Disclaimer: I don't own The Hobbit! :D

A/N:Thanks for all the lovely reviews, I appreciate each and everyone! I'm so glad y'all like it! *happy bouncing* Switching POVs here from Camy to Fili! I wanted to give a bit of insight into how the boys came to be in this predicament. :)

Like Everything That's Green

Chapter 3

It was the smell of herbs that woke Fili. The strong scent made him crack open his eyes even though they felt thick and heavy. Every part of him seemed to ache, but what had happened to him was a haze in his mind. A cool cloth touched his forehead face gently, and he squinted, vision blurry, expecting to see his mother there ready to berate him for another misadventure.

Instead, there was a heart-shaped face framed with curls that gleamed like dark golden rings in firelight. No, that wasn't right, his mother had a long face with straight black hair. He blinked, confused, and for a moment, the girl came into focus. A tiny snub of a nose, light brown freckles smattered across her cheeks, big brown eyes watching him. She blinked, looking startled, and then gave him a tentative smile.

"It's all right, you're safe. So's your brother." Her voice was warm and soothing with a lilt to it. "Sleep on, it'll do you good."

He wanted to say no, to ask where Kili was, to make her tell him what happened. But his eyes were heavy, and resting them sounded nice…

He slipped back into sleep and then further into memory.

Fili would never forget those yells and screams and the sound of ropes snapping and Kili crying out in terror, not until his dying day, which may not be that far off. They echoed in his head, a steady cacophony of pain and fear scratching its way from ear to ear as he dragged Kili through the deep tunnels of the mountain. He had carried his brother on his shoulders as long as he could, but now his strength was failing him so he had hooked his arms under his brother's, catching the crooks of his elbows against Kili's arms, and was pulling him along.

He stopped at the point where the tunnel he was traveling along intersected with another. He was hopelessly lost in these dark passageways. If the situation was lighter, he might have laughed at the irony of it all. A dwarf, born to the underneath of the world, lost in a cavern system. As it was, he was in no condition to laugh. He was bleeding from a dozen goblin-inflicted wounds and his face and shoulder were still bleeding from the straps of the tailed whip that goblin bastard had wielded. Kili's blood was heating his hands as he dragged his younger brother with him, away from the goblins who were almost certainly already on their trail by now.

His vision blurred, and Fili stumbled, his shoulder scraping against the stone wall. He managed to not drop Kili by letting the rest of his own body hit the wall and pulling Kili close, wrapping his arms tight around him.

Exhausted, he pressed his forehead to Kili's shoulder blade, close enough that he could hear Kili's ragged breathing. Good. Breathing was good. Because if Kili stopped breathing, he wasn't sure he would be able to go on. But a moment's rest…they could afford that. Fili needed one.

It had happened so suddenly. One moment, they had been following their uncle and Gandalf and the rest of the Company as they hacked and slashed their way out of Goblin Town. Then the bridge-path they had been on had violently listed to the side; goblins where cutting through the ropes and chopping through the beams that held the section they were on to the wall and now it was starting to pull away from the rest of the path ahead of and behind it.

Fili started to sprint but stopped when he heard Kili yell out behind him. Instantly, he spun around and blocked a sword that was aimed at his brother who must have fallen when the path lurched. A roar ripped through him as he stepped over Kili, thrust both his swords into the goblin's gut and twisted. The beast fell dead as its black innards spilled on the rough-hewn planks of the bridge.

Bending down, Fili sheathed one sword and reached to grab his brother. He nearly fell on top of Kili as the bridge broke from the wall, throwing him off balance. He felt Kili's fingers dig into his arm even as he pulled his younger brother to him. There was no way to get to the others, the distance was too far; they wouldn't make it.

He saw Thorin turn around, Orcrist raised high to take down any foes who came against him. There was victory in his eyes but Fili saw it fade into shock, and he lowered the elven blade as he started to run toward them, shouting their names. It was Dwalin who caught him, snagging him around the waist and hauling him back before he could leap off the edge and join them. For a second, Fili wished Dwalin hadn't done that since there was some small part of him that thought Thorin could get them out of any danger, even this, but in truth he was grateful. At least Thorin would not share their fate. He only wished that he had the strength to throw Kili to safety.

Free from the wall, the bridge had slipped down the side of the cliff into the depths of the mountain, picking up speed. Both of them yelled in fear until the bridge slammed into a ledge and the breath was knocked from their lungs. For a moment, they paused, then the fall continued. Around them, the bridge began to break and fall apart. At one point, Fili nearly killed himself with his own blade that he kept in his hand, but he refused to let it go. He forced himself to look up and ahead into the darkness. There was a second ledge, and it seemed like this might be the last before they truly hit the abyss.

They only had a second to act. Shifting, he placed his feet on what remained of the bridge and tugged at Kili. "Jump!" he yelled and then, whether Kili had jumped or not, he tossed him over the ropes onto the slope. A moment later, Fili leaped over the ropes and tumbled down the slope a ways until he slowed himself to stop by clawing at the stones and rocks around him.

He lifted his head to the sound of relieved laughter. "We're alive!" Pebbles rolled and pelted him in the face as Kili slid down to him and grabbed him by one shoulder, his other hand still clutching his sword. "Fili, we're alive! Good! Not dead, how're we not dead?!" His dirty face was positively gleeful. "Are you hurt? We're alive! Come on, let's go." He snagged Fili's arm and pulled him up to his feet.

Fili stared at him, his own head spinning, though he managed to smile. "Just bumps and bruises," he finally answered. Plus a couple cuts from orc blades, but that wasn't important now. What they needed to do was get out of here and rejoin the rest of the company.

That was when the goblins swarmed them.

They came from a tunnel that they hadn't noticed in the side of the slope, and they poured out of the opening like ants from a hill. Fili was exhausted, but he threw himself into the fight, determined to get himself and Kili out of this damn mountain.

He lost track of how many goblins they killed as he and his brother slashed and hacked their way into the tunnel and hopefully toward a way out. At some point, Kili had grabbed one of the torches from the wall and managed to set a couple of the goblins on fire; their scanty clothes were apparently very flammable, as were the wooden beams that they used to support their tunnels.

Soon the world was made of fire and blood, battle and pain. A sword lashed at his side, a spear bite his leg, a knife gouged into his shoulder. When a whip licked at him hungrily and hot blood poured down his face, he backed himself against a wall. Fear clenched his gut, but determination, rage and courage rose to conquer it, and they drove him on. He was of the line of Durin, the descendant of kings, and he would not fall, not in this wretched place.

Neither would his brother.

Kili was starting to fail, Fili could see it in his slowing movements and the pain twisting face. He was holding his arm to his chest as he fought one-handed, his swings sloppy and frenzied. His clothes were dark with blood, and Fili didn't know how many wounds he had been given. Their chance for escape came unexpectedly when Fili saw a wide crack in the wall. It was just big enough for a dwarf to fit through…

"Kili!" was the only warning Fili gave his brother before shoving him through the crack. Once they were on the other side, Fili broke into a sprint, pulling Kili along with him. By some stroke of good luck, the first goblin that tried to come through was too big to fit through the crack and the press of other goblins against him stopped any from coming any farther. At least for the moment.

When they took a break from running, Kili had sat down on the floor and nearly scared Fili to death by fainting. That was when Fili had started carrying him, stubborn in his intention to get his brother out of the goblin's mountain alive.

"Let's go, brother," he said, hefting Kili up again, slinging one of his brother's arms over his shoulders, "I think…think there's a light ahead."

From there, his mind had trouble stringing together what had happened. There was the mountain and the faltering, staggering trip down the hillside, Kili might've woken up at some point, he wasn't sure. His ankle…he'd twisted it on the way down. Then there was the forest with the tree that had the wide hole where he made Kili hide when they couldn't go any farther. He didn't have the strength, and that's when the world faded...

The next time Fili woke, he was alone, and he didn't feel like he had been sat on by a cave troll then gnawed on by a warg anymore. Maybe trampled by an orc horde, but that was still better than before. He sat up in bed. Or he made a good attempt at it. Someone had swaddled him in blankets and then piled more on top of him as if it was the middle of winter instead of the end of summer. Slowly, mindful of his still aching limbs, he extracted himself from the mound of blankets and then narrowed his eyes at his right ankle. Someone had bound it up tight…he must've sprained it.

Then there was the fact that half his clothes were missing. He touched the bandages that were wrapped around his chest and shoulder. Where was his armor? And his shirt. He would like to have his shirt back. And his vest.

And where in Durin's name was Kili?

Groaning, he swung his legs over the side of the bed and looked around the room. It was small, and the wooden walls were covered with pressed flowers and pieces of bright patchwork quilts. A second bed, more of a cot really, was opposite of his and the blankets on it were rumpled and messy, like someone had just gotten up. From the ceiling, bouquets of plants hung down, tied up there with ribbons. It smelled nice. Must be a girl's room. Why was he in a girl's room…

Fili gingerly put weight on his injured ankle and immediately wished he didn't. Cursing, he tensed up and pressed his hands to his face, forcing himself to breathe even though that made a sharp pain go through his chest. Did everything have to hurt?

"Again, I'll remind the two of you that we do have a proper table for sitting and eating at."

He lifted his head from his hands, his eyes narrowing. That muffled voice was unfamiliar, dry and wintery and female, an old woman's voice. Was he being kept captive in the den of a crone or some ancient witch? But last he checked, witches weren't inclined to patching up their victims before they ate them.

"Aye, and it's a fine proper table, but I'll remind you again, I'll eat in there with Fili 'til he can sit at the table, too."

Fili sat up straighter. Kili was here, too, and he didn't sound like he was in an awful lot of pain or fighting with an enemy, though he did sound peevish, haughty and stubborn. That was the tone he often used when someone was trying to make him do something he didn't want to do.

There was a muffled frustrated noise and the sound of metal clinking together. "I'm sure your brother wants to wake to the sweet sounds of you slurping soup by his ear."

A girl broke into the conversation, and for some reason, it was almost like he knew her voice. But no, he didn't know anyone here besides Kili. Did he? "We promise we won't spill anything, Mim, and we are taking broth for Fili, too…"

"Fine. Here, you forgot the spoons. Now go eat on the beds like barbarians."

Kili spoke again, and this time Fili could tell he was grinning even though he couldn't see him. "Harder to be barbarians now that you gave us spoons."

"Ach, get on with you, you rude thing!"

Ignoring the pain, Fili forced himself up and out of bed. He had to get to Kili, to make sure he was all right and that the angry old woman wasn't a witch. Gritting his teeth, he hopped on one foot toward the door, unwilling to try the experiment of putting weight on his foot again.

He was almost to the door when it swung in, nearly hitting him in the face as Kili came through. Fili stepped backward, right onto his bad ankle, and fell back as Kili let out a shout and tossed the bowl he had been carrying into the air as he tried to grab Fili instead. There was a bit of a scream in there, too, and that certainly didn't belong to his brother. Fili ended up on the floor, half-covered with soup, while Kili sat and stared at him.

A moment later, Fili was being squashed against his brother as Kili hugged him too tight with one arm. But he wasn't going to make a sound or complain about the pain, not when Kili obviously needed the hug. Maybe he needed it too. Kili took a shuddering breath. "I thought you were…"

"Not this time," Fili said as he reached up and patted Kili's back. When Kili leaned away and sniffed a bit, Fili shoved him in the shoulder. "Don't blubber. Takes more to kill me than a town full of goblins, you know that."

"I'm not blubbering!" Kili said even as he ran the back of his wrist under his nose. He rolled his eyes. "And it was more like a whole mountain full. You're not that good at fighting yet."

"Good enough. We're alive, aren't we?"

"Yeah, but you've been unconscious for three days," Kili said with a frown.

Three days? Truly, it didn't seem that long… "I'm fine now." Fili looked Kili up and down, noting the scratches under one of his eyes and the splint on his left arm. He was certainly worse for wear and he wouldn't be shooting his bow any time soon, but he didn't look like he was about to keel over either.

There was movement by the door, and Fili looked up to see a girl there. She was in the doorway with a cloth in her hand, looking a little shy and uncertain. A tiny thing, she was, just a slip of a girl, and a hobbit, judging by the size of her versus the size of her feet. They were easily as big as his own, and the rest of her was far smaller than him.

Stepping inside, she offered him the cloth, her curly hair falling in her face. "I don't mean to intrude, but I thought you might want to wipe the soup off before it dries…"

"Thanks," he replied as he took the cloth and swiped at the soup. There was something about her that he was supposed to know. He just couldn't figure out what it was. Her cheeks colored a light shade of pink, and as he remembered that someone had stolen his shirt, a bit of heat rose to his own face. Beside him, Kili flung a hand out toward the hobbit girl and grinned.

"Fili, I'd like you to meet our brave and selfless rescuer—"

The girl turned crimson. "Oh, Kili, don't, no, I wasn't—"

The forest. There had been a girl in the forest, kneeling by him, his sword at her pale throat. She had a lilting, sweet voice, a warm voice, and with a flower name but also… "Camy." Both his brother and the girl whipped their heads toward him, their eyes wide. Fili gave the girl, Camy, a small smile. "Which isn't a flower at all."

"No, it isn't," she said. A tiny grin darted onto her face. "You remembered."

"Excuse me, I wasn't finished with my grand introduction," Kili said indignantly. He took the cloth from Fili and cleaned up the soup on the floor roughly as he mock-scowled at them. "You can't know each other until I introduce you proper-like."

"Too bad, we've already met," Fili said, smirking over at his brother. He looked down at his hands and then back up at the girl. "And I'm sorry I threatened you with a sword. I wasn't thinking clearly."

Kili's mouth dropped open. "You threatened her with a sword?! What? When?"

"No harm done," she chirped, but he could see the little red line on her neck that was a reminder of the encounter as she stood up. She reached over and patted Kili's arm. "You wouldn't remember, you were stuffed in a tree."

Now Kili had his head cocked slightly to the side and there was a fierce frown growing on his face. "What…I don't remember being in a tree...I wasn't in a tree!"

Fili grinned and clapped him on the shoulder. "Don't worry about it right now. It's not important."

Someone cleared their throat, and Fili looked up to see an elderly human woman in the doorway. Instantly he felt suspicious. Mankind wasn't always understanding of dwarves, and more than once he had been accused as a thief and a vagabond in human towns when he had done nothing to make them feel so hateful toward him. Seeing this woman did not put him at ease.

"What's important is that you get back in that bed and rest more," she said, her tone no-nonsense, "Goes for you too, boy." Her gaze had fallen on Kili.

He made a face back at her. "I'm older than you."

She didn't seem to take any notice of the comment or Kili's petulant expression. "Not even half-healed yet, neither of you, and rolling about on the floor and throwing your food around isn't going to help any. Back to bed." With a parting glare, she left the doorway. Fili's eyebrows came together. What an odd woman.

"You heard the lady's kind words," Kili said with a sarcastic smirk as he stretched his uninjured arm out to his brother. Fili took it and let Kili help him to his feet while Camy came to his other side, taking his elbow with a gentle but firm grip. At first, he wanted to wave her off, to not show weakness in front of her, but then he realized that he truly was tired again and his sore bruises were protesting loudly all this moving about. Bed would be nice, though the old woman could've been nicer about suggesting it.

"That would be the silver-tongued Mim," Kili said, seeming to guess his thoughts. Like he usually did. "This is her and Camy's house, they're healers."

"I'm just in training," Camy stated, "And don't mind Mim's sharpness. She does care…"

"Aye, I can tell by the way she squints at me like I'm going to run off with her favorite set of tonics."

"Kili!"

Amused, Fili shook his head as he hobbled back to his bed with their help. He winced as he crashed into the pile of blankets, his ankle telling him that maybe that Mim woman had a point about staying in bed. But he had so many questions… Where were they? Why had they been taken in by a hobbit and an old woman, and why was a hobbit lass living with an elderly human woman? How were they going to get back to Thorin…they had to find Thorin…

He fell back to sleep to the sounds of his brother arguing playfully with the hobbit lass, their voices keeping him company and pushing the nightmarish memories away.

A/N: I know that there hasn't been a lot of explanation about Camy and Mim and the vale, but I promise it'll come soon! I so solemnly swear! :D Thanks for reading, and have a lovely day!