The chapter might not fit, and the chapter as a whole may be flawed, but at least it is up (it's so hard to write something that is good). Enjoy.
Chapter 7: Estranged
Snick, snick, snick.
He had thought he had escaped the cutting blades. That they could hurt him no more.
Snick, snick, snick.
Obviously he had been wrong, or else he would not be laying here, trapped upon a cold stone floor.
Snick, snick, snick.
All he could do was groan and moan as they took a vicious delight in maiming him.
Snick, snick, snick.
Cutting through skin, flesh, and bone to coax the most intoxicating of sounds of terror from his lips.
Snick, snick, snick.
Never stopping, never ending, no matter how much he begged and pleaded with his tormentors.
Snick, snick, snick.
And here he was, all alone, his brother, his uncle swallowed up by the darkness around him.
Snick, snick, snick.
And Mahal, he would be lying if he said he wasn't afraid.
"Hush lad, it was only a dream."
Thorin's voice did nothing to reassure him that the things he had seen in his mind were not real, for they had been real not so long ago. He had been pinned down and used as a stone was used to sharpen knives. He had been subjected to terror, guilt, fear, agony, and numerous other unnameable feelings as he had laid, pinned there, or, in the reserve scenarios, he had been the one doing the pinning down. There was nothing that could erase the scars of such experiences from him.
Fingers carded through his hair gently, soothing his shaking body and equally shaky resolve. His tears had abated somewhat, with only one or two trickling down the sides of his beardless face at any given time. He could still hear the 'snick, snick, snick' from his dreams and he shuddered involuntarily.
"Come now, it would not bode well with your brother to see you like this should he wake."
And Fili. He knew Fili too had experienced the same things as him, had felt the same emotions as he had. If there was anyone who could understand what he was feeling at that moment, it was Fili. But even he could not feel as bad as this.
"Where is my brother?" Kili asked with dry lips, tired, worried, wound up, and hurting all at the same time. He watched with wary brown eyes as his uncle sighed.
"He is near you, sleeping. We had to give you both some space while the pair of you healed enough to wake up," was the answer the young archer received.
"Is he alright?" the youth asked after he had absorbed this information.
"He is…healing," Thorin replied, the slight pause when he had made when he spoke causing a small bubble of an almost panicked concern welling up inside of Kili.
"Can I speak to him?" he asked quickly.
"Only if you want to wake him," Thorin answered, "And I would not advise doing so. He needs the rest just as you do."
"Then I shall wait until he wakes." Kili's words were final as he ignored the subtle hint his uncle had sent him.
Thorin watched as his older nephew stirred, the moonlight seeping into the cave the company had taken up temporary residence in casting shadows on the ten other sleeping dwarves and a hobbit. Fili's golden hair glinted in the dim, white light, framing his still pale and drawn face. It would be fair to say the dwarf had aged in the weeks that he had been held captive. They both had.
"Fili," the dark haired dwarf heard his other nephew call from across his other side. The brunette's upper torso was propped up slightly against a blanket covered pack which served in the place of an actual pillow allowing him to see across his uncle's lap.
"Hmm?" the older brother responded, still half asleep and more than half drugged from Oin's bitter-tasting mixture.
"Your brother wants to talk to you," Thorin supplied, staring at his nephew with eyes that seemed to pick up on every little detail, including how the blonde, like his brother, appeared to still be carrying a slight fever.
"Kili?" his heir asked immediately, lifting his head so he could catch a glimpse of his brother before letting it fall back down, "Are you hurt?"
"I'm not dying, if that's what you mean," the youth replied, "What about you?"
Thorin could detect a hint of something lurking underneath his nephew's tone, just out of sight; obviously something he wanted to speak to Fili about alone. Again Thorin felt a strong urge to find out the exact details of what had happened surge through him. It was frustrating not knowing what was, or had been going on in his nephews' heads.
"Sore," Fili admitted in answer. He paused. "It would be better if I could see you myself; if you were next to me," the blonde said, shooting a look at his uncle. Thorin acknowledged it with a nod, the same as he acknowledged something else buried in his nephew's eyes; a worry that was out of place for someone so young.
"I see no foreseeable problem with a setup like that, but I'll wake Oin just to be sure," Thorin said, "And he can check over the two of you while he's at it."
True to his word, the exiled king did wake the company healer, asking him in a quiet voice whether it would be okay to move at least one of the two. Oin gave the go ahead, and, with the help of Bifur who was on guard duty, the three uninjured dwarves managed to move Fili next to his brown haired brother. Both of their faces lit up before falling as they regarded each other's various wounds. Thorin watched as Fili also took in his brother's still somewhat scared state, though the two did not say anything until the others had moved away, leaving only Thorin in earshot, and he had to strain to hear them himself.
"Are you alrigh-"
"What do you think?" Kili asked bitterly, cutting his brother off in midsentence, "After what happened?"
Fili shifted uncomfortably, his gaze suddenly dropping from his brother's.
"Kili, I'm-"
"No, don't start," said the brunette, again interrupting softly, "I know, just as you know, that we didn't really have much of a choice, did we?" Kili's voice cracked a bit at the end of the sentence, and Fili covered his brother's free hand with his own un-splinted one. He paused for a few moments before finally finding the words he wanted.
"Have you been-"
"Seeing them? What happened?"
Fili nodded mutely and it was Kili's turn to lower his eyes.
"Every time I close my eyes," the young archer said with a voice toned with both reluctance and resignation.
Thorin felt like he was listening in on a very private conversation, and he was. Yet it was hard for him to close his ears to the troubles of his youngest kin. He watched as Oin bustled over to the pair and withheld a sudden flow of emotion that ran through him.
"Alright," he could hear the healer saying, "I need you both to do as I ask." And then the old dwarf began to rattle of a list of instructions to be followed and questions to be answered. They both still had a slight fever, which Thorin already knew, and their pain was starting to pick up again, so Oin had them take some more of the blend he had created earlier. He lowered Kili back to the ground and made his way towards Thorin as the dark haired dwarf watched his two nephews drift off to sleep, seemingly more relaxed in each other's presence.
"How are they?" the company leader heard himself asking, though he already knew the answer. Oin grimaced.
"They have a long way to go yet," he replied, not one for giving false hopes or a negative condition a more positive outlook.
Thorin sighed and wearily put his head in his hands, glancing back over at the now prone figures of the injured dwarves. Nothing like this should have ever happened.
"You should get some rest."
Oin's words buzzed around his head like an annoying fly, and Thorin recognised some wisdom to them. Tired, he could do nothing to help Fili and Kili, yet sleep seemed to evade him at this current point in time. Instead, he watched as Oin went to relieve Bifur now that he was fully awake, giving the other dwarf a chance to catch some shut eye before dawn. Not that they would be going anywhere the next day. Not that they could.
Review. Please. They might help me if I get stuck again.
And for those of you who are thinking it, there may or may not be more interactions with the rest of the company - I need to think about it.
