He and The Bright Blue Sky

Kili was sure that he should have been in pain. He had seen the blood, seen the arrow, felt the fall. He knew that something should have been in a varying degree of torturous hurt, yet he simply found that his skin seemed to pulsating, throbbing. Ever since he was a child, he had known that there was something about his body that differed with the surrounding elves, beginning with the time Legolas had playfully shoved him and he tumbled down the stairs.

"Why is my arm bent like that?"

Now it seemed almost comical, as Kili remembered the look on the elven prince's face as he used his other hand to support the twisted appendage. It had turned out later that not only was the arm broken, but he had also cracked a rib. Thranduil had been with him while the healer wrapped his torso and put the arm in a splint. Kili had been crying.

"Does it hurt?" Kili shook his head.

"No. It feels fine." Thranduil's brow creased with worry.

"Then why are you crying?"

"Because it should hurt."

And there he was again, knowing that his body should be on fire, but instead felt oddly warm. The healers had claimed that his lack of ability to feel pain above a simple ache was due to shock, but he had never been so sure. A strange muffled voice was speaking over his thoughts now, and Kili only just began to wonder where he was, in the memory or in darkness, when his eyes snapped open, blinking rapidly in the bright sunlight. He could barely make out the figures of people, loud voices, and the rushing roar of moving water. Kili was wet, he realized as the sopping sensation returned to him. However, he still felt nothing out of the ordinary in the rest of his body.

"You have to do something!"

"If any bones in his arm are broken, popping it back in could cripple it for the rest of his life. Do you want me to take the chance?" That caught his attention. Things were coming back into focus now, a melee of faces, bearded faces. The closest one was a dwarf with a thick gray beard and squinted critical eyes. He was so alarmingly close that Kili flinched, catching the attention of the rest of them.

"He's awake!" Kili felt a hand on his shoulder, his breath catching his throat as he moved to look. He was lying on his back; he assumed that they had dragged him out of the water and onto the rocky shore. Yet, as he stared at the side of his body that had made contact with the ground as he fell from the tree, he knew that they hadn't saved him yet. His decorative robe had been taken off, leaving the thin cotton shirt and pants underneath it. As he looked at the part of his shoulder that was normally rounded and led to his arm, Kili instead saw a sharp edge, as the joint was completely squared off. It didn't help that the arm itself was twitching out of his control.

Without thinking he recoiled, using his functional arm to prop himself up, scuttling backwards. He made it a few feet before his torso gave out, making Kili fall flat on his back. "What did you do? Let me go!" He shouted, still trying to move further away. There was still no pain his abdomen and shoulder, but they refused to function properly, useless.

"Calm down!" It was a voice he recognized, but couldn't put a name to. Out of the Company of dwarves that had captured him he only knew Thorin, but Kili was sure the would-be king was not the one talking. The speaker soon came into view, pinning his working arm down. He was a younger dwarf with a short beard of gold hair, and many beads and braids. Kili shuddered as he and his brother were face to face for the first time in over fifty years. "We're not going to hurt you. You fell-"

"I remember that," Kili responded with gritted teeth.

"I pulled you out. You're injured. Oin's just to help if you'd let him." He stopped struggling against the dwarf, lying still.

"Where are we?" His brother looked down, before exchanging a look over his shoulder with one of the others. He seemed doubtful. "Where are we?" Kili repeated, panic growing further in his chest.

"Your shoulder is dislocated. Oin has to pop it back in before any other damage to the joint happens. It's going to hurt." At these words, Kili almost laughed but instead shook himself again, attempting to get free long enough to make an escape. No such luck.

"And if my arm's broken? I heard what he said!" His brother face melted for a moment, the edge taken out of the way he carried himself.

"Everything's going to be fine Kee, I promise." Kili's entire body went numb. He was barely aware as the healer took his place to push his arm back into its rightful socket.

"Everything's going to be fine Kee, I promise."

"Easy for you to say. He likes you."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Uncle already treats my birthday like a funeral Fili. When I show him the bow he's going to go crazy."

"He's not going to get upset over something so stupid. Trust me."

"Sure."

"I mean it."

"You always do."

"Kili!" A hand was waving over his face as his vision came back into focus. It was the gray-bearded healer again. "Are you all right?" Kili groaned, closing his eyes for a second.

"I'm fine." Oin took his arm for further examination, and the dwarf prince could see that his shoulder was back to its normal position. Fili was nowhere to be seen, however, Thorin neither. He could the others talking in hushed voices somewhere closer to the water, as the roaring water washed away their words.

"You're lucky here, laddie. I don't think anything's broken." Oin let go of his arm, letting it fall back onto the slick stone. "Does it hurt?"

"No. Nothing does." The dwarf made a quizzical expression, before prodding the joint that had just been separated with his pointer finger.

"Feel anything?" Kili bit his lip, focusing on the sky instead of the healer. The sun had risen, and the sky was a crystal blue, with a few feathery clouds in his view. With such weather, he would usually be enjoying himself, but considering the circumstances, Kili was far from happy.

"Ow," he mumbled unconvincingly. Oin shook his head, his old face wrinkling further as it screwed up in concentration.

"Shock," the healer concluded after a moment, as he got up to his feet. Kili sighed softly, sick of this excuse that he knew wasn't quite right. "I'm going to take a look at that arrow now, lad."

"It didn't hit me," Kili tried to explain. "It skimmed."

"Oin." This was something completely recognizable: the harsh tone of Thorin Oakenshield barking orders. "The immediate problem has been fixed. Just wrap his torso and be done with it. We have to keep moving."

"If we don't get the correct view of the damage that arrow did then he could-"

"If it skimmed then we've already saved ourselves more time than I thought. However, we cannot waste our limited supply of it by doing full wound examinations. Make sure it doesn't get infected, and get him on his feet." Kili couldn't see any of them now, as Oin had walked out of his field of view. Now it was only he and the bright blue sky.

"Uncle, are you sure you want to risk that?" Fili was speaking again, and Kili could still hear the echo of that childlike voice in his words.

"Do you want to risk missing the door opening on that mountain? Do you want to risk getting run down by whatever's left of that orc pack? Do you want to risk Thranduil's people finding us again before we even get past this river?" Oin had apparently given up on this fight, helping Kili sit up as he used strips of fabric to serve as sort of bandage to cover the wound.

"No, but-"

"Then it's settled. We keep moving." Kili couldn't stop the flow of questions circulating through his brain, and finally released it.

"Why does it matter?" he blurted. "I'll be going to Thranduil anyway. He has elven healers there. Just, let me go back."

"Let you go back," Thorin scoffed, as if the very notion was purely ridiculous. "You're coming with us." Kili felt as though he had fallen off the tree again, and into the river. But this time, he didn't think anyone would have the courtesy to pull him out again.

"No, I will not be. I can make my own decisions, and though I thank you for saving my life, I will not be dragged around on your little treasure hunt." Thorin's blue eyes narrowed. Despite the odd resemblance that his irises bore to Thranduil's Kili was terrified. There was no longer a serious and melancholy-look to them, rather a warning and dangerous glint that sent a shiver up his spine. His memories had been lost, but he was sure that he had seen Thorin like this before.

"And I will not have my nephew playing make believe with a group of elves while he denies his own race and family." Kili pushed Oin away, forcing himself to get to his feet.

"You are not my family, though your blood runs in my veins. I have spent more than half of my lifetime with the elves, and they raised me up from nothing. I do not remember or care what you ever did for me, Thorin, but from what I know of your character it was most likely very little. You cannot just let me disappear for fifty years and waltz back into my life like nothing has ever changed, expecting I will leave my world behind for dwarves I don't know. I am not your piece of treasure you can just lay claim to and hoard for the rest of your life. I get to decide where I go and what I do. You're not taking that away from me." Fili's face crumbled, his mouth slightly open and eyes glassy. He nodded, as if he knew such remarks were coming, but had not foreseen the blow they would deal. Thorin on the other hand, showed no change in any sort of emotion, his face still critical and hard. Still, Kili saw he seemed to be almost vibrating from rage.

"Thranduil is no more your family than an orc is mine. That leech took you in to raise you as a bargaining chip and insult to me, no other reason. He has prepped you to do as much damage as possible to my kin and I, and if you ever truly believed he cared for you than you are more of a fool than I took you for." Kili was drowning now, his heartbeat the only noise he could feel exiting his body in the place of a rebuke.

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything," came a sarcastic voice from a higher formation of rocks. Kili jumped slightly, before catching the appearance of the tall and dark-haired man with the bow and arrow. In spite of himself, he grinned, walking towards the man with a hand outstretched.

"Bard," he called. "About time our paths crossed again."

AN: So, that was that! Sorry for the long update time again. By looking into my crystal ball (calendar) I can see that updating this in a timely fashion is going to be difficult. However, I remain determined to stick to my schedule as much as possible. Hopefully I can get some makeup days and post two chapters in two days or something. Anyway, thanks for reading my little story. I hope you enjoyed this most recent installment. If you want to get notified for when the next chapter comes out, follow this story. And, as usual, I love hearing from you guys, what you thought, comments questions, etc. so leave a review if you fancy. Until next time…