They had been searching all morning for that cursed tunic. Tauriel wanted to stab something, perhaps she could slip out to the forest to check for spiders later. What was even so special about the stupid blue thing, it was just rough spun dwarvish material from the feel, not even worth its weight in dirt.
"We've spent too long searching, I don't believe we'll find it, we have to look for Ali, I don't like the thought of her wandering around the kingdom alone." Legolas stepped out of the laundry room that Tauriel had just finished tearing apart. "I don't know about this pinky promise, or the severity of the consequences, but Lord Thranduil seems to believe that Ali is on some level powerful. At this point we can only assume that he is right. I will take the blame for the lost article, as I was the last to see it."
"No," Tauriel shook her head vehemently, "I cannot allow that, it was my responsibility." Tauriel lead the march to Ali's room. She was not blind to the growing affections that Legolas held towards her, nor him overhearing her conversation after dinner last night with the dwarf Kili. Legolas would take the blame in an instant for her because he was afraid her heart was being stolen by Kili.
Her heart was not for Legolas though, his father would not entertain the idea for a second. Legolas had to understand that. In her gut she felt that Ali wouldn't actually harm her, and Legolas had to realize that she was not his to protect, not his to have, and not his to love.
Ali had gotten distracted trying to find her distraction, as she wandered aimlessly through a small courtyard garden. Her mind refused to work in a liner fashion. On one level she was upset that her first reaction was to seek comfort with Thorin, when had she become so needy? On another level she wanted to go talk to Thranduil more.
No, no no no, Ali pushed those thoughts to the side, marching off in a random direction. Too much to think about, she had to take this one thing at a time. As she passed a door something shiny caught her eye. Backing up a step she glanced around the room. It looked as if it were a gardener's room. Tables of plants, soil, and tools filled the room. This must be were they start their courtyard flowers, Ali wondered what caught her attention, because it most certainly wasn't the light. In fact, above her the skylights looked as if there was more dirt covering them then actually in the pots.
Those poor little sprouts didn't have a chance in the dim light. Looking up and down the hall, Ali didn't like how they were empty. It didn't seem like they would leave her alone to wander. Completely empty or not, they were clear enough in case something happened.
Using the book case along the back wall Ali pulled herself up. She was so close. Ali reached towards the glass, stretching from her toes to her fingers. The shelf under her feet slackened, dropping her an inch.
"Crap-" was all she managed before it buckled. Ali hit the ground hard on her injured shoulder, the pain was dull and quickly over written by the repeated smack of falling books. She was about to laugh and make a joke about how words really hurt, when she heard a groan. The great bookshelf was tipping forward ever so slightly, thrown off balance by her weight.
"Oh god!" Ali inhaled, scrambling and slipping through the books as the bookshelf began to fall in earnest. Rolling on her side she covered her head with her arms for whatever it was worth.
The head of the bookshelf smashed into the table in the middle of the room, crumbling the legs under its weight. A cloud of dust blew out across the room, forcing Ali to shield her face again as the furniture collided with the ground.
Ali held still for a few seconds, in case shock waves caused some sort of domino effect with the others. When it seemed clear she pulled her arms down slowly, almost reluctant to survey the damage. The table was smashed in half, lying like a poor mouse caught in a mouse trap. Books and ceramic pot pieces carpeted the floor, most of the potting soil intermingled with them, the rest floated about in the dim light.
Hopefully they didn't ask her to pay for this. Ali dusted herself off, thankful she wasn't in the same position as that table.
"What happened?" Ali's attention snapped up to Legolas who was standing in the doorway. His normally careful mask gone, now he looked shocked. Tauriel stood wide eyed behind him, silent.
"Well…you see...what I mean…" Ali struggled, "there was a spider, I mean it was massive, like the size of a quarter, I killed it." Wow, you watch them kill spiders the size of horses and that's what you say? Should have said it was an alligator…or was that even stranger.
"How can you be sure you killed anything but the table?" Legolas took a step in and examined the damage, "it's a disaster."
"Well you didn't see that spider," Ali tiptoed out of the room, trying to shake all the dust out of her hair. She didn't know what compelled her to lie about what she was doing, but there was no going back now. "Gave him the old one two, with righty and lefty here. Then somehow the bookshelf fell over, which was as much a surprise to me as it was you."
"I cannot find your tunic," Tauriel spoke up randomly and Ali could feel the pit of her stomach drop. What? Ali forgot what they had been talking about and tried hard to control her emotions.
"See, we brought it out to help the hounds' track the dwarves scent and we were ambushed by spiders. In the fight that ensued we lost the tunic. So we both had spider troubles today." Legolas finished, following them out of the messy room last, his regular non-chalant mask back in place.
What a load of horse manure, Ali wanted to growl at them. They were lying, she knew they were lying, they knew they were lying. They just didn't know that she knew that they were lying, and the circle goes on.
Tauriel clenched her jaw and sent an angry glance towards Legolas, something Ali was sure she was meant to miss. He purposefully ignored it. Ali narrowed her eyes. These two had to be the most human like elves she had met so far. Perhaps this was her way out.
Perhaps this was a chance to mess with them just a little. She felt her mood lighten.
Ali turned dramatically away from them, wrapping her arms around her body and glanced back like she had seen on a few soap operas. "Why are you lying to me?" She shook her head, dropping her gaze to the floor and tried to look both saddened and disappointed.
"What do you mean, we aren't lying," Legolas stepped up to her, tense.
"But you are. I know you lost the tunic here in the castle, as you elves are incredibly wise. You are equally terrible at keeping track of clothing. It's a surprise at all you have enough fabric in your own closets to clothe yourself every day." Ali turned back around and touched her fingers to her forehead and shook her head. "I know you weren't out looking for the dwarves last night."
"How are you so sure?" Legolas challenged.
"I have power that you don't understand Legolas, King Thranduil sees it so easily, why can't you?" Ali was amazed that comment got an eye twitch from the elf, perhaps she was close to a nerve. "I feel as if the dwarves are close." Ali stepped up, holding strong eye contact with Legolas, though given their drastic height difference it didn't have the intimidation factor she was looking for. "It's as if they were right here," and pause for effect, "right under my nose."
The silence that followed was tense. Like Putin and Obama shaking hands in front of the Dali Llama kind of tense. Legolas and Tauriel were frozen, perhaps trying not to laugh at her empty threat, perhaps hoping she didn't bust out her Chuck Norris round house kick on both their butts. She didn't know what they were thinking, hell, she didn't know a lot of things, and slowly she was becoming okay with that. But the longer they stood there though, the more it changed from tense to weird.
"My rather epic battle with the eight legged fiend has left my dress in a dire state, I should go change. Tauriel, would you join me? I think we have to talk about the consequences for breaking the pinky promise." Ali smiled sweetly, pushing down the sad knowledge that her tunic was gone. It was just fabric, she reminded herself, and Thorin himself was safe in the dungeon. That's what mattered.
Legolas stepped forward, his sharp eyes darting between the two women. He looked as if he wanted to protest but held his tongue. The dancing prancing little elf maid had a crush on Tauriel from the looks of it. Tauriel cast an unpleasant scowl towards Legolas as she passed, leading the way to Ali's room. This was great, since after that little speech it would be embarrassing to casually mention she didn't know where she was at the moment.
The silence was awkward though, as Ali followed along behind Tauriel like a little duckling. Why was there so much silence with elves? Did they somehow read minds? Oh god, Galadriel could read minds, so that means it was possible. Ali narrowed her eyes at Tauriel's back. She was suspicious, but not really worried. If they knew that she knew about the dwarves, then surely they would have changed their stories to be more believable.
Tauriel opened the door and let Ali pass into her room first.
"So what should I wear to the party tonight? I hear it's going to be rather fun." Ali was already fumbling through the dresses.
"I would prefer we begin with the repercussions for the pinky promise," Tauriel shifted from one foot to the other. She was taking this really serious, Ali noticed.
"What…exactly are you most worried about?" Ali tested, knowing full well half of what she said must have sounded like a foreign language.
"I'm not sure. Polite scorn from a Canadian doesn't sound harmful, but they could be horribly violent, then apologize afterward."
Ali was surprised, that actually sounded like what must happen when someone took the puck from a Canadian in a hockey game.
"Then again, I've never been to the internet, or why using multiple forms of a vowel incorrectly would cause harm."
That's a mystery to everyone really, even the people who lived on the internet.
"So I cannot say which I am more concerned about." Tauriel shifted again. She was dead serious. Tauriel seriously thought that interlocking pinky's would somehow concrete a promise. Ali felt guilty. Of course she wanted Thorin's tunic back, and in a perfect world she would get it, but this was definitely not that world.
"So what if I told you that as the person who initiated the pinky promise can opt to change the consequences if they want? Instead let's say that as of right now, you owe me one." Sure Tauriel was annoying. Or she was before, perhaps they just got off on a rocky start, maybe she was nervous. Plus it wasn't like Ali could just make those things happen. The whole validity of her pinky promise would crumble when a disgruntled Canadian didn't hold the door open for Tauriel.
"Why would you do that?" Tauriel narrowed her eyes, possibly suspicious of her motives, possibly falling asleep during this conversation. Who knows, elves were weird like that.
Ali shrugged and turned back to the dresses, "perhaps I'm not as mean as I look."
"Well you don't look mean at all," Tauriel scoffed, pulling one of the dresses down.
"Come on, I look a little mean," Ali snatched the cloth away that Tauriel handed her.
"No, I'd fear slipping in a puddle and falling over a railing, more than you." Tauriel sat on the edge of her bed and waved her to the bath room with the back of her hand.
"Damn, how often do you slip?" Ali mumbled.
"Never."
As Ali shut the door behind her she could have sworn she saw Tauriel smile. Yea, Ali thought holding up the dress, the two of them were going to get along pretty well.
Ali sighed at the sight. They were just getting more and more beautiful. This one had tight sleeves and a low V-neck, the waist would be cinched tight but the flowing skirt brushed the floor. It was colored black with small silver specks glistening against the surface. Just like the veil, Ali remembered, holding the material loosely in her grasp.
"Ali!" Bilbo hissed in her ear, jerking Ali out of her thoughts.
Spinning, Ali tripped back when she noticed Bilbo standing next to her. Where in the world had he come from?!
"You can't just sneak up on women in the bathroom!" Ali hissed back, throwing a cautious glance to the door.
"Well where else could we talk alone?" Bilbo followed her eyes to the door. "That's not the point, what did you learn from Thranduil?"
"You know…stuff," Ali shrugged. She didn't want to talk about it secretly in a bathroom. She didn't think that her secret life and abilities were bathroom talk. "We can talk about it when we're out of here, how long do you think we have till Tauriel gets suspicious of the time it takes me to change.
"Fine, but don't think we won't," Bilbo turned his back and waved to the dress, "I'll talk you change."
Ali nodded, knowing full well he wouldn't peek, and proceeded to strip down.
"Several floors below this one there's a loading dock filled with empty barrels. Tonight, when all the guards have their fill of wine, I'm going to try and snatch the keys and free the dwarves. Hopefully we can make our way there unseen."
Ali struggled with the sleeves but nodded. "Sounds simple enough, what should I be doing?"
"Just slip out of the party and meet us there."
"What?" Ali finally tucked herself completely into the dress and frowned, "but I want to help."
Bilbo shook his head, "there's really not much you can do from the party." He turned and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, "now get out there and keep the elves distracted so they don't notice anything."
"Well how should I do that?" Ali asked before thinking.
"Oh, I think just being Ali is pretty distracting," Bilbo smiled just as there was a knock at the door.
"Is everything okay?" Tauriel asked.
"Yea, I'll be right out," Ali turned and yelled, "I don't-" when she turned back Bilbo was nowhere to be seen. Ali tutted to herself and crossed her arms, fine, she could be distracting.