Chapter 6
Fíli and Kíli remained seated next to eachother and ate in silence. Kíli was looking around him at times, as if looking for something. Fíli watched his brother, wondering what he might be looking for.
"It's so quiet and so dark." Kíli whispered to his brother after looking around for several minutes. "I wonder if it is day or night right now. You would at least expect to see and hear some birds or other animals in a forest."
"Who is going to say what time it is right now. Nothing is getting through the leaves of those trees." Fíli answered, equally quiet. "And remember we aren't in a normal forest. There might be a reason why there are no animals being seen or heard in here. But I am not sure if I want to find out what that reason might be."
"I guess you are right about that." Kíli said. "I can't remember ever having been into such a forest as this. And I hope I hope I will never be in one like this ever again. I can't wait to get out of here. If we ever get out of here again."
"Me neither, brother. But we will get out of here. Thorin wouldn't let us be stuck in here forever."
"How do you know that? We are already lost, remember?"
Fíli remained silent for a moment. "I'm sure he will find a way out of here. He has gotten us out of a lot of dire situations already."
"With the help of Gandalf most of the time. And if you haven't noticed yet, he isn't really here." Kíli retorted.
Fíli sighed. "I know that, brother. But there is always a way out of everything."
Everything became silent again as they ceased talking with eachother. There was a soft rustling in the leaves above there heads that didn't quite sounded like the sound of wind. The sound made them feel even more uncomfortable. They immediately didn't have any interest in their food anymore. They watched the trees about them suspiciously, not being able to see what caused the sound. Fíli could swear that he saw many pairs of yellow eyes looking back at him.
"Do you see them too?" He asked to his brother.
"Yes, I do." Kíli answered. "What do you think they are?"
"I don't know. And I am not going to wait here to find that out. Come on."
Fíli stood up and reached his hand out to Kíli, who took it and allowed his brother to help him up. After Kíli was standing on his own well enough, Fíli released him. Kíli took some carefull steps forward to test if his ankle could hold his weight properly. When this seemed to be the case, he followed his brother to were the others were sitting.
When Thorin reached his other companions, who had seated themselves around the fire in a cirkle so they all could enjoy it's warmth, he walked over to Bombur and accepted a bowl from him with a nod and went to sit next to Balin and Dwalin. He started to eat in silence, listening to Bofur, who was telling jokes and funny stories with Ori and Bilbo listening intently to him. The others were watching them in amusement, but they didn't utter a single word. Even Thorin couldn't keep himself from smiling a little. They kept listening to Bofur for a long time. He certainly knew how to brighten up even the most gloomy and dark places they would be finding themselves in. When he saw Balin and Dwalin move away from him slightly out of the corner of his eyes, Thorin looked away from Bofur and looked to the side Balin had been sitting next to him earlier. Only now Kíli sat down next to him and Fíli to his other side.
"I had expected that it would take you a bit longer to come and join us again." Thorin said to his nephews. "You have barely eaten anything." He remarked sterly as he noticed their food, wich they had barely touched.
"We were being watched." Fíli said to his uncle, speaking quietly as not to worry the others unnecessary. "There were many bright yellow eyes shining in the trees above us."
"Are you sure it were eyes that you saw?" Thorin asked to his oldest nephew.
"There is no sunlight or moonlight coming through those leaves. Otherwise it wouldn't be so dark."
Thorin nodded. "Do you have any idea what it might have been?"
Thorin looked from Fíli to Kíli. When both dwarves shook their heads, he looked up and scanned the trees above them for anything out of the ordinary. Finding nothing, he looked back to his nephews.
"There's nothing there." Thorin said.
"We aren't pretending, uncle." Kíli replied this time.
"I don't doubt that you aren't pretending, lad. But there is nothing there anymore. So whatever it was, it's gone now. Now, eat."
Fíli and Kíli complied silently while watching their surroundings, almost expecting to see the yellow eyes again. But they didn't see anything anymore and allowed themselves to relax after a while and started listening to Bofur as well, who was still talking cheerfully like there was no care in the world. But after a while even he went silent as everyone decided to get some much needed sleep. They were all lying as close to the fire as was possible, weapons within their reach. Fíli and Kíli were lying with their faces turned towards the fire with Thorin seated in between them. He was softly humming to himself. Nori, who had been appointed to be on first watch, was sitting with his mace resting against his shoulder and watching the trees around them for any dangerous creatures that might be trying to creep up on them. No sound was being heard except for the crackling of the fire and Thorin's soft humming. But only moments later Thorin went quiet as well as he laid down between his nephews and slowly drifted off to sleep, leaving Nori to sit in silence.
Hi everyone!
I'm really so sorry to have kept you waiting...
It has been quite busy for me for quite some time, wich kept me from writing and updating.
I will try to write and update more frequently again from now on, but there might be quite some time between the updates still though.
But let's start with this new chapter of Left Behind.
I hope you will all enjoy it, even though it's a bit short.
Please leave me a review and let me know what you think. I would highly appreciate it ;)
~Alicia~
