Disclaimer: only OCs are mine. The rest belong to Mr Jackson and Mr Tolkien.
The day is a whirlwind.
True to her word (non-verbal though it may have been), Nora continues to pretend to limp. Upon entering the kitchen with Fíli, she's bombarded by excited dwarrowlings. Fíli and Kíli introduce her to Flika and Tari as Girl. The damlings giggle when she nuzzles and licks their cheeks, and they look crestfallen when it's explained that she can only stay until she's healed. Food, however, quickly cheers them up and draws the attention of everyone in the room. Before anything can be eaten, though, there's a knock at the door, which Thorin answers. It turns out to be Dwalin, Balin, and two dwarflings around Flika's age who look exactly alike, and they all join the family in the kitchen for food. After a while, Nora learns that the dwarflings' names are Dolin and Dolit, and their mother's name was Kraita. She doesn't hear how Kraita died, but deduces that it happened either in childbirth or before the twins were old enough to remember her.
After breakfast and a few hours of talking, Thorin takes his wife and daughter home (wherever that is) to unpack, and Balin goes home (he lives with Dwalin and his sons) shortly afterwards. Dwalin and his boys stay for a bit longer (Dolin and Dolit really do follow Flika and Tari around everywhere), then head home, as well. By that time, lunch has also been eaten, and Dis is thoroughly scrubbing the kitchen from the excess of used dishes and messes from exuberant children. Flika, Fíli, and Kíli turn out to be the kind of children who don't have to be ordered to help clean up their messes. The boys sweep and scrub while Flika helps her mother do the dishes. All three of the dwarrowlings help their mother make dinner, and the aroma of food once again has Nora's stomach rumbling.
At every meal, the dwarflings make an extra plate for her. They fill it up with everything they would normally eat (that is to say, with vegetables along with meat). Dis is the only one who finds it strange when Nora wolfs down (no pun intended) everything she's given, but she doesn't say anything about it.
At night, Flika sleeps in Dis's room, and Fíli and Kíli go to their own room after kissing their mother and hugging their sister goodnight. Nora stays in the living room under the table...at least at first. She tries to go to sleep, but the memory of the previous night keeps nagging at her. Thorin got rid of the snake's body earlier in the day, but that thought doesn't do anything to calm her. After a few hours of unsuccessful attempts to sleep, she gives up. She crawls out from under the table and quietly pads up the stairs. Once at the top, she pauses to listen. Everyone is breathing evenly, and is sound asleep. More importantly, however, there are no unusual noises. Letting out a breath of relief, she walks forward silently, towards the boys' room. That's where the snake was, and she doesn't like the idea of something slipping past her again. She got to the snake in time to prevent anything bad from happening last night, but what about in the future? What if another creature creeps into the room while she sleeps, and she isn't there in time to help? With that thought driving her, she nudges the door open and enters the boys' room.
It's then that logic kicks in. Fíli and Kíli are more than two dozen years old, and have likely been living in this house for the entirety of their lives. Nothing life-threatening happened in all those years before Nora got here, so why would one snake be cause for such worry? Then it clicks: she's in the form of a wolf. Wolves are pack animals. More than that, their instincts to protect and comfort one another are much stronger than those of nearly any other species. It must be the canine instincts that are causing her to worry so much.
Regardless of the cause of her concern, Nora won't be getting any sleep without knowing she's as near and ready as she can be to protect against any possible threat. With that conclusion, she quietly heads for the corner of the room and lays down on her side. With her back against the wall and her legs curled up beneath her, she has a clear view of the room and the boys (Fíli's lying on his back, lightly snoring, and Kíli's splayed on his stomach, mouth open and drooling). After a short while, she calms down enough to relax and fall asleep. Protective of the pack, indeed.
