"Aren't you going to search me? I could have anything down my trousers."
Tauriel bit back a smile. If the dwarf was trying to shock her with vulgarity, he was going to have to try harder. A lot harder.
She retorted, "Or nothing."
The dwarf, Kili, was throwing an catching a rock, that rolled out of his dungeon when he missed it. She glanced at it, and upon closer inspection realized it wasn't just a stone.
Picking it up, she returned it to him. And he offered, to her surprise, something personal. "My mother gave it to me, as a way to remember my promise."
"What promise?" She asked, intrigued by the strange custom.
"That I will come back to her. She worries. She thinks I'm reckless."
He was so young, she realized. Still full of energy, and rebelliousness. Not unlike... She caught herself. It was folly to think upon their prisoner as her brother, lost to this world all too young.
Dwarves weren't quite so different from elves, she realized. And as she sat down, falling easily into conversation with the young dwarf, it was too easy to lose herself in a different world, a different culture.
And it was too easy to forget the worries of her current situation.
—
"Why does the dwarf stare at you Tauriel?"
Legolas was angry, she could tell from the deepening of his blue eyes.
And so? The prejudice that he felt towards the dwarves was not unlike the prejudice his father apparently feels towards the lowers Silvan elves.
Do not give him hope when there is none.
The king's command echoing in her memory, she replied, "Who can say?"
After a moment of hesitation, she added, "He is rather talk for a dwarf, don't you think?"
It took him back. Good.
But Legolas wouldn't be the Legolas she knew if he didn't have the last word.
"Taller than some...
But no less ugly."
Kili wasn't ugly, but she would be pushing her luck if she were to press the issue. And it wouldn't be wise to linger with the prince and risk the king taking this as a direct rebellion against his order.
Nodding her head in a gesture of respect, she walked out of the dungeon and headed to target practice.
It would do her well to clear her mind.
—
Legolas Greenleaf was a tough trainer, she quickly concluded.
It had been 5 years since she began training, and she was nowhere closer to becoming part of the guards. Too slow, too reckless, too inaccurate... The prince was a master of the bow and one of the best in the realm with blades, and there was no doubt that they had improved greatly under his tutelage, but she was getting impatient.
So it was one day, when the company had yet again left without her, that she finally decided to take things into her own hands. And join the patrol in secret.
She was good at stealth and, for the most part, remained undiscovered even by the vigilant guard.
They'd managed to track down the spiders and she was content to carefully shoot down the spiders unnoticed in the heat of the skirmish when she heard a sound of distress.
A young elfing was being chased by a spider, but the other guards were too far and too preoccupied with their own battle to reach the child in time. She could see Legolas turn and notice the child, but there were too many spiders in between. He wouldn't reach in time...
Without a further thought, she jumped out of her hidden place, and managed to pull the child to safety before impaling the spider with an arrow to the it's head.
Suddenly, a twig snapped behind her, and in horror, she realized that she wouldn't have time to twist out of the way without endangering the child.
Protecting the child from impact, she used her back as a shield between the spider and elfling as she braced for impact. But it didn't come.
She felt the spider crumble just inches from her, and heard a sharp intake of breath before realizing that the prince had intervened. Her eyes widened at his bleeding arm.
His eyes turning an icy blue, he snapped, "Get out of here."
Legolas' eyes softened as he glanced at the child, and his voiced warmed as he added, "Take the child to safety."