A/N: This is just something I've been working on for a while, when I've had time. Just a warning, it strays pretty far from canon, and I have not been terribly kind to Kili in this story. I own nothing.
After the incident with the trolls, Thorin was frustrated. When it came time to send a group to catch their dinner, he did not trust his nephews to go as a pair.
"Fili and Gloin will hunt tonight. Kili, you will watch the ponies with Ori and Bofur, because clearly two dwarves are not sufficient for pony duty," Thorin ordered.
Fili knew that arguing was futile, but Kili had yet to learn that lesson, though he'd been taught it countless times growing up. He opened his mouth to speak, but before words came out Fili threw a stick at his brother. This distracted him for a moment, but he attempted to argue again. This time, Bofur gently, shoved Kili off the log he was perched on.
"Sorry, lad! I guess I tripped!" he said cheerfully. With one final look from his brother, Kili got the point. He sat up, but pouted on the forest floor until Fili and Gloin took their leave.
"Alright, boys, let's get the ponies their dinner while Fili and Gloin catch ours," Bofur said. Kili stood up and followed Ori and Bofur. He ran to catch up with Bofur and grabbed his hat.
"I'm afraid Myrtle is cold!" Kili said, sprinting to the horses. He put the hat on Myrtle's head. Bofur snatched his hat, brushed it off, and shoved it back on his own head. They led the horses to the nearby stream so they could eat the grass and drink the cool water.
Ori sat on a log. He glanced at the pony he'd been riding, Daisy. He noticed that there was blood dripping down Daisy's rear leg. "Daisy's hurt. Look, she's bleeding!" he called to the others.
The three dwarves knelt down to look at her leg. There was a tear in the flesh. Bofur went in search of a cloth to clean the leg and Ori sat on a rock to document it in his leather book, as he was the company scribe.
Kili continued to inspect the wound. From the woods rose a loud howl. The horses spooked and chaos erupted. In this commotion, one of the ponies reared up and kicked Kili in the side of the head. When the dust cleared, he was laying prone on the ground, awake, but not moving.
Bofur was at his side immediately. "Kili! Are you alright?" Bofur asked. It was then that he saw the blood dripping into the dirt from right above Kili's ear. "Actually, don't answer that," Bofur amended. Kili had yet to acknowledge his presence, his eyes roving and not settling on anything. And he was shaking like a leaf. Bofur knew this was much more serious than a bump on the head and ordered Ori to fetch help. Ori scampered off.
Bofur used the cloth he'd gotten for Daisy and pressed it against Kili's head, very gently. Kili winced, but did not move. Bofur was no stranger to head wounds. His cousin had received an axe in his head many years back, and has not been the same since; prone to staring spells and times of very high emotion. "Kili, can you hear me?" No response. Bofur got right in Kili's face and tried to catch his focus. Kili's eyes met his briefly and then rolled around again. "You're going to be fine! You're just stunned is all," Bofur said cheerfully, putting on a brave face for the dwarfling.
Pretty soon, heavy footsteps were heard. Thorin, Dwalin, and Oin entered the clearing. Their faces were solemn and concerned. There was a touch of panic on Thorin's face. Thorin knelt next to his nephew. "Kili, look at me," he ordered, sternly. Kili did not comply. He didn't even seem to have heard him.
Thorin sighed and moved to hover over Kili's face. He noticed grimly that Kili seemed to see nothing. It was as though he was looking right through him. "Has he moved, Bofur?" Or shown any sign of awareness?" Bofur shook his head. Thorin gave Oin a look that said 'what do we do?'.
"We can check for paralaysis in his extremities. IF he has feeling still, we can safely move him back to the camp," he said. "I don't want to move him until we've determined if there is damage to his neck or back."
Oin reached for Kili's left hand. It was motionless and limp. Oin pressed his fingernail into the base of Kili's fingernail. They all breathed a sigh of relief when Kili grimaced and tried to pull away weakly. When Oin repeated the process on his right hand, he did the same, but seemed to pull away with more strength, and he turned his head. When Oin poked Kili's feet with a small pin, he attempted to pull his legs away from the pain.
"Let's get him back to camp," Oin said. Dwalin scooped Kili up into his arms.
"He's limp as a ragdoll," Dwalin commented. Luckily, it was Dwalin carrying him, because his armspan was long enough to support his head and neck as well has his legs fairly comfortably.
When they reached the camp, the remaining dwarves gasped when they saw the limp burden in Dwalin's arms.
"Bifur and Bombur will gather the ponies," Thorin said. He unrolled Kili's bedrool near the fire and Dwalin set his burden down gently.
"He's drooling something fierce," Dwalin said, gesturing to the wet spot on his arm. Indeed, Kili seemed to have lost the ability to swallow. Thorin gently wiped the saliva from Kili's face.
"Thorin, you'll need to sit behind him so we can prop him upright against you. At this rate, he'll choke on his own spit." Thorin nodded and sat against a log. Dwalin lifted Kili again gently and nestled him against his uncle's chest.
Oin knelt down stiffly to examine Kili's head. The hoof had broken the skin in several places, and there was already an alarming amount of swelling behind and above Kili's right ear. In addition to the blood coming from the wound, there was also a trickle of blood coming from inside his ear. There was deep bruising forming under Kili's right eye as well.
During the inspection, Kili would glance at Oin and grimace when he prodded somewhere particularly sensitive. The glances were brief. The rest of the time, Kili's eyes roved above Oin's head. He had yet to make a sound; not even a moan. Thorin carefully wiped his nephew's mouth every so often.
"It would seem that his skull is fractured. The bone is damaged just above his ear," Oin stated. Thorin felt himself blanch and his limbs felt heavy.
"What does that mean?" he asked.
"We can only wai—," Oin didn't get to finish because Kili's body went right and his head snapped to the left. His eyes shot to the left, and he was gasping. Oin closed his eyes, sorrowful. The dwarfling's back was arched and his legs and arms were completely rigid. The fit lasted less than a minute. No one spoke.
Bofur broke the silence. "Bifur had fits like that after his head wound. He turned out alright." Thorin frowned. Bifur may be alive, but he was, for all intents and purposes, deranged.
Kili's eyes were drooping now and he looked exhausted.
"No, you can't sleep yet, lad," Oin said. "Has he made any noises since the accident?" The others shook their heads. Oin pursed his lips. He stood and moved behind Thorin and Kili and snapped his fingers together near Kili's ears, several times on both sides. No reaction. He opened his mouth to speak when there was a crash behind him.
Bofur had been rifling through Bombur's pack, looking for a tin cup, when the pack fell from the rock. Kili flinched and grimaced, turning his head slightly.
"At least we know he's hearing us," Dwalin said.
They all fell silent. Oin began pulling Kili's hair away from the wound. "Bofur, would you boil some water?" he asked. "I'm having trouble getting at the wound to clean it. It may be necessary to cut his hair right around the wounds," he said, looking at Thorin for approval. Cutting a dwarf's hair was not something done but in the most dire of circumstances. Thorin nodded stiffly, his eyes not moving from the spot in the ground he'd been staring at for several minutes.
Oin took a sharp knife from his pack and began carefully cutting away the hair closest to the wounds. Kili tried to turn his head, as the pulling of the hair was causing him discomfort. He tried again to escape the discomfort by turning head more rapidly back and forth. Without warning, he was sick all down his front and on Thorin's supporting arm.
Once Kili was finished, Thorin placed a hand on the side of Kili's face, both to comfort him and hold him still while Oin worked. Eventually, the hair was cut away quite close to the skin. The water had boiled and Bofur set the hot pot down near Oin, who dipped a cloth into it and began cleaning the wounds. Kili struggled very weakly. He began to moan, which was the first noise he'd made. Oin worked quickly, and deemed that stitches would do no good, and that they would just cover the wounds and keep them clean.
Kili had tears streaming down his face. Thorin wished he could offer more comfort, but was frozen with the gravity of the situation. They sat in silence for a while, and Kili fell asleep, much to the horror of the group. They could only pray that he would wake again.
In the span of an hour, so many things had changed. What would they tell Fili? This would devastate him on a level the other dwarves couldn't imagine. For now, though, all they could do was wait.
I have more disjointed portions of this story written on various notepads and papers, and am hoping to get it all typed up this weekend. Review please!