Kili (Ered Luin, Middle Earth)

Blinded and disorientated, Kili fell forwards, just about catching himself before he could land face first on the ground below. It had a squelching give to it and his fingers slid into damp earth. It was cold. The shock of it had him shooting backwards.

Kili blinked and the world slowly grew into focus. A heavy blanket of grey clouds hung low in the sky, a stark contrast to the spotless blue he had just been under. The earth was soaked through and mud clung to his clothes, his hands. Trees shot up all around him, dark towering and distinctly different from the forest he had left behind. He knew these trees, he knew the scent of this wood and the ground beneath his feet.

It was as familiar as his own face.

As was the dwarf stumbling through the undergrowth crying out Kili's name

Fili.

The relief upon seeing his brother was instant and overwhelming. The emotion caught in his chest and rattled around his ribcage, knocking the air out of him. It was him ,it was really him. He looked exactly the same as the last time he had seen him.

"Fili!" he yelled with all his heart.

Fili spun at his voice, feet sliding through the thick mud. His desperate, disbelieving eyes searched the forest like a starved man who'd seen the first sign of harvest, the first sign of hope in countless hopeless days. Their gazes met through the branches of the trees and Fili paled like he had seen a ghost. All his breath left him and he froze.

"Is it you? Are you really here?" Fili asked in a whisper, as if speaking any louder would cause Kili to vanish into thin air.

Kili scrambled to his feet, not caring about the mud soaking through his clothes and launched himself at the frozen dwarf. The second contact was made, Fili sucked in a stuttering breath, sounding like he had surfaced from deep, dark waters. Fili's arms banded around him into a fierce bone-crushing hug. It knocked all the air out of him but could not care less. It was Fili, he was really here. Kili gripped his brother's face and pressed their foreheads together with shaking intensity. A proper, dwarven greeting.

"Kili you're alive," Fili's voice was tight with emotion.

Kili held onto his brother as if his life depended on it, only letting go so that he could see Fili's face better. To absorb everything he had missed. Fili did the same only when his eyes flicked across Kili's body they narrowed into something akin to concern. Then he glanced over Kili's shoulder and backed up a step.

"What is that?" Fili said, uncertainty filling his voice.

Kili turned around to see the last remnants of the shining gateway melting into nothing. Severing their two worlds permanently, with Kili on one side and Leah resolutely on the other.

"No, no, please."

Kili reached out, desperate for it to stay open. His fingers brushed through a pulsating kind of energy, but the light slipped between the gaps and closed completely.

Leah was gone. He would never see her again.

"I didn't even get to say goodbye."


He was home. Of course he was happy. But it felt tainted almost. Poisoned by loss. Losing a loved one was hard enough but losing a 'One' did not bear thinking about.

Reuniting with his family was a light in the darkness, at least. Fili rushed them both home as fast as he could, dragging a devastated Kili behind him. Seeing his home felt surreal. After spending so long in a different world, it felt like he was viewing it through a new lens and he could never see it the same way anymore. This home was no longer the centre of his universe now that he had travelled and discovered untold lands. Seeing it so unchanged despite his absence held an odd kind of comfort.

As soon as Kili reached the mountain, he was swarmed by dwarves. All teary and shouting, clearly over the moon to see him. They patted him heavily on the back and gave him crushing hugs. Their prince had returned from the supposed grave and they were taking every opportunity to prove his realness and his health.

Amad nearly barrelled him over with how fast she ran towards him. Her cheeks were tear-stained and she mumbled near incoherently in his ear about how much she loved him and how much she was going to kill him for scaring her like that. Kili nearly crumbled when he saw her. The only thing keeping him upright was Amad's tight grip and a strong hand on his shoulder.

Home, he was home.

The strong hand belonged to his Uncle Thorin. Kili peered over Amad's head so that he could see him. Thorin wasted no time in grabbing the back of Kili's head and bring him closer. Forehead to forehead.

"You have no idea how happy I am to see you home and whole. I damn near gave up hope," Thorin said.

Amad released her hold so that she could take him all in. But just as Fili had done before, her eyes widened and her nose wrinkled in confusion. She brought her hand up to his face, and gently touched his beard.

"You're beard Kili. It's grown."

Kili drew his own hand up to his face, feeling the bristles of hair. The oils he had been using had worked, leaving him with a much fuller beard. Hopefully, one that could stop the outward mocking he had received before he left. It had always been a source of contention. Which was why he was not surprised by Amad's disbelief.

"And what in Durin's name are you wearing?" That came from Dwalin. The dwarf stood in the corner with his arms crossed tightly over his chest. His brother Balin stood next to him, sharing concern.

Kili looked down at his attire. He was wearing a bright yellow t-shirt with tiny people on. Leah said they were 'astronauts' but he had not understood the reference. His trousers were a bright green which matched his bright green zip-up hoodie, though both had a fair coating of dried mud caked into them.

There was so much to explain he did not know where to begin.

"You go missing for a week and you come back with a beard and new clothes. Mahal! I saw you fall off a cliff and you're not even injured." said Fili there was a laugh in his voice but he was verging on hysterics.

Kili wheeled around towards Fili, shock clear on his face "A Week? Fili, I've been gone for months!"

"What?" echoed many dwarves.

He had a lot of explaining to do.

At first they struggled to believe him. It wasn't surprising. His situation was without a doubt one of the craziest things that had ever happened. However, once the evidence started piling up they had no choice but to believe him. His clothes were surely not of this world, his injuries from the warg attack had healed into pale scars and Fili himself had seen the doorway Kili had fallen out of.

What had cemented his claims, however, was the scrapbook in his bag. Kili had gone looking through his borrowed backpack for anything that could back up his claims, when his gaze fell upon the book. He had forgotten that it was even there. His chest clenched painfully as he lifted it out. This was a part of Leah's world that he could keep. A part of her he had not lost. With this he would never forget her face.

It was a blessing and a curse.

Kili wiped away the hot tears before they could fully form. Pushing the terrifying urge to cry as far down within him as he could.

Kili carried the book over to the sitting room, settling himself down onto the low couch and allowing his family to gather around him. Their reactions to the life-like paintings contained within the book were rather amusing now that he was the one in the know. He imagined that this must have been how Leah felt whenever she introduced him to a new concept. It brought a sad smile to his face to think about.

They all had questions, of course, they wanted to know everything about this incredible, impossible world. Kili tried his best but even he did not understand quite a lot of the world he'd just vacated. Some of the answers he gave were complete guesses. He did not worry too much about that though as no one would ever be able to prove him otherwise.

The idea of a world with only the race of Men and no magic was the biggest source of confusion.

"How did they survive?"

"What do you mean they don't have any Valar?"

"How was their world created then?"

Kili did his best to skip past those questions.

After hours of back and forth, Kili was well and truly exhausted. He could feel it in his bones, the weight of coming home but leaving something precious behind finally catching up with him.

Kili stared into the dancing flames. Amad laid a comforting arm around his shoulders, refusing to be parted for fear he would disappear once more. The guilt at the heartbreak he had caused her solidified into something resembling lead and hung heavy in his gut.

"Kili," Amad's eyes drifted towards the scrapbook in his lap. "Will you tell me about them? The people in the paintings," her voice was so soft as if she feared he would break if she spoke too loudly.

Kili clenched his jaw. The thought of speaking it out loud held a kind of devastating finality. Like a storyteller recounting a tale after the fact, it was like admitting to himself that it was over and he could never go back. However, when he looked around, he realised that he was surrounded by the people who loved him most in this world. They cared about him so much and all wanted to know that he had been safe, that the people he had spent his time with were good and just. Seeing their faces after so long away, gave him enough courage to tell them. Kili opened the book on his lap, flicking through to find the best pictures to show them.

"This is Lady Ellen Orrison," Kili said, pointing to one of the pictures in front of him. It had been taken the day he had performed for the wedding. Leah had taken it while her mother was unaware.

"She was one of the people that were there when I first arrived in that other world. She was formidable enough to scare away a warg with nothing more than a tree branch," his mouth quirked at the memory. It still astounded him that she had accomplished such a feat. "She made sure that my wounds were tended to and gave me a place to stay. I was given food and clothes and shelter. Everything I could ever need. At one point I told her that it was too much but she shut me down very quickly and said that my Amad would feel better knowing I was taken care of. I couldn't really argue after that."

"She is right of course. Amad's always are," Amad smirked before it settled into something more pensieve. "It is a shame I will never get to thank this woman."

Kili's throat tightened and he flicked through the book once more. After a few pages, he found what he was after. "This one is Lady Anika Jones," The picture was from the first day that Leah had taken him to university with her. "She was a good friend and very funny. Even if she did like to make jokes at my expense. She'd taken to calling me Geri because she thought I was old."

Kili looked up at the confused faces around him "Apparently 77 is old in human years and geriatric means old person. Hence Geri"

Fili gave a breathy laugh and an amused smile pulled at the corners of Thorin's mouth.

Kili looked down again at the scrapbook. He knew they were waiting for him to tell them about Leah. She was in most of the pictures alongside him and he had stalwartly avoided any mention of her thus far. Kili flipped through the pages once more, determined to find the best one of her to show. But he got caught up in himself as he glanced through page after page. Her smile, her laugh, the way her nose crinkled when she was concentrating, all of it was immortalised forever. And it was too much. He didn't realise he was crying until a teardrop landed on the picture in front of him.

"Who is she, Kili?" Amad whispered.

"Leah," he said breathlessly.

"She was...she was amazing," Kili said.

The pictures blurred as he stared unfocused at the scrapbook in front of him.

He told them everything he could about Leah. Once he started, he could not stop. No one interrupted him while he spoke. They just let him say what he needed to.

"She was my One Amad. And now she's gone," Kili's voice broke as he spoke.

"Oh inùdoy kurdu! " His Amad had tears in her eyes too. She held him tightly whispering comforts into his hair.


Many months passed. Kili had hoped that the hurt would lessen as time went on but it only seemed to intensify. He had grown into quite a solemn dwarf, not one for laughter or song these days. His family tried to help him through it in the best way they knew how. Fili would make him smile or provide a distraction when he needed it. Uncle Thorin mostly treated him the same, which he was grateful for. He didn't want everyone treating him differently or giving him pitying glances. However, there was a deep understanding in Thorin's eyes now. Even if he hadn't lost a One, he'd known enough of loss to empathise with Kili.

The quest was probably one of the main things that kept him going. Knowing how it might end, he knew he needed to prepare. Firstly, he had to convince Thorin to let him go. Apparently when he was missing Thorin had banned Fili from the quest. When Kili heard that he nearly had a heart attack. He unquestioningly needed to go on that quest. He could not stand idly by while his family potentially died, not if he could prevent any of it from coming to pass.

After an argument or two, Thorin finally gave in. He had to tell Thorin about the stories from Leah's world to get him to concede. About how they had to be prepared for the quest. How Orcs were likely to pursue them. However, he kept information about their potential deaths strictly close to his chest. If he let that slip, then any chance of going on the quest would disappear in the blink of an eye. His Amad would lock him in his room and throw away the key, feeding him meals through a flap in the door. That dwarrowdam was nothing if not tenacious.


Six months after his return to this world saw the start of the quest for Erebor. His Uncle had left for a council with an envoy from the Iron Hills, in hopes of bringing in more dwarves to the company. Fili and Kili would be travelling together from Ered Luin to the Shire. The Wizard told them that the 14th member of the company would meet them there. His name was Bilbo Baggins and he was a hobbit. He remembered Leah mentioning him before. If there was any doubt about her future knowledge before it was gone now. She could not have guessed the exact name or race of the other company member without already knowing it.

The princes were given ponies that were fully kitted out for long travel. One of the guards led the two ponies out of the stables. The shirt the guard wore was a light grey with a large ornamental zip that went up the front. That was perhaps one of the most surprising things that happened since he returned. A tailor had seen the jacket he had arrived in and, fascinated by the zipping mechanism, had managed to replicate it, creating an entirely new fashion trend. Many dwarrowdams had taken to sewing a thick zip up the front of their dresses. The zipper pulls were often ornamented with jewels as a fashion statement.

Kili shook his head, still amused by the new trend. Leah would have loved it. She would have found it hilarious, he knew. The quick thought of Leah then dampened his mood. He tried not to let it show and climbed onto his pony. He gave Ered Luin one last glance before he and Fili turned eastwards

Their quest had begun.


Leah (?- Middle Earth)

The light blinded me. Even when I shut my eyes, it burned through the lids. Pressure surrounded me from all sides, like being submerged in water. Only it compressed against me with a much stronger force than water ever could. I was being crushed and pulled and ripped apart. Atom by atom. My very being seemed to explode outwards. Suspended in the ethereal light. Before the pieces imploded and fused my body back together. Reformed into something new.

I wasn't alone, I could sense someone with me. Someone I loved, someone I reached out for. Mum's fingers just about made contact with my own when they were torn from my grasp. She was whisked away, swept up in a wave of magic and carried far from my reaching grasp.

Without warning everything stopped and I crash-landed in a heap of flailing limbs. Where blinding light had once been, darkness now prevailed. The pressure disappeared and I could breathe again. Each breath seemed to pull strangely, the movement feeling off somehow. It took me a while for the rest of my senses to return to me. Pain was the first sensation. Not a blinding pain but a deep persistent ache, like all my muscles had been overexerted.

Like I had been in a car crash.

The first thing I realised was that I was face down and prostrate across cold earthen ground. Something cut painfully into the skin of my arms and cheek. Small jagged pieces with knifelike edges. Glass. Broken glass. A whimper slipped out as I tried to move. Shallow cuts formed on my arms as I attempted to get them under me.

My eyes were so heavy. It was a herculean task just to stop them from closing. After several slow blinks, my dark surroundings swam into view. I could only make out vague outlines of objects, things that could have been trees or rocks. My mind was too fuzzy to distinguish anything of note.

With tremendous effort, I pushed myself up, arms straining with the effort. I needed to move. I needed to find Mum. She could be just as injured as me, or worse. Adrenaline pulsed its way through my veins, like a parasite invading, and panic started to set in. My legs were deadened numb things but stinging as feeling slowly returned to them. They shook uncontrollably as I gathered them below me and dragged myself upwards. I grappled onto an object beside me, roughened tree bark digging into my palm as I used it as leverage.

The world wavered, tilting dangerously to the left and then to the right. Like I was drunk with no sweet relief of tipsiness to settle my frayed nerves. Fear pressed in close, suffocating, as I hung onto the tree with bloodied palms.

I had no idea where I was. Everything hurt and I was alone.

Wait, alone?

"Mum?"

The forest echoed my call back to me but gave me no answer. A search of the ground in my immediate vicinity yielded nothing either. The only indication of activity were the long gouges of disturbed mud from where my feet had been and the twinkle of glass in the moonlight.

I stumbled forwards, needing to widen my search. I grabbed onto anything to keep me steady and upright.

"Mum? Mum please, where–" I coughed, choking on air.

My foot caught against something hard and sent me sprawling. My arms shot out to catch my fall, slipping on slick leaves and I nearly slammed my head to the ground. The impact jolted through my aching muscles and I let out a pitiful cry.

Heavy thuds broke through the quiet. A methodical beat that vibrated through the ground, getting closer, louder. I turned my head towards the sound and bitterly regretted the movement as my nausea swelled.

"Help me. Please," I slurred.

There was no saying what was out there. They could be friend, foe or even beast but I had no choice other than to put my faith into them. I raised myself on trembling forearms and a shadow stepped in front of me. I had no hope of raising my head to look up at them so I cast my eyes downwards, landing on a pair of sturdy boots

"Mahal! Lass, are you okay?" A large hand grabbed my shoulder, shaking gently.

The movement roiled through me and I promptly threw up on the floor. Acid burned up my throat and I coughed violently. All my energy left me at once and I fell forward, eyes rolling to the back of my head.


In a land many leagues away, the light of the moon shone down. It lit up a terrain that had known no life for near 1500 years. The earth was bleached white beneath the pale glow. Cracked and dry. Any attempt at growing anything there had failed. The plants would blacken and the roots would shrivel. All who dwelled there knew to avoid it. It was forbidden to enter. Yet the light did not shine upon nothing that night. A single green shoot burst from the barren ground and unfurled its leaves. Healthy and green.


Ow

My consciousness returned in a haze of muddled sensation. Mostly pain, indeterminate but everywhere at once. In my limbs, my head, my stomach. Sounds return in a confusing wall of noise. Like an orchestra with poor timings, they clashed and blended and overwhelmed. The moment hung, suspended in the clamour, the space of one racing heartbeat to the next, holding me in a fist as a crawling panic clawed its way under his skin.

Mutterings–the soft brogue of voices–bled through first. Like a cover being whisked away, revealing the truth beneath, logic creeped back in and I could start to piece things together. Some people were speaking very close by and others were further away, though I struggled to tell the distance. Other sounds begin to separate, peeling away from the wall of noise in distinct strips. Shuffles, tapping, the sound of my erratic heartbeat.

What happened?

Brief glimpses of memory poured in through the fog. Flashes like a snapshot of a camera. Driving. Light. A gateway. A crash landing. Mum had charged full speed through the doorway between worlds and I had woken up in some kind of dark forest, scared, injured and alone.

Had we made it to Middle Earth?

In a bid to push down the rising panic I decided to note everything I knew about my current situation.

One, I was somewhere warm, a great improvement from before. A flickering, crackling heat emanated from the other side of whatever room I had found myself in. A fireplace if the smell of smoke was anything to go by.

Two, I was lying on a flat surface. It was soft beneath my hands and compressed when I shifted. The movement caused me to notice the light pressure lying across my front; a blanket of some kind.

Three, someone had found me and brought me to a secondary location. Potentially bad if the person had nefarious purposes for me but considering the warm shelter and bed I found myself in I was willing to bet that they were nice.

I cracked my eyes open, blinking against the firelight light. The room remained blissfully still and no longer swayed like before. It was small but clearly well-loved. Other than the bed the only other furniture in the room was a hearth, a dresser and a chair. The latter of which was occupied. Their hair was deep ginger that surrounded their head like a lion's mane and they had a thin wispy beard. Everything about them screamed Dwarf but I could not be sure.

Once they saw my curious gaze, they hurried to their feet.

"Oh, Lass you're awake. How are you feeling?" they said, they're voice higher pitched than I had thought it would be.

I tried to move my body into a sitting position, squeezing my eyes tightly together as a dull ache groaned through my muscles. The person reached for my shoulder and helped me to sit upright.

"I'm okay, I think. Other than the fact that everything hurts," I said.

The sound of a gentle knock echoed through the room and I cringed away from it. Somehow booming and thunderous to my ears despite how soft it had actually been.

"You can come in," the person next to me said.

The door opened and a cacophony of new voices poured into the room. Loud and indistinguishable. Only one person walked through, lingering in the open doorway. Their hair was a dark brown with bits of grey creeping into the sides. Two thick braids hung from their chin, a large bead at the end of both.

"I heard you talking." they said "So the lass is awake then?"

"Yes, now close that door will you? We don't need anyone else wandering in," said the ginger one.

The brunette one closed the door but I could still hear the sound of muttering through it. I shook my head, hoping that my hearing would return to normal.

"What's your name lass?" asked the ginger one.

"Uh, Leah. Leah Orrison"

Their eyes widened slightly. "Oh sorry, laddie we thought ye were a lass."

"What? No, I am a girl," then I realised my last name was probably the source of their confusion. "Where I come from you take your dad's last name. His surname was Orrison so mine is as well."

"That's all rather strange," said the brunette.

"What are your names?" I asked in a quiet voice.

"Oh, I'm Vivni" The ginger one pointed to themselves.

"Alddi," said the other.

"We found you in the forest last night. We heard shouts and came running. You were swooning like crazy when we found you. Even threw up on my boots," said Alddi.

My cheeks burned. "I'm sorry," I muttered.

"Don't worry about it, lass," said Vivni "But I do have to ask you some things"

I nodded at them to continue. "Well for starters we would like to know how old you are?"

My eyebrows drew together. What an odd question. "I'm 20," I said, uncertain.

I heard a gasp. They both looked horrified by my answer. "I'll be 21 in a month," I added, in case that helped.

It did not.

"Durin's beard, you're a child!" Alddi gasped.

"I'm definitely not a child," I said, which was swiftly ignored.

"Where's your kin, lass? We heard you calling for your Amad but we didn't find anyone else out there."

Mum wasn't here?

Panic reared its head once more. How could that be? We had shot into that doorway together. She should have been spat out right beside me. She should be here.

Then the image of Mum's hand being torn from mine flashed white hot into my mind. Mum had been whisked away from me to lord knows where as we came through. If this was truly Middle Earth, then there was no telling where she ended up. This land was huge and sprawling. There was a chance I might never find her

"Something happened and we got separated. I have no idea where she is," I said with a trembling voice.

Vivni reached over and patted my back comfortingly. She made shushing noises like I was some kind of spooked horse. "It's okay, lass. Don't panic."

Alddi had a different reaction. "Damn Elves can't even look after their own. It's a disgrace."

Elves? What was he going on about?

"What do you mean, Elves?" I asked.

"Well, it's pretty obvious you're an elf lass. The pointy ears kinda give it away," said Alddi.

What?

My hands shot up to probe around my ears. Where they were once rounded, they now came to a delicate point.

What the fuck?

I needed to see. A mirror sat on top of the dresser and I made a jolting motion towards it. Vivni protested as I clambered to my feet but I pushed their well-meaning hands away. I managed to stumble up to the mirror, using the edge of the bed as support.

The person reflected back at me was not the likeness I had been expecting. After staring at your own face your whole life you get quite used to the image. Which makes any change seem more drastic. It was still my face but the features seemed different. Like someone had placed a filter over the original and morphed it into something similar but not quite the same. My eyes were slightly larger, my nose slightly thinner. I even seemed to have a more defined jawline now.

Getting past the initial shock, I turned my head to the right. I lifted up my hair and tucked it behind my ear. The now very pointed ear.

I had officially arrived in Middle Earth and I had been turned into an elf.

Just FYI the timelines between the two worlds are out of sync. Kili lands about 5 1/2 months before Leah does. Let's blame the mystical Valar for that rather than a convenient plothole, shall we.