Author's Note: Hmmm, excuses... excuses.
Ye-ah, I got nothing. Apart from not really having much motivation to write and the massive re-writes of chapters, I'm pretty bare with reasons for the lack of updates. Trying to change that, but yeah, no promises at this point.

Chapter Forty-Nine

Darkness Be Not My Friend

Nori did not like mines. Oh sure, they made wonderful hiding places when you have no wish to be found by the authorities, or thugs… or your mother hen of an older brother. Those times were fine. But besides from those times, Nori disliked them with a passion. He did not know how Bofur and Bifur could stand to work down in those dark, claustrophobic tunnels that, at any moment, could cave in on top of you and crush you to be as flat as a plate. It may seem silly to some that he, Nori was quite comfortable living under a mountain but at the same time disliked and at times point out rightly refused to enter a mine that lay beneath the very mountain that he lived under. It really didn't make sense. But that was simply how he felt whenever he entered those damn places and as soon as he entered one he was already dreaming of getting out of there.

"Bofur, you had better have a bleeding good reason for call me down 'ere." Nori growled as he strode to where the mine slash toymaker was leaning against one of the many, many mine's entrances. On a closer look of the miner's face, Nori could immediately see that something was bothering him. His face was not wearing it usual go-lucky grin but instead was twisted into a worried frown as he nodded his head in direction of one of the mines.

"It's be better ta just show ya than try and explain." The miner replied before lifting up his lantern and heading down into the mine, Nori following after him grudgingly, trying to ignore how the walls seem to close in around him.

After a time of not saying a word to each other, Bofur obviously noticed his silence and let out a small snort of laughter.

"How can ya hide down 'ere for days on end and be fine. But when it comes to quick trip, yer more worked up than rabbit caught between a net and a rock."

"Necessity and desperation." Nori retorted and Bofur snorted again, his shoulders once more filling with tension that had disappeared in the moments of his teasing. Nori opened his mouth to question Bofur's unease only for Bofur to start talking once more.

"Didn't really know what ta do, but I thought it best ta grab ya instead of the guards. Didn't want ta raise an alarm when there be no need." Bofur said, rolling his shoulders.

"Alarm?" Nori asked slowly. They both knew that the mountain was on high alert since they became aware that their king had had a child with his burglar and that said child and burglar were now in the mountain. There were some who protested loudly and wanted both of them sent away; claiming that their burglar was still banished by dwaren laws and by all rights, her head should be on a spike. Thorin had been fairly quick to shut those particular voices up, but still there was a great deal of unrest around the mountain. The common folk, funnily enough, were more accepting of the idea of their king having a child with his burglar, most not really seeing her crimes against the crown as huge and as terrible as a good deal of the nobles did. Most common folk, upon hearing her crime of taking the Arkenstone and using it as a bargaining tool as a means of saving her company's life against the army of men and elves awaiting upon Erebor's doorstep, actually felt she had done the right thing. Maybe it wasn't done quite in the right way, but they could see that her heart had been in the right place and that was enough for them to accept and for them not to raise their voices and cry for her head. The common folk, where they might have had issues with what Bilbo had done a century before now accepted what she had done as someone facing a desperate situation and going to desperate measures to resolves it. They understood this and Nori had even heard many of them saying that they, if they had been in her situation, would probably have done something similar. A great deal of the common folk of Erebor had come from humble beginnings and did not hold the wealth of gold quite so highly in their priorities as the noble families did. They had learned through hardship to rely more heavily upon their smithing and mining abilities to survive and not on how much gold lined their pockets.

It was this sort of thinking that had the company hoping beyond hope would convince Thorin's bloody council that they needed to stop calling for Bilbo's head and actually accept that she had, in fact, saved the lives of their king and his two heirs.

"Aye." Bofur replied with a short nod of his head causing his hat to flap ever so slightly, "Come on, just a bit further."

Just a bit further turned out to be quite a bit further and Nori was determined – if the tunnel around him didn't cave in upon his head before he got out of the blasted thing – to teach Bofur the true estimation of distance. That said, it might just be easier for him to say the next time Bofur said 'just a bit further' to go stick 'a bit further' up his arse and turn around and go home. Mahal he hated mines. Even when he used them as hiding places he never went into one this deep. Usually he just found a snug little nook, not too far in, and hid in there until it was safe to come out again.

"Are we there yet?" he growled, trying to make the silence around them not echo quite so badly as it did.

"Just a bit…"

"Say that one more time and I swear…" Nori growled. Bofur rolled his eyes at him before taking a left and suddenly they came into a large chamber, the walls of it glittering as they caught the light from Bofur's lantern.

"Alright, so this time you really did mean just a bit further," Nori grumbled grudgingly as he took a few deep breaths and feeling the weight on his shoulders lift as they walked further into the wide space.

"Aye," Bofur replied seriously, "but this ain't what I'm showing ya." Bofur jerked his head to one side of the stone chamber.

"Eh?" Nori followed his friend, frowning when he noticed an unusual shape lying by the wall of the chamber. "wha…" he took a closer look with Bofur's lantern now shining over the shape and cursed.

"Aye, that's what I said when I found 'im." Bofur said Nori squatted down beside the dead dwarf, raising his lantern higher so that Nori could get a good look at him. "Knew immediately tha something was off about 'im, just can't say what. Tha's why I came and got ya, thought ya might 'ave a better idea or what not."

"You're right," Nori agreed, "This ain't a normal death. He didn't die from his fall, but even if he had you would still ask why a lower level guard would be doing so deep in a mine." He looked up a t Bofur, "you haven't had any issues with any of you miners, have you? Ones big enough to get some lower level guards involved?"

Bofur shook his head.

"No more than usual." Bofur said scratching his head. He took quite a bit of pride in his miners. Yeah they had their moments of being right pains in the arse, but all up his dwarves were a good bunch, hard, honest workers the lot of them. "And we 'ave our own guards who we report any skirmishes to. Only go to city guards if tha problem breaks outside tha mines."

"Hmmm, that's what I thought. So what's our friend doing down here then? Does anyone else know he's here?"

"Nah, just meh. Unless someone came up this way in between my grabbing you and bring ya here. This is a new section, see. No one meant to come here til we're sure it's safe."

"You mean it's not?" Nori yelped, his head snapping in the direction of the tunnel they had use to get here, almost expecting to hear the sounds of rocks falling and for tunnel to suddenly be filled with rumble, trapping them forever.

"Oh calm it." Bofur snorted, "Its fine, we're safe. It's meh job to check out the safety and structure of mines."

"By yourself?"

"Usually. Or Bifur's with meh. Ya need ta remember that fore Erebor, I worked in tha mines of the Blue Mountains… smaller crew there, more jobs tha ya had ta do yer self. Guess, still not out of tha habit yet."

"Oh… right." Nori muttered a tad lamely, "So…we're safe."

"Aye."

"… Good." Still feeling a tad nervous, Nori turned his attention back to the dead dwarf. From what he could tell, almost all the bones in the dwarf's body were broken, hinting that the fall had been a great one as dwarf bones were not easy ones to break, needing a good deal of force to do so.

Nori peered up into the darkness above him, wondering just how far up the opening this dwarf had fallen from was. Still, not that it exactly mattered, not when Nori could see that it wasn't the fall that killed this dwarf. No Nori was fairly certain this dwarf had been already dead when he took his plummet down into the mines. Only… that didn't add up either.

Normally when this sort of thing happened and Nori was going on his experiences in Ered Luin more then any he might have had in Erebor – which were none. Erebor, despite the odd brawl here and there, had not been faced with all that many murders. And if they had, those murders had all be easily solved as being the result of drunken fight gone very, very wrong. In Ered Luin however, it had been a completely different story all together. Every day there had been murder, some were the result of a drunken fights gone wrong (or right in some cases) others had been of a far more sinister nature. And that was the nature Nori felt surrounded this dwarf's death. But still, nothing added up. If the dwarf had indeed been murdered, which Nori was feeling was a strong definite, then all the usual markings were missing. He was still in his guards uniform, meaning that right away they could identify him as being a lower level city guard and from there figure out who he actually was. All his possessions seemed to be still on his person which suggested that this wasn't a robbery gone wrong. And lastly but possibly most importantly, his beard was still intact. If this was an act of vengeances or a passion kill then the dwarf's beard would have been shorn clean off his face, but it hadn't been. Going over all these things, Nori found himself quickly becoming even more bewildered with every passing moment. And Nori did not like being bewildered. It didn't happen very often and he resented all who made him feel this way.

He rubbed his beard, humming under his breath.

"Nori?" Nori ignored the miner as he cocked his head to one side, for when Bofur had moved forward ever so slightly, his lantern had shown ever so slightly over the dead dwarf's closed fist.

Nori narrowed his eyes as he reached over and pulled at the dwarf's fist, which had become like a vice in death around the thing it held.

"Come on," he growled and finally a small quill fell into his hand. For a moment he was disappointed, but only for a moment as he remembered seeing darts and such back in Ered Luin that contain all kinds of toxic poisons. With this in mind he kept his fingers well away from the tip as he rolled the peculiar thing off his palm and into a scrap of cloth. As soon as he handed over the body to the appropriate people he would take the quill to Oin to run tests over.

"Nori?" Bofur said again. Nori stood up, lips pursed in annoyance, his eyes roaming the chamber for any possible threats.

"Something's going on." He muttered, "I knew before I left that something had started brewing below the surface of this mountain, but I thought that it was still just that, brewing. Now," he waved his hand through the air, "now, it's moving. Slowly, but it's moving. And I can't… I can't tell from where it's moving from. I don't know who started it. Only that they have and… argh! I hate being blind!" he threw his hands around him, feeling anger, frustration and self-doubt burning within his veins. He was failing again. He could feel it. Like he had failed in protecting Bilbo in her home, he was now failing to protect his own.

"Nori, wha…" Bofur said looking at him bewilderment.

"Don't you see," he exclaimed, "we're missing something, all of us. Something is happening and we don't know what. Or why! Or…"

"Or it's nothing and ya just over-thinking things and in need of a good night's rest." Bofur butted in, though Nori could see that the miner was starting to look worried.

"Or that." He relented for a moment, "but I don't think so. And neither do you. Something is going on inside this mountain. Something bad."

"Well," Bofur sighed as they both looked down at the dead dwarf, "we'd better find it fore the brewing catches fire and burns us whole. Done nough burning for one life time, thanks"

"Aye to that." Nori snorted, trying not to remember too hard of being chased all around the bloody mountain by a great burning furnace with hurricanes for wings.

In silence, the two dwarves wrapped the body in a cloak before hoisting the dead weight upon their shoulders. By the time they reached the entrances to the mines, all of Bofur's workers had left for the day and only the mines night-shift guards remained. Barking at one of them to be quick and to go and fetch the King's head guard the two continued on their march – surrounded by guards now – to the Halls of the Dead, pleased to find when they got there, Dwalin and Oin waiting for them.

Oin, with the help of a Mahal's priest went over the dwarf body while Dwalin and the other two stood outside the halls, recounting to Dwalin the tale of how they found the dead dwarf's body.

"Don't ya ever sleep, thief?" Dwalin questioned Nori once they had both finished their tales. "Ya barely in the door and already ya've pissed us off by up and disappearing ya sorry ass when our burglar vanished. Ya reappear only to steal alcohol off Thorin. Then ya go and meet our burglar's lad fore taking yourself along to interrogate the bloody," Dwalin was clearly struggling to come up with enough insulting terms to describe Bovin with that the two dwarves left him to it.

"Ya were involved in Bovin's interrogation?" Bofur asked, frowning ever so slightly at the thief. Nori shrugged.

"I caught him, so to speak. And I'm the King's spymaster. Of course, I was involved in his interrogation… not," he growled, "that we got much out of him, the…" he swore a few fairly creative curses in his native tongue that caused even Dwalin to pause in his own rant to look at the thief with raised eyebrows.

"Ya should of just stuck picks in ta his eyeballs tha moment you caught 'im." Bofur spat furiously, ignoring that the stares he was getting from his King's Head of Guard and Spymaster as he kicked the stone wall beside him angrily.

"hhmmm," Nori started slowly, thinking ahead to carefully choose his words, "as tempting as that is, Thorin is a bit against us using torture. On anybody."

"He should make an exception for this." Bofur growled but both guard and former thief heard the fire that had been in his tone before had now died down to an ember.

"I think he'd like to only…" Nori glanced at Dwalin who nodded and Bofur groaned, pressing his face into his hands.

"Has she woken? Ave you heard?" the miner looked so sad, so tired as he looked from two of them, his eyes pleading before growing dark as they shook their heads.

"Give her time." Nori said as he placed a comforting had upon his friend's shoulder, "ya know how much she loves her sleep. She'll wake when she's ready" Dwalin let out a small snort of laughter while Bofur gave a weak smile.

Oin found them soon afterwards, his face drawn and his eyes narrowed as he rumpled his finding. His face became only more troubled when he was shown the quill that Nori had found within the fist of the dead dwarf. Tucking the quill deep inside his medical bag, he muttered to them that he would inform them all soon of his findings before he scuffled off back to his private laboratory.

"Well, that's encouraging." Nori muttered while the other two grunted. "best we go and tell Thorin, eh?"

"I will," Dwalin replied, "you two take yerselves to the pub, buy a round on me, ya both look like yer've had the Defiler shit in yer faces."

"Thank you Dwalin, for that mental image." Nori groaned as Dwalin dropped a handful of coins into the hand of a thoroughly disgusted Bofur.

"No worries. Ya know, ya look like ya brother when ya pull that face" The huge dwarf replied as he marched off with the two dwarves staring after him in disgust. Nori made a rude hand gesture at his back while Bofur turned his attention to the coins in his hand, counting them quietly under his breath.

"Sick, twisted bastard." Nori grumbled under his breath, though he was now actually more insulted over Dwalin's 'looking like his brother' comment than anything else.

"He can be sick and twist as he likes for all I care, he's still paying for ale." Bofur replied, "come on, let's grab our brothers and cousins and go ta the Silver Cavern. I can get smashed and ya can pick pockets and ears."

Nori shrugged, knowing full well that Dori would almost immediately say no to going to the pub – upon hearing which pub it was – and Ori would be forced by Dori to say no, only for him to then sneak out of their house moments later to join Nori in the pub. It was sort of weird game that his brothers played; one Nori usually initiated and then sat on the sidelines to watch how it played out. He wasn't sure who won and who lost these games, he wasn't even sure if there were even meant to be winners or losers. But still, these games were amusing to watch as a bystander and they seemed to not harm Dori or Ori in anyway. In fact, Nori was pretty sure the two of them enjoyed playing them.

He rubbed his beard, suddenly feeling incredibly tired, his frustration and confusion over what was happening within the mountain gnawing away at his insides. What he truly wanted to do was get to the bottom of whatever was happening but he knew there was no chance of Bofur allowing him to sneak away this night to go and do just that. So instead, he allowed himself to continue being pulled around by Bofur in grabbing their respective brothers and cousin in Bofur's case and heading off for their favourite pub. And there, Nori did just as Bofur suggested. Not so much pick pockets, but he did spend a good chunk of his time listening in on conversations. He discovered much that night but not much that was of actual use to him, but everything he learnt he tucked away. You never know when having a fondness for chickens can be used as effective blackmail.

Smirking slightly, Nori downed his ale as he pretended to watch Bofur break into song on top of their table, Ori covering his face with his hands, trying to hide just how much he was laughing while Bombur and Bifur and the rest of the pub cheered Bofur on.

And even if Nori couldn't fully shake the feeling that he was missing something huge, he did enjoy his night with his friends, even if he did have to lug his very tispy little brother back home. To him, tispy Ori was hilarious and adorable, to Dori, however, not so much. But really, did Ori have to be quite so loud with his proclamation that Dwalin was the finest dwarf that any a dwarf should live. Nori snorted and resettled his little brother over his shoulder, smirking as Ori continued on with his 'how wonderful Dwalin was' rant all the way home.

So say the very least, Dori was not impressed.

Author's Note: I don't know why Nori claustrophobic, it just made sense in my head while writing this chapter and it's amusing to make a dwarf, other than Thorin, feel uncomfortable and Nori was a prime candidate.
Anyway, the plot thickens, kinda. I do know where I want this story to go, I've just been reading way too many awesome fanfics, with wickedly twisted plots and so have been knocking my own ability to write because my plot for this fanfic is in no way as twisted or as madly clever as theirs. But really, I need to stop comparing my writing so negatively against what other peoples writing. I mean, it's good, you know to learn from others, but I've been really rather harsh on what I'm typing of late which might be possibly one of the reason for the lack of any kind of motivation towards doing anything with this fic of late.
Oh on a completely different note, I finally got my drivers license. I'm on my red P's... finally... only took me five and a bit years.