EquusGold Familial Bonds

Camping (with Fili and Kili) Part 1

Thanks to SkyBlue who provided the prompt for this one shot - Featuring a protective Thorin or in which Thorin comes to the rescue of his troublesome nephews or daughter.

Soren is eleven, Fili forty-one and Kili is thirty-six.

I've decided to split this into two parts :D

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It is mid-autumn and the first heavy rains of the year are yet to come. Fili and Kili are restless; between working and training they have had hardly a spare minute to themselves. They, along with Dis and Thorin, are working longer hours than ever to try and get ahead, to try and keep ample food on the table. But it's a seemingly never ending battle.

But now Thorin has forced the brothers to take two days off. They funny thing is though, that the brothers have no idea what to do with their suddenly surplus spare time. At that moment the lads were sitting in front of the cold hearth, bickering over what to do.

Kili, nature-loving free spirit that he was, wished to go hunting and enjoy some well-deserved peace and quiet after the overwhelming clamour of the forges day in and day out. He thought it would give them more time to spend together, as brothers, without someone breathing down their necks all the time.

Fili wished to linger about the town, being infinitely more responsible that his younger sibling. He knew that their help could be needed at any moment so he wanted to enjoy their free time among their friends in and about the market and tavern.

Kili was just in the middle of arguing that they could bring back some venison for food and furs for sale when heavy steps came echoing into the room.

The brother's ceased their bickering to watch as young Soren stumped through the door and then threw herself on the woven mat in the centre of the room, face down so her cousins couldn't see the ugly scowl that was firmly plastered onto her face.

"What's the matter?" Fili asked, scooting closer to the disgruntled dwarfling. Even if he tried, he wouldn't be able to supress those overpowering older brother instincts of his. "Tell us little fox."

Soren lifted her head and stared at the heir with an inscrutable expression as he called her by her Da's favourite pet name. Wordlessly she lifted on hand and held it against the side of her head, just over her temple.

"Headache?" Fili surmised and heard Kili grunt sympathetically from behind him. Both of them knew that Soren was having lessons everyday with Balin, but they also knew that their little cousin was extremely intelligent and therefore paying for it with a heavy workload. No one had ever heard her complain though; she just threw herself into her lessons with a determination that was both admirable and frightening.

"Watcha arguing about?" Soren asked after a moment. Fili looked at his brother and Kili raised his eyebrows questioningly at the hidden meaning in his brother's gaze.

"Kee and I just decided that we're going camping tonight. Somewhere nice and quiet." Fili kicked his little brother as he went to ask what on earth Fili was talking about. The eldest of the Durin youth's had been watching the dwarfling's eyes light up at the words camping and nice and quiet. It looked like they weren't the only ones in need of a break. "Would you like to come with us, cousin?"

"Da will never let me." The young lass said sorrowfully, shaking her head so that her dark hair fell into her eyes. Kili had just been about the echo the same sentiment when he caught sight of his brother's features which were set into his most stubborn expression.

"We'll see," he said instead. "Fee and I are grown now. Besides, we can be very persuasive when we want to." Kili felt slightly horrible for giving her so much hope when there really was very little hope of Thorin letting her go. But for the idolising look in her glistening eyes, he thought it was all worth it. Even if they did get chewed out by their uncle.

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"Uncle Thorin?" Fili called around the area were numerous workers were having a bite to eat. Kili nudged his side when he spotted Thorin, every bit as filthy and sweaty as the rest of the dwarves. Thorin Oakenshield stood, excused himself, and followed his nephews to where they waited beneath a broad elm tree.

"Lads?" he asked, and they couldn't help but note that he sounded both curious and anxious. Soren had done strange things to their thick-skinned, stoic uncle.

"Well, you know how you gave us two days off?" Kili said awkwardly before he mentally kicked himself. What a stupid conversation starter.

"We thought we should go camping and … well –" Fili sounded like he was trying hard to avoid saying what needed to be said, but for Kili it came out in a thick rush of verbal vomit.

"We were thinking Soren should come." He blurted out. Mentally kicking himself wasn't going to cut it this time. Perhaps smashing his face into an anvil would suffice. His uncle may not hesitate to offer a helping hand with that, especially considering the penetrating gaze that he set upon his youngest nephew. Maybe this had been a bad idea… Mahal knows, Kili just wanted the ground to open up and swallow him whole.

"And why would you think I would allow this?" Thorin's voice was ice cold and bordering on menacing. "She's eleven."

"Because – because she needs a break to!" Fili cried after some uneasy clearing of his throat. He tried his best not to wither under Thorin's famous soul-eating stare that wasn't quite a glare but something infinitely more terrifying. "And, well – she's been working so hard… and when we said we were going…"

Thorin sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose as his nephews visibly cowered away.

He knew that Soren worked hard for her age and put herself under strain, that she was more than deserving of a break. But sending her off into the wilds with just Fili and Kili did not seem like a good idea at all. She was eleven, for the love of Mahal!

Of course then there was that part of him that didn't want to deny his daughter anything. He sighed again before stalking off towards their home with purposeful strides, his nephews trailing behind.

Thorin stopped in the entryway of their humble abode, kicking off his heavy boots as he called for Soren as he always did. Like every other day she hurtled through the house in one of her rare fits of youthful exuberance and promptly wrapped herself around his waist – only a few short months ago she had been forced to settle for clinging to his legs.

"You're back early." She stated in an almost accusing way. He rested a large hand on top of her tussled, untameable hair and hummed.

"I came to see you, little fox." He said softly in response. The young girl relinquished her hold on him and the four of them – Fili and Kili had come inside and stood awkwardly behind – moved into the kitchen with Soren shooting a glare at her cousins when she thought Thorin couldn't see. They sat at the simple wooden table in their usual places and an altogether too awkward silence ensued. Soren's gaze flitted about the table ceaselessly as she watched them.

"Fili and Kili tell me you've been working hard at you studies."

"Always, father." Thorin allowed himself a brief smile at the solemn, dutiful expression on her young face.

"I do not doubt it, little on," he saw a brief swell of pride in those silver eyes. "Your cousins also tell me that you would like to go camping with them?"

The glare returned and Fili and Kili made sure to look suitably rebuked.

"Well, would you like to?" Thorin asked her and he saw a light bloom on her face like she was suddenly channelling the sun's brightness from within.

Soren seemed to sense how close she was to what she wanted for she leapt out of her chair and scrambled into her father's lap – though she was arguably too big for such an act at this point - in the kind of childish exuberance that she usually didn't hold with. Soren clasped her father's broad, scarred hands in her own smaller ones and beseeched him with her eyes.

"Oh please Da! I want to go more than anything!" Thorin did his best to stifle his growing grin at just how excited the dwarfling was. She rarely called him 'Da' to his face nowadays, having adopted the more formal 'father.' It was good indicator of just how eager she truly was. But then her smile was carefully tucked away and she looked at him slyly with a tiny smirk tugging at her lips. "Besides, you're always saying that Fee and Kee should be more responsible. They have to be if you let me go with them."

This time Thorin didn't hide the smile or the try to muffle the booming laugh that accompanied it. He turned to his nephews, who seemed quite shocked to have seen such a reaction elicited from their usually sober uncle.

"She's right there lads," he says and the brother's look at each other and wonder if any of this had been a good idea at all. The expression on Thorin's face slips and he's looking at them sternly once again. "You would be totally responsible for her, and everything that happened. Do you think you could handle it? Do you think you could bear the guilt if something went wrong?"

The words were like cold shards of ice to the hearts of the young dwarrow but Fili, for one, was resolute. He could do this. It had just occurred to him that this could well be his opportunity to prove, once and for all, that he was capable. That he could be responsible and take care of others. It was a chance to prove to Thorin that he was worthy of being his heir.

"We would never let anything happen to her uncle; nothing."

"Besides," Kili chimed in. "We know the wilds hereabouts better than just about anyone, and we would be going far; it's just one night after all."

"And where exactly would you be going?" Thorin said, sending a calculating look at his nephews. Soren was still curled in his lap and he absently stroked a hand through her tangled mane. Kili hesitated at the question though, for they hadn't thought they would even get this far and consequently had no plans that were set in stone. Well, Kili didn't. There was a reason that Fili was both big brother and heir.

"Over the old footbridge across Fool's Falls." Fili told their uncle, as though they had discussed this many times and had it all mapped out and written down. The location he described was a bridge that someone had built not far from the edge of a reasonably sized waterfall. It had spectacular views. "We thought Soren might like to see the Falls; they're especially magnificent this time of year. We would camp not far from there in a copse of old pines that provide plenty of shelter. Kili and I have camped there many times."

"It sounds like a good plan," Thorin nodded, almost as though he was reluctant to admit it. Soren shot a small smile at her cousins from beneath her father's chin. "Very well, if Soren wishes to go, she may. But for Mahal's sake and mine be careful."

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A/N I decided to break this in two parts. Part one consisting of Thorin being an overprotective parent who doesn't want to let their child out of the house in case something happens. :D Sorry if it doesn't seem that way; I grew up in the country so my big bro and I were kind of free to explore and be gone until it was dark, even if we weren't together.

I hope that you like it, I really do! And if you do, don't forget to review and all that other stuff. I would LOVE to hear from you guys, even one word is sufficient. Also still looking for some more prompts!

Next time be on the lookout for trouble because the young Durin's are most assuredly going to find some! Plus Thorin to the rescue! Maybe. We'll see.

Remember to read and review all of you lovely beautiful people! I'm still looking for prompts to! They don't necessarily have to be about Soren, she's just the axle this wheels turning on.

Until next time, me beauties!