Healing, Magic, And Unexpected Adventures

Chapter Nineteen - Back to Bard

The next morning, we were on the dock getting ready to sail away when Thorin broke the news to Kili.

'Not you,' he said, stopping his nephew from getting onto the boat. 'We must travel with speed. You will slow us down.'

'What are you talking about?' Kili asked, refusing to believe what Thorin was saying. 'I'm coming with you.'

'No.'

'I'm going to be there when that door is opened,' Kili said, the desperation in his voice getting harder to ignore. 'And when we first look upon the halls of our forefathers, Thorin.'

'Kili.' Thorin looked almost fatherly when he talked to Kili. 'Stay here. Rest. Join us when you're healed.'

'I'll stay with him,' I told Thorin.

'I'll do it, lass,' Oin offered.

'No. You're a better fighter than I am.' I didn't finish the sentence, but Oin understood that I was also saying that I was a better healer than him. 'It'll only be for a few days at most.'

'Uncle.'

I refused to look at Fili, trying to focus on getting Kili sat down, but his voice  managed to penetrate any attempt at concentration.

'We grew up on tales of the mountain. Tales you told us. You can't take that away from him.'

'Fili,' Thorin began, but Fili cut him off.

'I will carry him if I must!'

'He needs rest,' I said firmly, and that shut down the argument surprisingly quickly.

Fili looked at me, then at Kili. I somehow knew what he was going to do before he did it.

He stepped out of the boat, shrugging Thorin off him.

'Fili, don't be a fool. You belong with the company.'

'I belong with my brother,' Fili said, kneeling down next to Kili.

'You should go,' Kili said.

'Not without you.'

I only stopped tending to Kili's leg when the others were leaving, spending a few seconds turning to wave back. I saw Uncle Bilbo's anxious face, Thorin's stoic demeanour and everyone else's hope, and for the first time I truly realised just how much they meant to me.

My attention was drawn back to firmer land when Bofur came running out of the crowd just in time to see the boat disappearing around a corner. His shoulders slumped before he spotted us.

'So you missed the boat as well?' he asked.

Kili answered with a low moan and slumped forward.

'We need to get some help,' I said.

'I thought you were a good healer,' Fili said, angrily.

'I am, but not many people will want to heal someone in an unhygienic place.'

'Bard will help us,' Bofur said, coming in between us.

'Bard has made his opinion of us clear.'

'This isn't about your massive ego,' I snapped. 'This is about your brother.'

Fili had the decency to look ashamed of himself.

'I feel like I missed something important,' Bofur said, looking at the two of us.

I didn't answer as I draped Kili's right arm over my shoulder, Fili doing the same with his left. I tried to convince myself that Fili's behaviour was because his brother was injured, but I was having a hard time doing so.