~One Year Ago~

"You never told me who your father was," Bilbo noted as he stirred the stew. Kili had managed to shoot a rabbit earlier that morning, and it smelled delicious. Fili deftly chopped more carrots, in blatant defiance of Bombur's ban against his participation in any food preparation after last week's fiasco.

"Lodin, son of Lindon, but we usually go after our mother's side," the elder prince supplied. "That's where we get our royal heritage, you know?"

"Besides, Adad died before I could walk, so I've always felt like more of our mother's son anyway," Kili added. "She's larger than life, while Adad, well... isn't."

"Tell me about her," Bilbo encouraged, sensing that Lodin was a painful subject of discussion. "I don't know much of anything about lady dwarves."

"First of all, they're called dwarrowdams," Kili tried to sneak a taste of the stew and got a rap across his knuckles with a spoon for his troubles. "Ow! No fair!"

"Serves you right," Bilbo chastised him. "So, dwarrowdams?"

"I'm not surprised you don't know much," Kili nursed his stinging hand. "Only one in three dwarflings are born female, so there aren't many of them. And Men get them confused with dwarven males when they do see them, which isn't often."

"Why's that?" Bilbo questioned.

"They grow beards," Fili laughed at the shocked look on Bilbo's face. "The lasses' are often shorter than the lads, but I've known plenty that can grow a fuller one than my raggedy brother," Fili teased. "Amad, for one."

"Their voices are deeper than human women. Louder too," Kili winced. "I swear, when Amad was mad you could hear her voice echo back from the Lonely Mountain."

"Which was something that happened often, I imagine, raising the two of you," Bilbo joked. The brothers laughed in agreement.

"Amad is..." Kili paused, thinking. "Well, simply put she's the most formidable and powerful dwarrowdam this side of…"

"Anywhere," Fili finished. "Even Thorin listens to her."

"She's smart as well as stubborn," Kili smiled. "Brilliant, even. Amad can hold her own in a debate against Balin, for sure. And her handwriting is way better than his too: most of our treaties with the local Men are in her hand."

"And it's not just her pen and her tongue you have to worry about. Her sword is quite sharp too. I've seen her take down Dwalin," Fili said with a twinkle in his eye.

"You must be exaggerating," Bilbo scoffed. "There's no possible way a lady would…"

"She did, and he deserved it," Thorin smiled as he stepped into the light of the fire. "It was quite a delight to see. Dís is a force to be reckoned with."

"Then why isn't she part of the Company?" Bilbo asked. "She sounds like she'd be a great addition, better than me at least. Then you wouldn't have to worry about being an unlucky 13 and you wouldn't have to worry about looking out for me."

"I dearly miss my sister," the leader of the Company said in a rare show of personal feeling as sat down. "But you misunderstand, Master Hobbit. We do not suffer our ladies to travel in the lands of Men unless under extreme duress. They are so few, and are very precious to us. Besides, I would trust no other with the leadership of our people while we are away. I rest easy at night, knowing that they are safe and well-cared-for in her hands."

Bilbo just nodded in understanding and stirred the stew.

"I'm looking forward to introducing you," Thorin added contemplatively. "I'm very interested to see what she thinks of our lucky Burglar."


A/N: There's no record of Fili and Kili's father, so I just used the name consistent with my own headcannon. Absolutely nothing is known about Dís's character, so that's all my imagination too.

It is cannon that male dwarves outnumber females 2:1 and that the ladies grow beards. Apparently most males focus on their crafts and therefore do not marry. Additionally, dwarves fight (and consequently die in battle) quite a lot. However, the lack of ladies certainly contributed to the gradual dwindling of the race over time.

Notes on the language: Tolkien hated the plural 'dwarfs' and used 'dwarrow' and 'dwarrowdams' instead. "Amad' and "Adad" are khuzdul terms for "Mother" and "Father" respectively.