Thank you to the patience of all my dear friends. I have not abandoned this story, but I've been a wee bit busy. Please forgive me for these delays!

Thorin the Wanderer

"I'll be back soon. I promise."

"Melhek - ar baruck" (My love - be safe.) she whispered.

Better not to pray than to sacrifice in excess/Gifts often tend to return/

Better send naught than to send too much/Thus spoke Durin for the passing of years/The time he awoke and the time he stirs again

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Balin smiled quietly into his beard, reflecting on Thorin's recent curious behavior. Like any courtier worth his salt, he'd made inquiries about the prince's misadventure in the snows once he'd returned. After all he'd been lost for some time and the folk around him had begun to worry. The sudden storm he's been caught in had also affected much of the Shire as well as the Colony in the Blue Mountains. Yet the heir of Durin had returned from the 'wilds' clean, rested and quite well fed, his clothes mended, washed and neatly folded away in his pack, his hair had been carefully washed and oiled with fragrant bergamot, his traveling supplies had been a few bundles of cram when he departed initially from Ered Luin, but were now dried beef, bread, salted fish, potatoes, onions, turnips, apples and a nice rich spicy goat cheese. Of his experiences in the blizzard he was surprisingly quiet. Any other traveler might have enjoyed discussing their personal travails – how through shear will they had survived the terrible cold and dreadful dangers – yet not him. Back from being 'lost in the wilderness' Thorin had returned to the colony from Bree, with a strange look in his eye and a desire to leave almost immediately. Bree was the town he'd come back from, but Balin knew all the Dwarves in that area – had Thrain's son taken shelter in any of those halls it would have been gossip soon enough… but there was no word from anyone. The prince was up to something - even if he wasn't aware of his intentions himself.

Dis glanced up at her brother. She sat at a simple table strewn with delicate tools and small hammered lengths of silver, copper, gold and brass. Her huge bright grey eyes were cool and calm in her elegantly severe face they reflected light like glacial mountain lakes. But for all their bright beauty her emotions were rarely visible in them. Dis wasn't cruel or remote, but suffering had come to haunt her life when she was far too young – for survival sake she'd learned to keep herself a slight distance from many; but not from all. As usual, she was clad in shades of silver, dark grey and midnight blue, her hair, the color of smoke and distant storm clouds on the horizon, was piled up loosely behind a simple band and a few small braids fell in front of her ears. The braids along with the downy soft slightly curly hair on her cheeks gave her the impression of almost having a beard. Sadly, Dis suffered from having less facial hair than was considered 'attractive' amongst Dwarves.

"Dis." He greeted her, quietly bowing as he entered the room. "Thank you for agreeing to see me. I wanted to make sure that my sister and her sons were well..."

"Sit brother - we need to talk." She gestured to a nearby chair, watching him. He seems unusually edgy and distracted as he fidgeted with a pouch under his shirt. "It seems that you were waylaid by the snowstorm in your travels … So what happened?"

"I'm back and I'm fine… I managed - I found shelter. I'm fine - I just don't wish to discuss this any further…." Thorin glowered, "'Schist – no one seems to trust me. Balin hovers around me like some great grandmother – clucking like a broody hen and eying me as if I was a dwarrowling and had stolen a handful of honey cakes …And now you! Well, I'd rather expected that my sister would show me some respect."

"You're so transparent. You went out into the wilds and were caught in an unexpected storm. You return some weeks later, your clothes clean and mended, you pack full of apples bread and cheese, your hair combed and fragrantly scented – if all storms were so kind - we would all love winter best. Did you fall through the snow into a hot springs, one cleverly stocked with scented oils and good food? Did your tunics magically repair themselves? You found some refuge; it was clearly not a cave or some rustic abandoned hunter's cottage – it was somewhere civilized; some remote Khazad colony, perhaps? Balin is simply curious as to what handsome young dwarrow had the pleasure of amusing and hosting the Heir of Durin in his travels… or was it a maiden? What Khazad family - what house? He just - well - we both just want to see you happy."

Thorin made no comment – his eyes wandered to the small fireplace in the room. Dis knew the signs, he was withdrawing from the discussion; shutting himself off. She'd seen him do this before. In the past it had taken weeks of cajoling to open him up again and there wasn't time to wait. Thorin wanted to be away before Durin's day.

"I – I know that you imagine that you are somehow responsible for Erebor; which is not rational or logical. You … you want to deprive yourself of comforts until the lonely mountain is restored to us and our losses avenged…But it is possible to lose a treasure and still find peace - maybe even to discover another jewel along the way. You know that I loved Vili dearly, I'll never forget him, and I'll always love him. But it… it is possible to find joy again… it's no betrayal of one to find another."

Dis had risen from her chair and paced to the small window as she struggled to find the words to say to her brother, words to persuade him to listen, so that he could trust her again. She glanced out of the thick bubbled pane of glass hoping for inspiration, although once she'd heard herself mention her late spouse's name she realized that her own secret desires and her own heart was taking over this conversation. Vili her beautiful lost husband still haunted her.

Vili had been a remarkable dwarf; strong and skilled, but with a romantic heart and a feel for poetry in both his craft and in his words. With his long blond braids and his honey golden eyes their marriage had been seen as a summer storm he was a sun and she was a cloud- but for all their differences they had loved each other and been happy together. Fili took after him in so many ways, yet Kili - although he resembled herself and her elder brother - was truly his fathers son with his infectious laughter and his quicksilver nature. This was a living legacy from his father to the House of Durin.

But Vili the beloved was gone, and after some time Dis had started to yearn for the loving arms of another. She swallowed, searching for something to say. Dis saw Dwalin passing outside in the courtyard. He glanced as usual up at the windows of her small suite and their eyes locked. Dis had started to depend on Dwallin in the fifteen years after Vilis death, but she hadn't realized how deeply her feelings for the tattooed warrior had changed until relatively recently. They'd both struggled for some time to keep their attraction in check when near each other; but it could be so hard not to respond. His eyes shone and she felt her lips betray her so sweetly with the faintest of half smiles. Dwallin was unlike Vili in so many ways … but to Dis he was the most vital strong and beautiful warrior of all.

She turned and saw that Thorin was already moving towards the door … "I have things to attend to, sister – perhaps we can talk later."

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A few hours later Dwallin found Thorin at his forge. He'd been casting some pendants and a few pieces of jewelry. As soon as Thorin acknowledged Dwallin he glanced at the various trinkets that he's set aside. Dwallin was one of his dearest comrades. Unlike his elder brother Balin, Dwallin had neither questioned him when he'd returned from the storm or hovered over him. Thorin wiped his brow and stepped away to chat with the hulking war chief. They stood companionably together as Thorin lifted one of the silver stylized pendants shaped like a hammer and started to examine it critically. "So you'll be leaving before Durins day?" Dwallin stated simply. Thorin nodded quietly and continued to review the piece of jewelry. As he looked for flaws in his work Dwallin eyed the stones he'd set in the center…" Amber?" he asked

"No, it's citrine – amber's too fragile for this sort of setting." After a while Thorin spoke again, "Kinsman, I have a favor to ask of you – not an order - a request. It's about Dis."

From the corner of his eye Thorin watched Dwallins face and he marveled to see the way that for a moment Dwallin's eyes dilated and his cheeks seemed almost pink - and then in a split second he made an effort to compose his demeanor.. It could simply have been the heat of the forge and Thorin wondered if he was not just imagining things after all. "I don't expect anything to come of this… but if I should go traveling and not return…well as you know - her sons are my heirs …the Heirs of Durin. Well –please I'm asking you to do your best for Dis – she's strong but she'll need someone to turn to… her life ought to have been better, calmer, gentler - but please …take care of her."

Part of Dwallin wanted to grab Thorin and hug him, and ask him how long he'd known about the two of them. But another part of him dreaded the implications of Thorins remark. Had he forseen a terrible fate awaiting him in the wilderness?

"You're not going anywhere." He said simply – I'll see you at the pub – it's your turn to pay y'know."

Thorin smiled "Aye…Now if you see Kili or Fili send then to me. I'll be here another hour I reckon."

"Have they gotten up to some trouble?"

"Nay – I have a small job for them… that's all. "