kilitheyoungest:

Kili smiled amused at that, the reply dying on his lips as he stopped to listen as well. It sounded like horses were galloping after them but…somehow wrong. It came closer all the time, and only when the few pebbles above them fell down and the ground started to shake did he realize what was happening.

“It’s collapsing!”

Without thinking Kili spun around, acting on instincts as he pushed Bard with all the strength he could muster into a smaller tunnel on the side just as the roof above them collapsed with a loud bang. Kili spun around just in time to miss most of the collision, one of the rocks hitting the side of his head sending him on the ground with a choked yelp.

He laid there dazed and panting, but knowing he had saved them both from crushing under the rocks.

Now the problem was to find a way out again, with the tunnel collapsed.

It had happened so quickly, a heartbeat, a breathe, no more than that. And yet Kili had found the speed and courage to save them both from certain death, far below the surface, in complete darkness. Coughing as stone dust covered them both, Bard carefully got to his feet, aware that any wrong movement might provoke their precarious surroundings to turn against them once more. Even so, he had to see to his companion.

“Kili. Kili. Are you alright?” Resting heavy hands on Kili’s shoulders, Bard looked nearer, to find a nasty-looking gash on the side of the dwarf’s face. “You are bleeding,” he whispered, lightly touching fingertips to Kili’s cheek. It seemed innocent enough, but without proper tending to, it would be difficult to uncover the full extent of the wound. “Peder and his men… They will come. They will find us.” They must.