Fili & Kili Read Thorin's Decision
Disclaimer: do I look like J.R.R. Tolkien to you? Because if I was, Kili and Tauriel would be happily married by now.
Dedication:this was written for Opal1030 because I absolutely love the story Thorin's Decision.
There really is nothing like a good sickfic, and stories featuring my favorite "illness of choice", if you will, are extremely rare. In fact, Thorin's Decision is the first of its kind that I have ever read. So this was written as a thank you gift for Opal1030 for writing Thorin's Decision.
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Chapter 1:The Secret of the Arkenstone
"I found it! I found it!"
Fili looked up from his task of digging through great mounds of gold and gems to see his younger brother racing across the vast hills of gold coins and treasure with a cloth bound bundle in his hands. Bilbo, who was standing next to Fili and was up to his waist in gold and diamonds, also stopped what he was doing and turned to see what all the commotion was about.
"I found it!" kili cried once more as he reached the top of a mountain of gold coins. He dropped to the ground and slid on his bottom down the hill of gold, laughing merrily as he sped down the hill, clutching the bundle to his chest as he went sailing downhill.
He came to a stop at the bottom of the hill, gold coins and gems spraying out in all directions as he came to a hault next to Fili and Bilbo.
Fili quickly came forward, eager to see what his brother had found.
For several weeks the dwarves had been searching the halls within the Lonely Mountain in search of the one elusive gemstone that Thorin Oakenshield prized above all others. Could it really be that Kili had found what everyone was looking for?
Kili was grinning broadly as he gripped the end of the cloth that obscured the object sitting in his lap from view. "Fili, master Boggins-"
"Baggins," Bilbo corrected him.
Kili shrugged. "Close enough. I now present to you the most wonderous, most beautiful object in all of Middle-Earth. I give you...the Arkenstone!" And with that he pulled off the ragged cloth covering the gemstone with dramatic flourish.
Fili gasped, his blue eyes growing wide as the stone glowed brilliantly with a thousand points of dazzlig light in every color of the rainbow. He then picked up the stone, marveling at its beauty.
"This is it, Kili," Fili whispered, awestruck by the sight of the magnificent gemstone. "This is really it. You found the Arkenstone!"
Bilbo stepped forward to get a better look at the large gemstone in Fili's hands. He honestly didn't see what was so special about it. To him it looked like just another pretty rock someone hauled up out of the dirt, and when he voiced his opinion on the Arkenstone Fili and Kili both gasped and looked at him like he had uttered some horrible blasphemous curse.
"Bite your tongue!" Fili cried. "You have no idea what kind of powers the Arkenstone possesses! This is the legendary Arkenstone, the heart of the mountain. And here you speak of it as though it were no more than a cheap trinket!"
Kili stood up and placed a hand on his brother's shoulder. "Well now wait a minute, Fee. You can't expect anyone outside of our own race to know the true nature of the Arkenstone. And only those in the line of Durin know the secret to accessing the Arkenstone's full potential."
The blond prince's anger at Bilbo not showing their precious Arkenstone the proper amount of respect and worship diminished slightly, though he still wore a frown on his face as he handed the Arkenstone back to his brother.
"I suppose you're right, Kili," he sighed in annoyance. "Perhaps we ought to show this hobbit what the Arkenstone is capable of. Then he'll see it for the truly magnificnet and wonderous object that it really is."
"Alright then." Kili looked somewhat hesitant as he sat down in the mountainous pile of gold coins with the Arkenstone in his lap. "But you must promise," he said to Bilbo, "never to tell a single soul about what you are about to witness. This is an ancient secret known only to the dwarves in the line of Durin, passed down from one generation to the next and kept hidden for centuries. You must carry this secret with you to your grave, master Boggins."
"Baggins."
"Whatever."
Bilbo was now becoming somewhat curious as to what this gemstone could do. Did it possess some sort of magical powers? Maybe the stone itself was magic. Maybe that was why the dwarves prized it above all others.
"Alright, Kili, and Fili," said Bilbo, looking up at the blond prince then back to Fili's dark haired brother. "I promise that I will never tell anyone about what you are going to show me. I will keep the secret with me until the day I die."
"And you mustn't tell uncle Thorin that we showed this to you," said Fili.
"I won't tell him, Fili."
"Good. Because we'll all be in a heap of trouble if he finds out what we've done."
Holding the Arkenstone in his left hand, Kili placed the palm of his right hand upon the oversized gemstone, closed his eyes, and began to softly speak an ancient dwarvish chant. He continued chanting in a low, soft murmur what sounded like the incantation for a spell, and the Arkenstone began to glow brightly in his hand.
Slowly, Kili lifted his right hand off the Arkenstone, still chanting in dwarvish, and a horizontal crack appeared in the middle of the shining white rock. Kili ceased chanting, seized the top half of the Arkenstone, then pulled and lifted it back like one would do when opening a treasure chest.
The Arkenstone opened exactly like a treasure chest, revealing a flat surface on the inside top and bottom halves. The lower half contained a small keyboard with a rectangular patch beneath it. The upper half contained a dark screen.
Bilbo stared in awe at the strange sight before him. He had never seen anything like it before (though nither had Fili or Kili) and he didn't know what to make of it. He watched as Kili touched one of the keys on the keyboard. Instantly the screen lit up, startling the poor hobbit who flew backwards with a shriek.
"Stay calm, master Boggins," said Kili. "I know what I'm doing. Or atleast I think I do. Uncle Thorin taught me and Fili how to do this but this is the first time I have ever done it before."
Bilbo didn't even bother correcting Kili on the proper pronunciation of his name as he was too busy watching the dark haired dwarf typing various things on the keyboard and clicking away at the track pad.
"What is he doing?" Bilbo asked.
"The Arkenstone has access to a place called the internet," Fili explained. "Kili is logging in and getting everything set up for us."
Fili sat down next to his brother. "Need any help, Kee?"
"No, no I think I've got it," said Kili.
Fili was getting excited. Ever since he was a little dwarfling sitting on his uncle's knee Thorin had told him stories about the wonders of the internet. And now, after nearly a century of waiting, he wold finally get to see it for himself.
"There we go, Fili," said Kili. "Everything is working perfectly. And look, I even found that website uncle Thorin was always telling us about. You know, the one with all the books."
By now Bilbo had walked back to the two dwarves and was peering over Fili's shoulder, trying to get a look at the small screen in the top half of the Arkenstone. "Fan-fiction-dot-net," he read aloud upon seeing what was on the screen. "What is that?"
"It's a sort of library containing thousands of books to read," said Kili. "There are even books written about us."
"Us?" Bilbo looked perplexed at the notion of someone writing a book about him. "Who would want to write a book about us? And more importantly why? It's not like you could sell it and become rich and famous for writing a story about a common, ordinary hobbit."
"I don't know," said Fili. "Uncle Thorin said there's an odd sort of magic in the Arkenstone that even us dwarves don't fully understand. But you can find stories and books on here to read. All you have to do is type a name into the search box."
"Search box?" Now poor Bilbo was more confused than ever.
"Here, let me show you." And with that the blond prince typed up his own name in the search box and clicked on "search."