~Lonely Hunter~

'i always end up waking up in the strangest places...'

~Part X~

~Waking Up~

Water engulfed Adalyn entirely as she hit the Lake's surface, the contact more powerful than just a small sting. It was electrifying, and not in a comfortable way. The water closed over her eyes, her mouth, entire body. It was cold to the touch, seeming as it was winter. Never had Adalyn felt, or more like been, so cold. Even the winters outside were warmer and less uncomfortable than this frozen water.

Adalyn struggled for breath, the poison in her mind making her think that she wasn't in the Lake. Adalyn got gallons of water inside of her, the water bitter and cold. She was going to die. She was going to die in a Lake. How stupid.

The water clung to her, her tunic clinging to her pale back. It was getting colder by every passing second. And Adalyn couldn't move.

As she sunk to the bottom, struggling desperately for something to get hold of, Adalyn felt the darkness tugging at her soul. It was compelling, hypnotic. She never felt something so dark yet strong. It was... terrifying.

Adalyn gasped, more water in her mouth, and she silently screamed, bubbles erupting, floating to the surface of the Lake. Adalyn screamed once more, twisting in the ropes that bound her hands and feet together. She wasn't going to die in a Lake. She wasn't going to die! Adalyn let out one final scream, her throat clenching together, her lungs deflating, yet still desperately trying to get the oxygen it needed to stay alive.

She was leaving. Adalyn was leaving the world, because of something like a Lake!

The darkness grew even more stronger, and this time Adalyn almost let it take her away. Take her away from this misery, this struggle, this hold for something that would and was never going to work.

Adalyn let her eyes fall shut, as she sunk to the very bottom of the freezing Lake. Never had she felt so useless. So tiny. So hopeless.

Just let go... let go of everything...

It was so hypnotizing. Adalyn wanted to let go, she yearned for it. The darkness could help her forget everything that has happened. Her past. Her murders.

Everything just gone...

Adalyn finally hit the sandy Lake bed, her back bouncing off of the sand a couple of times before she actually stayed still. Still. Unmoving. Dead.

The first part of the ritual was complete. Now she just needed to be brought back up, back from the darkness, the darkness that was a floating abyss, that wasn't anywhere near the Halls of Aerdrie, or the Pits of Sauron... It was nothing,... it was where the dead who had failed miserably in life yet accomplished well in life stayed,... but it was also where the "Forsaken" stayed. The "Forsaken" were the resurrected...

Cerys didn't notice the gaze of someone all too familiar practically burning holes in her back. Not as if she truly cared at the moment. Right now she was angry and annoyed with someone else.

The miniature glass vase she had been holding in her hand exploded in glass shards as she clutched it with too much force and strength. Some glass shards bit into her cheek, but she ignored the sting. Her hand shook uncontrollably, her hand bleeding yet still shut tight into a fist.

"So close..." Cerys mumbled under her breath. So damn close to finding out what she was. What she had been created for! The books in the overflowing library of her Uncle's had only one part mentioning even a hint of what she was known as; "Forsaken." The book had been about the Halls of Aerdrie and the Pits of Sauron, though Sauron was never to be spoken of aloud.

Kili felt something soft and wet with a sweet smell on his temple. He could guess it was because of the head injury he had gotten when trying to reach the underground cave. The cave! Kili sat up abruptly, earning a gasp from whoever had been cleaning his wound.

Kili turned to find the owners face, and he was surprised that it was Cerys.

"I-i'm-" Kili stuttered, trying to apologize, but he couldn't find the words. Why was it so hard for him to speak around her? It wasn't as if she felt anything for him. Kili touched his left temple softly, the wound healed from the herbs and ointments but still bruised. Kili frowned when his fingers came back red however. But before he could ask about anything like what had happened or where he was, Cerys answered the unspoken questions for him out loud, as if reading his mind.

"You hit your head quite hard, Kili. I took you on my horse, Hirveren, to Imladris, or commonly known as, Rivendell." Cerys paused so that Kili could let the already spoken facts sink in his head. Then she continued;

"I healed your head wound, yet it still keeps bleeding for unknown reasons." Cerys let out a sigh, rubbing her thumb over the stitches she had gotten earlier from the broken glass shards that had gotten under her skin.

"I know what happened to your hand, Cerys." Kili tried her name out, used to calling her 'Lonely Hunter.' Cerys glanced up from her hand, her expression calm and frozen, but her eyes spoke otherwise. A mix of emotions & feelings hovered in her eyes, no matter how hard she tried to hide them. Her eyes said everything that she didn't want anyone to know.

"So you were spying on me?" Cerys grumbled, not caring anymore what the Dwarf prince thought of her.

"It's not as if the pain will help you in any way. I know from experience." Kili whispered the last part, unaware that Cerys had heard him with her blessed Elf hearing. Cerys decided to sit down next to Kili. As she got closer, Kili slightly stiffened, unsure what she was about to do. Cerys let her hand pause near the pillows since they were next to Kili. Kili moved over, wincing when his head pounded against his skull. He could sure use one of those ache killers Oin had made just for him.

"I am sorry. I should have gotten there faster, or you wouldn't have your head wound." Cerys apologized, surprising Kili even more. Kili let his hand unconsciously move to her hand that rested next to his. Cerys flinched. Not used to making contact from people because of love, Cerys felt the need to escape from the now suffocating room. It became harder to breathe, the comforting cool air now a disturbing warm. But she didn't want to remove her hand from his. It was something she normally didn't feel.

She felt giddy, and happy, but at the same time, she felt as if she was suffocating in the open aired room. This was not good.

"You do not have to apologize, Cerys. You still ended up helping me, did you not?" Kili said gently. He drew small circles and patterns on her hand, his face staring down at the ground. Cerys shivered when his hand left hers, now tracing patterns on the outside of her wrist. Cerys felt a smile creep onto her face when Kili blushed. He probably didn't know that she had seen it, but she liked the fact that he thought so.

"Yes i did. But i am sorry... for not thanking you properly. Earlier, i mean, for the ache killers. It really did help." Cerys told him. Kili smiled himself, his smile bringing an even bigger smile to Cerys's.

"You mustn't worry about thanking me. I should be thanking you, Cerys." Kili replied, his voice lifting an octave when he pronounced her name. Kili turned her wrist over, so that he could trace the inside of it, but what he saw brought a shocked expression to his once happy face.

"Cerys, what are these?" Kili questioned her. Cerys ripped her wrist out of his grip with her face turning red with anger.

"None of your concern." Cerys stood up from the bed, holding her wrist against her chest. As she turned around to escape the suffocating room once again, Kili got up quickly, grasping her shoulder and spinning her around against the nearby wall. Cerys looked surprised, and she growled deeply in the back of her throat. Kili growled back, annoyance shining in his eyes.

"Must you make everything yours, Kili!" Cerys snarled. She didn't want him questioning something she barely knew about herself. The scars on her wrist were enough to worry her Uncles and her. She didn't need another soul worried.

"That wasn't nothing Cerys! That was something that shouldn't be there!" Kili exclaimed. His voice was tinted with worry. Why had she hurt herself like that? He thought to himself. Cerys breathed heavily against Kili's chest, her voice hitching in her throat as she spoke.

"I barely know myself what it is, so don't ask me something i don't know." Kili had disbelief lingering, but he pushed it down. Something she herself didn't know about? They had looked like simple scars by the looks of it. Kili took her wrist once more, and he pushed her sleeve up, ignoring her protests against it.

Now that he looked more closely at the scars on her wrist, he saw that they had a pattern on them. The first scar was cut in a sort of lightning strike across her wrist, only on the inside. The next one went in a sort of 'U' loop, with another scar, this one perfectly straight and clean going through it, touching the surface of the lightning strike. What the hell?

"Don't ask me anything, for i do not have the knowledge, neither does any other being in these Halls." Cerys muttered with a sad expression.

Kili, his curiosity getting the best of him, asked her the question she had feared of him asking.

"How did you get the scars?" Kili still had his hand on her wrist, and his other hand on her shoulder, with her back up against the wall.

"I-i don-" Cerys got interrupted by one of her fellow Elf maids.

"Lle desiel?" The Elf maid asked with a ringing light voice. Cerys quickly got out of Kili's hold, blush erupting in her cheeks.

"Ale tela'" Cerys answered the Elf maid. The Elf maid nodded, a grin on her small face. The Elf maid left, with the door closed thankfully.

"Ready for what?" Kili asked. How long had he actually been out? A day, or more? He was about to ask Cerys, but she had a better question. Kili should have known that she would have asked. Everyone eventually did. It was why he never showed his knowledge.

"You know Elvish?" Cerys asked Kili. Kili sighed, and let her go, walking to the arch way that led to the small bath room.

"I taught myself Elvish after i got hold of Khuzdul. Uncle would have killed me if he had truly known what i did after my lessons out in the forest near our home. Fili suspected something, but he never confronted me of it. My mother, however, knew what i was teaching myself, and she handled it quite well." Kili rambled on, not realizing the surprised face Cerys had.

"Never have i heard of a Dwarf who spoke the language of their 'enemies.' Tell me, when have you ever really used it?" Cerys asked yet another question. She wanted to know more about this Kili. He seemed to be full of surprises. They both did.

"On trades, and hunts. I used to go to camps as well. It is actually quite surprising how many Men and other creatures know how to speak the language." Kili twirled a rose in between his fingers. He always fidgeted with anything he could find. A rose had been the victim apparently.

Cerys walked towards Kili, and what she did was something new for the both of them.

"Well,... i am glad that you know Elvish. I think it is quite unique and different from others." Cerys laid her hand on his shoulder, her fingers moving up to brush his mid-shoulder hair away. Her fingers froze in mid-stroke, the soft brown hair comforting and beautiful. Cerys started to run her fingers through, forgetting everything.

"Where did you have to go?" Kili interrupted her drifting thoughts, snapping her out of her daze.

"Oh. We are both to attend the dinner Lord Elrond has. The rest of the Company is already here, waiting. You should go before they eat the rest of the food..." Cerys laughed, and Kili chuckled.

"Would you care to attend the dinner with me?" Kili asked playfully, his eyebrow higher than the other. Cerys laughed again, and she stroked his stubbled cheek, before letting her hand fall to her side.

"Go before me. I will follow you soon, no worry." Cerys said, with a faint smile. Kili nodded, smiling back.

"I will see you then,... Cerys." He left, leaving Cerys in a frozen stance.

She was falling for a Dwarf.

WHAT DID YOU THINK?! REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW! ;3 ;3 ;3 :3 :3 :3

Do you like the Kili + Cerys interaction in this chapter?! I did, thought i was trying to make in slightly interesting, with the intro and her scars... who gave her the scars? MWUAHAHAHA! I like cliffhangers...

Lle desiel= Are you ready?

Ale tela'= After i finish.

I'll update soon! xoxoxo

~Ave Atque Vale

~Lola

(p.s. i love you all, and the next chapter will be the dinner scene, with some more Kili + Cerys interaction, + some holding hands... hehe)