An: Hello again! This is going to be a twoshot. First I had in mind to write a oneshot, but then this got so long I decided to cut it in half.

Anyways, I hope you like this c: this is kinda inspired by the many war movies I've watched during the last few days, especially Lone Survivor (which, by the way, is one of the best movies I've ever seen, so if you're into war movies I strongly suggest you watch that some day) and The Boy in Striped Pyjamas.

Pre-quest. I dunno the ages or anything but they're not important, so lets just make something up. Hum :D Kili shall be aroud 60 so Fili is around 64. Perfect.

The mountain roads weren't the safest roads possible, but they weren't dangerous either. The roads which twisted and turned up high near the mountaintops were solid under your feet, but quite narrow from place to place. Still, not many dwarves fell from the road, if any. They were used to living on the mountains where you had to be careful and watch where you laid your foot, and so walking those kind of narrow paths wasn't hard for them.

But sometimes it wasn't up to your skills. Sometimes bad things happened out of bad luck and an even worse timing.

xx

Kili glanced up at the sky and frowned, reaching out with his free hand to feel if any raindrops were making their way towards the ground. Fili was walking in front of him, carrying a basket in his both hands. They had been ordered to deliver the baskets to one family who lived a few kilometers from their town - twelve, to be exact. It hadn't been a bad idea at first, so they had agreed, but now it looked like it would rain soon.

"The clouds look dark, what if a storm hits us?" Kili wondered out loud, lowering his arm and gripping the basket he was carrying a bit tighter.

"I doubt it", Fili answered and grinned, although Kili didn't see it. "They're not dark enough. Maybe it'll rain a little, but a storm? I don't think so."

"Yeah", the younger dwarf said as he took a few faster steps to reach his brother, "I hope you're right."

They had walked for nearly an hour, so they must have begun to reach half-way of their journey. For a few kilometers already they had walked on the narrow path, which had meant they couldn't walk side by side. Every few minutes Fili turned around to look at his brother for no reason at all - maybe to make sure Kili still followed him, maybe? Kili wasn't sure, but he didn't mind.

Their conversation led from the weather to other as meaningless things, and so they just chatted and walked on. Kili told his brother how he looked forward to summer, and Fili explained how he actually liked autumn more because of all the colors and rain.

The path had gotten even narrower and they really had to walk close to the mountain so the hard, cold stone scraped their skin a little. They were both used to it, since they had walked as narrow roads before, but it was still slightly annoying. Kili had just gotten a new shirt, and now the mountain teared small holes into the sleeves. Still, he didn't dare to move further from the mountain, because the edge was near and if you fell down, it'd probably kill you.

"I don't know which I prefer more", Kili said with a sigh. His arm was slowly turning numb from the weight of the basket. "I mean, both are good for different tasks. Bows are handy when it comes to hunting food or if you want to kill an enemy from far away, but a bow is no good if you're close to whatever you want to hurt. Swords, on the other hand-"

"Stop", Fili suddenly cried out and froze so quickly that Kili almost walked straight into him. "Did you feel that?" he asked, swinging around to face his smaller brother. His eyes were full of worry, and Kili knew that if Fili got concerned something really was wrong.

"Felt what?" Kili asked, looking around himself but saw nothing but mountain and the ground far below them. "Felt what, Fili!"

"The mountain shifted!" Fili explained, looking down at his feet. "I felt it. Didn't you?"

"No! Do you mean it shifted like in Balin's stories about the stone giants?" Kili asked, feeling his heart starting to race a little bit in his chest. Balin had never denied the truth behind the stories, so something in them must have been true - what if the whole thing with stone giants had been true after all, and they were about to get smashed by huge rocks?

Fili furrowed his brows and shook his head, looking like some part of him was amused under all that concern. "Those are only stories, Kili. No, I mean like an earthquak-"

The ground shook, and now Kili could feel it. The sudden movement under his feet was enough to make him fall onto the stone and let out a scared cry - but it didn't stop there. As Fili helped Kili on his feet, the mountain trembled beneath them, not as hard anymore but still quite hard.

Kili and Fili leaned against the mountain next to each other, unsure what to do. "Maybe it'll pass!" Kili said, feeling another violent shake. Some loose rocks fell from the mountain, clinking and clanking against the stone as they made their way down the abrupt hill.

"I hope so", Fili replied and glanced up, where the mountaintop was.

For a minute or so they stood there, not moving, not speaking, just waiting for something to happen. The seconds moved as slowly as minutes would, and the silence was unbearable. Kili hoped for the best, that it had stopped now and nothing bad would happen to them, but he expected worse. He had never experienced an earthquake in his life, but he had heard of many and he knew that they were bad. They just didn't shake the rock a little and then go away - no, they didn't leave without leaving destruction behind.

Finally Fili opened his mouth. "Maybe it passed", he said, his voice not more than a whisper, and glanced at his little brother. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah", Kili muttered and nodded. "Should we.. should we continue? Or do we go back home?"

"I don't know", Fili sighed, relaxing a little. "I think we should just continue. Their house is closer than home anyways."

Kili nodded, biting his lower lip as he glanced down at his feet, only to notice his basket was nowhere to be seen. "Oh, Mahal", he groaned and stepped forward just so little that he could peek down from the path. There his basket was, lying on a ledge. All the foods were spread on it, but nothing looked broken.

Raising another eyebrow, Fili first glanced at his brother and then down as well.

"It must have fell down when I fell", Kili said and backed from the edge, his back meeting the mountain wall again.

"It doesn't matter, Kili. But the ledge is too far, we can't reach it from here", Fili told his brother and backed as well, not wanting to risk falling down. "We'll just leave it."

"Mom will be mad at me for dropping it", Kili sighed and ran his hands through his hair.

"There's nothing we can do to save it, and it wasn't your fault anyways. She'll just be glad it's the basket down there and not you."

"Yeah.."

"So, do we continue?"

"Sure", Kili answered and reached out to take the other basket from Fili's hands. And so they continued their travel.

They couldn't travel far, though, maybe a couple of hundred meters at tops, before the mountain shook again, stronger than before. The brothers both cried out a little as they quickly flattened themselves against the mountain, their bodies shaking with the mountain. Stones fell down onto them and all around them, hitting their heads and shoulders, stinging unpleasantly.

A violent shake shook through the mountain, and the brothers looked at each other - their hearts were racing in their chests as the mountain shook even harder and the noise grew louder and louder to the point where Kili wanted placed his hands over his ears, but didn't.

Then a loud crashing sound echoed from the above, and the brothers glanced up just in time to see a huge rock falling towards them.

"No!" Kili cried out and tried to jump to the side just as the rock hit him to his side, the weight pushing him down onto the path in half a second. Then the path was gone, and all Kili could see before his body slammed against the hard mountainside was a mop of golden hair just above him, and then it was only pain everywhere in his body.

The time he spent falling and hitting the mountainside felt like an eternity even though he was only half conscious- his body slammed against the stony side of the mountain again and again as he rolled down the hill, and sometimes he even fell freely through the air only to be hit against a sharp rock again.

I'm going to die, Kili thought as his body hit the mountain again, I'm going to die here because of that stupid earthquake-

Somewhere during his fall he must have closed his eyes because suddenly Kili realized it was dark, and when he opened them again all he could see was the dark clouds on the sky. Then his body hit something solid again and Kili cried out, there was a sharp, white pain in the back of his head and then it was dark again.

xx

It didn't take long for him to wake up. Well, he didn't know how long he had been unconscious, but once he was half awake the pain made sure to wake him fully up in seconds.

He shot up, breathing heavily. A wave of pain flashed through his upper body and he doubled, groaning. Thankfully the hot pain only lasted for a couple of seconds before it faded into a throbbing ache.

It was dark around him, almost so dark that he couldn't see his own arm in front of him, but luckily only 'almost'.

I'm alive, was the first thought that crossed his mind, and suddenly he was laughing of relief. I'm alive! It was so unbelievable feeling - he had been certain he would die, he hit stones and rocks and the stupid mountain so many times that it was a surprise he had actually survived it.

He noticed that his left arm was kind of stiff, and he guessed that he had broken it during his fall - but it didn't hurt too much, so it didn't bother him. What did bother him was that he could feel his face being all swollen, especially the right side of it. He couldn't open his right eye too well, which could only mean one thing. He could also feel wounds and cuts all over his face, as they burned a little.

"Kili!" suddenly echoed from somewhere a bit further away, and it sounded like it came from the below. Kili blinked a few times, and looked around himself - he was on a ledge of some kind, just barely big enough for Kili to lay on it. As he glanced down, slowly not to hurt himself any more or to cause himself pain, he noticed that he couldn't see the bottom of the mountain, which meant that he was still high on the mountain.

"Kili!" echoed out Fili's voice again, desperate this time. "Kili, answer me!"

"I'm okay!" Kili yelled, unsure of where his brother was. He could hear him, but not see - was Fili really that far from him? "Are you okay? Where are you! I can't see you!"

As he yelled out the last question, he instinctively felt the back of his head which ached the most. Carefully he pressed his head and a sudden wave of pain shot from his head down his pain, and with a hiss he pulled his hand back. He felt warm blood on his fingertips, and quickly wiped them off to his shirt.

"My leg is probably broken, but otherwise I'm good", Fili finally replied, and a small smile rose on Kili's lips. They were alive. They made it. "I can't see you either, Kili. I'm on a ledge of some kind below you, I think. Are you- are you sure you're okay? Did you break any bones?"

"I'm not sure, but I think my left shoulder might be broken", Kili told his brother and groaned. "Could you see me if I peek down from where I am?"

"I don't know, maybe?" Fili answered from wherever he was, and so Kili moved to the side a little and looked down once again. "Yeah, I do see you! Just barely, but I do! You're maybe twenty meters above me, and slightly to the left."

Kili half grinned, half smirked and nodded. "Maybe I should climb down to you?"

"Why would you do that!" Fili instantly replied, his voice concerned. "I can't climb up with my leg, be it with or without you, and there's still a long way down. And what if you fell again? We can't risk that, Kili, we barely survived that fall!"

Sighing, Kili backed away from the edge and let his body fall onto the stone. "I guess you're right. But what do we do? We can't just wait here for the help to come- it could take hours for them to worry about us and another hour for them to travel here, and I'm not even mentioning the time they'd spend trying to find us and help us."

"Yeah.." Fili muttered, inaudible to Kili. "Maybe you could climb up and get them?"

Glancing up, Kili sighed. He could barely see the path up there, and even though he was a good climber and the mountainside was fairly easy to climb if you just knew where to step, it would be hard with a hurt arm and in the almost complete darkness. But maybe it was doable. Just maybe.

As the younger one didn't answer, Fili spoke. "Kili? You there?"

"I'm here", Kili answered and let out a long huff. "I'll do it", he continued, mainly because he knew he had to do it. He doubted he could do it, but he had to do it and that was enough. Fili needed him.

"Just be really careful", Fili told his brother, and Kili nodded even though he knew perfectly well Fili couldn't see it. "Climb directly on top of your ledge, so if you fall you won't fall a long way."

"I know, I know", Kili answered and shifted on the ledge. His whole body ached and he couldn't move his left arm, but he would have to do it.

I can do it, Kili thought to himself as he prepared himself for standing up. It won't be that hard. I'll just use my right hand and find steady rocks to place my feet on.. I can do it.

So.. what'd you like? We'll see some familiar characters in the next part ;)