After their dip in the fountain to freshen up, Kíli just had to go and open his gob, to which Fíli felt perfectly justified about pushing his little brother in retaliation. One push lead to another, which lead to a shove, which lead to a full-on tussle which their uncle shook his head at tolerantly and walked away from. No one else bothered to separate the brothers as they fought in the greenery surrounding the fountain, clothes and adult dignity forgotten, though wagers were made and accepted while the other dwarves watched the familiar sight.
Eventually, though, even their boisterous energy waned, and Fíli shoved Kíli's face into the bruised foliage one last time as he rose to walk away. "Of course I can ride a pony better than you, you hairless elf," he hissed teasingly in his brother's ear.
Kíli kicked Fíli's knee, making him stumble as he walked away, and called after, "But at least I'm still taller than you, big brother!" causing the dispersing dwarves to hoot with laughter even as money bags were exchanged to settle wagers. He stood and brushed crushed leaves off of his skin and pulled them out of his hair before he joined his brother in dressing. A few more jostles on their way to dinner were quickly quelled by a look from their uncle and the brothers subsided for the evening.
The next morning, however, Kíli was itching all over fit to dig his skin off. After being dragged to Óin, which he vehemently protested to no avail even with his uncle's glare, the elder dwarf couldn't figure out what was afflicting Kíli's skin. It had broken out in large patches of red bumps which itched badly enough that no salve Óin could come up with soothed, and Kíli was going mad as the affliction wasn't merely confined to his arms and hands; it was spread in blotches all over his body.
As they sat discussing it over breakfast, with Fíli slapping Kíli's hands when the scratching became too distracting, Lord Elrond's attention was drawn over by the change in their behavior.
"I have a salve which should help with that, Master Dwarf, as I haven't seen a worse reaction since the last time my youngest son took it into his head to sleep in a patch of those plants," he offered over Kíli's shoulder as he examined the reddened skin. So intent in their conversation, they had missed his quiet approach and were caught off guard by the request.
Kíli, however, was reaching his wit's end with the incessant itching and decided to ignore his uncle's feelings towards elves. "If you have something that would help, I would be grateful," he quickly replied before anyone could speak up to refuse and rose to follow Lord Elrond with Fíli close on his heels. He also pointedly turned aside to ignore his uncle's furious expression as he accepted an elf's help, but his uncle just didn't understand- the itchy red patches were everywhere on his body, all the way down, and in the worst places imaginable. Kíli would do worse than accept help from an elf if it meant getting relief!
Soon Kíli was in the possession of a large tin of salve, with the instructions to keep the red areas covered with it for the next few days until they went away, and he had one last question. "What exactly do these plants look like, so that I can avoid them?"
Fíli blinked, and then his face transformed into the most devilish expression. "Yes, what exactly do these plants look like?" he echoed. Kíli just glared at his brother and hoped that the interest was aimed at putting the plants in their uncle's bedroll, because if he ended up with another bout of these itchy patches he'd make sure that his brother suffered. Fíli's stomach did not respond at all well to eating flax, and Kíli did have an emergency stash packed for just such an occasion…
