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Kili got up from the bed and pulled over a chair to sit next to Fili's bed. This past week—ever since they had pulled Fili from the vault-had been the hardest week of his entire life. He hadn't been crowned King yet, they were waiting for Dain to return from the Iron Hills to preform the ceremony, but he had worked closly with a staff of conselers every day since the mountain had been opened to other clans of dwarves.

And then there was Fili.

Kili had thought that once his brother had been taken away from the darkness, he would be okay. But he wasn't, and Kili was afraid that he was getting worse. This morning had been rough, and it was the first time Fili had tried to injure him. Kili knew that Fili wasn't in the right state of mind, that he didn't mean to hurt him. But it still did.

All of this did.

Seeing his big, strong brother strapped down to the bed was one of the hardest things Kili had to deal with. He knew it was only for his protection, but he still hated it. He wanted his Fili back, the one he had conquered the mountain with. They had always been there to support each other and now Fili was gone.

Kili sighed, and then looked up at his brother.

"Hey Fee." He said softly.

Fili remained quiet, eyes darting back and forth, looking at things that Kili couldn't see.

"Do you want to sit up?" Kili asked, the bed had notches in it, so it could be raised and lowered without them undoing the restraints. Fili didn't respond.

Kili sighed again. There were some points during the day where Fili would almost be like himself. Just yesterday they played cards for an hour with no incidents, but then this morning Fili had gotten scared when Kili brought in his breakfast.

And that's when the knife came out.

It broke his heart, to see his brother like this. It was just beyond Fili mourning the loss of his hair, it was something else. Something in the darkness had caused him to withdraw within himself, and Kili had no idea how to bring his brother back to the light.

"Kili?" a thin whispered voice asked.

Kili looked at his brother and saw that Fili was looking right at him.

"Yes? Fili. I'm here." Kili said, moving closer to him.

Fili's brow furrowed, and he twisted his arms against the restraints.

"Blunt the knives, and bend the forks. That's what Baggins hates. We blunted and we bended and we took his hate, and gave it away. He's still there, bending and blunting. Will he ever stop? Why wont he stop? In my head he bangs the pots. It hurts. Make him stop? Why wont he stop?" he whispered in a low frantic voice.

"Oh Fili-."

But Kili was cut off by a high pitched laugh.

"He said we had worms. Filled with worms on the inside. Worms in our tubes. That's what he said." He laughed, and Kili winced at the shattered look in his brother's eyes.

"Bilbo did say that, didn't he? He saved us though, from the trolls." Kili said

Fili nodded his head, and his eyes drifted towards the ceiling, eyes tracing over the deep marks that carved the room. He seemed to be lost in thought again, as if-

"Kili! Kili…. they took me and wrapped me up like a present and…. and….I don't know….Uncle he took the gold, he took it away from me and I cant find it. Why did he take it? Why is it gone? What did I do?" he twisted more against the ropes and looked at Kili with broken eyes.

"Oh Fili. It's okay. You didn't do anything. Uncle…. wasn't in the right mind. He didn't mean to." Kili said, trying to make sense of Fili's babbling.

"Why? Why did he take it, and put me in that dark place?"

Kili sighed. Fili always asked this, almost everyday, about why Thorin did what he did. Fili seemed to remember that—being pulled into the vault—more than he remembered being locked inside it. Sometimes he accepted Kili's answers, and sometimes he didn't. It was a never-ending circle.

"He didn't mean to, Fili. He was sick. And you're out of there now. We saved you." Kili said, putting his hand on Fili's, but Fili twitched his hand away with a gasped inhale and he shook his head rapidly back and forth.

His blue eyes were shining with tears; "No. No, no, no, no…I accepted death, welcomed it and then you came and tore me away from it. I was ready and you brought me back. I didn't want this, I never wanted to be saved." He laughed, a high brittle laugh that brought Kili no peace.

"Now I am here forced to walk among the shamed, you did me no favors, brother. You should have let me die!"

His face crumbled, and he squirmed in place, trying to break free of the leather straps that held him down.

"Oh Fili-."

"Leave."

"What?"

"Leave me here. I can't-not now. I can never-please. Just go." He said, eyes still shut tight.

"But-."

"Please?"

The last plea was a brittle whisper, and Kili sighed.

He stood up.

"Alright. I'll be back in a bit."

He felt terribly leaving his brother like this, but this was the first time he had requested to be alone, the first time he actually spoke about what happened. Kili didn't know if it was a breakthrough or not though, it was so hard to tell.

Kili walked out of the hallway, and ran headfirst into Balin in the hallway.

"How is he?" Balin asked

Kili shook his head, and felt his eyes welling with tears.

"He asked me to leave. He's never done that before. He always likes me….but today it was like he wanted nothing to do with me. Like he blamed me for rescuing him. He told me we should have let him die…I just don't know how long this can go on." He said, blinking away the tears.

Balin sighed.

"Come, let's go get some tea. I think I have an idea. I'll have Dwalin come and stand outside the door."

Kili nodded, and followed Balin towards the kitchens.

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Kennie Tyrannis woke to prickly whiskers scratching against her face. She sighed, not quite wanting to get up just yet. The whiskers wisped around her face, and a sharp sand paper tongue licked her nose. She felt the bed indent as the whiskers came closer, and-

MEOW!

Kendra shot up, sending four legged furries scattering in all directions. Why did they always have to be so loud? Her life had been a lot more hectic ever since her feline companion had given birth to a little of six kittens eight weeks go. The kittens had grown to be quite…..tiring. She knew eventually she had to adopt them out to her neighbors, but she kept telling herself that just a few more days would be okay.

Then they would wake her up like this.

"Okay, okay. I'm up now. What time is it?" she looked over to her clock and it read quarter to 6.

"It would be really great if you let me sleep in, just once." She said to the nearest cat, who was sitting on her blue chair, licking it's tail with quiet content.

Rolling her eyes, Kendra got out of bed and reached for her blue robe. Everything in her room was blue; the chair, the bed, the bedding, even the wall. All different shades, ranging from a light turquoise to a dark midnight.

"Today's the day." She thought, "I'm setting up an adoption tent today."

She smiled despite herself as she watched the hoard of kittens mewl and grapple with each other.

"Or maybe—no. No today is the day." She told herself firmly as she put on her blue slippers and walking out of her room and into her small but quaint house. Like her bedroom, everything was a different shade of blue. Beyond the kitchen was her apothecary, where she made tonics and medicines. She was one of the few apothecaries in Gondor, most people would go to the city healers before they came to her. She was popular amongst the lower class, because her concoctions were cheaper than the city, and she didn't prescribes leeches as a solution to everything. Kendra walked into her kitchen and bent down to restart the fire—she had let it go out during the night.

She opened up her door to see if the milk had been delivered. No milk, but a letter with her name written on it in fine cursive writing was sitting on her door. She picked it up and stared at it, it was a dark burgundy envelope, but it did not have the return address on it. She flipped it open and almost dropped it as she saw the seal; a single mountain stamped in red wax.

She knew what this was, it was a letter from the King Under the Mountain—Erebor—seventh of the dwarven kingdoms. Curiously, she brought it into her house and for once ignoring the frantic scrambling of the kittens underfoot. She walked over to her light blue table and sat down. What would the dwarves want with her? She thought back in her memory, trying to remember something, anything that would answer her question but she came up with nothing. She had no business with the dwarves-no, that wasn't true-she she bought spices and herbs from the dwarven caravan market that came every six months. They were the only ones that sold some of the rarer herbs that she needed in the medicines that she made.

The kittens followed her, singing their chirpy songs about how hungry they were and how they would love some food. Right now. Right this very second!

"I'm coming, guys. Hold your horses." She muttered as she put the letter down on the table and got the bowls and food ready.

Once the kittens were fully satisfied, Kendra walked back into her room and changed out of her robe and nightgown into a blue day dress. She pulled her long golden hair up into a bun at the top of her head, and gave herself a once over in the mirror. She was short, but slender. Her light blonde hair seemed to make her eyes a deeper green. She quickly rearranged a wisp and sighed as the curls refused to stay put. Her hair was unlike most in Gondor, it was the color of a peeled banana, with natural highlights from the time she spent in the sun. Every time she would go out, she would have to endure the calls from the men, who seems to have an amorous fixation with her hair—one of the many reasons she kept it up tight in a bun, she had no interest in starting a romantic relationship with anybody.

Once she was done dressing, she walked back over to the tbale and opened the letter. It had the seal of the king on it, but it was not from the king of Erebor. It was from one of his counselors. Pulling on her blue reading classes, she sat down and read:

Dear Kendra Tyrannis,

I hope this letter finds you well. I am writing to you to ask you help us with a dire problem. A member of our royal family has been quite unwell for some time now, and we are running out of treatment options. As a last attempt to help him, I have decided to send him to you, if you are willing to take him. I have heard of you from the dwarven caravans that come through Gondor, and your reputation as one of the best healers in the realm has impressed me.

Please send your reply with the raven—it should be around there somewhere.

Sincerely,

Balin, son of Fundin.

Kendra stared at the letter. Her? Best healer in the realm? Really? She tried to think back, did she meet anybody of importance at the caravan last time? She didn't remember speaking with anybody out of the ordinary. But then again, many people bought her tonics, maybe one of them recommended her to the dwarves? She reread the letter, and wondered what ailed he dwarf in question. It must have been bad if they were willing to send him to her. She sighed, she couldn't refuse a royal request. She would have to take him.

She put down the letter and looked out the window, the letter said a raven would-.

SQUAW!

Kendra jumped back and yelled in surprise as a large black raven landed on her windowsill.

"Well, there you are." She muttered.

She quickly scribbled down a reply, and handed it back to the raven. She watched it fly off, and then turned around to view her hoard of whiskers.

She sighed. Yes. Today was the day the kittens were leaving. She was sure of it.

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Thank you for reading if you enjoyed it please leave a review, next chapter should be up soon!