A/N. Warning: Character Death.
Kili could understand that without evil, there would be no good.
It breathed through him and his movements in everyday life, extending reason to his soul of why dark and vulgar things would happen on their grand adventure. It gave reason to him for why the great Dwarf Kingdom was lost all that time ago to the great winged furnace because without the loss; he would never understand what it truly meant to be within the walls of Erebor. Thorin knew, of course. To Kili, Thorin knew almost everything and anything he had yet to know was for the only reason that he chose not to.
Knowledge was power.
The dark haired younger heir also knew, as he swung his sword to scratch sharply into the Orc's already marred face, that without this evil they faced, he could not see his brother, his uncle and naturally his mother in the wonderful reverence that he would always hold true to his heart. Watching Fili outmanoeuvre his opponent with flair few could pull off gave power to his sword and before that even, to his bow that had fallen to the wayside in the midst of battle.
The crunch of the bone snapping beneath his sword as it slammed against the ribs of the creature facing him empowered his move to be followed with an almighty follow up of a short blade angled directly toward where the heart should be. The beating heart carried the black blood that sprayed deliberately across his face and merely gave Kili slow seconds to step out of the way of the falling body. White teeth shined amidst black liquid as he turned on his knee, seeking his Uncle and Brother in the heat of the bloody and gruesome battle.
He barely noticed himself and his brother stepping unconsciously toward their Uncle, their swords slaying more foes that tried to circle the line of Durin… to try and end the powerful blood lust that fell upon their small family. With a sharp cry, his matted, sticky mud brown hair lifted itself off his face with the motion of driving his sword out and to the right, barely clipping one enemy before slicing another sickeningly. The murky blood had been carefully forgotten about in his dwarfling bedtime stories.
"Kili!" The name accompanied a roar from Fili as the elder drove his own pair of swords upwards, the brothers' backs finally meeting one another as they covered both sides. It became almost habitual. Thorin had taught the brothers to cover each other's back, for friends and foe alike would often happily plunge their own steel in. Fili ducked and drove his double swords backwards, under Kili's arms as he swung to decapitate the Orc bearing down on his brother. The double blades slid almost calmly into another body, ripping its life line away with little more than a steady thunder from the voice. "Breathe, brother. It will be over soon."
Crouching as his pivot barely came still, Kili moved away ritually from his only few years elder and over the body of the one slain so brutally and quickly. Its howls merely mixed in with the raging of the battle all around, the youngest heir completely unaware of the fate of his friends but completely trusting in their wielding of their weapons. He had, after all, witnessed it first-hand. Thorin knew. Kili believed Thorin knew because his eyes displayed the sheer might of his Uncle, cutting away the enemies whilst his braids remained largely untouched. His knowledge was his power.
Thorin had taught him all along that power and pride also came from those that he chose to be surrounded by. It mattered not if they were friend or foe because one could learn just as much from either. The way their opponents continued to almost circle the line of Durin should have been disheartening… but it wasn't. It gave Kili and his sword strength, as did the presence of his Uncle and Brother in the circle. Thorin had also taught the brothers that no Dwarf ever finished learning, right until death.
It would always be an ironic concept that an archer would be pierced by the sharp tip of an arrow. His knees met the ground as his dark eyes settled slowly on the deep fletching protruding from his chest and his ears heard the soft whoosh amongst the carnage of another pair of knees hitting the ground beside him. Kili's eyes gazed up toward the fog laden sky before settling on the golden hair of his brother, inked with lines of his own coloring mixed in. There was no dark without light.
Kili's fingers curled around the hand gripping his own, pressure a welcome release to feeling nothing. "Kili." It came out choked and there was little he could do but squeeze back weakly toward the voice, the blood leaving his body all too quickly. The younger barely lifted his arm up, his finger brushing the wetness from the dry, chapped skin of the cheek that leaned over him and offered up a simple smile as he took his final breath.
There would be no happiness without sadness, after all.
A/N. I know. I don't know what came over me. You're lucky Fili survived until the end of this story, it hadn't been my initial plan. Either way, I hope you enjoyed. 2014 will be the end of me.