Kili was the first to awaken, bleary eyed and his voice husky. 'You sounded like a dog barking,' I'd snorted, describing the snores that had fallen from his open mouth during the night. 'Very attractive, my dear husband. I didn't know whether to wake you up and take you right there'.

Kili laughed and planted himself directly on top of me, ignoring my laughing protests. 'Oh but, dear wife, I would not have minded at all, you see'. He grinned cheekily, pressing sloppy kisses against every part of my smiling face. 'Oh, horror, why does she protest my advances?'

'Kili!'

Our room was still glowing with the candle light of the night before. Seeing as the rooms had no windows, candles were what we would used for light. Our shadows danced against the walls in jumping delight, swarming behind Kili's head as I grinned up at him.

'So, it's kind of tradition for us to stay in bed all day, right?' I threaded a hand through his hair, glad that he had pulled himself up on his hands to lighten the feel of his body against mine. I'd fingered the braid I had woven there the last night, the hair still holding tightly together.

'Yes, Milady. Anyway, I never did braid your hair, did I?'

I bumped his nose with mine. 'No, my Prince, you did not'.

You're in my belly right now.

Isn't that so odd?

You're a tiny little thing, growing strong and growing fast. I can feel my belly swelling, even three months into this pregnancy. I can tell you're going to be a feisty thing when I can finally hold you and watch you, rather than feel you. Your father thinks you're going to be a girl, but I haven't quite decided yet. I tell him I think you're going to be a boy, just to annoy him.

I hope you're like him. Your father, I mean. He's brave. He and your Uncle Fili are two of the bravest people I've ever met, and I've met some of the bravest. Your Great Uncle was very, very brave. He's your Grandmother's brother, and we will tell you of him everyday. By the time you read this letter, we may have already told you all you need to know about him.

You're going to be beautiful - the best thing that I ever did. I know you will. I can feel you. It's odd, I never understood how so early into the pregnancy, the mother could bond so strongly with her child. I understand that now, though. The more my belly grows, the more I love you.

I wish I could show you, when you're older, the look on your fathers face when I told him we were going to be parents. Kili's reactions to things are the funniest, my little baby. We'd been sitting in the kitchens with Uncle Fili, Grandma Dis, Uncle Dwalin (oh, his face when I teach you to call him that. I can't wait), Ori and Balin. Ori and Balin, I'm afraid, you will most likely not meet until you are much older. They are leaving soon, for Moria, and it's unlikely that they will be here once you are born.

Anyway, your father had been stuffing his face with some chips that Ori had insisted he and Dis attempt to make. I wasn't going to tell him right then about you, honestly. I suppose, though, my way of announcing things can be rather unconventional. You'll learn that. You'll learn a lot of things from me. Your mummy is an odd one, Rabbit. I hope you won't mind me calling you that, but your Da told me once that Grandma Dis would call him that. Once I started, I just can't seem to break the habit, Rabbit.

Ha.

I had said to your father,'You're going to get fat if you keep eating like that, Kili. And I'm supposed to be the one getting fat'.

Honestly, Rabbit, I'm still quite proud of how I had slid that into the conversation. Dis had grinned, her dazzling beard twitching merrily because, of course, your Grandmother had guessed that I was pregnant with you long before I'd even known. I hadn't known whether or not I could risk hoping such a thing had happened.

You see, I got hurt quite badly a fair few moons ago. Your father and I didn't know whether we could ever have something as amazing as you. Our prayers were answered, I suppose.

Uncle Fili had paused, one chip to his mouth, whilst Ori and Dwalin just stared, ever so slightly confused. Kili, on the other hand, must have realised what I had meant, because he was turning to me so quickly that he nearly fell out of his stool. You'll come to find that your father is rather...dopey. Absent-minded, that's the word.

'Are you-?'

'Sure?' I had quipped. 'Definitely'. I had grinned, a little wobbly with an unsure shrug. 'Congratulations, you're going to be a father'.

Honestly, Uncle Fili nearly fainted. Grandma Dis had to practically pour that goblet of wine over him to snap him out of that stupor.

That was a month ago, and still, you grow stronger and stronger everyday.

All my love, to the stars and back,

Ma.

You kicked earlier today. It wasn't the first time, but I get so excited every time it happens. I usually end up slapping any strangers hand onto my very round stomach (that's where you are, tucked away safe and warm) just so they can feel it too.

I am eight months pregnant with you, and soon you will be here.

I knitted a blanket for you. I used to knit quite a lot, but since coming to Middle Earth I never really had the time. Honestly, knitting has and will never be my strong point, so the blanket is fairly lopsided and the stitching is a little loose, but it's blue and it's something I have made for you, Rabbit.

Your Da gets so excited whenever you move around inside of me. He's so excited to meet you. One thing though? Please come out at quickly as possible? I've heard horror stories about births that take too long.

We've finally decided on names. If you are a girl, Anouk. If you are a boy, Thorurn. I think it sounds like Thorin, which I think is nice. Kili liked it too. Anouk was the name of my Grandma, but she died quite a few years ago.

So, Anouk or Thor, I will see you very soon.

All my love, to the stars and back,

Ma.

Anouk is my daughter. My fiery, smart, cunning little Rabbit who grew up too fast and looks far too much like her father for it to be right. She is the eldest of two. Kili and I decided that two was enough, and considering we managed to have both a boy and a girl...we counted ourselves lucky.

Thorurn is my youngest, my level headed, wonderful little Bird. He had been so small when he was a baby. Once upon a time, whilst trying to get him to settle, I began calling him Thor. The name stuck, and it's only when Anouk is throwing something at him in a fit of rage that he is ever called Thorurn. He, unlike An, has my darker hair, but Kili's brown eyes and strong nose. I remember when his beard started to grow, when Fili had whacked Kili on the back and said, 'He certainly didn't get that from you, brother'.

Anouk yearns for a beard like her Grandmothers. I remember how she used to get charcoal from the fire and smudge finger printed lines onto her jaw and neck, and then whack her brother with a wooden stick. 'I'm like you, Mama!' she'd cry, standing on Dwalin's knee and ignoring his winces. 'I'll kill a troll someday, just like you!'

'Slight exaggeration,' I had admitted, ducking my head away from Kili's amused look.

When she was in the exhausting age of being ten, she would rub her fingers over the charcoal and mutter, 'But I hope I get a beard. Why don't you have a beard, mama?'

And that is when Kili would swoop in, collecting her in his arms and stating that, silly Rabbit, he could already feel her whiskers growing.

Thor is merely two years younger than his sister. I remember a time when they were still babies by Dwarven traditions - I loved them when they were eight and ten. They were learning things, asking me of my home and teaching me Dwarven words as I learnt alongside them.

My children, as I write this, are not interested in marriage. They are nearing their mid-one hundreds, and whilst Anouk is interested in the forging of weapons, Thor is more interested in wielding them and learning the songs of our ancestors. They have not, and may never, find anyone to settle down with.

'You're turning greyer and greyer, Ma,' An says to me, lingering on the edge of my bed as Dis had, so long ago. I sometimes think that she looks like her late Grandmother, with Kili's look about her. 'You shouldn't waste your time pouring over that book you write in. What is it, anyway?'

Don't listen to her, Book. You're lovely.

'A story,' I tell her, half turning in my chair. Kili, I think. Oh, Kili, she looks just like you. 'I'm going to write everything you're saying to me right now, then you can see how mean you are to me. You can read it when I'm dead'.

Anouk wrinkled her nose. 'You are so very morbid, Ma'.

I smiled, pushing my grey hair away and stretching out my legs in front of me. 'Where is your brother?'

'Oh, the King? He's off somewhere, sorting out what to do about the stray Orcs that keep wandering near the Mountain. The idiots'.

The Orcs. I hadn't seen one in years, nor fought one in even longer. The War of the Ring, and it's aftermath, brought hungry, blood thirsty Orcs our way. They don't know what to do without their basic purpose in life; to serve and search for that ugly Ring.

Oh, the Ring. I wonder, secretly, whether I could have stopped the lives that were ruined. I could have taken it from Bilbo, but would that have driven him mad? I know little about the Ring, but from the War I know that it calls to you in the oddest of ways. Gloin's son, Gimli, told me as much.

He came to visit some time after the War, with his companion of whom I remembered from my adventure so, so long ago. Legolas, the spawn of the sassy Thrandy. Gloin was, to put it lightly, less than impressed. They told an amazing, tale, though. The tales of Bilbo's cousin, Frodo, and his Hobbit friend had reached us all the way out here.

The War was so long ago now. I remember how Fili ruled, how he protected the Mountain against those who wished to overthrow it. We learnt that Moria was lost, and with it we lost Balin and Ori. From what we know, they had been taken long, long ago.

They were the first of the Company to go. When I had found out, it had been sixty years since I had seen them. It was in this time, after the War, that I travelled with Bofur and Kili to The Shire once again, and it was there that we met an old, old Bilbo Baggins.

The Ring had taken it's toll on not only him, but on Frodo too.

We didn't stay for long. I could hardly recognise the tired, old Hobbit that sat in that armchair beside the fire, telling tales of the Grey Havens and how he wished he could see Erebor just one more time. I explained to him what we had done, the children I had made, the crown that rested atop Fili's head.

The tales brought Bilbo to watery tears whilst his blue eyed nephew watched.

Now, though, I am old. As the Kingdom grew anew and Kili and I grew old alongside it, we started to realise that perhaps I wasn't as young as we thought. I greyed ten years later than Kili, but the grey still came. We had feared I would be decades behind him.

It has been nearly one hundred and sixty years since we settled in the Mountain, and I am all that is left of that Company of Dwarves, a Hobbit and a Grey Wizard.

Kili died of old age five years ago, a fuzz of grey on his lined jaw. Two years before that, Fili died and Thor became King. Kili explained that if his brother had gone, he would be leaving soon too. He would not spend his last few year on a Throne, when he could be spending it with his wife and children.

Thor was ready, and we knew he was.

'You're daydreaming again, Ma,' Anouk said softly. 'Are you thinking about them? About Da?'

This book lay before me, pages withered from turning them back and forth to see what I had already written, to scribble away mistakes and to leave my memories on paper. 'I always am'.

I am an old woman now. I am not young and full of life as I once was. I am no longer naming parasites, running from Wargs, smiling at a disgruntled Bilbo or shouting at a furious King. But sometimes I will hold Snowthorn in my right hand and run my finger along the edge of her and I will close my eyes and feel the heat of a camp fire on my face and the sound of leaves rustling above me.

Then I will open my eyes and I will be decades (centuries) older, and I will smile and I will hang her from my bedpost once again.

I am old, and I am quite ready to see my husband once again.

Kili. My beautiful fairytale, my stupid husband.

You left me behind, you silly Dwarf. Were you not supposed to take me with you into the land of your ancestors and our friends? When I see you, I might just kill you all over again for going off without me. I thought we had agreed, my fumbling Prince, that we would not separate again.

I suppose nothing can really stop death, can it?

Do you remember the last letter I wrote to you? Do you remember that it had been Ori writing these Dwarven words down for me, because I had not yet learnt the language? Look at me now. I am a natural, am I not? Do you remember that the letter had been my goodbye, my just-in-case?

I wish I could have said goodbye to you this time. I'm not...I'm not entirely sure I even believe in the after life, Kili. I have seen magic here, beyond anything from home, and I want to believe so, so much that I will see your beautiful face once again, wrinkles, grey scruff and all.

I wonder if you're with Fili. You were so broken when he died. If this land after death does exist, I hope you found Thorin, and I hope he told you how proud he is of you. I hope you found the others too.

Mahal, Kili, am I all that's left from that group of Dwarves, a Wizard and a Hobbit? Am I really?

An and Thor miss you so much. It has been five years, to the day, since your lovely eyes closed one last time, and tonight we will dine in my chambers (it should be our chambers) and I will look at our children and be so happy that we made them. An looks like you, doesn't she? I look at her and I see you and Dis; I see strength.

I hope you found Dis. I hope both you and Fili saw your mother again.

Thor is ruling wonderfully. I am so proud of him, Kili. He never gives up in making Erebor wonderful once again. I know you are proud of him too. Fili would be beaming if he saw his nephew now. Maybe he is. Maybe you see me every day, and An and Thor, maybe it is I who does not see you. Do you look at our children, our little Rabbit and our little Bird, and watch over them? I hope you do.

Sometimes, I think I can feel your hand on my arm when I wake up in the morning, shaking me awake to not sleep away a day. I try not to, but I feel so old these days, Kili. My hair is so grey and my face so lined. I am so old and so ready to see you again, but I feel a loss at the thought of leaving our beautiful children.

Oh, Kili. My Kili. I love you so much, I miss you even more. I am staying strong though, my love. I help Thor, I help him rule and make decisions and I help An with designs of weapons. I keep busy, I keep my mind working. I am strong Kili; I am steel. I will not let you down.

I have said these words once, in an old letter, but I will say them once again. Thank you, Kili. Thank you for putting up with me, for accepting me and for loving me the way that you did. Thank you for forgiving me and making me stronger and a better person.

All of my love,

Alexandria Millicent Fournier.

Your Millie.

The last chapter will be the next one, so I will save my final message until then. For now, I would just like to say that I know this was quite a jumpy chapter, but I do not want to drag out Millie's story too much. I feel like highlighting points like these (that I have had written in parts for months) fit better with her story.

Thank you for the reviews and sorry for the wait!