20: All Good Things (Must Come to an End)

"Kíli, stop!"

Tauriel's hiss turned into a helpless sort of sigh when Kíli did not obey her command (though it was questionable whether she really, genuinely would have wanted him to) and continued his journey down the length of her body, marking his trail with gentle nips and open-mouthed kisses. He had awoken in her arms shortly before dawn and apparently this was his first urgent business for the day. Not that Tauriel was complaining, not at all, except. . .

"Have you already forgotten what you said Nesrin might do to you if we are not quiet? I believe this is applicable to the early hours of the morning just as much as it is to the late hours of the night. Unless you want to lose those. . . parts you mentioned after all."

Kíli paused with his face poised above her stomach and met her eyes. Loose strands of his hair tickled the sensitive spot just below her navel and Tauriel squirmed, which caused a devilish grin to spread across his face. "Well, I won't be needing them for what I have in mind."

"You won't—" Tauriel began and then completely lost her trail of thought when Kíli dipped even lower and demonstrated his plan with some very well‐placed thrusts of his tongue. Alright, so this was happening then. Tauriel could only hope that Olov's (or Oleg's—there was no way to tell, really) snores would be loud enough to obscure whatever breathless mess Kíli was about to reduce her to within the next few minutes.

When she eventually persuaded Kíli to leave their small nest of blankets, the sun was already higher in the sky than when they normally rose and the loft was filled with the sounds of the others moving about. Tauriel held some reservations about facing them after what had transpired between her and Kíli last night and—twice, so Illúvatar help her—this morning.

As she watched Kíli get dressed with a small, happy smile on his face, however, she reminded herself not to be childish and face the consequences of her actions with her head held high. Besides, it was not as if there had not been plenty of occasions where other inhabitants of the loft could be heard engaging in similar activities, some of them less adept at discretion than others.

When she leaned down to pick up the sash which they all tied around their waist instead of a belt, her eyes fell on a small object which must previously have been hidden by the heap of Kíli's clothes. There were so few items inside their small room, that even such a tiny object immediately stood out.

"What is that?"

Kíli looked around in confusion for a few seconds before his eyes fell on the new addition to their possessions. "Oh, this? I don't really know, to be honest. Found it in a corner down at the forge yesterday when I went to pick up some supplies. It did not like something anybody would miss, and so I brought it back with me. Perhaps we can use it as a tool or something."

Tauriel picked up the small piece of iron. It felt cool against her skin and fit perfectly into her palm. It had eight sharp edges and a hollow opening at one end. When she pushed the tip of her finger into the opening, she was able to feel tiny, sharp teeth, like one might find on a cogwheel. She looked up at Kíli. "I'm quite certain that someone will miss this."

Kíli frowned, clearly puzzled. "Why? Do you know what this is?"

"It is the same type of thing they used to operate the locks on our cells. A key, so to speak."

Even though it had only been a few days, their small cells and dark prison felt so far away. Still, she was positive that this was what she had glimpsed in the hands of the guards during the few times she had gotten a good view of them unlocking their cells via that strange little box near the exit.

"Hm. What a shame then that we currently have no cells that need unlocking." Kíli had stepped closer and took the odd key from her, holding it up against the light before weighing it in his palm. "Do you think I should take it back? Might be more trouble than it is worth if it were to be found hidden here."

Tauriel weighed his words for a moment. He was right, of course, but then again, this was the first bit of progress they had made in days. Even if just by sheer luck.

She reached out and closed his fingers around the key. "We keep it. We might not need it now, but who is to say what getting away from this place might entail. Either way, it gives us an upper hand. And we quite desperately need one, I believe."

He glanced down at their joined hands, and Tauriel could practically feel the spark of hope which had returned to his general demeanor. After his little lapse of faith in the days before, he was ready to fight again. And so was she.

By the time they had finished getting dressed and after Kíli had hidden their secret key underneath a loose floorboard, everybody else had finished their breakfast and was waiting for their daily morning inspection. This meant, of course, that people had not much else to do except stare at Kíli and Tauriel while they hurriedly gulped down a few mouthfuls of breakfast, not wanting to begin work on an empty stomach.

"Hungry?" Naima asked innocently from where she was perched on a stool while her partner Ingrid braided her wayward hair. Naima's dark eyes twinkled with amusement when Tauriel's face immediately grew warm, but before she had time for a teasing comment, the door was thrown open.

"Here we go again," Kíli muttered beside her, and together they joined the rest of the group on the far side of the room. Waiting to be declared fit for their daily work had become somewhat of a routine, but it still felt odd to Tauriel to be lined up there like cattle.

Today the small procession which entered the room was led by the same woman as on the first day, whom Kíli and Tauriel had taken to referring to as The Mean One. Due to the fact that her colleagues rarely spoke at all, it was impossible to determine whether she was really of an even less sunny disposition than them, but her sharp tongue and steely gaze certainly rendered her at least somewhat deserving of the name.

As was her habit, Tauriel tried to avoid meeting the gaze of the warden, for she was never quite sure what to do with what she found there when she did. Hence she did not notice immediately when the stern woman studied her for even longer than usual.

"You," she said, and gestured with her hand over her shoulder towards the communal table. "Over there."

Tauriel's head jerked up. This had never happened before. The only occasion when one of their group had been held back from heading down to the beach in the morning had been when Oleg had sported a bleeding nose during their morning inspection after a squabble at the breakfast table with Olov. She somehow made her feet move towards the table, even as her mind whirred with the meaning of it all.

She wasn't sure if her relief outweighed her sense of ill foreboding when Kíli was sent to join her a mere few seconds later. She did not want to be separated from him, but then again, if they were both singled out for whatever was about to happen next, this could mean nothing good, could it? Had the absence of the key Kíli had found perhaps been discovered already? Were they under suspicion?

Things became even more puzzling when, once The Mean One had reached the end of their line, she also sent Timon over to wait with Kíli and Tauriel while the remainder of their group was shepherded out of the room. Before they reached the door, Nesrin cast a concerned glance over her shoulder towards where Timon leaned against the table, his arms crossed in front of his chest. Her eyes flitted to Tauriel next and she mouthed something that might have been a plea to stay safe or an obscure threat what would happen if any harm came to Timon. Or both, possibly.

Once the group had left, the warden turned back towards its three remaining members.

"Congratulations," she said in a tone that did not sound like anything good was about to happen, "you have been chosen."

"Chosen for what?" Kili asked into what Tauriel suspected had been intended as a dramatic pause. He was rewarded with a glare.

"You are to represent our honorable house at this year's Harvest Hunt. You have been selected by the Lord Gansukh himself because he believes that your individual skills will place us ahead of our rival houses." Her tone left no room for doubt that she did not share Gansukh's opinion. However, after a brief pause, she went on. "Tonight you shall be presented to the household at the traditional feast on the eve of the Hunt. Until then, you are to spend the day preparing for this festive occasion."

While she spoke, her eyes had skimmed over Kíli's hair—more unkempt than usual after this morning's activities. Tauriel half expected a verbal jab at their disheveled appearance, but the warden restricted herself to a disapproving twitch of her lips.

"If there is anything here you need, go fetch it now. You will not be returning to your quarters before the Hunt is over."

Kíli and Tauriel shared a glance. Aside from the rune stone Kíli still carried in his pocket, neither of them had any possessions to speak of except for one thing, and that was a rather risky object to be carrying around. Still, hidden under the floor, a key would be of no use at all to them should they end up in yet another type of prison. And so Tauriel remained in the common area while Kíli darted back behind the blue curtains, nodding grimly to her when he emerged again after a few seconds. They would simply have to be very careful and make sure no one had a reason to search their pockets.

Timon, too, had gone back to his and Nesrin's room and made his way back to them with an unhappy expression on his face. Tauriel could not fault him for it. She, too, wondered if this might not be the last time any of them set foot inside the loft, a prospect she felt surprisingly mournful about. And, unlike poor Timon, she was allowed to leave with the person who mattered most to her still at her side.

"What do you think we will be hunting, then?" she asked Kíli on their way down the stairs. They creaked loudly enough under their feet to allow for a muttered conversation without having to fear that they might be overheard.

"Don't know," Kíli grunted. "Not each other, I hope."

Under any other circumstances, this might have been received by Tauriel as a joke. Considering their shared experience in captivity, however, it might as well have been the brutal truth. With a glance at Kíli's forearm, where the marks of their recent encounter with a pack of Wargs were still faintly visible, she ground her teeth together as she followed their warden and Timon down to the lower levels of the house. "So do I."

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Before they were taken to the heart of the house to meet their destiny, they took another detour to the baths. Tauriel thought this a bit extravagant, seeing that they had all had their daily wash the evening before, as was part of their routine as a group. Clearly they were supposed to make quite an impression during the feast tonight. Not that Tauriel particularly complained about spending a quiet half hour alone with her thoughts, surrounded by the scent of soaps and herbs. Also, after her and Kíli's more recent activities, it probably couldn't hurt to clean herself, even if she was somewhat loath to wash his scent off her skin so soon.

Her cheeks burned at the direction her thoughts had taken while she rinsed her hair, combing through the long strands with her fingers. It did not come as much of a surprise that Kíli was an affectionate and perhaps a little ardent lover, but that he was so considerate of her own needs and just so very eager to meet her each and every desire. . . that was something she had somehow not anticipated.

Ah, she shouldn't be feeling all those warm and fuzzy emotions which were coursing through her. Or, rather, she shouldn't allow them to take up as much room as they currently did. After all, there was possibly yet another threat looming on the horizon, and she might need her wits about herself in order to come out of this ominous Harvest Hunt unscathed. But then again, she had known this would happen, hadn't she? After all, it had been the reason why she had abstained from seeking Kíli's closeness for so many nights. Only to discover that when they were apart from each other, they were even more useless at figuring out a way out of this whole mess than they were together. So perhaps all was as it should be, now.

She sighed and raised her arms to begin braiding her hair in her preferred style, with slim braids running along the crown of her head. She did not particularly want to make an effort in order to look presentable, but figured that if nothing else, wearing her hair the way she liked it best would make her feel comfortable and confident enough to quell the nervousness starting to rise inside her.

Finished with her hair and wrapped in a plain but pleasantly clean robe, she went to get dressed and was met with a surprise. Her clothes had been removed while she had bathed and had been replaced with a new outfit. In place of the black trousers and tunic complemented by a scarlet sash, she found a long gown the deep indigo color of a sky just after sunset. Similar to her tunic, it was intended to be wrapped around one's upper body and tied with a belt at the waist, this one silver instead of red, thereby complementing the trimmings on the dress' collar and sleeves.

It was a beautiful garment, no question. Tauriel just hoped that this wasn't what she was supposed to be wearing during the Hunt, for that would certainly cause a number of complications. As she picked up the dress to hold it up in front of her, she discovered something else hidden underneath—shoes. Or sandals, rather, but shoes nonetheless. As she slipped them on, the brown leather straps wrapping around her ankles several times, she discovered with some satisfaction that they were quite comfortable and allowed for a decent range of movement.

The dress she put on while trying not to put too much thought into it. She certainly hoped that Kíli and Timon would be forced to wear something equally flamboyant and that she wasn't the only one out of the three of them who would be paraded around like some kind of trophy.

Exiting the area of the baths designated for female visitors only, she found her expectations both met and disappointed at the same time. While the garments Kíli and Timon had been given where certainly more colorful than their previous outfits—hues of bright red, yellow, and orange contrasting prettily with velvety black trimmings—they were decidedly more practical than her dress, which kept tangling itself around her legs as she walked, threatening to trip her at every step.

Regardless of this, the look on Kíli's face as he caught sight of her was almost worth any discomfort the long robe was causing her. His jaw all but dropped and Tauriel could practically see his thoughts going places they really shouldn't be in right now. Would they be given shared quarters for the night, she wondered, and then immediately berated herself for the thought. In the end, she was no better than Kíli when it came to letting her thoughts stray to inappropriate places, it would seem.

They were taken back to the main house by the warden, who looked as close to happy as Tauriel had ever seen her when she looked them over in their new clothes and with skin pink from having been recently scrubbed clean.

"Small steps," she advised Tauriel when, once again, she almost stumbled as a result of her long dress.

Tauriel's immediate instinct was to glare at the woman. She was a soldier, a fighter, and pattering around while wearing elegant gowns was simply not in her nature—nor did she want it to be. However, she was not too conceited to not recognize well-meant counsel and tried to moderate the length of her steps. With some success—she made it to the house and up the stairs leading to the main entrance without further incident.

In the days—almost a whole week by now, after all—she had spent on the island, Tauriel had never seen as much as a glimpse of any other part of the house except for the loft they all shared. Every evening, they took the narrow staircase at the side of the building to climb directly to their secluded quarters. Now, they were led through the wide set of double doors which looked like they had recently been covered in a fresh coat of red paint.

Inside, they were met with the unusual sight of an indoor garden, lush green plants encroaching upon them from all directions—even from above, where long vines crept out of hanging baskets. It was quite similar to the other gardens on the estate in terms of flora and design. Only, whereas the paths in the gardens they sometimes worked in during the afternoon were covered in gravel, here the floor was made of marble polished to perfection. From somewhere within the depths of the artificial jungle, the trickle of flowing water could be heard. A small fountain, perhaps, or even an artificial stream.

The space was so curious that Tauriel would have liked to linger for a bit and explore its secrets, but the warden ushered them along quickly. They left the garden behind when they passed through a sliding door. The room which they found beyond was much less irregular, at least if one was already used to the straight wooden beams and papery walls. A low, long table surrounded by an assortment of large cushions and low stools took up the majority of the room.

On the walls, Tauriel glimpsed an impressive selection of swords, which did not look like they had seen many battles—too pristine were their shining blades. Her fingers itched to get a hold of them and test their weight in her hands, but she quickly tore her eyes away, not wanting to look too conspicuous. For they were not alone—at the wide, floor-to-ceiling window on the other side of the table stood Gansukh himself, his back turned towards them while he gazed out at the group of workers currently tending to the garden at the back of the house.

A sound from behind made Tauriel glance over her shoulder just in time to watch the warden slip through the sliding door and close it behind her, leaving the three of them alone with the head of the household. Timon, she noticed, had adopted an air of subservience with his head bowed and his shoulders hunched. Kíli, naturally, was standing as tall and proud as he possibly could, wearing a pronounced scowl on his face.

Suppressing a smile, Tauriel turned back around.

"It is wonderful indeed to see how much this place has bloomed in recent years," Gansukh spoke into the silence, still facing the garden. "Both figuratively and literally. You cannot know this, but when I first began to build this estate, those on the mainland watched with scornful eyes, thinking it a mad man's endeavor. To them, the island was nothing but a barren rock, where nothing could take roots. I proved them all wrong."

He pivoted on his heels, smiling at them with too many teeth. "Tomorrow you three shall continue our house's tradition of stunning those who underestimate us into silence. You shall make this house proud."

Tauriel resisted sharing a skeptical glance with Kíli, who had stepped up beside her while Gansukh held his little speech. While she had slipped into the routines of life on the island with more ease than she was comfortable with, she did not by any means identify as a part of the household. That lack of loyalty would make it very difficult to represent the house in the way which Gansukh seemed to have in mind and she found it hard to believe that he would be so naive as to not consider this circumstance.

"And how exactly are we supposed to do that?" Kíli had shifted his weight onto one leg and crossed his arms in front of his chest. His feelings on the matter were rather apparent, and they were much the same as her own.

Gansukh surveyed each of them with glinting eyes and Tauriel wondered if he was not, after all, quite mad. He looked different from the last time she had seen him, even if subtly so. His cheeks were fuller, his hair glossier and his beard more carefully trimmed. It was only a small comfort, but knowing that back on the vessel life had not been without its disadvantages for him, too, gave her a grim sort of satisfaction. Perhaps he had lost his mind somewhere between gruesome fights, dark corridors and stale food?

"Well, I assume it is quite apparent why it is you three on whom I am bestowing this great honor?" He looked at each of them again, but seeing that none of them seemed inclined to answer, did so himself. "You have the best eye and are able to strike down any target from a great distance. The other houses may be relying on brute strength and speed in selecting their favorites for tomorrow's competition, but they will never even have a chance to get close to their prey if you strike it down first."

This time Tauriel did risk a glance at Kíli, whose eyebrows had shot up. "So you're just going to send us out there with our preferred weapon in hand?" he asked.

Bringing a hand to his chin, Gansukh affected a thoughtful pose. "How do I know you won't use that moment to turn against me? Is that what you are truly asking? Well, you've had weapons at your disposal each and every day since you came here, haven't you? I believe that if you truly wanted to, you could have made use of them to get away from here some time ago." He grinned winningly. "But you do not want to, right? You do not want to leave. Which is why I trust you to do what is best for our house—your house."

Some of his words hit uncomfortably close to home. Tauriel wished she could have reached out to Kíli to reassure him that it wasn't wrong to feel some of those things. Because, while it was true that they had both experienced moments of doubt in the days before, Gansukh was mistaken about one fundamental thing: the main reason why they had not made a desperate attempt to use the weapons they were given for training to stage an escape was that doing so would have needlessly endangered Nesrin and the others without promising great chances of success. But of course Gansukh, who thought that a person would turn on those they cared about if provided with the right incitement, overlooked that fact.

Away from the island, and in a hunt that would necessarily allow them a certain range of freedom, things might yet be very different and the odds more in their favor. And so she swallowed back her protest and bowed her head to hide her frown. Let him believe that he had them both figured out. By some miracle, Kíli managed to remain silent as well, even though she could tell by his quickened breaths that he was far from happy with Gansukh's assessment.

If the master of the house expected a retort from them, he hid his surprise that none was forthcoming well and merely clapped his hands together in front of his chest. "Very well, then. You make use of this day to rest so that tomorrow you can perform at your very best. Take a stroll through the garden, perhaps? And at the feast tonight, we shall have a quick demonstration of your skills, so that the household may see what I have known all along—that you are champions."

He looked very pleased with himself and not in the least bothered by the fact that none of them made any signs of sharing in his enthusiasm. And so, a few minutes later, Tauriel, Timon, and Kíli found themselves in the garden Gansukh had been viewing from the slightly elevated ground floor of the house, all of them feeling more than a little displaced. Not wanting to stay where they could be watched, Tauriel headed deeper into the maze of hedges and flowerbeds and soon found a small group of stone benches mostly hidden from view. Kíli and Timon had followed close behind, and for a few moments they simply sat there, Tauriel and Timon on the benches and Kíli on the ground, gathering their thoughts.

"You have been here longer than we have," Tauriel eventually addressed Timon. "What do you know about this Harvest Hunt?"

Timon shrugged, not quite meeting her gaze. "Not much. I wasn't here a year ago, but I've heard people mention it in passing. It must be a very important occasion."

"And a very ominous one," Kíli added. He had picked up a fistful of gravel from the ground and was letting the small pebbles trickle through his fingers while he looked on with a frown. "I've a bad feeling about this whole thing. Like it's a trap."

Timon shifted uneasily in his seat. "What sort of trap?"

"The kind where they make us have a go at each other with only one goal in mind—blood."

Tauriel had attempted to keep her voice neutral as she answered, but still Timon's eyes widened in shock when he whipped his head around to look at her where she was perched beside him.

"They would not do that."

"They would. And they have." Tauriel sighed. "Why do you think we have been so distrustful of life here from the start?"

An uncomfortable silence descended over their small group. Except for on that first day, with Nesrin, there had been no more discussions of the more far-reaching implications of their life on the island. Timon, as Nesrin's partner, would of course be more supportive of her view than of the stance Kíli and Tauriel took on the matter.

"Perhaps there is a way for us to get out of this whole business with the hunt," Kíli mused. "What if, for instance, we perform excessively poorly at this demonstration tonight?"

Tauriel grimaced. "I am not sure that would help. Gansukh would know it to be a ruse. And besides. . . this is a chance we might not get again so easily. Suri, Ingolf, and Ruari—they might not be there for the hunt, but at least they will be on the same landmass, for once. That will make a tremendous difference."

"That and the first-class weapons they'll hopefully supply us with," Kíli agreed cheerfully.

Timon, who had seemed to freeze after Tauriel's suggestion that the hunt might not turn out to be what Gansukh wanted them to believe it was, stood rather abruptly. "I do not want to be listening to this."

He was already halfway across their little hideout, headed deeper into the garden, before Tauriel recovered sufficiently from her perplexity to call out to him. "You need not comply with their every whim, you know. I am aware you and the others want life here to remain as it is, but it won't—not in the long run. Or not unless you are willing to do some truly horrid things to remain in the good graces of Gansukh and whoever is out there like him."

With his head half turned towards her, Timon paused and Tauriel watched his emotions war with each other on his handsome face before he managed to adopt a mask of forced indifference. "I suppose we shall see tomorrow what I will and won't do," he said before quickening his step once again and disappearing through a gap in the hedges. Tauriel and Kíli remained behind in terse silence.

"I am not sure if I want to pity him or knock some sense into his pretty head."

Tauriel winced at Kíli's astute assessment of her own feelings on the matter. "A little bit of both would be appropriate, I believe."

"Do you think he will cause trouble for us?" Kíli was still staring at where Timon had vanished from sight.

"By going to Gansukh with everything he just heard from us? I do not think he would risk drawing that much attention to himself, no. And besides, even if he did, Gansukh would probably not believe him."

"Right." Kíli grimaced. "All that power mongering seems to be getting to his head. Not that I'm convinced he was ever entirely sane to begin with."

This time, Tauriel could not suppress the shiver which threatened to overcome her whenever she thought of Gansukh's greedy eyes roving over them. And she did not have to, for there was no one here except for Kíli to witness it. "Tomorrow might be the day when we leave all of that behind for good," she tried to console both him and herself. With mixed success—the thought that even if they did manage to escape, they would still be leaving Nesrin, Timon, and the others in Gansukh's clutches left a bitter taste in her mouth.

In Kíli's, too, it seemed, from the way he pursed his lips. "And until then?"

Tauriel sighed, knowing that there was only one answer she could possibly give.

"Until then, we wait."