"Come in." Gnér all but dragged Dwalin inside, the pride of fatherhood clearly on his face. Following his friend into the small house, the warrior dwarf soon found himself in a small room where the new mother sat propped up in the bed, a small bundle in her arms.
"Isn't he perfect?" Gnér was beaming with pride, motioning Dwalin to come closer, as he did so Dís, who was beaming just as much as her husband, carefully removed some of the cloth around her newborn son, showing a mane of dark hair. Looking at the sleeping babe Dwalin could see why the parents were filled with pride of their son, it really was a fine boy. Yet something seemed to be off.
"Isn't he... rather tiny?" He asked, hoping he hadn't offended his friends.
"Now you're being stupid!" A voice said beside him, turning he saw Fili, Gnér and Dís' eldest son, stand beside him. "He isn't tiny," The boy continued, "he's exactly as big as he is!"
Dwalin smiled at the boy, you really couldn't argue with that logic.
"Besides." Fili added with a defiant tone to his voice. "I happen to know that he has the perfect size for a baby brother!" With those words he climbed into the bed, put his arms around the small bundle in his mother's arms, and glared at Dwalin as if daring the much bigger dwarf so say anything even remotely bad about his baby brother.
"Sorry, Dwalin." Gnér said when they walked back towards the door. "Fili seems to have appointed himself as protector for his baby brother. He all but attacked Bifur because he said something Fili thought was meant to criticise, took quite an effort from Bofur and Bombur to convince him that their cousin meant no harm."
Dwalin was glad to hear that the little boy had a protector, life had become easier for the dwarfs of Erebor after they had settled in Ered Luin but it was still rife with dangers for a little dwarf boy, especially one as small as this boy. For small he was, no matter what a protective big brother with a child's peculiar logic said.