I don't believe a name is given anywhere in Tolkien's works for Fili and Kili's father, so I've taken the liberty of naming him Vili for the purposes of this story.
This was not the way Sigrid had planned to meet Fili's mother, but if it had to happen this way she was grateful for two things. First, that she had thought to wiggle back into her shift the previous evening before falling asleep in Fili's embrace. And second, that Tauriel was there.
They were currently standing in Fili's bedchamber, just the three of them (though she knew there were other dwarves clustered outside the closed door, listening intently and no doubt spreading all sorts of foolish gossip). Sigrid tried to appear as meek and contrite as possible as Tauriel fussed about, helping her dress and setting her hair to rights so that Sigrid herself could focus on the angry dwarrowdam pacing back and forth in front of her like a wolverine.
Dis was a very handsome specimen of a female dwarf, and were it not for the beard she'd be considered very attractive even by the standards of Men. Her hair and eyes were dark like Kili's, the hair at her temples streaked with grey, and Sigrid supposed that Fili's fair looks were from his father. The beads and jewels in her beard glinted in the lamplight as she moved, highlighting the intricate braiding that must have identified her as one of noble standing. She wore rough clothes that were travel-stained and worn, but nonetheless she wore them with authority. This was not just any dwarrowdam – this was Dis, daughter of Thrain, royalty in her own right and mother of kings.
And right now her penetrating gaze was fixed square on Sigrid. It made the young woman feel very, very small.
"So you're the pretty young thing that's turned my boy's head." Though her eyes were flashing Dis's voice was surprisingly soft. Sigrid was oddly reminded of the pan flutes she heard at town festivals – melodic and breathy and just a little deep.
She shook herself when she realized she was daydreaming, and affected a curtsy that she hoped wasn't too messy. "Yes, your majesty."
"Hmph." The dwarf started pacing again.
Behind her Tauriel finished cinching the waist of Sigrid's gown and gave her a comforting squeeze on the shoulder. Bless Tauriel. She'd already been through this with Kili, though Sigrid was quite sure the she-elf's meeting with Dis had been more planned and hadn't involved her lover's mother barging into his bedchamber to find Tauriel and Kili cuddled together asleep, half naked and looking decidedly unchaste.
Dis stopped pacing and rounded on the pair of them, her dark eyes glinting. "My boys are both a pair of hopeless dunderheads," she said with resolve.
Sigrid didn't quite know how to respond to that. She glanced at Tauriel and saw the she-elf lower her chin in a respectful nod. Not wanting to make the situation any worse Sigrid followed suit.
"I raised them to be good lads," the dwarf continued, resuming her pacing. The beads in her beard rattled slightly as she walked, her footsteps heavy. "Good dwarf lads, the pair of them. And while I admit that I never much cared for Kili's fondness for a weapon as elvish as a bow," Sigrid saw Tauriel's lips twitch in a faint smile out of the corner of her eye, "I made sure that the pair of them could handle themselves as any dwarf should. My Vili would have been mortified if our sons couldn't throw an axe or wield a hammer, and by Mahal, I made sure they knew it. They're proud, my boys. Proud and strong. You'll not find a better dwarf on the battlefield or at the forge. Any dwarf lass would be filled with joy to take one of them to husband. They've made me and their father, may Mahal treasure him, so proud."
She stopped pacing and turned to face the two women again. Sigrid realized she was chewing her bottom lip and quickly made herself stop.
"But Mahal's beard," Dis groaned, throwing her hands in the air in exasperation. "I spent so long making sure they would be a fine legacy for their father that I damn well forgot to teach them what they ought to learn from their mother. And that includes how to pick a wife!"
She pointed sharply at Tauriel. "You. An elf. A blasted elf! My Vili must be rolling in his barrow to see his younger son besotted and ensnared by a bloody elf witch!"
Sigrid started to open her mouth to defend her friend but was quickly silenced when Dis turned her disapproving finger to her. "And you! A wee slip of a girl, barely old enough to stand on her own let alone marry. A daughter of Men! Born and raised in rags and then jumped up to nobility in the blink of an eye. Forge fire and fiddlesticks!"
She started pacing again. Tauriel remained silent, placid and resolute as ever, but Sigrid finally regained her voice enough to say, "Your highness, you should not speak so of the Lady Tauriel." She shrank back as the dwarf rounded on her with fiery eyes but continued speaking. "She saved the princes' lives, and the life of the King Under the Mountain, after the Battle of Five Armies. Without her aid they should not have lived."
Dis advanced toward her. "Aye? And what of you, waif? You're quick to leap to the defense of this elf, but not to your own. Have you nothing to offer? No great feats of heroism upon which to pin your hopes? Speak, curse you, or has Mahal trapped your tongue in his tongs?"
Sigrid's innards felt like water but she raised her chin proudly, refusing to be cowed. "I speak for Lady Tauriel because she is my friend, and a good friend at that. I don't think it's fair to have her honor or value questioned when she has proven both beyond measure countless times." She swallowed hard, trying to make her voice stop shaking. It was a futile effort. "And no, I'm not a hero. I've accomplished no grand deeds nor taken part in any valiant quests. I'm just a girl who lived for a time as the daughter of a bargeman and smuggler, trying to make sure my father remembered to eat and that my brother and sister were always kept warm and safe.
"And then the dragon came from the mountain and took away all that I'd known and all that I'd been, and suddenly I was expected to be someone entirely new. The Lady of Dale is a title that means nothing to me. It's a label placed around my neck like an ox team's yoke, and there are many days I wish I could shake it off and go back to being Bard the Bargeman's simple daughter, for all that I'd be dressed in rags and castoffs. But my people need me, and though I'll never understand it they seem to hold me in esteem. So I go to them every day, help them where I can, comfort where I cannot help, console where comfort is too late and celebrate where consolation is not needed. I have gone from being a mother for my siblings to being a mother for my father's subjects, and I do not think I will ever be truly worthy of that honor."
She took a deep shaking breath and plowed on before either Dis or Tauriel could interrupt. "But through all that, I am still Sigrid. To my father, to my brother, to my little sister. And to Fili. I am always only Sigrid to Fili, and for all that he's a crown prince who will one day rule Under the Mountain, he is still and only my Fili. I didn't know how dearly I needed that simple pleasure in my life, of knowing that there was someone else who understood what it was like to go from nothing to everything in the blink of an eye. But Fili has given me that understanding and so much more.
"It's true that he could have any dwarf lass he wanted, and that he chose me over one of his own is something I still feel is a dream. But if it's a dream I don't want to wake from it, because then I would not have his easy smile and summer eyes to calm my fears and ease my heart. I'm not worthy of him, but I have decided I will work every day to become worthy.
"I have fallen in love with a dwarf prince, against all odds and reason. That is all I can offer by way of great feats of daring, your highness. And even though I know it is probably foolish to expect acceptance I nonetheless seek it, because it would make my Fili happy. And majesty, I would give all that I am and ever will be to make him happy, just as I know he would do for me."
Sigrid closed her mouth with an audible click as her teeth came together. The tremor in her voice had faded as she continued to speak, but as the silence stretched on in the wake of her outburst she began to feel that fearful vibration return to her limbs. Oh, Valar... Please, don't let me have ruined this. Please, Valar... Aule, please...
Fili, I need you.
Dis was watching her with a shrewd expression on her handsome face. Sigrid found she was too emotionally exhausted to feign indifference and hoped that whatever the dwarrowdam saw in her eyes was enough to prove her sincerity.
At last Dis glanced away from her to look at Tauriel. "Did you coach her on all that?" she asked, and her voice was far merrier than Sigrid had been expecting.
Tauriel gave a sly grin and shook her head. "Not at all, highness. That was all and entirely Sigrid."
"It sounded a great deal like your own plea to be consort to my Kili."
"Your sons inspire very strong emotions, highness. Is it so difficult to believe that Sigrid and I might hold Fili and Kili in similar regard?"
Dis laughed.
Sigrid looked back and forth between the two other women in confusion. "What are you talking about? What's going on?"
"Oh, lass, you're as open and free of guile as a newborn lamb," Dis said, laying a beringed hand on Sigrid's arm. Her dark eyes twinkled, and for a moment she looked so much like Kili that it took Sigrid's breath away. "I'm sorry that I had to test you in such circumstances, but I needed to be sure you were the fiery girl my son described in his letter, not some shrinking violet. We dwarves are a proud people, hard headed as the stone that forms our halls. There's no room for softness for a queen of Erebor. You must be firm in your convictions and sure of yourself, else you'll never earn their respect." Her eyes glinted merrily. "Besides, my big blond oaf of a son has a stubborn streak a mile wide, just like his father. I won't always be around to give him a swift kick in the arse when he's being a bloody fool, so I need to be sure he'll have a wife who can do it, too."
Sigrid blinked in confusion and surprise. "So this... this was all a test?"
"Aye. I admit I'd planned it to be a bit less off-the-cuff, but if the mine sends you silver you don't pine for gold." Dis hopped up on the foot of Fili's bed and patted the blanket beside her, inviting Sigrid to sit.
Sigrid blushed as she did so, sitting stiffly next to Fili's mother and feeling terribly self-conscious as she remembered everything she and Fili had done together in that bed the night before. "I... should apologize for... for how you found us..."
"What, wrapped up in each other and looking cozy as a pair of kittens in a basket? No, lass, never you mind about that." Dis's smile was kind. "It did my heart good to see my boy so happy. There aren't a lot of us ladies among the dwarves; we don't stand so much on chastity as you Men do. Though we do believe in fidelity." There was just the slightest note of warning in Dis's tone.
Sigrid nodded hurriedly. "Oh, yes, highness. I want no one other than Fili."
"I know, my girl. I can see it in your eyes." She patted Sigrid's knee. "And no more of this 'highness' business. Call me Dis, please, Or Lady Dis, if you want to be a bit more formal. It's bad enough I've got this one calling me 'highness' and 'majesty' every time I turn around." She jerked a thumb in Tauriel's direction.
The elf grinned and bowed. "I'm an elf in Erebor, highness," she reminded the dwarrowdam. "It wouldn't do for me to treat their princess with such familiarity."
"Says the elf-witch who spends her nights canoodling with my little Kili." Dis's tone was warm and playful, and Sigrid was reminded of Fili's comment that Thorin referred to Tauriel as the 'accursed elf-witch' as a form of endearment. Clearly Dis was no different.
She was stirred from her thoughts by a hand touching the beaded courting braid that rested against her cheek. "Silver and blue," Dis said with a fond smile as she ran her sturdy fingers over the beads. "To match your eyes, no doubt. My Vili gave these to me at the Midwinter Festival. He said it was his way of giving me the stars in the winter sky." Her eyes were distant with memory. "He was a romantic, my Vili. Golden as Fili, but with a heart like Kili. I know he'd be happy to see his lads all grown up into good strong dwarves who can hammer the forge and wield an axe, but who are brave enough to trust their heart when it comes to love, no matter where they find it."
Sigrid's vision blurred with tears. "Thank you, Lady Dis," she whispered. "I love your son very much."
"I know, my dear girl. Come here. Give us a hug." Sigrid quickly found herself wrapped in a tight hug by the dwarf princess.
"You, too, don't you try hiding," Dis added, and suddenly Tauriel was pulled into the hug as well.
"Ah, my lovelies," the dwarrowdam sighed, giving them a matronly squeeze. "I'd say you've both worn those courting braids long enough. Let's go find my brother before he tans my son's hide and turns it into new boots. I'm wanting a wedding, and there can't be a wedding without a groom."
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Thorin had graduated from cursing in Khuzdul and was now swearing in Westron, which Fili took as a good sign.
"-accursed ass! Driven by the most base, bestial of urges! Rutting like a feral dog in heat, can't keep your sword in its damned scabbard-!"
Okay, maybe not a good sign; but still, an improvement.
"He's calming down now," Kili mused as they watched their uncle pace back and forth in front of his throne, arms moving in broad gestures in his rage. "Hah! Two sixes!"
Fili grumbled and fished a coin out of his pocket, flipping it to Kili across the table as he gathered up the dice with his free hand. "This is ridiculous," he muttered. "I shouldn't be here. I should be with Sigrid. Mother's probably giving her hell right now. A five and a three." He tossed the dice and glanced at the door to the throne room.
"Sorry, a two and a six," Kili said as the dice came to a stop. "Don't worry about her, brother. Tauriel's there. She'll make sure Sigrid is fine."
"I should still be there. Sigrid wouldn't be in this mess if not for me."
"-ginity of Bard's daughter, like a dwarf devil in the night! I should let the Bowman have your balls for target practice, you overheated, arrogant bastard! You had one role to fulfill, and you went and threw it away for a night twixt a pair of thighs and a pretty smile-!"
Fili tuned his uncle out again and looked at Kili with a worried frown. "Bard's going to kill me, isn't he?"
Kili nodded as he counted up their respective piles of coins. "Oh, aye. You'll be lucky to get out of Dale with your manhood in your pants instead of on a pike by the city gates. Twelve to four. I win!" He sorted out the coins again so they both had eight apiece. "Best two out of three?"
Fili picked up the dice and shook them idly in his palm. "We didn't lay together like that," he protested. "I know Men keep such things till their wedding night. Two threes." He tossed the dice.
Kili cursed under his breath and gave Fili a coin as both die came up three. "I don't think Bard's going to care much about what you did and didn't do. The best you can hope for is that arguing, 'Lord Bard, I didn't in fact lay with your lovely daughter, but merely slept together with her in our skivvies with my hand up under her shift to squeeze her breast,' will earn you a swift death instead of a slow, painful one."
"You're not much help, Keel."
"I'm just speaking the truth, brother."
"And don't talk about Sigrid's breasts."
"I was making a point."
"Still. Don't." Fili knew he sounded ridiculous, but after half the court had seen him and Sigrid curled up in bed together he was feeling very protective of his beloved.
Kili didn't argue anymore, rattling the dice in his hand. Before he had a chance to throw them, however, a foot planted itself on the edge of the table and kicked it away, sending coins scattering across the floor of the throne room. "PAY ATTENTION!" Thorin bellowed, his eyes flashing as he towered over the two princes. "You two jest and make fun, while Fili's foolish actions may well have cost us a valuable friend and ally!"
Fili jumped to his feet, glaring at his uncle. "I will not let that happen," he snapped. "I will do whatever I must to ensure that Lord Bard is mollified."
"Yes you will," Thorin snarled, unmoved. "And if you fail, you are no longer my heir."
"Then so be it!"
"Fili. Uncle." Kili broke in, trying to calm the tension.
"Be silent, Kili!" Thorin barked, his eyes never leaving Fili. "This is between the Crown Prince and the King Under the Mountain."
"I believe you're forgetting someone, Thorin!"
The voice drew the attention of all three dwarves to the door. Dis swept into the throne room, Tauriel and Sigrid trailing behind her. Fili's heart ached when he saw the tension in Sigrid's shoulders. All he wanted to do was cross the floor, take her in his arms and whisper a thousand times how much he loved her, his uncle's fury be damned.
She must have felt his gaze because she looked up from her intense study of the floor and gave him a tiny smile and a wave. Fili smiled in return and nodded in her direction. Are you okay?
She nodded in return. Everything's okay.
"This is not your concern, Dis," Thorin growled, and Fili turned his attention back to the confrontation in front of him.
His mother came to a stop in front of Thorin, glaring up into her brother's face. "You're a damn fool, Thorin Oakenshield," she snapped. "You curse at my sons, threaten their birthright, and expect me to stay silent? Forge fire and fiddlesticks!"
She stomped closer, pulled back her foot, and kicked her brother hard in the shin with one sturdy hobnailed boot.
"OW!"
"Oh shut up, you foolish man," Dis groused, planting her hands on her hips. "You dare to stand here and make suppositions and ultimatums when you haven't condescended to so much as ask the Lady Sigrid about her feelings on the matter? How dare you. How dare you!" She kicked him again. Then again.
"OW! OW, Dis, dammit! Stop that!"
"No! You may be bigger than me, Thorin, but don't think I've forgotten how I used to make you beg for leniency when we were children. I don't care that you're King Under the Mountain. You're still my great cretin of a brother, and I'll kick you until you learn your lesson!"
"Lady Dis, please!" Sigrid stepped forward, holding up her hands to try and pacify the situation. "I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your defense, but I can fight my own battles."
Dis glanced at her, then squinted back at Thorin. "You just listen to the girl," she said, wagging her finger at him. "No interruptions, understand? And be polite!"
Sigrid smiled weakly and bowed to her as Dis stepped back to stand beside Kili with Tauriel. Fili would have stood beside her as she faced down Thorin, but Sigrid sent him a gentle smile that promised she'd be all right on her own. He nodded but kept his muscles tensed, ready to spring to her defense if necessary.
Sigrid bowed to Thorin. "Your highness, I want to apologize for causing such disruption in your court. It wasn't my intention. But please don't blame Fili for actions that were mutual. I assure you, he didn't seduce me or trick me into his bed. I was there willingly, of my own choice, and I have no regrets." She smiled at Fili again and his heart swelled with pride.
"As to my father, please don't worry that this... incident... will disrupt our kingdoms' alliance. My father understands that I'm a woman grown. He wouldn't be pleased to know that I spent a night in a man's bed, but he also knows that I'm not a foolish girl who would let myself be talked into doing something so intimate with someone I didn't love.
"I love your nephew, your highness. I love him very, very much. Sometimes I forget that we aren't yet husband and wife, and then we're parted and I'm forced to remember. I don't want to be parted from him anymore. I want to be his wife in reality, not just in fantasy. So please, I ask you to let me take Fili back with me to Dale so that we can tell my father together that I've accepted his proposal and we plan to be married."
Fili's heart pounded in his chest as Thorin considered her silently. "I am not the one you must convince, Lady Sigrid," he intoned at last, his deep voice rumbling through the throne room. "Your father requested a month of courtship and it's just barely three weeks."
"My father wanted to know that the Crown Prince would be willing to stand on his own two feet in front of the King Under the Mountain to defend me and my happiness," Sigrid responded, her eyes clear. "I believe he's just done that. I believe he would do anything for me. Is that right, Fili?" Her eyes met his.
"Anything," Fili answered without hesitation. "Anything, Sigrid."
Another smile, secret and warm and just for him, and then she was looking back at Thorin. "Please, by your majesty's leave, I will return to Dale with Fili and convince my father to curtail the courtship and accept your gracious request to join the kingdoms of Erebor and Dale through matrimony."
Thorin stared at her for a long minute before turning his gaze to Dis. "Did you tell her what to say?"
The dwarrowdam beamed proudly. "Not a word. If she weren't a daughter of Men I'd be sure she had a drop of dwarf blood in her."
Fili took the opportunity to close the distance between himself and Sigrid and wrapped her in a hug. "You're a miracle, my Sigrid," he murmured by her ear as she tilted her head to rest her forehead on his shoulder. "You work magic."
"Hush," she protested, her voice syrupy with emotion. "I only spoke the truth."
"A pretty girl in love with a dwarf? My Sigrid, that in itself is magic." He kissed her neck and held her closer.
Thorin cleared his throat to get their attention. "My Lady Sigrid, I grant your request. Please take my nephew to Dale to plead your case to your father. I ask only one thing."
"Anything, your highness."
"Please take my sister with you. My shins can't bear her company."
Dis smacked his arm, her heavy rings thwacking against his gauntlet. "You deserved it, you great half-wit."
Sigrid laughed and Fili hugged her closer. "As you wish, your highness. With Lady Dis and my Fili at my side, I believe I could face down a dragon. My father will be easy by comparison."
Fili didn't say it aloud, but he personally would have preferred the dragon.
I kind of love Dis like crazy. ^_^