The fallen ones .
Chapter 1: Nori.
Nori ran through the battle cutting down enemies to left and right , his face deathly pale, eyes hard and cold as ice . His thick mass of hair was in a thick braid down his back and his armor and knives and sword were stained with blood . He was filthy and sweaty, exhausted after several hours of unrelenting, bloody fighting, which had seperated him from the rest of the Company. He had fought well and brave, with all the fury, hate and determination that existed within him, but it hadn't stopped him from taking a few hits during the day. He was limping rather badly at his left leg, from a deep cut with from a particularly ugly orc's nasty blade, and he was afraid that it was one of those poisoned weapons that they were known to carry. He had a small cut in his face, from his forehead to his right cheek. He had used his knives and sword so forcefully that he had a couple of broken fingers on his right hand, he had a broken nose and bled from several minor wounds, but so far it was nothing life threatning – as far as he knew, but he wasn't too sure about that leg laceration which was very painful and bled quite a bit .
He had not seen any familiar faces for several hours , just ugly orcs and cowardly goblins, pale and dangerous elves- luckily fighting on his side- and unknown dwarves and men. So of course Nori was very worried about his brothers and friends, but there was just no time to look out for them. He dodged a sword coming his way and rolled around on the filthy, bloodstained ground, covered with bodies of both wounded, dying and dead . Then he felt a strange stinging sensation in his back – close to his left shoulder- and a grunt escaped his dry lips . He struggled to get back to his feet and then slowly limped on, not knowing where he was going, why everything was becoming blurry and distant and why he had no sword or knives in his hands. And why did it feel like something warm was dripping down his back , he felt with his hand for the hurting place and when he looked at it , it was covered in red blood. He was bleeding -badly- and he could feel his strength leaving him. And still there was something he had to do before he could lay down and get some much needed rest, there was something he had to se. Someone he had to find , to make sure that they were... But he could not remember for the life of his what it was and he felt himself unable to think much longer , so suddenly he found himself lying on the ground, resting his weary head on something hard and sounds of the battle were dying down and for some reason the burning sunlight on the sky seemed to grow bigger and bigger until all he could was that blinding light … And then everything was gone, fading into silence and darkness and he knew no more...
He wasn't found until the next morning, about fourteen hours after the battle had ended in a bloody , very high prized victory for the dwarves, men and elves and a loss for the orcs and wargs. Of the company the three royals had already been found, severly injured and the chances of anybody of them surviving were low. The king was still unconcious and was being treated by the best healers around in his tent, but he had suffered severe injuries; he had been pierces by three spears, hit by two arrows and had a nasty head injury. In another tent close to Thorin's, one could find the poor young princes, also fighting for their lives. They had been found close to their uncle, and it seemed that they had fallen trying to defend him from the orcs. Fili had been struck by an arrow in his lung and had taken a crushing blow to his gut, which meant that he had internal bleedings, and his left leg was missing from the knee down. He had been holding his little brother in his arms when they were found, so it was decided that they would be treated by healers in the same tent. Kili had suffered several stab wounds and had lost a lot of blood, and he had been hit by an arrow with poison , so he looked deathly pale, slightly green where he laid.
The others had started showing up in the hours after the end of the fight, one after another. Dwalin and Balin had supported each other into a healing tent , but they had only suffered minor injuries. The older of them had gotten a nasty cut in his face, and his right arm was broken and he had lots of bruises, but he was in rather good shape compared to most of the others still alive. Dwalin on the other hand had suffered a severe concussion and was very dizzy, blood ran from several deep lacerations to his bald head and arms , he had couple of broken ribs and they pressed on one of his lungs, which made it hard and painful for him to breathe. They were pale and exhausted and had seen just as much horror,death and tragedies as anybody else had , but they were worried about their king and their princes and looked around to see if anybody else from the Company was near. Oin was the first one they encountered, as being a healer, he had stayed away from the worst of the battle and helpt elven, human and dwarven healers prepare for the oncoming waves of wounded and dying. He was covered in blood and filth from the bloody , hard work he was so busy with. He stopped briefly on his way to Thorin's side, and greeted his old friends with a scrutizing check up .
They were cared for by a human woman, with much healing experience, and then they walked outside and started looking for other survivors, both from their Company and others. A couple of hours later Dori had come limping into camp, supporting his almost uncounscious youngest brother Ori. Dori was more or less in one piece, with a few minor wounds and a twisted knee, but Ori was pale from blood loss, due to a nasty wound in his side, and the eldest brother was extremly worried for him, and for Nori who had not yet been found. Only a few minutes later they were joined in the tents belonging to the Company's wounded , by a grim and blood stained Bofur, carrying the seemingly lifeless form of his cousin Bifur. After that they realized that Bombur , Gloin and Nori were still missing. Of course their kin and friends were incredibly worried about them, just as they worried about their king and princes and other wounded comrades, but there was so much work to do for those who could still help out, so there was not much time for them to think about them. So the hours passed and eventually Bofur found his brother stumbling into the camp, looking confused and dizzy and he was covered in blood, filth and gore. They were happy to reunite in despite of all the horror and tragedy around them, because Bombur wasn't as hurt as he looked, he was mostly exhausted and shocked.
The brothers walked back to the others to discuss how to look for Gloin and Nori in the endless mass of bodies and corpses. But as the hours passed and the morning after the battle came and finally Gloin was found, sitting pale and petrified by the side of a lifeless thief. Nori was deathly pale and body stiff and cold , he laid in a drying pool of his own blood from a nasty injury to his back and he had several minor wounds on display as well. It was obvious that he had been dead since the day before and that Gloin had been sitting with him for a long while. When he noticed Balin, Dori and Bofur standing there , pale and shocked, he got to his feet and said in a sad voice :- I found him like this just after the battle ended. He was already gone by then. I am sorry, Dori. There was nothing to be done for your brother. I am so sorry. He bent his redhaired head and stepped away from the body, when Dori gave a distraught outcry and launched himself at his lifeless brother, while the others stood sadly by, watching him clutch his brother to his chest, rocking him back and forth, sobbing desperatly , over and over saying his brother's name, begging him to wake up, promising to never fuss over or argue with him again, if only he would wake up. Even though the two oldest Ri brothers had been fighting many times in their lives and seldom gotten along, they had still loved each other and everybody knew that Dori was at heart just as protective of Nori as of young Ori, who was back in the healing tent, fighting for his life, and now he had lost one of the little brothers he cared so much about. It must be heartbreaking. Eventually Balin managed to convince him to carry Nori back to the camp to be cared for there, in preparation for his funeral. He slowly stood up and so heartbreakinly carefully picked up his dead brother and carried him in his arms the whole way back to the tents, where the others waited.
Of course many of them had feared that something had happened to the thief of the company, especially since he hadn't shown up to look for his brothers, but they were still shocked and sad to see his lifeless body placed inside a tent among other dead, which were waiting for to be cleaned up and prepared for their funeral. Dori was devestated as he watched over his brother and cleaned him up and covered his wounds as best as possible, and he wondered how he was going to tell Ori about this, if his baby brother survived of course. But he had to, he was all he had left, he could not imagine losing both his brothers. Nori was gone now , and as he took his goodbyes of his brother, tears ran down his face and he kissed Nori one last time on his forehead, so cold and pale now. Then he couldn't bare to look upon him anylonger- someone else would have to bury his brother, for now he had to look out for his other brother, and he knew that was what Nori would want. So he let the other members of the Company, at least those able to walk , take their turns entering the tent to say their goodbyes, while he returned to sit at Ori's side and had no time to worry about their king and princes and if they would survive. At this moment all he could think about was his family, or what little remained of it.
TBC...