she looked sad slightly. "Don't leave me; you mustn't leave me now when victory is so near." She repeated. "And my name, the voice definitely had a strong fondness for my name, it kept calling for me, over and over again. It made me feel so awful and yet full of such hope at the same time."
She turned her face towards Kili who was staring wide-eyed at her. "It was me." He said. "It was me calling to you."
"What happened to me? Tauriel asked. "I don't remember anything."
"You were fighting in the thick of the battle" Kili began grimly "taking on near twenty Orcs and Goblins at once. I was fighting with my brother not far away from you. I could hear your voice more clearly than any other; you were screaming and crying out with range against the enemy. But suddenly I heard you silenced. I looked over to see your body fall to the ground." He stopped looking at her, and turned his gaze to the long drop below them, a painful look was in his eyes. "A particularly large Orc had charged up behind you and stabbed you straight through. I blanked out on almost everything as I saw you fall; I just ran towards you through the battle, I think I shot down the Orc that stabbed you after several arrows."
"And when you got to my body, was I...?" Tauriel started, but then trailed off quietly.
Kili understood and shook his head. "No. But there was nothing I could do. It was only then that I realised I'd been struck several times too just getting to you. I tried to defend your body; I knew if I didn't those Orcs would just hack you into pieces." He shuddered, and words almost seemed to fail him for a moment. "Fili was coming to my side when I finally fell. I was laying there beside you, unable to move, and I saw the light fading from your eyes. We'd been winning in the battle, so I called to you, that's the voice you heard as you died."
Tauriel was quiet after his story, trying to think over everything and remember. Slowly, she leant her body on Kili's. "I'm sorry." She whispered. "After saving you, you still died in the end, and all for me."
The dwarf prince put his small head on her shoulder and a smile actually spread across his face. He looked up and the stars now shining bright and clear above them in the cloudless sky.
Once he'd hated the night, but now after his dream he could see the beauty of the night sky. It made him think of her. "There isn't anything I wouldn't do for you." He told Tauriel. "Are you going to stay here forever?"
"I suppose I'll have too." She answered.
Kili turned his head to look up at her and saw that she was not looking at the stars, she was staring far out to the tree tops of Mirkwood."
"We could go there you know." He said.
She laughed. "It would take a long time to walk, now that I'm dead I have no other means of travel."
"Can you not fly?" He asked.
Her head turned sharply towards his and she looked at him as if he was mad.
"Don't you have any powers?"
"No." She uttered. "I don't belong here."
Kili nodded understandingly. Tauriel was supposed to have her own place to go after death, but she'd deserted it. Still she wasn't a dwarf, and didn't have the duties in death that dwarves have. She didn't breath anymore, but in terms of skills she was little better off than when she was living.
He slipped his hand into hers comfortingly and felt her soft fingers moving against his firmer ones. Although dead Tauriel's body retained some warmth on the account that both her spirit and her body still remained in the same world. Kili felt Tauriel's warmth as he sat close beside her and gazed up again at the stars. Tauriel herself gazed longingly up above her.
"Come with me up into the stars." Said Kili. "I'll carry you up there. Come be the woman who walks in starlight, though you supposed to be far away from me, you are no longer."
She moved away and stared at him. "What did you say?"
"When I died I realised who the woman in my dream was. It's you." Kili explained and then flashed a cheeky smile at her. "Do you think she could've loved me?" He asked.
Tauriel was silent. "You don't need to question it, Kili." She finally answered with strong and forceful certainty. "She does love you, I know so."
He stood and stepped towards her, taking her where she sat in his arms and kissing her. Although he felt nothing in death, he felt her now, her body pressed to his, and her arms tight around him, more than anything he felt the taste of her lips.
As they kissed he picked her up in his arms. She gave a small cry but then smiled at him, assuring him she was alright. Her body was much taller than his and perhaps once with as much strength as his own, but now he had unlimited strength and could pick her up with ease. He carried her up into the sky, where in Kili's arms Tauriel could walk, dance and kiss in the starlight for eternity.