Fili

18: Nightmares

The image of a dragon, fire, orcs, and death flashes before your eyes.

Wake up! You tell yourself, knowing you're having a bad dream. No matter how hard you try, you can't open your eyes. It is as if they are glued shut.

WAKE UP! You urge yourself to break free from the dream.

"(Y/N) wake up! It's alright!" A voice calls to you. You recognize it as Fili's.

Your eyes shoot open. Your heart rate is still beating quite fast. Fili holds your shaky hands. Your entire body is still trembling. As you stand up you realize you are covered in sweat. It's cold, making you shiver. The hairs on your arms stand on end as you feel a wave of dizziness wash over you.

Fili leads you into the hallway, away from where the other dwarves are still sleeping. He holds your coat and places it around your shoulders.

The two of you continue walking, stopping outside a small room. Fili gestures for you to go inside.

"Sit here. I'm going to get you a cup of tea," Fili's voice is soothing, "It will help, I promise."

You nod and pull your jacket tighter around your shoulders.

"Me and Kee used to get nightmares all the time," Fili starts, "Probably because of all the horror stories Thorin told us when we were younger. Stories about encounters with orcs, goblins, stuff like that."

He hands you a hot cup of tea. You sip it slowly, listening attentively as Fili speaks.

"You alright?" He looks genuinely concerned.

"Yes. Much better now, thanks to you." You reply.

"That's good," Fili smiles, "I'm always happy to help."

There is silence for a minute while you sip your tea.

"I've never really been afraid of orcs, but there was this one incident that left me a bit shaken when I was little," You say, "An Orc was sneaking around near my house one night. It had been separated from the others and accidentally stumbled into the city."

"I remember hearing a noise outside that woke me up," you continue, "I looked out my window and realized that there was in fact an orc outside! It saw me and began to climb up the side of the house towards me. It had almost reached my window, but by now other people were awake and had gone outside to see what was going on. The orc knew it wouldn't survive if it stayed around, so it fled back the way it came from, into the forest. That was my first close encounter with an orc. I was 6 years old."

Fili, who is now sitting across from you, rests his chin on his hand, quietly listening to you.

"I can't remember my first time seeing an orc up close," Fili looks to the corner of the room, as if he's trying to recall a memory, "I've just always hated them I guess. All dwarves are sort of just conditioned to hate the enemy from a young age."

"Especially since I grew up around Thorin," he continues, "He has a better reason than most to hate orcs."

There is a pause as you take another sip from your mug.

"Fee... when do you think they're going to attack Erebor?" You question.

Fili looks down, "If I'm being honest, I don't really know. I can't imagine anyone knows for certain. Not even Thorin."

"Maybe they haven't attacked yet because they're scared of us!" You joke, "They must have taken one look at YOU and ran for their lives!" You point at Fili accusingly, a smug grin spreading across your face.

"I'm not that intimidating am I?" Fili laughs.

"Oh, you're terrifying!" You giggle.

"Come here, you!" Fili lunges at you.

He starts to tickle you, making you laugh even harder.

"Careful! I'm going to spill my tea!" You sip the last of it and set the empty mug on the table beside you.

You yawn. You almost forgot it was still early in the morning. There is still time to sleep.

"Ready to head back?" Fili takes the empty mug from you, setting it aside.

"Yeah," you manage between yawns.

"Ok. Let's go," Fili leads you back to the other room.

He tucks your coat around you like a blanket before he too gets ready to go back to sleep.