Fili (Ered Luin, Middle Earth)

Fili had searched everywhere.

When Kili was thrown over the edge, Fili's heart stopped, his blood turned to frost in his veins. His arms had reached out, straining uselessly towards his brother. All he could do was yell his name.

Fili charged to the edge, nearly taking himself over with his momentum. Rocks dislodged from the sodden earth and tumbled to the ground below. Kili was down there. His little brother was down there.

Fili did not hesitate, climbing down the cliff face with careless speed. His hands slid down the rain soaked moss, catching on the sharp rocks. But he hardly felt them.

The rain poured even harder than before, bringing visibility down to nearly nothing.

"Kili!" He screamed. Screamed until his voice was hoarse.

His brother, his baby brother. Where was he?

He had been helpless, as his little brother fell to his death.

No! Not to his death. He can't be dead, he simply can't.

This was his fault. If only he had gotten to the warg in time. He was supposed to be the older brother. Adad had charged him with protecting both Kili and their Amad before he had died and now he had failed them.

When he finally reached the bottom to the valley below, he drew his sword. Kili had to be down here. Even with the rain he should have been able to see him.

"Kili please, where are you?" he cried.

He swung his head around frantically, searching in every direction. His long hair whipped around and clung to his soaken face. Fili could no longer tell if the moisture on was purely the rain or if tears hung there.

Out of the corner of his eye Fili could see something moving. He rushed over to it, his feet slipping through the mud. When he got close he stopped in his tracks.

It wasn't Kili.

It was that 'Thing'. He could see it twitching and whining like a whelping mutt. The matted fur was coated in a thick layer of blood and its limbs were broken at sharp angles.

Fili saw red. Teeth bared, he lifted his sword above his head and swung. The blade arched down and cut through the beast's neck. Fili then repeated it. Again and again and again. Blood spattered up his arms, his face. But he didn't care. The creature was long dead but he kept hitting it. It might have killed his brother.

He stopped abruptly, his arms quivering. A sickening feeling settled deep in his stomach. Fili was shocked at what he did. He'd killed animals before but never like that. Shaking, he took several steps back. His breath was coming out in heaving gasps.

That's when he saw it. A few metres away tangled in the grass. Kili's bow.

Fili rushed over, heart beating out of his chest. The sword fell out of his hands and he dropped to his knees. The wood was soaked but it wasn't from the rain. It was stained a deep red.

Blood. Kili's blood.

But he was nowhere to be seen. Fili picked up the bow and cradled it to his chest.

"KILI!"

There was no response besides the beating of the rain.

oOo

Leah (England-Earth)

I think I slept. If you could really call it sleep. Curled up on a chair next to Kili's bed, made for some very awkward sleeping positions and a very bad neck. Kili on the other hand was out like a light, snoring away.

They mainly kept us in to check on Kili, as he was quite badly injured and we were still waiting for Kili to have his arm cast. Apparently they didn't have staff available to do it during the night, which meant that we would be here longer. Yay. Thankfully, I'd had the chance to change clothes, putting on some spares from my backpack. The nurses had taken the bloody garments I had been wearing away, probably to the incinerator. My poor marvel pyjamas did not deserve such a tragic end.

Kili stirred after a little while. He startled as he woke, before he seemed to remember where he was. My heart went out for him.

I looked over to where Mum was sitting. Her head rested against a crooked arm, the best pillow she could find given the circumstance. She had drifted off at some point, at least she was getting sleep.

"How are you feeling?" I said to Kili, groggily.

"Better than last night. Those medicines they gave me were quite good," He said with a smirk.

Kili had been very appreciative of the morphine they gave him. It did not send him loopy like it did for a lot of people. Evidently dwarves had quite a high tolerance for that kind of thing. But he did enjoy having no pain, nonetheless.

"Yeah, it can be quite something," I said.

"How are you? That chair does not look comfortable," said Kili.

I shifted then, stretching my legs and arms. Several loud cracks and pops came from my protesting joints "What would make you think that?" I laughed.

"I don't think bones are supposed to make those sounds," he laughed back

"Then I am a marvel to mankind," I said, still stretching.

Oh Christ, I ache so bad. I needed a hot bath and a massage. Not that I could get any of those things presently. Unless Kili decided to volunteer his services with his one good hand.

Not that, that would be weird in any way.

Reaching up, I tried to run my fingers through my hair. It caught and snagged, pulling at my roots "Ow."

"I think there might be some blood in it," Kili coughed.

"Ugh, that's not fun," I groaned, dropping the strand of hair.

The last thing I needed was warg essence. Yet here I was covered in the stuff. Eau de Warg, if you will.

"There's still some on your face too," He pointed.

"What, where?" I asked, patting my face with my hands.

I thought I had rubbed it all off when we arrived. Before he could reply, I reached into my bag that was tucked under the chair. Sorting through it, I dug out some face wipes. I grabbed one and just rubbed it all over in an attempt to get it all off. The wipe came away covered in light marks of dried blood.

Ew.

"Did I get it all?" I asked, turning my face in his direction

"Almost, just come closer and I will point it out."

That involved moving and standing up, which was not at the top of my priority list. But neither was being covered in blood so conceding, I edged closer. With his good hand he pointed towards my face, his fingers grazing my left cheek. My skin tingled where he touched it and my cheeks flushed red.

Kili then took the face wipe from me and wiped away the blood himself. "There I think it's all gone now."

"Thank you," I said, straightening back up and begging my cheeks to return to normal.

"You're welcome, My lady," he replied with a smile.

My eyebrows raised at that "My lady? I don't quite think I'm lady material," I laughed softly.

"Is that not how you address people in this world?" asked Kili, curious now.

"100 years ago maybe, most people just say Miss or Ms now. If you're with people you know then you just use their names."

"I've got a lot to learn then," said Kili.

By the time the caster was ready, Mum had woken up from her nap. Was caster the right word? Probably not, it made them sound more like a wizard than a doctor.

The nurse sat Kili down in a small room and explained each step in the process. This seemed to calm him somewhat. She also asked him what colour he would like.

"Colour?" Kili said, confused.

"For the cast," She explained, "What colour would you prefer?"

"Uh, I don't know." said Kili

I leaned over then, and asked him, "What's your favourite colour Kili?"

"Blue!" He answered back, not missing a beat. His enthusiasm brought a smile to my face.

So Kili managed to get a royal blue cast. It only came up to his elbow which allowed him some range of motion. Once it was all done we were finally allowed to escape. Kili got a few stares on the way out. It's not everyday you see someone that looks like they stepped out of a fantasy book.

We need to get this boy some people clothes.

It was nearly midday by the time we finally left the hospital. However, we now had the journey home to contend with. As the trail mum chose was quite a distance away from home, we were now confined to the car for the next couple of hours.

We did stop for food very early into the journey. None of us had eaten since last night. Kili had to be nil-by-mouth until a doctor decided he wouldn't need surgery. This meant a trip to McDonalds. The first food Kili would try from our world was going to be a McDonalds. Probably not the best advocate for Earth food. But it was fast and we were starving.

Kili seemed to have a vague idea about what a burger was but I don't think it was called that in Middle Earth. Mum ordered herself a veggie wrap with fries and a strong coffee. I ordered two cheeseburgers with extra pickles. For Kili we decided to play it safe and order him a quarter pounder burger and fries. We decided not to risk getting him a fizzy drink just in case he didn't like it.

Kili was very intrigued about the drive thru and marvelled at how quickly we got our food. That's fast food for ya babe.

He seemed to enjoy his burger at least and devoured it in under a minute. Along with half of my fries. He made a face at mum's veggie meal, mumbling about it not being real food under his breath.

At some point I decided that I wasn't going to be on the road without some kind of music to listen to.

"Hey Kili, want to see something cool?" I asked

"Cool? Why would I want to see something cold?" Kili replied.

"No, sorry it means amazing or awesome," I said, reaching for my phone, it had about 20% charge left.

"Alright then show me something 'cool',"

I asked Mum to hand me the aux cord and plugged it into my phone. Pulling up the spotify app I started scrolling through my playlists. What should I start with?

"What is that? It changes when you touch it," Kili inquired, his eyes wide.

I waved his question away. "I'll explain later, I want to show you something else first."

Ah, that one's a nice one. I pushed play and the first few notes of 'Soldier, Poet, King' started playing through the car's speakers.

Kili's mouth dropped open in shock and he looked around trying to find the source of the sound. "Music!" he breathed, a grin spreading across his face "How can there be music?"

I smiled back at him and pointed to my phone. As the song kicked in I joined in too.

There will come a soldier

Who carries a mighty sword

He will tear your city down

Oh lei, oh lai, oh, Lord

Oh lei, oh lai, oh lei, oh, Lord

He will tear your city down

Oh lei, oh lai, oh lei, oh, Lord

There will come a poet

Whose weapon is His word

He will slay you with His tongue

Oh lei, oh lai, oh, Lord

Oh lei, oh lai, oh lei, oh, Lord

He will slay you with His tongue

Oh lei, oh lai, oh, Lord

There will come a ruler

Whose brow is laid in thorn

Smeared with oil like David's boy

Oh lei, oh lai, oh, Lord

Oh lei, oh lai, oh lei, oh, Lord

Smeared with oil like David's boy

Oh lei, oh lai, oh, Lord

Kili loved it and asked for me to play more. It continued like this until we got home. He would listen to the songs, occasionally getting confused and flustered by some of the lyrics. I don't think he'd ever heard anyone swear or sing about sex in a song. I mean I tried to choose songs that weren't too bad but sometimes you forget it was in there. His facial expressions at those songs did make me laugh.

Motivation by Normani came on and I found myself bopping along. I was also dog tired and apparently my filter had not woken from her slumber yet. Which led me to say, "Anika tried to tell me that this song was about pegging," right in the middle of the car.

"Oi, none of that please," said Mum while looking at me through the rear view mirror. "I don't need to be hearing things like that while I'm driving."

"Wait, What? What's pegging?" Kili asked innocently.

I burst out laughing, letting out a very unladylike snort.

"Wouldn't you like to know," I said, wiggling my eyebrows. Having no sleep is one hell of a drug.

Mum then gave me another 'look' through the mirror. "Leave Kili alone, Leah."

"I wasn't going to actually tell him what pegging was," I giggled.

"Well now I want to know," said Kili.

"We should probably sleep as soon as we get in," Mum cut in before I could say anything. "I think we need it."

I could agree with her on that one.

We got home around 3pm. We crawled through the front door and dumped everything in the living room. All of us were too tired to actually sort through any of it. Mum gave Kili a very brief tour. I could tell Kili had a lot of questions but Mum told him she would answer them all after they'd slept. She showed him to the guest bedroom, which was next to mine. Soon all of us were in our respective rooms, and I was out like a light.

I was running.

Trees zoomed past, their branches reaching out trying to ensnare me.

I could hear it. A car. It was snarling like an animal. The headlights were blinding beacons. It was close, too close.

Without warning my body was falling through the air. I fell forward, sharp rocks cut into my hand.

I flipped onto my back. The car was barreling towards me.

Only, it wasn't a car anymore. The headlights became eyes and the snarling became real. It had a mangled face and sharp teeth. I only had time to cover my face before it attacked.

Gasping, I woke up from my nightmare. My arm throbbed fiercely and I gritted against the pain. The painkillers must have worn off while I slept. I sat up and tried to calm my racing heart.

Great. Another nightmare to add to the list. How fun. I was more annoyed than scared to be honest.

The room was dark and street lights shone through the window, indicating that night had long since fallen. I must have slept for a while then. I definitely needed it. The sleep, that is, not the nightmare.

Picking up my injured arm, I inspected it underneath the light from the window. My forearm was covered in white gauze. I gently ran my finger along the edge of the bandage. Beneath the surface were four freshly stitched cuts that were definitely going to scar. Another few to add to my collection.

You don't really survive a car accident without some form of scarring. There were a few small ones on my arms and legs. However the biggest one was a rather nasty one across my stomach.

I was self-conscious about it in school. Always tried to hide it when I changed for P.E. Until Anika came up with a story and told me to play along. She started telling everyone I survived a knife fight or some other extreme feat. People began to think it was cool then.

My arm pulsed in agony once more and I knew I needed to get up. There were painkillers thrown somewhere in the living room and I needed to harvest them.

With a groan I dragged myself out of bed and made my way down stairs. When I reached the bottom I realised that I wasn't the only one up. Soft voices emanated from the kitchen. Light shining around the edges of the door. Curious, I moved closer so I could listen in.

"I need to," A voice pleaded. Markedly male. Kili then.

"I can't in my right mind let you do that Kili." That was Mum's voice.

"But I need to find a way back. My family must think me dead."

"I know that Kili and I'm sympathetic but I know for a fact wandering out into this world on your own is not going to help you."

Wait, was he trying to leave? Surely he could see that it was a bad idea. He knew nothing about this world. Fear shot through me at the thought of all the bad things that could happen to him.

"How do you know?" said Kili, his voice uncertain.

"I'm not sure how, I just know that something drew Leah and I to that portal last night. I planned the trip with no real reason, just felt like I needed to. Something in me knew I needed to be there. And I feel deep down that if another one of those gateways opened I would know. I don't know how. I don't know why. I just do. So I think you'd have a better chance of getting home if you stayed here, with us."

I could sort of understand what Mum was talking about an that idea scared the hell out of me. Why was this happening to us? Surely there are other people more suited to handling inter-dimensional singularities. A physicist perhaps.

Kili was silent for a few seconds before agreeing "Okay, I believe you."

I chose this moment to let my presence known. Being an eavesdropper in my own house felt a bit weird. I pushed the door open and squinted against the light. Mum and Kili were by the back door. Kili was in his torn overcoat with his sword attached to his back. Good lord, if he went out like that he would be arrested so quickly.

"I assume you heard most of that, then?" said Mum

I nodded back at her then faced Kili "So you're staying?"

Kili sighed deeply and said "I guess I am."

I smiled at him reassuringly "Don't worry, I'm sure it'll be fun."

Soldier, Poet, King - Oh Hellos