A few days later Fili, Kili, Thorin and Dwalin met in one of the training rooms for Kili's sword practice. The young dwarf was quite excited although he had fought with a sword already. So he suggested that he and Fili practiced with wooden swords at first because he didn't want to injure his brother. After one hour he had finally gotten used to hold a sword again and so he took his new sword for the first time. He practiced with a training dummie for two more hours while Fili, Dwalin and Thorin gave him some tips and told him that he was doing really well.

Later he told everyone else happily how well the training went and so Dis suggested that they could all come to watch him the next day. Kili didn't know if this was a good idea but agreed nonetheless.

So the next morning after breakfast everyone met in the training room again. Fili would have to leave for council soon and so Dwalin and Kili practiced together.

Daisy, who had never seen Kili fight before, was quite worried that something might happen to him and clung to her sleeping daughter. Poppy sensed Daisy's worries and squeezed her best friend's hand in encouragement. Fili held his youngest son in his arms and smiled at his older children who cheered everytime something exciting happened. Runor sat next to Vili and told him everything Kili and Dwalin did. So the blind boy enjoined the training as well.

Although everyone knew that Dwalin went easy on Kili, they were happy when the younger dwarf won the little training tournament and congratulated him. Kili smiled happily and hugged Daisy and kissed Peony's nose while Fili kissed Poppy and his children goodbye.

From that day onward Kili practiced with either Fili. Thorin or Dwalin everyday and improved his fighting skills a lot. Soon he was a lot more happy and confident because he knew that he could still protect his family if something terrible happened to them one day.

A few weeks later Balin suggested that Runor, Vili, Lili and maybe also Dwalis and Tulip could start their lessons soon. Runor was very excited to finally start learning how to read and write but then looked very sad because Vili started crying.

Poppy took her son into her arms and stroked his golden curls. He sobbed into her hair that he wanted to learn such things as well but that he would never be able to do it because of his blindness.

Runor also went to Vili and patted his arms and apologised. He explained that he had totally forgotten about Vili's blindness because it didn't matter to him. He liked his best friend for the person he was and barely thought about his disability anymore.

Balin looked at Fili and Poppy sadly and then explained that he had heard about a special writing style for blind dwarves once. He promised that he would ask Ori to look this up in the library.

Fili thanked Balin and they agreed that the children would start with some Khuzdul and easy history lessons for the beginning until they hopefully found a way for Vili to learn how to write and read.

Almost two weeks later Ori joined Fili and his family for dinner. He told them that he had found out that long ago one of Erebor's princes had been blind as well and so there were several books for children and adults but also tools to help a blind person write in an unused corner of the library. He had even found a book with explanations for this system to write for the blind. He also brought a piece of wood which Vili could use to write. He would have to stab a big blunt needle into the small holes in the piece of wood. There was a certain combination of dots for each letter which Vili would certainly be able to learn easily. He explained that for example a dot on the top left would be an 'a'.

Then he gave a small children's book to Vili. The little boy took it curiously. Of course he couldn't read it yet but he could easily feel the dots and smiled happily. The book also had pictures that protruded from the paper. Poppy sat down next to Vili on the couch and told him that there were for example a tree, the sun and a cloud. Vili carefully touched each picture and smiled brightly because he finally knew how these things looked like.

Fili and Poppy thanked Ori and decided that they would try to learn this way to write and read together with their son.

Another day Fjola joined Daisy, Poppy, Runa and Dis while they played with the children. She told them that she and Thorin had decided to marry soon because they loved each other and even dreamed about a little family. Even though Fjola was several years younger than Thorin she wanted to have a dwarfling as soon as possible. The other females could understand that and told Fjola how happy they were for her.

After a little chat Fjola finally asked the others if they'd help her to prepare the wedding. Of course they all agreed and soon started to talk about dresses and food while the children played together happily.

Poppy, Daisy, Dis, Runa and Fjola continued to plan the wedding for the next few weeks. One day they wanted to travel to Dale to buy several things and so they asked Kili to babysit Thorin since he and Peony were inseparable. The older children would spend the day with Bilbo and Ori because Fili, Thorin and Dwalin had to spent the day in council.

Kili agreed and decided to spend the day with Thorin and Peony in his rooms alone with the children. Poppy showed Kili the food she had prepared for her son and the milk and tea Daisy had put on a drinking skin for Peony. Then they left because they wanted to be back before sundown. Poppy already showed a lot and rather wanted to spend the night in Fili's arms in her bed instead of in King Bard's guest rooms in Dale.

Kili had a wonderful day with the two infants. He fed them, burped them and changed their diapers together with Bilbo. Then they all fell asleep on a fur in front of the fireplace. Later Kili played with Thorin with some wooden blocks. Then Thorin crawled around the room and tried to catch a small soft ball and shrieked in delight.

After a while Kili heard Peony whimper in her basket and quickly went towards her. He noticed that her favourite soft toy had fallen down and gave it back to her. Seconds later he turned around to continue playing with Thorin but the little boy had disappeared. Kili was shocked and looked everywhere but he couldn't find him. He started shaking and tears rolled down his cheeks. He had lost his youngest nephew and didn't knkw how to tell Fili and Poppy about it. They had lost Vili back in the Shire and now Thorin was gone and it was his fault.

Some time later he heard Fili enter his rooms and quickly went towards him. The blonde dwarf immediately noticed his brothers puffy eyes and rushed towards him. "Kili, what happened? Is something wrong with Peony? Did you have any trouble with the children?"

Kili looked down at his boots and swallowed. "Fili, I've lost your son! I only turned around to look after Peony and suddenly he was gone!"

Hello everyone! I hope my description of how to write Braille is understandable! One of my best friends is blind and I learned how the write and read Braille in a similar way. I tried to transform it into a way it would work in Middle Earth but I'm not sure if it's understandable :)

Thanks again for the follows, favourites and reviews :)