Returning Home: A Hobbit Fanfiction

Chapter 52 - Break

~~ Elena ~~

"What does it look like?" Kíli asked dully, the bruising under his eyes magnified in the shadows of the room. "He's got the gold sickness."

Fíli shook his head immediately. "No. No, it can't be. He's never - why would-" he sputtered to a stop, and finally settled on, "He always said he'd never fall to it, that he'd seen his own father and grandfather fall prey to it."

"Well, he was wrong," Kíli snapped. "He was wrong about a lot of things."

Celia sat up straight and laid a hand on his shoulder. "Kíli," she rebuked him mildly. "You had a hard time believing it at first too, remember? It's not his fault. Fíli and Elena weren't here for most of it. They haven't seen everything that's happened."

Elena took a seat by her sister, exchanging a worried glance with Fíli. "What exactly did happen? You and Kíli both look exhausted, and Bilbo's awfully cross with Thorin. And... correct me if I'm wrong, but I would've thought there would've been a bigger fuss about everyone coming back from Lake-town. I mean, you said you thought we were dead, Celia. What happened?"

Celia rubbed her arm uncomfortably. "That's a long story, none of it pleasant."

"And I'd like to know what happened to you," Kíli added, his dark eyes flickering between his brother and Elena. "We know Smaug died, but that's about all we know."

"How about a trade?" Elena asked, shifting her legs so she sat cross-legged. "You tell us what happened here, and then we tell you guys what happened in Lake-town?" And maybe take a nap, she added mentally, eyeing Celia's heavy eyes.

"All right," Celia agreed tiredly, Kíli giving in a moment after she did. "I guess we might as well start after we left you guys in Lake-town. It took us around three days to reach the mountain, and then we had to find the secret staircase hidden behind a giant statue. And then we had to find the hidden door, and almost didn't. Then we did manage to open it, and sent Bilbo inside to scout it out. That's kind of where it all started."

"Here, just wait a second, Celia," Elena interrupted, sliding her bag off her shoulder. "Let me comb out your hair and re-braid it while we talk. It looks like it hasn't been done for a while."

"What?" Celia blinked, thrown off track by the interruption, then slowly reached a hand up to feel her disintegrating braid. "Oh. I guess I hadn't really noticed. We've been really busy." She scooted in front of her sister, pulling the tie from her regular braid, and the two beads from her special braids, holding them loosely in her hand.

Fíli looked at his disheveled brother and beckoned him over as well. "Come on over, Kíli. Don't think I didn't notice that your hair was more unkempt than usual." He pulled out a comb of his own from his pack and waited until his brother had reluctantly moved in front of him to start working out some of the tangles in his hair. "Continue please, Celia. How did you get in the door? What was the answer to the riddle?"

Elena carefully combed through her sister's hair with her uninjured arm, starting from the bottom and working her way up as Celia continued their tale. She'd never seen it so tangled, save for perhaps when they were younger, and both of them avoided brushes as if their lives depended on it. 

In fact, this might have been worse, as Celia's hair was much longer this time around, and some of the tangles were so bad they nearly ate the comb once or twice. Kíli's hair, by nature of being much shorter, was quickly combed and his proper braids put in, though he stayed leaning against his brother afterwards.

"Wait," she interrupted at one point near the end, almost yanking Celia's hair from lack of attention. "You mean to tell me that everyone here is getting sick, not just Thorin?"