My goodness it's been a long time, hasn't it? I don't have any good excuses except a lack of time. And I'm not making any promises that I'm back. I hope to get back to writing but finding time is a constant issue.

This one is about Kili and Tauriel and it's sad because I just can't see how it could end any other way. I've read the book and, while Tauriel is an addition to the story, I just can't see how her creation is going to change the outcome. Leave it to me to jump on board the ship that's inevitably going down like the Titanic.

Anyway, go ahead and give it a read. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Walking in Starlight

She saw Kili standing atop a mound of slain goblins, his dark hair dripping in sweat and blood and gore. It was a relief, seeing him alive and, as she called his name, he turned toward her and smiled that sweet, slow smile of his. As he started picking his way across the gruesome battle-scarred landscape she slung her bow over her back and started racing toward him. It was over, the battle was over. It had been bloody and exhilarating and, when she had briefly lost sight of him in the mêlée, it had been frightening. But it was over now and Kili was alive and she could think about the fluttering in her stomach and its implications later. Right now, she needed to hold him, to feel his heartbeat and know that he was indeed alive.

She glanced up at him, pausing in the midst of stepping over the body of a goblin that resembled a pincushion he was so full of arrows, and what she saw froze her in horror.

Kili was on fire, was melting away and she could smell the acrid scent of burning flesh yet he continued to smile at her, continued to walk toward her. The smoke burned her eyes and she watched, immobilized by panic, as the flames rose up and engulfed him until there was nothing left of him but a billowing pillar of flame, the sparks and bright embers floating up into the night sky like ghastly stars.

Tauriel woke up screaming his name. It was dark and damp and she was alone. A chilled wind bit at her wet cheeks where tears ran down her face and she shivered. Not from the cold – she may have been banished by her king but she was still an elf – but from a chill settling in her heart. Rolling onto her back, she stared up at the stars, trying to ease her breathing.

This was not the first time she had screamed herself awake to images of Kili's death. Arrows, swords, daggers, and now flame – they all plagued her nightmares. In truth, his exact cause of death was unknown to her – no one wound appeared any more lethal than any of the others. When she had stumbled upon him laying in arms of Fili, his older brother, she was not sure whose blood flowed more freely. Fili looked up at her, eyes glazed with pain, and whispered in a voice left raw, "I stayed until he closed his eyes, just like when we were young."

Tauriel focused on the stars, forcing the last image she had of Kili from her mind and instead fought to hang on to the one moment she longed to revisit. That moment in Bard the Bowman's cottage when Kili's fingers touched hers and he had feverishly murmured, "She walks in starlight in another world. Do you think she could have loved me?"

"You are the one that walks in starlight now, the one that is far, far away from me," she breathed, studying the stars as they sparkled. "And, yes, she could have loved you. She could have loved you very, very much."