AN: Well, a new story! Don't worry, I'm not leaving Shivers, but I've had this beginning written for a while, and I decided to finally post it. Sorry for the long AN, but please read all of it because it explains some important info.

This is going to, in some ways, be a romance, but in most ways it's really a family story. Beyond the romantic tendencies that will come later in the story, it's really all about Kili's relationships with the other dwarves: Thorin and Fili especially.

More info that's important: One of the focuses in this story is selkies, which is a type of mythical creature from Celtic legends. Though they are not mentioned in Tolkien's Middle Earth, I figure that doesn't mean they can't be there; after all, characters don't spend that much time near the shore.

What is a selkie?: In short, the fairy tales said that they're creatures from the sea that look like seals with very human-like eyes. Occasionally they come onto land, taking off their seal pelt, and they sunbathe and frolic on the beach.

In any case, without further ado, please enjoy The Siren's Song


Prologue

Waves crashed against the shore as Kili looked out upon the sea that had once held so much beauty and mystery for him. His mind wandered to the goods that his party had acquired here for trading. They had found a multitude of shells, sea glass, and had traded dwarven ware for the goods made by the local peoples.

Some could say that the trip had been marvelously successful, but so many others could beg to differ. Kili wasn't sure which side he could-should-take. He knew his family's choice, but so much had changed so quickly for him, family bonds not excluded.

Things would have to return to normal now that they were leaving the seaside. That's what Fili had told him. Kili was worried that some things could never be twisted back into their previous shapes and forms.

Khuzd tada ma ublûri zuzna, ma furukhî sakh ghelekh.
A dwarf that can't endure the bad, will not live to see the good.

Well, he was living, wasn't he? He'd seen the good, if they could have ever been called good days, and then he had found how bad days can so often follow the footsteps of their preferable companion.

Khuzd tada bijebî âysîthi mud oshmâkhî dhi zurkur ughvashâhu.
A dwarf that chooses to take a wife must guard her as his greatest treasure.

Well, he'd certainly tried. One couldn't say he hadn't, not that it had any chance of going that far. Wife? Rubbish, as his brother had uttered so many times before. He was too young for any of that folly, thankfully; he'd only wanted to know what it would be like to hold such a 'honorable' creature in his heart for a bit of time before she returned to her home. Why had it all gone so far? It had all been folly, he saw that now, but how he wished he could go back and change so much, at so many different times over the past few months.

Thadulur kuthu barufizu oshmâkha ra tûm fulz muneb meregizu.
Only when your family is guarded and your halls are prosperous should you feast.

One day, his family would be the way it had been, he knew it had to be true because he felt if he wished hard enough, it'd have to be true. He would return home to see his mother and he'd again be just a Durin, a nephew of Thorin Oakenshield, and he wouldn't step out of line, and he wouldn't wish for what he'd had because it hadn't been good as he'd hoped; it'd been far worse than he'd dreamed.

Feeling his brother's hand on his shoulder, Kili turned only his head. Fili's eyes radiated apology, and Kili wished that he understood inside himself if he should accept it, or be the one apologizing.

Either way, it was time to leave the shore. His last hope had died inside him, and a single glance back at the crashing, blue, green, white crested waves brought back floods of memories which only his heart could cherish. His mind demanded they be wiped away, forever tossed into a reckless past, but his heart recalled a night of stories beside a crackling fire when he'd first heard their name…

The Siren's Song.