The universe and the canon characters are property of Tolkien. Everything else is mine.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

SANCTUARY

He screamed as fire tore through him out of the darkness that had been, crawling into every crevice of his thoughts, searing him clean and open. His spine buckled from the excruciating agony, his muscled ripped, his throat and tongue scorching to ash. Finding no other opening, the surge of fire swallowed his eyes, and gouged out his brain before bursting from his eyes...

His eyes flew open.

His breaths were labored, skin slicked by a sheet of cold sweat.

Fire. Mahal, he didn't like dreaming of fire. He had experienced dragon fire first hand, but the fire of his dream...that was something else entirely. Lying there, staring up at the endless star-strung abyss of the night sky, he felt hollow. He felt as if the fire from his night-terror had really scorched away his insides, leaving him to be a raw, empty shell.

Slowly, his heart stopped pounding against his ribcage though. The cold desert wind was dissolving the sweat from his brow, whisking away the heat of the fire in him.

Groaning slightly, he rolled onto his side, only to freeze as his eyes met another's.

Upon a moment's observation, he realized it was Alabastrin, lying down in his bedroll a few yards away from him. The boy's eyes were open and awake, lit with something between confusion and apology. Kili made to turn away, but was stopped as Al raised a brow, mouthing something. Kili didn't catch what the boy had said, so he said it again. This time Kili understood. Fire?

Kili nodded slowly. How had he known?

He was saved from further pondering this by a sudden movement. With a slight tilt of his head, Kili was able to see that, across the faintly glowing fire pit, a previously hunched figure was now sitting bolt upright. A muffled curse travelled across the silence of the night, and Kili recognized the voice as Naratafynn's. This wasn't the end to the strange sounds in the night though. The shurkal whickered and snorted nervously as more shuffling movement came. One after another, it seemed that the others in the caravan woke. Kili glanced around, looking for whatever was causing this. Was there a noise he wasn't noticing, waking the others?

With a sharp intake of breath, another figure shot up out of their rest. Kili recognized the soft sound. It was Gwen. Kili's eyes flickered back to Al, whose eyes were gently closed. As if noticing Kili's gaze, they opened again, now reflecting a surrendered sort of sadness. Kili opened his mouth to speak, but Al shook his head slightly, placing a finger on his lips to signal him to be silent.

Kili raised a brow, but did as he wished, shifting to watch his travel companions. Naratafynn had stilled, remaining on watch. His face, illuminated by the faint glow of the embers had returned to its usual emotionlessness. Kulasi and Haralasi were stilling the shurkal with gentle pats, while Molftari and Aaron had rolled over, seeming to be set on ignoring the others.

Minutes passed, and Kili's eyelids longed to droop closed. Adrenaline was still laced through his blood though, leaving him painfully aware of the silence that swallowed them. Every time he closed his eyes, fire was imprinted on his eyelids. As much as he longed for rest, he couldn't help but fear that if he fell asleep again, the fire would return.

Gwen's voice lilted through the air, strong though soft in its tone. It was the old lullaby he'd heard her sing before.

When the shadows grow and you can't see through...

Kili watched, in slight fascination, as Naratafynn raised his head, first with an expression of surprise.

...And their voices sound in your head...

His astonishment softened in the flickering light, giving way to something akin to sentimentality.

Remember what I've told you, what I know it true,

Forget the things they've said.

Setting his head back down onto his bedroll, Kili took a glance towards Al. His eyes had closed, a slight smile on his lips. It looked like peace.

When the path grows dark and your fear shows through,

And you know you've lost your way...

Gwen's tone seemed to speak of a quiet reverence. Of quiet, long nights, and soothing from the dark of night terrors.

...Remember what I've told you, what I know is true,

And hope for haste of day.

His mind was slowly sliding away, giving into the low, lilting tone. Fire was crackling away from his thoughts, darkness swelling at the edges of his vision.

When your heart is heavy, and you can't see through,

When you shake and tremble with fear,

Remember what I've told you, what I know is true...

With a sigh, he gave in to sleep.

The days passed in a blur, it seemed. A blur of hot, dusty monotony. They would wake in the early hours of the morning, before the heat grew too overbearing, and break camp as quickly as possible. They would travel hard until midday, when the summer sun forced them to rest, eat, and drink from their dwindling water supply.

When the sun had sunk from its very highest peak, they would forge onward, until the dying light brought them to a stop for the night. They would have a dinner of tea, bread and bits of dried fruit and meat, while nursing their small fire, until one by one, they would all drop off to sleep.

Kili averaged that they were probably travelling upwards of 20 miles a day. An impressive feat, considering the number of them. It certainly wasn't easy to maintain this break-neck pace of course. Kili found himself constantly hungry, and a limited food supply paired with constant movement was shedding weight off of him faster than ever before. The sun was taking its toll on him as well. His skin seemed perpetually burnt and raw, and the herbs and creams they had brought could only do so much to numb the pain.

Luckily, his nights had been restful. Nightmares of fire did not plague him any more, and while Kili was still curious about that night, he hadn't found the chance to ask any of them about it.

Seven days. He'd kept marks on the inside of his boot, to make sure he wouldn't lose grasp on the time. They'd been going seven days across the desert. Their water supply, they estimated, would last them another two days. Alabastrin had thought they would reach the oasis in six days. Still, he insisted they were on course...

The sun was creeping low in the sky, staining the endless sea of sands pink and orange and a thousand colors in-between. That was, Kili could admit, one thing that was good about this place. When the sun was just rising, or about to fall away, it would paint the horizon into a masterpiece. One had to be careful, though, not to lose themselves in the miles upon thousands of miles of desert that would stretch out around you. Never had Kili seen anything so...vast.

The sands shifted under his boots as he followed Alabastrin, though not too closely. One had to be careful, following others up dunes. Kili had gotten more than a few mouthfuls of sand to learn that particular lesson. His head was down, watching his feet so he wouldn't slip back down. Once again, he'd learned that lesson by experience.

Suddenly, he ran face first into a solid, still body. He stumbled back slightly, dazed as he looked up. Alabastrin had stopped in front of him, as had Aaron, Naratafynn and Gwen. "What—"

Then his eyes followed the other's gazes, down the other side of the dune they had just climbed. He had to tilt his head, his thoughts moving sluggishly to comprehend what he was seeing. At the base of the hill, there seemed to be...green. And a glint of glassy clearness. "Is that—"

Smiling, Alabastrin said something to Naratafynn, mischief in his tone. Naratafynn shrugged him off with a roll of his eyes, while Al breathed out, "There it is."

"Really?" Kili mused, staring down at it.

It was a simple affair, a long pool of dark water, curved off at one end, lined on every side by a few meters of trees and growth. An empty mud hut sat at one tapered end of the pool, still and silent. Kili wasn't entirely sure what he was expecting when he heard "oasis," but it wasn't this. He was hoping for...waterfalls or something like that. Looking down at the shimmering, cool swath of water though, Kili decided this would work quite well. Water was water. "Aren't... aren't we going down there?" he asked, looking around at the others, who hadn't moved a step.

"Kulasi," Naratafynn called behind him. "Haralasi, Molftari, kenn."

Those that Naratafynn called shuffled forward silently, the twins handing the leads of the shurkal to Al, who nodded as they passed. Kili could only watch in confusion as they made their way slowly, carefully, and silently down the slope towards the oasis. "What are they doing?" Kili asked his companions, who were just watching the others go.

"You see," Al began.

Aaron cut in, tone sharp. "Keeping you from walking into a trap."

Kili bristled slightly at his snide words. "What are you on about?"

Al looked like he was about to answer, but it seemed that without Naratafynn to hide behind, Aaron was choosing to be much more bold. "We're not the only ones who need water in this wasteland," he drawled. "And we certainly aren't the only people that know this exists."

"Actually," Alabastrin began. "This is a lesser known—"

"That place could be swarming with bandits, murders, and rapists, so we send the fighters down there to flush the place clean," Aaron explained, rolling right over whatever it was that Al had meant to say.

"The fighters?" Kili repeated. "I crushed Kulasi and Haralasi the other night!"

"Yes, well," Aaron sighed with a shrug. "Naratafynn does require a certain amount of... intelligence in his fighters. Idiotic brawn cannot get you too far."

Kili had to bite his tongue to keep from shooting something back at the pompous man.

"If I could have some help please," Alabastrin suddenly said, shoving the lead to one of the shurkal into his hands. Kili grit his teeth, sending Al a slight glare. He was about to show Aaron just how much "brawn" can do. Al ignored him though, gripping onto Gwen's wrist. "Gwen, take Kana."

Gwen's shoulders relaxed after a moment and she turned away from Aaron (who had sat himself on the ground to work in one of his books), taking the lead of Kana, one of the shurkal out of Al's hand. Al let out a sigh of relief at having halted the growing tension, though Gwen still had annoyance written across her shadowed features. It was an odd thought, and a bit terribly satisfying that she looked just about as ready to punch in Aaron's face as he was.

Mahal only knew, he liked having her on his side for that sort of thing.

The sun had well set by the time Kili was lowering his aching body into the cool water. They had waited, for at least twenty minutes on the top of the dune, Aaron prattling on about some sort of logistical nonsense. Kili was on the verge of losing his head. Is this what Naratafynn dealt with on a daily basis? No wonder the man was stone-faced and silent most of the time...

When they were signaled by the others, they were able to start making their way down to the oasis, leading the shurkal. They'd set up camp for the night, putting the fire and their bed rolls inside of the empty mud hut. Kili waited until the others had settled down for the night, before making his way out to the far end of the pool. The curve in the basin allowed for a small area of the water to be shielded off from the view of those back at the hut.

He'd stripped off all of his layers of heavy, sweaty clothes in a minute, before easing himself off of the rock at the edge of the shore, into the pool.

The cool water swallowed him up happily, wrapping him up in a soft, ice-cold embrace. He shivered slightly as a breeze whisked over the surface of the water, but reveled in this discomfort. He could practically feel the dust and grime dissolving from his skin.

The water wasn't more than waist-deep, so he waded out another few feet, before sitting down, bending to plunge his head into the water. When he lifted his head back out, he felt almost like a new dwarf. Water coursed out of his hair and off of his skin, a stark difference to the sand he knew surrounded him for miles.

Kili found himself falling still, as he closed his eyes. The air was cool around him, the sand at the bottom of the pool slipped like silk between his toes. The trees rustled faintly in the wind, a blessed respite from the usual overwhelming silence the desert brought.

Another shiver woke him from his stupor. As lovely as the water was, he'd catch his death of a cold if he didn't keep moving.

He first cleaned his clothing, setting it out across the shore to dry once he'd worked the dirt out of it. Then came himself. He burned through half of his small bar of soap, just scrubbing at his skin until every bit of sand was gone. His shoulders and neck were painful to clean, considering the sun-burn that had turned the skin red, but he ignored this as best as he could, in favor of finally feeling clean. Kili was about to get out of the pool for the last time when the sound of a breaking twig had him turning around.

The light of the moon and the stars was faint, but not so faint that he couldn't see his visitor. Gwen. He turned automatically, stomach twisting in discomfort. Gwen. Right. The one who was ignoring him for no reason in particular.

"Kili," she called softly. He made no move to turn to her. "Come here."

He absently combed through his hair. Whatever it was she had for him, or whatever she wanted to say to him, he didn't know how it could be something good. And he had been having such a lovely evening...

"Please?"

Her unguarded tone startled him. She sounded almost...raw. He turned slowly. "Yes?"

She was kneeling on the rock at the water's edge, holding out a jar. "You're burnt. Let me help you?"

It was phrased as a question, and Kili's heart twisted slightly, against his will. Her eyes were hidden from him, but her shoulders were slumping slightly. As much as he wanted to deny her...he nodded, wading towards her.

In a minute, he was sitting in the water, his back to the rock she had sat on. She'd let her bare calves rest in the water, on either side of his shoulders as she worked. It turned out that the jar she carried was the numbing salve she'd bought back in town. It spread a tingling coolness over the burning in his shoulders as she rubbed it gently into his skin.

He sighed softly as her fingers worked deeper into his muscles, kneading out the tension knotted into them. His thoughts, meanwhile, were not so relaxed. He was confused. What sort of game was Gwen playing here? She ignores him one day then tries to help him the next?

Part of him desperately wanted to ignore those thoughts, and give in to the familiar feeling of her fingers, fall into her grasp...but another part of him wanted to pull away and to actually solve his problems. Finally, the more logical half of him won out as her fingers lifted from his skin, for a moment. "Stop."

She did as he asked, but he made no effort to move. "Does this mean you'll stop ignoring me?"

Silence greeted him.

A bitter laugh escaped him. "I suppose that's your answer then? You just keep ignoring me without telling me why?"

There was a pause. A long pause. She was thinking. Or something like that. A long sigh left her, and suddenly, she was moving, standing up, away from him. "Good night master dwarf."

He tried not to hear the raw hurt in her tone in favor of remembering the hurt she was causing him. She left him, there, and he let her leave.

I admit, this was a kind of...dull chapter. There's honestly not too much I can do about that though. Travel's just kind of...boring. As we go through this story, we're gonna have to have a few more glazed-over time jumps while they travel, to keep this story from being roughly a trillion chapters long.

Thanks so much to all who reviewed the last chapter! I'd love to hear what you all think of this one as well. Have a great week, guys.