'Head down to the town and gather a search party, I'll take Fili with me and we'll head to the forest to start looking for him there'

'Ok' Dis sighed, seeing the logic in Thorin's plans.

'Come Fili, we'll head past the stable on the way down and saddle up a pony, it will be far quicker'

Running down to the small stable, only a little way off the path towards the forest, with much haste, Thorin saddled two ponies, a larger and a smaller one, for both him and Fili. Knowing that if they found Kili, one pony could not carry the three of them. It was lucky then that both young dwarf princes had been taught to ride earlier than was expected. This was mainly down to their enthusiasm and constant begging; finally Thorin had had enough and caved allowing them to learn to ride; a decision that Dis had not been too happy about when both boys had come home bruised all over.

Once saddled up, Thorin and Fili rode hard and fast towards the forest, neither one speaking, channeling their fear and worry into determination and speed.

They reached the forest as the sky started to darken, and began their search. Their ponies treading carefully, neither daring to leave the path when the sky was threatening to close them in the darkness. Both knowing if they didn't find Kili soon they would have no choice but to give up their search for the night; the forest was a dangerous place to be at the best of times, and with light fading the chances of finding themselves lost (or worse) only increased.

Earlier that day

Once they reached home, barely through the door, Kili stormed to his bedroom, angry at his brother.

'Just because he's so perfect. They take him seriously. No need to tease me. Stupid brother. It's not my fault', were just some of the thoughts Kili muttered to himself as he stormed around the bedroom. Anger fueling him, Kili grabbed the wooden sword he had thrown across his and Fili's bedroom when he had first entered the room, having picked it up from the path earlier.

Sparing no thought to where he would go or to the hour that was growing ever later, Kili ran down from the bedroom and through the front door, not paying attention to where he was running, knowing only that the running helped dispel his anger.

It was when the sky started to darken that Kili realized he had passed the boundary between home and the forest, looking over his shoulder he knew not which direction he had come from, nor in which direction the path was. All around him trees stretched out, leering and laughing as they trapped him, blocking any signs of light. Kili saw no exit between the thick branches and trunks of the twisted trees. He had been to this forest many times before, but every one of those time he had had his older brother and Uncle Thorin by his side. Kili thought back to the times his Uncle had brought him and Fili here, allowing them to climb and play in the trees. Last autumn he and Fili had gathered conkers from one of the many horse-chestnut trees that stood within the forest. Try though he might, he could not remember a time when the trees had seemed so suffocating, he supposed he had never been this far into the forest before. His uncle was always careful to make sure he never strayed too deep into the trees. Oh how he wished he had his Uncle Thorin with him now.

The forest he loved so dearly now cast shadows of monsters around him, they seem to rise up and tower over him and when he spun around he could only imagine more monsters hiding in the shadows, watching and waiting to grab him. Kili was petrified. Knowing not what to do, he grasped the handle of his brother's wooden sword, knowing it would offer little protect, and ran; trying to get away from the faceless creatures that existed only in his imagination but only managing to delve deeper into the forest and attract the attention of the sort of monsters that weren't figments of his imagination. He ran, terrified as a large foul faced bird tried to grab at his face, leaving a large wound that spread across his face, stretching from his right eye, across his cheek, to his jawline. The bird pursued him, playing with him, chasing him further into the darkness. Kili continued to run, ducking under low branches to avoid the hungry creature, stopping only when his foot snagged in a tree root, a loud SNAP sounded through the thick, damp air and Kili's scream of pain was heard by nobody. He fell down hard, roots and branches cutting into his palms as he attempted to stop his head from hitting the ground unsuccessfully. As Kili's head hit a rock, poking up from between the roots that his foot had caught on, the ground drank thirstily the blood that spilled from the deep gash that bared his skull to the world. The scene before him blurred and darkened as he watched the foul faced bird hissing angrily at its inability to penetrate the thick canopy above Kili's head to reach him, before giving up. With one final ear splitting screech the foul creature turned its boned body away and flew into the darkness, before he had time to feel any sort of relief at the creatures disappearance, Kili fell into a sea of nothingness.

As promised, chapter 4. I feel so bad being so mean to poor little Kili. Unfortunately, i'll have to be mean a little longer. The storyline will continue over the next few chapters, but i promise once we all get through it, i'll write a happy fluffy wuffy lovey chapter to make everyone feel better :)

Once again thank you for all the reviews-i do try to reply to most of my reviews. I accept anonymous reviews too and will often leave shout outs to anybody who leaves me a review. so, please review :D it helps me a lot!

Yes i am aware the bird creature thingy in this chapter doesnt exist in Tolkien's world, it is of my own creation. I added it as i felt the chapter was far too short but thought Wargs or Orcs were too much for little Kili.

I will try to post the next chapter sometime this week, if not it will be up at the weekend

:) x