I don't own The Hobbit. Astrid however, is mine. This fic spawned from too many cute ideas about the mischief she would cause and how it would affect her relationship with Kili later on. This is a prequel to Treasures Lost and Found and follows the movie canon. Enjoy!
The Adventures of Tiny Astrid
—Little Things
Astrid's obedience of her mother's wish to remain where Dis could see her lasted for half of the next day.
She played with the dwarf children and behaved herself until she noticed Dis's attention was elsewhere. After quickly checking for any other sets of eyes on her, Astrid slipped behind a nearby tree and started off through the village at a quick jog, ducking behind carts or crates, trees or buildings—whatever would help her hide. It didn't take too long for her to get well out of Dis's range of vision. Once she was sure she wouldn't be caught, the little girl walked freely along the street, looking around and trying to take as much in as she could.
The dwarves largely ignored her, though some looked at her curiously and some gave her a small smile. One dwarf asked her if she was lost, and she politely told him no, she wasn't and continued on her way, leaving the dwarf shaking his head in her wake. She hoped no one would tell Dis where she was.
Astrid walked until she was away from the centre of the town and she could run through the grass and bushes, chasing squirrels and smelling the flowers she'd never seen before. She was contemplating eating some of the red berries she'd found—they sure looked like strawberries, but maybe she shouldn't eat them, just in case…—when she heard the metal-on-metal sounds of the sword fight from the day before. Wondering if it was Fili and Kili again, Astrid struck out for the noise, watching carefully for anyone else who might have been training. The year before, when the caravan had been in Rohan, she'd almost been impaled because she'd wandered too close to a training field.
She passed several dwarves training with various weapons and she paused briefly to watch all of them in turn, the movement and noise capturing her attention. Eventually, she did find Fili and Kili at it again. She sat on the ground with her back against a nearby tree and pulled her legs up to her chest, arms wrapped around her knees as she watched. They weren't laughing as they sparred today, and she wasn't sure they'd even noticed as she sat down. She didn't mind.
After a few minutes, she noticed a pile of leather and weapons sitting to her right and though she knew she probably shouldn't touch them, her curiosity got the better of her. She shuffled across the ground and started picking through the pile carefully, avoiding the sharp edges of the knives. Astrid laid all the knives out in a neat row—there were a lot of them—and then picked up the quiver full of arrows, a bow strung around the container. She'd always been fascinated with archery; her mother was quite good at it and Astrid loved watching and helping Hild retrieve the spent arrows. She pulled the arrows from the quiver and examined them closely, trying to remember what the different parts were called.
She tired quickly of that and decided hiding the knives and arrows would be more fun.
Grinning mischievously to herself, Astrid looked over her shoulder to verify Fili and Kili were still engaged in their sparring—Fili was now trying to teach Kili a different way to block—before she began. One of the knives and two of the arrows went under the bushes nearby, tucked under the foliage.
She gathered as many of the knives as she could and started dropping them between rocks, balancing them on low-hanging branches, slipping them under more bushes, grinning all the while. The little girl didn't venture very far away, but she managed to finish hiding the knives and get a few steps away with the arrows before she was spotted.
"What are you doing with those?" Kili asked as he and Fili approached.
She froze in place, her green eyes wide and darting between the brothers. "Uh…"
"Where are my knives?"
Astrid looked at Fili and pressed her lips together as she shrugged. She let Kili take the arrows from her arms and stood with her hands clasped in front of her as she chewed her bottom lip.
Kili crouched down to return the arrows to his quiver, his eyes moving to the bush she'd first hid the weapons under. He fished the arrows and knife out and handed the blade to his brother. "Did you hide Fili's knives?" Kili asked her, amusement in his voice.
She shrugged again, but she couldn't keep the smile off her face.
Fili sighed. "I am starting to see why Mother was so keen on keeping an eye on you." He crouched down so he could look her in the eye. "Where did you put my knives?"
The smile grew and she laughed and pointed to the closest spot where one of the blades was hidden. Kili watched his brother retrieve the single blade hidden in the tree and joined Astrid in her laughter when he looked at her and frowned, clearly not amused at the prospect of having to hunt down his weapons. Fili returned to where Astrid and Kili were sitting and once again crouched in front of the human girl, any trace of laughter that might have been in his eyes gone.
"Why did you hide my knives?" he asked, the tone of his voice telling Astrid she was about to get in trouble. It was similar to the tone her father used when she had done something she shouldn't have.
"It was fun," she said, dropping her eyes to the ground. "And I was bored."
"It was just a harmless prank Fili."
He turned his eyes to his brother. "You would not be laughing so hard had she managed to hide your arrows all over the place."
"Yes, well, we stopped her before she could do that, so I get to laugh." Kili smiled at his brother and then at Astrid, who giggled even though she was still trying to look appropriately shamed.
They won over Fili though, his lips parting in a chuckle. "I don't suppose you will help me find the knives?"
"That would be no fun," Astrid informed him quite seriously. She smiled at him, the same mischievous smile she'd had earlier. "You have to find them on your own."
"Of course. Will you at least tell me if I am getting close?"
"Kili can help you find them!"
The brothers rolled their eyes, but they were still laughing. Astrid watched as they began their hunt for the knives and when she was sure they were occupied enough to miss her actions, she carefully slid Kili's arrows back of the quiver and skittered off in the opposite direction, sticking the arrows in the hiding places available to her quickest and easiest, careful not to snap the shafts. It was Fili who caught her, just as she was placing the last couple arrows in the bend of a tree branch. She gave a shriek of wild laughter and started running back towards the village, Fili and Kili's yells of protest following her.
