So Comes Snow After Fire

24.v

Since they had returned to the mountain, the weather had quite truly changed to winter. The nights were frosty, and in mid-November, they had gotten the first proper snow, perfect crystalline flakes that fell soft and steady for hours.

That night, Kíli took Tauriel up to one of the high galleries that opened on a balcony over the mountainside, and they stood together under the shower of snow that glittered in the rays from their lantern. Beyond its sphere of golden light, only the barest suggestions of mountain slopes were visible under the starless, cloud-dimmed sky. In a world gone muted and indistinct, they two might have been the only living creatures.

Tauriel threw back the hood of her coat, and then after a moment, Kíli followed her example, though he was not quite sure what he was supposed to discover by doing so.

"Listen," Tauriel said in response to his inquisitive look.

At first, all seemed to be silent. But then presently, Kíli heard it: the faint, musical tinkle of the snow as it fell. He had never noticed the sound before, though he'd known many snowfalls growing up in Ered Luin. What else had he, a dull dwarf, missed about the world? Oh, how eager he was for Tauriel to show him!

Tauriel looked to him and caught his smile.

"What are you thinking, meleth nín?"

"That you truly are a sorceress; you make the snow sing. I'm sure it's never done that before."

She smiled and kissed him. Her lips felt very warm in contrast to the chill air.

"I shall always be glad of snow," he went on. "It was a day full of snow when you finally chose to follow me."

"Yes. And I will follow you always, Kíli; I promise."

She slid her fingers through the hair at his temple, and then gently tugged a lock free from its clasp. Kíli was about to ask her what she was doing when, from the corner of his eye, he caught the rhythmic movement of her fingers, and then felt the light, steady tug upon his scalp. She was making a braid.

He smiled. Betrothal braids were a tradition that hadn't been commonly practiced since his grandfather's day, yet their meaning would be recognized instantly nonetheless.

"Who told you about the braids?" he asked after several very happy moments.

"Sif did."

"I shall have to thank her."

"At an elvish betrothal, the couple exchange gifts. I wanted to give you something, but I knew I could not craft you anything from silver or gold. I haven't the skill. But I am very good with hair. I was quite delighted to learn that a braid is considered as much of a proper dwarven gift as any jeweled token."

As she worked, Kíli watched the snow crystals catch and then melt to dew in her lowered lashes. The image of Tauriel, her eyes wet with tears, surfaced in his mind as if from some old, sad dream. On the night of their farewell, Kíli had noted how pretty she looked even amidst her sorrow. And here she was again, with her eyelashes wet and thick, but there were no tears, was no grief. Only the snow, cool and white and pure.

As if feeling his gaze, Tauriel glanced up at him. "Meleth?" she questioned.

"You're very beautiful with your eyes full of snowflakes."

She laughed. "You're covered in them, too." Leaning near, she breathed upon his eyebrow, and then he felt a drop of water run down past the outer corner of his eye.

"Don't cry, my love," she teased.

"Oh no, I'm far too happy." He stood on his toes and kissed her, so that she almost lost hold of the braid.

Once she had finished and bound it off, Kíli inspected the plaited hair. "I've never seen this pattern before. It must be an elvish one."

"It is."

"Does it mean something?"

"The pattern can mean a number of things. Maids sometimes wear it to signify that their heart is taken. A subtle form of flirtation—or deterrent, as the case may be! If I give it to you, then surely it means that I'm the one to hold your heart."

Kíli fingered the bead at the plait's end. It was one of Tauriel's elvish hair beads, with a knotted motif.

Tauriel said, "That is an infinity knot. It symbolizes eternity, for it is woven of a single strand that never ends."

"Ah," he breathed.

"Here, turn your head so that I may braid the second one."

When Tauriel had done, Kíli took her hands in his and found they were cold, just as they had been on that snowy day two winters since. Yet Kíli had noticed that even the chill had not made her fingers any less nimble over his hair.

"Mmm, your hands feel wonderful," she sighed happily. "How do they stay so warm? You haven't any gloves on."

Kíli chuckled. "Have you ever taken a stone from the fire? It holds the heat for a long time." He tucked her hands into the breast of his coat. "Shall we go inside and find something warm to drink?"

"In a moment." She leaned down against him. "I love you, Kíli."

"I love you, Tauri—" he managed, before she cut him off by pressing her mouth to his.

Her lips, like her fingers, were now cool, though this fact seemed in no way to impair her. How Tauriel could both feel the cold and yet not be affected by it was still quite a mystery to Kíli. As a dwarf, he was fairly resistant to cold—he could go longer before he felt it and then he could endure the discomfort more easily than a human—yet its effect on him was the same as upon any other mortal. Chilled lips would have made speaking—never mind kissing—somewhat complicated. Yet Tauriel clearly had no trouble—

"Maker's hammer!" Kíli gasped as Tauriel's frosty hand found the open collar of his shirt. "Valar, love, your hands are like—" He would have said "ice," but he could already feel her skin warming against his. So it seemed she recovered more quickly from a chill than any dwarf would have, as well.

"I'm sorry!" she said, and then she laughed against him.

"What?"

"Now I remember why it is you dwarves stay so warm." She stroked a finger down the thick hair over his breastbone. "You wear your own fur coats."

Kíli snorted. "Of course."

Tauriel removed her now-warm hand from his collar and then kissed him once more with lips quite as heated as his own.

"All right, my love," she said. "Now that I'm warmed, shall we get that drink you proposed?"