"Can't you shut that brat up?!"
Fili jerked at the hissing snarl of the goblin who stood guard in front of the small, rather grotesque cage he and his brother had been tossed into. They had been playing in the woods, running amok while they could, since once they returned home, they would have to focus back on their studies and training. Their Uncle had taken them on a camping trip with Dwalin and Balin, to 'help with their survival skills', but they both knew it was simply to give their mother some much needed peace and quiet.
None of their party, of course, knew of the goblins that made their home not far from where the boys had run off to play. And so, as the sun set, the boys had little knowledge as to the danger they were putting themselves in.
The goblins had come upon them in a flash, the boys cries of surprise easily contained by rags hastily shoved into their mouths. They put up as much of a fight as they could, but when one of the goblins sliced Kili's arm with a crooked blade, and threatened to do worse if they continued to struggle, Fili quickly gave in.
"He's hurt! What do you expect?" Fili snapped, pulling his brother closer to his person, doing his best to suppress his own trembles of fear as Kili's small hands clung to his tunic, and sobs wracked his smaller frame.
The goblin let out a grunt of anger, before throwing open the cage door and brandishing his blade. Fili shoved Kili so his brother was more behind him, swallowing thickly as the rusted blade descended towards him. He shut his eyes tight in expectation of a gutting swipe of the blade, only to blink them back open at the sound of tearing fabric.
"There," the goblin snapped, throwing the torn piece of Fili's tunic into his face, "Now shut him up!"
Fili took up the torn fabric, casting the goblin a wary look as it exited the cage, turning to bind Kili's still bleeding wound.
"Fee, I'm scared," Kili murmured, doing his best to quiet his crying, not wanting to irritate the goblin guard again.
"Hush. I know you are, but Uncle will come for us. I know he will," Fili told his brother with a wobbly smile, doing his best to be reassuring as he tucked his brother's head under his chin.
~
"Dwalin, where have the boys run off to?" Thorin asked, glancing around when he realized he had not heard his nephews shouting at each other for a time.
"I think they ran off into the woods to play," the soldier grunted with a shrug, poking at their fire.
"Thorin."
The king turned at Balin's worried tone, eyes widening at the bloody spear the eldest dwarf held up, the rough carving and poor metal work easily betrayed it as the creation of a goblin.
"Dwalin! Grab your axes," Thorin shouted, taking up his sword even as Balin tossed the spear to the side and grabbed his own weaponry.
~
Fili gave a short start when he heard a distinctive shout in the distance, his heart giving an excited jump when he realized it was his uncle shouting in khuzdul.
"Kili," the blonde hissed, shaking his brother a little, who had begun to doze off against his brother, "Kili, Uncle is coming!"
The young prince's hope was short lived, however, as their guard realized what was coming and threw open their cage.
"Out with you!" it snarled, holding its blade aloft, poking it towards the two boys to prompt them into moving.
Fili took Kili's hand and tugged him along, their guard a steady presence at their back with it's rusty blade, occasionally poking them if it felt they weren't moving away from the commotion quickly enough. The blonde paused, though, when he heard their guard squawk, glancing over his shoulder to see it was distracted by several other goblins running out of the bushes, and away from the shouts of their uncle.
"Quickly," Fili urged, yanking on Kili's hand, taking the opportunity to run away from the goblins as fast as their feet could carry them.
"Fee! I can't-please!" Kili panted as Fili all but drug him through the underbrush, his lungs and legs beginning to ache from how fast and hard they were running.
"We can't stop," Fili huffed, swatting a branch out of the way as they ran, "Not until we know we're-"
The blonde stopped dead in his tracks, his brother tumbling into his back and very nearly sending them both tumbling to the forest floor.
"Fili, what-?" Kili grumbled, rubbing at his nose as he sucked air into his lungs, looking up to see what had cause his brother to stop. There, standing before the boys, with a club easily the same size as Kili in it's hand, was a goblin nearly twice the height of any dwarf they'd come across.
"Stay behind me," Fili murmured, shoving Kili behind him, the brunette clinging to the back of his brother's tunic as the beast of a goblin took a lurching step towards them.
Fili braced himself, scowling up at the beast, before jumping back a step and shoving his brother away as the goblin let out a horrible, ear piercing sound, and fell the the ground. The brothers both stared for a long minute at the dead goblin, before noticing the twin axes protruding from it's back, and then the rather disgruntled looking dwarf standing behind it.
"Dwalin!" Kili cried happily, scurrying around the dead goblin to throw himself at their savior, sniffing back tears as he clung to his furs.
"You boys all right?" the soldier asked, patting Kili absently on the head.
"Yes, but Kili got cut by one of the goblins earlier," Fili supplied, hurrying over to the other two dwarves, tugging Kili away so Dwalin could retrieve his axes.
"We'll take care of that, soon as we can," Dwalin grumbled, yanking his axes free, before ushering the boys along. "Now, you two," he said, setting his axes aside to hoist the boys up onto his shoulders and push them towards higher tree branches, "You stay up in this tree, and out of sight, until one of us comes to find you, all right?"
The boys both nodded frantically, climbing higher into the tree even as Dwalin disappeared back into the forest.
~
"Where are they?!" Thorin shouted at the last goblin who remained, the rest having either run or fallen to the might of his blade.
"Where are who?' the goblin beneath his sword asked, a rather putrid grin of rotting teeth on it's face.
"My nephews! Where have you taken them?" Thorin snapped, pressing his blade closer to the goblin, drawing a line of blood. The goblin simply cackled, however, a raspy, unpleasant sound.
"Probably skewered on a tree!" it shrieked gleefully, before being quickly silence by Thorin's blade slicing right through its throat.
Thorin stepped back from his final foe, looking around in mild desperation, gritting his teeth when he saw the shattered remains of what must have been the boys prison, along with a smattering of blood. He let out a shout of rage, thrusting his sword into the ground, before Dwalin came bursting through the underbrush.
"Thorin! I've found 'em."
~
"Boys," Thorin breathed a sigh of relief, holding his arms open to catch his nephews as they descended from the branches they had climbed up into, the two easily falling into their uncle's embrace. "Let's get you home."