Chapter Three

The Edge of a Knife

When I was twelve, my brother nearly died. We'd spent the entire day in the woods surrounding our home- he'd been teaching me how to climb trees that afternoon. Slithering nimbly through the boughs of an especially gigantic oak, Shilah had coaxed me to climb higher than ever I had done before, so that I was perched neatly on a wide branch some feet above him, staring down with wide eyes as he scaled the tree like a squirrel. He'd just reached my branch, hand stretching out to grasp the roughness of the bark- when he slipped. With only a hand clinging desperately to the branch I was frozen to, I watched as Shilah's eyes slide downwards, looking at the distance he would fall to the ground if his strength were to fail. Even I could tell that the fall would prove disastrous, if not deadly. He grunted, I remember his face was blank, like he was trying to hide his fear from his baby sister, from me. But his eyes... they spoke of a different story. One of a young boy about to fall, about to die.

"Finnley, climb down and go get help."

I hadn't been able to move- I was stuck. That was why Shilah had been climbing up in the first place, to get me. But now, as I gazed down at my brother, I felt my hands moving before any thought crossed my mind as to what I was doing, exactly. Gripping my brother's wrist tightly, I stared into his eyes, determined, before pulling backwards as hard as I could. I'm sure my grip on his arm was painful- it left bruises for weeks afterwards, but what does that matter, when his life was saved? When I'd managed to pull him to safety, we'd sat there, panting, shivering in fear and shock. Shiloh gasped, rubbing his wrist, and looked up at me. I looked back.

"I would never leave you here alone." I shifted my gaze to his wrist. "And I never would have let go."

My grip was so strong that day, laced with fear and adrenaline. Indeed, I thought to myself then that never before was I as strong as when I saved my brother in the tree, nor would I ever feel that strength within me again.

How wrong that prediction came to be. How wrong indeed. These thoughts were stuck in my head, rolling over and over as my grip on the tiny dagger tightened, tightened so hard that I was sure it would crack to bits. My nails, dirty, long and broken, dug crescents into equally dirty skin, but I hardly noticed. All my thought, all my life was bent on this knife clutched in my hand. Hidden beneath the dark folds of the cloak I was forced to wear, this weapon was a beacon of light, shining inconspicuously beneath the heavy material about my shoulders.

If circumstance allowed, I would have quirked a small smile at the irony of the situation, but the burly man behind me was hovering, pushing me further into the building, up stairs and down a hall- toward the room he'd rented for the night. How witty, that the people who'd caused me so much misery, who'd taken everything from me, had in turn given me my last hope. For without this cloak that they forced me to wear, without it's concealing layer of fabric, where would I have managed to hide the knife so quickly? Doubtless, I would have been caught, either by the man who it belonged to- swiped right off the table under his very nose, as I was being shoved to the stairs- or by the pig behind me, who's eyes were constantly roving.

We came to a door, I was pushed aside as the man wrestled it open with the key. He was very rough, very harsh in his movements. I swallowed- that could not bode well for me or my body the reassuring, delicious feel of the uneven wood on my palm and fingers caused my worries to leave me.

The door opened, banging against the wall loudly. Grabbing me by the collar, my buyer dragged me inside, great, muscled arms rippling as he threw me in the direction of the bed before turning and slamming the door shut behind him. He didn't bother locking it, and my heart soared. Luck! I had such luck tonight! First the knife, and now the door. I had been planning to try picking the lock, if the key could not be found (many of the men that had lain with me took heart in hiding the key beforehand).

Scrambling around so that I sat on the bed with my back to the man, I fiddled with the knife in my hand. I had to hid it somehow, get it in a spot where it would be easy to reach when the man, when we- I heard footsteps behind me, coming closer and closer. I acted quickly. Spinning round so that rolled across the bed, my hand worked in quickly pulling the knife from its hiding place, stashing it neatly under one of the white pillows at the head of the mattress. From the man's perspective, it looked like I'd merely rolled over in fright, trying to get myself farther away from him. Oh how little he really knew.

As large, rough hands began to graze my body, first pulling me closer before removing my cloak, I shut my eyes. This was it, this was the night it would happen- my wish would come true. As long as the pillow wasn't moved, by morning I would be free. That was a very large if, of course. Anything could happen. At this point, however, I no longer cared. That knife was my everything now. My last wish, my salvation, my rescue. And because of this, it must not be found. He will not see it- He cannot.

My heart beats within my chest, pounding harder than it ever has in my life. My thoughts flash to my brother, to his face as he dangled below me helplessly. That was me now, I realized. That was Finely, dangling high above the ground in the oak, and what was there to save her but the sharp tip of a knife. Either in his chest, or hers, if all went wrong.

I swallowed again as there was a pressure on my neck, his lips working a bruise on my tender skin. Not until the blade is piercing his heart, I told myself, eyes finding the light of the moon as it danced in from behind curtained windows. Not until then, will he know of my intentions.

~*What~Do~You~Wish~For~Most~*

In the darkness, there was nothing. No bed, no girl, no man looming over him with sword drawn. Only the dust that blanketed the floorboards, and several mice, which squirmed in fright, turning hairless tails and scrabbling noisily under a small wooden dresser.

Fili straightened, ignoring the way his hands shook, the grip on his knives not slacking in the slightest as he turned, eyeing the dark room, lit only by the light filtered in from the doorway. The floor creaked and groaned loudly as he made his way from the room, causing Fili to wince, though he knew there was no one else to hear the noise he was making. From downstairs, obnoxious laughter and chairs scrapping the ground jarringly- wood on wood- below drifted upstairs, trickling down the long hallway, past numerous doors. Fili swallowed, turning on the landing so that he faced the corridor before him. Doubts had begun to creep into his mind. This mission of his was folly. Why wasn't he downstairs, eating his fill, and drinking too, and laughing at his companions' jokes? What did he think he was doing, searching rooms like some crazed detective? How did he even know this girl needed help?

His boot was near silent as he took a step forward, and then another. Slowly, Fili began to make his way down the hall, ears pricked for any type of sound. All was quite, save the ruckus from down below, and even when Fili placed his sharp ears to dirty wooden doors, not a single breath could he pick up on the other side. Finally, he came to the end of the hall.

Sliding his daggers back into their holdings, Fili sighed gruffly, turning on the spot. Should he try searching all the rooms, or return to the Company? In truth, Fili was not sure what to do, something he would never had admitted if Kili had been with him. Fili froze, a sudden, terrible thought occurring to him, one that he wished and wished would go away, though it persisted horribly.

What if this girl had a brother, or a sister? And what if they had a relationship- a bond- that was as special- as close- as his and Kili's? A shiver ran down Fili's spine when he tried to picture how he'd react, if Kili were stolen, if Kili were taken away and- and- His heart had quickened now, it's pace like that of a hummingbirds wing beats. That was a fate to grisly to imagine.

With renewed vigor and a sharp, deep breath, Fili was on the move again, his short legs taking him to the closest door. Without any of his previous cautiousness, the young dwarf barged into the room, door banging open unceremoniously, causing the handle to disappear within the wall with a crunch. Stepping into the dimly lit room, Fili got about two paces before he froze, hands on his knives.

He always liked to think- especially around Kili, of course- that he knew how he'd react in every situation: Bravely, surely, and smartly- like a prince of the Durin line should. But now... The answer was farther from him than the Lonely Mountain, than Erebor.

Before him was a sight that forever lay burnt into Fili's mind. Upon the bed a giant mass crouched, and with a start of realization Fili ascertained that it was the boarish man from before. The man's shirt had been thrown to the floor, the only clothes remaining being his undergarments. The fat man was moaning, a low, guttural sound in his throat, as his lips and teeth grazed viscously over something lost beneath his bulky mass. Fili's eyes slid lower, though he would have rather looked away. His limbs felt frozen, his heart was chill.

Beneath the great pig, lost under his body, was the small woman, her dress discarded to the floor beside the bed. Her lower body was lost beneath the man, all but her bare shoulders and head peaking out as the man ravaged her skin with his mouth. Even in the poorly lit room, Fili could make out the tear that glittered on her cheek, the way her eyes stared vacantly into the distance. Her right arm was curled under the pillow beneath her, and with a start Fili realized that he could see something glinting beneath it.

But before he had time to stop, to think, to try and piece together what was happening- is this really happening?- the woman's eyes suddenly snapped upwards and caught Fili's. Shock, anger, pain, loss- there were too many emotions registering at once in her eyes for Fili to keep up. He wasn't sure how long they stared at each other- if it were only half a second, or half an hour- but something in her eyes held him spellbound. Something in those depths, caused his breath to catch, and his heart to race faster than ever before- which, considering the circumstances...

"What the hell do you think you're fucking doing in here?"

Fili flinched out of his trance. The man was staring at him, his face a mask of rage. Swiftly and without thinking, Fili was pulling his daggers free, holding them threateningly in the direction of the man.

"Let her go."

The pig laughed, a disgusting, wheezy laugh. "Let who go, 'er?" He asked, pointing to the girl beneath him, who had not budged. "Fella, I think you need to watch yerself, before I come over there and run you through. This here's me wife, an' I don't think she wants you to-

"I saw the money." Fili said, anger filling his voice, causing it to swell. "I saw you pay. Do no take me for a fool- She is no wife of yours." Fili wanted to add that he didn't think any woman would freely chose to even be in the monstrous man's presence, but the thought vanished like stars from daylight when, with a grunt, the girl's arm snapped forward suddenly, burying a knife deep into the man's chest.

"What-?"

Fili took a step back, grip slacking on his knives in shock as he watched the man slowly bring a hand up to his heart, feeling the wooden handle of the dagger. His eyes turned to the girl beneath him.

"You bitch. You fucking bitch- You stabbed me! I... I could kill you!"

He raised a hand, slapping the girl violently across the cheek before a low groan escaped his lips. Clutching at his leaking chest, blood spilling down his front and onto both mattress and girl equally, the man's eyes drifted up, locking with Fili's for a brief moment before the knife embedded in his flesh was violently ripped away, leaving his chest with a sickening squelch as the girl scrambled backwards, blade in hand, watching as her captor went tumbling off the bed, blood spewing in droplets from his bleeding heart as he landed, dead, on the floor.

"Mahal save me," Fili whispered before taking a step forward and kicking the man hard. No movement, nothing. Looking up, Fili was greeted with the sight of the girl, soaked in blood from stomach to fingernails, of which were equally as dangerous as the knife. Dagger-like, blood soaked, and poised, her nails were ready to slice his throat. The girl had wrapped the gory blanket around her equally blood-smeared body, her eyes glinting dangerously in the candlelight. The knife glinted, it's jagged blade held before the girl threateningly. Her message was clear enough.

Come any closer, and you die.

Thank you to everyone who's faved/reviewed/subbed! Wow! I didn't think this story would be as well received as it was, but because of that, I'm already planning future chapters. Please continue to review your feedback, honestly I really want to hear what you all think, or if you have any suggestions (plus reviews make me feel all warm and tingly inside, and who doesn't love that) :D The next chapter should be out within the week.