I absolutely love The Hobbit and the brothers Kili and Fili.
I wanted to do something a bit different from what other stories of the Hobbit movie-verse are doing based on Kili/OC.
I did take the idea of a half elf/hobbit from a Hobbit fanfic by LoveInChains.
Disclaimer: My precious, my precious, my precious. I hold TLOTR dear to my heart. It is my precious, but alas, I do not own it.
"It seems we're a bit unwelcome," Fili remarked as he and his brother traveled down the road that led through the middle of the small town of Bree. Hobbits, who stared at them as they passed while they tended to their gardens, gave them looks of wonder and almost even disgust.
"These Bree-folk just aren't used to dwarves in their parts," Kili reasoned, more to himself than to his brother.
"I figured hobbits were a nice folk," Fili shrugged. "I'm a bit too intimidated by these small people to ask the shortest way to Hobbiton."
"I don't think we should bother them for a place to sleep either. I'd rather just stay in the Old Forest."
"I agree," Fili said, his hand tracing over the pattern of the holder that held his blade.
They had come a long way from where they lived, a city that dwelled inside the Grey Mountains. They had migrated there as young children when their city, Erebor, had been attacked by Orcs and taken over by a large, fire-breathing dragon named Smaug. Both brothers had gone with their mother to live elsewhere. They had lived their lives inside the Grey Mountains, always seeking to put a small grin upon the melancholy folk that lived there. They'd only been but children when they were forced from their homes, so they didn't truly feel as empty as some elder dwarves did. No one dared speak of the lost city of Erebor or of the beast named Smaug. Both Thori and Kili had never spoken of it either, but they had yet to forget about the wonderful adventures and playful games they once played inside the mountain walls.
It was but a week before that their uncle, Thorin Oakenshield – the rightful heir to the city of Erebor, had contacted them, informing them of a Company he was to lead on a dangerous quest. Fili and Kili were both honorable, dedicated young men and they would have crossed all of Middle-Earth if it meant helping their own blood. They didn't have the faintest clue where they were going or what they were doing, but they were intrigued by the idea of an adventure. They also didn't mind that a few of their friends were a part of the Company they would be traveling with.
"I'd simply like to know why uncle had to choose the small village in the Shire to hold a meeting for the Company. Perhaps he could've chosen a meeting point that was less out of the way. What business do we have in a village full of hobbits?" Kili whined, his hands tightening around the strap of his quiver that held his bow and arrow.
"You should take that matter up with him."
"I'd rather not," he muttered.
"Then what are you complaining for?" Fili sighed.
"We've never traveled around this part of Middle-Earth," Kili pointed out. "I hope we don't arrive late."
"Oi! Don't jinx it! Thorin would dismember us."
Kili kicked a small pebble which rolled until it hit the edge of a front lawn that belonged to a hobbit. The small hobbit glared at the dwarves before shutting his circle-shaped door with a loud thud!
"But we don't know the fastest path. There are far too many curves and forks in the road," he said.
"We have another weeks time until we have to meet the Company," Fili said. "Besides, think of the good that awaits us once we reach Hobbiton. It'll be good to see Thorin and our friends."
"I am excited to see Ori," Kili said, looking down at the dirt road. "Haven't seen that bloke in a long time!"
"I just wish that we could've all gotten together under better circumstances," Fili sighed, his gaze now fixed intently upon his gloved hands. He looked deep in thought.
"Me too, but we can't dwell on what is. We should make the best of it."
"Maybe Gandalf will give us a show of fireworks," Fili wished, his voice almost a bit too high.
Kili wished for anything once they arrived for the greetings and joyous feast to stretch through the night. He secretly dreaded the heavy details of the quest he and his dwarf friends were to go on. They were all risking their lives by agreeing to follow Thorin, and he just hoped it wouldn't be in vain if any of them were killed.
"We should set up camp. Into the forest we go," Fili said.
The brothers turned to enter the dense forest that seemed almost endless with various types of vegetation. Woodland animals seemed to be scurrying to find a place to rest their heads for the night.
The city of Bree was behind them, and an entirely unexpected adventure was before them.
"Do you hear that?" Fili asked Kili, his head perking up. He looked around, squinting to see as best he could in the complete darkness. Fili was busy eating his supper, an almost tasteless pot of stew. The fire provided warmth to the brothers as they rested on the ground, their blankets just underneath them. The night was cold but lacked a fierce wind, which was much to the brother's delight.
Kili had yet to eat, much to Fili's surprise.
"What?" Kili asked. He payed little attention to Fili, only interested in tending to the arrow he was making from thin wood and a sharpened rock.
"Be quiet," Fili hissed at him. He stood up from his comfortable position, setting his plate and silverware aside. He tucked his loose blonde hair behind his ear, as though it was going to help.
Kili lifted his head.
"But you just asked –"
"Hush!" his brother ordered.
Kili set his bow and arrows down from his lap onto the ground.
"What did you hear?" he questioned.
A few more minutes of silence filled the air, only providing a strange feeling to the brothers who were already uneasy. The hoot of an owl was the only thing heard for another minute.
"Nothing," Fili said, shaking his head. "It was just a twig."
"Ah, yes. Those twigs are sneaky ones," Kili chuckled. "Just eat your supper, brother."
A small loaf of bread flew into Kili's lap, and he turned to look at his brother.
"I meant to aim for your head," Fili shrugged.
They then relaxed, and continued on with their activities. Nothing but the sound of animals of the night could be heard until Fili jumped up in alarm.
"There it is again!"
"You've begun to hear things, Fili," Kili remarked, not caring for his brother's antics any longer.
"Something is watching us. I can feel it."
"Watching us? I'd like to see the thing try to sneak up on us! Or rather we sneak up on it! Quick, quiet –"
Kili found himself facing his brother with a look of horror on his face, a strong arm firmly holding him down over his neck. He strained to see what – or who – it was that held him in such a strong hold. He feared it was an Orc or some other strange being, but his worries faded when he heard the very bold, clear voice of a woman.
"Quiet, are you? I could have heard you two dwarves from a mile away," she said, her voice ringing inside Kili's ears.
She wasn't large, but she wasn't small. She was just around his height, but just maybe two mere inches shorter. He could see her bare feet just underneath him. She was hobbit, he assumed, but a tad bit different. Her feet were dainty and lacked a single strand of hair. She was too large to be a hobbit, also. A dwarf, maybe? He could see the reflection of the moon hit her blade, which she held with her other hand near the front of Kili's neck. She wouldn't kill him. Women didn't kill men. That just wasn't how it was where he came from, but he was a long way from home now that he thought of it.
"Let him go. I wouldn't wish to harm a lady," his brother's voice ordered, shaking Kili from his thoughts.
She pushed Kili off of her, and it was then that he turned quick enough to get a better view of her. Her hair was brown and shiny, flowing freely in the cold air. Her eyes, he could see, were of a hazel color that he immediately got captured in. She wore a rusty green pair of pants that ended just at her calves and a brown jacket with multiple pockets. She, of course, wore no shoes. Her ears were a bit pointy, but not too pointy as an elf's. She radiated with a simple beauty that Kili had never seen in his entire lifetime.
It wasn't her beauty that got him so bewildered, but the fact that she was a fighter. He had learned so by the way he couldn't escape from her hold and by the quiver on her back that held a bow and multiple arrows with different feathers of each sort available in Middle-Earth. She held the blade in her hand with the utmost confidence, and Kili didn't doubt for a second that she would use it. Use it well, she would.
"That's it? Are you not going to threaten us? Try to steal our things?" Fili asked, his voice a bit agitated with the girl.
"Even if I tried, what would you try to fight me with?" the girl asked, her fingers loosening their grip on the sharp blade she held.
"I just so happen to have a fine edge blade right – What? Where has it gone?" Fili panicked. He began searching through his coat, his pockets, and he even resorted to searching the ground of their campsite.
Kili's eyes remained on the girl, and she met his instantly. She had a grin on, emitting the most dazzling smile ever. Kili was sure that had the sun been out, her smile might have been just as bright. He attempted to seize his thoughts on her as best he could because he was finding it a bit loony to have such a peculiar interest in a stranger he had just met.
She threw the blade that she held to the ground, and it skid towards Kili's feet. He almost chuckled at his brother's own foolish mistake. The blade was his.
Fili stopped searching as he heard the skid of the weapon on the ground. He snapped it up just as Kili was reaching for it. The girl then reached behind her into the quiver on her back. She ran her fingers through the arrows, and Fili raised his blade defensively. She merely laughed at Fili's reaction.
She then pulled out a large loaf of bread that she must have taken from their basket earlier when Fili was eating messily and Kili was tending to his arrows.
"Thief," Fili muttered.
The girl seemed to hesitate a bit before taking a step towards them. Kili could see his brother tighten his grip on the blade.
"You two can relax. I'm not going to harm you."
"You? Harm the two of us?" Kili asked with the evident sign of a chuckle to come.
"Don't be too quick to forget I just had you by your throat," the intriguing girl responded.
"Well, what is it you want?" Fili asked her.
She crossed her arms, thinking for a bit, until a sly smile came upon her face. Kili could follow her greedy eyes which landed on their boiling pot of stew and few loaves of bread.
"Supper would be nice. I wouldn't mind sleeping by a warm fire either."
Fili scoffed in objection to her request. Kili couldn't fathom why because he was finding an interest in this girl as their conversation carried on. He wouldn't mind too much if she stayed the night.
"How do we know you won't slit our throats while we sleep?" Kili asked, his eyebrows scrunching together a bit.
"How do I know you won't do the same?" the brunette asked.
"You don't," Fili said shortly.
"Then it seems all of us will be sleeping with one eye open," Kili said, his desperate attempt at a small joke. His brother's reaction to the stranger was truly annoying him. She was just a lone traveler asking for a meal and a place to stay the night. They could give her that much, couldn't they? He tried to communicate his thoughts with a glare in Fili's direction.
"We'll offer you supper," Fili's voice said, casting a short glance at Kili.
Another moment of tense silence passed between the group.
"I'll just be going. I'm sorry I caused you two a disturbance."
The girl turned, her arrows moving inside the quiver in her back. Kili watched her take a few steps, and he felt just about ready to run to her and beg her to stay. What did Fili have against this girl? She had stolen his blade, but she returned it. It had to account for something.
"Apology accepted," Fili muttered, before turning his back to walk to his blanket which lay on the ground.
"Wait!" Kili shouted. "We won't deny a woman a warm place to sleep and dine. It's only one night."
Kili chose to ignore the imaginative daggers being thrown at his back from an angered Fili. The girl froze where she was, turning to look at the brothers.
"Don't take pity on me. I can take care of myself," she said with complete confidence and independence. If there was one thing she hated, she hated being a pity case. She could very well fend for herself. She had traveled far and near to different lands that most that inhabited Middle-Earth knew not of their existence. She had fought for her life many times, and she had always won. She was anything but a pity case.
Kili mustered a sly grin.
"It's your choice, Beauty."
"I'll just rest over there then, Beast," she returned, already moving to the furthest corner near the fire to rest on a tree.
Kili stood there, completely dumbfounded at her response. He tried to push his interest for the girl out of him, to rid himself of thoughts of her, but he couldn't. She was as dominant and strong-minded in his mind to stay there as she was in reality to stay at their campsite.
An hour or so had passed before Fili had let himself be taken by sleep, but not before he managed to argue a bit with Kili. He quietly whispered his objection to what his brother had done as Kili ignored him, paying attention to his supper only. He didn't dare sneak a glance at the stranger, who was leaning against the tree trunk, dozing into sleep and then suddenly awaking. It wasn't until Fili had fallen asleep that Kili ventured over to her.
"Finished eating?" she asked.
Kili laid his blanket – the only one he had brought with him for the long journey – over the girl. He could see her mouth open, ready to protest, but she only tugged the blanket tighter around her.
"Thank you," she whispered.
"Thought I'd come over here to keep you company. I'd like to know our guest a little bit better," Kili murmured.
They both spoke in hushed tones, as to not wake the sleeping dwarf a few feet away. Mordor hath no fury like an angry dwarf, Kili thought.
She pulled from her quiver a familiar looking arrow to one of Kili's own.
"Here. I took one of your arrows to compare it to mine," she said, handing over one of Kili's arrows. He took the arrow in his hand, trying to keep the look of surprise off of his face.
"Tricky one, aren't you?"
"Don't be too quick to judge me, dwarf. I simply take what I need," she shrugged.
"Doesn't seem like the type of lifestyle a woman wishes for."
The girl gave him a look of disbelief before she tucked away her quiver.
"Should I spend my life inside a house, doing nothing but tending to whatever other thing a man would order from his wife?"
Kili lifted his hands in defense.
"Don't take offence. It's just that – well, you're the first lady I've ever come across that owns a bow and arrows."
She seemed to relax a bit, and she shook her head. She seemed to be deep in thought before she turned to look at Kili.
"Well, I use what I need to survive."
"To survive? You travel often then?"
She nodded. "I'm a nomad of Middle-Earth."
"Do you know this area well?" Kili asked almost instantly.
"Too well."
"My brother and I are traveling towards the Shire to a village called Hobbiton. Do you know of it?" Kili asked her.
"What are you two going to do in a quiet village such as Hobbiton? If I know hobbits, they enjoy their peace just as much as their quiet," the stranger replied, her voice still confident as ever.
"So you know of it?"
"Yes," she said, her voice a bit hesitant.
"How far is it?" Kili asked.
"An eight day journey if you walk."
Kili nodded, taking the information into account. The sound of night creatures continued to fill the night, as did the sound of Fili's loud snoring which could have very well been able to disturb the slumber of any ancient creature.
"If you don't mind me asking, what's your name?"
"Arialla Underfield," she said.
"I'm Kili and that is my brother Fili," Kili said, nodding towards his sleeping brother.
"What business do two dwarves have in Hobbiton?" she asked, her instincts wrinkling with curiosity.
"Now, my brother would very well boil me if I told you anything. I find it hard to think rationally though when faced with your distracting beauty," Kili said with a cheeky grin on his face. "We're traveling there to meet our Company that we will travel with on a quest."
He could see her cheeks tint just a bit darker. It may have been the moon casting a strange tint onto them, but he truly doubted it.
"What quest?" Arialla asked him.
Kili shut his eyes for a moment. He had spent their entire journey thus far attempting to find the answer to it.
"Even I don't know the answer to that, Aria."
"How many are in your Company?"
"I haven't the slightest clue. A large group of dwarves, I suppose," Kili told her.
Her laugh filled the air with shocking electricity that surprisingly comforted his nerves.
Kili found himself wishing to dissect the very mind of this woman that sat next to him, wrapped in his wool blanket that he had so willingly gave her. She was as hesitant
"I don't think the hobbits will like that very much."
"You seem to like us, don't you?"
Kili licked his lips, suddenly aware of how dry his throat was. No, he shouldn't have been so nervous around his stranger. He had no idea who – or what – she was. Her eyes drove deep through him once more.
He could see a large amount of hesitation before she turned to look at him. Her eyes began searching for something, and Kili desperately hoped she found it. He could never know enough about this woman.
"I'm not a hobbit. Well, I suppose so, but only a half-blood."
"What other blood are you then?" Kili asked, his curiosity for the girl increasing.
"I've also elf blood running through my veins," she murmured. Although Kili knew she was only a part elf, he couldn't stop himself from thinking all of what he was taught as he grew up with his brother. Fili was taught just the same. "Elven-folk ain't nothin' but traitors. Untrustworthy, I tell you."
Kili found trouble imagining Aria as so, but it was difficult to not think of the things dwarves said of elves as he spoke to her.
"You're lucky you have such a wonderful face to look at, Beauty."
"I don't think you're brother regards me as highly as you do. I think he'll like me less than he does already when he finds out what my origins are," Aria said.
"Don't care too much of what he thinks of you. He'll warm up to you eventually."
"Eventually? I'm only staying the night with you two."
"Did you think you could get rid of me that easily? It seems that my brother and I will need you to get to Hobbiton as soon as possible. You do know your way around these parts, and I'm hoping that these next eight days will serve as a better way for me to know my way around you, Beauty."
His smirk sent a shiver up Aria's spine. She soon collected her senses before waving her hands in protest.
"Wait just a second. How do you know that I'll agree to this? I might have somewhere else to be."
The grin upon the dwarf's face never disappeared for a second.
"If you did, you wouldn't have asked to have stayed the night in our company. It's lonely traveling alone. I'm thankful I have my brother, and I wouldn't dream of letting you wander alone to nowhere when you can wander with me to somewhere," he said. "You, Arialla Underfield, want an adventure, do you not?"
Pondering the question for quite a while, she finally whispered in a stern voice:
"I'll go with you just as far as Hobbiton. Don't expect me to go further."
Kili smugly shook of the dirt on his clothing after he stood up from where he sat.
"I'll wake my brother in the mornin' and tell him of our newly appointed guide."
He began to walk back to the campfire to his sleeping brother who would no doubt be infuriated in the morning.