Chapter Text
Nori could feel the knifes poking at him, he could feel the clubs egging him forward. He didn't care, he couldn’t care, not after what happened.
It wasn't bad enough that he almost lost his mate to the stone giants, Bilbo was almost crushed and nearly fell to his death. The solid weight of his mate in his arms, the touch of curls cascading through his finger were the only things keeping him grounded. In the few short hours of reprieve after Bilbo had nearly died twice, he had marked Bilbo's neck with love bites.
He watched as the skin went from a worried red to a bruised purple, Nori had felt his chest swell with possessiveness. Bilbo was his mate, Bilbo was in his arms. He was too obsessed with looking after his shaken mate that he paid little attention to how Dori was looking after Balin, or how Ori and Dwalin placed their bed rolls closer together than they had ever been.
When the floor dropped from under him, he had let Bilbo slip through his fingers, the ground falling like his world as he lost sight of his lamb. The ground falling past him a he slipped and slid down the goblins' trap. He would have probably admired the work and effort that the creatures put into it if he hadn't had been trampled and the like. It had been a stupid mistake to let Bilbo slip away, the stupidest thing he might have ever done. He had let Bilbo slip away, he thought his mate would be safe. He was wrong. He knew just how wrong when he heard his mate cry out, the sound followed by the thumping of bodies hitting the cave wall. Falling into the deep.
Dori and Bifur dragged him along as he fell to his knees, he didn't shrug them off. He let them carry him as he was pulled deeper into the goblins' layer.
He had lost Bilbo, he had lost everything.
His mind repeating the sentence, each word being joined with Bilbo's cry, the sound of his mate hitting the cave walls. The picture of Bilbo broken and bleeding on the ground, his mate's mouth open in a silent scream, his ribs and bones cut past skin. The once clean jacket of green that his mate loved so much, shredded and red with blood.
Nori didn't hear the goblin king's song, and he didn't hear the mummer of his company. He heard death, the sound of broken bones, and Bilbo's crying.
It had been the wizard's thunderous crack that had woken him from his misery. The wizard's words not bringing solace, but a deep rage. He may have let Bilbo go, but it was these swine who killed his mate. Baring his teeth he drew up arms with his friends and family, no goblin would escape him. No, he would not give them mercy, they didn't give his lamb any.
The black blood that stained the ax and his clothes did nothing to cool his rage, that was slowly turning into sorrow. He wanted to lay down, to die and join his mate, but Ori kept pushing him on and the goblins kept coming. The bones cracking and snapping under his strength and quick thinking soon grew to be a hunting melody what he had lost. The dead goblin king didn't feel like a fair trade, his Bilbo had been worth more than these creature's leader.
The wizard urged them on as they reached sunlight, yet again Dori supported him as he dropped to the earth. The sun felt like a knife digging into his skin, letting him know that that Bilbo wasn't here. The sounds of the company just realizing that Bilbo was gone made him snarl. His eyes narrowed, how dare they not notice Bilbo was gone, how dare they. Before he could bring himself to his feet to strangle their king, he heard a voice that he was more than certain was an illusion.
“No, he's not.”
He looked up from the dirt, his fingers digging into the soft brown life. His breath caught in his throat as saw his mate. Bilbo was bruised and dirty, but alive and with that stupid homely smile. Before his mate could even speak again, he was on his feet. His arms scooping up his mate, tears and laughter leaving him. Bilbo was safe, Bilbo was safe.
“Oh, thank the maker, thank the seven brothers. Thank you.” Nori whispered into the honeyed curls, his body shaking as he cried. “You're safe, you're safe.” The company was silent as he cried, not even Dwalin teased the distressed fox. He wept and fell to the earth, holding the lamb to his chest.
Bilbo remained calm, despite the tears flowing down his own face. Peppering kisses along the dwarf's neck and chin, he cooed words of comfort to his mate. The fox continuing to rock him back and forth, he just soothed his mate with affection. The dwarf slowly calming down, the two of them enjoying the small moment of silence, their forehead rested together as they bathed in the other's presence.
Everything was shattered by the howls.