A Brothers Bond

Chapter VII

"Fili do you remember the fight you got into with Marcus?" Kili reminded him.

"You mean the one which I ended up splitting up, because dear Kili you were cheering him on" Esmerelda reminded them.

"Yeah and you ended up with a split lip" Kili chuckled.

"It wasn't funny, it hurt, but uncle Thorin took care of me" She pined, subconsciously tracing the scar on her lip.

"Do you remember when a horse courser offered money for you, when you were in horse form?" Kili reminded her.

"Yes" She nodded.

"Guys you do realise we are three days from the sword don't you?" Fili told them.

"Really?" Kili and Esmerelda said in unison.

She then laid down using her cloak as a pillow and tugged her hood over her head, then got comfortable and fell asleep. Kili and Fili followed suit.

The next morning when the rain had let up, they had mounted their steeds and began on their journey, Esmerelda's wounds were only healing, but her brothers still kept an eye on her.

Back in the Blue Mountains their mother was worried sick, every day she paced up and down outside her house hoping, waiting for her children to return but everyday was a no show. Thorin did the best he could to comfort her, but one day while Thorin was out hunting, he found Esmereldas beads on the ground, which meant while the goblins were looking for reinforcements one must have dropped them.

Thorin's heart stopped for a few seconds, as a he took a deep breath in and picked the beads up as the goblin had taken them as a trophy even though the Dwarves still managed to escape. "No!" He exclaimed, shaking his head. He rushed back to Dis' home and pushed the door open, he found her in the kitchen making the supper. "Dis can I talk to you for a moment?" He asked, taking her into the living room.

"You better sit down" He told her.

"Why, Thorin what's going on? You're scaring me" She prompted him.

"Hold out your hand" He instructed her. So she did and handed the beads to her.

"No, Thorin no" She sobbed as her head fell into her hands. "My only daughter" She cried.

"Kili, Fili come on, we need to leave!" Esmerelda called. As the two boy were just filling their water bottles up. Esmerelda could hear something was coming towards them but it wasn't till her steed reared up and threw her off, she fell backwards and hit her back against the ground, grunting as she got back up again. The ponies soon spooked and galloped off with the horse taking all their possessions and the essentials they needed to survive.

Orcs came flooding towards them, Fili and Kili came running to their sisters side who had turned into her horse form, she was rearing up and kicking out at the Orcs, they fought back to back, ready for the Orcs, they taunted them, they teased them and one even mentioned Thorin. Fili and Kili wrestled that one to the ground and they tied him up.

Kili ducked as his sister kicked out at an Orc trying to attack him, she also began to bite using her twelve incisor teeth to tear out the soft flesh of their throats. Kili and Fili swung their swords around slashing every Orcs throat till the ground was stained black with blood, they fought the rest of the Orcs off only receiving minor injuries, once the majority of Orcs had been slain. They looked around them panting, making sure no more Orcs would come for them, instead they watched the foul beasts retreat.

The trio then began to question the foul beast they had caught.

"What do you know about Thorin Oakenshield?" Kili growled.

"I won't say anything" It growled.

Kili and Fili looked to their sister who was still in horse form, she stamped on his hand making him cry out.

The two ponies and horse came galloping back to the Blue Mountains, Dis heard the mounts neighs and the heavy footfalls thinking her children had arrived home, but to her disappointment their saddles were empty.

"Not my sons too!" She yelled. Thorin came back from his blacksmiths work, and saw the steeds, he rushed over and ran in to the house calling their names. "Thorin they're not here" Dis sobbed emerging from the hallway. "We've lost the boys too" She told him.

"No!" He cried.

The Orc now had two mangled hands as Esmerelda stamped harshly on to his fingers mushing them into nothing. "Now tell us what do you know about Thorin Oakenshield?" Kili yelled.

"Thorin didn't...kill...Azog... he's still... alive" It laughed, Esmerelda reared up and then slammed her hoof into its head, full force and her hoof emerged through the back of its head.

Both brothers shared glances as she retracted her hoof from its head, then washed her hoof in the stream while the boys burnt the corpse. She still had rage in her eyes and after a few deep breaths she was back to normal and shrunk down to her human form.

"Thorins in trouble!" Esmerelda exclaimed.

"Azog will hunt him down!" Fili added.

"We need to get to uncle!" Kili joined in.

"Kili we can't, we have to return with the sword" His brother reminded him resting his hand on his shoulder.  

"But it will take us longer now, as we have the lost our mounts" Fili said.

Once they caught their breath and their strength returned, they gathered their weapons and began the trek to retrieve the sword, Fili in front, Esmerelda in the middle and Kili behind her as they walked, they soon began to sing again to keep their spirits up, the sun soon rose up at its highest at midday and the walk soon became harder, as their clothes began to draw in the heat the boys were lucky that they got the chance to fill their goat skin bottles where as Esmerelda didn't, she was too focused on leaving.

Kili could see his sister was beginning to get dehydrated. "Esmerelda drink this" He said handing her his goat skin bottle.

"Thanks Kili" She said taking a sip.

"How are you guys doing?" Fili asked.

"Good" Fili and Esmerelda answered.  The trio soon resorted to taking off their heavy coats, and carrying them, unaware of the harsh terrain they were about to travel over, their journey was easy up to this point, but however it was going to get harder, and it would test just how strong their bond was.

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