Three months had passed quickly, Dis was fairly used to caring for two babies now, and Fili tried to help whenever he could. He was always asking to hold them, which he needed help with as he wasn't quite old enough to hold them unsupervised. But he did help a lot with little chores in the kitchen and with cleaning up toys and he was always rocking them in their craddles. Fili was proving to be a very attentive big brother so far, and she thankfully still got to spend enough one on one time with him that he wasn't jealous of the babies. Thorin, Dwalin, and Balin tried to help as much as they could with the little ones, and it seemed that at least once a week a friend was coming by with some kind of food dish to help with the cooking as well. She felt very well cared for and content so far, but now the day had arrived where she would bring her babies to their father to see for the first time.
She started with Kili, having Lili and Fili stay with Balin, she said she just wanted a walk for a while and he seemed to accept that. She walked down to split rock trail and there stood four elves: Elrond, Elladan, Elrohir, and strangely Lindir. At first she didn't ask about Lindir, she figured they would tell her, she just let them see Kili. They all seemed awestruck, they stared at him almost reverently and Elladan had more emotions on his face than she had ever seen him have. They started singing a distinctly elvish tune, Lindir did not join in, but the other three sang for close to 15 minutes. Elladan whispered words into Kili's ear, she heard brief snatches the words "love" and "miss" stood out starkly to her. She said she was sorry but she had to get Kili back and she would bring Lili down next and to expect her in approximately half an hour. She left and came back with Lili and they repeated the same thing with her, Elrond couldn't seem to stop holding her, he told Elladan that she reminded him of Arwen when she was a baby. Elladan still had a large smile on his face, that completely changed the way he looked, he now looked like his twin rather than a statue of an elf.
She started telling them the general overview of the last three months with them, and how others were reacting to them. She particularly told them how good of a big brother Fili was being to them, Elrohir seemed very happy with that as he missed Fili a lot. They told her that they brought the yearly supplies with them now and they had it down the trail a few miles with several guards. She asked why Lindir was here now and they finally told her their idea of him teaching one of the dwarves Elvish, so that a dwarf would be able to speak elvish with the children when they needed to learn it. She figured she would ask Balin directly to learn elvish for diplomatic reasons, as Thorin would undoubtedly say no without even thinking it over right now. Lindir was one of Elronds most trusted elves in Rivendell and they wouldn't be able to pull any of this off without him knowing about the secret as well, she could accept that, particularly when they all assured her of his ability to keep it a secret. She went back to the mountain and waited for the elves to come up the normal passage, and tried her hardest to act surprised when she was summoned to the meeting room over an hour later to meet with them.
Thorin being the leader of the people, is the one who talked to the elves, and he of course knew nothing of what had been going on the past year. So when elves showed up, stating they were bringing goods and they didn't expect anything in return, he was instantly suspicious.
Thorin: Why now? Why help us now when you never have before?
Balin: Thorin don't be too hastey, we really could use those supplies for our people.
Elrond: We are bringing them now because we were able to gather them now, this is the first year after the devastation your people suffered at Moria, we are trying to help now when we didn't before, to right the wrongs we can.
Thorin: Our people do need the help, the preserved food would certainly be of use, however I don't like owing a debt to elves, I don't trust your kind one bit.
Elrohir: If it would help, you could trade something for it?
Elladan: Skills? Workmanship? Crafted goods or trading commodities?
Elrond: But don't feel that you have to offer anything, we are not doing this to get something from you, but rather to attempt to help where we may and attempt to reforge a friendship of sorts if it is possible.
Thorin: It would be a strange day indeed when Dwarves and Elves called each other friends, allies maybe, friends not likely. We will trade you some iron and goods for the food and other materials you have provided. We do thank you, this will help us this winter very much.
Elrond: Just trying to help.
As dwarves and elves were unpacking the wagon that had carried the goods to Ered Luin, Dis slipped away and spoke to Balin about potentially learning Elvish. He agreed after the meeting that he just witnessed, and he went to speak to Elrond about it, who in turn directed him to Lindir. Lindir and Balin set up a schedule where they would meet every few months, Lindir would provide Balin with the basics and then more advanced material in writing and then on the times they got together they would go over pronunciation.
And so it was, things settled into a cycle in the mountain with Dis being with the children and Thorin working more in the mountain than abroad as he had been doing, he was able to stick around more with the elves goods. Although he did not quit working at all, he now just worked on goods for the elves to repay them, but at least this way he got to go home each night to family.
Several years passed like this, and each time the elves would visit they would pay particular attention to the children of the mountain, Dis's children along with other children as well. They stated it was because elvish children were very rare, and thus to them all children were to be cherished, which would have been true even if Elladan hadn't had Kili and Lili.
Kili and Lili were four now, they loved running around playing with stick swords and playing different games with Fili. They particularly loved climbing trees, they seemed to have a contest going between them who could climb the highest, however Fili usually kept them from going too far. They usually didn't get more than 15 feet up, before Fili was calling for them to come down due to the height, which they didn't like because some of the trees easily went up 80 feet or more.
Fili had to do meditation for an hour each day, usually split up into two 30 minute sessions, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Even though Kili and Lili didn't have to do it yet, they usually joined him with sitting, just because they liked to copy whatever he did, however other times they also ran around causing little spots of trouble, or stealing cookies when Mam wasn't looking. They were told that soon they would also have to join in with meditation and after that only more training would follow, so they tried to have fun where they could.
