To Love a Half-Blood (A Kili Fanfic)

Chapter 14: Another Promise to Break

I open my eyes and look around. The first thing I notice is the sound of heavy breathing and pained groans. Kili had gotten worse in my absence. I turn to him and grab his rough hand in my own.

“Kili, look at me. Don’t give up. Fight it. It’ll all work out if you can just stay alive long enough for help to arrive.” I say staring at his face, which is covered in sweat from the fever.

Who knows when or if that will happen.

I can tell he heard me because he squeezes my hand and turns his head to look at me. Only now do I see his eyes, rimmed red and unfocused. He is terribly close to death and my only hope had failed.

“Please, you can’t leave me. You’re all I have left.” I whimper, kissing his hand and hugging it tightly to my chest. And then I laugh pitifully and continue, “You promised to teach me how to dance.”

A pain-ridden smile touches the corners of his mouth and, his voice strained and dry, he whispers, “And that is a promise I intend to keep.”

I wipe his hair away from his face, and kiss his forehead. Then, I cup his face with my hand, and gently stroke it with my thumb. Then the whole room quivers, once, twice, the times. I look around to see what’s happening but do not see the culprit. Bard’s son scurries to the window and looks out.

“Da, it’s coming from the mountain.” They boy says, obviously steadying his voice from the quiver of fear in his heart. Then everyone realizes what has happened. The dragon in awake! Kili groans again and I put a cool cloth on his face. Fili jumps up after a moment’s contemplation of our situation.

“You should leave us.” He says to Bard, “Take your children and get out of here.”

“And go where?” Bard replies, an air of desperation in his voice. “There is nowhere to go. As long as the dragon is awake, there is nowhere safe.”

 “Are we going to die, Da?” I hear a tiny voice whimper, and realize it is Tilda’s.

“No darling.” Bard says, trying to reassure her. That, on top of everything else, crushes my heart. Not only is Kili going to die, and I break my promise, not only is the rest of the party probably ash right now, but on top of all that, this innocent little girl is going to die, and there are many others like her in Laketown.

“The dragon, it’s going to kill us.” She whimpers again, tears dripping down her face. Bard’s face hardens and he rips something off the ceiling, sending herbs and pots clattering to the ground.

“Not if I kill it first.” He growls, determined to save his children. Now I realize what the object is: a huge black iron arrow. It looks like it might be able to kill a dragon, might. Bard takes his son and they run from the house.

Fili brings me some herbs that are supposed to bring down fever and we boil half of them to make into tea. I snake my arm around Kili’s shoulders, supporting him so he can drink. He drinks slowly and difficultly. Just as I remove to cup from his lips, he arches his back and thrashes, knocking me to the floor. Fili runs from the other end of the room and tries to hold him down so he won’t hurt himself. Then, the episode ends as suddenly as it began.

The door swings open and the boy returns. However, there is no sign of Bard.

“Where’s Da?” the older girl demands.

“He, I don’t know what happened to him. The last thing I saw, Da was being chased by some of the Master’s men.” He responds miserably.  

“Why didn’t you do anything?!” the oldest shouts, “You just let them take him?!”

“There was nothing I could do! Da told me to take the arrow and run so that’s what I did!” Her brother shouts back.

Tilda just curls up under the dining room table to sob quietly. Fili taking my place of changing damp clothes and uselessly praying, I go to the dining room table. The other children are still arguing loudly and I crawl under the table.

“You okay?” I ask the little girl, gently putting a hand on her shoulder. She shakes her head. “Yeah, I know it’s scary.” I whisper, rubbing her back as she whimpers.

“I, I don’t want to die.” She stammers.

“Come here,” I say opening my arms for her to climb into my lap. She obliges. “I promise I won’t let you die. I’ll keep you safe.” I whisper into her hair.

Great, another promise I have no idea how to keep. I’m just a dastardly liar aren’t I?

“How?” she cries quietly.

How am I supposed to know? I’m just making crap up as I go along!

I have absolutely no idea how I am supposed to protect her, but I know I’ll try, so I just whisper “Magic.”

I am eventually able to coax her out from under the table and she sits on my lap as I watch over Kili. Every time we administer medicine he has an episode, almost as if his body is resisting being healed. I do my best not to cry; I know it will do more harm than good. Tilda never leaves my side. It seems that she thinks if I am always close, I can always protect her. She isn’t wrong. It’s a lot easier to defend something two inches away verses two miles. Regardless, she eventually falls asleep in my lap, seeing as it’s around two in the morning. There is a terrible quiet now, worse than the fighting. Fili and I sit at Kili’s bedside and the older children sit in miserable silence at the other end of the room. After a time, the creaking of floor boards interrupts the monotony.

“Da?” The oldest girl whispers. She opens the door and looks outside. “Da, is that you?” She asks again, louder this time. Then she screams.