For WritersMonth 2021

Prompt 3. Outside or Wedding

Combining the two prompts for this scene from The Warrior and The King's second wedding.

Thorin Oakenshield studied his wife as he crossed the grass to where she stood, near the edge of the neatly trimmed grass. The breeze caught her hair, the gold and silver threads of her dress sparkled as she turned toward him. Behind her the slopes of the fjord dropped steeply to the sea, on this early fall day the tops already dusted with snow.

My wife, Thorin thought. I do like the sound of that.

It had been a long, strange road since they met on the way to Rivendell. Growing up he had always been reminded of his responsibilities, carefully groomed to be a great King. It made him smile, thinking what his father would say if he saw him now. Marrying a Human woman! The dishonor!

He handed Kaylea a glass, put an arm around her waist to draw her close, kissed her neck.

"A toast to my wife!" He clicked his glass to hers.

"To my husband," Kaylea replied. They drank, then stood together looking out at the ocean, grey-green and windswept. "Now we are properly married, in your country and in mine."

Thorin nodded, glancing back at the wedding party, spread out across the lawn in front of the family keep. Their second wedding, almost completely the opposite of their first. The first had been in the halls of Erebor, with the whole city turned out and a feast laid for hundreds. This was just family and friends, outdoors in the sunshine. Thorin had been surprised to find that Kaylea's people wrote and spoke their own vows, it had taken him forever to find the right words. But he must have done alright, Kaylea was so overcome with emotion she had trouble speaking her part.

"I did not know I was marrying a poet," Kaylea teased, following his thoughts like she always did.

"I've told you before never to underestimate Dwarves." Thorin sipped at his drink. "I like that tradition of your people."

"My clan follows the old ways, many of the others don't do it anymore. They say it is too much like swearing an oath."

"It is an oath, a lifetime oath." Thorin ran his hand up his wife's back. "I do like this dress." He had ordered it made for her wedding and coronation, real gold and silver threads woven with blue silk the color of her eyes. Probably could have bought Rohan for what it cost, but seeing her in it was worth it.

"I'm happy to have another occasion to wear it for you, husband."

"I hope I make you happy, my love," Thorin said, his tone serious. "After all the time we've known each other, we've been married for years, yet my heart is near-bursting with joy today."

Kaylea took his hand and turned to face him. "I never believed it was possible to be as happy as I am with you. Now that we are married I keep wondering what took me so long."

Thorin laughed and pulled his wife into a long kiss. "Another of your traditions I like very much – kissing the bride!"