Queen Under The Mountain

The Great Escape.

  My uncomfortable slumber had been interrupted by a woman's voice, I opened my eyes to see the female Elf across the way standing at Kili's cell.

  "The stone in your hand, what is it?" She asked.
"It is a talisman." Kili replied, sparking her interest. "A powerful spell lies upon it." Kili caught my eye and I instantly knew what he was about to do. "If any but a Dwarf reads the runes on this stone... They will be forever cursed."

He held out the stone and the Elf took a step back and began to walk away.
  "Or not." Kili finished. She stopped and looked back at him. "Depending on whether you believe in that kind of thing. It's just a token." Kili let out a small laugh. "A rune stone. My mother gave it to me so I'd remember my promise."
  "What promise?" The Elf asked.
"That I would come back to her." Kili said.

  I remember his and Fili's mother, Thorin's sister. She was very kind and happy, she became my first friend in the mountain after meeting Thorin. She was the one who encouraged her brother to court with me, it broke her heart to see the three of them leave on this journey.

  "She worries." Kili continued with his story while tossing his stone in the air and catching it. "She thinks I'm reckless." I let out a chortle and the Elf quickly looked at me then back at Kili.
  "Are you?" The Elf asked him.
"Nah." Kili shook his head and tossed his stone a bit too high and it fell out of the cell and would have fallen off the ledge if the Elf didn't stop it with her boot.

  She picked up the stone and looked at it as she did so, some laughter was heard from above.
  "Sounds like quite a party you're having up there." Kili inquired.
  "It is Mereth e-nGilith, the Feast of Starlight." She replied. "All light is sacred to the Eldar. But Wood Elves love best the light of the stars."
  "I always thought it is a cold light." Kili said. "Remote and far away."
  "It is memory," she explained. "Precious and pure."
  Kili gazed up at her through the bars of his cell.
  "Like your promise." She handed him his stone.

  She continued to talk about the starlight, mostly what I was concerned about was the way that Kili looked at her. He then began telling her about a fire moon he once saw, when I heard light footsteps above me, but they didn't come down the stairs.

  The Elf had left and I looked at Kili.
"Pretty good, eh?" He smiled.
  "I thought you were going to keep your promise to your mother, and come back to her." I said and his smile dropped.

  "I'll wager the sun is on the rise." Bofur stated. "Must be nearly dawn."
  "We're never gonna reach the mountain, are we?" Ori said.

  "Not stuck in here, you're not." The familiar voice made me jump off the floor and to my cell door to see Bilbo jangling the dungeon keys.

  "Bilbo!" The company began to cheer.
"Shh! There are guards nearby!" Bilbo hushed us.

  I was let out my cell and closed the door behind me. "Close the doors, it'll buy us more time." I said.

We started lining up to go up the stairs and out of there, but Bilbo stopped us.
"No, not up there, down here, follow me!" He started down some stairs deeper into the cave.

I didn't want to waste time arguing with him, so we turned around and followed him down flights of stairs into what seemed to be a wine cellar full of barrels. We tip toed down the last steps and I looked over to see two Elves sitting at a table, fast asleep with empty wine bottles in front of them. I covered my mouth, stifling a laugh.

Bilbo beckoned us further into the cellar. "I can't believe we're in the cellars!" Kili grumbled.
"We're supposed to be getting out of here! Not further down!" I said to Bilbo.
"I know what I'm doing." Bilbo replied.