A.N: For all of you who thought the last chapter was weird: Yes it was. It was meant to be weird though. Gandalf will explain it to you later on...

" I would give everything I have."

" You will have to..."

Tauriel had not the slightest amount of fear within her. She had meant it, she would give everything, unconditionally.

" But I must warn you, Tauriel..." Galadriel said, " It will not be easy."

" What is it?" She was anxious though to know what to do. " What do I need to give?"

" In exchange for three dwarven lives, you will have to give up parts of yourself..."

" What do you mean?"

" In order to give them a mortal life, it takes an immortal one."

Tauriel was not sure if she should be shocked. She had known that it would take her a lot more than just asking for it. " So I will die?"

" No." Galadriel said with a somewhat sad smile, " You will live, but the spark of your kin will leave you forever. Since it's dwarven lives you are giving, it's a dwarven lifetime that you keep."

" How is this possible? I have never heard of something like this. Why is it not done more often?" Tauriel wondered. The fact that she would have to sacrifice a large part of herself was only of lower importance.

" It has been done. But way in the past, long before our kin became the way it is now. We do not have friends outside our own kingdoms, we do not have anyone we think is worth this sacrifice. You cannot give an immortal live to save an immortal one. And this is why it has faded into a hollow shadow of a memory, not more." She said those words with a light but unmistakable hint of disgust and sadness in her voice, as if she actually deplored it. But then she went on. " When you become mortal, everything will change. You will no longer have the abilities of our kind, though you will still look the same."

" It does not matter; I would do it even if I would not live. This is already more than I can ask for." Tauriel was completely sure about this, no doubts left.

" Well then..." Galadriel said sadly, " Farewell, daughter of the forest..." And then she spoke words Tauriel could not understand; She only could feel them. It was as if she was falling, only surrounded by light and air. Weight started to drag her down to the ground then, pulling at her body almost painfully. It was a feeling of death and of life at the same time.

And all of sudden it was over, every light gone, every pain vanished, only the feeling of weight remained. Tauriel has had her eyes open all the while, but only now she could see. She was looking up into the night sky, filled with millions of stars. It was a view so strange and yet so familiar. As if she had never seen the night sky before and yet knew that this was home.

Every feeling of time was lost on her, she did not know how long she looked into the sky, nor how long she had been lying on the ground. But once she tried to sit up, the felt the weight again. It was a strange sensation, yet not unwelcome.

She could feel life running through her, in a way she never had before.

This is what it feels like to be mortal, she thought and concentrated on every feeling she could comprehend. Only then she realized that she was alone once more. And that if she could feel what she did, then Kíli, Fíli and Thorin were alive.

Times of sorrow are over, she thought, times of change will come.

Carefully she stood up, realizing that the weight she was feeling did not prevent her from moving quickly and somewhat gracefully. Not like she used to, she had to admit that, but for almost human, she was not doing too bad. Eventually she would get better.

Then she picked up the bow that was still lying on the ground a few steps from where she was standing. Trying to draw it, she actually felt a huge difference. It was still not too much of an effort, but in comparison to before, this felt a lot more exhausting.

Now what counted was to get back to Erebor. She could not wait to see life in the eyes lastly seen under the glaze of death.

That was if she would actually make it back to the lonely mountain in one piece. She assumed it would be about a day and a half of walking, maybe less, depending on what way she found.

Who knew what could happen on her way, now that she was more vulnerable than ever before it was even more important to be careful.

She could not climb down the cliff, there had to be another way, but where was it? It was completely dark and even with the stars giving enough light to see the outlines of her surroundings, her vision was limited. It was something that she would not get used to so quickly.

Still, she started walking towards the cliff once more. Maybe if she would follow it, there would be some opportunity to get down. And indeed, after a time of search longer than she would have liked, there was a small path along the otherwise straight wall of the cliff. It was only about two feet wide, but every other way would have taken far too long. She'd be fine, for sure.

Careful not to underestimate neither the danger of the path nor the new features that she was still adjusting to nor the darkness, she walked along the path with her back pressed against the stone wall. At least no one was reckless enough to walk this path, besides her, so the chances for trouble of that kind were close to zero.

Sometimes the path would get wider, sometimes even narrower, which forced her to concentrate the best she could. After, supposedly, hours of going down and holding onto the wall the best she could, the bottom got close. Relief streamed through her, only distracting her for a second and before she knew what was happening, a part of the stones she was standing on gave in. Unable to regain her balance, she was caught off guard and together with the stones she fell, hitting edges and sticking out rocks on her way down.

Roughly she landed on the grassy area at the bottom of the cliff. Having only fallen about twenty feet, it didn't even take her half a minute to be up on her feet again. Luckily the little incident had not caused her any more injuries than she had anyway, if anything, it only had made them hurt a tiny bit more than before. At least she told herself so.

Her next realization was that the bow in fact was not broken, nor damaged, as she had expected. Quietly thanking whomever was responsible for her luck, she went on walking. If she could just walk straight into the direction ahead, her way would lead her directly to Erebor.

Recalculating her way, it might now only take a day and a night of straight walking.

Around afternoon was the time she first felt exhausted. Disappointed in herself for being exhausted so quickly, she continued anyway. There was no time for breaks, nor the need for one. It was simply the adjusting that made her feel a little washed out.

The landscapes she walked through changed quickly, sometimes there would be a forest, the next hour green plain grass, and again an hour later she would find a mixture of both. When the sun was about to be replaced by the moon, Tauriel had to take a break. Even if it made her furious, she just could not walk any longer without a break. Her eyes started to search her surroundings and stayed on a small river crossing her path. She felt like her throat was on fire, like she had eaten dust and stones. It was not hard at all to get down to the water and she could more or less comfortably crouch on a small stone in order to drink something. It was still kind of foreign to her to have to rest or drink and probably eat at the most inconvenient times, but it was just as fascinating as it was annoying.

She kept sitting at the river for a short time, watching the stars coming out, until she felt like she could go on. It might just have been five minutes or less, but for her it felt like that was already more than enough. Not because she felt any less exhausted but because she wanted to get to the mountain so desperately that it didn't matter if every muscle in her body ached.

The next few hours passed without any problems occurring. But once she got to places she recognized, she became lightly nervous. She could still feel the presence of death growing with every step she got closer to the battlefield. Too many had lost their lives here, and she felt guilty for whatever reasons. Death had never been something she could deal well with.

She had to rest one more time, but she only stayed for not more than two minutes. It was better than nothing after all.

Then the battlefield came into her sight. Pictures she just remembered all too well started flooding her mind, but she pushed them aside.

It was close to dawn when she actually reached it, and even though it was still mostly dark, there were dwarfs and men likewise all over the place. Some collected weapons, some carried bodies elsewhere. But once she crossed, they all looked at her. Some only for a moment, some until she was nearly out of sight again. Her vision at night might be limited, just like her ability to hear even the tiniest noise over far distances, but she apparently had not lost her sense for the people around her.

She walked straight up to the gaping hole in the wall of the mountain which was supposedly the entrance. But before she could get close enough to be able to say more, two dwarfs stood in her way. " The armies of king Thranduil left days ago."

" That may be, but I am not one of his puppets..." She said, distracted by the entrance. Actually she did not even think about how she would actually get into the mountain. She still looked like her kin after all, even if that was the only connection left. Why would they believe a word she said? Sighing on the inside she blamed the stubbornness of dwarfs for it. This never fought war between the two peoples, with all the biased hatred, was something she just could not understand. Most of the dwarfs and even many of the elves were too young to actually have lived at the time it had all started. If it was not for the stubbornness of two kings, things would have turned out differently.

" What do you want here?" He kept asking.

" You are not welcome here." The other one said coldly, earning himself a glare from the other one.

" Is there someone I can talk to? It is important." She simply said.

" I doubt you will find anyone who is willing to talk to you." The second one grumbled into his beard.

" Only one out here you migh' wanna see is Bofur. As a former prisoner of yours..." The first one said, a little friendlier, but still not pleased with her being there. But seriously Tauriel did not care what they thought of her. If people liked to think of her badly, then they should do so.

If she remembered correctly, Bofur was one of the dwarfs who stayed behind in lake town. He should still know her.

" I would very much appreciate that, thank you." She said politely. Grumbling the second dwarf left, mentioning her to follow. He led her to some kind of tent and then without a word turned around and left again.

Straight forward she went to enter the tent, obviously interrupting a heated discussion.

" What is she doing here?" Someone whispered into the otherwise silent room.

" Tauriel..." Bofur was there indeed. " What are you doing here?"

" It is important. Where are Thorin, Fíli and Kíli?" She chose the other with caution.

She saw some shift uncomfortably, others having sadness to their face.

Bofur looked down, obviously not knowing what exactly she wanted to hear. " They are gone." He finally said. " The battle, they..."

" No, I mean where are they right now?"

" Bein' prepared for the ceremony, inside the mountain."

" How can I get there?"
" Uhm... Why?"

" They are not dead!" She just said it as it was, " Not anymore at least!"

" That fella got hit in the head during the battle..." Someone murmured and some chuckled.

" I'm sorry Tauriel but I really can't help you... They are gone, that's just the way it is. You should go home." He said apologetically.

" Is Gandalf still here?" She asked suddenly as she was already about to leave.

" Aye, should still be around somewhere, probably with Bard. Biggest tent around, can't miss it." He said before turning back to his mates.

If the dwarfs did not believe her, maybe Gandalf would.

The tent was easy to find, but not easy to enter as she was stopped before she could go in.

" Who are you and what is your matter of concern?" Someone asked.

" Who I am is not important and I need to talk to Gandalf." She said sharply. All those people didn't understand how incredibly important this was, but on the other side, how could they...

" Who desires to talk to me?" Gandalf stepped out of the tent and looked at Tauriel. " I would introduce myself but I feel like you already know who I am."

" I'm Tauriel." She said simply, unsure of what else to add.

" Oh, I know who you are..." He chuckled warmly, " It's a pleasure to meet you after all."

Though she wondered how Gandalf actually knew who she was she said " The pleasure is all mine, saelon."

" Nah, I'm not that wise..." He gave her a wink. " What is it that you want to talk about?" The way he looked at her told her he knew. He would know that she was telling the truth as he could see the evidence of it standing in front of him.

" They live..." She said quietly. " No one believes me, and I admit it sounds insane, but it is true."

It didn't take him more than a critical look at her to start hurrying towards the entrance into the mountain, Tauriel following close by.

Still she got many skeptical views and as they were about there, someone blocked their way.

" She is not going in here." He said to Gandalf. " You may pass."

" Don't be stupid," Gandalf replied, " one day you shall thank her."

That confused their opponent but with a dark glare he let them pass.

Once they were inside, Tauriel realized that Kíli had not exaggerated. This place was truly breathtaking. But there was not time for staring as Gandalf led her through different halls up to a closed, wooden door which he through open. But he did not enter the room, instead he let Tauriel pass first. She noticed, of course, but decided not to comment on it.

It didn't even take her a second to forget it, all of it. Once she saw what lay behind that closed door.

To be continued...

So this was shorter... But I will probably write the next one to be up on Saturday :)

Hope you liked it :3

...so much fun to write...