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No one saw this coming. No one could have calculated for it. Bofur certainly tried when he inspected it, this new mine. He thought he found every fault, ever frissue but all it took was Kili pressing to hard at the sapphire, the only reason he came as well, for the whole thing to come down around him. Bofur and several other miners were preparing to follow him in when Kili yelled out for everyone to stay where they were. It was easy to hear when they were listen, the shifting and sliding of rocks. The prince looked at the exit, making a run for it, but was too slow. Bofur watched in deafening horror as Kili was entombed in stone. It took too long for the panic to start, silence stretching on both sides of the stone. By the time Bofur made it over to the mouth of the mine there was no sure way to move the stone safely. The structure is unstable, even one ill guided moved stone could cause the whole mine to fall. Not that they didn’t know. Bofur’s stone sense couldn’t give him a full picture, he needed Bofur here.
But first he called out to the trapped prince. “Kili? Kili can you hear me?”
Relief sagged through him when a quiet voice responded, humor lifting the younger dwarf’s voice. “Yeah Bofur, I can hear you. I’m okay. No injuries here. But it’s going to get stale fast. Hurry up and get me out? I think Legolas will understand if I don’t use that gem for his ring.” Bofur laugh lightly and with no humor, having sent dwarves to alert everyone who needed to be. The stone wall was large, and he would wager impassable.
Legolas arrived quickly, having been in a meeting with Thorin and Fili when one of the miners, escorted by Kili’s guard, arrived to tell them what happen. Panic courses though him. He heard only that Kili was entombed, locked inside the stone. Nothing more. He missed the fear on Fili’s face, the heartbreak on Thorin’s. There were half a dozen dwarves there when he arrived, pushing his way closer. He could feel Kili, feel the warm and gentle pull he always did when they were so close. Their bond was a strong one, something Legolas was more great fil for than ever before. He could barely breathe, knowing he couldn’t reach out for /his/ dwarf. To hold him. Comfort him. He wanted to press his hands on the stones but Bofur stopped him, grabbing the slender wrists.
“Prince Legolas. The stone isn’t stable. If it’s moved wrong, pressed wrong that would be the end. You can stay but touch nothing. If we hope to get him out at all we need only those with a strong stone sense moving anything.”
Legolas jolted, not realizing the situation was so dire. Still, Kili felt strong on the other side of the newly minted mausoleum, he couldn’t worry. His voice was strong, much more sure than the miner’s words left him feeling as he speaks to Kili. “Meleth nin? How are you?”
A flash of warmth and a shuffle of feet proceed the muffled tremor of Kili’s voice. “Legolas? Amralime, why did you come? You should be waiting with my family?”
Legolas would be angry if he wasn’t sure Kili’s joy at knowing he was here trumped the annoyance at the breaking of protocol. “Because my Kili I can’t just sit and wait for you. I won’t. If I can be of some help I will. If I must dig you out myself I will.”
Legolas gracefully lowers himself to the ground, tucked into a small corner, out of the way of the miners working in their rescue mission. He recognized the leader, it was hard with the axe gone to recall him, but Legolas remembers Kili telling him that this dwarf has the best stone sense in the mountain.
The couple talked quietly, Legolas doing his best to keep Kili’s spirits up as they quickly moved through the hours. The rescue was slow, slower than he would have liked. Painful almost. It was hard to watch, with bated breath, as the dwarves moved each stone with a meticulous rhythm. He heard rocks slide, watched the miners call to move back. He heard Kili shift inside his cage, felt the warmth of the pull get tinged with fear. Dread sank in.
At the 8 hour mark Bofur came over again, his face grim in a hard set line, he ignored Legolas beyond a sad nod. Facing the stone his voice rose, loud enough all those present could hear and shaking with the undercurrent of pain Legolas hoped was not certain. “Prince Kili? As we move into the ninth out I come to ask if you wish for a priest to join us.”
Legolas held his breath. A priest? For dwarves they were used only for momentous occasions; births, weddings, and deaths. Legolas hoped he would say no, prayed quickly and thoughtlessly that Kili hadn’t given up. The sigh that follows shattered this porcelain hope.
“Aye Bofur, a priest if you would. At hour eleven tell my family.” The hard expression on Kili’s former companion, on his friend, was lost. The mask slipped and Legolas’ heart broke. This was it. Everyone has accepted that this was no longer a rescue but a recovery.
Bofur looked at Legolas then back to the great wall. Legolas knew what was coming next. Sending him away. But he resolved himself not to leave and a flare of warmth came from Kili.
“Prince Kili? Your betrothed is here, shall we escort him to your family?” Legolas closed his eyes and waited for the fight, finger itching towards the dagger in his boot.
“No Bofur, let Legolas stay. It’s a comfort to having here with me.” Legolas sighed and Bofur looked at him again, this time with pity. Legolas nodded at him and the dwarf sighed before moving back to the growing mass of rescuers.
Kili’s voice is weak as it echoes out of the stone, for different from before Bofur approached. “Legolas? I’m sorry to ask you to stay with me.”
Legolas shook his head, clenching his fist to keep from reaching for Kili. “Meleth nin, they would have to drag me away. When you get out of here we are going to have a long talk about what reckless thing you can and can’t do.”
Kili sighs, the warmth is fading into a blue coldness that Legolas didn’t think was possible for dwarves. “Legolas, I love you. But, I’m not leaving this mine shaft alive. You do know this. An hour ago maybe but- The air is thin now. The priest is coming to see me gone. I-I am sorry for making you stay.”
Legolas bites his lip, eyes filling with tears and he is silent. No response is adequate, Kili does his best to send some warmth though their bond, but it falls flat.
“Legolas? I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have come here, I was so excited and I-“
Legolas shakes his head, pressing a hand to his chest. “You don’t have to apologize for anything. Nothing Kili. And you will live. We will see you through this. You are going to live, Kili.”
They don’t argue any longer, the priest arrives quickly. He too only spared Legolas a passing pitied glance. Legolas listens in a daze as Kili and the priest speak to one another. He understands little, the dwarven tongue still unknown to him. But he can feel Kili fading. The pull lessens in the most painful way, as if it was ricocheted back into his own chest.
Eventually Bofur makes his way back over. “It is hour ten.” He is gone as soon as he speaks.
The priest bows his head to the stone and backs away. “I will not be far. Call for me, young prince, when you are tired.”
Legolas leaned against the only stone he could, the one immovable wall. He listened in silent to Kili’s harsh breathing- the agony setting in. Kili, his Kili, faded more and more as each moment passed. He felt the warmth slip, Kili’s precense. After nearly another out a sore, weak voice reached Legolas, a tribute to his elven hearing.
“Legolas? Amralime? Will you call for the priest?”
Legolas looked to the miners, counting the stones, watching. He waved the priest over who nodded and whispered back.
“Kili? Hold on, please. a quarter hour and you are free. Please my love.”
The priest asked Legolas to move, and he went to aid the miners in any way he could. Five minutes past and a grave faced priest stood, leaving Kili alone. Legolas felt a wash of cold. But cold meant Kili lived still.
Five more minutes and the cold steeped into his bones, Legolas felt hollow. Empty and forgotten.
Another five and they broke though, Legolas was on his feet and through the opening. Stepping in Legolas felt his world shatter, Kili in the corner, and curled around a sapphire, pulled to his chest.
Bofur’s voice echoed into the room “Legolas? Get him out here! Before it falls again. Please!”
Legolas scooped up his dwarf, biting his lip against the sob buried in his throat. He couldn’t breathe. Sound faded away as he carried Kili from his grave, pulling him from the earth felt wrong. Leaving him felt worse. And when they were a safe distance away Legolas fell to his knees, pulling Kili right to his chest. Searching for warmth and screaming in unmatched agony when all that came back was the recoiled snap of a now broken bond.