Kili searched the pack for his boots. His clothes were mostly dry. Even his coat had survived the journey in the pack without getting wet.
"You should get dressed." he told Rhavaniel, who was wringing water out of her long black braid. She nodded and began to pull off her nightshirt.
"No!" Kili told her.
Rhavaniel was amused by his reaction. Dwarves were so modest, at least in the company of girls.
"Firstly, there is no private place to change and secondly, you have already seen me naked."
"Does not matter." Kili replied. He handed her dry clothes, and wrapped his heavy coat over her shoulders, keeping it closed at the neck.
Rhavaniel managed to get dressed under the coat with minimal squirming.
"Are you hungry?" She asked.
"Starving." Kili replied "But we are not starting a fire. We can eat cold leftovers and keep moving." More gently he asked. "You are well, fit to walk?"
Rhavaniel blushed, "I am fine. You may get the leftovers out of the pack. I want to take a closer look at that statue."
"You are not swimming in that water! There is no telling what is in there." Kili cautioned.
The mere was hardly more than a pond at this time of year, filled with reeds and duckweed. The northern part of the water was slowly swirling, dark, and densely overgrown, while the southern portion of the mere that fed the underground river was clean and clear.
"I will not have to swim." Rhavaniel said, and made a running leap from the shore to the statue before Kili could stop her.
"Rhavi, get back here!" Kili called. He was not comfortable around this water. It was not fear of the depth - something about it seemed wrong.
He filled the water skins from the clear part of the stream and called out to her. "All the water will be brackish above these reeds, they filter out the poisons."
Rhavaniel called back, "Aye, we'll take all the clean water we can carry."
She pulled aside the vines and weeds around the statue and revealed a handsome King from the tribe of Man, with his arms around a beautiful Elf woman, who gazed up into his eyes with an expression of profound love. The King must have been very tall, for he was a head taller than the she-Elf. The details in the statue were beautiful. The Elf woman's crown was embedded with moonstones. Her King's embrace joined hands with hers as they cradled a bird of onyx. The woman's hands were beneath the black bird, but the King's hands cradled them both, and Rhavaniel could see an Elvish inscription on his ring.
Unwittingly, the thick vines and duckweed that Rhavaniel had torn down to reveal this beauty had created a floating bridge from the dark and reedy part of the mere to the base of the statue. She did not see the glistening, blood-black limb reach out from the murk and pull itself along the bed of weeds.
Rhavaniel ran her hands over the carving of ferns at the base of the statue, and up onto the leaf-patterned dress of the Elf beauty's skirt. The ferns ended entwined with the carved curls of the woman's hair.
Rhavaniel turned her attention back to the base of the statue. She could make out only a bit of the High Elvish inscription, and scolded herself that she had not studied this subject with more diligence.
"Some of this inscription is newer..."
Kili shouted a warning, "Rhavi!"
Rhavaniel felt something grasp her foot. She jumped without thinking, but her other foot caught on vines and she tripped, falling into the water. She fell directly on top of the jumble of weeds, and became hopelessly entangled. She was a strong swimmer, but the vines acted as a net and she could not break free. Every kick seemed to wrap her tighter in the net, and she began to sink, desperately trying to keep her head above water, and failing.
She could feel something below her, tugging sharply on the vines, dragging her away from the statue and towards the darkest part of the mere. Her arms were bound to her sides and she could not reach her knife She knew she wasn't alone in the water. She panicked, gasped in fear and her lungs filled with water.
She looked up desperately at the sunlight gleaming off of the alabaster statue, then down to the blackness of the mere. She saw two yellow eyes, and a darkness that made all other blacks fade to gray in comparison.
She thought she heard the lullaby once more, but a slow roar rumbled in her ears and her vision faded as she began to lose consciousness.
Suddenly, there was light again. A knife cut a swath through the weeds above her, letting in sunlight as sudden and welcome as a dawn.
She sensed someone else in the water, but beside her, not crouching in the dark below her.
Kili's blade hacked through the vines beneath her and she could see it again - the leech monster. The black beast recoiled from the blade, and Kili was able to cut Rhavaniel free. She drifted, as if in sleep - her arms and legs would not respond.
Kili gripped her shoulder and began to swim, dragging her behind him. He pushed her head above water, and the sunlight blinded her. Her lungs worked on instinct alone, shuddering as if they would break through her chest, seeking air.
They reached the shore, and Kili slogged through the muck and reeds, dragging Rhavaniel like a sack until they were completely clear of the water and he collapsed in the grass beside her.
Rhavaniel's body was wracked with coughs as it tried to shed the last of the water in her stomach and lungs. Kili reached for her, and cradled her head until it passed.
"Her face," she gasped, "did you see her face?"