The muse has been temporarily satiated and has directed for me to write another cruelly ingenuous chapter.

Fate took a terrible, sadistic pleasure in catching you off guard just when you thought your life was under your own control. In the split second it took his foot to stride through empty air Kili recognized that he was in trouble. There was a brief sensation of falling, a dreadful pressure in his leg, and suddenly the world exploded into spiraling fireworks.

It was just a rabbit hole! His mind taunted him, his voice abandoning him for a brief moment as the shock of the injury stole away his breath. Only a stupid rabbit hole, and you were the only idiot on the face of Middle Earth to be ensnared in it!

Before he had a chance to tell the voice to shut up! the pain hit full force, a white curtain of torment cutting off the rest of the world.

Kili did not even register hitting the ground. He clenched his jaw against the torture, feeling as though his leg was being sawn in two. Red hot knives lanced from his toes to past his knee, shredding his flesh apart in rivulets of fire. Someone in the distance was screaming... was that his own voice? His throat felt so raw...

Some inner instinct warned him that he should be moving, trying to escape whatever it was he was running from. The slightest twitch of a muscle released an explosion of stars in his vision, however, and the mere thought of moving caused him to whimper in despair.

In the haze of mist someone was shouting... calling his name... he should be answering right now. Fili... where are you?

Couldn't he just slip away for a few precious minutes? Just enough time to catch his breath... he would get up in a minute, Fili, he promises... Just a few more minutes to shut his eyes... it was hardly daybreak yet...

Thorin's voice suddenly bellowed close by, ordering him to get up that instant. With a whine of loss Kili was torn from his stupor, clinging to the threads of unconsciousness with a pitiful moan. Something clawed at his boot and he snapped awake, realizing with a jolt that he was still lying on the battlefield waiting patiently to become puppy chow for a nearby warg.

That would be a good one for Fili. The Adventures in Puppy Chow... I would love to see how he reacts to this little incident.

Even as his garbled mind played tricks with his humor Kili recognized the threat, fumbling for his sword as the warg advanced. His vision kept dipping in and out of darkness, the sun glaring harshly and hampering his vision.

Too slow... not going to get it out in time... Fili, where are you?

He knew that if his brother was missing it was hardly Fili's fault; he could be delayed, fighting off a stray orc... injured... Not the worst, please, not that!

Yet a small, insecure voice deep within Kili cried out that his brother was supposed to be there; protecting him, fighting away the monster snapping at his throat, being there when he felt so lost and alone.

He's never gone... he's always close by. Always.

What if the worse had happened? What if...

A sharp keen escaped him at the thought. Don't leave without me, Fili! You promised you would never leave me!

Move, idiot! his mind ordered him. He should be fighting for his life right now, not playing the pathetic pup waiting for a search party to rescue him!

Kili hardly cared about any rescue, however.

He just wanted Fili to be there with him.

"Kili!"

Hope sprang through the clouds and showered rays of tomorrow upon the storms of abandonment. Through the muddy swirls impairing his vision Kili's eyes lit upon his brother, a thrill of relief so tangible it hurt rippling through his torn soul.

Fili was here. He was alive. They might be surrounded by the enemy on every side, but the moment his brother stepped onto the battlefield Kili knew he was safe.

He was always safe so long as Fili was there.

"Not goin', Fili. S'too dark out there."

Fili shook his head, holding a hand up and gesturing for Kili to emerge from his hiding place in the barn hayloft. "It's okay, Kili. I won't let anything hurt you."

Kili shook his head, tousled hair whipping around his face before he all but disappeared into hiding again. "Not goin. S'gonna eat me."

Fili groaned softly, wishing he had thought better of bringing Kili along for storytelling earlier that evening. He loved to listen in on the warrior's tales of evil beasts, dragons and goblins, but a five year old Kili seemed to have taken it into his head that a warg was waiting under his bed to devour him the moment he closed his eyes.

... Hence the barn was a much safer place. Right.

Kili scrunched up his nose, sensing his brother's doubts. "M'not scared, Fili!"

Fili let out a quiet sigh, the way he always did when Kili got exhuberant about putting butterflies on toast just to see if they really made actual butter, or when he knocked over the ash can and coated the room with soot because he tripped over his own two feet, or when he played that Uncle Thorin was an invading orc and got both himself and Fili in trouble because he accidently hit Daddy on the head instead, or when he tried really really hard to read stuff like Fili and made himself cross eyed, or when he sampled Mummy's cooking and dumped the entire bowl of flour on his head, or when he ...

"Kili, it's okay. Nothing out there is going to hurt you." Almost as if in afterthought Fili added, "How did you make it all the way out here?"

"Cat."

Mewy, Kili's own cat and-no-one-else's-cat, had been growing bigger and bigger lately and he wanted to know where she ran off to all the time. So he had followed her, walking on his hands and feet cat-like to keep out of her suspicion, until she scrambled into the hayloft. After that...

"You haven't figured out how to get down yet."

Kili's eyes widened and he ducked back into the pile of straw. Fili wasn't supposed to know that! He thought the afraid-of-the-dark game could fool his brother. Fili wasn't supposed to know about the real reason he didn't want to come down.

Kili knew he was being pathetic. Great warriors crossed mountains and fought stone giants on cliffs. They climbed high summits to meet eagles and climbed huge trees to scout ahead. A warrior should never afraid of climbing down a silly little ladder!

Fili snorted lightly and grabbed the ladder rungs, bounding up in moments. Kili ducked his head and snuffled in misery, expecting to be riddled for his fear of heights. Instead Fili settled down beside him, feet dangling over the edge as he studied the barn ceiling.

"I'm scared of heights, too."

Kili's head shot up in astonishment. Fili, the one who wasn't scared of anything, was openly admitting he was afraid of the same thing?

"But..."

"It's not easy, knowing there's nothing between you and the splat on the bottom but empty air. I used to hate heights, too."

Kili sniffled again, wriggling closer to his brother's side. In response Fili placed his arm around him and Kili cuddled close, relishing the feeling of being warm and safe and secure in his brother's protective hold. "How'd you get un-scared?" he asked plaintively.

Fili smirked. "Uncle Thorin told me that you have to face your fears in order to defeat them. He made me start climbing ropes and trees as part of my training. There wasn't much choice in the matter, actually. Once uncle says you gotta master something... well, there's not much room for argument."

Kili mulled over his brother's words for a moment, peering in trepidation over the edge. In an instant he edged back once more, shaking his head firmly. He wasn't ready to be a warrior just yet.

Fili let out that little snort again, sounding amused at his brother's stubbornness Making his way to the ladder he stepped down a few rungs and held out his arms, smiling in encouragement.

"You know, you don't have to face your fears all by yourself. It's okay, Kili. I won't let you go."

One second of hesitation was all Kili needed before he launched himself into Fili's arms, wrapping his arms tightly around his brother's neck and closing his eyes tightly as he tried not to think of the black chasm yawning below. Fili grunted at the added weight but made no comment as he began to descend. Kili could feel himself being lowered slowly as the sound of Fili's hands grasping the rungs told him how far down he was. There were eight rungs to the ladder. He'd counted every one of them while waiting.

The soft thud of Fili's boots on the dirt floor indicated that they had reached the bottom without accident. Kili let out a deep sigh of relief, unclenching his hands from Fili's tunic where his sweaty grip had no doubt left deep wrinkles in the fabric. He wasn't ready to let go, though. Not yet.

Fili seemed to sense his brother's need to feel secure for just a little longer. He was always good at picking up on how Kili was feeling, which was why Kili was always happier when Fili came to help him instead of Mummy or Daddy. He loved them, too, of course, but his big brother had something special that made Kili feel like Fili understood him just a little bit more. Just a little. But it was enough.

"Don't worry, Kili. I won't ever let anything happen to you. Promise."

The stabbing of a red hot poker coursing through his entire leg shattered Kili's grasp on the memory, pulling him back to a reality where a far greater foe than a ladder awaited him. It was too late for his sword. The flashing teeth were mere seconds from his face, and those seconds were rapidly dwindling away.

Fili, now would be a good time to remember that promise...

In a final wretched attempt Kili whipped an arrow from his sheath, driving it towards the wargs throat with a shout that was both animosity and agony combined. The wolf like creature twisted its head to the side, narrowly missing the razor tip, before its stained teeth crunched into the wood and shattered it like a moth wing.

Kili had only a moment to register that he was staring into the eyes of his own death before the warg dove in for the kill.

Instantly he was surrounded by a blinding cloud of light. For the briefest, most blissful moments there was no pain. Then a thousand knives pierced his shoulder to the bone and such fire seared through his leg that Kili was certain it had been sheared off. The plain whipped from side to side and he felt muscle and flesh tearing against the dagger edges pinning him helplessly in the foul beast's maw. He did not even know if he was screaming any longer; if the rawness of his throat was any indication, he had lost his voice long before.

The sensation of being airborne was short live before the ground rushed to meet him. Consciousness left him for one flashing, pain free instant as Kili collided in a tangle of broken and mangled limbs, any hint of awareness alerting him only to a jumble of signals from his body telling him that something was horrifically wrong.

Grey tinged Kili's vision yet the darkness evaded him, denying him the mercy of oblivion he yearned for. Lost in a chasm of anguish, he could only repeat wordlessly the name of the one person he wished was at his side at that moment, the only one who could help him see past the pain and the trauma and remember that there was nothing to fear.

Fili... Fili... big brother, where are you...?

Suddenly he was there, kneeling at Kili's side, blocking away the harsh rays of the sun and bringing tears of renewed hope to anguished, pleading eyes. Kili's breath came in rapid spurts, choked with emotion and renewed torment, but his trusting gaze was focused solely on his brother.

Fili was here. No mattered what happened from here on, everything would be all right.

Without a hint of warning Fili gathered him close, a fresh surge of torture surging through Kili's body. He let out a ragged scream, barely able to voice his discomfort any longer, only to hear the whispered words he had so desperately longed to hear.

"I've got you. Everything will be all right. You're safe. I'm going to protect you."

"...Safe. I'm going to protect you."

Kili briefly acknowledged the abrupt change from day to night and wondered if he had lost consciousness at some point. The air was cool but dry, and Fili was still holding him close. Kili relaxed in his arms, the pain that had wracked his body for what seemed an eternity finally swept away to relinquish him to that blessed darkness he so craved.

"Stay with me, Kili. I know it hurts, but just stay with me a few more minutes... please."

That quiet, strained plea from his brother was enough for Kili to be willing to endure a thousand years of torment, just to keep the lost, terrified whisper from Fili's voice.

I'm trying to stay away, Fili. I really am...

"You're safe... I'm going to protect you..."

"... safe ..."

"Gandalf! Gandalf, he is not breathing!"

The muse is evil and must be fed. Feed the muse so that it will allow me to write another chapter.