The rest of their day was hardly any better, though at least it was no worse. Well, not so very much worse. At the very least, Bilbo reflected, no one got punched in the face, and that was a very definite improvement over the morning. There, Gandalf's magic proved unexpectedly effective, for though he claimed to be no great healer, by the end of the day Kili's cheek bore but the faintest red line where Thorin had struck him.

Oh, how Bilbo wished Gandalf could put that magic to use to heal Bilbo himself! For his feet, tough as they were, were still more battered and sore than they had ever been in all his life. Surely no hobbit had ever spent so much time walking and running along the forest floor, stepping on rocks and twigs and the sharp thorns that lay scattered all about the ground. For the very first time Bilbo began to consider the wisdom of creatures that wore shoes, though of course he would not mention it to the dwarves, for their teasing would surely be merciless.

Gandalf and Thorin would not let them rest at all, so that even if they stumbled across a stream, those who stopped to drink had to run again to catch up to the others. Nor did they find anything to eat but the occasional berry, which was hardly enough for 13 starving dwarves, a hobbit, and a wizard. By the time the day neared its end, they had fallen into a sort of collective daze, lurching unsteadily forward, and none among them had breath or energy enough to speak.

Bilbo was at the last of the line of staggering dwarves, but Kili was steady at his side, and he was ever there with a helping hand whenever Bilbo would stumble or when he grew convinced he should surely collapse, his legs were so tired. "Can we not rest?" he asked, again and again, voice growing rather more plaintive each time, but Gandalf would only ever nod and say, "A bit further," as if he had not said that very thing a dozen times before.

As the sun began to set, they heard in the distance the most frightening sound of wolf howls, and though any such howls would be terrible, these were distorted and eerie, more horrible than Bilbo had ever imagined a wolf could sound. Gandalf scowled and muttered wargs under his breath, which meant nothing to Bilbo but made all the dwarves go quite pale. "Hurry," they cried, one to the other, and rushed as fast as they could (which was not so very fast, at this point), pulling and pushing each other along as quick as they were able.

"To the trees!" Gandalf cried, when it became clear that they could not escape the howling wolves, and so into a small clearing and up the trees they scurried as best they could. But if dwarves are not natural climbers of trees, hobbits are even less so, never more happy than when their two hairy feet are planted firmly on the ground. In moments, the dwarves were all safely tucked away in the highest branches that could bear their weight, but Bilbo was left to scurry frantically from trunk to trunk, searching for a branch low enough to the ground for him to reach.

"You've left the burglar behind again," said Nori to Dori, looking down, and Dori was quite affronted, for he knew not when Bilbo had become his particular burden, just because they had been chained together in the goblin tunnels. But the wolves were chasing them into the clearing now, and in a moment there would be nothing of Bilbo left to bother about, for the wolves would make quick work of such a tasty plump morsel as a Shire-bred hobbit, even if he was now a bit worn and ragged about the edges.

"Quickly!" Fili said, dropping nimbly down a few branches, and hanging upside down from his knees like a child on a climbing frame. "Take my hands, Mr. Baggins!" Bilbo did, squeaking frantically, and Fili heaved and pulled, Kili bracing him from above, and with the two dwarves working together, Bilbo was delivered to the safety of the upper branches, and just in time too, for there was a wolf nipping at his heels. Up the tree and out of danger, Bilbo wrapped his arms firmly around the great girth of the trunk, pulling in shuddery breaths and shaking quite like a leaf.

"Are you quite all right?" Fili asked, looking sincerely concerned, but Bilbo could do nothing but nod, because his heart was pounding so fiercely that he could not draw breath to form a single word. "I must say," Fili commented, straddling the branch as comfortably as if it were a pony's saddle, "perhaps if you ate but three meals a day instead of seven, you might find it easier to climb trees."

"Well, I never-!" Bilbo began, quite offended, for it had been many months since he'd had even three meals a day plus a decent tea, but then Fili laughed and slapped him on the back, and Bilbo realized that he could speak again, and he was quite grateful for it too. Still, the sight of the many prowling wolves below made him very anxious. "Wolves cannot climb trees, can they?" he whispered nervously.

"They are wargs," Fili said. "Even so I do not believe they can climb trees, else they should surely have done so and we would have been eaten already."

This did not make Bilbo feel altogether very much better. "But what are wargs?" he asked.

"Wild wolves," Kili said, frowning.

Fili scoffed. "Wargs are to wolves what goblins are to elves," he said darkly. "Among the foulest creatures ever to walk Middle Earth. They care only for death and plunder."

"They are allies to the goblins," Kili added, voice low. "They may be hunting us at the goblins' behest."

Bilbo sighed very heavily, for it seemed their situation had not improved at all since they were chained up in Goblin Town. He said as much.

"I think perhaps it has gotten worse," Fili reasoned brightly, "for as much as I would dislike returning to the goblins, I must say that it would be preferable to being eaten alive by wolves."

Though Fili was grinning, Bilbo shivered fearfully and Kili, who was straddling the branch just a little farther out than Fili, gave an odd little cough. Fili twisted around to glance at him, and perhaps they shared some silent communication, for when Fili turned back to Bilbo, he had a peculiar stiff sort of smile on his face, as if he had plastered it on for Bilbo's benefit only. "We are quite safe up here, and the wargs will get bored and leave eventually, so there really is nothing to fear," he said, which was a blatant untruth, "unless, that is, you are afraid of heights, like Kili."

Behind him, Kili's eyes went momentarily wide with outrage before he could control his reaction, but Fili of course could not see, and continued on cheerfully. "When we were but dwarflings," he said, "no more than 25 or 30 years old, there was a grove of great oak trees upon the mountain above Ered Luin. You could climb twice the height of a house and look out upon the whole town. I once dared Kili to climb to the very top of the tallest tree."

Kili grunted noncommittally, his expression still somewhat sour.

"Well," Fili said, feet swinging, "of course I climbed with him, for you should never climb trees alone, but he made the mistake of looking to the ground, and grew tremendously scared, and would not climb down again no matter how I pleaded with him. We had to wait for Thorin to come home and get us. As I recall, it took quite some time. Do you remember, Kili?"

Kili was silent for a long moment, so long that Fili twisted around to face him, one eyebrow raised curiously.

"I remember," Kili said finally. And then he added, voice very careful, "I just remember it somewhat differently."

"Oh," Fili said carelessly. "Well, you were quite young, so perhaps your memory of it is muddled. But we never did go climbing trees again after that."

"No," Kili said, and he frowned briefly at Fili's back, though he did not look angry or upset, but rather simply pensive. Bilbo wondered what had truly happened that day (for he was certain the events did not occur precisely as Fili said), and wondered too if Kili would tell him, if he asked. He rather suspected not.

The wargs had been gathering at their feet all this while, and they were growling quite fiercely now, and jumping up to nip at the tree trunks, though the dwarves were high enough that they were in no immediate danger. Still, though the beasts could not climb trees, this was rather dreadfully frightening, at least to Bilbo. Fili sat and gazed at the wargs, then pulled out his dagger and stared at it somewhat ruefully. "What I would give," he said sadly, "for a good set of throwing knives. A dagger is precious little use up here."

Kili scoffed. "Two knives would do little against this pack."

"No," Fili said, "I suppose not." Then he shifted gracefully so that he was no longer straddling the branch, but sat sideways upon it. "That magic bow of yours would come in handy, though."

Kili's mouth tightened, and it took a little too long for him to answer. "It would. But it is not magic."

"No?" Fili looked skeptical. "You hit an orc in the eye. In the dark."

"I do not often miss," Kili said. "And it was not completely dark. And-" But then he fell silent, frowning silently at the wolves circling the trees.

"And?" Fili asked.

Though it was not a command, Kili answered instantly. Bilbo imagined he could disobey Fili no more easily than Thorin himself. "And had I missed, Ori would have been taken by the goblins and killed. I thought perhaps I had been given a chance to save a life. And though it would not change anything, still I thought maybe-" He sighed. "Well, it makes no difference now what I thought." He looked very sad and dejected, and Bilbo wished Kili were close enough to be patted comfortingly. For though there were no soothing words leaping to Bilbo's mind, he felt that a comforting pat could rarely go amiss.

Just then, the growls of the wargs took on a different quality, and Bilbo looked down and saw to his great surprise that some of the beasts were on fire! When Bilbo had not been paying attention, Gandalf had taken matters into his own hands and thought to scare the beasts away with the only weapon at his easy disposal. It was a valiant effort, and might have worked, but this particular wolf pack was indeed allied with the goblins and were in the forest that night specifically to meet them, and though the fire caused great distress among the wolves, it also served to draw the goblins directly to them. The goblins were not scared at all by the fire, but laughed and cheered and cleverly directed the flames so that they spread under the very trees wherein the dwarves were hiding.

"Oh!" cried Bilbo, as the flames began to climb up the trunk of the tree in which they were perched. "We shall not be eaten after all, but we shall be cooked to death! Oh! Oh!" He was very scared, for being burnt alive was sure to be worse than being eaten, and he could already feel the flames licking at his feet. Fili next to him had quite lost even the slightest hint of his good cheer, and Kili on Fili's other side had gone very, very pale, mute and horror-struck. He gripped Fili's arm and groaned, "It's my fault, all of this," and Fili muttered something back that almost sounded like, "Don't be stupid," (though Bilbo later decided it was just wishful thinking at what he thought was the end, and Fili had probably said something else entirely).

This was not at all how Bilbo had expected his adventure to end, never mind that the contract he had signed included a specific provision for death by incineration, but it had been hard to take that seriously when reading over the contract in a comfortable armchair in Bag-End; Bilbo now wished desperately he had taken a little more time to think it through, for surely no adventure that requires a detailed listing of the many ways in which one could die is an adventure that ought to be undertaken, no matter how thrilling it sounds.

But then, at the very last minute, just as all seemed lost, they escaped a horrible fiery death by the grace of the King of the Eagles and his kin, who had just happened to be passing by, and with whom Gandalf was acquainted. The eagles swooped down and swept them up and away, out of range of the howling, furious wargs and the cursing goblins, and soon enough the company were safe in the eagles' eyrie. They were bumped and bruised and wind-blown and shaking with fear from their rather precipitous journey in the talons of the eagles — though of course they had not been in any real danger at all, for the eagles had not saved them only to let them fall to their deaths — but they were far away and able to breathe easily for the first time in days.

Kili was very quiet that night, and would barely touch the food the eagles kindly provided for them, and nothing Bilbo could say to him would ease his dark mood. Even Fili tried to convince him to eat, going so far as to press food into his hand, but though Kili dutifully ate what Fili gave him, he would not take a bite more, and Fili rather thoughtfully declined to force him.

"He thinks it is all his doing," Bilbo said mournfully to Fili. "That he brought this bad luck on us all." He felt much closer to Fili now than ever before, having shared what he thought were the last few moments of his life with him.

Fili frowned and paused in his painstaking braiding of his hair, which had gotten rather wild over the past few days. "Thorin has not punished him," he said carefully. "And so it cannot be his fault."

"Thorin has not punished him yet," Bilbo said, a little sourly.

Fili nodded, but said, "Of course, it is Thorin's prerogative as shemor, but I do not think he will." He lowered his voice and tipped his head closer to Bilbo. "There are some things that are simply too big to punish for," he said. "To punish Kili properly for such as this would be to beat him to death. Thorin would never do such a thing."

"Well," Bilbo said, "that is certainly a relief." But looking at Kili, who sat off to the side, staring morosely into the dark night, Bilbo thought that even if Thorin were not to punish Kili, Kili would take the blame for it upon himself all the same.


A/N: This chapter more or less sprang into existence in the past couple of days, largely to my feeling that I was rushing things a bit too much. There is hand-waving, and there is condensing unforgivably. To any readers who commented that they wanted more Kili and Fili interaction, this one is for you. :)

Thank you as always for you comments and kudos! Comments especially make my day, make me think (you know who you are!), and will often make me revise and rewrite. I always try to answer comments (even if not immediately).

And though I always owe a huge debt of gratitude to my beta sapphiremuse, I owe her an especially big debt this time, because I really asked for an unreasonable turnaround time and she very graciously granted it to me. xoxox.