Not the End, Brother
"Fee are you alright?" Kili looked at his older brother who, at the moment, was glaring fiercely at an older Dwarfling.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Fili replied.
The older Dwarfling smirked. He loved to tease these two brothers but really enjoyed picking on the younger the most. It was easy; if you wanted to get on Fili's nerves, torment his little brother. Today, he cornered the Durins at the training grounds while they were by themselves and said something about Kili not really being a Dwarf not only because of his small stature, but also because of his choice of weapon.
He had not figured on the blond to suddenly pounce on him and was probably going to have a black eye, but Fili had received a swift punch to his ribs.
The thirteen-year-old pushed himself off the ground and brushed his braids behind his shoulders with a quick movement. Still facing his advisory, Fili stepped in front of Kili in a protective manner, and with a glare said, "If you ever dare to say that again, you are going to regret it! And I'm not making an idol threat that I can promise you."
The fifteen-year-old said nothing but the way he held his head showed that he was not about to back down to a Dwarfling two years younger than himself.
Finally he said, "I don't see why I should listen to you."
"Really, you truly do not know why you should heed my warning? Maybe you should try to remember who our mother is and her brother. Maybe you'll see why then, Nare." When Nare began to ponder just who these two Dwarves were, he did not change his facile expression, but he did spin around on his heel and march off the training grounds and over the hill until Kili's sharp eyes could see him no longer.
"Well I guess that's the end of that, and I hope we don't see him any too soon!" Fili said and spat in the direction Nare had gone. Kili looked up at his older brother who (through a sudden growth spurt had left his prematurely born brother behind) was a full head taller than him and placed a hand on Fili's shoulder.
"This is not the end, brother. I think there will always be someone who will pick on or insult me, but we can deal with them together, right Fili?"
"I hope you are wrong about the first part, but right, together we could stand against the world if we had to." Fili said as they began to trudge back to their village.
As Fili was about to open the door to their home, Kili abruptly took hold of his brother's hand and said with a laugh, "They may torment me with their jokes about my being small for my age now, but someday I am going to be taller than all of them and you too!"
Fili smirked and shook his head while draping an arm around Kili's shoulders. His little brother and his imagination!
*Forty human years later, Kili was twenty in Dwarf years and rather handsome, standing taller than his brother. At the moment, he was sitting on the floor of his cell in the Wood Elves Palace in Mirkwood.
A red-haired she-elf was talking to her prince in the Wood Elf language.
"Why does the dark Dwarf stare at you, Tauriel?"The prince asked and she replied, "Who can say? But he is tall for a Dwarf don't you think?"
To which Legolas said sharply, "Tall but no less ugly!"
-In the end, Kili was right. There would always be someone to pick on him, but he did grow to be taller than his brother and most other Dwarves.