SEVEN DEVILS, fili durin

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

"You've been acting...strange."

Fili had fallen into an uneasy sleep eventually, arms crossed over his chest, practically able to feel the quick and anxious beating of his heart through his thick layers, waking every so often by any mere hint of a noise that could be her returning to them. In truth, he wouldn't of even called the fitful state of unconscious that he'd been forced into through his own exhaustion a rest, it was more like a few spaced out moments where he'd close his eyes, only to have them snap open when he heard a creak, a snore, even just a slightly louder than usual breath, each time awaiting the glowing red eyes that haunted him.

But of course, they never came, and that fear that had coiled in his gut only grew tighter when the rays of the sun began to shine through the window, bathing him gold...and Nymeria still wasn't there. He was sure she should of been back by now, a simple bear couldn't of held her off for that long, he'd seen the woman fight off a mountain, and he was supposed to think that a skin-changer sould best her?

He held onto that thought desperately as the others soon got up as the morning began to stretch on, talking to each other and trying to hide their own anxiety when they noticed that their fellow member of the company still wasn't with them but obviously trying to save face in front of the rather frantic hobbit who looked as though he was going to pass out any moment, pacing back and forth across the floor with his hands fiddling with his suspenders, muttering all sorts under his breath as if hoping his friend would feel his terror and come rushing back for him like she always did.

Secretly, Fili hoped she would too, especially when he found himself glancing over towards the large doors that had once been infused with her chaos to keep them in and that beast out...only to find an ordinary pair of doors staring back at him, like her magic hadn't of even been there in the first place, and the more he worried, the more he became a slave to his own fear, did he realise he could no longer feel her red touch that had punched him in the chest to take his breath away. It was like everything that had been hers was gone completely, and then he was gripping his sword like a lifeline as he wondered just when he could sneak out to try and find her.

"I'll cover for you." Kili suddenly whispered, making sure the others couldn't hear him as he clapped his older brother upon the shoulder, obviously coming to the same conclusion that Nymeria was hurt or worse as his dark eyes of liquid coal flickered over the doors, seeing the missing crimson and worrying about the girl himself. "If you go off to find her, Bilbo and I will cover for you."

But before he could even answer or say anything more on the matter, the two brothers were pushed into the kitchen where all of the others stood, looking very confused indeed as the wizard hushed them all, constantly looking out to one of the windows where the sound of chopping filled their ears, only half listening to the wizard as he began to sprout off some rules on not to startle the skin-changer lest they wanted to end up like the last person to do so...which apparently hadn't ended well indeed considering he was ripped apart.

However, considering Gandalf had failed to mention the skin-changers dislike of dwarves until the very last moment, Fili could safely assume that this wasn't going well, especially with the rest of the company who were still rather anxious indeed about the still missing Nymeria, who's situation was looking more and more dire with every minute that passed. But still, they listened to the wizards orders, coming out into the garden in pairs except Bombur who counted as two, one after the other at their signal with the rather large and intimidating Beorn looking more and more enraged by the second as he snarled and huffed and puffed.

"Is that is? Is there anymore?" He snarled when Bofur, Birfur and Bombur came stumbling out, Gandalf sighing in exasperation at the introductions that had gone very sour indeed...but at the skin-changers words, the last of the company came out, Thorin looking as majestic and as calm as ever, even when facing a creature that looked larger than any other being his old eyes had ever come across as it stood there, large barell like chest moving up and down with his grunting breaths and his amber eyes nothing short of enraged as he looked them all over with a dangerous growl.