Hello again! Here is another chapter with a lot more squee, just to make sure that you get your daily dose. Wouldn't want any of you to get scurvy or anything!
Consciousness came slowly, painfully. He was cold and aching, his bones steeped in a potent exhaustion, muscles taut and burning as he woke.
Fili opened his eyes slowly, cringing as light scorched through his vision and he blinked tiredly, his eyelids feeling like they were coated in sawdust that scratched his eyes as they flickered open and closed. He took a breath, relieved to find his lungs no longer felt as if they were filled with molten iron.
Where was Kili? He glanced about him cautiously, bemused to see a burnt out fire but no companions. His palms and wrists were wrapped in cloth, the wounds stinging but to a quick glance, no longer infected. The swelling in his wrists had subsided a little as the poison ebbed from his veins.
A little concerned, he attempted to pull himself into a sitting position, regretting it instantly as the world rocked like a boat on the sea, bobbing and swaying as if caught in a strong breeze.
Someone was calling his name in the distance, part worry, part delight, but the voice was faint and his vision heavily blurred. Everything was distant and everything was spinning.
Then, strong hands gripped his face and he was eased back onto the ground, where the world slowly came back to focus. Brown hair and dark eyes floated above him, an anxious voice still talking to him, as if expecting an answer. Too weary to form words, he reached out a tremulous hand towards the face, to reassure himself he wasn't hallucinating, only to have it batted away and held in a vice grip.
It could only be Kili. The boy had a grip like a corpse in rigor mortis and he'd been worse as a dwarfling. Relieved that his brother was safe, and comforted by his presence, he tried his best to weakly squeeze his brother's hand.
Warm hands held his cold ones and he drifted off into a more peaceful sleep.
He woke suddenly, someone shaking him awake. His first thought was to panic, his eyes wild and anxious, but it seemed there was no cause for alarm.
Happy that he was able to finally focus his own vision, Fili blinked until the clouds across his eyes faded into obscurity.
Kili smiled brightly at him, though his eyes betrayed his concern, "Aedric's managed to get us some horses from a farm up the road. Should make the journey a bit quicker. Do you think you'll be ok to ride?"
Confusion returned quicker than a bird's whistle. "Who's Aedric?"
"The man who escaped with us. Don't you remember?" Worry was suddenly far more visible on his brother's face.
He patted Kili's arm reassuringly, "Don't worry little brother, I remember. What I don't remember is you turning into an elf and bothering yourself with those kind of pleasantries."
It was amusing to watch his brother's face transform from concern to outrage in a matter of seconds.
"I am not an elf! I'm nothing like an elf!" He cried indignantly, slapping Fili lightly on the arm, before looking stricken as he remembered about his older brother's injuries.
"Sorry!"
Fili waved it away, trying not to let the pain show on his face.
"Don't worry about it, little brother. How are you faring yourself?"
Kili shrugged carelessly, "I'm fine. A few bruises but all good. You were the one who was impaled, strangled and beaten."
A little uncomfortable under his brother's scrutinising gaze, Fili tried to shuffle upright, failing miserably as his battered muscles protested sharply.
He glanced pointedly at Kili.
His brother sighed, lifting under his shoulders to haul him into a sitting position against the tree, fussing about trying to make him comfortable.
"Brother, I'm fine."
Kili snorted in sudden exasperation, "You, my dear brother, are a massive hypocrite. If this were me, I wouldn't so much as be allowed to move, but when it's you, a serious infection and a fair degree of blood loss become nothing worse than a simple cold."
Unable to find a clever comeback, Fili looked petulant. "I'm older."
"And wiser?"
"Definitely wiser."
Still scowling from the humiliation of having to be lifted onto a horse, Fili nodded his thanks at Aedric, his bones still limper than boiled cabbage as Kili scrambled up behind him. This, unfortunately, was the other condition to riding the horse. Apparently, if he rode alone he wouldn't make it more than twenty paces without tumbling off – and whilst it was a fact, he was still in a grumpy denial.
Kili reached around him for the reins, tugging them out of his grip with a gloating smile. Fili glowered back, feeling his brother almost trembling with excitement at getting to ride a horse rather than a pony.
The ponies of the Blue Mountains were short, stout and more often than not, pot bellied. They were slow to boot and his brother had always been a bit of a thrill seeker. Groaning inwardly, he prayed that Kili wouldn't try anything particularly risky while he was atop the damn thing.
They had ridden for hours and every joint, every muscle, every bone in his body ached with a vicious certainty. Every jolt of the horse send a wave of pain shuddering through his bruised frame, but he both to proud and too stubborn to say so.
The inn had come into sight as dusk drew close and he had never been so pleased to see anything in all his life.
He could barely stand as Kili helped him off the horse, his legs weak and throbbing with pain, leaning heavily on his brother to avoid the inevitable collapse that was now pretty much guaranteed.
The rest of the next part was a blur; warmth, roaring flames, stairs, voices, and suddenly a bed.
He stared stupidly at it.
"Well get in then." Kili sounded far too cheerful after a whole day's riding.
It was the most fantastic thing he'd ever lain in. Soft, downy and absolutely, goddam amazing.
The double bed bounced as if it had been hit by a quake as his brother dived onto the other side.
"This is the stuff of kings!" Kili cried in delight, "If we ever conquer Erebor, I want one of these in my bedroom!"
"You are going to travel half way across Middle-Earth, slay a dragon and fight off everyone else who wants their hands on grandfather's treasure, just so you can get a feather bed like this?" He asked incredulously.
"Exactly!"
Fili shook his head wearily, "Don't you have your own bed?"
"I didn't think you'd want to be by yourself."
He looked pointedly at his little brother.
Kili scowled, hunching down under the covers, "Ok, so I didn't want to be by myself. Is that a crime? We just got captured by mad creatures and I thought we were going to die."
Fili shuffled a little closer, wrapping an arm around his little brother, feeling the tension leave him as Kili relaxed into the hug.
He shut his eyes, so glad to be out of the cold, the damp and the wet that he fell straight asleep, Kili succumbing to dreams shortly afterwards, safe and warm and dry.
Guess what...No cliffhanger! Happy No cliffhanger day everybody! Please Review :)