Chapter XX

23rd Urui 3002 T.A

Eliel had gotten on fairly well with Gandalf the Grey. He would share his knowledge of apothecary and would entertain her with his stories. In return Eliel had told stories of how she grew up and even of her mother who had died recently in Pelargir. He told her about how he was collecting his friend Bilbo Baggins from Rivendell to accompany him to the victory celebration.

They were a day out from the road they needed to reach to part ways and Eliel was going to miss the eccentric wizard. Eliel reminded Gandalf of Kili so much and made him miss his adventure he had with the dwarves. Even though she never spoke of her parents, Gandalf had a feeling that this girl was a dwelf princess to Erebor. He was not going to speak about the subject and waited until she shed some light of missing mother and dead father.

Eliel had pulled out the stone of her bag as they settled for the night. It was the first time she had studied it in a week and the wizard could see what it meant to her. She pulled out her journal and wrote and entry for the day that just had passed but kept playing with the stone in her left hand.

Gandalf spoke of Dale.

Told me stories of his Hobbit friends.

Stone has not changed and still have no notion of its meaning

"That rune stone you've been carrying. It is important to you, is it not?" She looked up from her writings "It is the only thing I have of my real mother, my birth mother." She passed the stone to Gandalf and watched him examined between his fingers.

"Made from labradorite stone and written in Khuzdul. Language of the dwarves. Innikh dê. Return to me." Eliel was shocked this whole time she had been travelling with the wizard and it had never crossed her mind to show him before.

"Are you certain that is what it says?" Eliel was hopefully, this was a breakthrough. It answered questions she had been dying to know. "As certain as I'll ever be." Gandalf smiled

Gandalf translated the runes

Written in dwarvish language. Khuzdul.

Return to me.

Now Eliel had wondered what relevance was towards her situation. Was it meant for her? Did her father know of her or was it meant for her mother? These were the next lot of questions that would bother Eliel until she reached Dale. Maybe she could get some dwarves to share their knowledge of such things and to see if they had sold it to any men of Dale before the battle.

"Tell me about your parents." Gandalf asked. Everything was too much of a coincidence for this young girl to not be the daughter of the young prince.

Eliel did not know where to begin. She watched as the wizard packed his pipe and lit it up and smoked it as he waited for the story.

"My mother was an elf. Her name was Tauriel and my human mother and her grandmother had taken me away from her because I was not a full blooded elf. I was told my father died in the battle and his name was Kili" Gandalf choked a little of his pipe gestured the girl to continue. "This was all I have of my parents and this piece of paper with my name." She indicated towards the stone. "Just a rune stone and two names."

"Eliel I believe your father might be still alive. As for your mother, she might have sailed west or died of grief a long time ago." Eliel was stunned all this time she had been told her father had died and now that was not the case. "That is not true. I believed he died, I've been told that all my life."

"Well that is correct but you had also been told that you were given up by Tauriel." Gandalf concurred

Eliel had sat in silence and thought about what she had been told. "Did you know him?"

"That I did." Gandalf nodded. He was very pleased to have met this girl, for Kili's sake of course. Through letters from Thorin and Bilbo, he knew that the dwarf never got over the loss of the elf and did not settle down with a dwarven women and start a family like his older brother. Only if he knew he did.

"Why were my parents not together?"

"Well from the conversations I have had with his uncle, the elf died in battle."

"I am only 59 years old Gandalf. Next month I will turn 60 next month. I was born 2942. If I was born a year after the battle and the dwarves counted the year of my birth the first year of victory, that means Tauriel could not have died" Eliel stated, she did not mean to sound short tempered with Gandalf but the revelations had caused her to become that way.

"I believe that is a rather unusual circumstance." Gandalf spoke remaining blasé about her demeanor. No more conversation was spoke between them and Gandalf went for a walk to do whatever wizards do and Eliel remained by the tree and could not wait to find her father in Dale.

In the morning they had continued their journey and had reached Old Forest Road by noon. "Well Eliel this is where we part ways. I am traveling west on Old Ford Road towards Rivendell. Now if you are travelling alone along this road be wary, if you lose the path you will not find it again" He spoke with Déjà vu towards mirror image of Kili "Now once you get to Dale you must speak with King Bain, he will lead you towards the hall of records. Also make sure to speak with the dwarves of Erebor as they may hold information about your mother and father. I shall see you at the celebration but farewell until then." He bowed and started to walk towards the mountains to the west. Eliel turned and face east and was confronted with a dark road leading into the unknown "Well I've made it this far"