Wow... long time no update, huh? Yeah, I'm really sorry about that. In reality, I've been writing a lot less fanfiction and a lot more original pieces. Anyway, the bad news is that this chapter focuses more on Bifur than Kili for the majority of the chapter (I wouldn't have done it like this, but I needed to insert the background and it kind of just happened). The good news is that I think this is the longest chapter yet. To:
everyone who reviewed, followed, and/or favorited - Thanks so much, guys. I know I must have been a huge disappointment to you and all of my other readers, so I apologize for that.
Oblivian03- I'm definitely glad that I made you happy, but... I'm so sorry for not updating faster. But this is definitely a longer chapter, right?
Beloved Daughter - Yep, exactly! I'm glad you caught that! And have you seen the trailer for if i stay? I saw it when I went to see A Fault in Our Stars, and I cried more in those two minutes than I did for the entire AFiOS movie. Probably because I had read AFiOS, though.
OrlyLuvr- Sorry, I had already started on this when you reviewed (I've been working on it off and on), so it's in Bifur's POV. I'm trying not to group siblings (cousins in Bifur and Bombur's case) too close together, so unfortunately it may be awhile until I get to Bombur. Rest assured, however, he will get his own chapter eventually. :) And I think Legolas getting a chapter is a fantastic idea! I was already planning on adding in Gandalf and Bilbo, which would make 15 total chapters. Legolas makes 16. :) One more chapter to hopefully make up for the awfully long time I've taken with updating.
Fili is thirty in dwarven years but fourteen in human years. Kili is twenty-five in dwarven years but thirteen in human years.
I do not own The Hobbit, but I hope you enjoy.
All Khuzdul is underlined so that I don't have to research the words and you don't need to worry about scrolling to the end to get the translations. Sorry if this upsets anyone.
Shooting Blind: Chapter Six
Bifur had always believed that he understood Kili a bit more than all of the other dwarrows in Ered Luin. Unlike the others, he had a similar disability, though not as extreme as the younger dwarf's. His thoughts on the matter were completely evaporated through an experience that he, Kili, and everyone else involved would never forget for the rest of their lives.
"Dis!" Bifur called, his brow furrowed even as he rushed into the set of rooms reserved for Thorin, Dis, and the two younger dwarrows. He cast his eyes about their living room, doing his best to ignore the curiosity that pulled at him, telling him to examine the items decorating the quarters and see if any of his toys were among the figurines by the fireplace. "Dis!"
The dwarrowdam hurried into the room, her blue eyes worried as she took in Bifur's rattled state. "What is it, Bifur? What's wrong?"
Bifur grunted in reply, fishing a crumpled and dirty piece of paper out from his coat pocket and handing it to Dis. He watched as she read, knowing what the letter said and just waiting for her reaction.
Take Fili and Kili into the forest and head for Arborough. According to scouts, there's a large orc pack coming this way. Their direct path shows that it's no accident; they plan to attack. All dwarrowdam mothers with young dwarflings are leaving with a five dwarrow escort. All other dwarrows are to stay and fight. A message will be sent when it's okay for you to return. Bifur, Dori, Bombur, Oin, and Basir are your escort - they are all dwarrows that I would trust with my life. Now I entrust them with yours. Three other dwarrowdams and their children will be joining you. Meet outside the West Gate in an hour. Be ready. — Thorin
"You're coming with us?" Dis questioned, while at the same time grabbing an empty pack that hung on a hook next to the front door. Her eyes swept the room, leaving Bifur no doubt that she was wondering what to take with her.
Bifur grunted in confirmation, then motioned toward the door.
"Oh, yes, of course, Bifur. Thank you." She paused for a split second before continuing. "Bifur, Thorin says that he trusts you with my life." Bifur met her eyes with his, a questioning look in the dark pits. "So I will, too."
Bifur nodded, turning to leave, but he could sense the underlying words in what Dis had said. Do not fail me.
Bifur had known then why Thorin had chosen the dwarrows he had to protect the dwarrowdams and dwarflings. Not only were they trusted, ones that hadn't hesitated to make their loyalty to the line of Durin known, but not all of them were adequate fighters. Of them all, only Basir had been properly trained. Bifur and Oin had also had training, but they were not as capable as some of the other dwarrows in Ered Luin. Dori and Bombur had had even less training. By sending away the dwarrows who had had less training, Thorin had lessened the chances of more casualties in the fighting as well as reassured the dwarrowdams and dwarflings that it was unlikely for them to be attacked by orcs.
At the same time, though, Bifur knew that they could not let down their guard. Not even once. As a result, Bifur stayed in the front of their twenty dwarrow group, with Basir taking up the rear. They all trekked through Ered Luin's surrounding forest, the escort keeping watch while the dwarrowdams ushered the dwarflings forward. Every now and again one of the young ones would trip and fall, only to be pulled to their feet by their mother or an older child. Except for Kili, all of the dwarflings kept their eyes on the ground, watching out for where they were stepping. Rocks, leaves, and branches were strewn over the path, and every now and again there would be a root that stretched out from its tree and rippled along the dirt path.
"Walk faster!" Dori called. He was in the middle of the group, directly behind Kili. Dis journeyed beside Dori, Fili in front of her with his hand gripping Kili's forearm. "We need to reach Arborough by dusk!"
"We can't go much faster," Oin pointed out. He was the first guard behind Bifur, keeping watch over a dwarrowdam and her forty-year-old daughter. "Not everyone is used to traveling this long on foot."
"Yes, but we can't afford to continue at this pace," Bombur added. He walked behind a young ginger dwarfling named Gimli and his mother, Amris. Behind Bombur were another dwarrowdam and her forty-six-year-old son, both being watched over by Basir.
"I agree," Basir said. He gripped a sword hilt at his waist, and grey hair stuck out from both sides of his head in elaborate braids. "It would be better to make it before the sun sets, and we would have more protection in a town if orcs happened to be following us."
"So we walk faster," Dis put in, her blue eyes alight with determination. "We can slow down after fifteen minutes. Five minutes after that, we pick up the pace again. We can journey like that until we reach Arborough."
"Agreed," Oin said with a sigh. There was nothing he could do when everyone was against him.
Bifur glanced behind him, wordlessly checking to make sure everyone was ready, before he quickened the pace to a fast walk, almost jogging. His boots led a chorus of thumps as the company pounded along the dirt path. Every now and again he would chance another look behind him, dark brown eyes peering out from under a mess of black hair. His eyes would scan the crowd of dwarrows behind him, checking each dwarf individually before he looked in front of him again.
"Slow down!" The call came from behind Bifur, and he recognized Dis's voice as she continued. "Fifteen minutes are passed; we can walk slower, Bifur."
Instead of responding, the axe-ridden dwarf just followed her instructions. It was at that moment that an arrow whizzed by in front of him, so close that he could see each individual feather. The only reason it hadn't hit him was because of Dis's instructions.
"Down!" He cried, even as he turned and threw himself in front of the dwarfling behind him. An arrow deflected off the axe in his head, and for the first time he was thankful for it. Screams erupted around him, mostly from the dwarflings, but he also heard a cry come from one of the dwarrowdams.
Bifur pulled out a throwing knife and threw it into the trees, hearing a screech echo the throw. He heard the scrape of metal against leather and instinctively knew that the mother of the dwarfling he was guarding had unsheathed her sword. All throughout the line, guards and dwarrowdams drew their weapons, herding the dwarflings into a tight cluster so that it would be easier to protect them. Orcs emerged from the trees, their gruesome faces sneering at the dwarrows, mocking them as the orcs surrounded the dwarrows.
"Axe-head!" One shrieked, and Bifur narrowed his eyes. "Axe-head, lookie at Axe-head!"
"Dwarf scum," Another growled, his black lips drawing up to show pointed teeth that he gnashed, spittle flying toward the circle of dwarrows. Some spattered onto Bifur's cheek, but he held his breath, waiting for someone else to move. Waiting for someone else to attack.
"Dirty, stinky, ugly dwarf scum," The tallest orc spat, thwacking the previous orc over the head with the wooden handle of his spear. "Get it right, ugly."
The smaller orc scrunched his head in toward his shoulders, tilting his head up to look at the taller orc as he smiled in deference.
"Yuck."
Bifur choked on the breath he was holding, praying to Aule that the orcs wouldn't hear the single word, while at the same time scolding the small ginger in his mind. Yes, Gimli was the youngest of their company, but that didn't mean he didn't know better.
"Ow!" The word was hissed, and Bifur wondered which dwarf had punished the red-head.
"What was that?" The tall orc's head whipped in Gimli's direction, his beady eyes narrowing at the dwarfling. "Did 'e say what I think 'e did?"
"Maybe he did, maybe he didn't," Dis replied from her position next to Bifur. "Why do you care?"
"I care," The orc said, speaking slowly as if the dwarrows wouldn't understand him, "Because 'e spoke. 'e spoke, an' I don't like what 'e said. So I'm gunna kill 'im."
"You'll have to kill us first," The dwarrowdam on Bifur's other side said, the sentence snarled out in the way only a mother protecting a child could speak - even if that child wasn't her own.
"Very well," The orc replied, his tongue flicking out momentarily to lick at his lips. His tongue, like his lips, was black. Black and filthy like the dirt the orcs were. "We'll kill you all."
The orcs didn't waste any more words, charging toward the dwarrows with the intent to rip the company apart.
Bifur swung his axe at the first orc, the one that had labeled him 'Axe-head', and the axe cleaved straight through its skull. The irony of the situation didn't escape his notice. His next target ended up being the second orc who had spoken, and he found great satisfaction in burrowing his axe into the creature's chest. Black blood sputtered around the wound, coating the axehead when he yanked it out.
A sword swung at Bifur, and he blocked it with his axe, punching the orc wielding the sword in the crotch. Apparently, even orcs found that spot painful, because the orc doubled over and made it exceptionally easy for Bifur to behead it.
A cry rang out to Bifur's right, and he whirled to see the dwarrowdam who had defended Gimli pull a knife from her upper arm, using it to stab an orc in the chest. Within seconds, however, she had discarded the knife and pulled twin daggers from their sheathes. Deciding she didn't need help, Bifur turned his attention to Dis. While she didn't appear to need help, either, he could still hear her unspoken words ringing in his head. Do not fail me. With a grunt, Bifur swung his blood-coated axe into an orc's side, slowing it down enough for Dis to behead the creature. Dis nodded at him in acknowledgement of his help, but before Bifur could offer her a nod of his own a scream came from behind both dwarrows.
"Kili!" Dis gasped, turning a split-second after the cry rang out and darting away from Bifur. Not questioning the mother's instinct, Bifur followed after, leaving Dori and the other dwarrowdam to close the gap they left behind.
Making their way through a bundle of dwarflings, Bifur discovered, was exceedingly easy when those same dwarflings were terrified out of their wits. Within seconds Bifur stood in front of Dis, Kili, and Fili, all of whom were in the inner circle. He finally discarded his axe for his boar spear when the axe wouldn't exit an orc's body in one tug.
Bifur took a step back, attempting to find a better balance, only to feel squishy flesh beneath his feet instead of hard dirt. A quick glance down revealed a dark leather jerkin and grey braids. Blood covered the dwarf's face, but Bifur had no trouble determining who the body was. Basir. He swallowed roughly even as he directed his attention back to the fight around him. The old dwarf had been friendly to everyone he met, and Bifur himself had shared quite a few drinks with him after a hard day's work before the axe incident. Like several other dwarrows, Basir had followed Thorin and Dis to Ered Luin after Smaug's attack on Erebor and remained steadfast in his belief that Thorin was the rightful King Under the Mountain.
He gave a grunt of anger and took a step forward, gaining back the ground that he had lost. An axe swung toward his head, but he didn't duck. He couldn't, not with Dis and the dwarflings behind him. Instead he knocked the axe from its warpath with his spear and then stabbed the axe's wielder between the eyes.
A ferocious roar erupted from behind him, and soon after Dis came flying out from between Bifur and Bombur, who was on Bifur's left. She didn't stop between them, though. The dwarrowdam whipped her dual swords through an orc's throat and went on, not even stopping when the orc's head toppled into her path.
A quick glance behind him revealed the reason for Dis' fury. Fili knelt next to the huddled form of his younger brother. Both had blood covering their clothes, but Bifur wasn't worried. Their proximity to the battle and Basir's body told him that it was not their blood. Still, he felt a raging fire break out in his soul* at the sight. He turned back to the battle with a fierceness not unlike that of Dwalin and Thorin together.
The fight was almost over when yet another scream came from behind the toymaker. Bifur wished that he could say he didn't recognize the cry, but he did, and as one he and Amris, on Bifur's right side, turned to see what was plaguing the youngest of their company.
What he saw would give him nightmares for days to come, but what happened next installed a feeling of pride so fierce he was surprised that he hadn't just grown ten feet.
"GIMLI!" Amris screamed, and Bifur was about to dart forward when he saw that someone else had beaten him.
How he had done it, Bifur didn't know, and he didn't know if he would ever find out. The same dwarfling that had previously been crouched underneath his brother's protective body, the same dwarfling that was blind, the same dwarfling that had been terrified out of his wits, was now tackling Gimli to the ground. The best that Bifur could come up with was that Kili had reacted to the scream and just hurled himself in Gimli's direction. If it was true or not, Bifur didn't know.
Bifur startled himself out of his daze just in time to rush forward and block the spear that had been coming down. A quick strike from a dagger was all he needed to end the orc's life.
Within moments the battle was over, but Bifur knew that what he had seen would never leave him. It wasn't easy being blind, Bifur knew. There was a reason most blind dwarrows never made it to adulthood. There was a reason to why Thorin had been reluctant to allow Kili to take on the bow and arrow as his weapon. There was a reason to why the youngest prince wasn't allowed into the mines or a blacksmith's work space. But there was no reason to why being blind would affect Kili personality wise, and Bifur was beginning to realize that.
He averted his eyes as dwarrowdams reunited with their dwarflings, doing his best to give them privacy. He and the other escorts held just a brief conversation as to what they were going to do about Basir's body before deciding that it would be best to cover the body with rocks until a proper burial place could be chosen.
Finally, Dis' voice broke through the air, cutting over the whispers and crying. "We need to move on," She ordered. "Arborough is only a few miles from here. With luck, we will still be able to reach the town by dusk."
A silent agreement was made between the escorts and the dwarrowdams, sequentially followed by the movement of all the dwarrows. They journeyed in the same formation as before, except Bombur was now watching over two sets of dwarrowdams and their dwarflings.
Bifur chanced a look behind him, spotting Kili. His clothes and brown hair were covered in blood, the red liquid beginning to turn brown as it dried. His face was pale, showing the aftermath of his terror, and he clutched Fili's hand as tightly as he could as his eyes stared forward sighlessly.
He was a blind dwarfling, yes, but Bifur no longer doubted that Kili would have a future.
*Sorry, I couldn't help it. I was listening to Raging Fire by Phillip Phillips and thought that I just had to put something from his song in here, even if it's not the specific lyrics. The song, by the way, is awesome, and I highly recommend that anyone who hasn't listened to it do so.
Sorry again for the freakishly long wait, but I hope this extra long chapter made up for at least some of it.
Please review!