"There's always room for a story that can transport people to another place."
― J.K. Rowling

The Wooden Soldier

"It's my turn to play with the soldier!" She whined trying to snatch the wooden toy away from the boy who had taken it from her only moments before. "I had it first."

"But you've already played with it and it's my toy." The boy argued back and pulled it away from her and back into his lap where he made the soldier walk along on the floor by bouncing it with his hand.

"It's not your toy."

"Is to."

"Is not."

The toy ended up in a tug of war between the young dwarflings both pulling so that their backs were leaning against the floor before being pulled so that they were folded over their crossed legs as the other pulled back. They were almost taking it in turns to pull and their childish squabble was quite endearing.

"Hey! That's my sister's toy!" Another young dwarfling the same age as the girl and the male version of her came stumbling up to the pair.

"No it's not it's my brothers!" A fourth dwarfling, despite being a couple of years younger than the other three, hurried up to stand behind the male that was fighting for the toy. He attempted to cross his arms to look tough but instead got confused and ended up hugging myself.

"I think you'll find it is my toy." An adult dwarf stepped towards the four fighting and easily plucked the wooden shoulder from being pulled apart and briefly checked for any damage. The two dwarflings sat across from each other looked up in innocent confusion as the toy was taken from their hands whilst the two young dwarfs that stood next to their favoured dwarfling, or in other words their sibling, also looked in confusion but none of them protested.

Then two other adult dwarfs came to stand next to the first and looked down at the children with loving smiles. Both of the new adults were female and they stood on either side of the male.

"How did you stumble across my toy soldier?" The male asked softly, crouching down, without a trace of annoyance or anger.

"He found it in your room Uncle." The boy sat said pointing to his younger brother who was still stood defensively behind him.

"No I didn't you did." The brother said pointing down at his sibling on the floor.

The male adult chuckled at the boys small squabble and then moved to the other pair of dwarflings.

"And where did you find it?" Again, his words weren't harsh yet the child clearly didn't want to disappoint or anger him by the way she responded.

"I found it on the floor next to him. He wasn't using it so I thought I could play with it." She said pointing to the dwarf that she had fought with for the toy.

"It's true." Her twin brother said from behind her.

The man shaked his head good naturedly at the children and stood up to stand with the older females – the children's mothers.

"I think it's time we all went home for dinner, you can play again tomorrow." He said looking to the females for agreement.

"I think that's a wonderful idea brother." The female said on his left and then held her hand out for the two boys. "Come on Fili, Kili, let's get home we've got rabbit for supper."

"Rabbit!" The two boys said together sharing wide grins and the older one leapt off the floor taking his mother's hand in his whilst his younger brother held her other hand.

"I agree with Dis." The other mother said smiling at her good friends and then holding her own hand out for her children. "You too Inca, Noly, we've got pheasant."

Much like the other two children, the twins squealed in excitement and anticipation for their favourite meal and the girl jumped up off the floor, them both taking their mothers hands like the brothers before them.

"I guess we'll see each other again tomorrow for more dwarfling drama." Dis said laughing and her brother hummed in agreement, sharing her smile.

"I'm sure." The other mother said and then turned her attention to the dwarflings that were latched on to both of her hands. "Are you going to say goodbye?"

"Bye Fili! Bye Kili!" They said together, using their free hand to wave at the brothers shyly.

"Bye Inca! Bye Noly!" The brothers said repeating the hand gesture and then the younger dwarf putting his thumb back in his mouth out of habit.

"Bye Thorin, Dis." The single mother said nodding to each of them with a smile.

"Bye Astrid, say hello to Sady for me." Dis said also nodding with a grin.

"Aye me too." Her brother said and with a final nod and smile the two familes went their separate ways from the play area in the nursery.

"Mummy?" Inca asked looking up from her mothers side.

"Yes Inca?"

"If Fili and Kili are Princes does that mean that they'll be King and Queen?" Astrid laughed at the prospect of the two brothers being married and ruling together.

"No darling. When Fili becomes King he will marry a Princess and Kili will stay a Prince but will advise his older brother." She didn't want to get into the tricky politics of a monarchy with a four year old so tried to keep it as simple as possible.

"Am I a princess? Can I marry Fili and become Queen?" Inca's mother was a little more shocked at that proposal but she knew her daughter wasn't being serious and found it rather sweet.

"Inca you can do whatever you want my darling." She said softly and the little girls face lit up.

"What about me? I thought I was going to marry you." Noly said from her other side, annoyed that he was being overlooked.

"Noly you can't marry your sister." She said with a chuckle, she loved her three children and these two certainly knew how to make her laugh.

"I don't want to marry you anyway. Fili's much more handsome." Inca said stubbornly, sticking her tongue out at her brother.

"Fine I'll marry Kili instead, he has much better hair than you." He said copying his sister in their tit for tat game.

"Come, come you too. We must hurry up or our dinner will go cold."

The two dwarflings instantly stopped their squabble and began eagerly hurrying their mother home for dinner.

"Hurry up mummy! That bird won't eat itself!" Inca said laughing as she tugged on her mother's hand. "And I want tomorrow to come quickly so I can see Fili again!"

Young love at its finest. The twins didn't have a care in the world and were some of the happiest children in the Blue Mountains, never failing to say hello to anyone they passed. The pair never left each other's side and did absolutely everything together; they both loved their baby sister more than anything and when they had first seen her in their mothers arms, they had both vowed to protect her forever.

It was wonderful to see young dwarves without responsibility and having a good and happy childhood as so many lost their own in the inferno that Smaug created.