"Thranduil, can you help us?" Thráin asked, placing his goblet of wine on the table.
Thranduil looked around at the odd little dwarven party currently seated at his dining table. It was not an uncommon sight to see dwarves from Erebor in Mirkwood, but it was very unusual to see this many of the royal family all at once in Mirkwood. He was a king surrounded by princes and lords, including his own son, Legolas. One of those princes, the second in line to the throne of Erebor looked sullen, depressed, and guilty without a doubt. Thranduil had never seen Thórin like that before, and he had known him when he was just a blink in his mother's eye, and to put it frankly he did not like it. It was wrong. This entire situation was wrong, including how this party had formed.
Thranduil was out hunting with his son and a few of the royal guards, including Tauriel. It was rare that he as the king went out hunting but for some reason something told him to go. They had gotten no more than an hour outside of the palace when he heard a familiar voice saying something that he never wanted to hear.
"…but we have to find Fíli first, and for that we need to work together."
He gave the signal for the hunting party to draw but not shoot. The voice stopped talking and instead gasped, among what sounded like 20 other gasps. He stayed in the shadows until he was sure it was who he thought it was.
"Thráin, Thórin, Frérin, Víli, what are you all doing here?" Legolas asked confirming his father's suspicions.
Before anyone could answer, Thranduil made his presence known.
All of the dwarves looked towards the crown prince of Erebor to make the first move as their leader.
Just then, Thráin did something that shocked everyone. He got down to his knees and bowed to the Woodland King. "My Lord Thranduil, I beg of you for your help. My grandson, Fíli is missing."
Thranduil made the motion for all 14 dwarves (he had greatly overestimated the number) and his cut-short hunting party to follow him back to the palace. He led them into the dining room and ordered the servants to bring in the wine and some food. These dwarves looked emaciated...
As one of Erebor's closest allies, Thranduil was forced to help. But, as time went one, Legolas along with Tauriel, became close friends with the royal family, and in time even himself. He found himself particularly friendly with the crown prince. There was no way he could say no, even though he was not told why Fíli was missing, he knew he had to be found.
"Legolas, Tauriel," Thranduil said addressing his son and his captain, "go with the royal family and join the search party. I will take a small party and search in another area."
At that, he saw smiles light up Thráin's, Frérin's, and Víli's. He was now certain this all had to do with Thórin, for his face showed not happiness and hope like his family, but guilt all the ways through. Thórin was responsible for all of this, he just was not sure how, but he was determined to help set right this entire situation.
Fíli wasn't sure what woke him up in the middle of the night. Was it the wind? A warg? A wolf? Whatever it was it caused him to lean in closer to his soft pillow. The pillow moaned and pulled him in closer. He had no idea where he was at that point but in his sleepy mind, he did not care, he was comfortable, he began to drift off to the land of dreams.
"Bombur, Bifur, Fíli, we have to get out of here now!" a loud voice cried bringing Fíli back to the real world.
Bifur asked Bofur what was going on, or at least Fíli thought that's what Bifur was asking. He was just starting to learn Khuzdûl, when he ran away.
"Wargs! Orcs! A whole bunch of them! We need to get back to the caravan, and fast, we need to get out of here!" Bofur yelled as he began to throw pots, pans, instruments and whatever he could find into his pack.
Bombur and Bifur shared a nod and before Fíli knew, he was on his own two feet joining in the packing up, as a warg screamed in the distance. He shuttered, as a voice said in his head, "If you hear a warg, head up into a tree". Fíli smiled at the memory as small as it was, a memory of a life he could no longer have.
Before he knew it, he felt a tug on his arm, it was Bombur and the four of them began to run in the opposite direction of the wargs, towards what was that Bofur had said, a caravan? What is that? For the first time, Fíli felt small and very scared. He wanted to go home, not to an unloving unwanted family, but to the safety of the mountain. Another scream from a warg; they had to keep moving.
"Kíli!" a voice cried in the darkness.
"Wake up, Sweetie."
Who was talking? Where was he? Why was everything so dark?
"Kíli, Great-grandson, please wake up."
He did not want to wake up. He felt safe, comfortable in the darkness. It was not time to wake up yet. So, he did not.
Something was bothering him, who was this Kíli all the voices were talking about?
