Chapter 7: The Mountain Path

Onwards and upwards the company trudged, leaving the Last Homely House far behind. There were many paths that led up into the mountains and many over them, but most of the passages were cheats and deceptions or crawling with evil things and dreadful dangers. Luckily, Balin was familiar enough with the right paths and led the company up. Gandalf had instructed them to meet him at the top of the mountain pass, giving him time to take care of some pressing matters in Rivendell.

They had replenished their weaponry with finely crafted bows, arrows, knives, daggers, and swords stolen from Elrond's house. Even Kira had taken a short sword in addition to the daggers that Fili had recovered for her.

The first day was not so bad. It was midsummer, so the weather was pleasant for walking. Though the valley seemed to never end, the group sang merry tunes and kept their spirits up. The mood had reminded Bilbo of his walking holidays in the Shire. Kira, too, was reminded of the warmth of home as she walked on in her newly sewn cloth boots.

The second and third days had gotten much darker. The wind chill had dropped significantly and the skies darkened. They scarcely spoke above a whisper: the echoes were uncanny and the silence seemed to dislike being broken.

By the fourth day up the never-ending mountain, the temperature had plummeted and the rain and wind chilled them to the bone. The dwarves seemed to be better prepared for these conditions with their many layers to keep them dry and their furs to keep them warm. Even Ori, who was more lightly dressed than the others, seemed to be unaffected by the conditions as compared to Bilbo and Kira. These two felt the worst of the bitter cold. They each huddled into their cloaks, shaking profoundly with each step.

Dwalin had given the hobbit one of his spare cloaks, and Oin had a pair of gloves to spare that he lent to Kira. She did not understand how Bilbo endured the elements without any shoes; she could hardly feel her toes in spite of the thick cloth of her boots. Kili and Fili took turns trying to warm Kira by rubbing on her arms as they walked, but the mountain path grew narrower and more treacherous as they went on, forcing them to stop. The howling winds and pouring rain only got stronger.

When the company thought that conditions could not get any worse, boulders started falling and cracking against the side of the mountain. The ones that hit right overhead were especially frightening. Lightning flashed across the valley, illuminating an awe-inspiring and terrifying scene: huge stone giants tossing boulders at each other in some kind of violent game.

"The legends are true," Bofur screamed in awe, "Giants! Stone Giants!"

"Run!" Thorin shouted. The company rushed forward as another boulder was hurled overhead. A cascade of rocks came down, chipping away at their path. They ducked as they were pelted by the falling stones, and kept running as well as they could.

A giant reached down and ripped chunk of rock from the mountainside just below them and hurled it at the head of another giant. The giant toppled into the adjacent mountain, causing a rockslide into the valley below.

"If we don't get blown off, or drowned, or struck by lightning, we shall be picked off by some giant and kicked sky high!" Thorin yelled in frustration, barely audible over the torrent of winds.

The giants were upon them now. One smashed right into the company, scattering them in either direction and leaving a crater where they once were standing. Balin, Dwalin, Thorin, Nori, Ori, Bilbo, and Bofur had run forward while the rest of the company, Fili, Kili, Bifur, Bombur, Dori, Oin, Gloin, and Kira, had no choice but to run back. There was much screaming across the gap, as they tried desperately to reunite.

Their chance came as one giant plowed straight into the other, slamming him into the mountainside. The latter half of the company ran as quickly as they could across their temporary path, barely making it across before the stone titan stood up again, throwing a boulder across to the other. The company ran altogether in single file as quickly as they could manage without slipping.

They needed to put as much space in between them and the giants as possible. Once they'd reached a ledge wide enough for them to circle together, they stopped to assess the situation.

"We need to find a shelter to wait out this storm," Thorin yelled over the howling wind, "Fili, Kili – go scout ahead."

The brothers didn't say anything as they walked off down the path and disappeared into the darkness.

Bilbo had seemed to find his warmth by now, but Kira was still shaking uncontrollably. She had sat down on top of her pack and huddled into a ball in a desperate attempt to conserve her diminishing body heat.

"Kira? Kira, are you alright?" He asked her. His voice seemed to get lost on the wind. She didn't answer, so he crouched down next to her and started rubbing her arms through her cloak, trying to warm the blood in her arms. It was not much help. Tucked down in her cloak, Kira's lips were turning blue.

Bilbo didn't know if she couldn't ask for help or if she wouldn't, but nobody was paying attention to her freezing right in front of them. He hugged her and rubbed her shoulders again. When it was clear that his efforts were no use, Bilbo finally yelled for Thorin.

Thorin walked over and crouched down next to the hobbit and the huddled ball of a nomad. As he lowered, he immediately saw what was wrong. Before Bilbo could even explain the situation, Thorin had removed his fur-lined coat, his outermost layer, and wrapped it around her. The shaking didn't stop.

Thorin gave Bilbo a pained expression. They arranged themselves on either side of her and sandwiched her in their arms. She stopped shaking entirely.

"Kira, are you with us?" Thorin said into her ear. No response. He repeated himself more loudly.

When she didn't answer, Thorin uncovered her face and lifted her chin. His grimaced as he felt her stiff face and saw her bluish-purple lips. He felt a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach: she was much further gone than he'd thought. They were definitely losing her.

Thorin changed tactics. He pulled off his gloves and cradled her head against his chest, pulling her away from Bilbo. He could feel the warmth from his hands slowly creep across her cheek. Unfortunately, the icy rain was quickly extinguishing the little warmth he could giver her from his hands. It wasn't enough.

Thorin put his gloves back on, undid his belt, and opened his tunic. He pulled Kira close to him and wrapped the clothing around her as well as he could, combining it with the coat he'd already wrapped around her to make a cocoon of his body warmth. He felt the shock of her frozen face against his warm, newly exposed skin. He gritted his teeth and pushed her face fully into the curve of his neck. Upon feeling how she was slowly warming now, he pulled her arms under his shirt, shocking his warm stomach and back. Her frozen hands sent a shiver down his spine. Thorin wrapped his arms around the bundle of clothes around her and held her as closely as he could.

Kira twitched, much to Thorin's relief. There is life in her yet!

Thankfully, Fili and Kili had finally returned, rushing down the path as quickly as they dared. Thorin slid her arms out from under his shirt, mail, and tunic, hoping Fili hadn't seen him, and then picked the bundle of Kira and clothing in his lap.

'This way!" Kili yelled and scampered off down the path. The company followed.

Fili rushed to his uncle's side, grabbed Kira's pack, and walked beside him as much as was possible while they followed Kili to the cave. Fili was confused and worried over what he'd come back to witness, but said nothing.

"Did you find a cave?" Thorin yelled.

"Yes!" Fili shouted back, "A dry cave, not far round the next corner."

"Did you check it, laddie?" Thorin yelled. The last thing they needed now was to encounter some wild animal.

"As best we could see," Fili yelled. They didn't have much choice in the matter either way. Fili kept glancing between the path ahead, Thorin, and the little that he could see of Kira. Her face was still pressed against Thorin's neck and Fili couldn't help but feel angry and jealous. He pushed the feelings down as best as he could, but they fought back with each glance.

Finally, they reached the cave. Thorin rushed Kira toward the back of the cave, away from the winds but not out of the dim light. "Oin! Gloin! Get a fire going," he shouted.

Fili tore Kira's bedroll off her pack and laid it down on the floor of the cave. Thorin placed her on it and pulled her arms back out of the bundle of clothing. They were frozen again. "Warm her," he said to Fili as he pulled his gloves off again and pushed her sleeves up. Fili followed what Thorin was doing without a word and started working on her other arm. He kept a careful eye on where Thorin was touching her.

They rubbed their hands along her arms to create some friction on her skin. They did the same with her legs, shoulders and stomach. Slowly but surely, and with much help from the new fire, color returned to Kira's limbs. Fili pulled her up and cradled her head against him with a sigh of relief. A groan escaped her lips as she tried to speak, but Fili hushed her and leaned his head on hers.

Fili grabbed his cloak and wrapped it around her, replacing the coat that Thorin had wrapped her in. He handed the coat back to Thorin as he'd stood up to leave. Thorin suppressed his anger at this: he'd saved her life and Fili was behaving with near hostility. Thorin glared at him, but didn't say anything. He just took his coat, put it on, and walked to the other side of the cave, near the opening. He sat down and pulled out his pipe, brooding while he watched the rain.

Kira was groggy, like she was waking up really slowly from a deep sleep. She had been hanging in there till they'd stopped moving: without the steady movement of her feet to keep her going, Kira had let the warmth slip from her body and had embraced the cold around her. It had enveloped her, pulling her into unconsciousness.

She was now slowing coming back to reality. She was wrapped up in Fili's arms now; Thorin had left them only moments ago, once her lips had turned back to their usual reddish color. She could have sworn that it was Thorin who had been holding her outside in the cold, unrelenting rain, but when she opened her eyes, huddled in Fili's embrace, she doubted her memory. She could have easily dreamed it as she was losing her grip on reality.

The company had stripped off their outer wet garments and were huddled around the warm fire as their clothes dried. Kira didn't move. She just looked on to the fire and watched the flames dance as she thought about what she'd seen. The huge mountain gods were clearly angry. She had no prayers for mountains, but whoever did had clearly abandoned their humility. Or maybe something had invaded the mountains and violated the ecosystem? Kira missed the sun and the trees; they never threw boulders at anyone.

She realized that she had been enjoying the warmth of Fili's arms for a while now without him knowing that she was awake. He absentmindedly stroked her face.

She sat up, suddenly feeling really uncomfortable with the intimacy of the situation. It'd occurred to her, in that instant while she was lying in his arms, that she'd had other people caring for her far too much lately. She was supposed to be fending for herself for the first time in her adult life, but she kept letting these dwarves, elves, and hobbit take care of her.

Not anymore, she thought to herself. This would be her last near-death experience. I pick myself up or I die where I am. I must be my own warrior! She felt a fire ignite in her that she hadn't felt in a long time. An image of her father lit up in her mind, a vision of real honor. She must do her best to be more like her dad. She can't expect anyone to be there to take care of her.

"No more," she mumbled to herself as she stood up. A pile of clothing fell from her as she straightened up. She nearly tripped when she bent down to collect her cloak from the pile. She grabbed her bag and bedroll, too.

"Are you alright, love?" Fili whispered as she'd stood up. Most of the company had started to fall asleep already.

"I am well now, thank you," she replied. She flipped her braids to one shoulder and slung her pack on the other to free her hands to roll up her bed.

"Where're you going?" Fili was starting to worry he'd done something wrong.

"I'm sleeping over there," she pointed to an empty spot closer to the front of the cave, but still near the fire. "Good night." She turned to step off, but Fili had stood up and touched her arm to stop her.

"Did I do something wrong, Kira?" he gave her a pleading look.

She stared down at the floor. "No, you haven't been anything but kind to me," she replied. "I need some space to sort my thoughts." She turned and left to the spot on the far end of the cave before he could say anything else.

Fili was at a loss for words. Sort her thoughts? Was that good? Bad? He sat back down.

"What do you suppose that means, Kil'?" he whispered down to his brother who was lying nearby, pretending to sleep.

Kili didn't move.

"Come on, brother, I know you're awake. You haven't snored in an hour."

"Hmm? Oh, she's crazy about you," he whispered in reply. He opened one eye. "Don't look now, Fili, but she's bothering you for a tumble." Fili chuckled and punched his brother in the arm who rolled over in response. Fili laid back on his bedroll and drifted off to sleep.


Thorin had opted to take the first and only watch of that night. He didn't feel much like sleeping, anyway. He sat near the front of the cave, leaning against a rock, smoking the dregs of tobacco that remained in his pipe. He'd heard the conversation between Fili and Kira. He was preoccupied with solving the puzzle that Kira presented them.

Thorin had always been very good at reading people. People were very predictable, as he'd found over the years. Kira was different, though, in this situation with his nephew. He still couldn't be sure if she cared for him, one way or the other. For example, just now, he saw Kira lay there in Fili's arms long after she'd waken up, indicating she felt comfortable and enjoyed being intimate with him. On the other hand, she just stood up and left for no discernible reason. And she made no visible reaction to being called "love".

Maybe nomads don't fall in love, he mused. He knew it was ridiculous, though. If you can desire for something then you can also love. It stood to reason, especially for dwarves. They say that the only thing a dwarf would covet more than his treasure or craft is his wife.

Hmm. Maybe she doesn't need to love him to marry him. He considered this carefully. It wasn't as though she had much to offer, and Fili didn't have competition as far as he knew. Thorin felt a tinge of guilt thinking about her this way. From what he'd seen on the quest thus far, Fili had failed at each opportunity to save her when she was in distress. The trolls, her collapsing in front of Elrond, just now on the mountainside…

Maybe he doesn't deserve her after all. Thorin took another puff. She won't live for long if he keeps this track record.

If he were being perfectly honest, Thorin would have to admit that some small part of him somewhere had actually enjoyed holding Kira close today, being what stood between her and freezing to death. He hadn't been that physically close to a woman in years. Remembering her face pressed into his neck sent a little jolt of electricity through him in a way that he hadn't felt in a very long time.

There was no point in remembering it, though. He could never betray his nephew like that whether or not he wanted to. He was not going to break his promise just because of very small, very brief feeling. I'll just have to make the lad work a little harder to keep her. He clearly needed help, especially after the display he saw tonight.


Bilbo was tossing and turning on his bedroll, a furrowed expression on his face. He'd been having trouble falling asleep for a good long while now. Once he finally did, he was bothered by any number of horribly nasty dreams. In one dream, he kept seeing this huge crack form in the back of the cave with horrible sounding voices coming from it. He would toss a bit and settle back in, but would be confronted with the same dream again. Then he dreamed that the floor of the cave was slipping away and that he was beginning to fall down, deep into the mountain.

At that last image, Bilbo woke with a sudden start and found that part of his dream had turned out to be true. At the back of the cave in the deepest part of the shadows, a crack had opened and was widening at an alarming rate. He was just in time to see a dreadfully mangled hand reach through the crack and push the rocks apart.

Of course, he gave a loud yell as loud as a hobbit can give: "The cave! It's opening!" he shrieked.

Out jumped the goblins all big and ugly, but quick. Thorin was already on his feet, with Orcrist drawn. Within moments, the rest of the company had jumped up and drawn their weapons to meet the horde of goblins. The stampede of goblin feet had stamped out the fire and the company was left to fight in the dark against an unending stream of foes.

Kira fought with a renewed vigor. She had been of the ideal mindset to meet this unexpected attack since she had been reviewing her knowledge of self-defense in her head while she was falling asleep. She felt a rush of adrenaline with every stab and a renewed sense of victory with every shriek her foe gave.

In spite of their best efforts, though, the company fell one by one to the goblins, completely overwhelmed by the shear number of enemies. Goblin bodies littered the ground around them, but the living creatures just stepped on their fallen comrades without a second thought.

Thorin had taken down at least fourteen goblins before they finally overpowered him. Two had jumped on his back, knocking him to the ground so that several others could disarm him and tied his hands and feet.

Kira had not been counting how many she felled; she had been entirely focused on killing her prey. She'd taken advantage of the goblins' bulbous eyes and exposed bellies. She wielded her short sword like a long knife, stabbing into the soft flesh of her foe, her other hand armed with one of Fili's knives which she used to scale the larger ones. Much like Thorin, she was disarmed where two of the larger goblins tackled her to the ground; one had even managed to keep holding her down after she'd stabbed its back several times.

After she was wrestled into ties, she continued to thrash and scream profanities in every way that she knew. They may have physically subdued her, but she would not give them the satisfaction of her going peacefully. No more! She would be subdued no more!

The goblins marched them down winding tunnels, some of them carrying piles of confiscated weapons and supplies from the party. The dwarves remained silent as they marched on with rigid looks carved on their faces. Kira kept thrashing. Occasionally she would stop to see if they would relax their grip. They wouldn't, so she continued hurling insults and kicking her legs.

With a wicked symphony of clanging metal and beating rocks, the goblins began to sing as they marched along with their prisoners:

Clap! Snap! the black crack!
Grip, grab! Pinch, nab!
And down down to Goblin-town
You go, my lad!

Clash, crash! Crush, smash!
Hammer and tongs! Knocker and gongs!
Pound, pound, far underground!
Ho, ho! my lad!

Swish, smack! Whip crack!
Batter and beat! Yammer and bleat!
Work, work! Nor dare to shirk,
While Goblins quaff, and Goblins laugh,
Round and round far underground
Below, my lad!

Kira had originally thought that the goblins were going to eat them. Now, with hearing their gruesome song, she feared that the company would not be getting out of this one without much bloodshed and very much luck.

The goblins, at it turned out, had been leading their prisoners to a massive flat rock in the heart of the mountain. The dwarves had made no noise during this trip down to the center of the mountain with the exception of some muttering and swearing. Now, the prisoners were lined up in front of a horrible throne made of bones, stones, and warped metal, on which sat the massive, disgusting Great Goblin.

The company stared on in stony silence.


Author: Thank you, everyone for reading! I hope you enjoyed this update. :) I wanted to let everyone know that since I'll be starting classes again next week, I won't be able to update as often after this chapter. I will update a chapter per week for the next 10 weeks, or so, instead of one per day like now. I hope you will still be interested in the story!

To Guest Reviewer: Thank you for your kind words! It is humbling to hear that you've enjoyed my writing so far.

To Reaverattack: Haha, happy to hear it. ^.^

So we have one for Team Fili! Anyone else?