Chapter 22

*Kili*

Kili felt wonderful. Nothing like waking up in the morning and having a close call to make you feel good! he thought as he rode next to Fili. It was quiet when they left the woods behind them, following the borders of Mirkwood and he wanted to break the silence that hung around them, so he started to hum. Fili looked at him and grinned them joined him. Before long they were singing:

"Blunt the knives, bend the forks. Smash the bottles and burn the corks. Chip the glasses and crack the plates: That's what Bilbo Baggins hates!"

They sung the whole song then began another one, but this one was in Khudzul and full of the Dwarves love of earth and stone. It had a kind of longing in it that one could feel in the air and Kili still marveled how he could control something like that. Mahal had indeed blessed the Dwarves.

Then they began a much different one in the Common Tongue, but it still had the longing although was no longer true. They had completed what the song said but it had started their adventure and they could never really forget it.

"Far over the Misty Mountains cold, to dungeons deep and caverns old, we must away ere break of day to find our long forgotten gold…"

"Fee, it seems like so long ago when that was sung last." Kili said.

"Feels good to hear it again, doesn't it?"

"Yes, it most certainly is good to hear it."

They rode on, mimicking bird calls and joking until they almost ran out of things to laugh at. Then Kili fell off his pony. He was not sure how, but it seemed the saddle's girth had come undone and so the whole thing slid off Coal's back and took the young Dwarf with it. Kili was almost stepped on by Myrtle, but luckily the mare saw him in time to hate. Coal shied a little, but also stopped. Fili jumped from his mount and went to Kili.

"Are you okay? How on earth did that happen?" he asked of his brother. Kili kicked the stirrups off his boots and got to his feet.

"Yeah, I'm fine, but I don't have a clue as to how that happened." Kili answered.

"For a moment, I was half afraid you would get to see how heavy Myrtle's foot could be, but I guess you didn't."

"I was too busy wondering where the horse went."

Fili lifted the saddle and put it where it belonged on Coal's back then said, "It does not look like there is anything wrong with it. The buckle must not have been all the way in and worked its way back out."

"Thank you for the analysis of the problem." Kili said.

"You can expect a bill of service for the use of my brilliant mind." Fili replied with a smirk and Kili rolled his eyes.

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The afternoon passed quickly for the princes. Too quickly for the dark haired one who was eager to keep going, but he stopped when his light haired brother pointed out that the ponies might not want to walk all night after all the walking they had already done that day.

Kili sighed and dismounted, his boots thudded hard on the ground. A stiff Fili soon was standing on the ground soon as well and he walked over to join his brother in fumbling with the pack straps on Myrtle's back. When they were done with that, Fili flopped on the ground and closed his eyes. Someone's obviously tired. Kili thought and removed all three bridles and tied the ponies to picket stakes he drove into the ground. He unsaddled Mabel and Coal as well and by the time he was finished, Fili was asleep.

Now was the perfect time for mischief.

Kili grinned fiendishly and began to contemplate on a good way to wake Fili up by scaring him half to death. This had to be done carefully or else it could all be spoiled. He sat down cross legged and thought through all the things that would really be fun and not get him killed by his brother at the same time. If there was a spider around, he could use that, but then again he could find something better than that. He started to go through the list of things Fili was afraid of, but the only problem was that there were not many the things that could startle his brother. After all, he was a warrior and they did not scare easy. Still there must be something…

A sharp wind interrupted his thoughts and he shuddered. Kili glanced at Fili and decided to leave him alone for the time being and get a fire started. He got up and gathered some kindling sticks and even found a good sized log. The log was dead and hollow so when Kili dropped it on the ground, it split and a few insects crawled out including a great fat spider that ran straight toward Fili. He thought about killing it, but then just waited to see what would happen.

The arachnid reached Fili's arm and stopped, tapping on his tunic sleeve to see what it had found. Then, seeing no threat in the cloth, it began to try and climb. Kili had pity on his brother and walked over to flick the spider off. When he got there, Fili stirred and he quickly brushed the spider back onto the ground and stepped on it. He turned back to his arm load of flammable objects he had collected and brought out his tinder box and struck his flint and steel together until a spark or two landed on the wood and a handful of dry grass Kili had collected. He blew on the spark gently and it grew into a flame which licked hungrily at the wood. Kili watched it for a little while and then sorted through the pack with food until he found something to eat.

When he was finished with his small meal, he spread out his sleeping roll, but did not bed down. He had remembered Thorin's words to them a long while ago about always keeping someone on watch and decided to keep awake for a few hours and then get his brother up to take his place.

A/N I am back to the usual word count now! Yay! I worked on this all day, so now I'm tiered and I hope you like it. Fili and Kili are giving me the 'hurry up and finish that so we can go to bed' look even though I have tried to tell them that they can go without me. Stubborn creatures they can be… but they still say thank you to Syblime, Mira Meliandra, jaymzNshed, leggomygreggo2, GregsMadHatter, Akeea, Apophis god of chaos, Lady Hobbit :D, Wraven, and Alicia457 for their reviews and support.

There IS a box down there to write what you think of this chapter, so you have no excuse not to review.