Title: Ublar
Fandom: The Hobbit
Rating: G
Length: 300
Content notes: N/A
Author notes: Title is the Khuzdul word for ability or right. Thanks go to Zana, Morgynleri & Icka for encouragement & sanity-checking.
Summary: Neither health nor fitness supersede right




That there were those who questioned Thorin's health was not surprise -- even for one of Aulë's children or Eru's Firstborn the wounds he had suffered were such that few indeed might hope to recover. It was annoying certainly, and some of the questioners seemed to be asking not out of actual concern for Thorin, but out of less than high or selfless reasons. But people with an eye to advancing their own interests were hardly uncommon, and would need to be dealt with under any circumstances.

That there were those who questioned Thorin's fitness as a ruler was equally no surprise, though even more annoying and with fewer ways that concerns or accusations might be addressed. It was true that Thorin had been King more in name and potential than autocratic or legislative fact, that he knew more of forging iron and steel than alliances and treaties, had overseen more camps than courts, wielded sword and axe far more often than sceptre or rod. One could not refute the suspicion of madness in the Line of Durin, or fear of a lingering taint of dragon-fever with words, only actions over time.

No, health, fitness, experience, temper, all those were aspects of Thorin as related to kingship that could be questioned, however frustrating or intrusive or downright rude and infuriating those questions might be. They were in fact things Thorin questioned of himself, in the privacy of his own mind, the bleakest hours of the night, waking from dreams of dragon-fire and the failure of desperate chances. He did not know if he could or would be the King Under the Mountain he hoped and wished, though he certainly meant to try.

His right to reign, to rule, to be King Under the Mountain though, that was not up for question.