(A/N: I hope people like this chapter :3 I managed to get two up today and I am so very proud of myself at the moment. Please enjoy and feel free to review ^.^)

Elill seemed to look at him, mystified, as though she had yet to see him fully. He smiled down at her bashfully, and she squinted, making sure she had defiantly identified him correctly, and he wasn't actually Thorin and she was so confused she was seeing him younger. She blinked twice and began to pull herself up, hoping it would help her clear her head. Kíli, or who she hoped was Kíli, lurched forward to help her shift up.

"Here, let me help." His voice was soft and it confused her slightly, but she still let him help, the blankets following down around her waist.

"Thank you," she began, but paused looking down at herself and scowling at her clothes, they weren't the same black corset and trousers she had been wearing, in fact it was a pure white dress. She despised both the colour white, and dresses, both seemed feeble and easily destroyed. She looked up to Kíli, still scowling. "Where are my clothes?" She asked him, as if he had all the answers. Kíli looked at her blankly for a moment, then he leapt up, as if she had just told him some vital information.

"Yes, clothes, an Elf brought some in." He hurried over to her with a long sleeved purple top with a black corset, black trousers tucked underneath and neatly folded. She took them from Kíli, who looked at them slightly confused. "I do not know how she had them, but…" He trailed off, but Elill smiled down at them, happy to have something familiar in her hands.

"It does not matter, I am just glad I have something other than this to wear." She told him. He seemed to look at her, she tugged off her blankets turning to get off the bed, he looked at her and hurridly jumped to her side to help her up. She waved him off, slightly annoyed.

"Relax, I am not some sort of broken doll, I can move on my own." She told him, standing, wavering slightly, before walking, her iron leg gleaming in the natural light. Kíli looked at it fascinated. She did not limp and found moving far more easily than it should be for someone walking with iron attached to her leg. She moved swiftly and gracefully towards and screen, once she had ducked behind it, she stripped her dress off and began to put on her clothes.

"Can I ask you something?" Kíli finally blurted out, causing her to poke her head out of the screen as she lay on the ground, wriggling into her trousers so all he could see was the top half.

"It depends what it is?" She told her casually, standing up and taking the metal pieces out of her messy braids and dragging her fingers to unravel them, before re-braiding the messy brown curls. Kíli looked down at his clasped hands as she walked towards him, sitting on the bed in front of him.

"Well, I overheard Gandalf and Elrond talking outside your room, about you being on borrowed time?" He seemed unsure of himself, and Elill's eyes widened as she realised what he was talking about. She crossed her legs under herself, looking at him worriedly, she had never had to explain this to anyone, not even her siblings who had refused to hear what Elrond had to say when they were all so long, she took a breath and looked at him carefully.

"There are somethings that should not ever be possible, Kíli, my siblings and I are one of those things. We are not meant to exist, half elves, sure, but half dwarves…it is seen as impossible." She looked at him to see if he had any reaction, but all he did was look at her in surprise, she gulped and looked at him carefully. "But, my siblings and I, we lived through childbirth, not only that, but we were conceived, we were given life! But, it is not real life, it is borrowed, allowed, like, if we trip up, we no longer have it. We are like Dwarves in looks, and in strength, but like Men, we get sick, we can die through illness." She looked down at her hands, she seemed sad, but she glanced back up at Kíli, as though guarding a secret that should never be uttered. "We die quickly, we live only a short amount of time, our biological clock speeds up, and the more the dwarf blood in our system is dilated, the more generations past, the faster they die, the quicker they age." She began to mutter, and Kíli quickly lurched forward so as to make her look at him.

"But, surely you can stop that, can you not?" He asked her, and she looked at him softly, and shook her head.

"Not unless I were to have a child with an Elf, it counters both blood types, and I am not having a child with an Elf, no danger." She warned him, and he chuckled as he looked at her, and then placed a hand on her cheek, gently.

"Elill, can I tell you something, it has been bothering me, and nobody seems to really be listening whenever I say it, and I believe that you would be able to understand." He seemed frightened by bringing it up, and she nodded to him calmly, tucking a braid behind her ear.

"Of course." He had listened to what she had to say, why she should not return the courtesy was beyond her. He seemed nervous as he began, gulping in the air like whatever he was going to say to him was drowning him.

"Elill-" He began, but the door came flying open, Bilbo rushed towards them both, Fíli behind him. The hobbit raced towards her in a hurry, leaping towards her in fear. His cheeks red.

"Elill, thank heavens you are awake, you should hear what they have been saying, if only you were there!" He squeaked, she blinked at him surprised. Patting his head gently.

"It is alright Bilbo, I am awake now." She told Bilbo calmly, like talking to a child who had just been startled by the shadows under their bed. Fíli came in, and leaned on the back of Kíli's chair, smiling lightly as Elill looked down slightly awkward. She had grown comfortable around Kíli and she hadn't understood why, but around Fíli it was just a little more uncomfortable.

"Relax," he said when he noticed Elill's glare, "I was only coming to tell you all that the food is all prepared." Elill looked at him for a moment, before hearing her stomach growl and flinched at the sound, clearly too hungry to decline the delicious prepared by the elves. She looked around the room a moment, grateful nobody looked at her leg slightly disgusted, and found she couldn't see her boots.

"Kíli, you did not happen to see where they placed my boots?" She inquired, searching for them worriedly. Although she was hungry and had to go on the journey, she refused to do so without her boots, as walking barefooted was obviously uncomfortable, doing so with her leg on show seemed an almost impossible feat for her. Kíli seemed slightly surprised that she had asked him, but he nodded.

"Yes, I am sure they put them…ah here they are!" He called triumphantly digging them out of under the bed, handing them to her. She felt joyful at the feel of the soft, subtle leather of her own boots, old and wrinkled slightly. She held them to her chest although she were hugging them, before pulling them over her feet and tightening the buckles, once both were on, she stood and shifted her feet slightly and making sure that her feet were comfortable in the old boots. She began to walk out the room, only to turn to look at the three males.

"Well, I am hungry." She stated at their slightly shocked faces, hurrying out the room quickly and rather happily toward the dining room.

Xxx

Elill sat with the other dwarves in the Elven court, piling food onto her plate and eating without fuss. However, the others didn't seem as appreciative as Elill when it came to the Elven vegetables. They complained loudly to Elill's annoyance.

"Try it. Just a mouthful." Dori tried to encourage Ori, who turned his nose up at the bowl filled with salad, Elill reached over, taking a spoonful of said salad and dumping it on her own plate, not one to complain when it came to food.

"I do not like green food." Ori said, frowning at the bowl, Elill rolled her eyes as she eat a forkful of the vegetables, happy to have something on her plate, and having it be a full meal instead of the scraps. Dwalin sat across from her, looking at Elill's plate in slight surprise.

"Where is the meat?" He asked her, Elill looked at him in surprise and shrugged, she wasn't quite sure where the meat was, but was too preoccupied with the food that was actually there to really care. She caught Oin hold up a vegetable on his fork and glared at it in disgust, Elill rolled her eyes at the dwarves, however, was rather happy that Kíli and Fíli who sat on either side of her actually tried the vegetables, and didn't quite turn their nose up so noticeably.

"Have they got any chips?" She heard Ori shout out, and she turned to him, glaring. It annoyed her how ungrateful they were, when the Elves were giving them shelter out of the kindness of their hearts, and yet they were complaining that the food was green. She sighed as she listened to the relaxing music of the Elves, wishing she could hear it more often.

"Cannot say I never fancy Elf maids myself. Too thin. They are all high cheekbones and creamy skin; not enough facial hair for me. Although, that one there is not bad." Kíli said to Dwalin, winking at an Elf-maiden behind the harp and smirking at her slightly, Elill stood suddenly to the shock of the Dwarves, and the elves, Gandalf however, didn't seem so shock that her automatic interruption.

"Where are you going?" Thorin called from the table where he sat with Bilbo, Gandalf and Elrond, Elill didn't bother to look at him as she glared at Kíli, her eyes practically burning hole into his head.

"I am full, I am going for a walk." She told them, making sure everyone would hear, before she stepped over her stool, turning to leave them and storming out of the court, the Elf maiden who had been playing the harp stopped playing in surprise at the outburst.