Author's Note: Here we are, at the end of the story. Thanks so much to everyone who followed and favorited! And a special thanks to Stardurin1217 and Gingehfish for reviewing! Again, thanks to Gingehfish for Beta'ing this :)
Reviews are always appreciated.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~Chapter Two~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Five minutes. Dear Mahal, that's all it took for his world to fall apart.
It had taken him only five minutes to carefully trek down the mountainside a ways to where they had passed a plant with flowers the color of blood. Balin had pointed it out to the young dwarf princes, telling them a story of an age long passed and the sorrows of a dwarf long dead. Oin then joined in the conversation, reciting Seregon's healing properties with textbook accuracy. They had laughed at how perfectly the old toymaker had recalled the book's words before continuing on up and over the rocky terrain. His brother's grunts and whimpers of pain had escaped his notice. When it came to his baby brother, Fili tended not to miss much. At least, he usually didn't miss much.
When Kili's leg had given out, Fili was in shock. He had nearly not reached his brother in time to catch him; that thought alone had worried him almost as much as Kili's collapse. What if he hadn't reached him in time? But more importantly, just how bad was Kili's wound? Oh Mahal, if it was as a bad as Fili began to fear…
A scream of pain shook the dwarf back to reality. Kili's eyes were squeezed shut, his hands writhing and his whole body was seizing violently. Thorin, ever the King, took control of the situation. "Oin, check his wound. Balin and Bilbo, help me hold him down. Fili," Thorin looked at his nephew with a stead gaze. "Get whatever supplies Oin might need." With a nod to his king, Fili went to help the healer. Oin had already cut off Kili's pant leg right above the knee. He was muttering medical nonsense that Fili couldn't hope to understand without at least ten dwarvish years of hard studying. Shaking his head, Oin looked sadly at Fili. "Lad… it's not looking too good." It took Fili a moment to understand the full gravity of what the older dwarf had just said. "W-what? Oin, no, you-you must be wrong, there's got to be something… anything!... I…" but Oin cut him off. Holding up his hand, the healer could be quite imposing when he chose to be. Look back over at the wound, Oin muttered more nonsense under his breath, before nodding to himself. "Seregon," he said finally. "Find me some seregon, lad, alright?" Fili nodded, even though he doubted the old dwarf had seen it. Oin refused to meet his eyes as he ran as fast as his stout legs would take him down the side of the rocky mountain.
Looking back, a sudden realization hit Fili. This was the mountain on which his brother had died, he thinks, as he stares at the cold, lifeless face of Kili.
He had almost run past the little flowering weed. With his focus solely on his brother's deteriorating condition, Fili had trampled the poor plant, nearly mangling it beyond recognition. Luckily, there was a small patch on the other side of the pathway the dwarves had marched up. Grabbing as much as would fit in his hands, Fili ran as fast as he could up the beaten path. Unfortunately, he had also run over a collection of small stones that had been loosened when the dwarves had passed this way earlier. The fall would have been quite comical, if he hadn't been in such a hurry. As it was, Fili had fallen quite hard, slipping a ways down the jagged path. Barely noticing the stinging pain on his knees, the dwarf prince dragged himself off the ground, and, breathing heavily, trekked his way back up the mountainous path to where his brother lay dying.
When Fili saw Thorin's tears, he knew he was too late. The flowers the color of blood fell to the ground; any hope in what they could have done was forever gone. Fili limped forward, towards a reality he didn't want to face. He saw the tears in the others' eyes as he hobbled past them, heard their mumbled words of comfort, but he didn't actually notice them.
Clutched in his uncle's arms was the small, fragile body of the baby brother Fili had never wanted. As he looked into the calm, serene face of the practically beardless dwarf prince, he recalled when his mother had told him when he was going to have a sibling.
"But Mama," he had petulantly whined.He could no long sit on her lap while she worked and was quite upset that his new little sibling was to blame."What if I don't like them?Or what if they don't like me?"Mother had just smiled.She appeared lost in thought, memories of her own baby brother dancing before her eyes.Pulling herself out of her grief that Fili had not seen, she turned mock serious and looked down at her eldest son."Fili dear.Do you really think that your sibling could possibly dislike such an excellent big brother?If you play with them and watch out for them, they won't be able to help but love you, sweetheart."
And that's what he had done. When Kili was first born, Fili has decided to become the best big brother in the world. When their father had died, Fili had done his best to fill his place in Kili's life. Their mother, Mahal bless her, had done everything she could but still Fili felt like he was responsible for the little dwarfling who followed him everywhere. Oh Kili.Why did you have to go where I can't follow?
