"Fili, Thorin, look! Look what I've found!"

Kili came bounding out of the forest, a bundle tucked under the thick folds of his coat. The rest of the dwarves were eating, having waited for him as long as they could on Thorin's request (more like orders, Bofur would like to say, but he knows better than to voice any such opinions aloud). By the time he shows up, a half-circle of dwarves has formed around the fire; only Fili and Thorin have taken to pacing behind them, their food untouched and quite cold at the bottom of the pan.

"What's that you got there, Kili?"

His eyes glittering, Kili unravels the swaddle of cloth in his arms. The dwarves (and one very curious hobbit) peer over hats and through tufts of beard to have a look at their youngest companion's prize - only to gasp as they see, without a doubt in their minds, that it is a sleeping child tucked into the crook of Kili's arm. Bombur rubs his eyes, grease left glistening in his thick red brow.

Incredulous, Thorin shakes his head, muttering under his breath for a long moment before he speaks aloud. "No, no, no – no I think not." He growls, wrenching the small, pale creature from his nephew's grasp. "Kili, you are going to take this – thing and put it back where you found it! It's mother is missing it already, I'm sure."

No sooner had Thorin cradled it into the crook of his arms, a high, piercing keen began to fill the air. The dwarves clapped their hands over their ears, wincing as the cruel sound shattered the restful quiet. Ori, his ears infinitely more delicate than the rest of them, quickly pulls his hood over his head to drown it out.

"Too late for that," Bofur drawls thickly from behind them, palms still tucked firmly against his head. "Looks as though it's taken a keen liking to its rescuer already!"

"I found it all alone," Kili reclaims the baby from his uncle, bouncing it in his arms as if it were the most natural thing in the world. "I would be leaving it to its death!"

"We've enough on our hands as it is, with thirteen dwarves and a burglar to see safely to Erebor," Dwalin interjects, drawing pointed looks from both Kili and Thorin. "Danger lurking 'round every corner, barely enough to feed the lot of us as it is. How d'you suppose we go about concealing a mewling infant, much less feeding it?"

Kili's eyes go wide as saucers. "I found it! The task falls to me, naturally."

"Silence, Kili." At the sound of his uncle's deep, rumbling voice, Kili's mouth clamps shut with a snap. The others look on from their half-circle around the fire, an air of impatience settling over the company as they await their leader's decision.

"We will take it as far as the next village, wherever that may be," says Thorin. "There is no other choice, is there? Otherwise we will leave it to fend for itself. Granted, this is all very untimely, but we will manage…it would be cruel to do otherwise."

Kili sinks to the fallen trunk of birch wood behind him, now bouncing the child on his knee instead. Without making a sound, Bilbo had crept over to the log where the young dwarf sat, his head crooked to the side curiously.

They all watch from behind the fire. "Perhaps," Bofur pipes up from amongst the company. "It would be best to have Fili do the scoutin' from now on."