A/N: Here we are with chapter three! This is my longest chapter yet, though we are still sort of in the set up stages, I promise the adventure will start soon enough. This is going to be the last update this close together I think. I plan on updating once a week from here on out, but I was behind in my updates when I first uploaded this. I hope you enjoy it and that you'll leave a review!
When the young dwarf opened his eyes the sky above him was a dark, bluish purple, and long shadows stretched across his face from branches on trees he did not remember seeing the last he was awake. This was not what he expected. Though what he did expect he wasn't sure of. The last thing he remembered was the thunk of a spear piercing his shoulder with so much force he was driven to the ground and an agonizing pain that left him deaf and blind to the world around him.
If he was not hallucinating, which was a distinct possibility, then he was in the middle of a forest somewhere, completely alone, at sunrise. Kili sat up slowly, staring out through the trees and shivered at the chilling wind that blew through his clothes.
Nori was not one to sit around and wait for information. Or for much of anything really, and the whispers that he heard running through the groups of dwarves, men, and elves alike had him jittery and irritable. What was wrong with these people? Couldn't they let something alone, instead of dragging it out and causing more trouble than was good for anyone? What use was it to anyone to pretend that their leader and king along with his heirs were somehow still in this world and not gone for good? It was not of any, is what he concluded and found himself decidedly less interested in the chatter of strangers from foreign lands than he ever had been. He did not think there was much he could glean from any of them since all they seemed to speak of was the tragedy that befell the royal line, and that was something Nori knew more than enough of already.
Instead he tried to be helpful, even if no one knew, he rather preferred it that way. Sneaking about in the background unnoticed was his specialty after all, so he tried to make it a bit of a game, lugging supplies from one place to another without ever being seen. It was unfortunately much easier than he anticipated with how busy and distracted everyone was, no one even seemed to question their items appearing out of nowhere. It turned out to be a rather paltry distraction for his mind and no matter how he tried it always wandered back to Thorin and the boys. It wasn't as if he had a grand friendship with Thorin, nor the lads, but Nori wasn't one to make close friends in general.
He lived a life on the edge of society, always looking in, always watching, observing and drawing his own conclusions. Very few people in the world knew Nori as he truly was and he liked it that way, even his elder brother seemed badly misinformed about him often enough. Few people observed like the thief, most of them simply glanced at the outline of a person, made a picture in their mind of who they were and moved on. Their eyes did not penetrate beyond the surface, they never looked deeper, never cared to.
Thorin was not one of these people, no, Thorin always seemed to know things you would never expect. Because when he looked at his world he paid attention, to the people, to their lives. Nori had been rather shocked when the king had made such assumptions about their burglar, for he'd never seen him write someone off so quickly before. But of course the thief also knew the sort of pressure he had been under, and the numerous disappointments he had faced in trying to gather together a company. He had changed his tune in the end. And good on that for Nori could never respect a king who couldn't see passed the end of his own nose, like many dwarves he knew. At times it vexed him that there was someone he could not fool, who seemed to see exactly what made him tick, especially in his youth. But the dwarf did not scold and he did not judge and the thief could not have found someone he respected more. Whoever would replace him as king would be a poor substitute.
He had played with the idea of volunteering as spymaster for Thorin once his kingdom was reclaimed. He never would have entertained such an idea in the beginning but as time went on, his pessimism about the quest seemed to lessen and he became hopeful.
False hopes they turned out to be and Nori cursed himself for allowing such things to grow in his heart. The disappointment was always crushing and this time was no different. He was not sure then what would happen to his life when Erebor was officially back in business. He might've been rich, but he had no trade, no honorable work to keep him busy during the day and the thought of nothing to keep his mind occupied frightened him more than he would like to admit. There were two main reasons Nori took up as a thief, it was the one thing he was good at that allowed him to bring home much needed funds for their family, and it was a way to keep his racing mind from running him into the ground. Doing nothing was not an option for this dwarf, ever. He needed a purpose, a task, but he could not follow a different king, could never have the loyalty he did for Thorin.
Nori hadn't known Fili or Kili as well as he would have liked but everything he observed about them on their journey spoke of their loyalty to their uncle and his cause, as well as to each other and their friends. They were honest and good dwarrows and although they were both very young he thought they might also grow into dwarves who looked a little deeper than most. Perhaps if it had been one of them to take the throne he might have gone through with his original plan. But alas they were all gone.
With the lack of a decent distraction he found himself recounting the ridiculous theories he was constantly hearing as he scurried through the shadows, unable to draw his thoughts from the matter. There was a part of him that wanted nothing more than to believe these stories, and if you want something badly enough it can be difficult to banish hope, even if you know it is unfounded.
That is where the dwarf found himself, filled with hope and longing for the impossible and unable to shake it. He thought about speaking with one of his brothers, perhaps even Bofur (another dwarf who truly saw what he looked at) but could not bring himself to voice his own addled thoughts. However, he knew the thoughts would not go out of his mind even if they did discuss it. He always had to see things with his own eyes, never had been able to take someone's word for it.
Which was why not a day later, as the sun was coming up and it was still dark outside his light feet went padding silently through the still musty halls of his people's native home, through twisting corridors to find himself before the designated room of the soon-to-be-buried king and his heirs. He swallowed thickly as he stared at the so rarely unguarded door. He knew he didn't have much time before whichever member of the company was supposed to be there would arrive, for they had not been leaving it unattended. The dwarf thought the guarding was more to allow them all to rest some than to actually do any good. He doubted any with ill will were wanting to get in to the see the dead king and his nephews, what use would there be in it?
Although there the thief stood and he could rarely be said to have good intentions. He took one deep breath and moved, knowing, not exactly but having a good estimate of, what he would most likely find inside. It was not a pretty thought but hesitation was something a criminal could not afford often if ever and this was just as any high risk situation. Best to move and be finished with it before too much thinking could be done.
When his fist closed around the door handle he took a deep breath and held it just before swinging it open and stepping swiftly inside. He however did not hold his breath for long because the sight before him was enough to make Nori do something he would never admit to. He gasped.
There the three were, looking sickly but certainly not departed nearly a fortnight. The dwarf did his best to quell the sudden flip flopping his stomach was doing as he took slow but deliberate steps towards the three cots, lined up in a row in the center of the room.
The dwarf had always been shrewd and a skeptic to the bone, but he had also seen many things in his travels and learned that just because he'd never heard of something like it before, did not mean it was impossible, and that his eyes rarely lied. Nori didn't linger long in the room, hardly able to comprehend the facts set before him, but when he left, he left on a mission.
Nori held his cards close to his chest in all things and this was no different. He was not about to go flying through the halls for every member of the company to tell them the news, even if he thought they all really ought to know. He had no doubt that at least a majority of the company had no idea that the ridiculous rumors that were flying around had any truth to them, but he knew Oin certainly did. And he'd rather like to know why all of middle Earth seemed to be privy to the information before any of the rest of them. He wasn't going to rule out that perhaps the old dwarf had a good reason, but suffice it to say he was not entirely pleased with the healer and he took a bit of pleasure at the way he nearly jumped out of his skin when he turned around to find a star shaped shadow crossing his path. Especially since it had taken him much too long to find the old dwarf.
"Durin's beard Nori, you're going to send me to my grave, what do you want?" The clear exhaustion that hung from the dwarf like a weight was enough to soften the thief's heart, if only a little, so he gave him a break and decided to cut to the chase.
"I know the rumors are true." He wasn't sure what all he expected in return, but it was not the heavy sigh of acceptance that he got.
"Figured it would be you, if not Dwalin."
"Balin knows then?" Oin snorted. "It's not as if that boulder of a dwarf would ever listen to the idle gossip of strangers."
"You're right of course, and yes, Balin knows." Nori raised his eyebrows in return.
"And yet, the rest of the company remains in the dark. Were we to be the last peoples of Middle Earth to hear the news?" The healer sighed once again and rubbed both hands over his face.
"I am sorry about that. I would have kept it quieter had there been the option, but I was wanting to move as fast as possible and elves have sharper ears than any dwarf and men never seem to mind their own."
"Well that explains why everyone else knows, doesn't quite explain why none of the rest of us were graced with such knowledge."
"Ah…why don't you come with me?" He put a heavy hand on Nori's shoulder and turned him about so they faced the same direction and began to walk down the stone hall they had been standing in, towards his own sleeping quarters. He was almost surprised when the thief actually followed and just a bit relieved.
As they walked into the room Nori took stock of his surroundings, it was clearly a long abandoned place, as the whole of the palace was, that had been hastily cleaned and shoved full of all the supplies a dwarf might need to get by. A cot stuffed in the corner, blankets strewn on it and the floor, a large chest of what he imagined must be medicine and herbs stuffed in one corner along with the same pack he had carried with him on the quest, evidently returned to him by the elves at some point, and large amounts of books littered about the floor and stacked in the corners, torn pages flitting around as the door shut behind them. Candles hanging on the walls were all that lit the room and it was dim and rather chilly.
Oin sat heavily on his cot and threw a pillow to his companion.
"Might as well have a seat, sorry it's all the hospitality I'm equipped to give." Nori acquiesced and sat down cross legged on the floor, carefully avoiding the books. He did not have to prompt the dwarf to continue.
"You have every right to be irked at me for leaving everyone in the dark, but know I only did it to spare feelings."
"Won't be sparing many feelings when everyone hears it from the elves before you."
"Aye, aye, you're right. I only worried that it would pass, and I would have given you all false hope."
"Why Balin then?" Oin shrugged.
"Couldn't really get around it. He was there when I took Thranduil to examine the bodies and I couldn't very well tell him the king simply fancied a visit."
"Thranduil?"
"Aye." The healer nodded slowly and took a deep breath. Nori listened carefully to what his elder had to say and did not interrupt. He was not angry in the least that he had recruited elves to consult with. You went to whomever had the knowledge you sought in such dire situations, regardless of past grudges and misdeeds.
"Been doing your own research as well?" A torn page from one of the books sat on the floor within reading distance and clearly stated "The Living Sleep" at the top.
"As much as I've been able. But nothing has been of any help explaining what's going on. They are not simply comatose Nori, they died just as surely as everyone thought….just not completely, apparently."
"Sounds as if this is all beyond the skills of a healer, where is Gandalf in all this?"
"Missing, as is always the case when the old coot is most needed." There was a heavy silence in which Oin took a moment to appreciate the dwarf before him, he may have been a thief and con but his level headedness was something to be admired. It was not exactly easily digested news but he did not gasp and sputter and shake his head about like others he was sure would.
"I suppose it's best the company be informed of what's been going on now, as things don't appear to be changing and as you said, better they don't look as fools, scoffing at the tales of elves, and find themselves very much in the wrong."
"…You want to do it now?" It was dark outside at that point, more than likely most of them had taken up in their own sleeping quarters.
"There'll be no better time, at least now they should all be easy enough to track down." Nori nodded once and stood.
"They aren't gonna be happy with you, I'm afraid."
"I'm a doctor lad, I'm used to it." He was greeted with a familiar smirk at that and told the younger dwarf to gather everyone back to his room while he made space for all of them. It would probably be a long night.
Smoking a pipe was about the only thing that could put Bofur to sleep in those days. Without one he would lie awake and stare at the ceiling as if trying to see through the stone to the stars beyond, longing for the days of their quest again, thinking he would have liked their travels to be never ending if it meant that two of his favorite dwarfling's and their esteemed uncle would still walk Middle Earth.
And that is how the thief found him, propped up under a window, puffing smoke and watching it drift into the night outside. He almost did not hear the knock over the snoring of his baby brother, but it didn't matter much since a moment later the door swung open from the outside.
"Didn't know you could pick a lock so fast, me friend."
"I'd say you underestimate me but alas, you left it unlocked." The miner raised his eyebrows.
"Ah, guess I can't say I'm much used to doors at all yet." Nori smirked at him and glanced at the large slumbering mass of Bombur tucked into the corner, then to Bifur, who was sitting up on his cot, watching the dwarf expectantly.
"'m afraid I have to interrupt your night, and ask you to go to Oin's room."
"Did something happen?" After years of knowing the sly dwarf that stood before him Bofur considered himself a bit of an expert on reading the tiny ticks of his person and the way he honestly seemed at a loss for words to his question had him on edge immediately.
"You could say that….but it's nothing new. New to you and everyone else, but not really new."
"Don't talk riddles." Came the lightening signs of Bifur. Nori waved a hand through the air and huffed.
"If I tell you why you have to come, I'll be here all night and then you won't have to come, just go, I'm getting everybody else." He then turned and gave Bofur a meaningful look though the dwarf couldn't for the life of him translate what it could mean, only that whatever it was that had him waking half the castle and calling a Company meeting meant big news that should not be missed.
He stamped his thumb in the end of his pipe, putting it out and singeing his skin just a tad in his haste. "We'll be there as fast as we can." Tossing the pipe in his bag he sent one of his brother's shoes soaring overhead to land with a thump on the dwarf's substantial gut, cutting the snores off abruptly. Bofur was already rising from the floor when the shoe came rocketing back at him, narrowly missing it as he gave a wide grin to his friend still stood in the doorway. "Won't be missing another adventure if I can help it." He tipped his hat and started pulling his boots on, ignoring the grumping from Bombur as their cousin explained to him why he was woken so very rudely.
He had a feeling in his belly, something squirming and unsettling, butterflies like the kind at the dawning of an important day. Whether they were good or bad stood to be seen but Bofur was not a pessimist by any definition of the word and where others were no doubt grumpy and gloomy at the potential for more bad news, the minor felt a brush of hope in his chest, and he was not above clinging to it, even if it turned out to be false.
The room was half full by the time Bofur, Bombur, and Bifur made it inside and it was already rather crowded. Oin sat on his cot, looking deadly serious and a bit hesitant, his eyes grazing over each of them, finally meeting Bofur's. His mouth gave a tiny quark up and a nod. Everyone stood around in their bedclothes, boots stuck on with laces untied, blinking the sleep out of their eyes. Dwalin scowled at the floor as if he might bend it to his will and mold a chair from the stone.
A pat to his shoulder earned him a glare that would have any dwarf with sense shaking in his boots. Of course Bofur had never had much sense and smiled instead. "Do you sleep in that damn hat?" that brought a snort to his nose.
"Did you never notice on our journey?" The large dwarf's eyes narrowed even further if it were possible. Where the miner might have chuckled in response before, the floating feeling in his gut had him laughing outright. It didn't help his reputation that when a hush fell over the room as the last member of their company was ushered in and the door shut behind him, he was still laughing softly to himself. Quickly stifling the last of it with a cough he offered a smile to the hobbit. While Bilbo padded over to him, with a small amount of difficulty in the crowded, increasingly stuffy room, he did not offer a smile in return and looked a bit sickly in the dwarf's opinion. He reached over and gave the lad's elbow a squeeze, hoping to at least lighten the crease between his brows, the toymaker hated seeing anyone upset. The grim smile he received in return did nothing to help ease his worry for the hobbit but he didn't say anything as Oin cleared his throat loudly.
"You are all wondering what this is about I'm sure." Nori stood to the healer's left and watched them all carefully, studying their expressions. There were general murmurs of ascent and Dwalin crossed his large arms over his chest, making an even more imposing figure. "I'm sorry it has taken me so long to inform you all of what's…been happening, but I did not want to give false hope if all did turn out as we expected." Murmurs floated around the room again.
"Would you just spit it out brother!" Gloin shot from towards the front of the group.
"Aye, Aye…you have all probably been hearing rumors and tales of Thorin and his nephews…" The room then became extremely quiet, Bofur could almost feel the apprehension rising in the group and swallowed nervously. He shot a glance at Bilbo just to see If the lad was alright but found him stiff as a board and white as chalk, afraid he might faint he put a hand to the back of the halfling's neck and squeezed gently. The hobbit drew in a sharp breath as if he had been holding it and glanced at Bofur with another shaky, very unconvincing smile and turned his eyes back to the scene before them.
"I brought you here to tell you that some of them are indeed true." He paused here, as if waiting for outbursts and yelling but found only hungry silence and continued. Bofur could barely believe his ears, and found himself rather frozen to the spot. When all was said and done there certainly were outbursts, Gloin and Dwalin as well as Dori couldn't seem to accept the news without further proof and the bald warrior was none too happy when he found his brother was privy to this information already, and had said nothing to him.
"I understand that everyone is reluctant to believe something so…outlandish, but I assure you I would not make it up, and if you wish to see them for yourselves I will not stop you." Bofur didn't speak, only followed when the large group all stumbled one by one out the door of Oin's now boiling room to the cool hallway. A shiver went down his spine but he didn't quite think it was the temperature that did it. The walk was almost unbearable, no one spoke or even looked at each other as the great stone door came into view. They all stopped and stared for a good long while before finally Oin stepped forward and grabbed the handle, pulling the door open and revealing a dark room, with a sparing amount of candles lit along the walls. The first to step forward was Ori of all people, with Dori rushing in behind him, grabbing the back of his cloak as if to save him from some unknown danger. Bofur waited at the back with his brother and cousin until all others had filed in, finally taking steps to join them. Once inside torches were lit and the room was filled with a warm flickering light and in the center, three cots lay.
A strong hand gripped his arm, to steady him or themselves he couldn't be sure, but upon looking up his younger brother offered him a pale and shaky smile. All Bofur could do was laugh.
It was surely in terrible taste, but laugh he did and he could not stop. With both hands covering his mouth and bent so far forward he would have toppled over had Bifur not grabbed his other arm, he gasped for breath, tears streamed down his cheeks and in moments he could no longer tell if he was laughing or crying.
The commotion around them seemed to indicate that many others felt the same, Ori was crying on his brother's shoulder while Dori looked on, pale and shocked. Gloin shook his head over and over with both hands pulling painfully on his beard, Dwalin seemed to shake in sudden fits, his older brother wrapping his arm around his shoulders and squeezing tightly, while Bifur looked on, expression unchanging but a river running down his face. Bombur and Bofur both wrapped an arm around their cousin's shoulders and held him tightly before the toymaker saw Nori standing alone in the corner, watching everyone with a strained expression. He took no time at all in disentangling himself from Bifur to launch a tight hug on his unsuspecting friend who laughed and pounded him on the back.
"But what does it mean?" It was only a whisper but everyone heard it, Dwalin, in the only frightened sounding voice the miner had ever heard from the warrior.
"It means there's hope!" Was the loud reply from Gloin. "It means, the line of Durin does not end here! The world has plans for these three yet." He spoke with such conviction that Bofur felt it, he felt bolstered by it and with an arm still around Nori he glanced about for the hobbit, hoping to celebrate with him, only to find him missing.
"Where's Bilbo?" The small smirk on Nori's face slowly fell as he turned to the toymaker.
"He never came inside."
"What?"
"He must have left when the rest of us were going in." the thief shrugged and gave a grimacing sort of smile. "A bit much for him to take I suppose, with how him and Thorin parted." Bofur blinked back in confusion, never knowing the hobbit to back down from anything he was afraid of before.
"Perhaps…"
Nori was wrong, on almost all accounts.
Bilbo had indeed not gone into the room with them, but he had not waited until they were all filing inside to take his exit. He hadn't even waited for Oin to finish explaining what was happening before slipping out of the room more silently than he thought he had ever moved. He didn't need to hear the rest.
No, of all of them he certainly knew what was happening and had known in his heart that it was the case since the night Thorin died, when he had dreamed in a language he did not know, one with harsh sounds and hard edges. The dreams hadn't stopped after that, though none made more sense than the last, always in that harsh language that Bilbo recognized immediately, but tried his best not to.
He couldn't accept it. He couldn't do it again. Not this time, not with such young boys and a great leader that all meant so much to so many. He could not give them false hope. He could not spend every night searching in a dream world that he didn't understand, only to find nothing, only to wake to the same pale and sickly figures who would only grow weaker in appearance with each passing day.
He couldn't do it.
He couldn't.
So he ran away. Like he had wanted to more than anything else as a young man when his father had laid in his bed, as if a ghost, never to wake again, no matter how he searched or how he prayed for some sort of miracle. He had tried to find fairies once, spending at least a week's time searching through the Old Forest, listening to the trees speak to each other and wishing he could understand, so that he might ask their help and receive an answer. It was not a safe place, and he had been warned against traveling there he didn't know how many times as a tween, but it seemed the only place that magical beings might live, so he had ignored them all and gone on his way. The trees had left him be, though they did not seem all that kind. After two days with nothing to eat after running out of rations, and finding nothing closer to fairies than a talking bird that did nothing but insult him, he had found his way back to the shire and to Bag End, where his mother waited, wringing her hands and trying not to look as if her world was ending.
He had missed the shire many times since leaving it almost two years passed, but never so much as that night. The hobbit stared up at the moon as he walked, with no regard as to where, as long as there was grass, just no more stone, he was so tired of stone.
