I do not own any of the characters or The Hobbit (just the AU storyline and my OC) Those are the work of the esteemed and brilliant John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, and without his genius, this and many other fan fics would not be in existence.

Please review! I love getting them- they keep me encouraged! J

Cirashala watched as Kili slowly moved toward the cluster of boulders. It did not escape the young woman's notice that his arm was trembling, nor did it escape her that his breathing sounded a bit more labored than it did earlier that day.

It must be from the exertion, she thought to herself, recalling the fight with the two orcs, then the tree climb and the smoke, then finally their long hours of walking this afternoon. As she remembered the orc attack that morning, and the warg pack that they had narrowly avoided, she bent down and picked up the dry branch she had discarded several minutes ago. Turning, her narrowed blue eyes scanned the forest surrounding them, her senses alert to any change no matter how small as she clutched the sturdy branch.

They might be injured, ill, and weak, but if there was anything unsavory lurking in the shadows around them, she would not go down without a fight- not until she had drawn her last breath.

XXX

Kili quickly scanned the inside of the shallow cave, his dwarf eyes looking for any indication of the stone being unstable. Finding none, he turned his eyes toward the small cracks and crevasses, shakily bending down to peer inside some.

Finding no sign of rattlesnakes, the young dwarf breathed a sigh of relief. Rattlesnakes were not something he was willing to underestimate. He also knew that the snakes favored rock crevasses for the warmth they provided in the summer, but they appeared to be absent this time. While they would only succeed in making a dwarf extremely ill for several days, he knew that a single bite would likely kill his human companion.

In the condition I'm in, it may well kill me too, the young dwarf thought to himself with no small amount of concern. Kili swallowed heavily as he stood to his feet, the resulting dizziness almost making him lose his balance. Panting even as he leaned against the stone beside him for support, he could feel fear and worry begin to course through his mind.

He had tried to hide it as best he could, but Kili was quickly realizing that he wouldn't be able to hide the extent of his injuries and illness from Cirashala much longer. She knew he had broken ribs, and that he had a nasty cough and slight fever, but the young dwarf had tried his best to conceal the fact that his lungs hurt far worse than he had ever felt before- to the point that it was getting very difficult to breathe, and that his shoulder still pained him from where he had hit the stone when he fell back in Goblin Town.

The exposure to the smoke and long walk that afternoon hadn't helped either. Sheer determination to leave the gruesome scene behind and get the pair as far away from the potential danger as he could had put a strain on his body that he had never experienced before. Exhaustion coursed through him, making his entire body tremble from the resulting weakness, and it was all he could do to avoid slumping down to his knees. Letting the heavy pack he carried fall to the ground with a thud, the young prince glanced over his shoulder, frowning when he noticed the young woman wielding the branch like a club.

"What are you doing?" he asked, causing the young woman to startle with a slight gasp. Turning towards him, she glanced back at the woods, before moving closer to the mouth of the shallow cave. The young dwarf noticed that she didn't drop the branch, and he found his gaze also scanning the trees around their campsite.

"Is it safe?" she asked, and the young dwarf nodded.

"Aye," he replied. Slowly moving up next to her, he leaned in toward her ear, ensuring that his voice would not carry.

"Did you see something?" he asked quietly, eyes never leaving the woods even as his hand grasped the hilt of his knife. The young woman sighed, shaking her head as she leaned the branch up against the wall of the cave.

"I just didn't want to be caught by surprise," she said quietly, "Not like earlier…"

Her voice trailed off, and she wrapped her arms around her middle, avoiding his gaze. Kili's gaze softened as he looked at her, the events of earlier coming back to mind. Being taken hostage with a knife to one's throat by an orc much larger than themselves with no weapon to fight him off would be frightening to almost anyone, let alone someone who had been in the throes of grief at the time.

His eyes traveled down to the cut where the orc's knife had managed to break her pale skin, and he swallowed heavily, thankful that she had caught on to his words and managed to break away in time. Having fully realized the extent of what she had lost, and seeing her mask fall away to reveal the raw grief and anguish in her heart that she had been hiding, the young dwarf was amazed that she had been able to fight back as well as she had.

"We need to get the fire started," Kili said quietly, seeing the sun already halfway out of sight beyond the western mountains. Cirashala nodded, before turning towards him and reaching her hand out.

"May I have the knife?" she asked quietly, blue eyes searching his face with slight apprehension as she tried to gauge his reaction to such a request. The young prince eyed her for a long moment, keenly feeling the seemingly impossible effort it took for him to breathe, before hesitantly handing the weapon over. Pressing the hilt into the palm of her hand, his dark eyes met hers, gaze deadly serious.

"Do NOT go out of sight of this cave."

XXX

Cirashala sawed down the young sapling as best she could under the circumstances. While the saw edge of the knife was quite sharp, a fine testament to the owner's caretaking, it was still a very small blade for the task at hand.

As such, she had tried to pick only the smaller saplings to cut, knowing the thinner trunks would be easier for the knife to handle. As the small tree fell to the ground with a slight crack, she stood up, kicking her feet slightly to restore the circulation lost in the time she had spent on her heels. Once she could feel her legs again without the sensation of pins and needles coursing through them, she moved to the top of the small tree, thankful that a mere six foot pine was not very heavy.

Wincing as the effort of dragging the tree back to the fire pulled on her wounds, she added the sapling to the stack already amassed in the small cave.

"This should be enough, I think," Kili said quietly, having been snapping the thin branches off the trees with his hands as she had brought them in. A decent fire was going, the young dwarf having used the pinecones off the trees to get it started. Adding the branches to the fire, needles and all, Kili had left the task of cutting up the actual logs for when she came back into the cave with the knife.

Cirashala slumped down to the ground with a weary sigh. They had put a small handful of the beans in a crock filled with water to soak as they had walked, and packed around it tightly so it would minimize spilling. After taking a moment to catch her breath and focus against the pain in her shoulders, she reached for the pack and pulled the crock out, as well as the cooking pot and one of the water skins. Placing the softened beans in the pot along with some more water, she moved the pot right next to the flames to allow the water to boil.

Kili had taken out the bacon, and now that the knife was brought back in and the sawdust rinsed off of it, he set to cutting thin strips of meat off the chunk, before skewering them on several long branches to hang over the fire. They threw a few pieces of meat into the beans, adding flavor and meat to their supper.

Cirashala's eyes watched Kili as he worked, becoming even more worried at his ashen face and the tightness of his jaw. He was clearly in pain, and she wondered just how much he was not telling her. As the scent of the cooking beans and meat began to fill the small space, she could clearly hear her stomach rumble and felt her mouth begin to water.

Will he even be able to eat? she thought to herself worriedly. He really needs to.

She dearly hoped that his illness had not diminished his appetite too much.

XXX

The smoke from their fire was gradually filling up the small cave even as it exited out some of the cracks and spaces between the boulders, and Kili began to realize that smoking the meat in such a confined space where they were as well may not have been the wisest thing he had ever done.

His lungs continued to protest the intrusion of the smoke, and he slowly rose to his feet, making his way across the small space to sit between Cirashala and the cave opening where there was a little bit more fresh air.

As he sat down beside her, breaths coming a little quicker from the effort, he felt a small hand on his arm. Glancing up, dark eyes met wide blue ones.

"Kili, are you all right?" Cirashala asked, her tone betraying her concern. He nodded, before glancing towards the cave opening.

"The air is not quite as…stifling here," he admitted quietly, his gaze moving toward the hands in his lap. Her eyes turned toward the fire, before looking back at him.

"Should…should I douse the fire?" she asked hesitantly, and he shook his head.

"We need the warmth," he replied, his eyes moving toward the clear night sky. "It will probably get cold tonight."

"We don't need the fire to keep warm," she suggested after a moment. "If it's making it too hard for you to breathe, we always have the two blankets we got from- from the…."

She couldn't bring herself to speak of the clearing where little Mizimel had perished, along with her family. The images of the tiny babe flooded her mind, quickly replaced by images of the accident that claimed her own little ones. She hadn't even known that tears had begun to fall down her cheeks until a grey rag was gently pressed into her hand. She stared at it numbly, her mind not quite comprehending its purpose, when a quiet voice sounded from her right.

"It's for your eyes," Kili said softly. Looking up, her gaze met his, and try as she might, she could not stop the tears from coming.

"Why did they have to die?" she whispered, swallowing thickly. "T-they were….were so young, a-and…by Eru, they were just children! M-Mizimel, a-and my girls…."

Kili's eyes grew misty as well, and he slowly reached his arm over her shoulders, mindful of her wounds. Resting his hand on her head, he gently nudged her head down to his uninjured shoulder, before gently wrapping his arm around hers. Unlike their first night away from the company, she did not hesitate at all, but rather leaned into him, seeking comfort, though she was also mindful of his broken ribs. Turning his head toward her, he felt the smoothness of her forehead against his cheek even as she turned her face toward his neck, and the young dwarf could sense the trust she was placing in him. He only hoped he was worthy of such trust.

"I cannot say I know your pain," he whispered. "I-my grandfather and great- grandfather and younger uncle died before I was born, and my father when I was very young. But…I am willing to share the pain with you." Sniffing, she raised her head to look at him in surprise, and Kili felt his heart beat a bit faster and his breaths come a bit quicker as he realized how close her face was to his.

"B-but…why would you do that?" she asked, shock and confusion in her voice. "Why would you even want to share the pain with me? I wouldn't-wouldn't wish this on anyone. I-I don't understand."

Kili's heart was racing, even as he longed to wipe the tears from her face and reassure her that everything was all right. He found his gaze mysteriously drawn to her lips, only a few inches from his, and he swallowed nervously, forcing his gaze back up to hers. Confusion and doubt warred within his mind as the strange feeling he had been having settled in his chest, feeling like dozens of tiny butterflies in his stomach.

"Because I'm your friend," he managed to say, wondering where his voice had gone. "And you shouldn't have to go through this alone." Blue eyes stared at him for a long moment, and Kili was afraid she would refuse.

"Please," he whispered, his eyes searching hers. "Please, I…I just want to help."

I cannot bear to see you cry.

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A response to guest reviewer Kaia: Yeah, he's pretty depressed, and will only get more so until he finds out that Kili's in fact alive :) I will post each update as I can :) As to the review you just posted- I'm trying to upload the stupid thing, but FF seems to be ignoring all of my formatting, so once that's fixed it's updated :)

A response to guest reviewer Ari: Thanks! I am glad you like it so much :D I am glad you like the way their relationship is evolving. It's nice to see that people see it as a slow but definitely happening thing, rather than it wasn't then it was, or heaven forbid it was love at first sight (it most definitely wasn't). I wanted them to grow into their destinies in the story- especially Kili. It's really his journey about growing up and coming into his own in a way (despite him already being an adult, albeit a very sheltered and naïve one). And growing up can be painful at times. I am glad that Fili's loss is hard to read- tells me I'm emoting well and his inner anguish is coming through as I was hoping it would. I am glad I was able to update- I had a medical procedure that forced me to sit and rest for two days and do nothing else, so it gave me precious time to write that I haven't had lately :)

Thanks to all who review, favorite, and follow- you guys are awesome! :D :D :D