Author's Note: Hey, everyone! Thank you so so much for the reviews and follows. I apologize for the long delay, it's just that I've never posted a story before. Ever! I hope you all continue to be fantastic supporters and enjoy. I do not claim to own any of J.R.R. Tolkien, New Line Cinema or Peter Jackson's characters, universe or movies mentioned or present herein.

"She is far, far away from me."

The sun hung low in the sky, peaking up over the Iron Hills and illuminating the easternmost side of the Lonely Mountain. Night was creeping over Laketown. Fishers brought their catch into their homes and the smiths cooled their irons, depriving the shining golden streams of their color.

"Brandywine brandy, eh?" Oin lifted the spherical jug of alcohol and uncorked it. He gave the liquor a long whiff, that is until Fili took the glass bottle from his hands and gave it a deeper inhale.

"Smells more like brandywine wine, if you ask me." Neither of them noticed the door open and close with a hushed, practiced dexterity.

"You're both wrong." Bard announced, the lakeman taking the bottle from the two dwarves and sitting down at his archair with an audible splash as the small house reeled atop the waves from the force. "It's spiced fish oil." WIth that he took a swig, a swig much longer than was comfortable to watch. Were the girls not asleep upstairs they would have found his prank very funny. Oin and Fili on the other hand were wide-eyed with shock and disgust, the latter almost heaving right there.

"You can't be serious!" The long-nosed dwarf said, the back of his hand muffling his mouth.

"Da, you make that joke to all our guests." Bain laughed as he set the firewood down next to the fireplace. He looked around as he cleaned off his dirty tunic. "Master dwarf, where is your brother?" At that, Fili's jovial expression saddened, and likewise looked through the window into the night sky.

Kili, great grandson of even greater King Thror of Erebor, strode clumsily into the night on the back of his new steed, a midnight black horse. It was definitely a horse, the boy thought as he rode the majestic beast barely in its stirrups, and not a pony. "Come on, you bleedin' bully of a horse!" As he kicked his flanks, the beast reared up, and Kili swore that at the highest point he was upside-down.

"Whoa there!" With a thunderous crash, the horse came back down and didn't miss a beat as it galloped at full stride across the Laketown bridge.

The night was stretched forward Kili and stroked the horse's mane as thanks for not bucking him off. He listened to the earth and the wind, trying to find the source of the distant hoofsteps and his quarry.

"...West..." He breathed the words out, the discovery renewing him with a heart-pounding energy, and given how pounding his heart already was, it was something. 'Romance,' Kili thought to himself. 'That is the only explanation.'

By himself, the young dwarf was a very different person than he'd seem with his many rugged companions. Actually, he was committing his journey to memory to perhaps be born into a joyous ballad, that is if he could ever catch up to her.

An elven ranger is not a simple target to track or chase, but to Kili's credit, Legolas had begun to sweat. Though, it was to his credit in a different way entirely. Legolas was pushing himself and his horse to their limits in order to find that putrid orc and have this whole mission done with. 'I've had enough of dwarves and lake towns for one evening.' He thought, fuming at the mental image of his beloved tending to that dwarf.

The wounds he had been dealt were still fresh and bleeding. With a determined look, he kicked his armoured boots into his horse's flanks hard.

"Mellon!" Tauriel called out for a third time, and finally her friend turned his head, his eyes lighting up with recognition.

"Tauriel! Where have you been?" The fact that the elf hadn't detected her presence even while galloping so quickly was worrying. And how had she gained on him so quickly?

"The..." The woman hesitated. "There was a family in danger, I had to make sure they were safe."

"I understand." He had already turned forward to face his prey's plume of dust in the distance and whispered out the words to the wind. The Sindarin elf needed to make it known that he did not forgive like some love-lorn babe. But... Legolas could never stay mad at the captain long even though he knew she was lying through her teeth.

The man's pride was hurt, and now he had to listen to her withhold her feelings for another. His knuckles were white for a moment as Legolas tightening his grip on the reigns, but Tauriel only needed a flash of emotion for her to understand that Thranduil had spoken the truth about her dear friend. When dealing with Legolas, someone who so seldom showed his feelings, Tauriel was forced to learn quickly how to interpret the other elf. But once she had done so, the sylvan elf found he was quite simple.

"You're bleeding." She said aloud over the din of the galloping horses.

"It's nothing." By Varda, if Tauriel had a coin for every time she heard that.

Tauriel kept her eyes forward, but her pupils ever-tugged at the edge of her peripherals, hoping to catch a glimpse of her diminutive, star-crossed companion. They had only met but one day ago, though she nevertheless longed to see him again. She would not look back, not while Legolas had his eyes on her so keenly. They were friends, after all. If only her silver-haired friend could see that as well.