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II. Sickness

She could not recall the amount of times that they had been demanded to search for the Arkenstone. It didn't matter how far or how wide they searched, the stone would not be found among the countless piles of gems in the treasury, it had been taken already.

"No-one rests until it is found!" Thorin yelled down to everyone, all of them searching among the hoard to try and find the most prized possession that they believed dwelled within.

"Whatever you do, keep it hidden," she whispered to Bilbo who stood beside her.

"Keep what—keep what hidden? I don't know—"

"Do you seriously believe that I didn't notice you take the Arkenstone right in front of me?" She asked him with a raised eyebrow, patting his back before stepping back into the crowd to continue 'searching' for the missing jewel.

"Oh my back is not enjoying this," she heard Bofur say a few feet away from her.

"Then take a rest," Athena advised, rolling her shoulders back to regain feeling in her arms that had been burdened for the last few days.

"I don't think so, not after what happened last time I tried," he stated, visibly shivering at the memory of Thorin's angered words towards him.

The dragon-sickness had consumed him entirely, his actions mirroring those of Smaug's when he bellowed about how he refused to part with a single piece of coin. Thorin was not Thorin anymore.

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Thankfully, Thorin had eventually allowed the company to rest when he noticed that they were barely able to stand on their own two feet. At least there was still a small part of the man they once knew that remained, even if the rest of him had descended into madness.

Athena sat on the floor with her back against a wall, a mug filled with water in her hands that she was throwing down her throat as if it were the last drop she'd ever have.

"Are you enjoying that?" A voice startled her, her almost choking on the water from the initial shock before she set the mug down and wiped her dampened chin with her sleeve.

Fili took a seat beside her, laughing quietly at her reaction as he mimicked her position. "I heard Kili already filled you in on what happened."

"He did, it sounded like you had a pretty rough time," she replied with a soft chuckle of her own.

"I'm sorry."

"What? Why?" She asked him, turning to him with confusion apparent on her features.

"I figured he told you all about Tauriel, he wouldn't have wanted to hide that from someone who means so much to him and I can't imagine how it must have felt to hear that," he explained softly. She opened her mouth to try and deny what he was insinuating but he didn't give her the chance to do so. "I've seen the way you look at him, it is not the same way that you look at me."

She relaxed again when he had finished speaking, she couldn't help the feeling of ease that washed over her. She had never had the courage to tell anybody about what she felt for the youngest Dwarf, so it felt as if a weight had been lifted from her shoulders when finding out somebody had figured it out for themselves, Fili had always seen right through her.

"I'm... sad for myself but, I'm happy for him. Genuinely happy for him. He'd never had much luck with Dwarf women so I think that it's wonderful he managed to find solace in somebody else. I never held any hope for me and him being anything more than friends anyway, so it didn't come as a shock to me," she explained, resting the back of her head against the cool stone as she studied the ceiling above her, "my feelings for him will fade with time and one day my love for him will change into the love I have for you—if I can even call my feelings for him love. Above all else he's a part of my family, and that will never change. He looked so happy when he was talking to me about her, the way his eyes just lit up when he said her name," she continued, glancing over at Fili with a soft smile on her face as he watched and listened intently to her every word. "I'll be okay because I know that this pain won't last."