MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE

Chapter 3 – A Memory of Song         

Somehow or other Fili was got on to the branch, and then he did his best to help the hobbit, although he was feeling very sick and ill from spider-poison, and from hanging most of the night and the next day wound round and round with only his nose to breathe through. It took him ages to get the beastly stuff out of his eyes and eyebrows, and as for his beard, he had to cut most of it off. Well, between them they started to haul up first one dwarf and then another and slash them free. None of them were better off than Fili, and some of them were worse. Some had hardly been able to breathe at all (long noses are sometimes useful you see), and some had been more poisoned.

‘Flies and Spiders’, The Hobbit

Kili woke up screaming from a nightmare of webs and terror and being smothered.  He was dizzy and nauseated, and began to retch.

“Easy, brother.” From somewhere close came Fili’s voice, more gentle than Kili had ever heard it, and around him wrapped not sticky webs, but strong arms that held him until the latest bout of sickness had passed.  He was too wretchedly ill to be embarrassed, and only when he felt a blanket being wrapped about him did he realize that he was shaking as if with a chill.  He sought to see his brother’s face, but everything was blurred.

A water skin was held to his lips, but he couldn’t drink without being sick again.  Not yet.

“You got the worst of it, we fear,” said Fili, wiping his brother's mouth with a damp cloth.

“What...” Kili began.

“Rest easy, my lad.  The sickness will soon pass.”  Fili kept his voice light to conceal how dreadfully worried he had been.  “You must have put up quite a fight for the spiders to have injected so much poison.”  He lightly brushed his fingers over two stings on Kili’s bared arm, and another on his throat.

“It all happened so fast, I barely knew what I was fighting,” Kili said, struggling to clear his thoughts. “Is everyone else all right?”

“Very nearly so.  If not for Mr. Baggins, though, we’d all have been...”  Fili shook his head.  “Well now, best not to think about it.”

Fili spoke softly to his brother while Gloín kindled a sturdy fire, and those who were fully recovered began to prepare a meal.  After awhile, Kili began to feel a bit better, and was able to take a small drink.  He was surprised to see that the light was fading from between the tree branches above them, and he wondered how long he had been caught in evil dreams.  When Bilbo came to smile down at him and ask how he was faring, it triggered a memory that startled him.

“Bilbo... I remember hearing your voice,” Kili said. “You were singing.  But no, it must have been a dream.”

“He was singing indeed,” Fili said, grinning at the hobbit.  “I heard him too.”

“As did I,” said Gloín.  “My compliments, Master Burglar.  If you steal nothing more than all of us from those loathsome beasts, I will be content.”  There was a murmured assent from many voices. 

Now that the fire was warming him, and the nausea fading, Kili was feeling drowsy again. 

“Perhaps Bilbo will sing to Smaug, and enchant him into giving up our treasure willingly,” he murmured. 

There was a roar of laughter, accompanied by a small, indignant “Hmmph!” from the hobbit.

Fili could see that Kili was fighting to stay awake.  He felt his brow, and nodded to himself.  The worst was over.

“Sleep, brother.” Fili's voice came to Kili as if from a great distance.  “It is the best medicine for you.”

With the soft voices of his comrades surrounding him as protectively as his brother’s arms, Kili felt himself sinking back into darkness.  This time his sleep was deep and healing, and he dreamed not of smothering webs, but of butterflies and sunlight and clean air... and a hobbit singing from within a mountain of gold.

** TBC **