She's been running with them since she was only thirty, their little spy-girl, pickpocket, infiltrator, thief. Dori is gone – she left Nori with a friend who wasn't so friendly in the end. The thieves guild saved her, slit the dwarf's throat when they came by the cave she lived in by chance. Then took her and used her. She's seen Dori in the marketplaces when working for them and as she got older, was taught lessons about how the world worked and even got told how to read – even if she couldn't write – she managed to figure out what Dori did, when Dori was going to be in Ered Luin.
Brovi allows her that privilege, told her it's good to have someone unaffiliated to go to in times of danger who'll hide you without thinking too hard on it.
Nori grows and is bumped up and up in the guild, makes a name for herself among Brovi's crew. The other crew's don't bother her, don't even care that she managed to nick a whole battle-axe from the guard's house in the middle of Dwalin son of Fundin's patrol. To them she's just another one of the guild and they don't give a shit if she's done some fancy jobs – they've all done something like that.
If they haven't, they're either dead or rotting behind bars.
But Brovi likes her, says she's the best apprentice he's ever had. It puts the gems in Nori's pockets, when he says it – though she's less comfortable when he sends her away for four years when she's fifty and makes her briefly apprentice with an alchemist merchant, who teaches her things, lots of things. They die when Brovi wants her back, smelling herbs slipped in their hair-oil. It makes Nori uncomfortable, but ultimately, Brovi's her true craft-master, who taught her the finer delicacies of thievery, larceny and all-things-of-that-area illegal. The dwarf that taught her how to mix and brew vanity products doesn't matter.
She tells herself that, at least. In truth it doesn't sit comfortably in her to kill people, especially dwarrow who are just simply in the way. Brovi seems to specialise in killing those ones.
Nori makes a mistake somewhere around sixty-eight though and she's kept under strict lock and key in a secret cell inside the guardhouse – the crew can't break her out and she has to find a way to herself, lest the investigation they're performing overturn some stones that shouldn't be overturned. If they do and they come to her, Nori won't have any choice but to do herself in before they start an interrogation – she hasn't been trained to withstand that yet and won't be until her eightieth birthday. It takes months to finally figure out a way and it's only because she looks older and is…rather fetching, as Dori might describe it, as well as silver-tongued, that she manages to seduce Dwalin son of Fundin while on his lonesome guard duty.
The sex was good. The pebble was unexpected. But she got out and didn't give anything away, so Brovi gave her a couple years respite.
Ori is a beautiful babe, to tell the truth and she has Nori's Firebeard hair and her father's nose. As she grows, Nori can see fire in her daughter that Nori doesn't have, like Dwalin does have – she is no coward and isn't afraid. But Nori is naïve and the horrifying reality that is her life rains down on her when Brovi, laughing at her dinner table as Ori bashes a stone against her crib, says she'll make a fine decoy if that spirit eventually matches her mouth.
Nori does some soul-searching after that.
In truth, Ori shouldn't exist. Nori is only seventy when she's finally born, not even a proper adult – and she's a thief. Her craft is thievery. What type of dwarrowdam can be both a thief and a mother? Thoughts like that shake Nori to the core of her being, but she stands firm. She stands firm for fifteen years. Then the day comes that Brovi's son is caught on a high-profile job and executed. Nori watches Dwalin swing the axe himself. Someone had snitched and Brovi's son was forfeit.
Brovi is furious, distraught and suspicious all at the same time. He interrogates all but Nori and when he's done, he invades her home and his sisters-sons take Ori.
"I know it was you who gave him up," he spits as Nori struggles, Ori crying out for her amad. "None of the rest are lying – I trained them myself, just like I did you five-year ago. You're a traitor, Nori!"
"I'm not, I'm not, Brovi! I didn't snitch, I didn't Brovi, please-" his left hook breaks her nose. He drops her to the floor, steps back.
"We're keeping Ori. You say you didn't snitch? Fine, I believe you – but I want proof you're loyal, and I want it by sun-up." He sneers at her and Nori feels a rush of terror. "Ori dies if you don't show up at headquarters with a piece from the House of Durin."
"No!" She gasps, "No, I can't – I can't rob the Durin's! If I'm caught I'll be executed! A single heist would take months to plan, multiple crews-"
"And you're the best in mine. You stole the best battle-axe from the guard tower in the middle of the day at age forty-three, remember." Brovi shrugs his shoulder now, making said axe shift on his back. "It was taller than you, before you shot up like a piece of grass."
"Brovi," Nori tries to plead, "I didn't snitch, I wouldn't, I didn't, please, Kravi-"
"Don't say his name!" Brovi roars. "You will rob the Royal Family of Erebor tonight and you will bring me the most expensive, most precious thing you can find that has the crest of Durin on it! You get it to me, girl, you're mine forever and your dwarfling won't be gutted for her mother's failings."
"No, please, please, don't hurt Ori, Brovi, don't hurt her," Nori sobs, getting up off the floor, trying to reach her. Brovi cuts her off, body blocking her easily through sheer size. "Ori-"
"Sun-up, Nori, get it done."
They leave and Nori cries, curling up on a crumbling stone seat. She wants her daughter, she wants out – but she's never going to be out. She's never going to get a normal life. I'm going to die, Ori's going to die, she cries to herself, knowing the truth. If she's caught inside the palace, Nori's dead. If she doesn't get something out, Ori's dead. I could go to Dwalin, she thinks crazily near the end of her grief, as her mind drifts, not quite begun in mentally planning the burglary.
No, she immediately shivers, shaking her head rapidly, if Brovi sees me go to him, if one of his spies sees me anywhere near him or his associates, Ori's dead.
Burglary it must be then.
Nori is a good thief. She knows that. She also knows she's absurdly light-footed for a dwarf and that there's a backdoor into the palace. There's three guards, one on either side and another patrolling the corridor at the head of the T-junction. Then, there's not many guards and there's a servant's stairwell curling up directly into the princess' room, hidden behind a grey curtain. It's her way in.
Her way out has to be completely different. Because you see, the backdoor only opens inwards, which is why they have a guard on either side. It's an emergency exit for the princess and her children, should the palace be attacked. Oh, her pebbles and Nori knows from experience they are really going to fuck up her plan if they wake. Princess Dis will wake at a whisper from either of them, if they live in the same room – and they do. Dis doesn't trust anyone but her brother, Balin Fundin's son, and – surprise, surprise – Dwalin.
"He pops up way too much in my life," Nori mutters to herself as she lowers the outer guard to the ground, poison having turned his lips blue. The alarm will sound as soon as they see him, for an intruder in the palace, and who knows whether or not Nori will even get past the two guards inside. Taking a breath, she readies her throwing knives, and slams open the door, surprising the inner guard. She gets him with ease, slicing his face, poison doing its work as she throws her second knife at the guard who arrives at the T-junction. The inner guard drops to his knees, suffocating and the junction-guard too, is quick to fall.
Nori moves his body into the corridor, so as to not frighten or raise the alarm early to any passers-by. It's only a short amount of walking to the grey curtain and then her knives go away and she sneaks up to the Princess' quarters.
The servant's door opens silently, hinges oiled and another curtain is in the way. Nori drops to the ground, slipping out through the bottom of the door, hiding on the floor, at the foot of a tall vanity. The room is large – bigger than most homes Nori's ever lived in – and there is a double bed upon which she can see two mops of dark hair, and a shining golden top. Dis, Prince Fili and Prince Kili.
If Dis wakes, sees her, gets a good place, Nori is probably going to die quickly, because the gleaming silver dagger she sleeps with is razor-thin.
Think of Ori, the thief tells herself, before looking around for trinkets – not having to look very far at all as she sees an open jewellery box under the bed with a fur, pearls and broaches haphazardly dangling and sitting around it. Goldmine. Nori keeps a steady eye on Dis as she approaches, very aware of the danger she's putting herself in, only looking back to the box under the bed once her head and neck are firmly hidden beneath the beds.
Nimble fingers search the box, but before she finds a single crest of Durin, something sharp rests firmly against her spine, as she freezes.
"Stay right where you are, intruder – boys, wake up, hide in the wardrobe." The bed slats creak as small boyish voices mutter above, before the princes' feet are on the other side of the bed, rushing towards the opposite corner of the bed, a door opening and shutting – a heavy bolt locking with a hard click. Safe room, Nori distantly notes. "Come out. Slowly."
Nori stifles her sobs, shoulders barely shaking despite her grief. Oh Ori, Ori my baby, please, please don't harm her Brovi, just hear that I'm executed and give her to Dori or something, please. She shuffles out from under the bed and as soon as her head is clear, Dis trails the knife up her spine to the back of her neck.
"So, are you an assassin? A thief? Both?"
"I don't kill babies, if you're worried about that," Nori curses the shake to her voice, before reaching backwards to hold up a string of pearls. "These aren't real pearls."
"I'm aware. They're for Fili and Kili to play dress-up with, unlike the rest of that box under the bed." Dis gets off the bed, grabbing Nori's hair and tugging her to her knees, knife slipping to her throat. Nori is forced to look up at Dis' face, the Princess' eyes like coal as she glares at the thief. "Why are you here?"
"Ori, Ori, I'm here for Ori," Nori says in a rush, "Please, they've got her, they'll kill her at sun-up if I don't show with something, something with the Durin crest on it-"
"You dared to try rob the Durin's, you'd probably deserve the grief of her death," Dis sneers as Nori lets out a rush of air, eyes stinging.
"No, no, please, she's only a pebble, she's only fourteen, she can't even walk yet – I just need a crest, something valuable with a crest, please Your Highness, please," Nori begs, trying to make her understand, near the brink of tears. "I'm not here for nothing more. S'why I looked in the box under the bed, Highness. That's all there is to it, I can't do nothing else to help."
"You could have gone to the authorities," Dis says sharply, and Nori laughs.
"Oh, go to the authorities, great idea Princess. He's got spies everywhere, guard and palace included – how do you think I knew my way in? Getting out's a problem, I'll admit, but I'd rather be caught going out and the word being spread. He might just give Ori away then, rather than gut her."
"What kind of monster guts a child?"
Nori swallows softly, aware of the knife so close to her throat, "His son was executed by Dwalin a few days ago. He was snitched on by someone in the guild – he thought it was me, but it wasn't and now he's threatening Ori."
"Yes," Dis states, "you said." And then she does the unbelievable and tosses Nori to the side, far away from her, before taking a necklace from around her neck. Nori catches it as she throws it. "I'll alert the guards you're here in ten minutes, if you aren't caught before then. I'll tell Dwalin to give you a less fatal sentence."
Nori can't help a small smile at that, "Ah, no point in that, Your Highness – last time Dwalin and I met, I fucked him to steal the keys to my cell. He's got a bit of a grudge against me." Dis' lip twitches at that and Nori winks, beaming before heading to the servant's entrance, leaving swiftly and silently, with a new opinion of her princess.
The alarm goes off early. Dwarrow stream through the corridors and Nori watches them from inside a half-empty crate of potatoes, before she's discovered by a cook and rushes out. Somehow, somehow she makes it to a crumbling archer's window, and bashes it in with the famed Ri strength that she doesn't have cause to employ often. She gets back to headquarters with four hours to spare.
Ori is returned to her and Dis' necklace is paraded around the crew.
And then Brovi, the fucking cunt, grins and claps her on the shoulder and says turned out he wasn't my son, so no harm, no foul. And Gakjer turned out to be the mole, so you were off the hook an hour ago.
Nori tells him in no uncertain terms to go fuck himself, never to approach her again and takes Ori and leaves the thieves guild behind – and to Dori she goes.
Their reunion, of course, is full of tears and stories, yada, yada. Dori is appalled at her former friend's actions towards Nori before the thieves guild absconded with her. Ori is a treasure and while Dori disapproves of a lot of what Nori has done with her life under Brovi's command, she takes her in. Nori, using what little wealth she claims as her own, helps get them a cave that's bigger than her old one, which she lets Brovi take as consolation. Nori helps out Dori with her business, apprenticing under her for a few decades before Ori asks to get lessons in reading and writing.
Reading, Nori can help with.
Writing, not so much.
Ink is pricey and quills are easy to get a hold of, but paper is exclusively for registered authorities, traders and establishments – the scribes and librarians included. Ori wants to learn how to read and write in both Westron and Khuzdul, as well, so she can apprentice under a scribe. She wants to be a historian. Nori and Dori converse deep into the night, trying to figure out how to bring in more money.
Eventually, Nori decides that it's about time she get some of the more common dwarrow experiences out of the way and goes to work in the mines.
Dori frets and worries over her safety and keeps Ori from going anywhere near her workplace. Nori ignores the signs Brovi leaves that say he can help. She's not going back to him or the guild unless Ori's life depends on it. A dream of a future career is not her life. Nori works honestly for her pay and puts nearly all of it towards Ori's education. But when the time comes to enrol her, to put down her name and family and next of kin, Nori can't do it. She literally cannot do it.
Because Balin is the one she'd have to hand in a form to and her wanted poster sits behind his head.
"We can't say you're my daughter – you'll be arrested, and Dwalin'll figure it out and you'll be taken away, and-" Nori paces, and Dori's the one to calm her, and suggest instead that they register Ori as their sister, or brother as it were, though everyone will still know she's a woman. Dori had to say she was a male to register as a merchant that could travel outside Ered Luin without a chaperone. It's not much of a burden to Ori to emulate her aunt, even if it causes Nori grief.
"A fake father, our mother," Nori mutters and Dori presses a hand to her shoulder, face grim as they know what rumours will come from it. Two partners, maybe. Three? Whore, their mother would be called. Dori's respectable and the rumours will get around. Sales will drop and Nori might be fired.
"At least it's a singular, in-full deposit," Ori says quietly, smiling sadly and Nori rests their foreheads together and mourns the loss of her daughter's identity.
So Ori goes to learn under Balin, who sees talent and fortitude in her – in his niece, Dori says one time they talk about it. Can it even be called favouritism if he doesn't know? Nori watches his pebble grow and bloom and is stunned to her bones when she spies Dis talking to her, asking her questions and introducing the princes to her. You're going up in the world, she says to Ori later, who blushes and shrugs and says, Princess Dis just wants Kili to learn his Khuzdul better. And she leans in like she's telling a secret, and whispers, he's terrible, but Fili's worse when he isn't reciting speeches from memory. I think it's funny.
It baffles Nori that her pebble – her Ori – was tutor and friend to royalty. It baffles Brovi too. He even pays her a visit, to make sure she isn't going to start leaking secrets.
"I've already proven my loyalty," she replies coolly, "why, don't you trust me not to reveal that I was a criminal my entire life?" Properly abashed, Brovi leaves her and does not return – but every month, a sachet of coins appears on their kitchen table.
Eventually, so does Dis' necklace.
Ori gives it back to the princess the day she turns seventy and at her request, Nori meets with Dis and the dwarrowdam asks her if Ori ever came to harm and presses a kiss to her forehead when she says no, thanks to you.
Nori can safely say a week afterwards – though she never will – that she's kissed a princess' lips, too. Though not the ones on her face. And that she'd done it multiple times.
Only eight years pass though before the birds begin to fly east again, to Erebor. Oin reads the portents, Ori says, and he says it's time to take back the Lonely Mountain. A Company is being created. Fili and Kili are both fighting to go. Well, they're fighting for Kili to go – Fili's automatically invited as crown prince.
Both Nori and Dori have something of a fit when Ori is asked to come, to chronicle the quest. Dis helpfully recommends both to Balin, who adds them to the list and gives them contracts, Nori watching through a spyglass in concerned amusement as Dis took down the wanted sign and spoke to the older dwarf simultaneously. She feels butterflies in her stomach at thinking of Dwalin seeing her name there on the list and only truly relaxes her heart when Dwalin tries to arrest her – and completely ignores her 'brothers'.
"I signed a contract, I gave my word," she teases, causing him to growl.
"Your word means nothing, thief."
"Oh, such words of wisdom from the guard that let me go because I kissed him pretty," Nori seems to hit a spot at that and Dwalin stalks off, pride dented. Fili and Kili, who only now meet her for the first time, despite their long friendship with Ori, are in fact, in awe.
"Teach us your ways," Fili begs, before Kili brings out a pout worthy of consideration.
Dori's the one to – with a single cough – convince Nori that she doesn't need to have a set of protégés to learn the art of sassing Dwalin.
The Company leaves Ered Luin in groups of their own making and journey to the Shire, where Gandalf the Grey had a burglar waiting. Nori herself is interested to meet a fellow ex-criminal – for the Shire is not quite the place for thievery, Nori's been informed, though hypothetically it's good for retirees seeing peace and quiet – but when Bilbo Baggins answers the door, Nori is disappointed.
The poor lad's never even stolen a spoon.
Obviously, there's potential, lots of it, but he's not the type – he could be, but he's not. Maybe trekking across Middle Earth would do him some good. However, Thorin wasn't – and isn't – impressed. The only thing that impresses Nori is when she's confronted almost immediately about the stolen silver candlesticks, because that means either the hobbit has a pretty solid memory and inventory of his household, or she was caught in the act.
Nori really, really wants to believe it was the first, but she's the one he walked up to and said give me back my candlesticks. It's not a good mark on her record.
When Dwalin laughs though, says that she and hers must be slacking in their skills, she gets more angry than annoyed. She glares at him sourly and snaps, I've been rid of those beastly people for decades. Ori's more important than prestige. And Dwalin sobers and it occurs to her then that he…does actually know Ori. They've had conversations before, when Balin has gotten drawn away from them – Ori has met her father and the buffoon of a man actually likes and respects her as a person outside of that unknown factoid.
They leave the Shire the next morning. Bilbo joins them and they head east. And Dwalin isn't hostile and Dwalin isn't treating her like shit and dammit Nori's starting to have fluttery feelings. That was never good. The last time she had fluttery feelings for Dwalin, Ori happened and she escaped prison and the fluttery feelings disappeared as he instigated a mountain-wide search for her, so he could arrest and hang her. Fluttery feelings don't equal good things!
Except Ori. Always, except Ori.
They face trolls and orcs and then they're in Rivendell. Nori likes the place, though obviously she'll not say that to Thorin's face. Or Dwalin's face. Or about half the Company, really. Ori's not so lucky as to have experience to help her hide her awe, so she gets a few lectures about elven treachery, so Nori's disgruntlement. Dori happens to agree that their method in conveying their hatred and bias is rather disgraceful and manages to act like an over-protective mother-hen that Nori so desperately wishes to be, yet can't because of this stupid ruse.
They bath in the fountains. And maybe – maybe – Dwalin and Nori get a little too into their cups later, after each of them catch the other trailing eyes down the other's fine form. Nori tugs Dwalin to an empty elven room, and…perhaps they get handsy. Perhaps they have a nice long lovemaking session. Perhaps Nori calls it that instead of fucking because it isn't senseless – it's beautiful and soft and far, far too gentle.
Then in the goblin caves, Ori borrows Dwalin's warhammer and Nori gets domestic feelings and the fluttery feelings turn into swoons. Dori and the Ur's are the only ones who see what is happening to her and Ori is thankfully a little more naïve than Nori realised. She feels and it's disgusting and burning and she wants. She wants Dwalin in her bed, in her home, wrapped around her and holding Ori like the gem she was. Their pebble.
"Yeah, you and Dori are a might overprotective of the lass," Dwalin says as they sit side by side in Beorn's and it slips out in conversation. And then Nori panics for too long at her slip-up. Dwalin narrows his eyes and for once is remarkably perceptive: "You didn't mean you and Dori."
"…no, I didn't," Nori is truthful, muttering, looking at the knife she flips in her hands. "I meant- I meant our pebble. She's my daughter, not my sister. She's ours, yours and mine."
Dwalin is quiet. Too quiet. Then there's an almighty thud and Nori whips around to see Dwalin on the floor.
"Mahal, he fainted, he fucking fainted. Oh, Valar above – Oin! Dori! Get over here!" She gets up, going to kneel by his side as Oin and Dori shift arse, Ori following them over, the rest of the Company taking interest in events as it becomes clear that there's something amiss.
"What happened?" Balin questions, looking directly at Nori.
"I told him about Ori." And, well, Balin doesn't know what that means, even as Dori splutters.
"Are you sure that was a good idea, Nori?"
"Aye, it was," Nori decides with a small grin, "I've had money on for years on whether Dwalin could actually faint. I've just won myself a fortune back in Ered Luin."
"But what did you tell him?" Bofur pipes up, interested to know. The Company – minus Thorin and Bilbo… – look to Nori for answers, and instead she looks to Ori.
"It's one thing to tell Dwalin, another to let it be known to others, pebble."
But Ori has that fire in her eyes that she didn't get from Nori and her chin is set. She stands up, and proudly makes the announcement.
"I am Ori, daughter of Nori, daughter of Cori and Dwalin, son of Fundin." There are mixed reactions, but all are positive. Balin greets Ori anew as his niece and they knock heads fondly. It's only when Oin gets out his smelling salts for Dwalin though that Nori explains to the group at large, Dwalin the most attentive of all. Ori wrote in her book, attentive and quill at the ready – for in all her years, Nori had never told her the full story.
"So, I was part of the thieves guild back in Ered Luin as a dwarfling and that got me into a lot of trouble. When I was nearing my majority, I got locked up well and proper, deep in the guardhouse. Dwalin, at the time, had a fearsome reputation and was left to guard me all by himself on his shifts. About a year into captivity, I figured out that the only way I was getting out without being either interrogated or killed – at a guard's hand or my own – was by seducing my guards."
There are a few whistles at that and Kili wiggles his eyebrows, "So you got it on with a heap of people, then?"
Nori rolls her eyes, "No. I'm nothing if not practical, princey. I only seduced one guard, the only guard who was singularly on duty, rather than six at the same time." Dwalin mutters something unsavoury, shaking his head in shame. "So, I summoned Dwalin to me with my womanly wiles – and by Mahal, did it take a fucking long time – and got it on through the bars, filching his keys while we did so." Nori glances at Dwalin, winking, "I nearly didn't manage it. You're a beast."
"Amad, please," Ori interrupts, causing Nori to stop.
"Sorry, pebble. Anyway," she leans back, "I got the keys, and when we were finished, I pressed a pressure point on his neck, beneath his armour, where my hands had snuck during our fun and he went down. I got out and when he was woken up at guard rotation, pants down, door open, he had the entire mountain searched. I barely got by, until my pregnancy started to show. Good trick, that," Nori noted, "they don't look at the pregnant women unless they're looking for a pregnant woman."
"Ooh," Ori suddenly looks up, "tell them about the time Brovi kidnapped me!"
"Kidnapped ye?" Dwalin shoots up, eyes wide, "What's this? What happened?"
"You should not have brought that up, young lady," Dori says to Ori disapprovingly. Ori ducks her head, before Nori sighs.
"You executed my boss' son. He was snitched on. They thought it was me who snitched and set me an impossible task – steal a precious item from the palace, with the sigil of Durin on it as proof it was what it was."
"Princess Dis' necklace," Ori states triumphantly and all of a sudden Fili makes a noise of recognition.
"You were the one on the floor, under the bed."
Nori grins at him, "I was the one of the floor, aye, but who might be the one who asked their amad for a fake pearl necklace to play dress-up with, hmm?" Fili pinks, and Kili starts snickering.
"Fili," he reveals, the Company having their own chuckles before Dwalin grunts.
"Back to the whole kidnapping story, if you please, dam."
Nori rolls her eyes again, "Fine. If you're so impatient, I'll keep going. Can't live with distraction, can you? Well, anyhow, Brovi took Ori off with him, said he'd kill her if I didn't return at sun-up. So I went to the palace, got in, dealt with some guards and got to the Princess' room, where she was sleeping with their Royal Annoyances, here," she points to Fili and Kili. "You two were adorable dwarflings, by the way."
"Oh, we know," Kili smiles childishly, before Nori continues.
"So, I see stuff under the bed, I crawl over and then Dis is sticking me in the back. She sends the boys to a safe room and I get interrogated within an inch of my life, telling her about the threats against Ori and what I needed. She threw me to the side and gave me her necklace and sent me off. The alarms went off after a few minutes – they found some bodies at the backdoor, quite literally," she added, for Ori's benefit, "and I got out by finding a really rubbish archers window. Some Ri strength later, I've punched my way out of the palace, with Ori's saviour jewel in hand."
"And then," Dori mutters darkly.
Nori repeats her sisters words, "And then I get back, four hours afore sun-up, Brovi congratulates me and says he found the real snitch and I'd been free of my obligation for an hour. I told him to go fuck himself and left the guild, Ori on my hip. Also, the boy Dwalin had executed? Not his actual son, so he didn't give a fuck anymore."
Dwalin growls darkly, gripping his warhammer, "I'll spill his guts."
"No, you won't, because he was my craft-master and the only father figure I ever had that actually gave a shit about me," Nori replies just as darkly. "And anyway, he died a natural death twenty years ago – Ori and I went to his funeral." There's a tense silence, before Nori motions Ori to come sit by her and Dwalin, Ori doing as told, Dwalin losing his anger as Ori sat beside him.
"Hello," she says quietly, Dwalin swallowing loudly.
"Hello. What- do- how- what- uh…hammer?" He takes one from his back clumsily, quickly, holding it out to her. Ori blinks, before beaming at him, taking it.
"Thank-you very much, adad."
Dwalin sniffs and Nori's jaw drops. "Oh Mahal's Halls – Ori, do it again, he's going to cry. Gloin, ten coin on Ori making him cry in the next two minutes."
"Am not!" He looks away sharply, the others in the Company hooting at the prospect.
"C'mon Ori, call him adad again," Kíli teases and Dwalin sniffs again. Ori barely contains giggles, tapping his shoulder.
"Adad, is it alright if I call you adad? Because if you don't want me to call you adad-"
"No!" Dwalin twists around sharply, eyes wide and glassy, "Yes, call me- call me adad, if you want, Ori. My Ori." His beard quivers and then fat droplets fall from his eyes.
"Yes! I win – Gloin?" Nori punches the air, catching the coins before watching as Dwalin and their daughter connect heads, before hugging tightly.
…life is good. Now the only obstacle left in life is the dragon.