Chapter Text
“Mama. Mama, look. Look, Mama,”
“I am looking sweetheart,”
“No you’re not! Mama, look!”
Dis ripped her gaze from the two women sitting at the other picnic table several yards away, and instead looked to her young son. The four year-old was holding up the necklace he had just finished making, and it had yet to be tied; he was too young to know how to do that yet. It was made of big, bright, plastic beads of all shapes and colors, with random letters thrown in, but they didn’t read anything. Dis leaned forward to grab the necklace from his hands to tie it for him.
“It’s beautiful darling,” she told him, not really paying attention. She looked back up to eye the suspicious women again, but they were gone. Dis’ heart skipped a beat, and she looked around, trying not to seem too obvious about it. Those women… they were just sitting there, looking at books. Dis knew they weren’t actually reading them, they turned their pages only when they seemed to remember to. No one else was in the park except the four of them.
She held the necklace back out to her child, but he adamantly crossed his arms and shook his head.
“No!” Fili blurted, flinging his hands to his hips, “it’s for you! You have to wear it!”
Dis couldn’t hold back her laugh. “My little stubborn mule. If you insist, little lion, I shall wear it proudly and for the rest of my days,” she undid the knot and brought the necklace around her throat, tying it securely in place. “Thank you, dearest,” she told him, a bright grin appearing on his face.
“I’m hungry now can we have our foods?” he asked, making sure to make that look so as to appear cuter and more innocent. Dis rolled her eyes.
“Yes, yes, of course, brat,” she chided playfully. Sitting next to her was an average-sized insulated lunchbox, and in it was their food. Both of them got sandwiches, Dis a tuna-salad with spinach, and Fili ham and cheese. She handed his over to him along with a little box of orange juice, and a baggie of baby carrots, his favorite.
As Fili ate away merrily, Dis started analyzing the park once more. Those women… something was up. By all appearances they seemed innocent enough, but Dis knew better. The men in her family had been tempting fate lately, she knew, and it wouldn’t surprise her if they’d angered another mob. It’d be best if she and Fili left for home soon, and they’d have to be careful about it.
“Mom, look!”
Dis looked up at her son and instantly regretted it. His mouth was wide open and his tongue out as far as it could reach. It was completely covered in a grotesque mash of ham, cheese and carrots. Dis made a noise of disgust and looked away quickly.
“Fili! That’s disgusting, spit it out or swallow it!” she snapped while Fili laughed. “Hurry up and eat the other half of your sandwich, we need to go home,”
“No!”
“Fili! Eat your food!”
“No! You eat it, for you and baby! Da says you needs lots of furnishment!”
Dis’ heart rate sped up. Fili wasn’t supposed to know yet! Whoever told him would be in a world of trouble when she found out.
“I think you mean nourishment, darling. Fili, who told you?”
“No one. I heard you ‘n Uncle Thorn ‘n Uncle Fren talking…”
“Two nights ago, when you should have been sleeping, you mean?” Fili ducked his head and smiled sheepishly.
“Couldn’ sleep, was havin’ bad dreams again,” he mumbled.
Dis sighed. “Sweetheart, me and the baby will be fine. It’s you who needs all the nourishment he can get, so you can grow big and strong!”
“Like Da?” Fili asked, eyes shining with admiration and hope.
“Yes, just like Da, and your uncles too!”
“Oh… no I don’t want to be big and scary like Dwalin. That’s too big! I don’t want to scare Baby!”
Dis had a fit of laughter, and Fili started along with her. He wasn’t sure what she found funny about what he said, but he liked laughing so he went along with it.
“Alright, sweetheart, it’s time to go home. It’s getting late,” she told him.
“What? No! It’s not late the sun is still up, no!” he whined, dragging his hands down his face.
“No, but it will be gone soon. See how it’s starting to set? Help me pack up and I’ll bully Thorin into telling you a bedtime story tonight instead of me,”
Fili giggled and started grabbing handfuls of beads, putting them in their container. Dis packed away all the lunch baggies, and Fili got to his feet, walking over to pick up his kickball. Dis watched as he accidentally booted it away from him before he could get it and snorted. When he did it a second time, she giggled to herself and finished packing things away. She climbed to her feet and grabbed some things, leaving the rest for her son.
“Fili!” she called out, “Time to go! Hurry up!” she looked around the area for Fili, but he was nowhere in sight. “Fili! Get your butt over here!” she had seen him scamper behind a large oak tree, and she watched intently, waiting for him to reappear.
She waited a few seconds. “If you don’t get out here by the time I count to three you’ll be going to bed without dessert!” She threatened. “One… two… Fili! Fili this isn’t a joke, come over here right this second!” she shouted, starting to become hysterical. “Felix Dean Durin, you come to me right this instant, or I swear I’ll-- I’ll cry and cry, because you’re hurting Amad’s feelings,” she tapered off, still watching the oak tree for any sign of her child. But she knew. She knew he was gone already, and tears began pooling in her eyes. “F-Fili... Fili come back, please, please,” she pleaded. After a few tense moments of her hoping and waiting for some sort of miracle, Dis shakily reached for her phone.
They had set up their own sort of miniature headquarters right in the foyer. The side tables had all been dragged and amassed in the middle, to create one big makeshift desk where all their computers, papers and wiring devices lay. There were maybe twenty of them in all, from the police force they had bribed, here to help return to her her young son. Her family (her parents and her brothers and cousins) stayed close to the walls, just watching and waiting. Dis herself stood in a corner wearing all black, just as she had done for the past week, being held by her husband. Eight days, thirteen hours and twenty-seven minutes had passed since Fili had been stolen from her, right under her nose. Not a word from his captors almost that entire time, leaving the family to fear the worst for their youngest member. One day, six hours and forty-seven minutes ago, a note was found stabbed to the master entrance with a bloody dagger.
It was very clearly a ransom note. It specified that a call would be placed to the head of the Durin family at exactly noon the very next day. They would talk to Thror only, and there would be dire consequences should they not get what was ordered.
The phone sat in the very center of the room on its own table, and when it rang the entire room tensed up. After three long rings, giving time for the police to tap into the call, Thror stepped forward and picked it up, putting it to his ear. He said nothing. Dis, Vali and Thrain had headphones in, letting them hear the call. The voice was warped, making it unrecognizable.
“You will send one representative to the Carrock tomorrow morning, before dawn. Your representative will bring with them one billion dollars, and the Arkenstone.”
Thror riled up. “Absolutely not!” he spat. “That is a good portion of the family fortune, and you know it! And the Arkenstone? Ha!”
“We will not be accepting anything less. If you wish to keep your wealth to yourself, then that is no problem to us for now. But perhaps you would like a reminder for why we are speaking now, at this very moment?”
There was a bit of movement on that end of the line. A small, shaking voice replaced the dark, dull one.
“A-Amad?” it called out. It was Fili, scared out of his wits. Everyone looked to Dis, who had fallen to her knees and was crying silently. Vali joined her on the ground to hold her. “Adad-- A-Adad please…!” Fili interrupted himself with a sudden ear-piercing scream. Those who heard it jolted forward, hearing Fili sobbing in pain. “Momma!! Please--!” he was taken away from the phone but could still be heard in the background.
“What did you do to him!” Thror shouted, “What did you do to my great-grandchild!”
“Only what we deemed necessary. Think about what you’re sacrificing,” the anonymous voice stated. There was a click, then only the dial tone.
Dis sat at the kitchen counter drinking a cup of tea. She was trying to go about her day as she would normally, attempting at a distraction from her hectic week. The shaking of the cup and saucer in her hands betrayed her stoic demeanor. It would be right about now that Dwalin, one of the most trusted and loyal indirect family members, would be performing the drop. She would be getting her baby back, and the family would lose almost twenty percent of their fortune.
She placed her drink down and pecked at the sandwich she made herself. A servant tried to do it for her, but Dis just shooed her away. The sandwich was cut into triangles, and the crusts had been cut off and put to the side. It was turkey and cheese, with mayo, mustard and lettuce, carrots to the side next to the crusts. Fili’s favorite. He enjoyed bread crust, just not attached to the bread. Dis laughed once through her nose at the thought; what a weird little child she had. She loved him more for it, her little blond oddball.
She had just given up on the sandwich when the phone rang. Dis’ heart skipped a beat, but she poised herself and went to answer it. She entered the hallway only to see none other than her father enter the mansion, and when he heard the phone he looked to it and rushed over, beating Dis to it. He picked it up and thrust it to his ear, listening intently. Dis stood as close as possible to Thrain, hoping to hear the caller.
“You were given very clear instructions. We even came to an agreement, did we not? Our own representative waited at the drop point for twenty minutes, and yet your representative did not show. You have been warned, and now there will be consequences,”
Dis and Thrain stared at each other in shock and horror after the line died. Dis was shaking as her father held her, but she couldn’t tell if it were more from anger or fear. Those bastards. Her grandfather and her brother had promised to her that everything would be okay, that they would send Dwalin to do the drop and she would have her son back in her arms before noon. They had come up with a plan to find where Fili was being kept and bring him back by force, because Thror was steeped too deep in his greed and refused to give up any of the family’s wealth, even though he had told the captors the exact opposite. Dis and her mother had screamed and shouted at the men until they relented and told them that they wouldn’t interfere with the plan.
Word of the phone call spread through the mansion like a virus, and everyone was stiff with fear until the phone began ringing once again three hours later. At that time, Dis, Thrain and Adra, her mother, were sitting as comfortably as possible in the back garden patio. The phone startled them so badly, Adra dropped her cup and saucer, not flinching when it shattered on the ground and hot tea splashed her ankles. Being closest to their wireless phone, it was she who answered.
“Adad!”
Adra nearly dropped the phone. Instead, she took it from her ear and hit the speaker button.
“Amad? Amad I want to come home, please! I don’t like it here, naizrili Amad ra Adad!”
“Fili! Fili it’s Amad! I’m here darling, I’m right here!” Dis cried at the phone. Fili began sobbing.
“Amad! Kunh me!”
“I’m right here, sweetie, right here. You’ll be home soon, I promise. You just have to be brave. Can you do that, little lion? Just be bra--” Dis was cut off by a loud snap and Fili’s sudden sharp scream, and all the blood drained from her face. “F-Fili?!” she exclaimed, listening in horror as Fili’s shouts only grew louder. He stopped after a moment, but remained whimpering.
“Fili, sweetheart, momma’s right here, okay? Just keep listening to me, okay?” Dis tried to calm him, her heart clenching at his moans of pain.
“It’s almost amusing how easy it is…” the voice that they had all become familiar with was back. Somewhere in the background, Fili began waling again. “... children break so easily. I suppose now it’s a good thing you’ve decided to keep your riches. You’ll be needing all you can to pay for the little one’s health--”
“What have you done you asshole! What have you done to my Fili!” Dis roared. She continued snarling insults at the anonymous voice on the other end, only silencing when several new noises joined the fray in the background. They were deafening, but very clear. Her husband, her brothers, her grandfather… they were there, yelling and shooting at the enemy. The phone clattered to the ground on the other end, and for several moments all they could hear was gunfire, shouting, and Fili screaming. The line went dead, and Dis and her parents were left to sit in shock and fear.
Hullo~! Hope you enjoyed it, there's one more chapter to this. This is part of a new series, just tons of random au's I think up and know will amount to nothing other than short stories. I know I need to do another chapter of Smoke Signals, it's WIP right now and should be a bit longer than normal so look forward to that. Please comment if you enjoyed or otherwise~♥
naizrili Amad ra Adad: I want you mom and dad
Kunh me: where are you