"Fili, Kili!" Thorin called through the closed door where he could clearly hear playful voices echoing. "Bedtime soon!"
"Oh no!" Kili exclaimed as he grasped hold of a wooden dragon. "The beast trapped the princess in a cage under the mountain and put a spell on the bars! Mahal, the soldier prince is trapped too!"
Fili took hold of the toy soldier and then the wooden princess in his brothers hand. "Who cares about danger when there is love!" He exclaimed as he made kissing noises and banged the two figures together.
"Ewwww!" Kili drabbled as he grabbed a toy horse. "Kissing doesn't get you out of danger! But the king can!" He picked up a wooden aeroplane and began to fly it around in the air with his hand as he made engine noises, rolling onto his back in the process.
"We need to break the cage." Fili hummed as he took hold of an elephant. "What noise does an elephant make?" Kili did a trunk impression with loud howling noises as Fili laughed and Thorin entered the room quietly, raising an amused eyebrow as he stepped forward to watch. "It charges forward and distracts the dragon with the king on top!"
"And the wizard jumps in, breaks the spell and save everyone!" Kili finished, suddenly in a fit of giggles as Fili grabbed all of the toys in his arms.
"And they have a happy life! One day the king shall set back out to slay the dragon properly."
Kili rolled onto his hands and knees and growled as Fili picked up the wooden sword and mimed his best stab movement. "Grrr." The brunette hissed.
"What about the citizens? They need an escape!" The blonde pointed out. Kili pushed them all out of the way and they sprawled onto the floor as Kili jumped onto Fili's back, dragging them both backwards.
Thorin chuckled and stepped forward, feeling rather intrigued. "What are you playing?"
"Dragons!" Kili yelled with an excited squeal.
Thorin smiled and locked his hands behind his back as he wandered around the room in a trail of thought. "That's like no other dragon I've ever seen."
Fili gasped and sat up from his position lying on the floor. "You've seen a dragon?"
Kili popped up in a daze behind him. "Huh?"
Thorin nodded. "Once. A very long time ago."
"Was he nice?" Kili asked wide-eyed as Thorin's face darkened.
"Oh no. He was horrid."
"You have never mentioned that before." Fili observed.
"I can now." The exiled king declared as he led them to the bed, watching as one figure climbed on and seated himself against the pillows as another smaller one clambered on beside him and threw his arms around the blonde's neck.
"Let's build a giant fort later." He whispered in Fili's ear as his brother smiled eagerly and nodded but Thorin interrupted them.
"That is if you can sit and listen." Both brothers simultaneously held their breaths. Thorin hid a smile as he began his story. "Long ago, a kingdom that went by the name of Erebor was up and running, and all dwarves used to live there. The Lonely Mountain was where your great grandfather used to rule as king. There was much gold in the depths of that mountain that many desired, and as such it began to consume Thror. He longed for it; could never bare to leave it. He barely got out of the kingdom when one day the dragon came and caught us all off guard. He wanted the gold. The filth killed a lot of people whom resided in Dale before he came and devoured many of my people and we were forced to flee. Then we came here and it has been that way ever since. The dragon Smaug supposedly still lingers in Erebor."
It was a simple story, but it was still incredibly painful to tell. Thorin had decided that it was time the duo knew of Erebor though. Kili exhaled through a breath of wonder all of the air that he had been holding in his mouth to stop him from talking as Fili felt his eyes widen. "Woah, uncle! That's epic!" Kili breathed in astonishment.
"It's not." Thorin argued. "It's the opposite."
"Will we ever reclaim it?" Fili asked innocently.
Thorin sighed. "Maybe one day Fili. Maybe one day. Someday you will king if that is the case."
"Can we come?" Kili asked with wide, curious chocolate brown orbs which had always forced Thorin to give in to anything.
"Maybe when you're older. Now it's bedtime for both of you."
"I don't wanna sleep. I wanna slay the dragon!" Kili growled with a roar as he soured through the air and landed on the mattress on his hands and knees with his best dragon face as Fili smiled and pulled him back from around the waist and kissed his little brothers russet bangs.
"You need to sleep. It keeps us alive." Thorin pointed out.
"We won't be able to sleep after that." Fili argued as Kili's legs spread out and he put his miniature hands in between them, pressing the mattress like a heartbeat.
"When I was little and I couldn't sleep I would hum a song in my head. It helps."
"What song?" Kili questioned.
"It's a lullaby. It's what my father used to sing to me."
"Can you sing it for us?" The blonde asked.
"Please?" Kili added as he leant his head on Fili's shoulder whilst he admired his uncle with pleading eyes.
"Okay." Thorin relented as both nephews snuggled up against the warmth that he provided once they had positioned themselves comfortably. "Far over the misty mountains cold..."
"Uncle...uncle!" A pair of fingers snapping in front of his eyes abruptly drew the exiled king from his memory and he blinked to blur the visions into that of the real world before he turned to look at his nephew.
"Sorry...what?"
"Care to share?"
"Oh, it's nothing..."
"Balin will be fine." Fili decided, completely misreading Thorin's expression but the dwarf latched onto it, taking advantage of the change in topic.
"I know." Thorin agreed, though a twinge inside of him was rather miffed that this had happened in the first place. He vaguely remembered rounding the corner to find his youngest nephew kneeling over his unconscious lifelong friend with a guilty yet panicked expression, the rush to get the aging advisor back to Oin yet look for a missing little girl at the same time, and then the yelling at his distraught youngest nephew who looked like he could have collapsed with grief at any moment.
This time it had gone too far.
Then there was the quest. Thorin had decided to leave tonight to travel to the Iron Hills and see whether Dain had the heart to help them, but his nephews left for the hobbit's home in the shire tomorrow where he would journey once he had accomplished his task. He began to question his decision to let Kili come along, for today's incident had been something that could easily happen on the quest and he knew he couldn't afford that.
It was too important.
He couldn't bear the weight of burdens.
"He's won't be a burden, you know." Fili muttered from beside him, reading Thorin's regularly changing countenance correctly this time around. Thorin whipped his head to the side to look at his nephew questioningly. "It's those blasted woods. That's where it happened. Different surroundings won't be a reminder of everything that occurred; it will be like a fresh start. That's all he needs, uncle. To get away from...here."
Thorin mused this as he brought a thoughtful finger to his lips. On one hand, Fili couldn't be more correct. A change in place means a change in sight which means a change in thought and feeling. On the other hand, how could either Durin be sure that it would work that way? Surely seeing orcs would bring up shadows of the past that the archer would rather forget.
"Where are you going?" Thorin questioned, once again ending his series of thoughts when he suddenly spotted the blonde lingering in the doorway of the healing rooms.
"Just to...do something." Fili replied unhelpfully, before swiftly swinging open the door and stepping out into the light where he decided to head in the direction of his mother's grave.
"Amaris!" Kili called into the eerie silence of the forest as he continued to wipe away constantly flowing tears from his cheek bones. The brunette wearily craned his neck upwards and watched through the gaps in the tree branches as the white cloud of breath disappeared behind the scintillating fireball where it left an empty patch of sky-blue behind. The simple sight sent immediate shivers down his spine as visions of him with his back digging roughly into the bark as the rope bounded him so he couldn't move whilst he watched this happen for it was the only thing to keep him from dying of literal boredom, swarmed his vision.
He couldn't let the same fate befall a little girl.
He hated this forest. He hated it with such passion that he had been terrified once his feet were through the entrance to the gloom but he knew for a fact that he needed to find Amaris.
Thorin Oakenshield's second heir narrowed his eyes as he glanced behind his shoulder, able to distantly spot Lud training a group of four kids, one of which he was supposed to be looking after for the day. He sighed, focusing his attention back on the target ahead as he tried to push away the notion that this was the exact spot that caused his life to flip upside down less than a year ago. The entrance to the forest was in his line of sight, though lingered right in the corner which itched at his eyes as he tried to keep them set on the target.
With his bow raised, posture correct and arrow readied he made the move to aim. The amount of time that he pointed the bow in the direction he was aiming seemed to last forever as his breathing grew more and more rapid the more he tried to ignore the ever-present forest right to the left of him.
He only released when he heard a twig snap.
The arrow whizzed through the air in the direction that he aimed that no longer happened to be the target, but his tutor's exposable leg. His vigorous heel-spin had sent the arrow straight into dwarf flesh and the startled look on Balin's face reflected on Kili's own as the body fell to the floor with a grunt and Kili clamped two hands over his mouth as he dropped his bow and sprinted, crashing to his knees by the injured dwarf's side.
Lud noticed the panicked screams coming from his frenemy's direction and he frowned. After whispering something to one of his young students named Amaris he led the four over and immediately sent one of them to run and grab Oin. The male dwarfling did so in record time and was followed by not only Oin but Thorin and Fili also fell to their knees next to Balin's side.
"What happened?" Thorin demanded, rounding hotly to Kili with an irate expression plastered on his face. His physiognomy darkened even more when Kili just stared in horror at the unconscious body on the floor, completely ignoring his uncle's question. "Kili!" Thorin exclaimed, making the archer jump slightly and he glanced at his uncle.
"Well...he stepped through the trees and..."
"Where's Amaris?" A little boy interrupted, much to Kili's relief for there was no need for further explaining but when he looked around and caught no sight of the little girl his heart suddenly dropped.
"Did you see where she went?" Kili asked.
"Your supposed to be looking after her." Lud pointed out.
"I wasn't talking to you." The archer snapped. "Besides, you're the one training her."
"Well you're..."
"Boys!" Thorin suddenly yelled, immediately silencing both.
"She went that way." Another boy spoke up, sheepishly pointing in the direction of the woods.
The series of curses that poured from the exiled king's lips that moment were so vile that Kili had to remind himself to not flinch over five times. "Lud, go and look for Amaris and send the other three home. Will Balin be ok, Oin?" Lud went off to do said task with a final glare to Kili as Thorin fixed his gaze which was laced with a touch of panic on the healer, waiting impatiently for a response.
Oin frowned. "Aye, if we don't let it get infected. Kili's arrows aren't poisoned so it's not as dangerous, but still, bring him back to my place and we can clean it."
"What happened?" A voice behind them demanded and when Kili recognized the voice he didn't dare turn around. He was frozen in fear. The archer looked towards Fili for help who hadn't uttered a word during the ordeal as he prepared to get ready to carry a fully grown dwarf, a series of thoughts swirling around his mind like a whirlwind. Thorin looked down awkwardly as Oin continued the clean the wound. Dwalin stepped forward, blinking at the sight before rounding harshly on Kili, just as Thorin had done earlier. "You." he accused.
"Dwalin..." Fili warned.
"Help us carry him back." Thorin ordered to his friend before turning to Kili. "You. Go and help look for Amaris."
"No...I should stay here, I..."
"You've done enough!" Thorin snapped furiously, making Kili flinch slightly but he dipped his head in understanding and backed away sadly.
"Yes sir."
Then he was gone.
"Amaris!" Kili called again, voice cracking at the pain of the flashback that he had just experienced. "Amaris! Come out! I won't be angry that you left, I promise!" Tears began to well in his eyes as he continued to hurry through the woods at a rapid pace, worry for Balin and terror for Amaris bubbling in his stomach. "I just need to know your okay." He collapsed against a tree when he received no answer and slumped down the bark in despair, rubbing a shaking hand across his arm which was laced with goosebumps, but not from the cold.
From the panic.
"Kili?"
The young dwarf recognized the smooth voice and immediately wiped the way the tears that were rolling consistently down his cheeks before sniffing and standing up, forcing a smile to Elena and her friend Isey.
The girl could tell he had been crying, for red surrounded his eyes that seemed to be puffy, and she didn't miss the way Kili hastily dabbed at them.
"Elena." He greeted, trying to stop the crack in his voice. "Isey. What are you doing here?"
"Hunting." Isey replied.
"What are you doing here?"
"I'm looking for a little girl. Have you seen anyone run in here, about so high? Blonde hair? Shorts and a t-shirt?"
Both friends frowned. They had seen the little girl earlier and wondered if they should do anything when the child saw them and sprinted away at a surprisingly fast speed, leaving them to stare at her blankly.
"Actually we did see her..." Elena murmured.
"Yeah, but when she saw us she ran off." Isey added.
Kili cursed, not trying to be quiet as he did so but both girls saw the relief that also shone in his eyes that she had ventured into this terrifying place and wasn't in fact at the Iron Hills. "Which way did she go?"
"We didn't see, she got lost in the tall grass. But it was just back there so she can't have covered much ground. We can help you look if you like?" Elena offered.
"You don't have to do that. I can find her by myself, she can't have gone far..." He trailed off when he caught sight of the little girl who darted through the bushes, squealing in panic when Kili saw her. "Amaris!" He called. "Stay here." he ordered to his friends before chasing after the little girl. "Get back here, where are you going?!"
He arrived at the mouth of a cave that the girl had visibly slid down moments after her and he didn't think twice before following. When he made it to the bottom he saw her, slouched against the damp stone with her face in her hands. He frowned and wordlessly slumped down to sit next to her.
"Would you like to explain?" He asked after an awkward silent thirty seconds.
"I'm sorry." She immediately offered. "Please don't be mad."
"Why did you do that? I hate coming in here! The whole class was waiting for you, they had to go home!"
"That was the point." She admitted.
Kili turned a questioning gaze on the dwarfling. "What are you talking about?"
"Lud told me too. He told us that you were going with some of the other dwarves from the mountain on a dangerous quest and said something about you not being ready because you can't even stand to be in this forest, and then he saw you shoot Balin and told me to come in here so you would be forced to as well. Said something about you overcoming your fear." Kili opened his mouth in shock as he looked up in realisation.
He was going to kill Lud.
"Why did you do what he said?" Kili demanded, a little too angrily and he regretted it when he noticed the little flinch of terror beside him.
"He's scary!" She exclaimed. "And big! I didn't know what to do."
Kili bit back a stern retort about fighting back after realising that the girl sat next to him was extremely young and he would have probably done the same at her age. "Come on." He ordered, releasing his teeth from his lip. He had bitten it so hard he could have sworn the taste of blood lingered in his mouth somewhere "Let's leave this stinking cave."
She complied gratefully, and so the journey back to the training grounds began. The journey that sent constant cripples of shiver through his bones as he tried to forget the memories he gained from just laying eyes on a single lone stick lying in the irritatingly familiar mud.
Once they broke out of the forest into the relieving daylight which stopped Kili's headache and washed a fresher and happier feeling over his body he looked around, spotting Lud, Elena and Isey stood in the distance as they stared numbly into the forest. Kili glared evilly at Lud even though he couldn't see and put a hand on Amaris's back to direct her over to the group.
"Shall we go back in there?" Elena asked.
"Give him more time." Lud disagreed, glancing worryingly into the forest for they had been in there a long time. He didn't want to interfere because he got the notion that Kili needed practise for the quest.
"They've been in there long enough." Isey argued. "If we g..."
"Look who I found." A voice interrupted them and all three spun around in surprise to face the duo.
"Amaris!" Lud greeted. "I was so worried."
Kili scoffed and Lud immediately dropped the act, knowing full well Amaris had told Kili just from the simple sound. "Do you have something to say to Elena and Isey?" He asked Amaris who nodded.
"I'm sorry for running away. I didn't mean to worry anybody or give you the hassle of looking for me. It was a dumb thing to do, and I will never do anything like it ever again."
Elena smiled. "That's okay little one." She then clapped her hands together. "Well, I guess everything is fine!"
Kili nodded before turning around, readying himself to walk to the infirmary. "Lud, take Amaris home. I need to go to Oin's."
"Wait, Kili, can I have a word?"
Kili spun around on his heels, a sudden burst of anger rushing through his veins. "Well what word would you like? Betrayer? User? How about my favourite, bye!" Kili hissed before spinning around on his heels and stalking away, leaving Lud to stare guiltily after him. Kili's frenemy silently cursed himself for feeling culpable, for this was Kili he was thinking about. He scoffed before too storming away from the girls as Amaris trailed awkwardly after him.
Fili sat down on the grass and closed his eyes, gratefully letting the breeze blow his hair back as he tried to calm himself down. The blonde looked despondently at his mother's grave - it would have been her birthday on this day. He knew that Kili couldn't remember her face but he could. Clear as day. He missed it more than words could say. He never really told anyone that he came here although he did quite often. Mainly when he felt sad...or confused, or just needed to let his thoughts out.
He sighed and wrapped his arms around his knees as he rocked back and forth in the position that he was sat in. He leant forward and replaced the flowers with some fresher ones that he had picked earlier from where he always went to do that task.
"Hey mum." He greeted. "I've just realised a certain date has come sooner than I thought. It's happening - we're leaving for the quest tomorrow. I wanted to say goodbye. When I was younger I always pictured us having this conversation - it looked different, obviously. Balin would be sat at our table without an injury to the leg as Kili stood happily without the feeling of guilt constantly swirling around his gut and you...well...you were alive." Fili murmured, looking grievously at the ground. "Kili shot Balin today outside the woods where it all happened - he was completely spooked and its ruined the build up to the fun adventure we are about to take part in. It was an accident, of course, but Thorin's now relying on me to keep him from repeating that kind of situation on the quest which of course I would do anyway but him and Dwalin just kind of felt that this incident was the last straw. I just want us to be sat on the couch whilst you burn our dinner and ask you a million questions about how to help my brother because...I have no idea what I'm doing."
He shook his head, tears welling in his eyes and he sniffed, letting the zephyr blow them backwards to smeer across the side of his eyes and he leant his head back, stretching his arms to the sides to play with the wind before finally looking back and reading the writing on the grave one more time.
"Mahal, I miss you." he breathed after doing just that whilst he fiddled with the pendant around his neck which had been left to him by his mother. It was his only source of comfort in many situations.
"I miss her too." A voice from behind the dwarf startled him and he turned around to his raven haired brother as he quickly wiped the tears from his eyes, but Kili just sat down next to him.
"I never knew you came here."
"I don't."
"Then why are you here?"
"Because I know you always come here." Fili frowned. How in mahal's name did Kili know that? "And before you ask how I'm your brother; I know all your secrets."
Fili chuckled. "Should I be worried?"
Kili laughed and threw his head back to feel the cool breeze blowing. "Course not."
"Have you packed for the quest tomorrow?" Fili questioned although he knew the answer, deliberately twisting the subject though he wasn't really sure why.
"Aye."
"Are you ready?"
Kili hesitated before answering. "Yeah..." He finally breathed. "I gotta get out of here, Fili."
"I know." His brother agreed. "I wish we could do the tearful goodbye with our mother."
"Fee, I know how much you miss her. I don't really remember her but I know you do. You don't have to be some dumb babysitter for me on the quest just because I'm an idiot that shoots my tutors; you just have to be my brother. You never fail - mum would be so proud of you."
Fili's smile turned to a sob and for once in his life his head fell limply into Kili's lap as tears rolled down his face, emotions completely overwhelming his body. He was vaguely aware of Kili stroking his hair soothingly as he looked up at the sky, tears threatening to brew in his own eyes.
"I'm sorry." Fili mumbled after about five minutes whilst he sat up and controlled himself. "Somethings wrong with me."
"No its not." Kili argued as he slapped his knees and stood up, offering out a hand which Fili took, feeling stronger now and almost embarrassed with himself. "Now, I am giving us twenty four hours to feel sorry for ourselves and then it is time to pack up and leave, so let us depart, soldier!"
Fili's frown turned upside down. He began to chatter about the journey ahead whilst Kili's body structure untensed and he let himself feel visibly relaxed and excited on the outside.
Though inside he was shaking profusely.
Chapter one!
So, I think we can casually all agree that Frozen is the greatest movie on the planet (lolll) and I'll be naming each chapter after a Frozen quote, sometimes with a twist, because my best friend - whose in hospital :( - begged me too! So the story title is also named after one of the songs in the second movieee and she picked it...also do Elsa and Anna remind anyone else of Fili and Kili or are we just retarded?
Ok, anyways, Kili and Elena are kinda going out...but they're too stubborn to admit it. And just so you're aware Kili and Tauriel have a relationship in this fic, so to all of those haters I'm apologizing now...but it just fits well with the story line!
By the way, if you somehow couldn't tell Fili really misses Dis, even though its been years, and he can remember her a lot better than Kili whose birth made her die so in the slightest way everyone who loved Dis will forever have that tiny grudge against him. Even though it wasn't his fault!
Also this fic will contain a lot of whump, torture and angst, so beware!
The cute fluffy flashback at the beginning was so fun to write! I love writing them as children...Imagine, they would be adorable!
Anyways enough of my rambling. Next chapter the quest will start (after a few goodbyes) and ye, hope you enjoyed!