Disclaimer: I do not own the Hobbit or any of its characters
Fili watched, his eyes wide, and took in the beauty and peace of the shire. Fairies of bright green light cast by the sun through the trees danced across swaying grass. A cool breeze ruffled his mustache and brought children's laughter to the two dwarves' ears. His great boots clad in leather and fur left light footprints in the rich earth, making his own path among small cart tracks and the occasional hoof print of a cow or goat. Blonde head turning, he glanced at his brother beside him. Hands supporting the thick straps of his pack, Kili looked out at a shimmering lake in the near distance. Shapes could be seen moving along its banks and the young dwarf chuckled softly when he saw a mother duck squawk indignantly at small children pestering her young.
As they continued along the dirt road they came to a small brook, only as wide as Kili was tall (and that wasn't very tall at all, being a dwarf and all), trickling slowly over pebbles and rocks down into the Shire. Small flashing minnow swam upstream submerged under the water in little clusters of waving light, scattering as some unknown bird hidden in the rushes along its bank let out a warbling song.
Listening in peace, the brothers continued along the road, matching the path of the brook. Slowly and after some time, they began to hum along, transposing the warbling tune into a more human sounding melody.
Low and steady they could hear the baying of a dog not too far away. Quickly the baritone of the dogs barking was joined by the thunder of frantic hooves and the (slightly exasperated) yell of a man. Following the path as it took a curving detour around a small hill, Fili viewed the source of the ruckus. A dog, unaccustomed to horses in its home, appeared to have scared a traveling merchant's pony and taken off after it when it bolted. The owner of the pony had desperately set off after them, leaving several startled hobbits to supervise his little nephew and make sure no one stole from his cart.
The noisy procession made its way around the bend in the road so close that Fili could see the whites of the pony's eyes and the dog's tongue lolling from the side of its mouth. He stepped out of the way and nearly slipped off the side of the road, one food skidding on mud, wet from a recent rain. Hearing a yelp he turned, startled, towards his brother who was windmilling his arms in an attempt to stay upright and on the path. Despite all efforts Kili fell, sliding down the short slope between the road and the brook on his back, the large pack tied around his shoulders having the affect of making him look quite like an overturned turtle, waving its legs in the air in an attempt to right itself.
Fili laughed, deep and throaty, as he skidded down the bank with much more grace than the dwarf currently floundering in the shallows before him. Bending down and freeing his brother's bow from where it had gotten stuck under a fallen tree limb he reached to help his younger brother up. As Fili's hand closed around Kili's forearm encased in wet wool and leather bracers, his mind was tugged back to a day that he had done much the same thing, except for Kili hadn't been wearing wool and his skin had been translucent from hypothermia.
Fili, still not even old enough to grow whiskers, had been watching his uncle Thorin work at the forges in the Blue Mountains. It seemed almost supernatural to him how Thorin, many times his elder, bent and molded the red hot metal into swords, or axes, sometimes even the occasional suit of armor. It seemed to Fili that his uncle created something out of nothing, assigning each piece of iron or gold a job to do. The small dwarf turned as he heard Dwalin's booming voice call to him "Fili your little brother is running about our feet! Make yourself useful and see what he wants!" He contradicted his harsh words as he reached down and ruffled Kili's hair, letting a brief smile cross his face before turning back to his work.
Fili sighed and plodded over to his hyperactive baby brother, no more than eight, which was quite young in the life of a dwarf.
Staring down at Kili he smiled, seeing the large grin plastered across his chubby cheeks, nose red from the cold.
"Ma wants you to come home!" He said with the excitement that only a small child can muster, "She's afraid that it's gonna' snow!" His large brown eyes lit up at the thought of the fluffy white substance. "We can have a snowball fight!" He started running off pulling his big brother behind him. "You'll play with me, right Fili?" Fili smiled, stepping outside just as the first white flakes started to fall. "Of course," he said ruffling Kili's long brown hair.
The snow didn't start coming down harder until they were by the stream in a sparse thicket of woods between their house and the forge. It wasn't until then that the idea crossed Fili's mind that maybe they should go back and wait the storm out in the forge with uncle Thorin and Dwalin instead of continuing on. Maybe they shouldn't of even left alone in the first place.
He turned, about to to tell his brother that they should go back when Kili slipped on the rocks, wet from melted snow and fell headlong into the stream with a small yelp, breaking the thin crusting of ice along the water's edge. A second later he came up thrashing and yelping as the swift mountain current carried him farther down the stream and rolled over his small head, pushing him under.
Fili screamed his brother's name as his mind went into automatic, remembering the steps that Thorin had drilled into him in the case that one of them were to fall in after a village boy had drowned in the stream's waters.
The snow seemed malevolent now cascading in on his mind and compelling the waters to rise and suck Kili under again,
Step 1: Don't jump in after him, that would be suicide, they'd both end up freezing.
The snow came down harder.
Step 2: If you can reach him then do so, if you see something to reach out with then do so.
Kili went down again hidden partially by flurries of snow.
Step 3: If step 2 fails then go to the nearest shallow spot in the stream and catch him there.
Fili ran, he remembered a close spot where it would be safe to walk out, the water would only come to his knees.
Step 4: Make sure he's breathing.
Fili hauled Kili out of the water, unceremoniously depositing him on the shore and scrambling to check his breath.
Step 5: Check for injuries.
Fili's shoulders shook in relief as he saw and felt the faint puff of his brother's breath on his face, as he watched Kili's dark lashes fluttered, snowflakes resting on them framing slightly glazed brown eyes. He appeared to only have superficial cuts and a couple of bruises from run ins with rocks and sticks, although his lips were blue and his wet hair was freezing from the cold.
Step 6: Find an adult. Fili fought despair as he pulled himself to his feet, lifting his brother and bending slightly under the weight he trod along looking at his boots. The fur that had been submerged was icy and frozen, sticking to small leather tassels that Kili had made him as a birthday gift. The snow was blinding and the sparse trees provided little protection against the raging winds. Unaware of his direction, Fili stumbled blindly through the snow, his brother's shivering form cradled in his arms. "Stay near the river so Thorin, Dwalin, and Ma can find you," he said to himself, as if saying the words aloud would convince him that they were true.
In time Fili stumbled into a tree, as he stepped back the frozen leaves cracked under him and the ground gave way, in reality just being a mesh of sticks and roots covered by the remaining fall leaves. He found himself inside a hollow formed by the great giant's swooping roots. Blearily realizing that they were in shelter, Fili dragged Kili over to the back wall the roots formed, wrapping his coat around the both of them, he vaguely remembered Kili forgetting his in the forges. Mumbling some hopeful words of comfort to his little brother he curled around the both of them, feeling Kili nuzzle in closer he drew his legs into his body, cradling his brother. Lowering his head he let a single silent tear trickle down his cheek and freeze on his chin and as he drifted towards unconsciousness, he just barely felt Kili's small hand clumsily wipe it away before he too drifted to the land of dreams, curled in his brother's embrace.
Thorin had found them, Fili remembered,
helping his brother up and still snickering slightly.
Thorin had organized a search party with Dwalin, their mother and the others.
Kili brushed some of the water off of his tunic the best he could, his glare and frown quickly deteriorating into a smile and a laugh.
They had found them curled up in the tallest tree on their side of the Blue mountains, it was a miracle in its own that that's where Fili's stumbling legs had carried him, it was another miracle that they had survived.
Fili and Kili continued down the path, resuming their song with the warbling bird, and this time when the pony, dog, and traveling merchant came racing back around from the way they had come no one fell in, and they both laughed at the straggle of angry geese that followed the odd procession with a strange look of vengeance.