Little Sister

The Battle of the Five Armies had come and gone, and miraculously, all of the members of the Company had made it through in (mostly) one piece. Work on restoring Erebor to habitable conditions was well on its way, and things were finally beginning to settle down. Though most everyone who had survived the battle had been injured in some way, these too were beginning to heal. And of course, nothing could stop Fili and Kili’s boundless energy. Kili’s crutch and Fili’s arm being in a sling hadn’t stopped them from dashing around to explore every nook and cranny of their Mountain the minute Oin had declared them well enough to leave their beds. Thorin, too, was not about to let a little thing like a fractured rib or two prevent him from doing his duties as King Under the Mountain.

Which was why Thorin found himself standing near the front gate at a ridiculously early hour of the morning, waiting to greet a caravan of dwarves that had come from the Blue Mountains. A group which included his little sister.

Dis was the last of the group to cross over the threshold and into the Lonely Mountain. Most of the others were already being ushered this way and that, and there was the general flurry of activity when groups of people arrive anywhere.

Did spotted her brother immediately, and marched straight over to him. Before Thorin could utter so much as a single syllable, she smacked him across the face. Hard.

Bilbo and a few of the other members of the Company had been hanging around the Front Gate as well. Partly to watch people arrive, but mostly because they didn’t really have anything better to do, and didn’t feel like working this early in the morning. So several dwarves and a hobbit all jumped about a foot in the air as a loud CRACK echoed across the room. The all spun around to see Thorin slowly bring his hand up to the side of his face, all the while never looking away from the furious dwarf woman standing in front of him.

“THORIN OAKENSHIELD!!”

Thorin winced and attempted to prepare himself for the tirade that he knew was coming.

As the king’s sister ranted at her elder brother, Bilbo and the others crept marginally closer, the better to witness this fantastic event, but not so close as to unintentionally draw themselves into the line of fire as well. After all, it isn’t every day that one gets to see the great Thorin Oakenshield cringing away from someone else’s wrath.

“Uh, who... who is that?” Bilbo whispered to the dwarves.

“Ah, now that would be Dis, sister to Thorin Oakenshield and mother of Fili and Kili,” answered Bofur, grinning.

“Oh,” said Bilbo, looking back at the two. Yes. Yes, he could definitely see the resemblance.

After what seemed like an eternity for poor Thorin, Dis finally seemed to be winding down.

“--and if you ever drag my sons into something like this ever again, I promise you, king or not, you will not live to regret it!!”

This last sentence was accented by several vicious jabs to the poor dwarf king’s chest.

“Now, where are my sons?”

“Uh,” Thorin spluttered, attempting to gather his wits in order to form a coherent response.

Now, luckily, Fili and Kili had happened to wander into the hall a few moments before.

“Mum?” Fili said in surprise, stopping as he realized just who it was talking to their uncle.

Fili and Kili looked at each other, grinned and, both dignity and injuries forgotten, shouted “Mum!” and ran to hug their mother, who had pushed her brother out of her way as soon as she had heard the voice of her eldest.

As (most) of the little family was having their happy reunion, Bilbo walked up beside Thorin, trying (and failing) to hide his laughter at what had just happened to the dwarf king.

“So-” he said brightly.

Thorin glared at him, and was slightly annoyed to find that, despite the incident with the Arkenstone at the Front Gate, the hobbit continually seemed to be becoming more and more immune to (i.e. less frightened by) such tactics.

The hobbit was still grinning at him in a disturbingly cheerful manner, and doing an appallingly terrible job at hiding his laughter.

“Do you have any sisters, Master Baggins?” Thorin grumbled.

“Well, no, bu-”

“Then shut up.”