"Just a petty thief."
Nori bristled at that description of himself. Petty thief. He'd show them! Petty theft, ha! Just because he didn't work here very often didn't mean he was to be downgraded to a petty thief. Grand, grand sounded much better and they'd find out just what he was capable of soon enough. They'd respect him and they'd fear him and nobody would call him a petty thief any more!
The keys jangled and the heavy door scraped open. Nori launched into a tirade of swearwords that would have made his brother's ears burn.
"Come to gloat you bastard son of a cave troll?" he asked and suddenly found himself dancing out of reach of the heavy stick the guard had just poked at him through the metal bars.
"Ah, your parentage shows! Slow enough to be a troll!" he gloated.
"Watch your tongue," the guard growled. "You're in the presence of your king."
"I have no king!" Nori spat before he had fully processed the words. Then he caught a glimpse of a second Dwarf in the dimly-lit room, a tall, dark-haired one. Of course! Just his luck that the accursed king himself would decide to take a gander at the prisoners while he was in here. Thorin looked him up and down appraisingly.
"What?" Nori asked. "Come to take me to your bed or to finally free me from the filthy grasp of your little toy soldiers?"
He wondered idly if there might be a way to combine both. Thorin was handsome enough and didn't have a reputation for cruelty. He'd done worse in exchange for his freedom. Too bad that Thorin also had a reputation as a bit of a prude. He was obviously oblivious of Nori's thoughts as his voice remained calm.
"Come on business that does not concern you." Ah, petty thief, eh? The big king didn't think him worthy of his personal attention. Big king, pah.
"Why are you in here?" Thorin asked imperiously.
"I was wondering the same thing," Nori replied, raising his eyebrows, trying on an innocent smile that probably looked more like a predatory grin. "I was just walking down the road when I was assaulted by your brutes!"
"He was arrested for stealing three loaves of bread from the bakery," the guard supplied and Thorin sighed. Really, it wasn't such a big deal; fat Gullý had bread aplenty. Just because the old crow had made such a fuss was he in jail now.
"That is against our laws," another voice piped up. Nori looked around and noticed for the first time that a child, nay two children, had entered the corridor alongside Thorin. The one who had spoken was blond and looked like he was about thirty, the other was younger still, dark-haired and munching on an apple.
"Why did you steal the bread?" the older boy asked.
"Because I was starving," Nori answered, deciding to give the kid a bit of the truth.
"Some people do not care for laws and personal property when it comes to their own gain," Thorin explained to the boys, obviously disinterested in Nori's case. The older one nodded eagerly, while the little one looked at Nori curiously, taking another bite from his apple.
"Some people do not care for the wellbeing of their subjects. People are going hungry while you lord over us! I'll feed them since you don't!"
He realised immediately that he had made a mistake.
"Who did you feed?" Thorin asked sharply. Oh no, no, no, no way he was giving away his brothers so easily. Ori was a growing boy and unlike these two brats he had no pantry full of meat and cheese to come home to.
"I fed myself," Nori said. He could tell that Thorin did not believe him, but was counting on him being unwilling to make a scene in front of the children. And Nori would be long gone before he came back without them.
"What's your name, thief?"
Nori snarled at him. He might have been stupid enough to get himself caught, but he wasn't that dense. He wouldn't give away his brothers. They'd throw them into the cell with him, or they'd be shunned by everyone and Ori would be barred from starting an apprenticeship when the time came and Nori didn't know which of those options was worse.
"What's your father's name?"
Nori snarled again. He would never reveal his family. Over his dead body would Ori lose the chance to lead an honest life. The dead body part could probably be arranged. He'd have to get out of here before they started pressing him for a name. That one guard, the big one who had arrested him, he was sure to be the torturer and he looked vicious. Nori did not fancy getting a taste of his craft.
"Fundin," he answered. Thorin growled like a dog.
"You are no son of Fundin."
"Well, I'm no son of Thráin, since I'm not mad as a bat," Nori shot back. "So take your pick of Dwarves that were wealthy enough to make my mother spread her legs on the road from Dunland."
Thorin was clutching the iron bars now, shooting Nori a glare that would have made a lesser Dwarf crumble. Oh sure, the precious king was feeling superior just because his mother had never had to barter her honour for food or protection or medicine for a dying son, just because he didn't have to carry the guilt his mother trading her life for his when she became pregnant with Ori. Somebody so grand and Erebor-born, he would just scoff at any surface born Dwarves.
Thorin turned on his heel and dragged the boys with him. "Come, there are things I wish to show you." They departed down the corridor and soon Nori could only hear muffled voices.
Nori was left reeling. He had angered the king and was sure to face the consequences if he didn't get out of here soon. Stupid nobles. Rockbrains, all of them. He had done no damage, had always been careful to not do any damage here, in Thorin's Halls, where his brothers lives. He hadn't hurt anybody! He had just sought to feed his brothers a decent meal! Nobles. He spat. They didn't understand. Their life was all precious metal and gemstones, not buckwheat and potatoes.
"Hey!"
Nori wheeled around at the sound. The dwarfling had come back. The tiny one. He was grinning up at him. Nori just stared at him.
"Are you better now?" the boy asked. He really was a scrap of a dwarfling, even tinier than Ori if that was even possible. Nori wasn't sure what he was on about.
"Are you feeling better?" the child asked again. "I do that sometimes when I get mad and I just need to shout and be mean and then I feel all better. Ama says it's naughty to shout, but Uncle Thorin does it too." He grinned as if that settled the matter. "So are you better?"
"Uh hu," Nori uttered, really not sure what to make of this boy.
"Great!" the boy said and stuck his arm through the bars without a thought for his safety. Nori was thinking fast... He still had a knife or two that they hadn't found when they searched him... if he took the boy hostage now Uncle Thorin would probably be very happy to release him... Then he looked at the smiling child in front of him and he couldn't help but see Ori there. He shook himself. This was not Ori, this was some little noble prick who'd soon grow up to be just as hard and insufferable as his precious Uncle Thorin. The sooner he got rid of him, the better.
And then the boy held out an apple.
"Here! You said you were hungry!"
He just seemed to trust him and it was a bad idea because Nori was not a good Dwarf and no dwarfling should trust him and endanger his life like that. No adult trusted him, even his own brother only trusted him as far as he could throw him. Which to be fair was pretty far, but still, not even Dori trusted him. But this little princeling was holding out an apple to him.
"Take it," he said. "Fíli doesn't like apples."
Fíli. Probably the brother. Nori hadn't been around much, not since Ori was born, and he certainly hadn't been paying attention to the names of the Durins' sprogs. He had been working, working pretty far away most of the time because it wouldn't do to link himself to Thorin's Halls and bring shame upon his brothers. He brought money and food to them, and Dori mostly didn't ask where he had gotten it from because it meant that Ori was well taken care of.
Nori was about to decline, but his stomach rumbled to end all pretence of not being hungry. The dwarfling smirked. Nori took the apple. It was big and red and looked absolutely delicious. Ori would love it. It might be a bit too optimistic to keep it for Ori though, a bit suspicious as well, and he really was incredibly hungry. He took a bite and it tasted every bit as good as it looked.
"Do you not get food in prison?" the boy asked.
"A rat's arse we get," Nori said and watched the boy's eyes widen. "Nah, not really. Just bread."
And not Gullý's good bread either, he thought, but didn't say. The boy seemed concerned enough as it was.
"But that's not enough," he said. "You need to have some meat and you need to eat your greens as well."
Nori almost laughed out loud. Meat and greens. What a lovely world this rich boy must be living in.
"Why don't they feed you properly?"
"What's it to you?" Nori scoffed.
"I'm here to learn," the boy said. "Uncle Thorin wants us to learn about our laws and all that. He's explaining the different crimes to Fíli now, but I think that's boring because that's just words on a page. So why don't you get proper food?"
Ah, learning, right. Well, he could give that boy a proper education. He could tell him all about what life looked like for those who weren't lucky enough to be part of a perfect little royal family. He could tell him so much about the cruelty of the world. But then he looked down and saw that infectious grin and he just couldn't. Whatever he would grow into later, for now the boy was innocent and genuinely curious. He wasn't so different from Ori.
"Because they do not want to waste good food on bad Dwarves," he said.
"Are you a bad Dwarf?"
"Yes," Nori said and pulled a face. "I'm a very bad Dwarf."
The boy giggled. "I think you're funny," he said. "But why did you do something bad?"
He just asked without any second thoughts. He just talked to Nori like he was a normal Dwarf, like he was asking a cook why he put parsley in a soup. Nori couldn't tell him, couldn't tell him that whole story of how he had ended up stealing.
"Because sometimes you have to do bad things so even worse things don't happen," he said.
The boy was gnawing on his lip for a while, evidently puzzled by Nori's reply. Then he grinned again, evidently proud that he had figured it out.
"I've done that!" he said. "I hit Gimli once because he wanted to put something in Fíli's tea and that's a really bad thing to do."
Nori chuckled.
The dwarfling crossed his arms in front of his chest and drew himself up to his full —and still rather insignificant— height. "Because nobody messes with my brother."
Nori wanted to laugh, but found he couldn't. That was how brothers were meant to be. That was in a way how he still was. But he had brought so much shame over his brothers. Shame, but also food and money. Still... Dori wouldn't defend him like that if he saw him now. Dori would try to usher Ori away quickly before he could be infected with Nori's evilness. He hardly ever got to play with Ori on his rare visits and he missed that. He missed having a little scrap of a dwarfling to talk to. He missed his brothers.
Suddenly there was a hand on his hand.
"Hey, don't be sad," the boy said. Then he tugged on Nori's hand to get him to come closer to the bars. "I can bring you another apple tomorrow."
Nori swallowed heavily. It was an empty promise, he knew that, but it was a heartfelt one nonetheless.
The dwarfling sneaked both of his arms through the bars and hugged Nori's hip. He stuck his head out and nuzzled against Nori's side for good measure.
"I think you're a good Dwarf."
