Chapter 4


As the unconscious hobbit was tended to, everyone dispersed to their own tasks. Further catching up or searching packs for a little something to smoke. Fili was listening to Kili, always enthusiastic and teasing about Bilbo falling so flat like he had. Yet Fili was staring at that woman that their uncle brought. Aysa. With her straight cut hair and bones and feathers tied into braids. With not a single hair anywhere else that he could see.

Unlike any dwarf woman, but then again she was half. Dwarf height, human features, with an iron blade. In this time, she spoke with Thorin, and Fili had never seen his uncle embrace any woman, but the way he did it with Aysa was more like he would Kili or Fili. One arm, a quick pat on the shoulder, and then a hand on her head when they pulled apart.

They spoke for a few minutes, and then Aysa was arm in arm with Gloin and off down the hall out of view. Their uncle came up to him and Kili, looking down at them both.

"Are you both truly prepared for tomorrow?" He asked them.

Kili gave a quick yes, and Fili uncrossed his legs at the ankle and sat up straight. "Why have we never met this woman you've brought?" He questioned in return without much emotion. It wouldn't do well to seem interested.

The man looked at him critically either way, taking a moment. "My sister disproved of you two out with the men, with your father or I. We generally drink." Thorin told him. "I've gotten hell for you two coming here, so it's moot now."

"But nobody breathed a word." Kili added just as Fili thought of it.

"We didn't always drink near. There were hunting trips and traveling, with many pubs along the way." He replied. "Things slip the minds of drunkards."

Then she came back into the hall they sat in, wiping down a dagger with a cloth. "You have a curious friend, Uncle." Fili commented, too aware of her there.

"Friend? She is the nearest to a child I will come to know." Thorin told them. That surprised both boys, and Fili kept staring past him to the woman. "When I met her, she reminded me of the pair of you, only less annoying. I'm sure you'll get on. Especially if Fili does not tear his eyes away from her."

Caught, his eyes snapped up to Thorin, who gave a smug smirk and walked away. Kili nudged his arm. "Is she you're type, brother?" The brunette scoffed at him.

Fili rolled his eyes and gave a joking smile. "It is nothing but curiosity. She is certainly not!" But it was a small lie. Maybe more than small, really.

"Good. Get it out of your system, because here she comes." Kili clapped him on the back hard enough Fili lurched forward slightly.

As he said, Aysa came up and Kili ditched Fili. The woman gave him a smile and a hello, then sat at the other end of the bench that Fili was still on. "It has been a pleasure to meet you, since I couldn't say as much before." She told him. "Same for Kili, but he ran off."

"Same." Fili felt a thump in his chest at the presence of this woman hat he hadn't felt since he was, basically, a child. Twenty, thirty years ago. "I speak for us both I'm sure when I say you are an interesting character. Our Uncle doesn't treat everyone like family."

That bright smile softened to fondness. "I'm sure he does not. Him, Balin, and Gloin have been the kindest of dwarves to me. As well as Rhorr. You never did tell me how he was fairing. It's been five of six years since I've been able to meet him in the halls."

"He died five or six years ago." Fili spoke simply.

She startled and pressed her mouth into a line. "Thorin's a dirty liar. I ask and he says everyone's fine." She seemed genuinely livid, voice going rough. "Hell, I thought Balin would go first!"

Fili laughed because he'd heard nobody but his mother talk about Thorin that way. Or Balin, for that matter. "It's likely he would have, aye, if not for an unfortunate hunting venture. Too far north – orcs." He explained and it did hurt a little, but it had been years either way.

"That's putting quite a damper on this day." She commented and sat back, posture somewhat defeated but emotions not high. Clearly she'd heard of a loss worse than this, and lost people herself. "Not that it's joyous to know I'm off to a dragon lair."

"Ah, but it is a joyous day. We will be getting our home back!" Fili enthused, hoping to cheer her up if only just. He never thought a smile could make much difference, not with women prior, but she looked genuinely better when happy.

She did give a slight one, a smile that told him he was being silly rather than agreeing. "A home neither of us have seen. And I don't truly belong to either way."

"Why not?"

"Half human?" She reminded him with a laugh lighter than the air, lilting and sweet.

How easily he forgot. "Ah, yes, right."

It was as everyone grew slightly quiet that the dwarves all heard a small rant from Bilbo. "That's what I thought. Sorry, Gandalf, I can't sign this. You've got the wrong Hobbit."

Feet padded down the hall and they caught a glimpse of the hobbit just before he went into a room. Then Aysa looked to Fili. "I suppose that's that. Shame."

Then she was on her feet and slipping into the living room. Fili followed after a moment, finding Kili again. He told his brother, "The hobbit is out."

"No!" Kili complained lightly.

And like that it was the end of the planning. They'd stay the night and be gone before noon. The night couldn't end without a song, however. As everyone convened, men began to hum. A sad slow melody that they all knew, age and birthplace aside. Kili and Fili grew up on this song and others.

Thorin sang alone to start, but everyone slowly joined.

"Far over the misty mountains cold

To dungeons deep and caverns old

We must away ere break of day

To find our long-forgotten gold.

The pines were roaring on the height

The winds were moaning in the night

The fire was red, it flaming spread

The trees like torches blazed with light."

Only as people were settling in spare rooms and on furniture for the night did Fili feel the weight of this. He was looking forward to every moment, of course, but he truly did not have the experience. Kili went right to sleep, the younger brother always forgetting for a moment what could be a consequence. Fili sat up in the living room, on the floor and looking out the window of the hobbit hole, the only one awake as there were snores throughout the home.

Or so he thought. Sometime as the moon began to move further into view, there were soft footsteps. He turned to the noise and in the dark he could still see that it was a barefoot Aysa. She was out of armour and her tunic large, falling off a shoulder, half tucked into canvas trousers. The moonlight lit up her pale skin as she sneaked through the room, side stepping Kili and Ori.

"What are you doing?" Fili asked lightly as she went to Thorin's pack.

She startled. "Shush." She whispered back, flipping open the cover of one pocket. "You scared me."

"That wasn't an answer." He teased, still very quiet.

The young woman held up a small toy. A metal horse that a child might have, barely bigger than the end of her thumb. "Planting a token." She put it in the pocket and then was coming to Fili's side. She sat with him in the starlight. "He won't ever notice it. He's a little daft."

"Then why would you do it?" He asked her.

Aysa pulled her legs to her chest, chin tilted up and he notice a scar on her jaw for the first time in the white moon light. "In case something happens, of course. You will tell him it's there if so, please?"

The pain in her voice was obvious. "Nothing will happen to you." Fili assured her.

"It's a passing thought either way. It's kept me up." Aysa then looked at him, catching him staring at her profile, though she didn't react to it. "And you? You're the only other one awake."

"I'm not experienced, so I cannot rest, and I'm not the youngest, so I can't remain naïve." He admitted, glancing at Ori and Kili, both younger than him if only just. "It is a lingering thought, yes."

"I'm somewhat experienced and I still don't understand how they sleep like they do. I always rest better after battle rather than before, because after a fight it feels like nothing else could happen to you so soon." Aysa confessed in return.

"Aye, I get it." Fili nodded and looked out the window again. "I can say I've met a goblin hoard once or twice in my life and the nights we slayed them, I slept hard."

She made a small, amused sound. Just a hum. "And what of Kili?"

"Bah, he doesn't count." Fili spoke jokingly, waving a hand to shun the sleeping brother. "He fights best with a bow, at a distance. The farther from a fight the less worry. And he is only in his seventies."

Aysa gave a laugh. "You're… only just older, aren't you?"

"Eighty-one." He confessed.

She smiled. "I'm seventy-eight. Between you two, Thorin says."

"Almost right between us." Then he looked at her and mocked, "And in your seventies."

"Yes, indeed."

It was curious because he assumed she'd be so much younger, as a half human. "So you age like a dwarf."

"So far." She grinned. "Yes. Made my mother jealous. She got old and I looked twenty for all of it."

Fili calmed completely, feeling sympathy at his sudden thought. "She's dead, isn't she?"

"A long time gone, yes."

"I can't imagine it. Losing both parents, so long ago for you."

Aysa nudged him, playful so he knew to not be so serious about it. "I knew it would happen. I was ready. It's unfair but it's nothing to despair over. I spent her entire life with her because I knew I'd have all this time after to be something else."

"Like a dwarf."

"Exactly like a dwarf. I've lived as nothing else since." She gave a laugh. "Drinking and hunting and swinging good iron. It's been great."

Behind them, one of the sleeping men grumbled and shifted, but then snoring resumed. "We should both sleep." Fili told her even quieter, not wanting to wake anyone.

"Shame. The stars are bright tonight." Aysa pushed herself up and pulled her tunic onto her shoulder. It only fell off the other side. "Good night, Fili."

He lied down after she left him, and it was still hard to sleep. But he closed his eyes and just wondered what it would have been like to watch the sky all night with her.


AN: Wow! I sort of ignored this and said that I wasn't going to update, but I came back and it had a few more reviews and just hundreds of views. So I see no harm in adding a little somethin' somethin' for all of you to read. Finally, no script, and a fantastic bit of conversation. Finally some Fili!

Please keep reading and reviewing. Thank you for those of you who are.