'Kaya.' Legolas took his friend in his arms. 'No word of your fate reached our ears after the Battle of the Five Armies. What in the name of the Valar are you doing here? Why are you not at your husband´s side?'

Arwen, who had joined them in a quiet walk, looked at Kaya in surprise. 'Husband?'

'I have no husband, old friend.' Kaya sighed and walked over the great terrasse on top of Minas Tirith.

'You do not make any sense, melonin.' Legolas frowned. 'Last we met….'

'Last we met I was a different person.' Kaya interrupted him. 'Last time we met, I was Kaya, princess of the north. Now, I am only Kaya.'

'This dwarf is responsible for this, is he not?' Legolas blue eyes gleamed furiously. 'He should have rotted in our dungeons, like my father wished.'

'Legolas!' Kaya looked at her usually gentle friend. For some reason, "this dwarf", awoke the worst in the gentle elves. 'He did nothing to me. My mother banished me. I am no longer a princess because I broke my word.'

'I do not understand.' Legolas stopped at the edge of the terrasse and looked to the horizon. Arwen took Kayas hand and she knew that she had to tell them the truth.

Kaya took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Her friends, especially Arwen deserved to know the story of her banishment and exile.

'After we left Mirkwood, I led the company of Thorin Oakenshield to my home to gather supplies and to rest.' Kaya told the elves. 'But my mother would not help them. At least not without getting something in return.'

'Your mother is one of the richest rulers in Middle Earth, what would she want with a payment?' Arwen did not understand.

'She did not want any gold…or jewels.' Kaya told them. 'She wanted a husband for her daughter and heir. For me. Since I had rejected all of the lords of men whom she had chosen for me, she thought that she would punish me by giving my hand to a dwarf in marriage. She chose…..Thorin Oakenshield.'

Legolas huffed and shook his head, but Arwen smiled. 'This was no punishment, for you, was it not?'

'No, it was not.' despite her sadness, Kaya had to smile. 'I agreed. And Thorin did, too.'

Legolas cursed and laid his hands onto the rail. 'Your mother gave you to a dwarf in marriage? And you agreed? I have deemed you more wise, melon.'

'She was in love, Legolas.' Arwen smiled as Kaya looked at her in surprise. 'In matters of the heart the wisest will see no reason. Some say that my love to Elessar is unwise, too.'

Kaya looked at Arwen with big eyes. 'How did you know that I was in love? I did not even know.'

'I saw the way you looked at him in Rivendell.' Arwen smirked. 'And I saw the way he looked at you. Although he was more successful in hiding his feelings than you.'

'King Thorin loves nothing but the arkenstone.' Legolas growled. 'He put all our lives in danger in favor of that stone. If not for Bilbo…'

'He was sick.' Kaya frowned as she realized that she still defended Thorin. 'The goldmadness had taken its toll on him.'

'Durin´s bane was broken after the battle.' Legolas mused. 'Why did you not stay with him?'

Kaya felt her eyes fill with tears. 'Because sometimes, love just is not enough.'

Kaya rode through Mirkwood on her loyal battle horse. She had followed the company since they had left Rivendell, but she had lost their trail in the Misty Mountains. But since she knew that they had to march north, she rode ahead. She had seen them enter Mirkwood and had seen the grey wizard ride away, back to Dol the spiders had attacked and had captured the dwarves, Kaya had alerted the elves. Her mother and king Thranduil were maintaining a strong alliance, the father of Kayas halfsister was one of Thranduils diplomats. As Kaya had come riding towards their gates, the elves of Mirkwood instantly sounded the alarm. But Kaya had urged them to follow her into the woods. She had only uttered one word. Spiders. On their way back Kaya had told Legolas about the dwarves and but she had underestimated the old hatred between the elves and dwarves. The elves rescued the dwarves, but solely to imprison them and drag them back to the Woodland realm in chains.

Thorins eyes had turned to slits as he had spotted Kaya at Legolas side and Kaya had lowered her gaze. The obvious alliance between the northern realm and Mirkwood angered the dwarves. The princess had walked over to Fili and began to search him for weapons. The young prince had glared at her and she had shrugged her shoulders apologisingly. But soon, Kaya had to fight a smirk. Fili had knives hidden everywhere. After Kaya had pulled out eight knives she had to turn around and lay them down onto the ground to have her hands free. As she looked down at Fili he had another two knives ready for her and gave them to her with a grim smirk. But Kaya would not let him fool her. She found two more knives which made Fili groan. He still had one knife below his tunic, but Kaya left him this one weapon. Fili had cocked an eyebrow at her, but she had ignored him. If he could use this dagger to free himself from the dungeons, then Kaya would have been glad. She had already tried to reason with Legolas about the imprisonment of the dwarves, but the elf had not listened to her.

Kili was brought to the rest of the group by the captain of the guard, the red haired she-elf Tauriel. Kaya wanted to ask Kili if he could tell that she was a female, but judging his big eyes when he looked at her, the prince had figured it out by himself. The hobbit was missing, but Kaya was so disappointed by the hostile attitude of the elves, that she remained silent. But the only dwarf who seemed to realize that she was trying to help them, was Balin. The old dwarf nodded and smiled at her as he was led past her. Thorin glared daggers at her and Kaya had felt her heart wrench at his glare. She only hoped that Thranduil would be generous and would let them free.

Back in the dungeons, the dwarves were locked into their cells and the guard who had grabbed Fili rid him from his last dagger, earning a sigh from the dwarven prince. Kili, who watched his brother being stripped from his last weapon had turned to Tauriel.

'Don´t you want to search me? I could have anything down my trousers.' Kili told her and Kaya had to clench her teeth together to not start laughing. Kili was adorable, in Kayas eyes he was the little brother she never had. Even the red hair seemed to be amused.

'Or nothing.' she replied and closed the door to his cell. Kaya could see her smirk as she walked away and Kili looked after her with a dreamy expression.

Only Legolas was not amused. He confronted Tauriel about the prisoners cheekiness and glared at Kili after Tauriel had gone. Kaya playfully punched her friend on the shoulder and shook her head at him. Thousands of years old and still behaving like a little boy at times.

'By the gods!' Kaya looked at Legolas all of a sudden. 'You called Gimli an orcmutant!'

The wind brought a fresh breeze as the former princess started laughing wholeheartedly for the first time in months.

'He did what?' a booming voice made the elves and the woman jump. A red haired dwarf was standing behind them and eyed Legolas. 'You called me what?'

Legolas rolled his eyes. 'That was before we met, melon.'

Kaya immediately saw the resemblance to Gloin. This dwarf was a miniature version of the red haired treasure master of Erebor. Gimli roared with laughter and rushed over to Legolas and the elf and dwarf embraced each other in a bone shattering hug. Kaya looked at them with her mouth wide open.

'And I thought I had already seen everything.' she remarked dryly.

'Nah. A lass as young as you has hardly seen anything of the world.' Gimli looked her up and down and grinned. 'Gimli…..'

'Son of Gloin….at my service, I know.' Kaya could not help it.

'Have we met?' Gimli eyed her suspiciously.

'No. Sadly I have not had the honor in meeting you personally.' Kaya smiled. 'But I have met your father. He has told me many stories about you.'

'My father…' Gimli walked closer to Kaya. 'Then you must be….by Durin! You are Thorins queen!'

Kaya, as well as the two elves looked at Gimli in surprise.

'I am nobody´s queen.' Kaya answered bitterly.

'Hmmmm, if you say so…' Gimli looked at her, but he did not seem convinced. 'King Thorin has sent messengers to the northern realm, but they could not bring him any news of your fate. The last thing he remembered was that you had shielded him in battle, with your own body.'

Kaya closed her eyes as she remembered that horrid day of the battle. Fili and Kili had been overpowered by orcs and Thorin was facing Azog. But Bolg also wanted his share. As Thorin had been victorious over Azog, the pale orc´s son had charged him with his warhammer. Kaya had followed Thorin to battle on her horse and had thrown herself between Bolg´s blow and Thorin. The princess had fallen to the feet of her love and the last she had seen where his blue eyes sparkling in a face covered with blood. Blue eyes which looked at her…..emotionless.

Kaya was jerked out of her thoughts as Legolas grabbed her shoulders. 'He was not worth your life, melonin.'

'Yes, he was.' Kaya whispered and turned away from her friends to not show them her tears.

'YOU! You lack all honor!' Thorin yelled at Thranduil and the elf king stepped back in shock. That was the moment when Kaya joined the two kings in the throne room. The princess knew the history of the dwarves of Erebor and the elves of Mirkwood. Their alliance had broken over a disagreement over some gems. The day the dragon came, Thranduil had abandoned his allies and had turned his back on them. Even Legolas had not understood his father´s motives for this threachery.

Thranduil ordered the guards to get Thorin back into the cell and sat down on his throne, smiling at Kaya. Kaya looked after Thorin, who was struggling against his guards, but he had no chance against the heavily armed elves.

'That dwarf is a king, my lord.' Kaya frowned at her young age, she had met with Thranduil various times on diplomatic missions and had earned his respect. She was one of the few people who dared to talk to the king like that. Since she and Legolas shared a close friendship, Thranduil had begun to see her as the daughter he never had. Hearing these words out of her mouth shocked him.

'He is weak and greedy, like his grandfather.' Thranduil growled.

'You do not know that, mylord.' Kaya tried to persuade him. 'Why are you condemning one dwarf for the failings of another?'

Thranduil frowned deeply at the princess before him. 'Why do you speak in his favor? He is but a filthy dwarf. And he will rott in my dungeons until he sees some reason. Which will never happen. Now leave, I will not discuss this matter with you.'

Kaya was about to speak again, but every further word would have sparked Thranduils anger more. Clenching her jaw, she bowed and left.

On her way back to her room she felt as if someone followed her. She knew that elves could move silently like shadows if they wanted to, but for some reason she knew that this was no elf. As she stopped abruptly, something ran against her legs.

'Uffff... what in the name of Mordor?' Kaya gasped as the hobbit appeared in front of her. In the corner of her eye she could see somethign golden in his fingers, but she did not spare a look at it. 'You?'

'Shhhh...there are guards everywhere!' the hobbit, Bilbo, told her. 'I need your help.'