#7806

“A Long & Quiet Darkness”

Chapter 25 - “Letters Home”

on AO3

The morning saw two very concerned-looking Dwarves staring at a small roll of thin parchment that had come to them by way of raven from Erebor. The very same bird which was now hopping about on the stone terrace outside of their room quietly muttering to itself, having finished off the last of their breakfast tray. Fili and Frerin bent over, foreheads touching, like two worried dwarflings as they read the words in Inanda’s elegant script:

My most beloved Frerin, I am saddened to read your homecoming is to be delayed. I can only say how relieved we are to know you are only held over in Dale, and not come to some harm or misadventure. Kili and I will have only each other’s company until your return. We shall try to be good. Your Ûrzudel, Inanda.

And underneath that in Kili’s careful printing was:

Fili Ukrad, we miss you so much and hope you come home soon. Inanda and I are friends now and she is teaching me things. Please come back soon, Kili.

Zacharia stopped his work to read over their shoulders. “You are fucked.”

Fili sat up and glared at him. “Thank you for that.”

Frerin nodded without looking up. “I agree, we are fucked.”

“Because they are friends?” asked Paavo from his bed.

“Because we have lost all control over the situation,” Frerin waved the parchment at him. “See this? They wrote their letters on the same piece of parchment. That means they did it together.”

Oin chuckled where he was reading by the window. “You two are outnumbered.”

“How are they friends?” Fili asked his cousin in desperation. “When did this happen?”

“I don’t know!” Frerin glared at the parchment. “When they were doing… Omega... things?”

Paavo laughed. “But isn’t that a good thing?”

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