A/N: To make up for the very long wait, you will be getting two chapters in a row, this being the second!

"Fili, Fili, Fili..." Fili turns over.

"Mmmm...just acouple more minutes, Amad..."

Dwalin chuckles and lifts up the cover. "Time to get up, lad."

Fili blinks his eyes open and gets up. "But it's so early..."

"You're helpin' Balin and I, lad, remember? C'mon."

Kili is not so easy to waken. "Errmm..." He mutters as he is shaken. Hard.

Balin shakes his head in disaproval, looking at the pile of scrolls nearby. "Kili..."

"I'm awake!" Kili yelped, shoving the papers under his bedroll. "So, heh-heh, you needed something?"

"Yes. Come on, we need to check the ponies."

The ponies are in fairly good shape...

Goldenrod whuffles loudly.

"Oh! Sorry Goldenrod, what do you want?"

Kili runs from Goldenrod to camp, grumbling. "Honestly!" He complains to Bofur. "What pony needs their ear-hairs combed just so?"

"Aye, but she's not tha' bad, once ev'rythin's just right for her." Bofur shrugs, knowing exactly which one Kili is talking about.

Kili nods and bumps promptly into Balin. "Alright, come on, let's get moving."

"OK!"

They get moving and make good ground, though they must jog to make up for lost time.

Kili falls back and can't resist but yell to Thorin, who is, as he has been for the past six days, levitated and floating, "Hhooww's tthhee aaiirr uuppp tthheeiirr?" Thorin gives him a look in response.

Jogging may be faster, but it's certainly more tiresome, and they stop and take a rest hours before lunch. Kili takes the time to paw through his miserably disorganized pack.

"Kili! No time for that!" Balin admonishes.

"Huh? Waah!" The company is moving again.

"Now, I want you to take head-count."

"O-ok."

Everyone is there, but the extra responsibilities piled on is exhausting.

Lunch

"So then, Bombur and Nori started arguing, and I had to break that up, and then Petunia wanted some extra hay and kept chewing on the sacks, so I let her, and then Balin gave me a mighty scolding for overfeeding her, and then Dwalin wanted to give me self-defense at the same time Ori wanted me to help him translate some of his documents-"

"And it's only noon, too!"

"I know." Fili is equally exhausted.

"Well, *sigh* let's see what Balin wants now."

But Balin is nowhere to be found.

"Ahh, there ye are!" Says Dwalin. Fili takes a few steps back. Kili groans.

"Where's Balin?"

"Gee, I dunno." Shrugs Fili.

"Why?" Asks Kili.

"He wanted to scout ahead. So I said, 'no, not on that leg'. But Balin-" He leans over and whispers,

"Don't tell a soul, but sometimes I believe that Balin is more stubborn then Thorin, and he says he's going going to scout and that's that, but I say, no, I'll send Fili and Kili to do it, so he says, fine, send Fili and Kili, so I went all the way over to you, and that brother of mine slips off."

"You want us to find him." Kili interprets.

"Yes, I'll go with you and Balin will help Fili-" He pauses. "Err...You'll both go with me."

"You don't trust us to look after camp? We're so wounded, Dwalin!"

"The camp will be fine for a couple minutes." But Dwalin knows what can happen when camp is unattended a couple moments.

"Fili, watch camp." Dwalin prays that Fili's 5 senior years will allow to make good decisions, "DON'T make ANY unnecessessary orders, and if you need help, ask Gandalf."

"But Gandalf-"

"Is okay so long is it's not longterm leadership. Come Kili! Balin could be anywhere!"

With that Kili finds himself being dragged off by a very panicked Dwalin.

Fili frowns. "So, erm. Ahem. Balin has gone missing-"

"Balin's missing?" Asks Oin, concerned.

"We'll find him!" Says Ori.

"But Kili and Dwa-"

"Come on, everyone! Let's find Balin!" Yells Gloin.

"Wait, wait!" Yells Fili, but the dwarves have already been scattered, searching for Balin.

After the fast blurred chaos disappeared as abruptly as it came, Thorin, bewildered, regains his composure and spots the one other dwarf still in the clearing.

"Ccaarree..ttoo..eexxppllaaiin...Ffiillii?"

They find Balin several yards away. "Brother, you do realize that you considered missing? Come on!" Balin turns around. "Trail's good. We should do well and cover alot of ground." Then he concedes and the three head back.

"Ssoo..tthheenn...tthheeyy..aall..rraann..ooff..?" "Yyeess." Thorin says nothing, and Fili nervously waits. Then Thorin gets up in slow-motion and heads in the direction that Fili pointed out. Slowly. "Sshhoouulldd..hhaavvee..kknnoowwnn..ssoommeetthhiinngg..lliikkee..tthhiiss..wwoouulldd...hhaavvee...hhaappeenneed..wwiitthhoouutt.." he mutters. Fili grins to himself when he hears his uncle and follows him.

Camp is deserted. Kili stares. Dwalin curses. Balin limps over to Fili and Thorin, who are not that far from the camp. "Fili. What happened?" "ThewizardwasgoneandIjustsaidthatyouweremissingandtheywentcrazysonowthereallouttherepleaseforgiveme!" Fili babbles. "Oh, MAHAL!" Dwalin yells, running in a random direction.

Balin hobbles after him, yelling, "Dwalin, stop! Running off is the last thing that we want to do! Get back here!"

"Ffiillii..Kkiillii..ggoo..cclleeaann..uupp..ccaammpp.." Thorin tells his nephews.

"Ok, will..." Supplies are trampled, ponies have broken loose, and packs have been knocked over and scattered. "...Do."

After what seems like hours of cleaning, they finally get everything organised. Kili falls over against a tree. Fili sits down in the middle of camp, exhausted. Just then, 11 dwarves run in.

"That was awesome!" Yelled Ori.

"Awesome?! Awesome!? That bear nearly ate you!" Shrieked Dori.

"You're lucky Gandalf came in time to ward it off." Says Dwalin.

"You gave it a merry chase, lad." Praised Bofur.

Nori shudders. "It was almost as tall as Gandalf."

"Ahh, it wasn't that bad."

"Gloin? Are you sure your head is ok?"

Gloin blushes a lovely shade of pink.

Dwalin smirks. "Lovely butterflies, eh, chap?"

"I wasn't in my right mind!"

"You should've seen yourself. 'ooohh, wook at the pwetty butterfwy.' " Chuckles Oin.

Fili and Kili can only stare, flabbergasted, at the dwarves infront of them.

Then Thorin slowly steps in. "II..wwiillll..rreessuummee..mmyy..dduuttiieess.." He anounces.

"Yyoouu..aarree..nnoott..ffuullyy.." Begins Gandalf.

"Llooookk..aatt..wwhhaatt..hhaappppeenneedd..ttooddaayy.."

While Gandalf and Thorin argue, Fili and Kili turn to the others.

"Thanks for going off and leaving us with the boring job." Moans Kili.

"Real smooth. Even we know better then that, running off. Never have we done that in our entire lives."

Dwalin whispers something in his ear. "Huh? Ok, except for that time. And that time. And that. And that. Hey, that one doesn't count! Oh wait, it does...Ok, scratch that, we've done that before."

"We were worried about Balin, Fili. Out alone in the forest on that leg-"

Balin cuts Oin off with a withering look.

Gandalf comes up, very disgruntled. Thorin, looking extremely satisfied, makes his way, albeit in slow-motion, to the head of the group.

Fili and Kili are so, so, so, relieved.

They do not cover nearly as much ground(You can probably guess why) but Thorin, for once, does not care.

He is at the front.

A/N: There is one more chapter, and...heh-heh-heh...some revenge is in order...guess who-o-oo...