As the dust settled and the people's cries faded on the wind, three figures stood alone in the ruins of their ancestral home.
To the left, a small woman held her son close to her, not minding his frightened wails a fig, just grateful he was alive.
To the right, a great hulking bear of a man cradled an infant to his chest in one hand and held a little boy by the other.
In the middle, the eldest felt the weight of the world, and all his new responsibilities, sink slowly onto his shoulders.
"Thorin," his sister's cracked and grieving voice and her soft little hand on his shoulder broke him of his reverie, "it's almost nightfall. We have to move."
He gazed blankly down at the confused masses below and heaved a sigh.
"You're right. Come, let's take the children to Father."
Clucking softly to the little boy at her heels like a hen gathering her chicks, Dis took her son by the hand and began down the rocky path to where they'd left their father and grandfather to rest.
The youngest of the royal trio gazed down at the babe nestled against his chest. "Are you sure there's been no word of her? Has no one seen my Val?"
Thorin placed a consoling hand on his brother's shoulder. "I'm sorry, Frerin. If we could stay and look for every lost soul, we would. But we must look after the survivors first. You must care for Valka's children."
The great lumbering ox bowed his head, completely hollowed with grief. "Can we not wait another day?"
Thorin sighed, taking his little nephew by the hand. "Frerin, you know we cannot. The people need food and water and shelter. We cannot think only of ourselves."
"I'M NOT-" Frerin cut himself off, reminding himself of the babe who somehow slept through all the commotion, "-I'm not thinking of myself at all, brother. I'm thinking of Valka and the boy and this babe who needs her mother, Thorin."
Equally grieved but grave, Thorin gave his brother a sharp look. "Frerin, yours are not the only children who have lost their mother. We cannot stay here and risk the dragon's reemergence while we try to salvage every last body from the wreckage. I'm sorry, Frerin, I truly am, but we have to move." He clapped a hand on his brother's shoulder and made his way down the incline after their sister.
Frerin took deep, steadying breaths, clenching his free fist until his knuckles went white, trying to harness his grief in his children's presence. "Ada?" His little son pulled at the bottom of his coat. "Where's Ami?"
Frerin knelt and brushed his boy's hair out of his face the way Valka used to in an attempt to calm both himself and the poor boy. "Valkrin, Amad isn't coming back."
"Did the dragon get her?" Poor little Valkrin's lip trembled at the thought.
Frerin took his son by the shoulders and gave him a gentle, reproachful shake. "No. No, Valkrin, that beast never touched a hair on Ama's head. She's just gone to stay with Ugmil-Amad at Mahal's house. Do you understand?"
Valkrin reached out and petted his sister's downy head in lieu of an answer. "Is Ama going to miss Valkris? I think Valkris is gonna miss Ama, even if she is too little."
Frerin's heart broke. How was he supposed to answer that?
"Son, I think your Ama is going to miss you and Valkris even more than you miss her. Never, ever forget how much Ama loves you, Valkrin."
As if irritated that she wasn't the center of attention anymore, the infant Valkris let out a cranky, disgruntled wail. Her brother started, eyes wide and worried.
"Is she okay, Ada?" Frerin pet his little girl's back and rocked her back and forth in his great big arms.
"Yes, Valkrin, I think she'll be alright. Just scared and tired, I think is all." Big brother instincts kicked in and little Valkrin reached up and pulled off the sooty blanket-like garment he'd been wearing and handed it to his father.
"Here, Ada. It's Ami's shawl and it still smells like her. Maybe Ris will like it." Floored by his son's selfless, innocent goodwill, Frerin took the enormous white garment, trimmed in gold and flowers of all colors, and wrapped it around poor little Valkris. She stilled, breathing heavily, then her mouth began working as if nursing, connecting the smell with the mother with the innate sense of safety.
Frerin almost broke down then and there with the realization that this shawl was the closest his children would ever get to their mother again.
He felt so helpless with his crying children, he always had, since the day Valkrin was born. Valka, sweet blessed Valka, would smile reassuringly, take the babe, and settle herself into his lap or chest or arms and let him wrap himself around her so they could soothe their babe together.
Taking even, deep breaths, Frerin nestled Valkris into the dip between his bicep and pectoral, letting her tiny hands settle in the fur of his cloak. He took Valkrin up in his other arm. He was loathe to let them out of his sight for even a heartbeat.
Dis awaited him at the bottom of the incline, her son tugging on her hands. "Amaaaaaa, I'm hungryyyyy," She visibly bit her tongue, patience clearly wearing thin.
"I know, my dove, we're all hungry. Be patient." Her son Fili just pouted and rested his head against her side. She ran her fingers through his mussed hair and he closed his eyes. Her eyes, desperate and scared and worried, met Frerin's.
"What are we going to do?" She whispered, hefting Fili up onto her hip. He shook his head, dropping an absent kiss onto Valkris's hair.
"I'm as frightened as you are, Dis. Thorin, he's incredibly brave and capable, and I trust him, but-"
"I know you trust him, Frerin, how could we not?"
"Let me finish, Dis," Frerin said impatiently as they picked their way down the path, "I trust Thorin and his judgment, but he is not a father. He has no children. He can't see this the way you and I do, Dis."
Dis frowned, clearly in agreement, but loathe to admit even the smallest doubt in their brother. "He has much on his mind, Frerin."
He nodded, and pieces of debris fell from his hair onto his shoulders. Valkrin picked a small bit of masonry off of his father's broad chest and rolled it over in his hands, wondering what part of the mountain it was from.
"I know that, and I've no reason to doubt him, but I worry that with Grandfather whispering in his ear, our brother may falter."
Dis whipped her head around to look into his eyes, her steely gaze something Frerin had learned to fear very early in his childhood. Even now, as a grown man, it sent a shiver down his spine.
"Hold your tongue," she hissed, "From your mouth to Mahal's ears. I chose to hope that now, away from the gold," she paused, trying to figure out how to phrase it delicately, "he will...return to us." Frerin frowned, but Dis wasn't finished. "I refuse to believe otherwise."
Frerin glanced down at his sister. They still hadn't found her husband, Vili, and he knew she was just as frightened and worried and stressed as he. "We'll find him," he murmured, knowing what she needed to hear.
She inhaled shakily and nodded, holding Fili a little tighter. "Of course we will. And we'll find Val, too." She tacked the last bit on as an afterthought, and Frerin's heart sank a little further.
They both knew Valka wasn't coming back, but neither would be the first to say it.
At the bottom of the path, Thorin, Thrain, and Thror waited for them. Their mother, Dara, clung to her husband's arm with trembling fingers and wide, panicky eyes. In her youth, she'd been a strong, vivacious woman who braved Thrain's temper and gave back as good as she got, but after an accident in the mines that left her trapped for two days, she was left a jumpy, anxious shell.
It broke Frerin's heart to see her reduced to this every time he looked at her.
Dara let go of Thrain's arm just long enough to brush her fingers over Fili's cheek, take Valkrin's little hand in hers, and run her knuckles gently along Valkris's chubby arm. Satisfied that her grandchildren were well and in one piece, she retreated back to Thrain's waiting arms.
Frerin had to wonder if some of the woman she once was still remained, waiting, in the back of her mind.
Once satisfied that all the Durins were present and accounted for - save Vili and Valka - the remnants of the once mighty family trekked to the secluded area where a tent city had been temporarily erected while the people searched for their lost loved ones.
Thrain's tent left room for only Thror and Dara to join him, so Frerin, Thorin, and Dis bade them goodnight and wandered the city a while longer until they came to their own tent, shared between the six of them. It had been intended for eight, but...no, Frerin wouldn't think of her. He couldn't, not yet.
Thorin set about making a fire to busy his hands and mind. Dis took the boys to get them cleaned for bed and Frerin attempted to entice wee Valkris with a clay bottle filled with goat's milk. This sorry substitute would have to do until he found either Valka or a wet nurse. He prayed it was the former.
Valkris, however, was not one to settle for less than she'd come to expect, and spat out the goat's milk with an almighty wail. Frerin cursed and wiped her face dry. "Dis!" He called frantically over his shoulder, "Dis, she won't take it!"
She sighed, grabbing Valkrin by the back of the tunic as he attempted to escape her bedtime efforts. "Just let her adjust, Frerin. She won't take immediately because she doesn't understand why it's different. Just - Fili, try that again and I'll send you to Grandfather so fast your head will still be spinning next week - give it another go, let her try it again."
Frerin heaved a sigh as she went back to wrestling their boys. "Come on, Val," he crooned, hoping his voice might calm her enough to take the milk, "I know you want Ami, but this is all I've got to give you right now."
Mahal help him, he'd never felt so damned helpless in his life as Valkris ignored him completely and kept on wailing.
"Here," Thorin's deep rumble was a welcome contrast to the chaos around them. "Let me try." Frerin gladly handed his screeching infant over to her uncle.
Thorin took her gently, turning her so that her head was on his shoulder and her feet hung at his ribs, nearly the opposite of how Frerin had been holding her. He rubbed her back gently, rocking her back and forth and letting her little fists close around one of his dangling braids. Valkris's wails receded to sniffles in her uncle's embrace.
Frerin gaped. "How-"
Thorin just smirked and held out a hand for the bottle. Dumbly, Frerin watched as Thorin deftly slid it into her little mouth and, after a moment's confusion, began drinking greedily.
"She just didn't like being held like a sack of potatoes, Frerin, that's all." The younger Durin let his head fall into his hands and rubbed his eyes wearily.
"I can't do this without Val, Thorin. I'm hopeless with her, I'm hopeless with them both. I'm not...I'm not a good enough father, Thorin."
Thorin scowled. "Don't you say that, Frerin, you're a wonderful father. Just because Valkris cries doesn't mean you're hopeless. You're just out of practice. Valkrin adores you, Frerin. Would he feel that way if you were truly a bad father, hm?"
Frerin nodded, watching his baby girl in his brother's arms. "Val always knew what to do with them. I just, I never know the way she did."
Thorin frowned. "What do you mean?"
"Valkris would cry in the middle of the night, and Val just knew, right away if she was hungry, or wet, or frightened before she even got out of bed! I don't even know how to change her if she's wet."
He was comforted by a pair of arms wrapping around his neck. He peered over his shoulder and found Dis watching him with badly suppressed mirth in her eyes. "I'll teach you whatever you need to know." She looked up and smiled at Thorin. "The three of us, together, can and will survive anything."
Finally, Valkris fell asleep in Thorin's arms, and he promptly handed her over to an amusingly uncomfortable Frerin to put to bed. He settled her in a nest of sorts made of Valka's shawl and Frerin's fur cape. He brushed one rough, scarred knuckle over her soft, round cheek and left her to sleep.
The Durin siblings sat around the fire in an easy silence. It felt fitting not to talk, or laugh on a night like this, when so many were dead or missing. Thorin was just putting on some water to boil when a runner came from the Healers' tent to inform Dis that Vili was alive, but in their care. She shot one sorry, guilty look at a still wife-less Frerin, and darted off into the night to sit with Vili.
Thorin sat up late into the night, just watching his little brother stare into the leaping flames, completely lost to the world. He remembered the day Valka and Frerin met, how she took a great bumbling giant of a dwarf masquerading as a prince and made him into a confident, dashing, heroic, romantic husband and wonderful father.
She'd blessed them all since the moment she waltzed into their lives. She'd helped Dis and Vili adjust to parenthood, taught Thorin to balance his work while maintaining his sanity, even helped Dara when panic seized her in her dark moments.
Thorin and Frerin were jolted from their reveries when Valkrin, out of bed against his Auntie Dis's express orders, tugged on his father's sleeve. "Ada, I can't sleep."
Frerin hefted the boy into his lap, smoothing back his curls and noting his flushed cheeks, hoping it was the heat of the fire and not fever.
"Nightmares, Valkrin?"
The little boy nodded, and Frerin wished he was able to march into that mountain and slaughter that thrice-damned dragon with his bare hands for taking his wife and giving his little boy nightmares.
He took a deep breath, calming his temper and wrapped his arms around his son. "What does Ami do to make it better?"
Valkrin buried his face in Frerin's tunic. "She told me happy stories."
Frerin straightened, feeling better. Tell a happy story, he could do that. "All right, what kind of story?"
He turned his big amber eyes up to his father, and Frerin knew the raw trust in them would cripple him if he wasn't careful. "One about Ami?"
His confidence faltered. "Er...are you sure?"
Valkrin nodded sharply. He was sure.
Frerin settled his son more comfortably on his knees and took a breath. "Alright. I met your Ami on a rainy day in Dale, many years ago…"
Ok, I know I stole the name from HTTYD, but Valka and Frerin are heavily influenced by Stoick and Valka. So, Frerin is faced with telling little Valkrin everything about his Ami...good luck, Frerin!