Here you go, the next chapter that I could have uploaded last night had I not crashed before I had the chance to (yes, even I need my sleep sometimes). In any case, I hope you enjoy this. The end is near folks, the end is near (though still got several chapters to go).

Chapter 17: Hatred

When Fili awoke, his right leg was numb from his younger brother lying on it all night, and continuing to do so even now. Retracting his arm from around the brunette, Fili yawned and stretched as best as he could with a brown haired dwarf growth attached to one of his legs.

It was a relief being able to wake whenever they wanted without being woken forcibly or having the fear that they would become wargs meat if they, for some reason, did not wake after a while. That was why it had been better for at least one of them to be awake at all times, especially when the orcs were in more of a foul or restless mood. The lesson they had learned was still branded into the blonde's mind like it had happened yesterday, not weeks ago.

"If they have not yet awoken, they may very well not wake," a voice said above him and his brother, a voice that he recognised from days of terror and pain at the orc's hands.

"Then what are we to do?" another voice asked, this one lacking both the confidence and authority of the first.

"Why waste good meat when our steeds are frothing at the mouths in the anticipation of a good feed?" the original voice said in a tone both laced with malice and power.

"Ah…" the lower class orc breathed, understanding what his leader was getting at, "It shall be as you wish."

Fili's eyes snapped open as hands grabbed him roughly, not only from the pain of his wound being jostled, but from the terror of the fate he was about to meet. The blonde began to fight the hands holding him as he was lifted off the rocky ground, on the verge of a complete panic. He did not want to die being eaten alive by the savage mounts of his enemy.

Fili felt himself being dropped to the ground as his struggles increased in both strength and volume, adrenaline giving his limbs power even though his hands and feet were still tied together. He hit the ground with a thud, the wind rushing out of his lungs in one breath, the blonde ceasing his movements at the same time. Kili slammed into the floor at the same time, having awoken at the manhandling of his person as well.

"So the scum are awake at last," Fili heard their captor say in a hard tone, as several kicks were aimed towards the two dwarves on the floor in an attempt to get them to stop moving. It worked and Fili barely held back a groan as two of his fingers on his right hand somehow ending up crushed beneath a boot. Beside him, Kili let out the tiniest of whimpers as his broken wrist shifted, the small sound lost in the barking of the wargs who could sense their masters' excitement, the wargs the two young dwarves had almost been fed to, all because they were caught after being sent scouting on a journey to a mountain that they had little, if no hope in reclaiming.

Some journey, really.

There were several cries of disappointment as it became clear to the orcs above them that the two captive dwarves were not becoming warg chow, but their excitement soon built up again at their leader's next words, words which sent a chill down Fill's spine.

"Maybe we should let them entertain us," the orc suggested, a cruel and cunning twist to his lips, "Just like they have been the last few times, but on a more… Well let's take it up a notch shall we."

The blonde dwarf lying at the creature's feet froze for a mere instance, but that instance was enough for panic to begin to take over.

Mahal, he swore inside of his mind, what can they have planned for us now?

Beside him, his brother's slower than usual breathing betrayed his state of mind as well. It seemed that both were trying to keep as calm as possible, trying not to let the being above them know how much he had shaken them with his words. But the orc saw it in their eyes and their fear pleased him.

"Draw them up, cut their bindings," he ordered, "But make sure they do not try to break free."

His orders were followed and soon the two heirs of Durin found themselves facing each other, restrained by their captors who had now formed a ring in the centre of the cave. Fili was liking this even less and less, realising what the orcs intended for them to do.

"Arm them with a knife," commanded the overseer of the whole thing.

At these words a look of dread crossed over Kili's face, and Fili knew that the archer knew what they would be expected to do. As the cold metal of a single knife was pressed into the blonde's hands, the prince tried to communicate with his brother through using his eyes alone, but Kili had shut them tight, perhaps thinking that if he could not see the scene before him unfold, than it would no longer be true. He opened his eyes again slowly, as if he were reluctant to face reality, and Fili couldn't really blame the brunette for thinking like that.

"Try not to kill each other," the orc in charge said lazily as the two brothers were pushed towards each other, the wall of orcs around them solidifying so that there was no possible way out.

The two siblings circled each, neither of them wanting to make the first move, to be the first one to cause harm to the other, especially not after what they had been forced to do in the past few days. Kili was limping slightly, his injured hand held close to his chest as he tried to anticipate his brother's moves. Fili too was incapacitated, having to use his left hand because the fingers on his other hand that had been stomped on were refusing to move.

In the end it was Fili who launched the first 'attack', lunging towards his brother at what would seem like breakneck speed, but allowing enough time for his brother to duck. Kili seemed to acknowledge what he was doing and feinted left and right, each time restraining himself like they had back when they had trained with real weapons in the Blue Mountains. The pair continued on like this, drawing a few drops of blood from each other every now and then to make it seem as though they really were fighting. However, when Fili felt himself stumbling, it went downhill from there.

The blonde crashed to the ground heavily as he ploughed headfirst into the dirt, stubbing his toe on the fair sized stone that had tripped him up. His sides heaved up and down as he tried to regain his breath, his limb shaky from the overexertion. Kili halted where he was, unsure of what to do for several moments before he finally dropped his hand holding the knife, letting the weapon fall to the ground with a dull thud. Instantly there was a roar of disapproval from the orc in charge of the others.

"What is this?" he bellowed, both the two dwarves and the beings own men wincing at the loudness of his voice, "I did not tell you to stop. Take up the knife and get on with it." Fili knew that these words were not directed at him, and he could only watch in horror as his little brother shot him a small smile, eyes showing the battle within himself as the archer turned to face his captor.

"No," he said simply, not a tremor in his voice as he defiantly stared the orc in front of him down. There was silence throughout the cave, even the wargs outside stopping in their movements as if they understood the gravity of what the dwarfish prince had just done.

"No?," breathed the orcish leader, too outraged to raise his voice higher, "You do not have the authority to tell me no here dwarf scum."

Fili watched as two orcs grabbed hold of his brother, turning him to face the blonde. The orc in charge walked towards the fallen prince who now struggled to rise. But the creature would have none of this and viciously kicked Fili in the side, the young dwarf crying out in pain as he felt at least one of his ribs snap. But even through the fog that now clouded his brain, alarm bells went off as his abuser turned to his younger brother.

A loud 'thwack' filled the cave, and Kili sagged briefly against the hands holding him up, one eye swelling up and blood trickling from one corner of his mouth as the orc who had hit him withdrew a fist easily the size of half the brunette's face.

"Next time, do as I say or the consequences will be far worse," he growled, before nodding to several of the orcs around him, "Bind them and take them away from me, for I do not wish to see them again at this time."

In no time at all, both dwarves laid bound at the back of the cave, the orcs ignoring them as they went around their business. Fili gave his brother a pitying look.

"That was stupid," he said in a voice only loud enough for Kili to hear beside him. The brunette turned his head and gave him a sad look in return through his one good eye.

"I wasn't going to kill you, brother," he said simply, "No matter what they would have done to me." And Fili believed him, just as Kili believed the blonde would have done the same thing if their positions had been switched.

The blonde accepted a bowl of some sort of stew from Bombur, his eyes fixed on a point in the distance, his mind still reliving the moments back in the other cave and the time before that, thinking over what they could have done differently in order to have escaped the fate delivered to both him and his brother so cruelly by the orcs. Fili doubted either of them would ever recover after what they had been through, and as he pondered how this all could have been prevented, his mind kept on coming back to the same nine words.

Neither of them should have come on the quest. In fact, agreeing to go on it was probably the biggest mistake they had made in their lives.

"What are you thinking about?" he heard his brother mumble, brown eyes blinking up at him, eyes belonging to a being he had not been able to protect.

"Nothing much," Fili lied easily, not wanting to burden his already weighed down brother with his own dark thoughts, "Just that this stew is actually edible for once." Kili did not crack a grin, and Fili did not expect him too. He understood too well what his brother was going through.

Again Fili cursed the mountain he had once been eager to call his home. If not for that mountain, neither of them would be here now, wounded in more ways than one.

REVEIW! I love getting them (and you are all too kind to me).