Where The Road Branches

by just call me Cappy

Fili and Kili had always been together, travelling the same roads, walking the same paths. But there came a time in their final journey together that they had come to part ways, where the road branches. [KilixTauriel, told through the perspective of Fili]

6. VI

VI.

We stand on the shores of the Long Lake, having survived a night of dragonfire. The cold morning air is filled with cries of panic and anguish, and we stay together, searching the desolate crowds for any signs of Bard or Bain.

But Smaug is dead. And soon, the children are reunited with their father and brother, and I realize we, too, will need to find a way to join our own kin in Erebor.

Oin and Bofur secure a boat. I call for Kili to help, but as I glance back at him, I see him facing the Elven-guard –

… and I will never forget the way he is looking at her.

Oh, little brother, I think. Of course she will have to leave us. She is an Elf, we are Dwarves; did you think we could walk the same path?

But something had happened between them that I had missed; something I couldn't see.

And the longer I let my gaze linger on them, the more I understood … I knew, in a moment of perfect clarity, that this was the moment I would have to let my little brother go.

Her name is Tauriel.

Tauriel. I run her name in my head over and over – Tauriel, Captain of King Thranduil's royal guard, my brother's saviour ... and, against all odds, the one he had come to love.

And as she stands before him with such a fragile, delicate look on her face, I realize she belongs to him as much as he belongs to her.

It is lonely feeling, like being left behind … but in some bizarre way, I welcome it. I had seen this coming from some time ago; my little brother has finally found his path in the world – and we will come to part ways. This is where the road branches.