It's late spring now. The world has finished waking up and is lazily preparing itself for the summer. All around her Tauriel can sense new life stepping into the world on wobbly legs, little voices crying for attention from distracted parents. Flowers are blooming, birds are singing and she can feel the sun warming her right shoulder.

She shifts so that both her shoulders are in the shade of the tree again.

There is a dwarf sleeping beside her. When he'd declared his intention to nap he'd been on his back, head pillowed on his linked hands, but he had rolled onto his side soon afterwards. His forehead is touching her thigh and she lets her hand drift over to bury her fingers in the soft waves of his hair. He doesn't wake, just nuzzles closer to her.

Over the next hill, she can hear a rabbit thumping the ground in alarm and closes her eyes to better focus on the sound. Soft yipping indicates a vixen with two kits and explains the rabbit's warning. She wishes the rabbits luck, but is glad that it's nothing to disturb her own peace.

Her eyes fly open as she realises what she can't sense. There's no creeping darkness teasing at the edge of her sense; no presence of evil seeping its tendrils into everything it touches.

Tauriel carefully gets to her feet and turns her attention to the east. They are far enough west now that the Misty Mountains are only a distant smudge on the horizon to even her vision.

Kíli wakes and blinks up at her. "Tauriel? What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she says, carefully sweeping her hair out of the way as she sits back down. "The Necromancer has fled to the east and it will be some time before he has the strength to mount another attack."

He sits up and rubs his eyes blearily. "What?"

"It's too peaceful here," she admits. "It worried me for a moment."

Kíli snorts. "You haven't even made it to the Shire yet."

"The Shire?" she asks. Their travels have thus far been without specific destination, both of them content to explore the world at their leisure. They walk as far as they can every day, eat when they're hungry and rest when they're tired. "What will we do there?"

"We're going to visit a burglar." He raises a mischievous eyebrow at her.

Tauriel frowns, then nods in understanding. "Your halfing friend - Mr Baggins, wasn't it?"

Kíli looks a little disappointed and she hides a smile at his expense. "The Hobbit. He's not really a burglar," Kíli explains. "Well, he is, but not professionally." He trails off, shaking his head.

She pulls him close until his shoulder is nestled into her side. "Look, ducklings!" she says. A mother duck has rustled through the tall grass on the edge of the pond and slipped into the water, seven ducklings following with soft plops.

He sighs - a breath of warm, contented air ruffling her clothes - and cuddles closer.

There will be no moon that night. When the sun sets they will walk in starlight under the endless sky and she will feel the earth breathe around her.