Prompt for the Feels for Fíli Art and Fic Mini Contest / #6 Autumn
Runner-up in the Feels for Fíli Art and Fic Mini Contest / #6 Autumn / Fic
This is un-beta'd.
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THROUGH TREES OF GOLD
Marigold Faucet
II
beware bear
for Morgane
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"The trouble is you can shut your eyes, but you can't shut your mind."
—Terry Pratchett, Wintersmith
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When Fíli starts to learn about bears, he can't help but try to frighten Kíli.
As plans go, it is a sound one. Kíli is easily fooled, wild in imagination, and while it may seem cruel to some, Fíli has yet to claim his revenge for the tomatoes in his boots or the pond scum in his bed. To retaliate physically would do nothing more than continue this battle between them, so Fíli must result to alternative means of warfare.
It is a good plan.
Fíli waits until they have both been put to bed, neither quite ready for sleep. He asks if Kíli wants to hear about his lessons, already anticipating the answer to be an enthusiastic yes. Fíli smiles when Kíli twists beneath the blankets, turning to lie on his stomach across his bed as he listens to Fíli tell him all about bears with wide eyes.
"Bears are huge beasts that sleep all through winter," Fíli says, keeping his voice low. "It's called hibernation." he explains (careful in his pronunciation of the word, having gotten it wrong the first three times he attempted to say it on his own). "So they have to eat lots of food in autumn."
"Like Mister Dwalin does?" Kíli asks.
"Mister Dwalin isn't a bear, thurkbund," Fíli sighs, rolling his eyes.
"But he's big and eats a lot," exclaims Kíli. "And Ma says I shouldn't poke him when he's sleeping." he adds. "Is it because he hib-bernates too?"
"No," Fíli laughs. "If he did, he'd always miss your birthday." he says, smiling at the horrified look on Kíli's face. "Besides, bears are big scary monsters who gobble up dwarflings in the night. Mister Dwalin doesn't eat dwarflings."
"What do they look like?" Kíli gulps.
"They're very big and very, very hairy," Fíli whispers, throwing his arms out wide. "They've got terrible claws." he continues, Kíli burrowing further into his blankets. "And a terrible roar!"
"Are there bears in the mountain?" Kíli asks, looking frightened.
"No," Fíli says, smiling wider. "Uncle keeps them away by glaring at them with his grumpiest face."
Kíli nods sleepily, rolling onto his back with a sigh of relief. "Good." he says. "I don't want to be eaten."
"Although," Fíli says, throwing himself back onto his pillows. "Uncle isn't here right now." he sing songs, turning to blow the candle out. "Sleep well, Kíli."
He listens to Kíli toss and turn, silently pleased with himself as Kíli struggles to find a comfortable position in his silent worry. Fíli knows Dís will kill him in the morning if Kíli goes to her in the night with nightmares about bears, but it feels a small price to pay—especially since Dís seems intent on encouraging Kíli (and Fíli) to continue pulling pranks on one another.
Fíli doesn't remember falling asleep, time passing in hazed flickers that wake him with a pounding heart. He doesn't know what wakes him, everything dark and silent as his eyes fail to adjust. He's about to fall back asleep when it starts, a rumbling growl that drifts through the home and has Fíli leaping from his bed.
There's a bear in the house, Fíli thinks. He tries to reason with himself, but his mind is too addled by half-remembered nightmares about great, hulking beasts with terrible claws and a terrible roar, to do anything other than panic.
(He was lying, there is no bear because it was a lie.)
(But he ought to check, he reasons. To be sure.)
Fíli grabs his practice sword, the carefully carved wood feeling cold against his clammy palm, taking a moment to gather his courage and venture outside the bedroom door. He creeps quietly down the hall, the growl getting louder and louder the closer he gets. He nearly turns back twice, but each time he reminds himself that Thorin would not falter and continues on.
He reaches the main hall of their home, the fire burning low in the hearth as the shadows stretch menacingly towards where Fíli stands in the hallway. There's a large shape on the couch, huge and hairy, and Fíli can only imagine the terrible claws and terrible roar.
It's not a bear. He was lying about the bears. It can't be a bear—
O Mahal, Fíli thinks, the creature on the couch shifting as it lets out a particularly loud growl. It is a bear.
Fíli darts back into the hall, practiced instinct taking him directly into Thorin's room. He breathes a sigh of relief to find it occupied, eternally grateful that Thorin is home even if he has failed to keep the bears away. He doesn't think before clambering into Thorin's bed, burying himself beneath the blankets and crawling forward until he reaches the centre of the bed to where Thorin lay.
He pokes Thorin several times, twice in the face and thrice in the ribs in an effort to rouse him, but Thorin fails to stir. Fíli tries again for several more minutes, tearfully begging Thorin to wake and crying in earnest when he does not. He doesn't dare go to Dís, admittedly too afraid to attempt sneaking past the bear to get to her room. Instead he huddles close against Thorin's side, eyes watching the open door and listening to the growling, keeping watch in case the bear should wake.
(He does not sleep.)
Fíli is still watching the door when Thorin finally wakes, a little before Dawn, with an agonised moan. The sound startles Fíli, surprising Thorin in turn when Fíli hits him in the stomach with his wooden sword. Fíli might have laughed if he weren't so terrified and exhausted.
"You've got to kill the bear, Uncle," Fíli cries, Thorin blinking stupidly at him.
"Bear?" Thorin croaks, running a hand over his face. "Fíli, there are no bears in these halls."
"But there is," Fíli insists, eyes tearing up again. "In front of the fire."
"In front of the—" Thorin starts, throwing back the blankets and stalking out into the hall with a sigh (and if Fíli were more himself, he might think Thorin would rather face a bear than deal with his tears). "Oh." he says, bemused, when he reaches the main hall, Fíli wrapped tightly around one leg. "A bear."
"Go kill it," Fíli demands, but Thorin only raises a chastising eyebrow. "Please?"
"As you wish," Thorin acquiesces with a bow, taking Fíli's wooden sword from him.
Fíli watches as Thorin stabs at the bear with the wooden sword, heart pounding in his chest when it lets out a terrible roar and swipes at Thorin with its terrible…hands? Oh, but he feels foolish and relieved and upset, because it isn't a bear at all.
It's Dwalin.
And suddenly Kíli is running out of their room, blanket dragging behind him as he cries for Dís, and Dís is standing in the doorway to her room yelling about ungodly hours and interrupted beauty sleep. It's all so very loud and Fíli too starts to cry because he's exhausted and embarrassed and exhausted. So he starts babbling, running up to Thorin and latching tightly onto his leg, about everything from his joke on Kíli (who lets out an indignant squawk from where he is now held in Dís' arms) to waking up and finding a bear and then to (bravely) hiding in Thorin's room (because Thorin keeps bears away with his face, Kíli supplies).
When he finishes (and apologises profusely to Kíli for being so cruel), Dís sends him back to bed back with the promise that there are no bears in the mountain.
"Can I sleep in your bed, Uncle?" Fíli asks, still clutching Thorin's leg.
"You're safe, Fíli," Thorin sighs, placing a comforting hand stop Fíli's head. "You'll find no bears in this mountain, not while I'm here."
"I know," Fíli mumbles. "But, just in case."
Thorin smiles and laughs, "Just in case."
It's not until many years later, when they are on the Quest to reclaim Erebor, that Fíli sees his first bear. It is not a true bear, but Fíli feels as if this creature has walked straight out his nightmares and while he shows no signs of outward fear—if he happens to run that little bit faster, then no one notices.
Except Kíli.
And Kíli never quite lets him live it down.
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Cont.
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Khuzdul:
thurkbund / rock head