The next morning before the others woke, I found my way to Lord Elrond's chambers. I needed to ask him an important question.
"Ah, Miss Amari, I've been expecting you." Lord Elrond said from his balcony.
"I had a question for you." I told him nervously.
"I assume it has something to do with your new courtship with a certain dwarf prince, yes?" I looked at him incredulously.
"I'm not even going to ask how you know about that, but yes. If something should happen to me on this quest, what would happen to my children?" I asked. It wasn't something I ever wanted to find out, but I needed to know.
"It is your choice where your children would be placed in the case of that event." Lord Elrond responded.
"If I succeed in my own quest, but don't make it myself or fall unconscious for any length of time, then I wish for my sons to be brought here. I would entrust them in the care of Kili, and Fili as well if it came down to it." I told him, sure of myself and my decision.
"I will personally see it done if that should happen, though my hopes are that these words shall never have to cross my mind again." Lord Elrond told me. I felt much better knowing that there was a plan in place if something were to happen.
"Thank you, Lord Elrond." I told him sincerely. "I should probably get back before the others wake and notice that I'm gone."
I walked quickly back to the room where everyone was still sleeping. I laid back down in between Kili and Fili and started playing with Kili's hair, which I did often. A few minutes later, I started humming the Misty Mountains song.
"What are you doing up so early?" I heard Kili whisper as he turned to face me, brushing a piece of hair out of my face.
"Just a lot on my mind. I'm sorry for waking you up, go back to sleep." I said in a quiet voice back to him.
"Come here." He whispered back to me, holding out his arm for me to snuggle into his side. I rolled over and lay my head on his shoulder, burying my face in the crook of his neck.
"You always smell so good." I muttered into his neck. "Even when you smell like troll."
"That makes no sense, Ari. Go to sleep, let that beautiful mind of yours rest for a bit, yeah?" He said as he pressed a soft kiss to my temple and held me closer.
I fell asleep rather easily after that, only waking when I heard the others talking. I opened my eyes to see that I was still laying on Kili, but he was now sitting up, awake and talking to the others, twirling my hair with his fingers as he did so.
"The lass finally wakes!" Bofur yelled when he saw my eyes open.
"Sleep well?" Kili asked, looking down at me.
"Very. How long have you been up?" I asked curiously.
"Only about half an hour. You looked so peaceful, I didn't dare wake you." Kili said, helping me sit up. I reached up to run my fingers through my hair and felt a small braid woven into the left side.
"Is this new?" I asked, feeling the intricate design.
"I hope you don't mind, it's traditional for a lad to give a lass a braid to signify a courtship." Kili responded. I looked at him and smiled brightly.
"I love it. Thank you." I said and I could have sworn I saw him blush. "I suppose the others know now? Should we speak with Thorin?" I asked quickly.
"He told me for us to come find him when you woke." I gave him a worried expression. "Oh, don't worry, it will be fine." He said, helping me up.
As we stood, I heard all sorts of congratulations coming from around the room. I still worried what their reaction would be when they found out about my children. I was getting nervous about telling Thorin.
"Do you have your locket?" Kili asked me before we walked out the door to find Thorin. I reached up and held the locket sound.
"Always." I told him and he nodded.
We didn't have to walk far, seeing as Thorin was only a little ways from the room, standing on a balcony overlooking Rivendell.
"Uncle." Kili said, alerting the elder to our presence. He turned around and nodded to both of us.
"Kili, Amari. I believe there is something you wish to tell me?" Thorin said as he crossed his arms and looked at us. I grabbed Kili's hand nervously.
"Actually there's a few things we need to tell you, Uncle." Kili said honestly and Thorin waited for him to continue. "Well, the first is quite obvious, I've asked to court Amari and she accepted." Thorin nodded again. What was with the nodding?
"And the rest?" He asked. Kili looked down at me and motioned at my locket. I lifted the locket from around my neck and opened it, looking at my boys once more before handing it to Thorin. He looked at it confused for a moment.
"A pendant of Fili and Kili as babes?" He asked, still confused.
"That's not us, Uncle." Kili replied.
"But then who?" He looked at me, then down to my stomach, then back at my face. "They are?"
"My two sons, yes." I told him honestly.
"But you are so small, and young, you do not look as if you have given birth to one child, let alone two." Thorin said with honest confusion. I took this as a cue to show him my 'battle wounds' as I called them. I lifted up the bottom of my tunic just far enough to where he could see my stretch marks. His eyes went wide.
"Is that enough proof? I've carried them both, given birth to them both, felt every kick, every pain." I told him, pulling my tunic back down quickly.
"Two sons?" He asked again, this time making sure.
"Grayson and Hayden, my babies." I told him again as he looked back down at the locket.
"Where are they, if not with you?" He asked quickly. I explained to him the same as I did to Kili, including the bit about their father.
"If that filth was in Middle Earth, I would find him and castrate him myself." Thorin muttered.
"Get in line, Uncle." Kili told him, laughing.
"And I assume that when the time comes, you will be claiming responsibility of them as well?" Thorin asked Kili seriously.
"I will in my own right no matter what, but I will do so publically if you shall allow it, Uncle?" Kili asked, making my eyes widen.
"You have my blessing to lay claim to them, Kili. Now go tell your brother while I speak with Amari." I felt the biggest weight lift off my shoulders when he gave his blessing, but then I was weighted back down by the anxiety of talking to him alone. Kili nodded happily and placed a kiss on my temple before running back to the room.
"I did not expect this news." Thorin said in an unreadable voice. I worried that it was bad. "But it is not unwelcomed. I am sure Kili has mentioned how warmly us dwarves take the news of children, correct?" I nodded. "He is the youngest on our quest, but he has already grown the most. And you have proven yourself a warrior in my eyes. You are a brave lass, and to find that you have been raising two boys by yourself doubles that."
"Thank you." I said with gratitude.
"Now tell me more about these boys?" He asked, surprising me.
"Well, you noticed their similar looks to Fili and Kili. What you couldn't see in the pictures is that they behave just like them as well." I told him, laughing.
"May Mahal be with you if they are just as wild. This will be quite the adventure, won't it?" He asked.
"What do you expect? They did come from me." I said, laughing. I told him a bit more about my children and he commented on just how similar they sounded to his own nephews. After a few minutes of talking, he turned back towards the room.
"Come, we must get back to the others." Thorin said as he handed me back my locket. We walked back to the room in silence until he stopped at the door. "Welcome to the family, Amari."
I was too shocked to even go through the door once he opened it, and I was still standing in the same place when Kili and Fili came out the door, looking for me.
"What happened, are you alright? What did he say?" Kili asked hurriedly.
"He- he said, 'welcome to the family'." I whispered as if it were sacred. I looked up at Kili who wore a proud expression and he quickly leaned down to kiss me deeply, picking me up and spinning me around.
"When are we going to tell the others?" I asked as things calmed down a bit.
"I was thinking that we should wait and tell them, keep this between family until the quest is over, if you want." Kili responded hesitantly.
"I think I would like that. Just between family for now." I told Kili with a smile.
The rest of our stay in Rivendell was uneventful, though Kili and I had gotten remarkably closer and he now knew almost every detail about my sons. The council was being held tonight and we were all getting prepared to leave.
When it came time to leave Rivendell I was sad, even though most of the other Dwarves were relieved, seeing as they disliked Elves so much. I knew the journey was about to get much more dangerous, but I felt better with Kili at my side.
After leaving Rivendell, we walked through the valley towards the Misty Mountains, only resting when need be. Weeks later, we finally found the Misty Mountains.
We marched up the narrow path towards the Misty Mountains, clinging to the mountains as we went. I walked behind Kili and in front of Fili as the ledge got thinner and thinner. About halfway up it started thundering and raining hard and I knew it was about to get bad. A giant stone boulder came flying through the air at us.
"This is no storm, this is a thunder battle, look!" Balin yelled, pointing at the mountain breaking apart.
"Bless my beard, the legends are true! It's giants, stone giants!" Bofur yelled. We began looking for cover, but it was too late. The rock started cracking below my feet and I fell backwards into Fili. I reached out for Kili's hand but it was too far, the rock that we were on began moving as we had ended up on the stone giant's knee.
The two stone giants fought and unfortunately ours lost and began to fall into the stone cliff. Fili was holding on to me as tight as he could so that I wouldn't fall off the edge. But when the giant hit the mountain, we all fell off. Luckily we landed about fifteen feet below on the edge of the mountain and I landed directly on top of Fili.
"Thank you, Fili." I muttered as I stumbled to try and get to my feet.
To my relief, Kili and the others came running around the corner and let out a cry of happiness when they saw us piled up on the ledge. As soon as they got down to us, Kili ran to me and hugged me tightly before hugging his brother, thanking him.
"Where's Bilbo, where's the hobbit?" Someone yelled. I looked around for him, finally finding him dangling off the edge of the cliff.
"Here! He's here!" I yelled. Bofur tried to reach him but failed, Thorin climbed over the edge of the cliff and lifted Bilbo back up.
"We thought we lost our burglar!" Dwalin told Bilbo as he regained his footing.
"He's been lost ever since he left home. He should never have come, he has no place amongst us." Thorin spat.
The comment made me angry, but I kept myself in check, not needing Thorin to get even more angry before we had to deal with Goblin Town.
"We need to find shelter, now!" Thorin yelled over the thunder. They found a cave to rest in and deemed it safe. I knew it was a trap to Gobin Town, but this part needed to happen for Thorin to trust Bilbo. I would just have to play it as safe as I could. Though I was sure they would treat a lass differently than the others, and not in a good way.
She told Thorin, YAY! What do you think of their decision to keep it from the rest until after the quest? Goblin Town is up next!
