Author's Note: Hello Everyone.
I thought I would like to gift you all with a present as it is/was/will be my birthday today and as I am a true hobbit, here is my gift to you (granted I am only half hobbit and the other half of me is human, I wouldn't mind getting some nice reviews for this chapter and my birthday :). It would be really, really cool if we could get this fic over 700 reviews. That would just about make my day)
Enjoy - Hehehe Thorin gets yelled at in this chapter hehehe!

Chapter Thirty-One

Little Talks

"How hard is it to find one hobbit child?" Dwalin growled out once he was done throwing Bovin's dwarves into a holding cell and had come into Thorin's study to report that so far his guards had seen neither hide nor hair of the little lost lad.

"Very hard. Apparently Frodo is quite the escape artist." Balin replied dryly. He had just returned from settling the hobbits into their temporary lodging.

"Serves her right to have one." Dwalin said with a rumbled chuckle, ignoring Thorin's pointed look.

"Did you learn anything else about him?" Thorin asked as he looked around his study, mainly towards his private liquor cabinet. He noticed that Fili had station himself in between it and him, by accident or by purpose, Thorin would not be able to get himself a drink without his nephew knowing exactly what he was doing.

Balin looked at him with an expression that spoke volumes of how unhappy he was about the current situation that they had found themselves in but spoke with his usual calm, collected tone.

"He's very bright for his age, an avid reader," Balin, of course, was pleased about this, "has a talent for drawing. He is kind and good with his little cousins and is a fairly happy child."

"And…" Thorin said giving Balin a look to stop sparing his feelings and to just spit out whatever else he was clearly thinking but wasn't saying in fear of setting off his temper.

Balin sighed a long self-suffering sigh and continued on, this time a little more gruffly and less composed

"According to his grandfather, he isn't your average hobbit lad. He's too quick, too strong and too curious about the world around him. Spends more time running off wanting to go on adventures then is considered healthy by respectable hobbit folk. And," Balin drawled, "He looks like you apparently."

Thorin felt his stomach turn at this.

"Black hair and blue eyes and stubborn as a mule, but then he may have gotten that quality from Mistress Baggins." Balin finished somewhat stiffly.

Thorin pressed his throbbing head into his hands.

What by Mahal's mighty hammer had he done to deserve all this?

Do you truly wish for an answer to that? A voice in his head muttered sarcastically and Thorin quickly decided, that no, he most certainly did not!

"What's going on?" The four dwarves jumped as a beaming Kili strode casually into Thorin's study.

"Gee, Uncle, you look terrible." His youngest nephew added in teasing tone before he took in all of their worried expressions and his smile slipped some.

"What's going on?" He asked again a little bit more cautiously.

"We have a bit of situation." Thorin growled, his hands still itching to pour himself a large mug of strong liquor.

"Oh?"

"Aivion's back." Dwalin said.

"Oh? Has he caught Bovin?" Kili asked as he tilted his head to one side.

"No, but we've found out what the Defiler's Spawn possibly hired him to snatch, though we don't know why yet." Dwalin rumbled. Thorin decided he really did need drink at the thought of her being in the hands of the Defilers Spawn. "But that's isn't our current problem."

"Oh, what is then?" Kili was starting to look irritated, clearly resenting Dwalin's vague answers to his questions.

The boy was growing more and more resentful with each passing day at being left out of the loop when it came to highly-important, royal matters. But given how his attitude was towards almost everything a few years back, Thorin still didn't feel that his youngest nephew was quite ready to sit on his private counsel. In a few more years, yes, but now, his nephew was simply still too young.

"We've lost a child." Balin explained clearly taking pity on Kili, "a hobbit child."

The reaction his nephew gave to that news was not one that Thorin was quite expecting at all. The boy did double take of Balin before his face turned a shocking white colour beneath his tanned, scarred skin.

"A-a hobbit child?" his nephew's voice squeaked unnaturally high, his dark eyes turning wild and frantic, a sight Thorin hadn't seen in years.

"Yes." Balin frowned at the boy, his eyes narrowing slightly. "Kili… What do you know…"

"What does he look like?" Kili demanded quickly as he looked at all them, "the child? What does he look like?"

"Never said he was a boy, lad." Dwalin said frowning now too.

"Doesn't matter." Kili snapped, his temper roaring into life. A temper he had unfortunately inherited from Thorin and his late brother Frerin. Thorin had often prayed that this unfortunate family trait would not lead his youngest nephew to facing the same fate as his mother's second brother, the uncle he had never known. "What does he look like? Is he around nine years old?"

"You knew didn't you," Balin groaned as he pressed a hand to his temple, rubbing his fingers against it, "all those trips to Ered Luin. With Bofur, Bifur and Ori. The four of you weren't going there at all, were you? You were going to the Shire?" Kili fidgeted uncomfortably but did not deny anything Balin was saying.

Thorin once more felt the rage that he hadn't felt in years build within his chest again.

"You knew! You knew that she was alive and well and you never said! You knew that she had a child that could very well be…"

Kili whipped around to face him, his own face twisted in rage as he snarled back.

"You banished her! You banished her and threw her out! You have no right to be angry! No right at all! None! We went and searched her out, not you! We found her in the Shire, with Frodo, not you! You never even tried to find her! Instead you chose to accept the easier option of thinking she was dead! We never did! Never, not once!"

Thorin opened his mouth to say something, anything but words were failing him. His nephew was trembling with fury, his fists clenched at his sides.

"Now," Balin said quickly, stepping between nephew and uncle, even though there was already a large, solid oak desk between them, "is not the time to fight. We need to find the child."

"Exactly! Yell at me later." Kili snapped angrily at them all, "I'm gonna find Frodo. What in Mahal's name were you thinking, letting a small child escape…" Kili paused, his face turning from icy fury to a look of a youngster's confusion. "Ahh… what is he doing here?"

"That's what we want to know." Fili answered him carefully, clearly not wishing to set his younger brother off again. Thorin, however, could see the hurt in Fili's blue eyes.

"Is Bilbo here?" Kili questioned, his dark eyes dancing hopefully.

They all shook their heads and Kili's eyes widen and his fury was back in a heartbeat.

"What did you do?" He snarled at Thorin.

"Believe it or not, nothing." Thorin growled back at his nephew from behind gritted teeth.

"So… what? Frodo just wandered all the way here all by himself, did he now?" Kili sneered looking so like Frerin when he was of a similar age and in one of his fouler of mood that it was almost frightening.

"Kili…" Fili warned softly, gently placing a reassuring hand upon his younger brother's arm, "didn't you say you were going to help with the search for Fro-Frodo?" he stuttered a little over the hobbit child's name.

Kili shot his uncle one final furious look before giving his brother a sharp nod and stalked out of the room, muttering darkly under his breath.

"Well, that was…" Dwalin started bluntly before Thorin interrupted him.

"Unsurprising." Thorin grated as he forced his fists to unclench, ignoring the throbbing pain in his palms from where his nails had dug into his skin.

"You didn't know, I'm guessing." Thorin asked his heir who was looking very badly torn between wanting to be the dutiful heir and nephew while at the same, a good, loyal and protective older brother.

After a moment or two of silence, Fili shook his golden head.

"No. But I – I should have guessed. It makes sense, now that I think about it. It is something he would do."

"Yes. Yes it is." Thorin agreed feeling suddenly very tired and old.

"Well since Kili has taken over the search for the little lad, we should…"

"Go talk to Bovin's dwarves; find out what the hell is going on." Thorin finished for Dwalin who nodded his head in agreement.

"Fili," Thorin turned to his oldest nephew as the four dwarves made to leave his study, "go after you brother, help him with finding the lad."

"Of course Uncle." Fili nodded and made to head in the direction that his brother had stalked off into in search for the lost lad.

"Fili." Thorin said again, causing his nephew to look back at him with a questioning look, "beat him over the head for me a couple of times, would you?" his nephew grinned and nodded.

"Of course Uncle," he said again before darting off to find his brother.

Thorin sighed heavily before making his way with Balin and Dwalin at his sides down to the holding cells in the very roots of his great mountain.

Thorin forced all of his erratic emotions and tempest of thoughts to back of his mind, squashing them down within himself to deal with later. Right now he needed to be the King his father and grandfather had wanted him to be and that meant putting all his personal thoughts and feeling to the side.

It still didn't stop him from wanting to break every bone in Bovin's body and for him to now regret his order for Bovin to be brought to Erebor unharmed. Though it did mean he had more to work with when the traitor was finally brought to Erebor.

With questioning Bovin's men, he quickly discovered that almost all of them worked for Bovin simply because they were in desperate need of money or theirs and their families lives had been threatened in some way. Most hadn't even been aware that Bovin's business partner was an orc – many had gone white beneath their beards upon finding out, their eyes filling with disgust and horror. But even with this new knowledge, most of the dwarves had remained tight-lipped about the whole operation, though Thorin figured this was mainly due to them still fearing for their families lives and were afraid to reveal anything more than what they already had.

As furious as he was with these dwarves for agreeing to work with someone like Bovin to begin with, he could understand their desperation.

Even with Erebor now flourishing, times were still hard for most dwarves and so desperate times came for desperate measures. Even the kidnapping of innocent Halflings.

Of course there were some dwarves such as Divil son of Diror, and the twin dwarves Dagan and Dagrin sons of Dagrur who knew more than they were letting on and so needed to be encouraged some.

Divil was the first to break.

"What does Bzog, son of Azog the Defiler want with Bilbo Baggins?" Dwalin asked in a slow voice voided of emotions. He fingered one of his long knives in front of Divil, causing the dwarf to swallow nervously. Balin and Thorin both rolled their eyes at this display of intimidation but said nothing of it. Dwalin had a talent for being intimating at the best of times. This skill had, in fact, saved them many a time and made difficult information more readily available to them when dealing with less than willing informants.

"I-I don't know. Bovin just said that he wants him. Her." Divil scrunched up his face in confusion.

"Bzog doesn't know that Bilbo Baggins is, in fact, female?" Balin asked calmly.

Divil shook his head.

"No. We went to the Shire looking for a Mister Bilbo Baggins. Instead we found her, her whelp and the rest of the Halflings you've seen. Wouldn't have known it was her if it weren't for one of her relatives calling her name out. None of us believed it until she, herself, admitted to being he… she."

"So you snatched her from her home?" Thorin grated out, feeling cold fury moving relentlessly within his chest.

"And paid for it too." Divil grumbled under his breath.

"What was that?"

"We paid for it." Divil repeated grouchily, "She didn't take nicely to us invading her home. She used a little blade on us – wasn't afraid to use it at all – and slash a few of us up. Would have done some real damaged if Bodiol hadn't smacked her one over the head and knocked her cold."

"He did what?" Thorin growled out coldly and his temper once more rising.

Divil shrank back in the hard iron chair that he was chained into a little more.

"Thorin." Balin said placing a hand on his arm, half-reassuring, half-restraining.

Thorin took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down, something that was growing harder and harder to do with each passing moment.

"Why did you split up?" Dwalin asked, taking over the interrogation once more as he passed around the small dark dungeon they were currently in, still fingering one of his wicked knives.

"Bovin said that we were moving too slowly; that we'd miss our deadline with Bzog and that he would have our heads. That was all he said." Divil grumbled before muttering, "that and to keep the damn wrench under control."

"I beg your pardon."

Divil shrank back once again at Thorin's black tone before stuttering back.

"The –the lass, before we split up, kept on trying to escape with her whelp – I mean," Thorin's expression had turned something close to murderous, "her lad. But the other Halfings slowed her up, foiled her escape attempts in one way or another. It was one of the reasons why Bovin kept them alive."

"Guess she didn't have enough barrels." Thorin heard Dwalin mutter under his breath and felt his lips twitch for a moment before he remembered his fury over everything he was hearing.

Divil was proving to be rather useless, showing that while he had a slightly better idea of what was the plan between Bovin and Bzog, but not much better.

However he did show some worth when he directed them towards one who might have a better idea as he had been one of the few who had been present during the business meeting between Bovin and Bzog.

The tall, disproportion lad smacked his head on the top of the stone door frame the moment he was brought to the interrogation chamber, groaning softly and rubbing his forehead with his tied wrists.

The lad was far meeker than the rest of the dwarves that they had interrogated and by far one of the most respectful, if only due to the fact that he couldn't meet their eyes.

"What's your name lad?" Dwalin asked the moment the lad had sat himself down on the floor – the interrogation chair would not fit his unusual build.

"Radin, sir. Son of Runira and –and Williem." The boy muttered, peeking up at them from beneath his heavy curls before once more turning his gaze to the ground.

"Human name?" Balin queried gently.

"Yes sir."

Balin nodded his head sagely.

"I'm sure that makes getting respectable work difficult for you?"

The boy shifted uncomfortably for a moment before nodding his head with a sigh.

"Yes. We lost our forge because – because of debts and there was nothing left for us in our village. No one would take us in, so we left hoping to find work elsewhere but… no one wants to give work to a mongrel." The boy muttered bitterly, "My brother and I, we –we take whatever work wherever we can."

"Where is your brother now? Did he come with you?" Dwalin asked.

"He's with Bovin." The lad groaned miserably, "I don't know why Bovin split us up, made me go with Frodo and the others while he took Ranon with him and Miss Bilbo. I don't know why." If the boy's hands weren't tied, Thorin was sure the boy would have been tearing his thick hair out by the roots in his frustration and fear for his brother.

"Do you know where Bovin is meeting Bzog?" The boy's eyes flickered to meet theirs, the muddy orbs wide with shock.

"You mean, you know about this?" the boy cried, staring back at them with – with anger of all things. "You knew about this and you've done nothing? I thought – I thought…" the boy seemed to have been rendered speechless, simply gaping up at them in disbelief.

"Do you know who we are lad?" Dwalin growl softly, showing off his wicked knife.

"Well," the boy seemed to have found his tongue upon seeing Dwalin's knife, "not personally obviously. But I've heard of you of course. From my Grandda and others. And of course, Miss Bilbo's stories. She spoke highly of you all, is all and I thought – I thought that if you had known – I mean," the boy's became scrunched up as he thought, "she thought you knew or maybe she didn't but she kept pestering Bovin, asking if you did, but then she was thinking we were bringing her here, not taking her to Bzog. See only Frodo and the others I guess, were meant to come here, while Miss Bilbo was meant to go Bzog, cause she's the one he wants because of some big battle and he thinks – Bzog I mean – that she had something to do with the killing of his… father, I think and that's why we came looking for her. Only she doesn't know that, she thinks you sent us. Though now, I guess she knows that she's not coming here at all but instead, maybe she now knows she going to Bzog…" the boy trailed off weakly as he noticed their dumbstruck expressions.

"I've let my tongue run away with me again, aven't I?" the boy groaned, "but I thought you knew… though of course maybe you wouldn't. I mean the others, not even Divil and the twins really know what's going on. And I don't either; really, I was only there because I'm basically the pack horse."

"Bzog wants Bilbo Baggins?" Thorin said softly and the boy nodded his head looking miserable.

"He's been looking for her for years apparently, but everyone thought she was dead, only of course, she isn't."

"Do you know where they're, Bzog and Bovin, are to meet?"

"Um," the boy scrunched up his face, "I don't know the name of the place, but it's the same place that they made their business deal."

"Could you take someone there?" Thorin asked his mind moving a mile a minute.

"Um, yes. I think so. I hope so." The boy blushed as he tucked his head, "I like Bilbo."

"Oh?" Balin asked, his white bushy eyebrows raised. The boy blushed before muttering;

"Yes, she was kind to me and Ranon. Everyone treats us like we're no better than dirt, calling us mongrels and names like that. She never did. She was just kind." a small smile crept around the boy's face before he looked up at then, his eyes curious, "Have you found Frodo yet?" he asked them, sounding hopeful. "I didn't mean to let him go, but he was getting restless and I think he was having a panic attack." The boy looked truly remorseful.

"You care about the lad?" Dwalin rumbled.

"Yes Sir." The boy nodded. "It was my job to take care of him, not;" the boy sighed heavily, "that I've done a very good job at it, letting him run loose all around the mountain."

"It's alright lad, we'll find him." Balin said in an almost reassuring manner. The boy looked relieved for a moment before turning his head to look earnestly up at Thorin.

"Sir, I know we've done a terrible, wrongful thing but please, I beg you, hold me fully accountable and let my brother, when you catch Bovin I mean, go. He had no part in this, it was all my doing, he only came along because he's my brother and we do everything together but the blame for this rest solely on my shoulders."

"What made you join this venture besides from the lack of work of ones such as you?" Thorin asked and the boy hesitated, looking slightly taken aback before muttering, "my no good uncle."

"Pardon?"

The boy sighed heavily.

"When my grandfather died, he left his forge to my mother and her two brothers, my uncles. My uncles wasted away our money, what little we had, on gambling and rum and such things as that. They created huge debts that we have no way to repay... except with our lives. One of my uncles has already paid in such a way. Bovin, well, actually my employer before Bovin said that if we did this job all our debts would be paid off and we would be secure in life with a job always at hand. If we didn't do it or we failed…

"You would be killed." Balin finished and the boy nodded miserably.

"Not just my uncle, Radon and me, but my mother and sisters too. They said they would flay us alive." The boy's shoulders shuddered.

"Aren't you worried about what will happen to you and your family now?" Dwalin asked maybe a little snidely causing the boy to lurch himself to his feet and bear his much greater weight down upon them. Dwalin immediately moved into a defensive stance and Balin took a step back. Thorin remained completely still, his eyes focused solely on the large lad before him.

"Of course, I am." The boy all but yelled at them, "of course I am. I'm scared to my very bone as to what will happen to my family. I've already seen for myself how quickly the ones you once called friends can turn on you. When my uncle died, my grandda, my – my father. I've seen it before and it terrifies me. I can't – I won't allow it to happen again. I can't." the boy whispered his hands clenching into fists in front of him.

"Alright lad. Calm yerself down. We'll see what we can do for you and your family." Dwalin glanced sideways at Thorin for confirmation. After a moment's hesitation, Thorin nodded his consent.

The boy seemed to relax some, slumping a little against the dungeons wall in relief.

"Thanks. Um, I'll do what I can to help you. To find Bilbo. I don't want her to fall into the white orc's hands."

They spoke with boy for a little while longer for he, besides from a few others, was the most honest and sincere with his desire to help them. He also had a better idea than the rest as to what Bovin's was planning, mainly due to him being "the mongrel, they'll say anything around me or Ranon because they think we're too dumb to understand"

By the time the boy was escorted back to his cell and Thorin walked with his head advisor and right handed man, he wasn't sure if he felt relieved that he now had a better idea as to what exactly was going on or if having this new knowledge was worse than having not known what was going on.

He wanted to beat his fists bloody against the stone wall, roar at the top his lungs, curse until his face was blue.

But most of all he wanted her. He wanted her back with him. He wanted her here, in his arms, safe and sound. He wanted to meet this child who could - and probably was – very well be his child, his son, their son.

He wanted them both and yet at the moment he had neither. She was hundreds of miles away in the hands of traitorous dwarf and was soon to be in the hands of an even fouler enemy who only Mahal knew what he would do to her. And the child, the child who was lost, somewhere within his great kingdom with no idea that he had kin here, that his father ruled the mountain he was lost in, scared and alone.

Thorin tasted blood in his mouth and only then realised that he had been biting the inside of his cheek bloody.

"We need to find the boy." He said coolly, portraying none of his inner rage.

"And Bilbo?" Balin adds carefully, glancing up at him from behind his bushy white eyebrows.

"We need to find her too. But first the boy. Dwalin I want you to join the search for him. Balin, I want you to go and round up the others, in particular Ori, Bofur and Bifur. Maybe they'll have an idea as to where the lad might be hiding."

The two brothers nodded and both strode off in opposite directions to attend their given missions. Thorin stood in the hall watching the two leave before he took himself in the direction his study. He needed a drink before he dealt with the others and then, then he would find Billanna's boy.

Author's note: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Hehehe, Kili is so fun to write and him being angry at Thorin for some reason always makes me grin like a lunatic... my parents think I need a life but whatever, I am still just a tween, so I have plenty of time to grin like a lunatic at ordinary people... in fact its less creepy and stalker-ish for me to be grinning like a lunatic at fictional (by fictional they simply do not live in our universe... sadly! Our universe sucks!) character than over a boring human being of our world, even if they do have their moments of being entertaining.
Anyway, I'm rambling again, so I'll shut up and go back to writing more for this fic. I've been slack (and works still really busy and I've been tired due to it) and I'm worried that I might grow even slacker with this fic due to my dad gifting me with Skyrim. Though, then again, maybe not, I'm a watcher not a gamer. I predict that I will grow quickly bored of continuously getting my character killed simply because I'm walking them off the side of building (Its been a long, long time since I've actually played a computer game myself. The last time I did controllers were still big and you barely touched the keyboard :(). I think I've spent too many years watching my dad kick ass on the computer screen to actually stand the frustration of my own failure to walk in a straight line, but will see what happens. Maybe I can figure out a way that I can find time to do both

On a completely different note entirely, do you all like the cover page for this fic!? Isn't it awesome?! The lovely Balafenn-N drew it for me. I love it!

Thanks for reading everyone. See you again soon! If you don't hear from me in a couple of weeks, just know this, I used to be a writer like you, until I took an arrow to the knee...
Bye for now!