An: I acknowledge that the last chapter was mean, but I haven't really ended a chapter to a sort-of cliffhanger during this fic yet, so I needed to do that. Someone once said that cliffhangers are fun to write but horrible to read - I'm evil. I know. Sorry.

Also a random little thing I want to share with you guys C: I got my second tattoo today - a dragon on my right arm. It's awesome! Okay, you may continue reading.

Thank you all so much for the nice reviews, you guys really are awesome! Dear Guests; I can't answer you personally but thank you for the reviews, too!

I'm sorry for the late update D: Christmas got me too busy to finish the chapter, but now it's done and it's here. And I hope you all had a good Christmas/whatever you celebrate, and have a good new year, too!

Aíthon shifted a little and stared at the sky. It was almost pitch black around them, the moon and the stars shining only little light on earth from between the cracks in the thick, dark clouds. It was peaceful there - he and Gilrín were sitting by the river where the water was already calm, not storming like at some parts of it. It seemed to be completely silent, only the distance sound of birds chirping echoed faintly in their pointy ears.

Gilrín was Aíthon's 'the one', as elves referred to their loved ones. She was beautiful - her skin flawless and pale, her dark eyes and brown hair making her seem even paler, in a charming way. She was elegant and kept good care of herself, braiding thin, beautiful braids into her hair every morning to make her stand out a little. But it was her character Aíthon had fallen in love with - she cared about everyone, no matter what they were or what they had previously done, but she wasn't a naive fool. She could defend herself almost as well as Aíthon could defend himself, she could stand up for people she cared about and she knew that justice was more important than mercy.

Justice was more important than mercy, Aíthon too knew it. But the dwarf had done nothing to deserve such a punishment. There was no justice and no mercy for the young dwarf, which made Aíthon sad and angry at the same time. Wandering their lands had never been a reason to take hostages, so why did they have one now? He knew that the king wasn't exactly a friend of the dwarves, but this... this was too much.

He sighed. He couldn't get the dwarf out of his mind.

"Do you remember the last time we were here?" asked Gilrín suddenly, breaking the silence and Aíthon's thoughts. Her deep, dark eyes were fixed on Aíthon, as she smiled a little.

Aíthon nodded. "I remember", he muttered softly, smiling a little as well. "I also remember how you said yes."

The she-elf giggled silently, leaning in to give Aíthon a quick kiss on the tip of his nose. "I wouldn't have said yes to anyone else."

Silence fell on them as Aíthon only smiled in return, eyeing her. He could never fully understand why Gilrín had chosen him over every other elf that had wanted her - there had been many elves far more handsome and far more better at what they did than Aíthon. He was just an ordinary elf among many others. He didn't stand out. He was the guard by the doors, not even a guard they sent out to patrol. He wasn't trustworthy enough.

But oh well, he understood why the king did not trust him anymore. Some time ago, before Gilrín, he had been one of the guards with fancy, expensive suits and much power. The king had ordered Aíthon to take care of one of their prisoners. This prisoner had been a young boy, son of a man, who had been caught stealing from the elves visiting Dale.

The boy was not more than fifteen years of age, and Thranduil had had plans of keeping him locked until he was fourty - twenty-five years was merely a blink of an eye to an elf, but for a man it was almost half of their whole life. This boy had not seen anything yet, and knew nothing. He had stolen, yes, but was some food and jewelry really worth losing almost half of his whole life? No, if you asked Aíthon. And so, without thinking too much about it, he helped the child escape and told him to return to Dale and never bother elves again.

When Thranduil had found out, he had been furious. It was no doubt that Aíthon had done it, and so he was held responsible for his actions. He was lowered to a normal guard with a warning; if he ever did a mistake again, he and his loved ones would be exiled.

It wasn't a huge threat back then, when he was a lone elf, but now when he had Gilrín whose family also lived there, he couldn't risk it. He couldn't risk Gilrín to be exiled - as much as he wanted to help the dwarf escape, he couldn't. He had his own family now, and his family came over everything.

For a long time they sat outside, holding hands in silence, but naturally they had to return to the palace some time later. Gilrín decided to go to bed, but Aíthon was troubled over Kili. He hadn't seen him in a few days now, was he okay? He had seen dwarves outside the palace earlier that day, and he needed to know what was all that about. If Kili was still in the palace, which he was almost certain about, Aíthon could ask him if he knew anything.

So instead of following his one to the bedroom, Aíthon chose the stairs up and hurried to the cell where Kili had previously been. He believed the dwarf would still be there, because why bother to constantly change?

As he got to the cell, he glanced in and immediately flinched at the sight. "Oh my god-" he gasped, unable to pretend calm. "What happened!?"

The young dwarf was pale and laid on the floor in a small pool of blood, curled up in a ball. Kili held his arms tightly against his stomach, and his face was like frozen into a miserable expression. The sight was horrible and heart-wrenching. "Kili! Answer me!"

When the dwarf heard his name, he opened his eyes a little. It was hard to concentrate on anything, but after a few seconds of hard trying he could recognize the elf at the door. Aíthon, he thought and grinned a little, even though it was barely noticeable.

Kili opened his mouth to say something, but immediately started couching. His whole body shook as he tried to draw in a breath.

"What did they do to you?" Aíthon whispered in disbelief, in near shock. "I don't have the keys, Kili, but I will get the healer. You will be okay!"

Immediately he turned around and ran away to the direction where the healer was. Maybe he couldn't free the dwarf, but he wasn't letting him die either. He would keep Kili as safe as he possibly could and do his best - he didn't owe the dwarf anything, but he knew that he was innocent.

And somehow he felt like Kili was his responsibility. It was stupid because after all Aíthon didn't even know him, but he couldn't help it. And well, what would he lose by helping the dwarf out? He doubted that Thranduil wanted to kill the dwarf.

In his cell, Kili groaned in agony. The pain had faded a little already, but it still hurt every time he breathed. He felt weak and even though he had never been near to death, he supposed that it felt like this. He could feel thick blood around him, his blood, and some more slowly oozing from the wounds on his arms. The flowing had already slowed down a lot, but there had been so much blood that Kili had been sure Gwaen would bleed him out there in the forest.

It was hard to concentrate and the room felt like it was constantly collapsing on him, but never quite doing so. The floor underneath him seemed to move like water, waving under his weak body. He knew that sitting up would make it all go away, make the constant spinning stop, but he couldn't gather the strength to do so.

And suddenly, Aíthon was back with another elf Kili recognized. He shut his eyes - they had brought some kind of source of light with them and Mahal, it hurt his eyes - but he could hear the door opening. Some talking. Did he hear his name? Maybe. But it could have been 'kill' as well.

Did they plan on killing him? Let him die like a stray dog?

Then he was lifted up, carefully and so tenderly that for a split second he thought that it was Fili who was carrying him. But reality hit him in a mere second, just before he lost his consciousness - he was alone in Mirkwood and Fili was Mahal-knows-where.

xx

"He seems to be a fighter."

"He surely is. I knew dwarves were stubborn but this must be the fifth time he is here, and still it looks like he will survive. If an elf went through all this.."

"I know, I know. Just make sure he doesn't die, okay?"

Some noise of things clinking against each other. Kind of a metallic sound. Why wouldn't they just shut up and leave him be? He was tired, oh so tired. And the bed was comfy - it was soft and he was warm, tucked under some kind of blanket, maybe. He could feel soft fabric against his skin. But it was too tight around his arms - why couldn't they loosen it? It made his arms ache.

"I will, Aíthon, but you've been here the whole night. Why don't you go rest? And where is Gilrín?"

A deep sigh. "Maybe I indeed shoul- he's waking up."

Kili groaned and slowly opened his eyes -he couldn't rest in such a noise-, blinking rapidly because oh Mahal, it was too bright for his eyes. Thankfully it only took a couple of seconds for them to adjust enough for him to fully open them. The first thing he saw was Aíthon and a wide grin on his face. Next to his head came the healer's, a concerned look on his face.

Where was he? Why was the healer in there, wherever he was?

Maybe Kili had a puzzled look on his face or something of the kind, because Aíthon's face softened into a caring but concerned smile. "How are you feeling?"

Thirsty, was the first thing that popped up into Kili's mind. His throat felt like he had never even heard of water, and a mug full of cold water sounded better than anything in the world to him. He opened his mouth and whispered out the word 'water', his voice hoarse. Aíthon immediately nodded and disappeared from Kili's vision.

The dwarf closed his eyes for a moment until he heard Aíthon returning. The healer didn't speak, but Kili could hear him walking around the room and opening drawers somewhere a bit further away.

"Here's water for you", Aíthon said as he came back, and Kili opened his eyes to look at the elf. "Can you sit up? You don't want to spill the water on the bandages."

Kili blinked in confusion. Bandages?

Turning his head to look at his arms, he saw them. Clean, white bandages were covering his arms and wrists, and suddenly he remembered what had happened. Gwaen, the forest, his shirt, Gwaen just dumping him into the cell... he remembered everything except how he had somehow gotten into a room that was not his cell.

Instead of telling Aíthon - Kili was sure his voice couldn't bear that much talking yet -, he obeyed and slowly sat up. His bed was located next to a wall, so Kili turned so he could lean against it. As he took the drink from the elf he eyed the room, recognizing it as the Healer's room. There, on the other side of the room was the chair where he had sat while the Healer had cleaned the wound on his palm many times.

Aíthon eyed the dwarf carefully as he drank with pleasure. "Better?"

"Yeah", Kili replied, his throat feeling much better already. Water always seemed to do miracles. "How am I here?"

"I found you", Aíthon said with a shrug like it wasn't a big deal. And well, to him finding the dwarf wasn't a huge thing, it was much of a bigger deal that the young one was alive and almost well. When they had brought Kili there, he had been weak and unconscious. His heart had been beating too fast, the healer had told, and that his body had been in shock.

"And?" the dwarf asked, wanting to hear the whole story. "What happened? Am I okay?"

"We wish you could tell us what happened before Aíthon found you", the healer commented from where he stood on the other side of the room. Kili turned to look at the healer. He had never heard the healer's name, and to be honest, Kili wasn't even sure if it was a woman or a man.

Kili nodded a little, careful not to make his head spin. He felt weak and lightheaded, and would probably crash down if he tried to stand on his own feet. Leaning against the wall like a limp rag felt perfect.

And so he told the two elves about what had happened. He told how he had struggled and tried to get a upper hand, but naturally Gwaen won, strangling Kili long enough to make him give up because of the lack of air.

"Did he really?" Aíthon asked, looking at Kili in disbelief. He had always known that Gwaen strongly disliked dwarves, but this?

Kili nodded and continued. Gwaen had cut through Kili's shirt with his dagger and torn it off. He mutilated the shirt as Kili was just beginning to realize what was going on, but quickly Gwaen was back at Kili. He used his dagger to cut Kili's arms, creating wounds deep enough to make a lot of blood come out. Then the elf used to blood to stain the shirt.

The healer looked furious, and Kili was quite surprised, to be honest. He had thought that the healer disliked him, but maybe he had been wrong, then.

"Why do a thing like that for no important reason? He could've gotten blood without hurting you so badly! Now I have even less resources to use on the elves, who are my main priority!" the healer stormed around the room, glaring at the ground as if that was the reason for his great loss of resources.

Oh.

"Come on, Ídhon. He's here as well, and not any less important than we are", Aíthon sighed, shooting a glance at the healer. So the healer's name was Ídhon.

Kili wanted to disappear - it was kind of embarrassing. He knew he was a burden to many of the elves, if not all, but on the other hand, he didn't even want to be there. He was being kept as a hostage and if the elves had a problem with it, they could only blame their dear king Thranduil. And Gwaen - if it weren't for Gwaen and his violent nature, Kili wouldn't be there, wasting the healer's resources.

"Maybe from your perspective", Ídhon sighed and crossed his arms, quickly looking at Kili before focusing on Aíthon again. "But I am a healer and I will help everyone. It's not up to me."

Aíthon nodded, rolling his eyes as he turned his head back to Kili. "Ídhon, if you want to rest, go ahead. I'll stay here with him."

For a second Ídhon hesitated, but then agreed. He had been up the whole night, keeping an eye on Kili's breathing and the wounds. He really could use some rest, and he trusted Aíthon enough to come get him if something did happen. So he left with a thank you and so it was only Aíthon and Kili.

They sat in an awkward silence for a short moment, Kili finishing his water and Aíthon finding himself a chair so sit on. When they were both done, Kili opened his mouth, eyeing the elf a little apologetically. "I think I will go back to sleep, too. Is it okay?"

"More than okay", Aíthon said with a quick laughter. "And hey, don't mind Ídhon. He's been a little uptight for the last couple of days, since his son Thawion left out patrolling for the first time. He has not returned yet, and because it is his first time, Ídhon is worried. It's quite normal even if a little obnoxious. It's nothing personal, believe me."

Kili nodded, knowing how Ídhon must feel. "I remember when me and my brother left Ered Luin for the first time. Our mother was so worried, even though we were old enough and had everything we needed with us. When we came back, she gave us this huge lecture on how to not worry her to death.. and all of that because we returned one day later than we were supposed to." The dwarf laughed a little, remembering the embarrassment on Fili's face during the lecture.

Suddenly Aíthon remembered why he had gone to look for Kili at the first place - the dwarves! He had completely forgotten about them because of all the worrying over Kili. Maybe he could ask now.

"Can you stay awake for a little longer?" asked Aíthon, looking forward to some sleep as well but wanting some answers too. The dwarf nodded, so Aíthon continued. "I saw some dwarves outside our palace yesterday,three dressed in regular dwarvish clothing,and maybe ten guards.. I was just wondering if you knew what that was about?"