Kili's brow was burning up. Sweat beaded on his skin and soaked through his tunic.
With a gentle hand, Fili dipped the cloth into the bowl of ice water and held it to his brother's forehead. "There now, little brother. Everything is going to be alright." A fierce tremor ran up and down Kili's body, as if in answer to Fili's lie.
Nothing was going to be alright. Their uncle was gone with the rest of the company to enter the mountain without them. A dragon most likely lay in wait beneath those stone halls, ready to burn them off the face of the earth. Fili could see it in his mind's eye the fellow dwarves he so cared about, whom he had come to see as his extended family, killed in one fiery breath.
And he would be powerless to help them.
Kili's hand shot up to grip Fili's arm as another spasm rocked his body. It hurt - Fili felt his arm growing numb but he did not attempt to pry his brother's fingers away. Kili's pain was greater than his own, and Fili was determined to suffer it along with him. He would not leave him alone, not for a second.
"What's happening to him?" He asked, throwing a fearful look at Oin as a gasp ripped itself from Kili's throat.
Oin had been cutting away the cloth around Kili's wound so he could get a better look at it. The leg of his breeches was sopping wet with sweat and dark blood. "Those orcs poisoned their arrows," the older dwarf replied, trying to wipe away the worst of the blood so he could get to it's source. "If it was just the wound giving him trouble I could fix him up fine but poison is different. I can't do anything without the right herbs and I lost all those when the elves caught us."
Frustration filled Fili's heart. He turned his gaze back to watch the pain etch itself across his brother's face. If only Nema was here, he thought bitterly. She had healed him, so why not his brother too?
His heart began to beat out a tense rhythm at the thought of her, and so he tried to push her out of his head. She did not love him, and thinking of her when his brother needed him would help no one.
"What is it you need?" Bofur asked. His hat was askew and his face was flushed from running back and forth fetching fresh water to clean Kili's wound. "Maybe Bard knows where we can get our hands on some."
The man at the window flinched at the sound of his name. He had been lost in his angry thoughts, glaring through the glass at the windlance, its body illuminated by the moon. Beyond it loomed the mountain, shrouded in darkness.
"Kingsfoil," said Oin. "I need kingsfoil."
Bard shrugged, not taking his eyes off the windlance. "It's a weed. We feed it to the pigs."
"The pigs?" Bofur set a new bowl of clean water on the bedside table and hurried to the door. "I'll be back as soon as I can." He darted down the rickety stairs and into the cold night.
Through the open door, Fili glimpsed the hulking form of the mountain. Its tallest peak was so high it pierced the moon. For a moment, Fili's mind wandered from Laketown to Erebor, through the secret door, down into the great halls of his forefathers.
But then the door swung back to clatter in its frame, cutting off Fili's view of the mountain. His mind was thrust back across the lake and into Bard's house, where he felt his brother's hand clenching tighter around his arm.
He almost cried out, but the look on his brother's face as he turned back stole the air from his chest. Kili's brow was so low and so furrowed with pain it was all Fili could do to not look away. His mouth was twisting in a beastly way, his lips parting to bare clenched teeth before mashing together again. But his eyes were what held Fili's heart with a grip so tight it could barely beat.
There was more pain in those round, terrified eyes than Fili had ever seen before, and he knew that if eyes could speak, Kili's would be screaming. Screaming for the pain to end, for respite from the horror running through his blood. Screaming for mercy. Screaming for death.
Oin must have seen the look in his eyes too, for he set aside his work and moved around the bed to stand beside Fili. There, he laid a heavy hand on the younger dwarf's shoulder. "I am sorry-"
"No!" Fili yelled. "Do not say those words! We will not give up!"
"Fili," Oin said quietly. "I don't think we can save him. It would be kinder to let him go."
"I said no! He is my brother and I refuse to give up on him now." He was about to argue further when the ceiling creaked violently. Fili looked away from his brother to Oin. "What was that?" he whispered. The dwarf gave no answer. "Bard?" Fili looked to the window, only to find that the man had gone.
Another creak reached their ears, louder this time, followed by a heavy thud. The younger of Bard's daughters let out a shriek, prompting her sister to clamp a hand over her mouth. Fili threw them a warning look. He had completely forgotten they were there.
"There's something on the roof," Oin hissed. Fili reached for the knife Oin had used to cut Kili's trousers. His fingers had barely closed around the hilt when he heard the door being kicked down behind him.
He carefully pried Kili's hand from his arm, laid it gently on the bed, and turned around. By then, the door had caved. An ugly brute of an orc shouldered his way through the splintered gap, his dark eyes bright with the anticipation of battle. Two more followed him in. When they caught sight of Kili's writhing form, they laughed.
It was too much for Fili. He charged at the first orc, taking it by surprise and catching it full in the chest. It stumbled backwards. The second orc had the sense to step aside, but the third was not so lucky, and found himself being shoved out and over the stair railings. Not stopping to take a breath, Fili brandished the knife, all too aware of its pitiful size, and lunged for the second orc.
His ears filled with the terrified screams of human girls, but he could do nothing for them. He had to keep the orcs away from his brother.
The second orc was better prepared for his attack than the first had been. This time, when Fili came at it, the orc swerved to the right and brought a large fist down across the dwarf's back. Fili stumbled into the table. He pushed away from it and threw himself to the left, just as the orc's broadsword buried itself in the tabletop.
While the orc was distracted with the task of freeing his blade from the wood, Fili took a quick glance around the room. Bard's daughters had barricaded themselves under the table, having pulled the benches around them for extra protection. Oin was busy keeping the other two orcs from coming back up the stairs. Kili was safe for now - at least, he was safe from the orcs, if not from the poison in his body.
Turning his attention back to the fight, Fili saw that the orc was about to give up on retrieving his sword. It was lodged too deep in the wood. Another slightly smaller blade hung from the orc's hip, and it was for this that the orc reached next.
Only Fili got to it first. Before the orc had time to realise what he was doing, Fili had thrown the kitchen knife its face and darted forward. Instinct made the orc step back and raise its hands to protect its head. It was all the gap Fili needed. He wrenched the sword from its sheath and drove it deep into the orc's side. The orc let out a howl of rage and pain, but he was no longer a threat.
There was no time to celebrate this minor victory though. For just as the orc struck the ground another crashed through the roof and landed beside the bed. Fili leaped into action. He dispatched the new orc quickly, but more were coming. He could here them landing on the roof, see them smashing through the windows and forcing their way in. He would be dead long before the sun rose.
By the time Fili had killed his seventh orc, the situation was getting desperate. Oin, who had swiped a sword from one of the bodies, was being backed into a corner, clearly tiring. Fili was faring no better. He could not keep going for much longer.
But then, just as he tore down another foe, Fili saw something he never thought he would be happy to see. An elf arrow, buried in the head of the orc nearest the door. The orcs stopped pouring into the room. Instead, two elves darted in. They cast aside their elven bows, and drew their swords, quickly dispatching four orcs in the time it had taken Fiil to kill two.
A new strength flooded Fili's veins, and he pushed forwards, slashing here and there with his stolen sword, bringing down every orc who dared to try his luck until, finally, no orcs remained to raise a blade against.
Weary beyond words, Fili let the sword fall from his hand. The girls ceased in their screaming, instead taking up faint whimpers, while Oin nudged an orc to make sure it was definitely dead.
One of the elves, a tall male with long, blonde hair, gave Fili a sharp look before striding to the door. A faint sense of recognition came to Fili as he stared back at the elf. For half a moment, he thought the elf meant to seize him and drag him back to the Woodland Realm. But the elf looked away.
"Tauriel," he snapped, then he left the room, expecting the other elf to follow.
The other elf, a female with rich, red hair, stepped lightly over the orc bodies. She halted for a moment in the doorway and looked back at Kili, still lying on the bed.
Fili looked over his shoulder at the dwarf. His brother was barely breathing now. His eyes were half closed. Fili looked back at Tauriel, and met her gentle gaze. But he had no use for her pity.
"Please," he whispered. She was an elf, a healer. She could save him. "Please help him."
When she took a step back into the room, Fili thought she might have decided to answer his plea. But she was only moving aside to let Bofur through. Without so much as an apology, Tauriel turned her back and left.
"I brought the kingsfoil," Bofur announced to the quiet room. He stared around him, as if amazed that so much could have happened in the short while he had been gone.
"Bring it here," said Oin, returning to Kili's side and baring the black flesh of his leg. "Fetch me more water." When Bofur came back with another bowl, full to the brim, Oin passed Fili a cloth and instructed him to clean the wound as best he could. "I'm going to try and combat the poison," he explained. "But Fili, I can't know for sure if it will work. Kingsfoil is a wonder but the poison has been allowed to spread for too long. It may not work, and even if it does-"
"Just try. Please." Fili dipped the cloth into the water and began to wipe away the blood and dirt as gently as he could from Kili's leg. "We have to try."
Kili no longer cried out. He simply lay there, staring up at the wrecked roof with his fists clenched by his sides. Oin worked quickly and efficiently, mashing the kingsfoil into a paste in a smaller bowl. When the wound was as clean as it could be, he smoothed the paste thickly over it, then set the bowl aside.
"What happens now?" Fili asked.
"Now? We wait."
***First of all, I am extremely sorry for being so terrible at updating. How long has it been - nearly two and a half months? With only two more chapters to write, you would have thought it would be easy! Anyway, I am hoping to follow this with the final chapter for Part 2 as soon as possible. I promise I won't leave it so late again. But thank you all for being so patient with me. I will have to make it up to you all somehow :S Massive thanks to @RJFord17 for shoving me back on to my writing. It won't happen again! Love you all <3***