Thorin's POV
I slammed the front door behind me. Meornin, the blasted oaf, had decided that he wasn't going to arrive at the mines today, leaving me to work upon 2 sides of tunneling instead of just 1. It was hot down in the mines near the forge where I worked, causing a single workday to be a wretched 10 hours, and doing twice as much work had left me in a foul mood. I carelessly threw my cloak on the back of a kitchen chair and went into the living room. I stopped to look out the window. The long work hours left me hungry, and I pondered going for a visit to my nephews and my sister Dis, hopefully I wouldn't be too late to catch a good meal and a tickle match with Fili and Kili, maybe take those two up the mountain tomorrow.
I thought for a good minute or two, and then decided against it. It was an hour walk to Dis' house, and I wasn't too eager to go that far this late after dark. Instead, I turned and plucked a book off of my dusty shelf. I realized how long it had been since I read a good book, and feeling pleasantly wicked, I plunked myself down into my leather armchair and opened up to the first page.
I hadn't been reading for more than 5 minutes when a large uproar came from the back field. I jumped out of my seat, grabbed my sword and rushed outside. I sighed at who it was.
Fili and Kili stood in the pasture laughing. They turned in my direction and the smiles melted off of their faces when they saw me.
"Uh….." Fili was quite obviously ransacking his brain for a good reason to be scaring my livestock in the dead of the night.
"Well boys, what do you have to say for yourselves?" I asked sternly, I was angry and frustrated that these two had decided to interrupt my night.
"We were-!" Kili didn't get the chance to finish his sentence; the cold had begun to seep through my clothes, causing my teeth to chatter. I loathed winter. I grabbed the boys by the scruffs of their necks and pulled them inside.
Standing at the kitchen table I demanded firmly, "Why are you here?"
Kili silently pulled a batch of cloth from his cloak pocket and set it on the table, "Mother told us to bring this to you, said you'd live entirely off of travel portion if you had the chance."
"Why were you after the livestock?"
The boys exchanged nervous glances, then turned back to me, "We were going to use them as moving targets in the mountains tomorrow morning." Fili said quietly, "For our bows."
"So not only were you going to take one of my animals and not tell me, and allow me to believe it had been stolen, but you were going to shoot it?!" I was more shocked than angry at this.
I sighed and gripped the bridge of my nose. I looked back up at them and spoke in an even tone, "It's too late for you to make the trip home, and you shall stay with me tonight. Remove your cloaks and boots; you can sleep in the spare room."
"Yes sir." My nephews quietly, if not guiltily, turned and did as they were told. I went into the spare room and started a fire, pulled extra blankets from the wicker chest at the foot of the bed, and removed all breakable, fragile, glass, clay etcetera objects from the room. The boys gently came to sit on the bed and pulled the covers over the both of them.
"I don't want to hear a peep from this room, I'm leaving my door open, do you understand?"
"Yes sir." I slipped out the door and half closed it behind me. Taking a deep breath I went into my own room and removed my boots and dirty clothes.
Now clean and free of the mines oily smell, I tiptoed intro the spare room and, making sure they were asleep, planted a kiss on each of my nephews foreheads before going back to my own bedroom.
I lay back on my pillows and thought deeply about the boy's reasons for coming after my animals. I chuckled to myself. Target practice, they sounded like me when I was a child. Of course, I never stole livestock, but if I did I would've done a much better and quieter job of it.
I rolled onto my side and stared into the fire regretfully. Fili and Kili were truly beginning to resemble the actions of teenagers.
Kids these days they grow up so fast.