This is a chapter. It is a bad chapter. I know it is a bad chapter. You do not have to tell me it is a bad chapter. But at least it is a chapter. And possibly a slightly faster update (would've updated yesterday but had to go somewhere at the last moment).

Chapter 11: With a tear

That night, Dis had expected to sleep somewhat peacefully, even with the face of her lover haunting her dreams from time to time, and her two sons, the youngest especially, being on the receiving end of an odd nightmare or two. She had not expected to be woken by the child's crying, for Thorin was well equipped to dealing with such things on her own. Nor had she expected to be woken by her brother's low, but frantic calls for her.

"Dis!" she could hear the dark haired dwarf call out yet again as she dragged herself out of bed. Dis felt a sense of doom settle over her.

Walking into Thorin's room where they had agreed to keep the baby for the night, Dis winced, having forgotten just how loud a newborn's crying could be.

"How long has he been crying?" she asked, keenly aware that that was a very likely chance that the sound would wake her own two sleeping boys. The frown creasing Thorin's face deepened.

"For a while. I called you after I tried and failed to quieten him." Thorin's expression was somewhere between worry and exhaustion. He really needed to get some sleep.

"Pass him to me," Dis said, extending her arms to receive their charge. Upon on taking the wailing child, she exclaimed in surprise, "He's hot." Thorin nodded grimly.

"I noticed."

Dis bounced the child in her arms, debating what to do while she vainly tried to calm the child.

"If he's sick, it's no wonder he is crying," she said, simultaneously trying to cease the flow of tears. She descended onto her brother's unslept in bed, thinking, only to look up as Fili and Kili appeared in the doorway.

"We can't sleep," the eldest said, speaking up from where he stood.

"Why's the baby crying?" Kili asked at the same time. Thorin offered them both a reassuring smile, Dis being caught up with the dwarfling in her arm.

"He's crying because he feels a bit off," the dwarf said, moving to guide the youths to bed, "You should both go back to sleep."

"But we can't with his crying," Fili objected, fisting one of his eyes, supporting his half-awake brother all the while. Thorin swung them both up and into his arms, taking a few moments to balance the pair before starting off back to the boy's room.

"He'll stop soon," Dis heard her brother promise from somewhere down the hall, "You will just have to try and block out the sound in the meantime."

Returning her attention to the squealing babe cradled in her arms, the dwarfish woman frowned. He seemed to be running a fever, a high one at that. And it had also seem to come on suddenly. The boy had definitely been well enough when she had left him in Thorin's care to retire for bed.

The child's face appeared to be flushed, pasty white, but shaded with an unhealthy red. His eyes were watery, but were shut tight against the world, and Dis could see the beginnings of a crusty gunk sealing both eyelids shut. The child, for all appearances, seemed to have caught the sickness that he had been sent here to get away from. Not good.

"He's still crying?" Thorin asked in disbelief upon re-entering the room. Dis looked up at him, worry clouding her eyes.

"He's caught it, and a bad case too."

Thorin swore softly, mindful of his nephews in the next room.

"For a newborn, that's not good," he said finally. Dis stared at him.

"Fetch Oin," she said with all the authority of the Line of Durin and a mother, her worry lending her words strength, "And take Fili and Kili out of the house this instant. I will not have them falling sick as well." Her brother knew better than to argue, especially since the child's crying had escalated in volume due to what the siblings now guessed was pain, or, at the very least, discomfort.

It was not long before the front door slammed shut and Dis was once again left alone with the sickly, crying child.

She tried to sing to it several lullabies she sang to her own children, all the while dashing around the house in a vain attempt to cool the fever. Using a water-soaked cloth did nothing to help, and the dwarfish woman soon found the child's temperature rising steadily higher. She could feel the heat of his skin every time she took him up in her arms.

"What am I going to do? What am I going to do?" she muttered over and over again, hoping to the divine powers watching over them would send Thorin on his way back here soon with Oin in tow. As a mother and a female with what was sometimes an almost overbearing sense of maternal thoughts, Dis did not like to see any child in pain, let alone one as young as, well, a newborn.

There was no way he was going to survive this.

Looking down on the child, Dis could not help but be pessimistic. The boy had ceased crying, yet she knew it was only because the babe was struggling to breath. She could hear the boy's rasping breaths. It did not sound good. His health was just declining so fast.

Must have picked it up from the place where he was born, Dis decided, almost absolutely sure that the sickness had not been able to spread this far from the main centre of the village. And he would have had to caught it before Oin had brought him to her to look after. But this revelation did not provide a cure for the sickly dwarfling. And her attempts to cool him down were not working either.

The dwarfish woman watched in despair as the time wore on, the child's eyelids fluttering close with every second her brother and the village healer tarried. It seemed so wrong that one so young was just so… Looking down on the small face, Dis felt tears build up behind her eyes.

The door burst open and Thorin came bursting in, panting heavily with Oin trailing a little slower behind him. The healer immediately made his way over to the space where Dis sat, took one look at the child, and shook his head.

"I'm sorry," he began, "But there is nothing I can do, especially when it has gone so far in one so young. It is astounding really. I might have thought he would be at risk, but this is beyond anything I would have imagined." Dis swallowed hard upon hearing this.

"Surely there is something you can do," she said wistfully. Oin again shook his head, but splayed his arms out in an offer to take up the babe.

"It is probably for the best," the white bearded dwarf said, voicing the harsh truth of the matter, "With the difficulties with the labour and the increasingly cold winters we have been getting, I would not think he would survive the winter next year. Not with him so small and weak."

Dis bit her lip and turned her eyes to the heavens, hugging the limp form of the child closer to her chest. From near the doorway, Thorin let out a shuddering sigh.

"If there is truly nothing that can be done, then we will take it from here," the dark haired dwarf spoke up, gesturing for Oin to make his way back home, "We have no desire to keep you up any longer." His voice sounded sullen and resigned, as if he had seen too much of the same situation and was now only bearing it because it was his duty.

Oin took the hint, and with a nod and a curt farewell to both and a few soft, murmured words to the babe, he left, closing the door behind him. Dis remained seated, staying with the child as his heartbeat began to falter, and Thorin, in turn, stayed with Dis.

The two siblings remained stock still as the begun to grieve the loss of the child, knowing there was nothing they could do to stop his passing or to ease it. A small while later the child let out a loud, gasping breath, but did not draw one back in. He was gone, and suddenly the world seemed a lot smaller and darker.

"Why?" was all Dis let out before completely breaking down in her brother's arms. And the sturdy dwarf too cried for the loss, allowing a shimmering tear to track down his face and fall unnoticed in the mess of his sister's hair.

Gees, I'm such a bad writer sometimes. In my defence, before you rant at me for killing off the kid, there was a reason behind that. I introduced him knowing he was going to die. Just didn't know it would be as bad as this.

Review if you believe there is anything worth reviewing here. Next chapter will definitely be better.