Dwarven Denouement

3

"Fili!" Fili jumped being torn away from his thoughts from hearing his name being called by his rather irritated mother

"What's wrong with you boy? You come home late, you barely touch your stew, and you've been staring at nothing for the last hour. Are you ill?"

"You have been acting strangely Fili, anything troubling you?", asked Fili and Kili's uncle, Thorin.

"No, no I-uh, um I'm fine. Really.", Fili said. Not convincing his mother and uncle.

"I know what's wrong!", Kili said, proudly walking into the room with a smirk on his face.

"Do tell?", said Thorin.

"Fili's in love with the girl we met today!", Kili said smiling at Fili as Fili felt his face go warm."A girl? Really? Wow!", laughed his mother, Dis. Fili's face felt so hot that he was certain you could bake a whole dwarven feast on his cheeks.

"Dis, could you let Fili and I talk? Alone for a minute?", Thorin asked.

"Hm? Oh sure, I've got to clean the kitchen anyways. Kili off to bed."

"But moootheeeerr, how come Fili gets to stay up?"

"He's older."

"Only by 5 years!" "We can talk about changing you bed time when you turn 68 like Fili, deal? Now march!"

Kili then grumpily got up from his seat by Thorin, and stomped upstairs, Dis following him.

"Fili."

"Yes uncle?"

"About this girl?"

"What about her?"

"How did you two meet her?"

"Well Kili and I were walking through the market and we bumped into her and-"

"I've heard the story that you've told Balin, now I want to hear what actually happened.", Thorin said chuckling.

This surprised Fili, but nonetheless, he told his uncle how they saw these two dwarves chasing a small figure in a cloak. Thinking it was a game between the group, the brothers paid no mind at first and went on with their business. As they were walking back home, they heard someone yelling "Stop it just leave me alone!", so the ran to see who needed help. They followed the voice and came up to an empty lot by the animal pens. They saw the two dwarves from earlier. One was laughing as he watched the other holding the small cloaked figures head in the mud. That's when Fili picked up some mud and smashed it in the face of the one laughing, making him choke slightly. The other dwarf had barely looked up before Kili shoved him off the figure. When he started running away, Kili threw a mud ball and it hit the dwarf so hard in the back of the head that he fell face down in pig manure. While Kili was laughing and praising himself, Fili had walked to the figure to ask him if he was alright. Only, it wasn't a he, but a she. Fili was startled and quickly helped her up. Thus went how the two brothers met Neana.

"Her name is Neana?", Fili's uncle asked before standing up and walking to the fire.

"Yea, Neana Zirak." Thorin sighed looking into the fire, he knew who Neana's father was. And he also knew about her fathers drinking problem. And with that, Thorin left Fili by the fireplace. Fili rolled his eyes, typical old uncle Thorin.

Laying down in his bed looking up at the ceiling, he couldn't help think about Neana. Her collarbone length brown hair, and how she had it tucked behind one ear. The one feature that kept Fili awake thing about were her eyes, how could they be so blue? And so bright? It mystified him. With the thoughts of his pretty neighbor dwarf, Fili drifted off to sleep with sweet dreams.

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Neana awoke with a throbbing cheek. She sat up and gently put her hand to it. It was going to be a pretty big bruise.

Yesterday when Neana had returned, she heard her father raising his voice. Likewise with her mother. Neana usually ignored it, knowing that they would make up as soon as they were done. Yesterday was different though, instead of slowly quieting down, her parents progressively got louder. That's when Neana heard the sound of things breaking. She ran up the stairs and opened the door to her parents bedroom. She saw her father standing over her mother shaking with rage. Her mother was cowering in the corner, blood slowly dripping down the side of her head, a broken glass clutched in her fathers hand. He's drunk, she thought, now becoming scared. Her father was scary and mean when he was drunk. And he was drunk a lot.

He must've not have heard her come in, because he was lifting the hand holding the glass up, meaning to strike her mother again. Neana ran forward, grabbing that arm, resulting in her getting a back hand across the cheek bone, sending her to the floor.

"Don't touch me filth!", shouted her father, storming out of the house.

"Ma! Am are you okay?", Neana asked crawling over to her mother.

"I'm fine darling. You shouldn't have done that.", her mother replied sternly.

"I didn't want him to hurt you again."

Her mother didn't reply. She just looked to the ground and put her face in her hands,

ignoring the blood. Knowing her mother wanted some privacy, Neana went into her room, where she stayed until morning.

Deciding that it would probably be best to avoid her parents for the day, Neana gets dressed and goes out into the little wooded area behind her house.

It wasn't long after she found a tree to sit beneath before she heard the sounds of metal clanking against metal. Being her naturally curious self, Neana stands up, and goes to investigate.

She reaches a clearing and is slightly surprised by what she sees. Fili is out there with a sword dueling with a half bald dwarf with tattoos on his skull. At first, Neana thinks Fili is in trouble and was about to rush out to him. But then he stuck his sword in the ground and looked at the older dwarf.

"You've improved a bit lad.", smirked the older dwarf.

"Only a bit?", Fili asks looking a little bit disappointed.

"Aye."

Their conversation continued, mostly about what Fili could improve on. Neana was just turning to leave when she heard a voice behind her.

"What are you doing?"