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“Kili, ssssh,” he tries to quieten his youngest nephew, but he laughs softly as the brunet crashes through the undergrowth like a wild boar. He is wasting his breath. Kili is too full of enthusiasm, wants to do and see and touch everything all at once. He has taken him ‘hunting’ before. The lad is not even fifteen years old yet and far too young to actually shoot any prey. And with all his noisy chatter and clumsy footing there is little chance even Thorin will get to shoot anything today. But it is lovely to see his sister-son running around the woods with so much glee.
Thorin takes a seat on a large tree stump and picks up a short light branch as he takes out his hunting knife. Whilst Kili is running after bunnies and chases a squirrel halfway up a tree he strips the wood off its bark and carves notches in the ends before he pulls some string out of his bag and strings the handmade child’s bow for him.
“Ooooo,” Kili beams as he holds it out to him. “Is that for me?!”
Thorin nods, grinning. “Yes, little Kee.” And before he has a chance to show Kili how to pull the bowstring, the young prince is already off, shouting out to the forest “I am like uncle Thorin!!” sending a couple of crows up into the sky cawing in indignation.
Thorin laughs and watches his youngest sister-son pretend-shoot at a bunny and then a mushroom and then something so small Thorin cannot even see. “Not too far, little Kee,” he calls out. “I want to be able to see you.”
“Yes, uncle Thorin,” Kili calls back before he runs after a large brown squirrel further into the woods.
Thorin gets up with a sigh. Kili is always one to say yes and do no. It’s not that he is a disobedient child. He just gets easily swept away by his own energy. “Kili!” he calls out. “What did I just say?”
“Thorin!!!” Kili screams all of a sudden.
His heart jumps over itself as he begins to run towards his nephew’s anguished call. “Kili?! Kili, where are you?!” Oh Mahal, what has he done now? Please let him not have broken anything again!
But when he comes to a sliding hold right in front of his knelt down nephew he sighs a breath of relief. Kili is fine. He is knelt on the forest floor, holding up a bundle of feathers in his hand. He kneels down next to his nephew.
“It’s hurt,” Kili pouts sadly holding what Thorin now recognises as a thrush out to him.
Thorin’s runs his hand over Kili’s hair. “Let’s have a look then.” He takes the bird carefully from Kili’s hand, causing the creature to squeak loudly. “Its wing is broken,” Thorin concludes. He does not need to be an expert medic to identify the issue as the bird’s wing hangs at an awkward angle. He looks at Kili. “I think it is best if we left it here.”
But Kili frowns. “No,” he says defiantly. “If we leave it here it will die.”
Thorin sighs. It is just a bird. There are a thousand birds in the forest and he is about to shoot a few himself for tonight’s dinner. They are here to kill animals, not nurse them back to health. But he has one weak spot and it is Kili. And the sad face, with a tear beginning to glisten in the corner of his big brown eyes makes him melt into something soft and so unlike him.
“Please uncle Thorin,” Kili whimpers. “We can take it to Oin and he can make it better.”
Thorin laughs. He can just imagine Oin’s face when he turns up with a bird with a broken wing. “Kili, I am not sure that that is such a good idea.”
“But what if it is the thrush that you have told us about! One from the Lonely Mountain. The one that the men of Dale could talk to? We cannot leave it here to die! It must return to Erebor when the dragon is gone. You told us that. How will we know that the dragon is dead if we let it die?!”
Thorin smirks. They are a world away from Erebor and this is not the only thrush in the whole of Middle Earth. Nonetheless he smiles that Kili has remembered the foretellings so well. “Very well,” he sighs as he gets back to his feet. He takes a cloth out of his pocket and wraps it around the bird in his hand, before handing it back to Kili. “Be careful now,” he says gently. “You have to carry it back, okay?”
Kili nods enthusiastically, grateful that he is allowed to take the bird and proud that Thorin trusts him to carry it back home.
***
When they arrive back in Ered Luin late in the afternoon Thorin carries a bunch of rabbits and a pheasant across his shoulder, whilst Kili still carries the little thrush, held out like a precious treasure. Thorin regrets his decisions to let Kili keep it again as they walk towards Oin’s chambers, embarrassed that he is about to ask his healer to look at the broken wing of a bird. Meanwhile Kili is chattering softly to the creature in his hand, issuing soft words of reassurance as if he is talking to an ill child. Thorin knows he should say something. They are dwarves, not tree-hugging elves! But he cannot bring himself to do it and instead puts a hand on Kili’s shoulder.
“Thorin, Kili,” Oin says as he opens his door. “What can I do for you? Have you hurt yourself again, young one?”
Thorin smirks. Oin knows him too well and it is true that they have ended many a hunting trip back here because Kili had grazed or stung himself.
But Kili holds out the wriggling package in his hands. “It’s hurt,” he says. “Uncle says its wing is broken. Can you fix it please, Mister Oin?”
Oin raises an eyebrow at Thorin who shrugs apologetically. “A bird?” He bends himself closer and opens up the wrappings. “Ah a thrush,” he smiles. “Poor thing, let us have a look then.”
“I eh … I will leave you two to it whilst I take this to the kitchens,” Thorin points at the prey still hanging over his shoulder.
To his surprise Kili throws his arms around his waist. “Thank you, uncle Thorin,” he beams. “You are so kind.”
And with a smile on his face he leaves Kili with Oin and the bird. It is a nice feeling that his nephews still look at him with such fondness, rather than the apprehension that others so often have in fear of his short temper. Kili and Fili are the only ones who can still bring that gentle side out in him, that side that is not weighed down by worries and the hurts and angers of the past.
***
Oin somehow has managed to set the bird’s wing. It was not that badly broken, he had said, and with plenty of rest it should heal. And Kili and Fili spend the weeks that follow digging up the gardens in search of beetles and snails to feed the tiny bird. Dis had raised an eyebrow at her brother when they had turned up with the creature, but had asked no further. Now she smiles brightly as the thrush hops up eagerly as soon as her sons appear with hands full of food. And even Thorin cannot help the tug at the corner of his mouth as he watches the boys argue over which snail the bird, which they have named Ádhaz, prefers. The bird has become almost tame over the last few weeks, recognising and getting excited over the voices of the boys as soon as their chatter can be heard coming towards their little dwelling. And although he will never admit it he too has started to have a fondness for the little bird with the sweet singing voice.
***
“I think this is a good spot, little Kee,” he smiles. Kili has the thrush wrapped in a soft cloth again, shielding its eyes so that it would not get too worked up on their journey back to the forest.
He looks over at the brunet prince, who nods solemnly. He slowly begins to unwrap the delicate package in his hand. As soon as the bird’s head pops out it chatters enthusiastically. And Thorin thinks it must be nice for the creature to see the outside world that it comes from again, after so many weeks inside a dwarven house.
“Look!” Kili says, pointing at the large tree in front of him. “There is another! Oh Ádhaz, your brother has come for you!” He opens his hands and the bird hesitates for only a second, before it folds out its wings, now healed and strong again. It takes a hop off Kili’s hands. Its first flap is a little unsure, but soon it finds its way and sails up towards the tree, towards its kin. “Bye Ádhaz!” Kili calls out, waving. “Good luck! And go to Erebor soon so we can go home!”
Thorin wraps his arm around his nephew pulling him in close. And they both stand in silence, watching the two birds take flight. He quickly wipes his hand across his eyes, before Kili has a chance to see his softness, pressing a kiss on the boy’s head. “Well done, little prince,” he whispers.
And Kili looks up at him, tears in his eyes but a smile beaming across his face. “Will he be okay, uncle?”
Thorin smiles back at him. “I am sure he will, little Kee. He is with his brother now. They will be okay. Just like you and Fee.”
And Kili nods eagerly, before he loosens himself from his uncle’s embrace and runs out into the forest again. “I am going to find another animal to help!!” he calls back to Thorin, who just sighs in resignation at the idea of turning his home into an animal hospital for the next few years.