Chapter Two
The little girl slept for several hours and Gera went down to the market and bought the child a dress in the dwarven style and shoes, as little girls weren't supposed to go barefoot in Erebor. She then hurried back relieved that the child hadn't woken while she was gone. The little girl stirred several minutes after Gera's return and opened her eyes. She looked confused for a moment, before she remembered where she was and went over to the rocking chair where Gera was reading and climbed into Gera's lap. "Read it to me."
"You don't know Khudzul dear and this is written in the language of our forefathers." Gera said and the little girl frowned.
"Then you got another book?" The child asked and Gera laughed.
"Most of these are written in Khuzdul and now that you're up, we can go see Daddy."
"Yea! I get to see Daddy!" Ris said and Gera smiled at the child, before getting out the dress. "Is that for me?"
"I don't see any other little girls around here do you? You have to wear shoes in the mountain though."
"Why I might not feel it then."
"You can feel the mountain?"
"Yes! But it doesn't talk, it just sends feelings, its happy now." The little girl said and Gera stared at the child, stone sense was a fairly rare gift for dwarves and it was clear the child had it.
"That's nice dear, but you want to pay attention to meeting Daddy, your cousins and your Auntie, don't you?" Gera asked and the little girl frowned before nodding.
"I have cousins and a Auntie?"
"Yes and several other cousins, who are going to be more like Uncles to you." Gera said and the little girl beamed. She took the dress and Gera left the room, but soon the child was calling her back.
"I can't reach the buttons." The little girl said and Gera smiled, helping the child to button the dress in back. The little girl twirled in her new dress and shoes and laughed as the skirt swirled out in front of her, she stared as it sparkled with the small amethysts that had been sewn into the gown. "Thank you!" Ris said and hugged Gera. "This is so much better than flower gowns!" She added and Gera laughed before taking the child's hand and walking with her to where the council met. Everyone she passed stared at Ris and she smiled and waved cheerfully, but they didn't wave back, just continuing to stare. "Why's everyone strain' at me?"
"Because you are the most beautiful little girl in all of Erebor." Gera said. "And you look a lot like your Daddy."
"Oh okay." Ris said and they came up to two large oak doors which two men swung open upon seeing them. Ris stared at the table and saw a man that looked almost exactly like her. "Daddy!" She said and the man stared at her, before his arms were full of the little girl. He stared down at the child in complete and utter shock, which the little girl didn't notice, as she climbed into his lap. "I'm Ris and the crow told me to come here, when he saw me and I met Gera, she's really really nice and I got to fly on the back of the biggest bird, but I miss Papa and I wanted to see you!"
"Child slow down." Thorin said gently. "I can't hear you when you talk so fast."
"Oh okay, Papa says I talk really fast too, he says that I'm more like you then him, but he never would tell me anything about my Daddy, save that I have one. This place is really neat and the mountain is really nice." The little girl added and Thorin stared at her in shock.
"Well she has your gift of gab Thorin." Balin said amused.
"Your like really old!" The child said and Balin laughed.
"That's not a very polite thing to say child." Balin said. "I know I'm old, but when you're old, you don't like people to take notice of it."
"I get it." Ris said and smiled at the two young men. "Are you my cousins, the nice lady said I had some here."
"Yes little gem we are, I'm Fili and this is Kili, so what is your name?"
"Rose Ris Baggins." Ris said. "I like to be called Ris though, flowers are yucky." She added and the council laughed.
"Your a very open child aren't you?"
"Don't know what that means. What do you do Daddy?"
"Well I'm sort of what your Papa's people would call a Thrain, we see to the good of the people."
"Really? Like the boy I met that talked funny?"
"Yes and his parents and friends and family." Thorin said. "All the dwarven classes we help to feel good and be happy if possible."
"Wow that's nice." Ris said. "Do you like my braids, Gera did em for me, Gera is the best." Ris said and Thorin smiled.
"Yes I like your braids very much, I've never seen finer." He said and the little girl beamed, before yawning.
"Sorry, I'm sleepy, the eagle flew me really high and really far."
"If your sleepy little cousin, then you should rest."
"Want to stay with Daddy." Ris said. "You can help the people still, just want my Daddy." The little girl's eyes closed then and she fell asleep. Thorin stared down at the sleeping child for a long time.
"The council is canceled for the day, I think that we would all be too distracted to continue."
"You know what this means Uncle?"
"Aye I do, in my madness I turned away my one and he hid my child from me for fifteen years. I will not give her up now though, no matter what Bilbo might try to do, she is ours."
"Aye that she is, but wouldn't it be better to at least talk to Bilbo when he gets here?"
"She might be half hobbit Fili, but can't you see her spirit is entirely dwarven, you know how hobbits are about outsiders and living with them, my little girl would always be one." Thorin said and he stood gently cradling the child to his chest, Ris sighed, her little face pressed against Thorin's tunic and one little hand clutching the fabric. Thorin smiled down at his sleeping daughter, before striding from the council hall and going to his rooms. He found that he could not stop the endless series of questions forming in his mind, as he held his daughter close to him, never wanting to let her go.
"Daddy." The little girl said in her sleep and Thorin's heart, which had been like stone for so long, opened once more as Ris called out for him in her sleep. Thorin settled in the rocking chair and pulled out a book reading it while the child slept, listening to her soft even breathing. She didn't snore like many dwarves did, but rather sounded like her Papa in sleep. He found that he couldn't focus on the words and so instead he stared down at his daughter, looking at her face as she slept. She looked so much like him, her cheeks were Bilbo's as were her feet, but the rest of her was all him. Anyone looking at them could see that they were made from the same block. He didn't know how long he just sat there looking at every inch of her, before she started to stir and eyes that were Durin blue stared up at him. She yawned and snuggled against his chest.
"Did you have a good nap treasure?" Thorin asked and the little girl nodded.
"Why aren't you at the long table?"
"Because its not every day that a dwarf learns he has a daughter, I couldn't be who my people need me to be today, because I'm too happy to have found you." Thorin said and little arms wrapped around him.
"I'm happy too Daddy!"
"Still did you tell Papa where you were going?"
"I left a note, he might not have wanted me to go and I wanted to see you."
"That wasn't being very nice to him and you went with a strange bird, because the bird said that they knew who I was?" Thorin asked and Ris nodded. "That was very dangerous, the bird might have been lying, don't ever go anywhere with a stranger again." He told her sternly and Ris started to cry. Thorin wrapped his arms around her and rocked with her in the chair. "Its not because I'm not glad you here, that I get to meet my daughter that I tell you such things, but rather because I'm scared for you. Little girls aren't supposed to travel all the way across middle Earth all by themselves."
"But I wanted to see you Daddy." Ris said and Thorin smiled.
"And once a Durin decides they want to do something, good luck changing their mind and you little princess are a Durin." Thorin said and ran his fingers through the child's hair until she calmed.
"Sire there's a man outside claiming to be Bilbo Baggins, he demands the return of his daughter." One of the guards said.
"Papa?" Ris asked hopefully.
"We shall see, you aren't going out until we can be sure this is actually Bilbo my precious gem." Thorin said and the little girl giggled.
"Okay Daddy, I'll be good while you go see Papa." The little girl said, looking around. "There's no toys here." She said with a small frown. "Do you have story books?"
"I do, but I don't think you would understand them. Didn't you bring something with you?" Thorin asked and the little girl frowned for a moment, before grinning.
"I brought my beading box, I can do that while you and Papa talk." She said and got out a box of beads, which were pebbles for the most part, or smooth stone.
"What lovely beads." Thorin said and the little girl grinned, before focusing on her work. Thorin left her to it and went to meet one irate hobbit.