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Description
I hurl my sword, landing it with a shunk in the side of an Orc’s head. Inky blood bursts into my eyes as an arrow whizzes by my ear. I pivot into a half-blind parry to fend another shot off. A massive goblin roars and lifts its mallot high, poised to smash my uncle to dust, but I drive my sword into its belly with a roar of my own and the tip of my blade noses out the other side. The creature falls, and I topple with it, still clinging to my deep-stuck hilt. I yank and heave on it, but my sword is wedged fast. I curse and sling one of Fili’s many spare swords from its scabbard on my back. Sweat turns the filth on my face to liquid and it seeps between my lips. Horrific shrieks threaten to blast me senseless, and I wipe away the blood on my palms.
Another monster barrels toward us, and in the distance great shadows are swooping down—

“KILI!” A scream rings out loud through the turmoil. A flash of copper hair, burning bright as the setting sun, darts out of the chaos. Tauriel. A shock of panic pulses through my pain. She runs toward me drawing back her bow, face twisted into a look of terror, yelling something in her language that I don’t understand—

A tearing agony like lightning hits me. The force throws me to the ground, and I hear a cry that I think is mine.

I grip the spear hilt that is lodged in my stomach. I can’t tell if the pain is a thousand teeth gnawing me from inside, or just so great that it’s rendered me numb. An orc, my murderer, drops with an elven arrow sprouting from its heart.

A face leans over me. Her hands hold my shoulders and she lifts me into her arms.

“Agh,” I choke. Dear Tauriel, I’m bleeding.

“Lay still, lay still,” she tells me. She places her fingers on my stomach around the shaft and I wince at the pressure. She rests her palm on my heaving chest and closes her eyes, murmuring. Her words are broken and strained.

My uncle turns to me, blood flinging from his blade. “NO!” he bellows. Even I can see his fury that is met with shadows of loss. This expression deadens me. He moves forward but another attacker holds him back and he is away from my sight.

My vision is blurry. The only one I see is her, and the only sound I hear is her voice.

“Is he still alive? Is my brother--is he still alive?”

I grab her wrist. Stop. Stop-

“You’re going to be alright.”

Don’t be a fool, Tauriel-

She slides her arms beneath me strong dark wetness--is she cut?--a bowman’s harsh concentration-

“AHH!” The heaviness of the shaft shifts my insides and tears me deeper as she tries to lift me.

A raw noise erupts from her throat. Her face is contorted. “Stay with me.” Her hands are on my face her elbows in the cold dirt by my shoulders

“Is Fili…” I know I just know it I can sense the piece of me that isn’t there anymore. I wail

Fili, my brother, my only brother

Tears or rain it does not matter

Oh, don’t, don’t do this to yourself, Tauriel, Tauriel, Tauriel…

“Tauriel!” The clang of armour. Sickly grey skin spatters into purple and writhes to the ground. Legolas.

“He’s hurt.”

The prince gazes at me. His eyes are not on the brink of outward guarded confrontation and inward pain. He can say nothing now. For once, he does not hate me, for he loves her too.

He loves her too.

I hold her hand.

The battlefield slows to nothing, absolute smoke and emptiness, fading into the dwarven lore of sounds a dying victor hears, but what
have I won, what have I won?

Legolas forces another one off, away from us, he yells something with a shredded voice, long, elegant frame, even fluid through torrents
of gruesome beings--

Tauriel looks into my eyes. Sunlight through the leaves. Rain. Her jaw is in my palm. I cannot move but I can I have to feel her but I am
numb but I burn I burn for her and them and my brother

Tauriel.

Can I ask you something?

Tauriel.

Do you think we’ll ever go back home?

Fili.

Or not.

Uncle.

Depending on whether or not you believe that kind of thing.

Tauriel.

My heart thumps against her soaked hand fist clutching her blood and mine burning

It’s just a token.

My heart.

I leave her face fingers grow frozen parted from the warmth slide into stiff cracked fur pale the stone I turn it over in my hands

“Kili…”

From a pocket in my coat I place the rock on her wrist hold it there cannot let go

“No...no…”

She speaks so softly tears I have never seen her cry fusing her mouth together

Tauriel.

“You cannot be her. I am far away from her...she..”

I can feel it now the pulsing spilling my own life at her feet sky so wide so black but stars

“She walks in...starlight…”

The emerald shade the shadows moving I remember she is real and

“I am her. I am here. I saved you before, I saved you then didn’t I?”

When I bled when the poison the purple fog misted through me she breathed and cleared it all away when I bled she held me as I die she
holds me

“We will walk in starlight together...”

Tauriel.

She clutches my knuckles tight but loose now falling from the stone I give to her she watches me not leaving staying with me the last
bright light the last true thing I have won before I go she holds me
I will not forget your name no I will not let go of your name

She is the music “I promise you.” She holds me in her arms.

I love you.

Description
I hurl my sword, landing it with a shunk in the side of an Orc’s head. Inky blood bursts into my eyes as an arrow whizzes by my ear. I pivot into a half-blind parry to fend another shot off. A massive goblin roars and lifts its mallot high, poised to smash my uncle to dust, but I drive my sword into its belly with a roar of my own and the tip of my blade noses out the other side. The creature falls, and I topple with it, still clinging to my deep-stuck hilt. I yank and heave on it, but my sword is wedged fast. I curse and sling one of Fili’s many spare swords from its scabbard on my back. Sweat turns the filth on my face to liquid and it seeps between my lips. Horrific shrieks threaten to blast me senseless, and I wipe away the blood on my palms.
Another monster barrels toward us, and in the distance great shadows are swooping down—

“KILI!” A scream rings out loud through the turmoil. A flash of copper hair, burning bright as the setting sun, darts out of the chaos. Tauriel. A shock of panic pulses through my pain. She runs toward me drawing back her bow, face twisted into a look of terror, yelling something in her language that I don’t understand—

A tearing agony like lightning hits me. The force throws me to the ground, and I hear a cry that I think is mine.

I grip the spear hilt that is lodged in my stomach. I can’t tell if the pain is a thousand teeth gnawing me from inside, or just so great that it’s rendered me numb. An orc, my murderer, drops with an elven arrow sprouting from its heart.

A face leans over me. Her hands hold my shoulders and she lifts me into her arms.

“Agh,” I choke. Dear Tauriel, I’m bleeding.

“Lay still, lay still,” she tells me. She places her fingers on my stomach around the shaft and I wince at the pressure. She rests her palm on my heaving chest and closes her eyes, murmuring. Her words are broken and strained.

My uncle turns to me, blood flinging from his blade. “NO!” he bellows. Even I can see his fury that is met with shadows of loss. This expression deadens me. He moves forward but another attacker holds him back and he is away from my sight.

My vision is blurry. The only one I see is her, and the only sound I hear is her voice.

“Is he still alive? Is my brother--is he still alive?”

I grab her wrist. Stop. Stop-

“You’re going to be alright.”

Don’t be a fool, Tauriel-

She slides her arms beneath me strong dark wetness--is she cut?--a bowman’s harsh concentration-

“AHH!” The heaviness of the shaft shifts my insides and tears me deeper as she tries to lift me.

A raw noise erupts from her throat. Her face is contorted. “Stay with me.” Her hands are on my face her elbows in the cold dirt by my shoulders

“Is Fili…” I know I just know it I can sense the piece of me that isn’t there anymore. I wail

Fili, my brother, my only brother

Tears or rain it does not matter

Oh, don’t, don’t do this to yourself, Tauriel, Tauriel, Tauriel…

“Tauriel!” The clang of armour. Sickly grey skin spatters into purple and writhes to the ground. Legolas.

“He’s hurt.”

The prince gazes at me. His eyes are not on the brink of outward guarded confrontation and inward pain. He can say nothing now. For once, he does not hate me, for he loves her too.

He loves her too.

I hold her hand.

The battlefield slows to nothing, absolute smoke and emptiness, fading into the dwarven lore of sounds a dying victor hears, but what
have I won, what have I won?

Legolas forces another one off, away from us, he yells something with a shredded voice, long, elegant frame, even fluid through torrents
of gruesome beings--

Tauriel looks into my eyes. Sunlight through the leaves. Rain. Her jaw is in my palm. I cannot move but I can I have to feel her but I am
numb but I burn I burn for her and them and my brother

Tauriel.

Can I ask you something?

Tauriel.

Do you think we’ll ever go back home?

Fili.

Or not.

Uncle.

Depending on whether or not you believe that kind of thing.

Tauriel.

My heart thumps against her soaked hand fist clutching her blood and mine burning

It’s just a token.

My heart.

I leave her face fingers grow frozen parted from the warmth slide into stiff cracked fur pale the stone I turn it over in my hands

“Kili…”

From a pocket in my coat I place the rock on her wrist hold it there cannot let go

“No...no…”

She speaks so softly tears I have never seen her cry fusing her mouth together

Tauriel.

“You cannot be her. I am far away from her...she..”

I can feel it now the pulsing spilling my own life at her feet sky so wide so black but stars

“She walks in...starlight…”

The emerald shade the shadows moving I remember she is real and

“I am her. I am here. I saved you before, I saved you then didn’t I?”

When I bled when the poison the purple fog misted through me she breathed and cleared it all away when I bled she held me as I die she
holds me

“We will walk in starlight together...”

Tauriel.

She clutches my knuckles tight but loose now falling from the stone I give to her she watches me not leaving staying with me the last
bright light the last true thing I have won before I go she holds me
I will not forget your name no I will not let go of your name

She is the music “I promise you.” She holds me in her arms.

I love you.