An: Time for some answers! c: huge thanks for eredhys for helping me out with this. Seriously. Gah. c:
I'm not sure when I'm going to update again. I have a guest coming over from Lapland and she's staying until Sunday and I don't know if I'm able to write with her here with me. If I am, I will post a new chapter during weekend. If I am not, it'll most probably be next Monday or Tuesday. Sorry for this!
Oooh and hey! I'm going to Hobbitcon with eredhys, and if some of you are coming and notice us there (even though you really don't know what I look like but eh whatever) come say hello! I'd really love to meet new people there and I know she'd like it too :p
"So, what did you want to ask?"
Kili drew in a breath as he walked next to the elven prince. It worried him that Legolas could refuse to answer or would lie - he wanted nothing more than a simple truth, and if you asked him, he had deserved it after all he had experienced. For all the nights he had spent alone in his cell, sometimes in great pain, for all the lonely moments that never seemed to end, for all the punishments and unkind words that sometimes felt worse than actual physical pain.
He decided he deserved the truth and that was what he was going get.
"I hope you have the time to explain me", Kili answered, glancing up at the elf the moment he looked down at Kili, their eyes meeting. "This whole thing is just.. it seems odd to me. Everything you have said and done and the way I was forced to come here even though I am only a burden to you here."
"Is there a question in there somewhere?" Legolas asked, a visibly faked grin on his lips.
"Why am I here, really?" Kili sighed, ducking his head a little before looking up again.
Legolas came to a halt and stared at Kili, a contemplating, a kind of hesitating expression on his face. Kili stopped on his tracks as well, raising another eyebrow at the elf. For a second or two they both stood in silence, Legolas clearly wondering what to say or do next.
A groan escaped Kili's lips. "I don't want to hear any lies or excuses. I want the truth. You owe me at least that after all I have been through, thanks to your father."
"Fine", Legolas answered, sounding a little uneasy. "We should sit down somewhere, and I will tell everything."
"No lies?" Kili asked, a hopeful glimmer in his eyes. He had no clue on what to expect, but he hoped that it wasn't anything too bad. Legolas' uncertainty got Kili a bit worried, though. On the other hand, the worst thing that could be the reason was that someone was planning on killing him, and Kili didn't believe such a thing to be likely. Maybe Gwaen, yes, but if Gwaen was that big of a threat to Kili, why would Legolas take him with them? Or if the plan was to let Gwaen kill Kili in the woods, why did Legolas do such a good job on keeping Gwaen far from his target?
Nothing made sense, so Kili couldn't wait to hear.
"No lies. I give you my word."
They started walking again, now in complete silence. Legolas looked around them and quickly found a tree with branches so low that they could just sit there like in a normal chair, and pointed it out to Kili. Agreeing with the prince's idea, they sat down on the branches, facing each other.
"It's a quite long story, so I might have to start from the very beginning of it", Legolas said, glancing at the dwarf, who nodded eagerly.
"I don't mind it being long, as long as you just are honest", Kili sighed, hanging his head.
"Fair enough. It all started with a messenger from Lake-town. I wasn't allowed to know what he came to tell my father, but I didn't think it was anything important because of that very reason. The same day rumors started to spread around the palace - rumors about you and your intentions in the palace. I dismissed them because I knew better."
Kili's eyes narrowed. "What rumors?"
"That the real reason you were brought in was because you wanted to destroy us. Nobody could say why, exactly, just that you wandered our lands with the intention of getting caught, so you could take action from the inside and kill my father or something of the kind. This was a week or so before this travel", Legolas explained, looking a little apologetic.
"That's absurd", Kili cried out, his eyes widening. "Why on Mahal's name would they think that? If that was my intention, do you not think I would have done it already? How stupid are you elves?"
That reaction made Legolas grin. "As I said, I never believed them. Rumors are almost always just rumors. When I asked my father about them, he told me it didn't concern him in the slightest. He said he believed that it was all just speculation of some kind. Anyways, the day before our travel one of my father's guards came to me, saying that my father needed to see me. After finishing what I was doing, I went to my father's hall where he explained something to me. First he told me that he was only saying this so I knew what to expect when I came back from this travel."
Kili didn't like the sound of that. As Legolas spoke, his voice got lower and a little bit slower as well, and Kili knew that what was coming wouldn't be good.
"The messenger had come to the palace to warn my father about a little fight in Lake-town and that it could happen in our palace, as well. King Daín from the Iron Hills had marched into the Master's home and started breaking everything in retaliation for the injustice that the Master had done. When asked why, king Daín had simply broken something else and shouted about some relative of his."
When Daín's name first came up, Kili's heart immediately started to race in his chest. Yet at the same time he couldn't help but feeling amused because that sounded so like Daín. Even if everything else was a lie, that part of Legolas' story had to be real, because the only person who would ever do something of the like was Daín, and how could an elf know what he was like?
"This relative turned out to be a dwarf with a short name, Keli or Kali or something of the kind, the messenger didn't remember. My father guessed that that meant you", Legolas explained and sighed deeply. "When he told me this, I knew what he was going to say. Daín being your kin makes you Durin's folk."
Oh Mahal.
"This was a problem for my father. That and the rumors.. he told me that he had been unsure about the rumors at first, but later started to believe them, when a messenger sent by him came back with some information about you and your close relatives. He thought that Thorin Oakenshield's nephew could want nothing but harm on us", he said almost quietly. Maybe he was scared that someone would hear them, Kili didn't know, but he was too busy thinking to care. They knew his family, and now it was almost certain to him that if he returned to the palace, he would be killed. But what was he doing there?
"Kili, son of Dís, daughter of Thráin, sister of Thorin Oakenshield. Quite an impressive family, I must say", Legolas added and almost laughed shortly. "Heir to the king under the mountain.."
"I have an older brother, he would be the first in line after Thorin", Kili told Legolas. "Can you continue?"
"So it is all true?" Legolas asked. "You are Durin's folk?"
"I am", Kili said in a slight annoyance. "Could you just resume?"
"Sorry. After my father had told me that, he continued to explain how he had wondered what to do for many days. He told me that at first he had thought that death would be too much, because you had not caused any actual harm to anyone, but in the end he had decided that he wouldn't risk it. As your kin already believes you are dead, nobody would come to ask about you. In his plan he would put one of his best sword-users to execute you in a quick and painless way." Legolas' voice kind of faded towards the end, not much, but a little. The elf eyed Kili as if to look for some kind of reaction.
Kili felt .. betrayed. Even though he had known all along that ending his life wouldn't be a great loss to the elves, he had never believed that they would do so. It felt so unreal. He couldn't go back! He didn't want to die, he wanted to return home and just forget everything and everyone and go back to live his life.
"You must know what if this is true, I cannot go back", Kili told the elf, his voice not as strong as he wanted it to be. "I won't."
"Let me finish telling this to you, please", Legolas sighed, shifting on the branch. Kili nodded. "He told me that the execution would take place during these two weeks, and nobody would know the truth, except me and my father. They would be told that it was some kind of accident or something, that you fell on your neck or hit your head too hard. He wouldn't tell me why this was. I didn't say anything to my father as I left after hearing this, but went to my own bedroom to think. I was torn between my father's decision and my own view on this whole mess. I didn't think it through, instead I acted on what felt right at that moment. I walked to where you were working outside, and told you to come too", he explained and let out a dry laugh. "I don't regret it that much, I am only worried about what my father thinks. I know you and Aíthon are close, so I told him I was taking you with me so he could tell father if he started asking about your sudden disappearance, which he must have done already."
It seemed like they had been there for hours, the time had just slowed down for Kili. Every word Legolas let escape from his mouth made the previous make more sense, and at the end of the story it all tied together so well. It had to explain Roden's slightly nervous behavior too - he had probably heard the rumors.
"I..", Kili started, not sure what to say. He just couldn't find the words to say anything at all. It had all been revealed so suddenly and it had been far worse than he had been hoping for. "What now?" he finally blurted out, raising his gaze to look at Legolas, who seemed somewhat unsettled. "I mean, do you just take me back to the palace and wait for my death? Like I'm not even a real being and more of a diseased animal that you need to get rid of? After all you have done to me you just simply kill me?" He couldn't help his voice from getting louder. He was angry now, they couldn't just do that to him!
His heart raced in his chest as he struggled to hold on to the last bits of calmness he had left in him. He didn't want to lash out on Legolas, but it was so hard to control himself. Somehow he managed, though. At least for that moment.
"I don't have other choices than to take you back, Kili. My father knows you are here, and if you do not return, he will know. Letting you escape will infuriate him, and who knows what he could do then", Legolas replied, genuinely sorry for having to do that. "I only took you here to give you a warning, and some more time. And besides, here you don't have to work. You get to rest as long as you want to. You get to eat more than in the palace - think of this as a-"
"As an apology before one of your men kill me?" Kili cut Legolas off, glaring at the elf. "Thank you for this", he added as sarcastically as he just could before jumping down from the branch and starting to storm towards the camp again, his hands clenched into tight fists. He could hear Legolas following him a couple of meters behind him, but paid no attention to the prince. Why should he?
The first thing he did when he turned to the camp was that he went to Gwaen, who sat on the ground his back to the approaching dwarf, and kicked him hard to his back. If he was going to be killed in two weeks, why shouldn't he do what he had always wanted to? He had nothing to lose. Absolutely nothing.
Gwaen jumped and was on his feet in a second, pushing Kili against the nearest tree with such a speed that Kili actually flinched in surprise. His back hit the trunk and a wave of pain flashed through his body, disappearing as fast as it came. "You never seem to get enough, do you?" Gwaen hissed, glaring at Kili under furrowed brows. "Well, I don't mind."
Kili closed his eyes and raised his hands to protect his face as Gwaen raised his fist and let it down on Kili, hitting his cheek painfully hard, causing Kili's head to snap to the right. He heard Legolas yelling somewhere behind Gwaen, but the head of the guard didn't seem to mind, but only hit Kili again.
A forceful kick to Gwaen's knee was enough for the elf to loosen up his grip and drop his guard down for a second, so Kili took a tight hold of Gwaen's hair and pulled it as hard as he could, managing to get the guard cry out. Kili's upper hand was short lived, though, because in seconds Gwaen had slammed Kili's whole body against the tree again, this time hard enough to knock the wind out of him, and for a moment Kili felt like he couldn't breathe.
Gwaen used this moment to grab Kili by his collar and throw him on the ground, where Kili stayed, coughing his lungs out. He could feel warm blood dripping down from his nose and onto the ground, staining the green grass.
"Gwaen, stop it!" echoed out Úron's voice.
"Come on, that's enough!" Roden yelled as well.
"Do you honestly think that?" Gwaen yelled back and turned back to Kili, who now got to draw in a shaky breath. "I am not done yet."
Kili felt his body being lifted up to air, and in seconds he was ready to fight again. He threw his fist at Gwaen, hitting his cheek hard enough for Gwaen to avenge it by pushing Kili against a tree again. Not coming up with anything, as he was pinned against the trunk and Gwaen's hand, Kili spat at the elf, his spit landing directly on his face.
And that, Kili realized, was a mistake.
"You piece of-" Gwaen stormed, hitting Kili's face again and again, leaving the dwarf unable to do anything about it. As the punches just kept landing on his face he could hear something cracking in his face, a stinging, white pain and then the ground underneath his body again.
The whole world was spinning around him as he opened his eyes and looked around him. He could see two constantly moving figures holding a third, all of them spinning and waving in front of his eyes. Then there was a face close to his, a worried expression on it. "-you okay? Kili? Can you hear-"
Darkness engulfed him surprisingly fast, and slowly the stinging pain faded away as well.