Chapter 2

Fili groaned and rubbed at his head, his arms and legs feeling like jelly. It reminded him of the time he and Kili and snuck into the cellar of Bombur's tavern in the Blue Mountains and helped themselves to some of the ale, drinking themselves into a stupor.

They had both been sick for a week and spent the next few months working off the indiscretion. Funny, Fili doesn't remember drinking the night before, the last thing he remember was exploring with Kili and...Oh Mahal.

"Kili!" he exclaimed, sitting up a little too fast. His head spun and he groaned, nausea churning in his stomach. He was not going to be sick, he had to help Kili. Prying his eyes open one at a time he looked around for his little brother.

Kili lay curled up on a patch or green that looked like grass. Where had the grass come from, they were deep in the mountain? The ruby sat harmlessly beside him and Fili thought briefly about kicking it far away when Kili groaned. Fili was instantly at his side.

"Kili?" He shook his shoulder slightly. "Kili, can you hear me?" Kili blinked his eyes open.

"Fili? What happened?" Fili shook his head. "I don't know but we better get you to Oin, your hand was burned pretty bad." Fili gently grasped Kili's hand and looked it over to assess the damage. He was shocked to fine that it was perfectly fine.

"What...I don't understand?" He grabbed Kili's other hand to be sure he was looking at the right one and found it to be much the same.

"Come on," Fili said pulling Kili to his feet.

"We need to get home." Kili's head swiveled around them.

"Where are we?" For the first time Fili noticed they were in a forest of some kind and not in the mountain. Well that would explain the grass, he thought. But how they got out of the mountain was an even bigger mystery.

Ripping a piece from his tunic, Kili bent down and wrapped the ruby in the cloth and stuffed it into his pack.

"After everything that just happened you're going to keep that?" Kili shrugged.

"I thought Balin could take a look at it and tell us what it is." Fili threw his hands in the air but let the matter rest. There was little anyone could do to change Kili's mind once it's been made up.

Not knowing where they were made it difficult to pick a direction to follow. They didn't know if they were headed towards help or away from it but Fili couldn't find any landmarks that could help them decide so they just headed south and hoped for the best.

"You know," Kili said. "This place almost reminds me of the Blue Mountains." Fili rolled his eyes.

"I doubt we're in the Blue Mountains, Kili."

"Well why not," Kili argued. "We're obviously no where near Erebor. Maybe that ruby was some sort of transportation stone."

"A transportation stone?" Fili said incredulously. "There's no such thing."

"That you know of. Ori's probably read about dozens of them."

"Right. Your imagination knows no bounds."

"We'll see if you're still saying that when I'm proven right."

They continued in relative silence though every so often Kili would point out something that he swore he saw before as a child. Fili did think a few of the swimming holes and boulders did look kinda familiar but he still wasn't convinced they had been transported back to Ered Luin. The very idea was preposterous.

And even if they were they had bigger problems to contend with. Night was rapidly approaching and though Fili had no problem with sleeping under the stars- they had done it for months on their journey to Erebor and on several camping trips with Thorin when they were young- they simply did not have the supplies necessary for camping, even Kili would find it foolish to try it under these circumstances. No, they would have to find shelter and fast.

"Do you think Ma will be happy to see us?" Kili asked. Fili sighed. He still hasn't given up on the idea they somehow made it back to Ered Luin.

"I'm sure she will be."

"I wonder if she'll make us a pie. If there is one thing I miss the most about home is Ma's pies. Oh, especially those apple pies she makes in the fall."

Kili continued to reminisce about the time they had gone collecting apples for their mother.

"And then you had to fall an break your arm." he gave Fili an accusing glare.

"I was only in that tree because you decided to get yourself stuck. There were plenty of apples on the ground you didn't have to climb to the top of the tree to pick them."

"Everyone knows the best apples grow at the top," Kili argued.

"Yeah but not everyone is dumb enough to get themselves stuck." Fili didn't have to turn around to know that Kili was sticking his tongue out at him like a dwarfling. "Your face is going to freeze like that."

"You sound like Ma."

"She'll be happy to hear that."

The crunching of leaves and sticks under their feet was the only sound to be heard for several minutes. Fili eyed the rapidly falling sun with worry. They hadn't even come close to finding anything that resembled civilization and he had almost resigned himself to a very uncomfortable night under the stars.

"How far do you think we've walked?" Kili asked.

"Not far enough," Fili grumbled in reply.

"Now you sound like uncle." Fili opened his mouth to launch a scathing retort when a sharp crack off in the shadows caught their attention.

"Do you think it was a deer?" Kili whispered. A deer or small woodland creature would be the logical assumption but ever instinct told Fili it was something far worse.

His fingers itched to wrap around the hilts of his duel swords just as he knew Kili longed for his bow but both their weapons we tucked away in their chambers where they had left them that morning.

Without weapons and without options, Fili decided their best course of action would be to hide. Yanking hard on Kili's arm, he sent them tumbling down a nearby ravine. They slid to a halt in a tangle of limbs, dried leaves and twigs clinging to their clothing.

"Good work, genius," Kili muttered. His words quickly turned in nothing more than muffled noise as Fili clamped a hand over his mouth. The harsh cackle of black speech filled the air.

"Orcs," Fili mouthed, taking his hand away from Kili's face.

Kili's face blanched as he tried to press himself closer into the earth. Fili knew the resent battle was playing in Kili's mind as it was in his own. Even then they were armed and surrounded by their kin who would protect them but here they were alone and unarmed.

After what seemed like an eternity, the orcs moved on. Fili breathed a sigh of relief. Inky blackness now cloaked the sky like a blanket, shrouding them in darkness.

Kili quickly scrambled up the ravine while Fili took a moment to brush himself off. Kili had often teased him for 'preening like a peacock' as he put it but it was a habit that was drilled into him by both his mother and uncle from a young age. As second son, Kili might be able to get away with keeping his hair looking like something birds would nest in but as heir to the throne, Fili was awarded no such luxury.

After discarding the last leaf, Fili started the long treck back up the hill. He had made it about half way up when a familiar scream froze his blood in his veins.

"Fili!" Fili flew the rest of the way to the top faster than he thought possible. Kili was struggling against the grasp of an orc who had placed a blade under his chin.

"Let him go," Fili demanded, hoping the orc didn't notice the way his voice shook.

"Oi," the orc said in common tongue as he look to him with surprise. "There be two of 'em." Fili suddenly realized that the orc was not talking to him but instead to someone behind him.

He spun around in time to deflect the second orc that had charged him but without weapons he couldn't do much more than that. He franticly searched around for anything that would be useful to him.

Spotting a sturdy looking branch, Fili dove for it, his finger barely touching it before the orc was on him once again. He swung the branch, smiling when he felt it connect with the orcs stomach. He went to bring it down again but this time the orc was ready for him and ripped it from his hands.

Fili had no time to dwell on the stinging of his palms before the orc brought his foot down on his chest, effectively pinning him to the ground.

"Stop," Kili yelled, but they paid him no mind.

"We're gonna eat well tonight," said the orc who held Kili. He poked his finger none to gently into Kili's ribs.

"Yes, nice and squishy."

"Oi," Kili yelled and tried to squirm away.

"Hardly any beard too. I think mine's a girl."

"I'm not a girl," Kili shouted indignantly. He twisted and squirmed so much that Fili was afraid he cut his own throat on the blade.

"Let go of me you foul breathed, shovel faced, halfwit."

"Shovel faced? Who you calling shovel faced?" Fili rolled his eyes. Just once it would be nice if Kili didn't insult the monsters that were trying to kill them.

"Have you looked in a mirror lately."

"Why you little..." He got no further as Kili plunged a tiny dagger into the orcs thigh. The orc roared in pain but released his hold on Kili.

Fili used the distraction to launch his own offence. His hands grasping a rock he brought it down hard on the orc's knee, hearing a satisfying crunch. In an instant he was on his feet, standing back to back with Kili. The familiar fighting position boosted Fili's confidence. Together he and Kili were a force to be reckoned with.

They moved in sync, each one covering the others weakest points. Kili armed with his stiletto blade and Fili with the branch he had stolen from him earlier.

Together they managed to keep the orcs at arms length but that was all they could do. Their impromptu weapons simply weren't lethal enough to kill the beasts.

A low howl in the sounded in the distance. Fili looked to Kili who wore the same wide eyed expression. The orcs grinned a sickly grin as they stared down their prey.

Fili thought briefly about telling Kili to run but he knew they wouldn't get very far. He could already hear the running footsteps of the warg. Moments later it burst through the trees, barreling straight for Fili.

Fili raised his club and prepared for the attack but before the warg reached him he was jerked out of the way and crashed to the ground. Glancing up Fili watched in horror as the warg slammed into Kili who stood where Fili had been standing moments ago.

He heard more than saw his little brother hit the ground as the warg launched him out of Fili's line of sight. "Kili!"

The orcs decended on him with renewed vigor, making it impossible to come to his brother's aid.

Kili had reacted on instinct when he pushed his brother out of the warg's path but once again he failed to think things through and now he was paying the price.

The warg's weight nearly crushed him as he fought to keep it's snapping jaws as far away from his face as possible. He had lost his dagger some time after the warg slammed into him and now could only use his flailing arms to keep the warg back. He was tiring quickly and a single, unarmed dwarf was no match for a blood thirsty and hungry warg.

Kili managed to plant his foot against the beast's sternum and he pushed off with all his might. The warg stumbled back a mere foot but it was enough that Kili could slip out from under it. He needed a weapon; something, anything. He groped blindly across the ground, his fingers brushing only dried leaves and loose pebbles.

The warg geared up for another attack, launching itself at the helpless dwarf. Kili raised his arms to protect his head.

"Fili!"

The impact never came; instead Kili heard a loud thud as the wargs body hit the ground. He peaked open first one eye and then the other. The warg lay dead at his feet, a flash of golden hair could be seen behind it. Fili, thank Mahal.

Kili opened his mouth to thank him but stopped short when he caught full sight of his rescuer. He wasn't surprised he mistook the stranger for his brother at first. With the same golden mane of hair that was braided near identical, the two of them could be twins.

The resemblance was striking enough that Kili thought he was seeing double as Fili rushed to his side and pulled him in a fierce hug. The hug only lasted a moment before Fili pulled back and proceeded to punch him in the arm.

"You stupid, reckless dwarfling. Don't you ever do that to me again." Kili rubbed at his now throbbing arm.

"What, save your life?"

Fili gave him the look. It was a look that was usually worn by Thorin whenever his wayward nephews- mostly Kili- had done something incredibaly stupid. Though somehow it didn't look nearly as terrifying on Fili.

The gruff sound of someone clearing their throat brought the boys back to the present and for the first time Fili seemed to realize they were not alone.

"I hate to break up this family discussion but there may be more of them coming. We should probably leave before they arrive."

The stranger motioned for them to follow him as he left to join his companions. Kili scrambled to his feet and held out a hand to help Fili up only his brother didn't seem to see him. Fili's eyes remained fixed on the strange dwarf that had saved Kili's life and Kili noticed his face had gone white as a sheet.

Kili was about to ask him if he was alright when a single syllable word slipped from Fili's lips.

"Da?"