The Hobbit - An Unexpected Journey Edition (IN EDITING)

12. Over Hill And Under Hill

The dwarves spread out all over the cave floor and made their spots as comfortable as possible with large amounts of cloth and bags underneath their heads. Oddly enough it still wasn’t comfortable enough, but capably to fall asleep on. Instead of the soft sand and gravel that was there to carpet the floor of the cave, there were instead largeness of dwarves covering a large amount of the floor and some of their heads resting against the cave-wall. They could in fact sleep pretty well with their weapons of heavy stone and metal at hand lying next to their sleeping figures and Bofur staying up to keep watch. He was leaned against one of the rough walls and chewing on his fingernails. He didn’t have anything better to do and he couldn’t make any loud sounds to wake up the rest of the lot. He sat the closest to the cave entering, though now he could no longer hear the thunderstorm dwelling outside. The mood of the weather had flattened out and his headache had past. Aria hadn’t been able to sleep. She was wide awake, just like Bofur, although he wasn’t aware of her being awake as well. She was softly encircled in Fili’s arms in one of the corners of the cave together with Kili at his side and Thorin a meter away. He was determined to stay close to them now and so was Aria. Fili’s head was rested on his pack and his fur coat was warm enough to skip a blanket. His left hip was still sore and so he laid on his other closely to Aria’s body. She wasn’t lucky enough to have the same warm fur coat as the rest of the dwarves but she wasn’t cold. Fili and Kili wouldn’t believe her and they stayed close to keep her warm and satisfied. The only light that existed in the cave was the light that came streaming in from the outside world and it wasn’t much but luckily enough their eyes eventually got adjusted to the dark, almost being capable of seeing everything as clearly as in the daylight.

Aria’s eyes were glued onto Fili’s face. He was sleeping soundlessly and peacefully with no worries in the world, with his left arm around her waist. For her, this wasn’t odd at all. They were both used to sleep this close to each other. Kili as well, because often they used to sleep all three of them next to each other due to the freezing cold weather that used to struck them at winter time. Kili was troublesome asleep and he moved around a lot, pushing the two of them around. This night he didn’t, he was just as calm and sound asleep as the rest of them. Aria might have thought that he would be more watchful since he almost lost his brother a few hours ago, but perhaps he was simply joyful and happy to have him by his side again. He was aware that Fili wouldn’t disappear from his life and he wouldn’t go anywhere, nor would he be smashed against a mountain wall by a giant and turn into jelly. He had, though, some times during the night mumbled Fili’s name, muttering and wailing about how much he loved him. It made Aria smile gently as she started listening to Kili’s soft, tender voice and the lovely words about his brother. Aria started tracing the blonde dwarf’s face down to his jawline with her fingers and watched him shake his head a little which made her giggle. She was just so happy that he was alive and well. Beneath her fingertips, Fili’s skin was growing out stub and it felt rough at the touch. She carefully stroked back his soft, blonde hair and felt down his neat braids. Eventually she witnessed how Fili started squinting with his eyes and his pupils were starting to get visible beneath his eyelids. Aria stopped what she was doing and simply looked the dwarf in the eyes and he looked back. He smiled.

“Why are you not asleep?” he asked. Aria shrugged and studied his face. “Sleep…” he told her and pulled Aria closer to his heated body. Indeed she tried but the fatigue just wouldn’t stick and she laid awake a bit more in Fili’s chest as she listened to his heavy breathing and soothing heartbeat. But something else was hearable as well but it was normally so vaguely that the dwarves wouldn’t be able to hear it. Bilbo was on the way of packing up his things. The blanket that he was sleeping on he tucked into his backpack together with all the other things he had brought out. He flung the pack over his shoulder and soundlessly picked up his wooden walking stick. Very carefully he walked around the dwarves, being careful about where he stepped his feet. He pressed them down in the sand between dwarfen feet, arms and next to their heads until he had finally passed the worst of the amount. But when he got yet closer and closer to the exit of the cave he had completely forgotten that he wasn’t the only one awake.