They approached Rivendell at slow pace, everyone was silent and well aware of their situation . Not only they were entering elf city, but they were going to have to ask for help as well . Thorin felt the shame burning inside him, but aware of their struggle, he swallowed his pride down.
They walked across the small bridge, eyes up gazing at the elvish architecture, Thorin could feel the company behind him slowing down . Their discomfort was rather obvious . As they approached the stairs in front of them, an elf stepped down to greet them . He looked quite surprised to see bunch of dirty dwarves, how obvious . Glancing at the injured dwarf in the back of the group, the elf approached Gandalf.
"Welcome Gandalf the Grey, it's good to see you" the elf said and patted Gandalf on shoulder.
"Good to see you too, we are coming here to see Lord Elrond…" Gandalf turned at his companions.
"Lord Elrond is not here" replied elf.
"Then where is he?" Gandalf asked curiously.
In the same moment several riders approached the bridge from the distance and Thorin didn't like the look of them whatsoever . Forming protective circle around Bilbo and Dwalin with Fili in his arms,the dwarves stood defensively as the elvish riders surrounded them.
Then the first one jumped off his horse and headed to Gandalf.
"Gandalf, my friend, what brings you here?" said the elf and examined the dwarf group with watchfull eye.
"Lord Elrond, we came here to ask for your advice and help . We are travelling long distance and we came here about one certain matter we'd like to talk about . But on the way here we've been attacked and we have a badly injured young dwarf in our group who needs immediate help . We have been attacked by wargs and lost our supplies." Gandalf explained.
Lord Elrond approached Dwalin, who was not pleased with the elf so close and glared at him.
"If you want me to help him, you will have to let me examine him" said Elrond with a frown.
Dwalin looked at Thorin, who gave him a quick nod and then stepped closer to the elf . Elrond raised the bandage and pressed finger on the wound earning low painfull moan from Fili to which Kili reacted immediately and stepped up to stop Elrond, but was held back by Balin who just shook his head and gestured Kili to step back . With anger on his face, Kili did as he was asked, watching Elrond with death glare.
Finally Elrond placed the bandage back on the wound and turned to the elvish riders . He spoke in elvish to them before turning back to Thorin.
"Tell your friend to follow my people to the chambers where will be your young companion taken care of . His wound is infected and there is no time to spare." after saying that, Elrond motioned to two elves standing by, to lead Dwalin to the chambers . Kili followed, refusing to leave his brother from his sight, while the others followed Elrond.
Later on after dinner, Thorin took the chance to go check on his nephew . Aware of the fact that they might not be able to continue straight away and leaving Fili behind was not an option, Thorin feared the fate of their expedition.
He entered the house where Fili rested, just as two elves went past him with bandages and medicine.
His nephew was laying in a large bed, fresh bandages were visible under his shirt . Kili was sitting on a chair next to the bed, looking at the ground, he raised his head as he heard Thorin approach.
"Uncle…." he started, but was cut off by Thorin.
"How is he?"
Kili looked at his brother who seemed to be asleep.
"They said he should be alright"
"Should be?" Thorin frowned.
"He's still got a fever from the infection…there is long night ahead of us, uncle"
Kili lowered his head.
"I'm sorry…it's all my fault." he slumped to the chair defeatedly . Thorin shook his head.
"No, it's not Kili . He did what he did to protect you….I shouldn't have brought you along.." he replied and looked at Fili.
Kili shook his head.
"No don't say that, you know we both wanted to go!"
"And I should have said no!" Thorin snapped back and took a deep breath."I don't want to lose you,alright?You are like my own sons and what happened today was…." his voice drifted off.
'It was a horrible reminder of the past , the feeling of being unable to protect your own'