Warnings: Some blood. Nothing else.

The day after Durin's day, after sunset

Fíli

I bent forwards when I saw that my brother pressed the point of his sword to the girl's throat.

Had she said something wrong? She must have. Kíli was not one to use violence without reason. Perhaps she had threatened him.

I squinted.

The child was talking, but she was too far away to understand what she was saying. She was foolish – did she not know that talking with a blade on your throat only makes the wound worse?

We watched in silence for a long moment before she fell backwards, all of a sudden. The cut on her throat had gotten worse, as I had predicted, and the front of her vest was dark with blood.

My brother jumped backwards, dropping his sword. It was the first time he had moved in nearly thirty seconds. He was obviously startled.

I saw that Glóin peered over my shoulder.

"Is she dead?" he yelled.

Kíli made a gesture that showed that he did not know. Then he kneeled next to her and laid his fingers in her neck to feel her pulse, the way Uncle Thorin had taught us to. He turned to us.

"She is still alive," he responded. "Help me get her up there."

My eyebrows shot up to my hairline in surprise, but I decided not to ask any questions. If my brother thought that we could not leave her there, on the cold, hard ground, then I was willing to agree with that.

I walked over to the rope that was hanging over the wall, and I had just swung my leg over the edge of the barricade when I felt a hand on my shoulder, stopping me.

It was Thorin.

"Wait," he commanded me. Then he shouted over my head at my brother: "What did she say?"

Kíli straightened up.

"I will tell you later," he replied, picking up his sword and shoving it into the case on his belt. "I worry my brother will fall off the wall if I tell you now. It is..." He paused, presumably thinking about how to put the words correctly. "...very shocking information."

He brushed his dark hair out of his face, and for the first time, I could see the expression on his face. He seemed somewhat shaken, which confirmed what he had said; it must indeed be shocking information.

"And besides," he added, his tone a little lighter, "the girl will freeze to death if we leave her here any longer. I am not certain if I heard everything she needed to say – perhaps we miss a part of it. We must keep her alive."

I knew that he only said that to convince Uncle Thorin. Slowly, he let go of my arm and straightened up.

"All right, then," he said gruffly. "Fíli, help your brother get the child up here. Ori, seek an empty chamber where we can put her until she is conscious again."

The youngest Dwarf nodded and ran off into the hallway, and I continued where I had left off. It did not take me a long time to reach the ground; I was quite a skilled abseiler, if I may say so.

Kíli was quiet, quieter than usual, as we lifted the girl and lay her down on the makeshift net that was hanging from the barricade, so that Dori could pull her up.

When the two of us had climbed up again, Kíli walked up to Uncle Thorin.

"Can I speak to you for a moment?" he asked him. "I mean, in private."

Uncle gave a nod and my brother gestured that I had to come with them. We sat down in one of the empty rooms, around a simple table that was carved out of the stone.

"What is it?" Thorin then asked. "What did she tell you?"

He was inquisitive, I knew; more than he would admit if I asked him about it. Kíli fiddled with the hem of his coat.

"Well," he said quietly, "she said that she needed to warn us."

"We already know that," Uncle Thorin reacted, sounding a little impatient. That seemed to make something snap inside my younger brother.

He got to his feet, placed his hand on the table with a loud, echoing bang and yelled: "This is serious, Uncle! She said that the three of us will die!"

Uncle's eyebrows shot up to his hairline. "I beg your pardon?"

"She said," Kíli panted, suddenly out of breath, "that she came from a different world. A world where ours only exists in books. She said that... that she knows how it ends, and that she wants to change it. She told us not to go outside until the battle is over, otherwise we will be killed by Orcs."

All the colour was drained from his face. I could tell that he was scared, and I was not sure if he was more scared of death or of Uncle, who had stood up as well, with a somewhat alarming expression on his face.

"This is utter nonsense," he said, slowly and quietly. "Of course that girl does not come from another world. Her story is simply a threat, to force us to do something the Men want us to do – whatever that may be."

It was silent for a while before I spoke up. I did not know why I hesitated. Perhaps it had something to do with the look on Uncle's face.

The sickness inside of him was taking its toll on him. He was changing, becoming unpredictable. It hurt to see that kind man who had raised us turn into some kind of monster.

"I-I am sorry to interrupt, Uncle, but I am not certain if you are right," I said carefully. "You have heard the stories as well, have you not? The stories about Men travelling between universes to change the fate of the people. They called themselves Tale-Changers, I believe."

"Those are simply rumours."

"Perhaps," I admitted. "But we have reason to believe that this girl is one of them."

Uncle sighed, as if this conversation was tiring him.

"I was not planning on leaving the mountain, any way," he grumbled. "But if we decide that we need to go outside and defend our home, I will not hesitate to do that, and if we stay in here, it will not be because some child has told us to."

With those words, he turned around and left the room.

Kíli and I shared a look.

"He does not believe me, does he?" my brother asked. There was something of vulnerability in his voice, the kind that he only showed when I was around, because he knew I would not judge him.

"No," I said honestly. "But I do. Really."

He bit his lower lip, and I had the feeling that all of his insecurities would be spilling out in a moment.

I was right.

"It is just," he blurted out, "I can feel that Uncle Thorin is changing, and it just hurts a lot and I also wounded that girl without reason and I am afraid to die and I miss Tauriel and..."

He sighed and dropped his gaze to the ground. I walked over to him and lay a hand on his shoulder.

"I fully understand it," I said softly.

Perhaps I should have said something else, but I was not very well with words.

We stood in silence before I patted him on the shoulder.

"Come on. Let us look if the girl is already awake. I would like to know a little more about this whole fuss."

He nodded, agreeing with me, and followed me into the hallway, towards the unoccupied rooms.