"Did you lot hear that?" Kili peered into the dense brush of the forest, glaring as a rabbit hopped out from behind a particularly prickly bush and wiggled its nose at the warriors.
"Oh, aye, we heard it. Are you getting scared by a bunny, now? Mayhap this journey isn't for you, after all," Fili joked, lightly punching his indignant younger brother on the shoulder as the rest of their companions, a company of dwarves as well as a hobbit and a wizard, laughed heartily.
"Leave off," Kili grumbled, focusing his eyes on the trail ahead and choosing to ignore the illogical, yet uncomfortable feeling in his gut.
Moments later, Thorin held up a gloved hand, stopping the ragtag group for the night. The sun had long gone below the horizon to rest and the travelers were saddle-sore. "Fili, Kili, you two take the first watch. Nori, Ori, you two are to take the second watch. I'll take the third. The rest of you, get as much sleep as you can, we'll push on in the morning." Their King cast his eyes once more about the camp as his friends and warriors settled under cloaks and blankets to keep out the frosty night air.
Glancing at his brother, Kili pointed to a vantage point Fili could keep watch from while Kili patrolled the woods a bit for wargs and orcs. Fili smirked, showing his teeth in a feral gesture of agreement. "Don't get too scared by the wildlife, brother."
Rolling his eyes, Kili stomped into the forest, startling a wren who had taken shelter on a branch Kili brushed past. If somebody has been following us, they're going to regret it. Pursing his lips, his callused hand caressed the polished wood of his beloved bow out of habit. No one would cause his friends harm, not while he was around. Their journey had taken them far from their usual stomping grounds, but that did not mean they were uncomfortable. Life had forced them to be used to not having a stationary place to call home. Traveling was their norm.
Growing up with their Uncle Thorin, fighting was a natural part of their lives. When Fili went off to practice with their uncle each morning, Kili had gotten so upset at being left behind, he crafted himself a makeshift bow to practice with. Their mother had taken it away from him when she found him using one of her good baskets as target practice in the woods and informed Thorin he was going to teach Kili at the same time as Fili. From then on, Kili tagged along to Fili's sword practice and picked up as many techniques as he could. Both of them learned sword fighting, hand to hand combat, and archery, but when it came to fighting styles, Fili concentrated more on mastering sword work while Kili continued polishing his skills as an archer.
Spinning as a stick snapped on the forest floor behind him on his walking path, Kili instinctively nocked an arrow to his bow as he spun. A large grey wolf stared unafraid into his eyes, his gaze never leaving the archers eyes. Tilting its head, it considered the man in front of him. If I kill it now, it would make for good eating. I'll make it a clean kill. Straight through the eye. The well-groomed wolf didn't move, even as Kili set his aim. Is this wolf just stupid? Narrowing his eyes, Kili pulled back on the bowstring with steady hands. That is, until a pine cone beaned him over the head and he jerked, losing his aim as the wolf dashed into the brush. "Damn it!" He cursed, spinning around to see who had made him lose his kill. "Who's there? Show yourself!" Steam escaped Kili's lips in the frosty air as he searched for the pine cone thrower. Fili tapped his brother on the shoulder from behind, startling the dwarf once again. "Fili, you Idiot! I almost bagged a wolf!" He yelled, annoyed.
Raising an inquisitive brow and chuckling in mirth, the blonde dwarf shook his head, his beaded braids clanking against each other. "I don't know what you're on about," He paused, trying to hold in his laughter, "But that lad up sure has excellent aim." Fili pointed out a figure escaping on the path; they were not bothering to disguise their retreating form. Carrying a small knapsack on their back and a bow in their hand, the figure speeded ahead as the brothers chased him down. The trickster had the advantage of speed, but the brothers had the advantage of size to crash through the brush. Kili fired a warning shot, letting the arrow whiz by his adversary's head.
"Stop!" He called, his feet churning in their effort to catch up to the escapee. "Why are you following us?" The figure ignored him, the wolf bursting out of the brush next to the boy, nudging his hand with its nose. Kili shot once more, intending for the arrow to go over the boy's head, but it was aimed too low; if the boy didn't duck, their head would be shish-kebabed. Luckily for Kili's conscience and the boy's life, the wolf saw the shot and placed a firm paw on the boy's back, forcing him to stumble. It appeared the arrow managed to catch the back of the boy's skull as it flew and for a moment, Kili's heart stopped, thinking the boy might have been severely injured. Fortunately, all the arrow caught was the villain's hair tie. Scrambling to their feet as brunette waves tumbled from their previous confinement in a tattered ribbon, the fugitive ignored the annoyance and continued hurrying down the path away from Kili.
Clenching his hands tightly into fists, he forced himself to move faster. The attacker spun, firing three arrows in quick succession, each whisking by Kili's face with millimeters to spare. "This guy might actually be a better archer than me," Kili thought, his forehead wrinkling in irritation. Kili could see the edge of the forest from his place on the path; he'd been past this forest once before in his life. The rocky path opened suddenly to a precipitous cliff, the kind someone wouldn't survive a fall from. "Oi!" He called. "I really wouldn't go that way if I were you," he warned, his voice booming through the trees. The runner ignored him, choosing to continue dodging through the brush. "Shit."
Watching as the escapee tried to skid to a halt, he knew the boy had put on the breaks too late. Kili began slowing down so he wouldn't go over the edge with the poor soul who didn't listen soon enough. The boy detached his pack from his back, throwing it to the dusty ground as he attempted to lessen the weight attached to him so his bow wouldn't break under the strain of being scraped along the ground. Cringing in sympathetic pain, Kili strode closer to the boy. He had frozen on the edge of the cliff and was waving his wolf away with violent shakes of their hand. Trying to wave Kili away, the boy's feet dangled off of the edge of the cliff. Kili could see thick blood dripping from a deep gouge in the tissue of the boy's arm probably caused by his slide along the stony ground. "Stay there, okay? I still want to know why you've been following us, but I'll get you out of this mess. This was the first moment Kili got a good look at his attacker and he widened his eyes in surprise. "Y-you're a girl?"
The brunette rolled her eyes, scrabbling for a better grasp on the loose soil around her form. Kili shook off his surprise and reached out his hand. Soil slid towards the cliff as Kili's weight shifted forward, bouncing off of the girl's nose. The ground wasn't solid enough to support the girl's weight, let alone a sturdy dwarf's weight. Having enough intelligence not to follow his friend, the wolf paced impatiently about the edge of the loose soil and whined softly. Rapidly snapping a thick branch off of a nearby tree with ease, Kili stuck the branch out to the girl intending to pull her to safe ground. The girl glared distrustfully at him, but reached for the lifeline nonetheless. As her weight shifted along the ground, the rock face crumbled under her. Clinging desperately off of the branch Kili held out to her, she struggled to grip the bending branch with both hands long enough for Kili to reel her in. Her entire body hung in midair, blood dripping down her arm and side, yet she didn't make a sound.
Holding her eyes closed and breathing deeply to steel herself, she swung her body once towards her one chance of survival. Anticipating the girl was going to miss her foothold, Kili dove forward and grasped the girl's wrist. Their bodies hit the ground, the girl's chest slamming harshly into the rocky outcropping of eroding stone. Her wolf lunged forward and caught the back of Kili's cloak with its teeth, dragging the two dusty, strange people back from the brink of falling.
Moonlight shone down on the pair of raggedly breathing strangers, illuminating beads of sweat in its light. Foggy breath enveloped them as the wolf lapped at the blood running off of the girl's skin. Clenching her hands into fists, she tried to remove herself from Kili's grasp but he pulled her back into his arms. "I can't just let you go. First of all, you need to see a healer. Secondly, you could be an orc spy. What's to stop you from going back to your leader so you can plan an ambush? Nuh uh, you, you're coming back with me."
Glaring at him with enough fire to fry an egg, she instinctively traced her side for her quiver and hissed under her breath when she realized it was out of reach behind Kili's back.
"What's your name?"
Blinking languidly, she dug her nail into the soft earth beneath them, spelling out her name.
Studying the markings she'd made, he said, "Nierea? And you're a human, right?" Studying her form while continuing to trap her slender, tanned wrists with his strong hand, Kili waited for an answer. She shrugged and nodded, wincing as her shoulder muscles convulsed, spewing out a new flow of blood. "Shit, we need to staunch that." Where in the seven hells did Fili go? While he was chasing down the pine cone thrower, it had barely registered Fili had stopped following long ago. He recalled Fili mentioning he was going to grab rope from the camp 'in case my little brother actually catches his prey.'
"I figured my baby brother could handle it," Fili smirked, dropping bandages and rope next to Kili. "Here, her wounds need to be tended to before they fester." Nierea tried to scramble away from the brothers' touch, but Kili held her still in his arms while Fili peeled her tunic top away from her arm, plucking out strands of fabric from the bloody gouges in her arm. Holding his hand out for Kili's canteen, Fili poured the water over the wound. Tightening his arms around the girl so she wouldn't cause herself more pain when the water dislodged gravel from her wound, they watched as grime washed away from the cut. One particularly stubborn stone refused to come loose from her skin, so Kili lightly prodded the chipped stone. Nierea shot straight up, nearly clocking Kili in the jaw as she stumbled away from the brothers, tripping over her moccasin clothed feet and nearly landing on her face. Kili's arm whisked her away from the ground before she landed. "Come on, milady. We're trying to help you. I saved your life, remember?" Kili reminded her as the wolf lapped anxiously at her face. "Let me see that wound."
Gingerly, Nierea adjusted her arm so she was able to get a good look at her damage. Sighing as her eyes wandered the carnage, she centered herself and stuck her pointer finger and thumb directly into the gouge. As she removed the stone, the brothers realized it was not actually a stone, but an orc-made arrow, created with jagged edges to tear at the flesh when it enters the body. Swaying, she grabbed ahold of her wolf to steady herself. All of the blood drained from her face; even her grey river stone colored eyes seemed darker than before in the moonlight. When she had a moment to compose herself, she ran her uninjured hand down her side, motioning for the bandages. Fili handed them over with a word of warning about not binding a wound too tightly. The brothers blushed and averted their eyes as she lifted her shirt just high enough to wrap the wound.
"It's highly improper," Kili mumbled, the tips of his ears turning a bit crimson, "for a lady to lift her shirt in the company of men." Stranger still, how'd she come by an orc arrow to her shoulder?
Even through the pained look on her face, Nierea smirked and spat on the ground to show how she felt about being ladylike.
"Don't you talk?" Fili asked curiously, twisting the bottom of one of his blond braids between inquisitive fingers. She shrugged, packing extra bandages into the deepest gouge while wrapping more bandages around the pack to hold it still. She pantomimed sewing with her hand and raised her eyebrows inquisitively. "That would be a no, then," Kili sighed. Rolling her eyes, she turned to Fili and nodded her head in thanks for the bandages. Scurrying around Kili's sprawled body, she grasped her pack and quiver, her finger lingering over her bow. Glaring at the girl, he glanced up at his brother, noticing they shared suspicion over the girl's circumstance. She looked to be about twenty five in human years, but not all humans look as they should when it comes to age. And what kind of human is friends with a wolf? Kili shuddered. Wolves look too much like Wargs for his comfort.
"Who's she?" Bilbo's voice broke through the relative silence of the forest. Kili's head jerked painfully towards the hobbit, grunting as he winced and rotated his head on his neck to relieve the whiplash. Gloin and Thorin followed closely behind Bilbo, freezing when they spotted Nierea.
Lifting Nierea off of the ground by her collar, Thorin smashed her into a tree behind the boys. "What're you doing here?" His upper lip wrinkled in disgust, glaring down at Nierea with suspicion in his eyes. Not taking his eyes off of her, he didn't wait for an answer. "Kili, Fili, tie her up. A woman she may be, but that doesn't mean she's not a killer." He pressed his muscular arm down harder upon her throat, beginning to throttle her as she struggled in vain to get loose. "You are no innocent. What was it the villagers called you? The Mummer of Carn Dûm?" Turning to face his nephews, he placed his free hand on Kili's shoulders and gazed into his nephews' eyes. "Until we figure out why she's here, she'll be you and your brother's responsibility. Make sure one of you has an eye on her at all times, she's known to be an assassin-for-hire and an expert escape artist." Hauling Nierea to her feet by her collar, he got in her face, spittle flying from his lips. "I swear on Mahal, if you harm anyone of this company, your neck shall no longer have a head attached to it." Nierea never flinched, seeming to stare down fearlessly at the dwarven king even though he could kill her with a bit more force. He released her, throwing her to the ground.
"Uncle," Kili protested, grasping the lapels of Thorin's coat to press his point, "I hardly think she's going anywhere. She almost died from falling off of a cliff, and she just yanked a hooked arrow out of her upper arm."
"Are you arguing with me, boy?" Thorin's eyes widened, threatening of things to come if Kili dared disobey him.
Kili shook his head, snatching the rope cord from the ground apologized under his breath. The wolf started to snarl and come at Kili, but a single motion from Nierea settled the fur on his shoulders and he backed off and dove towards the woods, escaping through the undergrowth. Thorin cursed, muttering to Gloin about their missed chance to cage the wolf before it would cause trouble. Staring calmly into Kili's eyes, Nierea offered her wrists, holding her palms up in a show of surrender. Binding the rope tightly around Nierea's wrists, he took the extra end of the rope and bound it to his own wrist in a makeshift leash.
"Take her pack, but don't let her take her bow," Thorin demanded. Reaching around her back, KIli relieved her of her pack and quiver, leaving her bow leaning against the old tree. He helped her to her feet, wrapping his arm around her uninjured one to steer her in the right direction. Glancing back, Kili spotted Fili pick up her bow and hid it in his own pack. He noticed Kili staring at him and winked, putting a finger to his lips.
It seemed his brother was wondering the same thing Kili sensed; was this girl actually as Thorin described? If not, why wouldn't she speak up and defend herself? Anyway, in that moment Kili was grateful to his brother. A bow was an archer's most prized possession; Kili could see the pain in her eyes when she realized she'd be made to leave it behind. Someone who loves their bow that much wouldn't kill for pay; he could feel it. Besides, she could have killed him when he was aiming for her wolf friend, but she threw a pine cone at him, instead. She could have picked them off one by one, but she chose to protect her wolf and show herself, something a cold-blooded killer wouldn't do. He was used to listening to his uncle without qualms, but something about his opinion on Nierea didn't sit right with him. Sighing under his breath, he continued on, leading the bleeding girl closer to their campsite.