The trek through Mirkwood had been going on for two days now. It wasn't what one would call pleasant - every member of the company yearned to breathe in the scent of fresh air, not that of a dark, dank forest, and every area that they walked through seemed to look the same. Nothing new was happening. Worry was beginning to brew that they were walking in circles and would never arrive at their desired location. They felt dazed, lethargic and half the time extremely confused.
Kili was happy enough - every night Thorin gave him an iglishmek lesson and he was becoming rather fluent in the sign language so communicating with people was miles easier. He wasn't an expert, but for a week's lessons worth he felt like a champion.
Thorin's manner was far kinder to him than before, giving the purple bruise on his cheek a chance to properly heal since Thorin hadn't owned the heart to stop it from doing so. It annoyed Kili, in a way; the fact that to get his uncle to stop beating him up he had to physically save his life. Why couldn't he have simply been gifted it, like Fili? Fili never got beatings.
However, considering the current circumstances he was grateful for the surprising change in demeanor.
The only issue was everyone constantly shot him concerned glances and he found himself declining Oin's request to see his back at least ten times an hour. It was, what one would say, exhausting.
A presence snapped the archer who was walking near the back of the line out of his reverie. "Hello Kili. How are you?" The dwarf asked politely. Kili smiled at him; Ori had been the only one on the whole quest to really befriend him from the start - he knew that everybody pitied him, but none dared get involved for fear of Thorin's wrath. However, Ori was always the one to ride alongside him, always the one to sneak him extra food when Thorin didn't let him have any. He could tell it hurt Ori that Kili kept his past a secret - the two were relatively close, after all, and if Kili had to tell anyone in the company he would definitely be high on the list, but he just couldn't. He also knew that Ori had seen his scars with Fili in Rivendell, and was too concerned about Kili's health, but he didn't see what they could do. The scars were there for life - they couldn't just magically disappear.
The black haired archer brought his hands up to sign. Good, you?
"I'm alright. I don't like this forest. It seems like there is something watching us all day long and it's creeping me out."
"Thank you!" A voice exclaimed from behind, causing both dwarves to spin around in surprise. "I didn't want to say anything in case everyone thought that I was mad, but every night it feels as though there are eyes upon us." Gloin muttered bitterly.
"It's giving me goosebumps." Dwalin added. The three raised their eyebrows in surprise that the hardened warrior had actually just admitted that. "Well not gooseb...just..." he coughed into his fist. "We need to get out of here soon." His voice turned gruff and Kili bit his bottom lip to hide the fact that he was silently laughing.
"I agree." Ori stated. "I think we all do."
"Ori! Ori, stop running off!" Dori exclaimed. "This forest is dangerous!" He shot Kili a glare who shook his head and snickered when Ori rolled his eyes at 'protective older brothers' as Dori grabbed his wrist and dragged him away.
"We will make camp here." Thorin declared from the front, stopping which in turn made everyone behind him come to an abrupt halt. He observed their surroundings - it was a small clearing in between a circle of trees which seemed like the perfect place to settle. Everyone complied to their leaders order and began to swing the packs off of their shoulders and lay out their bedrolls as Oin and Gloin successfully got a raging fire going, which spread a comforting warmth into the aroma. Thorin then ordered for Bifur and Nori to go hunting, whilst Bofur helped Bombur cook a stag that Kili had shot yesterday when him and his brother were ordered to go hunting.
"Kili." Thorin called whilst the meal was cooking, gesturing to a tree that nobody was sat around, for all were fighting to be near the fire and steal it's glaze. Kili knew what they were doing and stood, sauntering over to learn various new words in the space of an hour that he vowed to put to good use.
Nerissa scowled wickedly at the young dwarf who had been assigned to sit on watch. She hadn't expected him to be doing this well - she needed the lad and knew full well that fate didn't appear to be on her side at the moment. It surprised her since usually Thorin appeared to be as stubborn as a mule and didn't often change his mind about things or people. Every instinct to just murder the king awakened within her but she thought the better of it - torture would be so much more fun.
A lightbulb moment hit her and she developed a method to destroy Kili's chances of beating her in the deal whilst also gaining what she knew a certain hobbit in the company possessed; something that she needed if she was going to stay on the right side of the orcs.
The witch edged forward, making sure not to scuffle her feet through the leaves, and put her plan into action.
Sitting on watch was boring, in all honesty, especially in Mirkwood because there was no light, meaning Kili couldn't wander off to hunt something under everyone's noses since he wouldn't be able to see anything.
This was why he couldn't see the malevolent witch cowering behind a tree, eyeing Kili's water flask which she was able to move with her unnatural telekinesis abilities straight towards her whilst he lent back against a tree, tracing a finger over the runes carved into his bow, not focusing on his surroundings which was a little bad since he was supposed to be on watch, but nothing ever seemed to happen to raise alarm.
The next time he picked up his flask and took a sip he had been unable to notice the anaesthesia flowing through the liquid. It tasted vile. He tried to spit it out but most had already been swallowed. It weighed his body down and he sagged against the tree, silently rasping for air as the substance took its immoral toll and engulfed him in sleep's evil darkness and away from the safer one of the forest.
Fili woke up with a stretch. Looking around, he noticed that he was the first awake. He peered up though some cracks in the trees - the scintillating fireball was slowly making a welcomed appearance, so he guessed that it was about dawn, which meant that the sky should turn azure soon. Whilst he waited for this, which was a pointless exercise really for the branches blocked the path of all rays to reach through them and brighten their sight, he began to re braid his moustache. He ended up doing this many mornings, for it often became tangled or undone during the night.
"Why do you do that?" A voice behind his startled him into spinning around to stare at his brother in shock.
"You just talked." He whispered.
"Do you see anybody else around here doing it?" Kili spat.
"No but..I don't...know, really..."
"I'm hungry." Kili interrupted him suddenly, standing up to rummage through Bombur's bag of goods whilst the remainder of the company began to stir.
"Wait...Kili explain!" Fili ordered, standing up as well only to grimace in disgust when Kili ripped a large piece of raw meat off of a deceased bird with his teeth. He then pulled something out of his boot.
"Here's your knife. I borrowed it."
Fili stared blankly at the once green hilt which was now a shade of inky black. "W...why is it all black now?" He asked, staring at it in disbelief.
"I have black paint." Kili replied through a mouthful. Fili blinked and let it fall limply between his two fingers as he raised his arms in defeat, the crease between his brows deepening. Kili nudged past him like he wasn't there and plonked down onto a log to sharpen his blade. Fili rubbed the shoulder that had just forcefully been knocked back before turning around to see who else was awake. Dwalin, Balin, Bombur and Nori were all wandering about to prepare for travel.
Dwalin walked over to Kili. "Lad, why did you not wake us for watch?"
"I didn't feel like it." Kili hissed. "Could you not tell that I was doing fine? You should be thankful that I bothered to let you sleep!"
Dwalin flinched in both surprise that Kili was speaking, and the bitterness in the lad's tone. He turned to Fili expectantly. "Did I miss something?"
Fili could only shrug in response.
"Bombur, make breakfast." Thorin ordered whilst he stirred and laid eyes on the fat dwarf. Bombur grunted in response, standing up and searching in one of the hunting sacks. He frowned when he saw the state of the dead bird.
"Has someone cooked some of the bird?" He asked, looking around at the dwarves who were awake and the others who were rolling to awaken. Fili stared uncomfortably at Kili who was glaring daggers at Bombur from where he sat on the log. The cook pulled it out and turned to the black haired archer, speaking in a nothing but kind tone. "Did something happen whilst you were on watch?"
"I am not your little find it guy, alright? So if you lost some of the bird why don't you throw yourself down a hole and cry about it!"
Bombur looked taken aback.
Thorin bolted upright and stared at his youngest nephew, letting his gaze then drift to his embarrassed and extremely confused eldest nephew. "What happened?" He demanded.
"I don't know!" Fili squeaked.
"Your talking." Thorin stood in front of where Kili sat, hands on his hips. He wore a gruff expression.
"Oh well spotted." The dwarf muttered, staring at the exiled king as though he was an idiot.
"How?"
"Are you stupid?" Kili half laughed. "I didn't speak to you because I didn't want to - who would! You terrify most of this company to the point where they flinch when you approach them because you are a psychopathic idiot!" Kili's voice rose with each word but the moment he finished his sentence he felt a hand back-slap him straight across the cheek, searing hot pain immediately erupting.
"Thorin..." Dwalin warned.
"Bombur don't bother cooking actually - we need to move." Thorin growled before walking away and collecting his bedroll. Kili glared at him from a distance.
Ori came and hesitantly sat next to him. "Are you feeling alright, Kili? Do you need anything?"
Kili turned angrily to the presence next to him. "Dwarf, you can say something rude, do something rude! Nobody will murder you for it." Ori flinched slightly, a look of hurt crossing his face. Fili raised his eyebrows and contemplated interfering.
"I um...it's not very nice to be rude..." Ori stated in confusion.
"Who cares? If I walked up to the dwarf with the hat right now and stole his hat, then walked over to the large bald one and punched him, nobody would kill me." Ori stared at the bruise baring Kili's left cheek and thought about that phrase for a moment.
"But...you just wouldn't."
"Watch me." Kili challenged, standing up and marching away.
"Kili maybe don't..."
"Shut up!" The heir called as he strolled towards Bofur, pulling the hat off of his head with worrying ease. Bofur laughed, thinking the dwarf to be joking.
"Give it back, laddie." He chuckled, reaching up, unfortunately finding Kili to exceed his height who threw it up into a tree, watching in satisfaction as it hooked itself on the end of a branch.
Bofur stared up uncomfortably and flicked a glance to Fili who watched in discomfiture and uncertainty. Kili then ambled casually towards Dwalin and without warning raised his fist and it struck the hardened warrior strongly on the nose. The dwarf clutched it in shock, watching in disbelief as Kili tilted his head and tapped the bald - headed dwarf's shoulder before reclaiming his seat next to the wide-eyed Ori.
"Did I die?"
Ori didn't answer and stood up to hurry away. Thorin exhaled roughly and began to stomp angrily over to the youngest when Fili reached out on tiptoes to grab his uncle by the wrist and draw him from his path.
"Please don't, uncle."
"Who does he think he is?" The exiled king spat.
"I don't know uncle but something must have happened - that is not my brother unless he's gone completely off his trolley. Let me talk to him before you scold him again."
"He just punched Dwalin!"
"Aye, and you've punched him over three hundred times in his life! Just let me handle this. Please."
It took a moment for Thorin to nod his approval but when he finally did the heir was quick to move and sit beside his sulking brother.
"You didn't have to do that - he was just being nice." Fili told him.
"So what?"
Fili pondered his answer. "So now he's got pee running down his leg." He gestured to Ori who was being fussed over by his eldest brother, despite his constant protests that he was fine.
"I am not responsible for that dwarf's bladder control or lack of it." Kili decided bluntly.
Fili threw his hands up in exasperation. "Kili? What is going on?" Kili glared at his brother prior to him standing up and rudely nudging past some of the company as he grabbed his pack and began to follow the long line of dwarves. Fili slung his own pack over his shoulder and furrowed his brow in concern as he followed cautiously along behind.
"Give me the magic."
Bilbo and Kili both trudged at the back, not engaging in any surrounding conversations until this question flew from out of nowhere. The hafling blinked and hesitantly spared a nervous glance to the dwarf walking next to him.
"W...what?"
"You heard me, hobbit. I smell magic and I know that I'm not wrong."
Bilbo scuffed his feet in the auburn leaves - some of which were crisp and made a horrible crunching sound - in an uncomfortable gesture. "I uh...I don't know what you mean..." The hobbit stuttered with a slight smile as he flicked another glance at the dwarf who chuckled a menacing chuckle and put his hands on his hips.
"You see this knife?"
Bilbo anxiously shifted, not enjoying the turn of conversation. "Y...yes." He stuttered, watching every move that the dwarf made with the incredibly sharp looking dagger that glinted from one small ray of sunlight that it managed to capture.
"It was forged by orcs, not hand made by any of the nice kin, and it is very sharp." He reached forward and sliced Bilbo's sleeve with one single swipe, startling the poor hafling into stumbling back. "See?"
"I do. Kili, are you feeling alright?"
"You don't get it to me today and this will meet the vulnerable flesh behind that sleeve of yours, mark my words."
Bilbo let himself relax when Kili shifted his attention to the company who had gotten a lot further ahead than originally for the duo at the back had barely realised that in the heated moment they had come to a halt.
He moved a shaky hand to hover over the ring, immediately stopping the trembling as its magic worked, talking to him soothingly. No, he thought defiantly. It's mine.
Mine.
They continued to follow the path, glancing around to make sure that they hadn't somehow circled around and were walking the wrong way. "If we follow the trail we should get to the bridge that Gandalf warned us about on this day. We will keep heading in that direction and it gets thinner so no more than two next to one another. We stay in that direction..." Thorin paused in his sentence when Kili scoffed and walked away from him. "I wasn't done talking!"
"I was done listening!" came the response.
"Kili, you need to know this! Did you listen to anything that Thorin just said?" Fili questioned.
"I don't know. All I heard was trail trail direction direction Thorin's boring kill me."
The king in exile grounded his shoulders threateningly and the only thing to stop him from charging at the youngest was Dwalin's hand pulling him back. As they continued to walk there was no change in Kili's morose attitude, much to Fili's upmost annoyance. Thorin's eldest nephew had been so concentrated at watching Kili from behind him where the archer walked with his arms crossed as he glared at any company member that dared look his way, including Fili himself, he didn't realise that the whole company had come to a sudden halt and he bumped into Bofur who stood in front of him, staring fixedly at something.
"Sorry." Fili mumbled.
"We've found the bridge!" A member of the company called from up front, though Fili couldn't see over the dwarves in front of him so he couldn't tell who.
"We could try and swim it." Bofur suggested, ignoring Fili, so Fili assumed that he hadn't heard the offered apology.
"Didn't you hear what Gandalf said? A dark magic lies upon this forest. The waters of this stream are enchanted." Thorin explained, looking around for any resourceful way to get across. Fili looked behind him and followed his brother who rolled his eyes and made his way over to some vines. Bilbo noticed this and saw what they was trying to do, so he followed the brothers to offer assistance.
"It doesn't look very enchanting to me." Bofur murmured.
"We must find another way across." Thorin ordered, a serious brow crease weaved onto his countenance.
"Just use the vines, idiots." Kili called, tugging on one harshly. Fili nearly put a hand out to stop him from falling but knew it would get swatted away.
"Kili, no!" Thorin called with a head shake. "We send the lightest first."
Kili nodded in understanding. "Sure." He agreed, pushing the poor hobbit straight off of the trunk. The company immediately burst into action as the hobbit grabbed onto the vine with a yelp of surprise whilst Kili crossed his arms and watched in amusement, making no move to help. Fili glared daggers at him, reaching down hastily to assist the dangling hobbit. The rest of the company darted over. Dwalin and Dori both ended up yanking him up and once he was on his feet the whole dwarf party turned simultaneously to stare at the brunette who stood, watching the scene play before his eyes like an entertaining movie.
"Oops."
They did manage to get across with no more issues, but that was probably because Thorin made Kili go last for fear of any more intentional incidents. The archer had snorted but obeyed.
It was a struggle to move out of the way of the obstacle vines, for they were constantly ducking and dodging - sometimes it was good to be tall, and sometimes you needed to be small to get through easier. It really was a maze. The only person who had managed to fall in - not to anyone's surprise - was Bombur. Now the company were tasked with making him some form of stretcher with pieces around the place which they succeeded in doing in record time.
Thorin had to restrain so hard from smacking his youngest nephew as hard as physically possible on the side of the face - the lad was being a brat.
Nothing new there, Thorin thought bitterly. He was only being nice to get Fili to pity him. To get everyone to pity him. To make them doubt their loyalty to me. The guilt that the leader of the company had felt for the last few weeks washed completely over him like water, leaving nothing but anger and infatuation.
Fili thought differently about the situation. Something has happened. Whatever events had occurred he was going to get to the bottom of them, for he had lost his brother once and refused to do it again. He needed to prove his uncle wrong about the notion that Kili truly was an irritating, reckless burden because the heir knew that that most certainly wasn't the case.
It was annoying though, he had to admit, when Kili didn't help carry the stretcher. He was one of the stronger ones of the company and denied putting that to good use, instead strolling beside them as they carried the deathly weight of their cook.
Eventually Thorin ordered for a camp to be made. Meanwhile, Bombur had yet to awaken and Bofur was getting slightly perturbed. They were all used to seeing darkness but the mood seemed to dim even more so when the sky transformed into something completely black.
The burglar looked up when he could tell someone was walking towards him and tried to hide his trembling when Kili spun around and sat beside him.
"Hello Kili." Bilbo greeted with a small, anxious smile.
"Ready to give it to me yet?"
"Uh, well...I don't know..." He stuttered uncomfortably.
"Give it to me, hobbit. Now."
"Kili, I don't have anything!" Bilbo exclaimed, trying to avoid glancing at his pocket. To his surprise Kili let out a deep sigh.
"You weren't there in goblin town, were you?" Bilbo bit his bottom lip and shook his head. Kili smiled, pulling off his tunic and he turned around to face the hobbit who stared at the dwarf's back in horror. It was littered with scars, and he could barely see an area of un marked skin. He visibly shuddered at the thought of what could have caused wounds as bad as that - some looked faded, and some looked relatively new.
"Kili...I..."
"These were painful to earn. I always tried to imagine a poor, innocent hobbit from the shire getting them."
Bilbo snapped his face to meet Kili's. "Look, Kili, I really don't know what you're talking about..." Bilbo put his hands in his pockets, hoping that the gesture went unnoticed which it did not. Kili smiled, tackling the hobbit to the ground whilst he shoved his hands into Bilbo's pockets. "It's mine!" The hobbit hissed, hovering a protective hand over the golden ring.
Kili pulled a sword out of his boot. "This contains poison!" He yelled over the struggling. The company ran over to pry Kili away but Bilbo found himself surrendering the moment he saw the sword and Kili's hand grasped the magic, prior to him rolling off of Bilbo and shoving it into his tunic. In the next second the air was momentarily knocked out of his lungs as two strong hands pushed him backwards onto the ground. Other voices were heard asking Bilbo whether or not he was okay, but the hobbit just stared at Kili with wide eyes in shock. Kili propped himself up on his elbows and stared at his uncle.
"What?" He asked innocently.
"What in mahal's name do you think you are doing? That is our burglar! Who do you think you are, going around attacking people like that?! This behavior stops, now!"
"Or what uncle?" Kili fired back, standing up and defiantly placing his hands on his hips, sliding a sword from his left boot. "You'll hit me again?"
"Right now I'm considering taking away your fourteenth share." Thorin spat.
"So you can have more for yourself?"
"Excuse me?"
"Kili..." Fili started to intervene, though Balin put a hand on his arm to stop him from moving.
"The gold is for greedy idiots who can't see what they become! When we arrive at Erebor, every member of this lot will watch you fall to the prey of the same sickness that your grandfather did, then they will end up dead when they try to question you. Then the cycle will repeat with my poor dear brother over there - Fili, is it?" Fili flinched, visibly hurt at the words and he tried to stop tears from entering his eyes. "I will be laughing when..." A hand slapped his face once again, dark bruising immediately bursting onto his right cheek. Kili just laughed. "See? See - he's crazed!" Kili told them with wide eyes as they started to murmur and turned away. Fili turned sadly and departed with them.
Fake tears brimmed in Kili's eyes when Thorin turned to face him with a look of pure hatred. "You really are a wretch."
Kili stirred, the feeling of waking up on hard ground was uncomfortable. He put a hand to his head in a daze as he rubbed his eyes, sitting up and stretching his stiff limbs which caused him to hear the creation of cracks. As he forced his eyes open the first thing his bleary vision saw was stone. Grey stone. Then he saw more of it. He started frantically whipping his head back and forth, staring in horror at the handcuffs around his wrists as they jangled loudly with his movement. The dwarf looked up, the stone surrounding him travelling up in a circle at least five meters upwards. He stood up on shaky legs and pressed the wall to feel for dents, searching for any way to climb back up. He opened his dry mouth to yell, but much to his dismay, no sound came out. Where was Fili? Where was everyone?
What in mahal's name was going on?!
