The Lonely Mountain: Journey to the Blue Mountains

by TheNotSoMutantTurtles

Thorin Oakensheild returns from the battle of Moria to an even more devastating slaughter. With their women and children cut down to a dwindling few, the last of his line and King-Without-A-Mountain, Thorin must lead his people to the Blue Mountains, a long journey fraught with great danger, to give them a place of safety. Disclaimer: Don't own

25. Chapter 25

Fili had woken to a harsh pounding on his back, and a string of words he couldn't really understand and the feeling that he was drowning as he coughed up the remains of the river. Shaky and weak and very, very cold. When he had finally choked out the last of the water the pounding gave way to gentle rubbing at his back, and he felt comforted, though very, very confused. There was a another string of words and the whole world finally snapped back into focus.

"Bifur?" he questioned shakily.

There was an affirmative grunt and Fili looked around to see the older dwarf, who gave him a crooked smile and a reassuring pat before getting to his feet and crossing what Fili could now see was a cave to poke the monster that lay there hard with what remained of his spear.

"Mister Bifur!" Fili cried out, shrinking back, afraid the creature would spring to life once more.

Bifur made a dismissive sound and poked the creature again, harder, before nodding and removing a knife from his belt he began to cut into the flesh. Fili watched in a mixture of confusion and horror, but Bifur did not seem to require his input, so he stayed silent and watched, wondering where they had ended up. All he remembered from before the water closing over his head was screaming for Uncle Thorin.

He looked around the cave and back to the monster. Uncle Thorin must be very worried, and Kili was probably frightened. Neither of these things sat well with the boy and he frowned deeply, and while Bifur continued to cut chunks of flesh from the monster he decided to look for a way out.

He avoided the water hole that they had most likely been dragged up through, he had been subjected to far too much water already, so he took to the side furthest from the water and after some serious searching he found a small opening. "Mister Bifur!" He called. "I think I found a way out!"

Bifur looked across to him, but took the time to wrap up what he had cut from the creature before getting to his feet and ambling across, checking the opening and sticking his head out of it and into the darkness beyond. He made an approving sounding jumble of words and gave Fili another pat on the shoulder.

"I think maybe we should go now. Or Uncle Thorin will be very worried." Fili said.

Bifure nodded, and in his next string of words Fili recognised "Bofur" and "Bombur" and nodded sagely. "They'll be pretty worried too. So we should get back to them quickly."

Bifur squeezed out of the opening first, and made Fili wait for a moment before he let him join him. It was very dark in the tunnel, and though Fili's natural ability to see in gloom was making the gloom slightly less, it could not penetrate this much shadow. And if Fili happened to take a tight hold of Bifur's hand and not let go, well, it was only because he didn't want the older dwarf to get lost, and everybody knew the Bifur got confused sometimes.

The caves were long and damp, and it took days to cross them, and by the time they reached the end and daylight Fili was quite sick of the raw fishy flesh of the monster and the slimey water that dribbled down the walls of the cave. They emerged bedraggled and messy into the grass and sunlight. Fili was even glad to wash himself in the small, shallow and completely devoid of monsters, pool of water Bifur found.

And then they had turned in the direction of the Blue Mountains, because that was where everyone else would be heading. Fili wanted to go back, not entirely sure that Uncle Thorin would have left the lake, but Bifur was insistent and so it was to the Blue Mountains they went. Fili kept his eyes peeled for any sign of the others, really wanting to be with his Uncle and Kili again.

And then finally he saw them as a dark, moving shape behind them and he tugged on Bifurs arm insistently. "Look Mister Bifur! They're there! Come on! We need to get to them!" and he took off at a mad run towards them. He ignored Bifur's rumbling shout, likely calling for him to stop, that it could be dangerous. But Fili didn't care, because his Uncle Thorin and little brother were over there somewhere, and all he knew was that he needed to get to them.