An old dwarf sat his table polishing his sword he had earned while in the guards at Erebor when he felt a sharp tug on his beard coming from beneath the table. He pushed his chair back and stood up to find a tiny little dwarfling swinging happily from the end hanging just at his middle. Sofin let out a rumbling laugh and scooped the small child into his arms. It was his granddaughter Sif he had claimed care of her after her parents had been killed in a raid by goblins on their trade route through the Greenwood.
"Now Sif what are you doing out of bed, it's late and you need your sleep."
"I wanted to see your sword!"
Sofin was taken back by her answer "My sword? Whatever for girl"
"Can you teach me to use it?"
"Teach you!? I don't think so sweetheart, swords are not for young ones and especially not ladies, what would your mother think?" Unfortunately Sofin knew his daughter, Sofi; Sif's mother would have encouraged her daughter to pursue anything she had wanted to do.
"But I want to be a great fighter like you Papa! That way I can always protect you and everyone else I love"
"No No, why don't you leave the fighting to me and the guards eh? You just continue to be sweet"
"Alright" And with that Sif scurried back to bed, and after Sofin had finished polishing his blade he put it onto the highest shelf he could think of… just in case. But it did no good, he found Sif playing with it the next day. Swinging it high above her head and putting dents in all of the furniture. He scolded her, punished her, his it wherever he could but it was no use wherever he hid his sword Sif would quickly find it and take to slashing it about. So finally Sofin decided it was just better to teach her how to use it so she wouldn't damage any else in their home.
Many years passed and Sif became proficient with a sword one of the best her grandfather had ever seen. So she knew that somehow she had to make it into the guards training camp. She had written and begged Dwalin the captain of the training camp to let her enter, but he had refused; saying there was no place for a woman among the guard. She had bested most of those already in training while skirmishing between classes; she knew if they could only just see her skill they would surely have to let her in. So on the first day of training Sif sat amongst the new recruits, wearing her father's old clothes and a beard made of combed sheep's wool glued to her face. As long as no one looked closely she passed fairly well for a male dwarf youth.
Dwalin walked into the arena and eyed his new students, in the middle on the front bench he saw Thorin son of Thrain, his prince; who was now old enough to begin his battle training and his father requested that he take the training with the rest of the dwarven youth. Dwalin bowed low to the prince before stepping back and addressing everyone.
"LISTEN UP!" All eyes turned to Dwalin and mouths closed "This is your first day here, many of you will not be cut out for guards service, so to go ahead and weed out those who just don't have it we are going to have a bracket competition, you will pair up and myself and the other instructors will watch. If you win you move on, if you lose we will determine if you have the potential to learn or will just be wasting our time. Everyone understand?" Heads nodded. "Good, lets get to it"
