[Elora]

In the growing Twilight, after an afternoon spent in the ease of Falowik's company, Uien felt herself unwind. Life was easier at this time, moreso now that the Twilight found her not alone as it had for too long. The stars kindled one by one in a way that Uien had long loved, even as an infant. They stood by the rails of the inn's day pasture, she and Falowik. The horses were getting their last mouthfuls of sweet green grass before they were rounded into their stalls. Tails swished contentedly, ears flickering and pleased equine sighs of fulfilment filled the early evening air.

Falowik caught the faint smile upon Uien's face as she glanced at the stars. Her express was open and gone was the sadness and tension of the earlier day.

"Twilight," he said quietly. Uien smiled all the more, looking at him now.

"Yes, between day and night... where anything is possible." She spun lightly and came to a standstill. It had taken some time to get the stain of the afternoon's work from their hands. Resin and sap from newly split wood is stubborn. Falowik's breeches and Uien's skirts were damp from the water they had used at the trough.

In the comfortable silence, something had grown between the two. Perhaps it was a shared past that settled upon them, a shared understanding that they had not had before. That understanding was not complete though. It was raw and unfinished. They both knew it. Uien shied away from it a little longer. Just a little longer when she was strong enough to finish her part.

"What is your favourite part of the day," she asked Falowik. He blinked at her, considering the odd question. Then he slowly smiled.

"Anytime food or good shelter is found," he said. There was a strong undercurrent of truth, but they both laughed because they both could. Uien nodded, understanding how precious such things are to wanderers. She studied Falowik, a question occuring to her that seemed possible to ask in the twilight.

"Do you miss family," she gently asked. She remembered his expression when he had told her of his upbringing. There was pain there, old injuries that lingered.

"How can you miss what you never had," Falowik replied brusquely, looking away at a distant horizon. Uien fell silent a moment, considering a little.

"You deserved better of life than that which was allowed you. A fine artesan you could make... a fine son too. I see no goblin in you, Falowik Laurëatan" Uien said softly. Falowik's jaw bunched and then relaxed and he looked back at her. There was no mockery nor pity there. Only a shared sorrow, for she understood what it was to make your way without family or succour, and a confidence that what she had said was true. For goblins she knew more than her fair share of, and none of it could she discern in the man that stood with her now.

Falowik raised his hand to brush a strand of hair from her shoulder back, as if he had reconsidered what he had been thinking of saying or doing. Behind them, in the day pasture, a horse snorted from the gate. Evidently, accordinging to equine schedule, it was time to find a stall. Sensing how difficult Falowik's thoughts were, Uien changed tack.

"We should certainly find you better lodgings than a tree tonight after all the work you have done on the roof." Falowik nodded, still studying how the fading light fell over her face and hair. Curiously, Uien did nothing further than to make that observation. In the place between day and night, something had to be finished.

"The mountains," Falowik said. Uien's eyes went large yet she nodded. She felt stronger than she had at lunch. He had entrusted her with so much where she had held back.

"Not all evil failed when the Dark Lord fell," Uien said. "Moria remained dark too, and it will take many years for his creatures to be cleansed from Middle-earth." Uien was hedging and well both knew it. She took a deep breath and willed herself to meet Falowik's gaze. That she clung to as she pushed on.

"I was taken in the Mountains...by," Uien paused, the unclean word poisoning her mouth, "orcs." The word dropped like a stone between them. She closed her eyes and then opened them once again.

"I was taken by orcs. They knew we were passing to the Grey Havens. They knew we would not take the road through Moria. They would gather and wait upon Caradhras for us to falter or stray. Sauron was gone but the Elves remained for them to strike at.

Well I knew it!"

Uien leant against the fence rails, washing a hand over her face as if to wash the memory away. Many times she had tried and never had it been of avail. Memories could not be washed away like resin nor sap. Yet she had not spoken of this memory to any, not even those who had freed her.

In the evening, as horses gathered at the gates to be led back to the stables, Uien unfolded a tale stark. She spoke swiftly, leaning all the while on the fence rails. She told of the fetid stench of their dens, their rasping ugly voices as they taunted and chanted. She spoke of their hands, cruel claws, that would rend and tear and of their laughter, shrill and base. A foul warren of evil that survived Sauron for the orc's hatred of the Elves and all living creatures was far older than the Dark Lord's malice.

She told of Dwarves, doughty and fell who descended in wrath upon this small fastness of horror that plauged their realms. Fierce they were, voices loud and booming, and savage as they set to hewing around them, scything through each pit and layer of the den, until they happened upon her.

Uien remembered little of what passed after that. All her strength had been spent on survival. She remembered a long beard that bristled with shock, as a Dwarf cried, "Brothers! Here is something not orcish!" and of hands and faces closing out her senses.

After that, Uien's tale was sketchy. She remembered caves and torchlight flickering on the stone walls. She remembered Dwarven voices in their own tongue around her, and she remembered being asked her name in Westron. She did not know they held little hope of recovery, for the tongue of the Mountain Dwarves is not something an Elf of Lothlorien studied.

"When I was able to make my way, I left the Dwarves in search of my folk. They were kind, in their fashion, but the divide between our kindreds is ancient. I could not remain amongst them."

By the time Uien fell silent, all the stars had kindled. Her head felt light and her skin tingled. Something had been released. She did not know what it was or what would come of it. Uien glanced up at the stars once more and took in a deep breath of evening.

"I well remember the sight of the stars after all that had passed. Never had they been more beautiful. I resolved never to leave them again."

When she then looked back at Falowik she wondered what he saw now that he knew. Something broken, stained beyond repair? Something sullied by the consequences of foolish tarrying upon the road. If it was so, then at least she had this twilight with him.

Chilled by the telling, Uien wrapped her arms around herself and waited to learn of what she had done in setting this finishing free.