They leave Briar at the borders of the Shire, although Kíli objects when he finds out that Briar will be travelling alone for several days. The Shire is a far larger place than Nori knows many dwarves realise, but it is also safer than most places as well, perhaps baring elvish settlements, and even though there are Borden Proudfoots in the place, the vast majority of the hobbits would not know the first thing about countering any of the techniques that Nori has taught the hobbit.
"We'll be back through around Yule time," Nori says as they part ways, "so we'll drop in for a few days on our way back for his brother's birthday," she gestures to Kíli who is waiting slightly awkwardly off to one side. "We'll need to thaw out a bit anyway. Winter travel is miserable," she huffs, but she would never deprive Kíli of the chance to be with Fíli on the day that his older brother and closest friend comes of age. The closeness of the pair of them is something that Nori has always admired and she does not want to come into the middle of it either. "Any trouble with the Proudfoot lad, you do what I taught you and we'll handle him on the way through."
"I'll be alright," Briar promises. "You don't need to worry about dealing with Borden Proudfoot, I can handle it."
Nori thinks about the future Briar that she knew who was so twitchy around the Company for so long and wonders once more how much of a role the hobbit in question had to play in that.
"You're practically my little sister at this point," Nori replies. "I don't take to people, lass, not like I have to you, and no one messes with my family. So if he's still bothering you when we come back through, let me know and I'll put a permanent stop to it."
"You don't have to do that," Briar insists, "but thank you."
Impulsively the hobbit embraces Nori, careful of the various knives that she knows the dwarf has hidden away, and the thief returns it happily. As odd as the sentiment may seem, it is good to have someone that she can think of as family who is not embarrassed or ashamed of what she is.
"See you in a few months," she mutters to the hobbit and departs with Kíli leading the pony.
The lad gives Briar a wink and a jaunty smile, then follows obediently as they make their way to the nearest town of Men to the eastern side of the Shire. It is something that Nori knows cannot last. Kíli is out in the world for the first time and he is without the calming presence of his mother, uncle or Dwalin. Even having Fíli along may have calmed some of Kíli's impulsiveness, although Nori knows full well that the pair of them feed off each other as much as they keep each other from going too far. With only Nori around, Kíli decides to push and while any other guardian or family member might have tried to rein him in, she decides to just let him have at it. Much like any other thief, Kíli needs to learn from experience and that is the purpose of the first town.
Nori watches him, of course, because she would not simply hand him to the wolves and let him get himself killed or maimed for the sake of learning. The first night he does not do much more than drink a few more ales than he should, though he watches the girl as though sizing her up much as Nori would advise him to do in any situation. The thief simply raises her tankard and lets him carry on. The boy can hold his ale, she will give him that, but she still has to help him to bed much later on when the taproom closes. The following day they meander around the small market square, Nori lifts a few purses and encourages Kíli to do the same. This is the time for the lad to learn to be the thief, to wander and blend in among others who do not know him, but he also needs to learn where the limits are.
Perhaps the most amusing moment is when he clumsily flirts with the barmaid, who must have seen all manner of things in even the few years that she has been working here. She is obviously young by the standards of Men, Nori has travelled and stayed in enough Mannish towns to know how they grow and age, the girl is probably just in her early twenties and although she is not married yet given she is working in a tavern still she is of marriageable age. The owner watches her, although mostly it seems that he is watching to make sure that the girl does not get too distracted rather than to ensure that the patrons do not get overly handsy. Very few of them do and the one who does withdraws with a yelp. Nori's sharp eyes catch a flash of steel as the maid tucks a small knife back into her belt, but even the wary girl who has seen it all smiles and blushes as Kíli lays on the charm. He flirts well when he is relaxed, Kíli tends to fall apart when he is nervous or embarrassed, which is something that they will need to break him of. As it is, Kíli currently has nothing to prove, to himself or anyone else, and he is perfectly happy making slightly flirtatious comments as he winks and grins his way through his ale.
"Just make sure you're back in time for breakfast," Nori shrugs when Kíli gets up to follow the girl at the end of her shift. He throws her a surprised look, obviously not expecting her to be so nonchalant about whatever he chooses to do with his time. "I'm not your father," she points out, having taken on the use of male pronouns outside of the mountains once more. "Do what you like for the night, but be back for breakfast, it comes out of your pocket if you aren't here when I'm ready to start." He nods and follows the barmaid.
Nori waits a few minutes, then follows quietly, mostly so that she knows where to go in the morning when Kíli fails to turn up. The girl, Nori is amused to note, is only a couple of inches taller than Kíli, who is tall for a dwarf anyway, and she has long hair of a similar shade to Briar's, although she is far more slender than the hobbit in a way that speaks of a hard life. The two meander for a while, exchanging the odd kiss in dark corners until they reach a small house some distance from the inn.
"You'll have to be quiet," the girl whispers. "My father sleeps heavily enough but you can't be caught. He hasn't been right since Ma passed."
Nori slips back to the inn. From here Kíli is on his own.
To her surprise he stumbles in several hours later, waking her from sleep as he enters the room that they share. No thief is a particularly heavy sleeper after the first few years, it pays to be aware of everything that happens around them in even a safe place, so she wakes quickly and has a knife in her hand before she has even realised that it is Kíli who has entered.
"Got caught did you?" She asks as her dark sight takes in the split lip and signs of a bruise near his temple. The Man must have used something more than his fists.
"Her father," Kíli mumbles. Nori hums. "You're not angry?" He asks.
"I'm not your father," she reminds him, "nor your mother for that matter. Better you get it out of your system before we get back to Ered Luin. This isn't my first time, probably won't be the last."
"Do we have to leave town?"
"Not yet," Nori shakes her head. "Give it a day to see what comes of it. No point running straight off, just makes them wonder what we did." She yawns. "Go to bed," she orders. "We'll worry about it in the morning."
As it is, it is not the girl's father who has them run from town. Nori begins to spend time over the following couple of days helping Kíli to construct the Cadan's identity, from his laugh to his walk, to the way that he holds his knives when he fights. The identity of Cadan the thief and spy is as important as that of the prince Kíli was born as, and Nori wants him to live as that lad before they decide to turn back towards Ered Luin because then he will need to learn to flip between the two personalities. He cannot be Cadan inside his uncle's home and he cannot be Kíli in the streets unless he is with his family. It is a bumpy process, Kíli is inclined towards a far more elaborate or tragic personality than is really necessary. Cadan needs to be someone that no one would really notice or pay attention to. Kíli needs to be the opposite.
The latter is not too much of a problem. Fíli may be the heir, but Kíli is friendly, approachable and known to be keen to have as much fun as possible. He may go on hunting trips with a few regular guards, but he also has his own group who join him and his brother fairly regularly and Nori knows from experience that those trips are as much a party as they are a hunt.
As for the former, Cadan does not need to be a bitter and brooding loner as Kíli aims for to start. He simply needs to be approachable and forgettable and that is someone incredibly difficult to create. His focus on trying to become that person is very likely what leads to the mistake that Nori has been waiting for. Kíli gets caught picking a pocket.
It had to happen eventually, and Nori wanted it to happen in a place where the younger dwarf is not known. She also wanted it to happen in a place where she is not going to encounter too many problems while breaking him out. In Ered Luin her hands are tied slightly. The Guild discourages their people from helping others to get out of the grasp of the guard. It is not forbidden, and they would never be sanctioned for doing it, but such attempts can upset the delicate balance between guild and guard. Besides, the first dozen or so times there is usually a fine and a sound beating or a few days locked in a large cell with other criminals and then the thief in question can be on their way. If they do not get killed in a brawl, of course. After that, however, the punishments become harder. As far as Nori is concerned if you get caught that many times you deserve whatever is coming to you. What Kíli does not need this early on is being caught and recognised at the same time. It will happen eventually, of course, even Nori has been taken in a few times, although some of those were for her own purposes, but Kíli and his brother have enough friends among the guard that recognition will be unavoidable. Better that he experience this first humiliation away from home.
This town happens to be one of those which has small individual cells for prisoners, which can be both a blessing and a curse. Two days in one can be fairly relaxing, Nori has used them as free accommodation once or twice simply because she has not been able to lift enough coin to pay for other lodgings. Two weeks in one, however, can be enough to drive her stir crazy. Kíli will struggle with such isolation massively, he is a far more sociable creature than she, and she knows that people are often locked in such cells for far longer than a couple of weeks. Besides, she saw the future him in the Mirkwood cells. He did not take the relative isolation from his family and travelling companions well. Which does not mean that she goes to spring him from his isolation immediately. Kíli will learn nothing if she breaks him out straight away.
"I thought you were going to leave me," he says when she appears at the door to his cell just before dawn. Behind her the guard snores softly.
"Don't be so dramatic," Nori scoffs, holding up the ring of keys that she had lifted on her pay past.
"This isn't the first time I've messed up since I got here," Kíli replies.
"No more than any of us did," Nori shrugs as she finds the right key. "At least you didn't get yourself killed."
"Does that happen?" He asks in alarm.
"More often than you would think," Nori mutters as they slip past the desk to collect those belongings of Kíli's that were taken from him. "Now, this is the time for us to leave town." She smirks, picking up a couple of extra daggers and a coin purse or two which have obviously been put aside while the owners are located.
She leads him quietly from the building where their pony and belongings are waiting outside. The town gates do not close at night, although they are watched closely, the road is a busy one and merchants and traders are known to push until an hour or two after dark in order to reach the warm taprooms and comfortable beds rather than spending another cold and uncomfortable night on the road. They are also known to leave as the sun rises and neither of the dwarves are challenged as they make their way quietly through the gate. By the time that the unconscious guard is discovered by his fellows they will be forgotten among the other early departures.
"You needed to get it out your system," Nori tells Kíli as they walk. He looks at her. "Every young dwarf wants to act out, get in a few fights, get laid and what have you when they're out of sight of their family. Not saying they don't do it in sight of their family too," she allows, since she was one of them, "but it's not uncommon to see it. You done? Or do we need to find another town so that you can play a little bit more?"
"I'm done," he says a little sullenly.
"Don't be like that," she reaches to wrap her arm about his shoulders. "All things considered you were pretty tame."
"It's just… I didn't…" he hesitates.
"You didn't?" Nori asks, amethyst eyes sharp.
"I didn't want to disappoint my Ma," he huffs finally, although Nori suspects that is not even close to the truth. "If she heard about any of this she'd be upset."
"You're a good lad," Nori tells him, letting him think she has accepted the lie. "That's something you can keep for Kíli. Cadan will have to be a little less aware of his mother's opinion of him."
"He doesn't have a mother anymore," the lad points out softly.
There is nothing Nori can say to that.
A.N: Oh thank any listening deity that as of tomorrow it's half term! A week without having to fight with the children to get to my computer so that I can study (and sneak in 20 minutes of writing between questions). Time is a luxury I haven't had in a while. At least, not time to be productive rather than shuttling between two children asking why they aren't paying attention to their work every few minutes. I can't leave the room. If I leave the room I come back a minute later to find them both doing the opposite of what they have been told to.
