14Sorry for the delay in updating.
Chapter 8
Kili woke to screams. Thorin and Oin were already around Fili and trying to hold down his thrashing limbs. Kili, immediately rushed over and aided then.
"What's happening?" Kili shouted, fighting to be hear over Fili's screams of agony. "Why is he like this?"
"I don't know!" Thorin answered, looking immensely stressed. Fili's eyes were open, but unseeing.
"Hey, Fee, it's going to be okay, I'm here, Kee's got you." Kili comforted, pushing Fili's hair out of his face. Fili's eyes suddenly cleared and his hand grabbed Kili's wrist.
"Kee…" He whispered, voice cracking from lack of water. Balin saw what was needed, and brought over a cup of water, which Kili helped Fili swallow, propping him up, before bringing the cup to his lips.
Every time Fili took a breath, he winced. The panic in his eyes was fading, slowly being replaced by that constant pain.
"Fili, I'm going to need you to drink this." Oin was holding one of his sleeping tonics that he had had made especially for situations like this.
"No." A whisper came from Fili.
"Fili, please, it's to help you sleep, so you can heal. Then you won't be in so much pain." Kili begged, who hated seeing his brother in any sort of pain.
"I'll sleep, I'm exhausted. But that thing…stops me from waking. I get caught in dreams, nightmares…and can't find my way out…" Fili hesitatingly replied. His voice was still weak, and he was scared, but the confidence of his convictions was startling.
"Fee! I'm so sorry!" Kili cried out, alarmed at the surety of his brother. "Oin, please don't make him drink it!" Oin had a sobering look on his face; he nodded and he started to turn away, before turning back to the brothers.
"Fili, have something to eat, you can as your stomach wasn't hurt, then try to go back to sleep. I know you will be in pain, but you need to sleep. If you can't sleep then I'm afraid I'm going to have to give you some sleeping tonic." With that, he walked away, sitting next to Gloin, who put a reassuring hand on Oin's shoulder. Brother comforting brother.
Thick, good bread with honey dripping off it was passed to Fili, which he wolfed down. Another found its way to him. And another. And another. After Fili's eighth slice of bread, he lay down on his make-shift bed and was asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.
Kili and Thorin shared a worried glance. Kili checked Fili one last time to check he was really asleep before scooting over towards Thorin. As he approached, Thorin put a comforting arm around him, as that seemed to become a habit, them taking comfort the others. It really hit Kili then, that Thorin was the only person without any siblings. Both of Thorin's siblings had died. Well, he didn't know about Bifur, but Bombur and Bofur treated him like their brother, rather than cousin. Kili returned Thorin's embrace, praying that his brother is not stolen from him as his uncle's was.
Everyone takes Fili's lead and one by one, they all drift off to sleep, safe in the knowledge that nothing can hurt then in Beorn's house.
"…that sum, Oakenshield…" Dis' ears perked up at the mention of her brother. She had been almost two decades without seeing, or hearing anything from her family, that it was a relief to know that they were alive, even if that news came from an orc. Knowing that if she didn't work, then she would be whipped, or worse, she continued at the forges, but still listening for any other snippets of information.
"He escaped us just outside of the Misty Mountains. We would've pursued them further, but they had that meddling wizard in their midst and they took refuge in the skin changer's house. Still, if they intend to take back Erebor, then they will have to travel through Mirkwood and come here." The orc boasted.
"To Laketown?" One of the men asked.
"Yes, here. Where else did you think I meant? Anyway, even if they get past us, they still have to contend with," Here he paused for dramatic effect, "Smaug."
Just the mention of that name made Dis shiver, even if the last time she saw, or was witness to him, was a century and a half ago. So my brother means to reclaim Erebor. She thought. Then, that man said that we were in, or near, Laketown. He is going to be so close to me, yet probably won't even know it. That last fact almost did what twenty years of hard labour had not - broken her. But, she still clung to the tiniest ray of hope that her brother would find, and save her.
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