I found myself pacing the cell several times during the day and trying to reimagine Kili's journey. It was the only hope I had to keep me sane without all the other thoughts gnawing at my conscious. However, I could only handle repeating the story to myself so many times before it began to run dull and allowed my mind to wander. It wasn't long until I was tossing the least important topic in my mind.

' "One of beauty"? Is this some sort of trick?' I thought to myself, sitting down on the cell bench.
'Surely he couldn't really have interest in a criminal.' I paused to think it over a bit more before continuing. 'Although… he has such a kind face. I can't possibly see him as being one of deceit .'

'Ugh, what do I know of dwarves! Here I am making assumptions when I'm the threat to them.' I stood up and began pacing the cell again. I had hardly even noticed that the sun had started to set and the room was darkening more by the minute.

'For all I know, he could just be trying to gain my trust to see if I have anything else up my sleeve…' I half-mindedly thought. However, the longer it settled, the more practical that situation seemed.

"That bugger!" I said out loud. I nearly jumped out of my skin when I heard a voice reply.

"You can calm down, miss. Only here to bring your food," the woman dwarf, Dordina, said as she entered the room.

"Didn't see you there," I said in a low voice.

Unfazed by my outburst, Dordina went about her business, removing the tray from breakfast and replacing it with an unscathed dinner tray full of food. Unlike the morning, however, the idea of eating again was repulsive.

"There you go, dearie. Be seeing ya in the mornin'," she replied as she quickly made her out of the room again.

I gave the tray a look of disgust before sitting on the makeshift bed in defeat. It didn't matter whether Kili was genuine or not. I was still their prisoner and he was simply fulfilling the duty of keeping watch over me.

Just as that thought resided in mind, I heard footsteps coming down the stairs. Even in spite of everything I had just concluded in the minutes prior, I still foolishly found myself wishing that it was Kili to take watch for the night again. I was mildly disappointed when I was met with Blondie-dwarf instead.

"Ah, you've survived!" he said happily in feign shock.

"To your dismay, yes," I answered quietly. He pursed his lips as a quizzical expression came across his face.

"Very well then," he spoke on, pushing the conversation from the awkward tension that was forming. "I'm Fili!" He gave me a small nod of acknowledgement as he began to pace the room. I looked up at him in confusion.

"Fili and Kili?" I questioned incredulously. "Like to stay in rhyme much?" He smiled proudly.

"When you're kin, generally speaking, yes."

"So what… you're cousins or something?" I asked in an uninterested tone, though inside I couldn't help but want to know as much as I could about Kili. He let out an amused laughed.

"Cousins! No,no. We are brothers! Is it not obvious?" he looked at me as if I were joking.

"Brothers?" I exclaimed without giving myself a moment to think. "You look nothing alike!"

"We're like twins, you can't be that surprised!"

I let out an airy laugh and shook my head.

'Of course. This couldn't get any better,' I thought sarcastically to myself. Though, I slowly remembered his comment to Kili when I had first encountered them. "Good luck, brother." I should've known from the start.

With a deep sigh and nothing more to say, I lay down on the bed and closed my eyes to attempt to fall asleep—in addition to wanting to avoid conversation. The quiet engulfed the air once more for quite a few minutes before I realized that it was no use trying to go to sleep. The dreams would be far more painful than listening to a dwarf.

I sat up again and leaned my back against the wall facing Fili and the stairwell entrance. He was curiously watching me as if I were about to say something exciting to him. However, unlike Kili, I didn't feel a sense of comfort having him in my presence. When the silence remained, I rested the back of my head against the wall and looked up at the ceiling, wishing that the night would be over with already.

"You're quite reserved for having left such an impression on my brother," he said as if he were speaking to himself. If he was trying to get my attention, he sure as hell got it.

"What?" He looked at me and smiled, obviously pleased that his plan had worked.

"He spoke so highly of you that I expected you to be quite the charmer to catch that attention of his." I narrowed my eyes towards him.

"What are you getting at?" I sternly asked, not enjoying where this conversation was going. He simply smirked a little more before standing up to walk towards the cell.

"You may have him fooled, but I am not so easily amused," he said staring me down. "Kili is his own man so he can make the choices as he pleases. However, he is still my brother and you are still our prisoner. I won't allow your trickery to get the best of him."

He gave a lengthy pause to allow me to respond. To his disappointment, I wouldn't be falling for his game. I let the anger boil inside of me as we stared each other down. "I'll be keeping a close eye on you... That is, until our uncle decides your ultimate fate for your crime."

"Then stop dawdling and let my punishment commence for pity's sake!" I snapped, letting the anxiety slip for a moment.

"Note taken," he replied, the same shit-eating grin plastered to his face. I balled my fists tightly together to hold in the anger that was insisting to be released. He continued to watch me until I couldn't handle it any longer.

"You've made your point, now leave me be," I said through gritted teeth. That only seemed to make his nasty grin even wider before breaking eye contact.

"Fair enough." With that, he sat back down in his seat without another word.

After several sessions of deep breathing to calm myself down after that small confrontation, I somehow managed to get myself to fall asleep. Though they weren't welcomed, I decided the taunting dreams would be more bearable than having to speak another word to that god-forsaken dwarf.

I had fallen asleep to a surprisingly comforting dream about my parents. However, it had quickly turned into a retelling of my sixteenth birthday…

"Eleysia! Come see what you're father got for you!" my mother called from the other room. I couldn't wait to see what my father had in store for me. He always loved a good surprise. I ran into the living room to see my mother smiling brightly at me. "Well, don't you look like an adventurer!"

I was wearing the black, hooded cloak that she had given me earlier in the day. She had seen me admire its intricate details every time we went to the seamstress' shop and I couldn't be happier when I awoke to see it hanging on my door.

"I love it, Momma," I said as I twirled around in it to show her. Her smile grew as she motioned me over closer to her.

"Now, it's supposed to be a surprise, so you've got to put this on," she said, wrapping a scarf over my eyes. I could feel her gently pushing me towards the front door to see what had awaited me outside.

As the door opened, I could hear voices from across the yard.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing!?" I heard my father yell. My mom's grip had tightened on me as we froze in place.

"Stay out of the way and you won't get hurt!" a man's voice yelled back at him.

"Get out of here! She's not yours to take!" my father yelled angrily. I quickly lifted up the scarf covering my eyes to see my father struggling to pull a man off of a deep, chestnut-colored horse that I assumed had been meant for me.

"Don't let him get away!" an older man in the distance called out. I glanced over to see him running towards our house.

However, in the second I looked away, my mother abruptly screamed, "Robert, no!"

When I looked back, the man had gotten away with the horse and began to ride off as fast as he could. My eyes quickly locked on my father as he dropped to his knees. His face was pale and pain was etched across it. My mother let go of me and quickly ran over to him as the older man joined her to tend to my father.

I slowly started to walk towards them until I saw my father's shirt saturated in a puddle of red. I froze once more realizing that he had been stabbed in the chest. Time seemed to stop altogether. My mother broke free of her attention towards him to turn back at me.

"Eleysia, get inside. Now!" she yelled, tears streaming down her face. I began to slowly shake my head, not believing what was actually happening. When I wasn't budging, she screamed at me once more in a bloodcurdling tone. "NOW!"

My eyes widened in fear and I quickly ran inside, slamming the door behind me. I stood in the middle of the room like a helpless child. I was in shock. Tears hadn't even begun to well in my eyes before I started to shake violently.

"Eleysia,"I heard someone softly call my name. The entire house launched into a rumble until I heard the voice again.

"Eleysia!"

I awoke to a hand gently shaking my shoulder. I defensively grabbed the stranger's arm tightly and yanked until I heard a thud. I focused my eyes in the dark to see that Kili was the intruder. His arm was outstretched through the bars as his other hand supported him so that he didn't slam into the steel cell from my grip pulling him forward.

"What are you doing?" I spat venomously at him. He looked taken aback by my sudden hostility.

"What I should have done last night!" he defended innocently. My grip on him was so tight that my body began to shake—or maybe it was still the dream.

"What's your game, dwarf?" I said in vicious tone, leaning my face as close as I could without touching the bars. He looked at me in confusion.

"Game? You looked distressed, so I thought I would help you out!" he answered, eyebrows pulled together as he searched my face. My anger slowly turned into a grimace as the sincerity was solid in his demeanor. I carefully let go of his arm causing him to pull his arm out of the cell and fall back a bit.

"Sheesh, you're a grump when you're tired," he said. Though it was lighthearted and meant to be a joke, his comment triggered my anger from earlier. I couldn't even give thought to contain my sudden outburst as I reached through the bars and slapped him across the face. "Are you mad?! I thought I was doing you a favor!" he said in shock as he rubbed the place on his cheek where my hand made contact. However, he still remained in the same crouched position at eye level to me.

My emotions quickly came clashing together once I realized what I had done. At the moment, I didn't care if it was all a devious plan of the dwarves. Kili seemed true to his word and I couldn't help but immediately feel guilty for reacting in such a way.

"I'm sorry," I spoke in a barely audible whisper. I felt my eyes getting watery again and quickly shut them tight, wiping any excess tears off my face. "I'm so sorry... I didn't want to become like this," I admitted quietly.

"Become like what?" he asked softly. I glanced at him for a moment to see him giving me a fully concerned look. He had a hint of sympathy in his eyes.

"Untrustworthy… a thief," I spoke the latter with disdain, looking away from Kili.

"Hey, I trust you!" he said comfortingly. "I'm not supposed to… But I do."

"You shouldn't. I'm 'the enemy'."

"I don't believe for a moment that you meant yourself as a threat. I think you saw an opportunity and you took it," he said reassuringly. I hardly noticed that he had gently grabbed my hand and was holding it between his own. I could feel myself start to shake again. "You have good intentions; it was just unlucky timing."

My emotions were starting to get the best of me. I closed my eyes again and shook my head as several more tears made their way down my cheeks.

"Why are you down here?" I whispered, desperately trying to get mind to occupy with something else other than the horrific images from my dream.

Kili looked down at my hand that he was still holding and smiled sheepishly, "To see you."

I gazed over at him to see him looking back at me nervously, half-smiling. I could feel the corners of my mouth perk up a bit.

"Fili just coincidentally asked me to keep an eye on you for a moment," he continued. "He'll probably be back any minute now, though." His smile began to drop.

"Your brother is suspicious of me," I absentmindedly said. He frowned.

"He spoke to you," he said more as a statement. I carefully nodded, causing him to let out a sigh. "Fili has always had a strong influence on me. He still does..." I looked away from him. If this was his idea of making me feel better, it wasn't working. "Except when it comes to you," he continued, "And I think that worries him because this is one of the first we've disagreed on."

"Can you blame him?"

"No," he admitted, "But that doesn't mean I have to be of the same mind as him." I stared at him hopelessly before more tears started to fall down my face.

"Even so. Fili will get his justification once my punishment is served. He won't have to worry for you much longer," I said quietly in self-pity. He looked at me with a pained face.

Before we could say any more, footsteps began to echo through the stairwell as warning of Fili's return. I looked at Kili regretfully.

"You'll make it out of this, I promise," he whispered, pressing his lips to my hand before quickly standing up. He motioned for me to lie back down again in attempt to make it appear as if I had been sleeping the entire time.

"Thank you, Kili," Fili's voice sounded in the room. "Will I be seeing you in the morning?"

"Of course," Kili answered nonchalantly. I could hear him pause before his footsteps started up at the bottom of the stairwell. "Sleep well," he added in a tone that I knew was said for me.

"You as well, brother!" Fili yelled in response.

I closed my eyes, desperately clinging to Kili's comforting words as the silence quickly took hold of the night once more.