Spoilers: Vague spoilers for the end of the book, although if you don't already know what happens, I want to know your complete-spoiler-avoidance secret. ;)
A/N: So, I wrote a Hobbit fic. Finally. I actually didn't expect my first one to be about Ori. If you had asked me who I first intended to write about it would be Fili or Kili, but the muse had other ideas, apparently. I got to thinking about random things and a line popped into my head, which led to more thinking, mostly about Ori. And, well, when I sat down to write, this is what came out. Anyway, enjoy!
It's easy to be brave before.
It's harder to be brave after, when you see red—blood red—every time you close your eyes. Harder still when you cannot sleep without seeing the bodies of your friends, draped together forever, on the battlefield.
It's easy to be brave before, when a dragon is only in your books and old Dwarve's tales. Harder after, when you can feel the flames and see the fire and know no one ever got the details completely right.
It was easy to be brave before. You were just a child really. A child, gone off to war. The child did not come back.
You were innocent. You were brave.
You are not innocent anymore. You do not think you are brave anymore, either.
It was easier before.