Chapter Four:
No one saw Aerchkaleya for almost a week. Thorin brushed off anyone who mentioned it, too, simply telling them 'she is perfectly capable of taking care of herself'. And while everyone else let it be, realizing that Thorin would not be doing anything about it, Kili couldn't. He knew that she was fine, he just did, but he did happen to miss her. The few times he had gotten to spend time with her, the youngest prince had quite enjoyed it, enjoyed being around her. In fact, he made an effort to try and spend time with her.
The fact was, though, that there was no way to reach her room, no visible one at least. He'd been trying to figure out how to, enlisting Ori to aid him. The younger dwarf had managed to find an old book about Fae magic, and found a chapter about the 'Bridges of Light'. They were invisible to anyone of non-Fae blood, and impossible to walk on without being one as well. The only exception was if you were a Fae's One.
That had been a fairly interesting topic Kili read about on his own. Actually, he had read up quite a bit on the Fae race. But the chapter about 'One's' had been one of the most fascinating of them.
Like dwarves, Fae only truly loved once, and loved for the rest of their lives. Unlike dwarves however, Fae never showed any romantic interest towards anyone who was not their one. They were each created with a perfect opposite, someone who balanced them exactly. The text had said that most Fae knew within moments of meeting their One, and that both would always be drawn to each other, there would never be any unrequited feelings. It had also said that the Fae's One were almost always another Fae, the only exception having been a Fae named Aephaerylia, the Heart of Moria, who's one had been Durin the Deathless.
Kili had been quite surprised at that, and after digging a bit further, the prince had managed to find that Durin's wife had indeed been named Aephaerylia, and that they had had three children. Though, that text said nothing of the first Queen under the Mountain being a Fae. That had confused him, if Aephaerylia was the Heart of Moria, what had brought her to Erebor, and had Aerchkaleya known her? He wanted to ask her, if anything it was his excuse for trying to get to her.
So, as Kili stood in front of where the bridge should have been, he hoped that Aephaerylia was truly his ancestor, and that he had enough Fae blood in him to walk across the bloody bridge, even if he couldn't see it. Before his foot could try to step down, a soft voice asked him, "Kili, what exactly are you doing?"
The sable haired archer spun around quickly and took a few steps from the edge, seeing the exact person he was trying to see. Aerchkaleya looked just as beautiful as ever, but her choice of attire made Kili turn redder than cherries, his ears burning, trying to figure if maybe he should look away.
The fabric that served as a blouse was simply covering her torso, leaving her shoulders bare and it did reveal some cleavage and came short just above her navel, the rich maroon colored fabric hugged every curve that it did cover. Rather than a long skirt that covered absolutely everything beneath the waist, she had a skirt yes, but it was strange, and revealed more skin. It was fairly apparent that it was two layers, the top a deep purple and the layer beneath the maroon color. But the way it was but up, looking shredded a bit- well, as he looked closer he saw that the top layer, while an inch or so did wrap completely around, it seemed like the right half had been removed, allowing him to see the second layer of maroon fabric. Now that did look quite shredded up, the right side cutting up quite a bit on and showing the smooth skin of her thigh.
And with the entire lack of fabric, Kili could see that it was most of her body covered in flecks of color, reflecting the gems and metals her mountain produced. It took a moment, but Kili finally managed to stammer out, "I-I was just t-trying, uh, I mean- no one has seen you- I thought- you haven't-"
Aerchkaleya giggled slightly as the prince tripped over his words. After a moment, she smiled at him and interupted his jumbled sentence, "Sorry, I suppose my clothes are a bit… odd."
Kili relaxed and admitted, "I don't think I've really every seen that… much of a girl. Not that I-"
"I get it," Aerchkaleya saved him. Glancing over at her door, she smiled and reached over, grabbing his hand and saying sweetly, "Come on, then."
His eyes went wide as the Fae pulled him towards the empty space and stumbled, clenching his eyes shut as he waited to fall. Cracking one eye open when he felt something solid beneath his feet, he realized that he was actually walking on the light bridge, he hadn't fallen. Looking up curiously at her, Aerchkaleya smiled sweetly at him, waiting until he stood up, before leading him over it and to her door, pulling him inside quickly.
The prince's jaw dropped. It wasn't a room behind the door at all, it was an entire wing, one that had massive rubies, emeralds, sapphires and more sprouting from the walls, veins of gold, silver, and what looked like mithril decorating the walls and even some bits of the floor. Blinking a bit, he murmured, "This is amazing, Aerchkaleya."
"Ark." Kili glanced over at her and she clarified herself, "You can call me Ark. Aerchkaleya is a bit of a mouthful really. Come on, then, I'll show you around." The archer grinned and followed after her, unable to prevent the stupidly happy smile from her allowing him to call her 'Ark'.
Authors Note: Okay, so this chapter is really just pure fluff. It is a Kili X OC story, I know that people were asking, and I know I made it seem like it was a Thorin x OC story. But I was tricky ;D
Anyway, please leave a review, it feed my soul and gets chapters out faster.
Oh, and if you really want to know what Aerchkaleya looks like in my head, you can go to deviantART dot com, and search 'Aerchkaleya' and the picture for her should come up. My user on there is uniquely-identical, so don't panic~ I also post the story there too, so yeah.