Author's Note: I believe that this will be the last chapter of this particular story, though i may write more about Fili and Gudny later. Anyway, this is about their wedding, and I'd just like to make it clear that I made up everything about the way that dwarves marry. I probably got it completely wrong and it may make you wish to bang your head against your table or desk, and sob.

It's from Kili's POV this time, and thank you if you reviewd/favorited/followed!

A wedding. Well, stuff me with saffron - how lovely.

And not just any wedding. Fili's wedding.

Considering the amount of time that my brother was devoting to following Gudny around and gazing adoringly at her, I was actually rather surprised when he asked me to help him get ready for his wedding.

And, when you're dealing with dwarves, this mainly meant helping him braid his hair.

"Why isn't Gudny doing this?" I asked, trying not to sound too peevish, as I leaned back a little to admire my handiwork.

"She's getting prepared, herself," said Fili, sounding too happy to have noticed my less than elated mood "And you braid much better, anyway."

I started on the next braid, quite flattered that Fili had even admitted that I was in any way better than that peerless maiden of pure perfection, Gudny the Wonderful.

Now, don't get me wrong. I was happy for Fili. Absolutely. And I wasn't jealous about the fact that Gudny was in love with him. I mean, she was nice looking, and I enjoyed her company and all that, but she was a bit too sharp and hard for me.

No, the cause of my bad mood was Fili's...sheer devotion to her. I had hardly had the chance to talk to him ever since he'd gone and gotten himself betrothed - he'd spent so much time closeted up with Gudny.

Dwarven women were few and far between, and most dwarves either spent their lives searching for a wife, or accepted the fact that they were probably never going to get one and adapted accordingly.

And I'd always assumed that Fili and I would both just continue on as we were, and stay the same. Whereas now, Fili was practically in a different world.

And I didn't like it at all.

"Are you alright?" Fili asked, twisting around in his chair to look at me.

I opened my mouth to say that no, I wasn't, and then thought better of it. He was getting married in a few hours. Not the time to try and make him feel guilty.

"Fine," I said, putting on my most convincing grin "So, how many braids do you want on this side?"

I'd like to say how the rest of the preparations went, but truthfully, I just drifted through them, practically dead to the world. When I finally regained control of myself and managed to focus, I was sitting at the largest table in the Banqueting Hall, in between Bifur and Dori (whom, along with the other Company members, had been given a seat of honor).

Fili stood in the center of the hall, with Gudny beside him. And I had to admit, she looked beautiful. Perhaps not quite as beautiful as the expression on my brother's face would lead you to expect, but still...

In case anyone is interested - I wasn't, really - she was wearing yet another deep purple dress, though this one was a little more elaborately embroidered, and her hair had been braided into a sort of crown that ran around the top of her head.

Very nice, if you liked that sort of thing. I wondered why she'd been wearing so much purple recently. Maybe Fili was partial to the colour.

My brother was wearing his normal attire, which I found a bit odd. Oh well, maybe he didn't want to detract from Gudny's appearance.

Thorin, who was standing just in front of the couple, held a circlet, made of silver, out to my brother. I then watched, with a strange hollow feeling, as Fili gently placed the aforementioned circlet on the top of Gudny's head.

Gudny accepted a golden circlet from my uncle, and then, with a smile so happy that I felt uncomfortable to see it, repeated the process, crowning Fili, this time.

The two of them stood there, staring at each other for a minute or two (while Thorin respectfully took a few steps back), and then embraced. There was an explosion of cheering from the watching dwarves, and I heard a whistle or two coming from the other end of our table, where I knew that Bofur and his kin had been placed.

And there was Fili, my brother and my best friend, now married.

Well, hurrah.

Of course, this small, customary ceremony isn't the end of a dwarven wedding. Far from it.

No, the best part, and the part that I had always looked forward to before, was the celebration afterward. First, the toasting, which, when the wedding was attended by many dwarves, could go on for a while.

Thorin stood up to give his first. It was a fairly simple one, but anything he, King Under the Mountain said was likely to get applause.

"To my nephew and his bride!"

The others all joined in, in fine Dwarven custom, speaking (or yelling) one after the other. Beside me, Bifur growled out something that none of us could understand but was presumably best wishes for the beaming Fili and Gudny.

"To many happy days," said Bombur, a bit indistinctly since he'd managed to surreptitiously stuff some food into his mouth already.

There was only one thing that you could say after someone proposed a toast like that, and I knew that Bofur wasn't going to miss his chance to say it.

"And even happier nights!"

This got a laugh, because, well, you had to laugh at things like that, and I was interested to see that instead of looking bashful, Fili and Gudny both chortled along with everyone else.

"May you have a long and prosperous life together," said Balin.

"Full of adventures," finished Dwalin.

Dori, Nori, and Ori managed to deliver their oddly appropriate toasts in very quick succession.

"To health!"

"To wealth!"

There was quite a bit of laughter after this one, if only because it was Nori who'd said it, which meant that hardly anyone heard Ori's 'To happiness!'.

"To us!"

"To love!"

And then it was my turn, and everyone was watching me. I looked over to where Fili was now sitting next to Thorin, with Gudny very close beside him, and my mouth opened and closed a few times, soundlessly.

This was ridiculous. I couldn't remember ever being tongue-tied in my life, before. Of all the times to be struck dumb and be left standing there like an idiot...

"Khazad baruk," I mumbled, saying the first thing that came into my head.

This was a very old battlecry - meaning 'the axes of the dwarves', but it can be used as a curse ('By the axes of the dwarves!), or can be useful if you're trying to buy something ('So, how much for these axes of the dwarves, then?'). However, it was quite possible that I was the first dwarf to use it when proposing a toast, and everyone stared at me.

It was Bofur who saved me, and I vowed to never again tease him about his hat or play any tricks on him, or anything.

"Khazad baruk!" he echoed, raising his cup, and everyone else followed suit.

I sank back in my chair, extremely uncomfortable and wishing that the whole wedding would just be over as quickly as possible. It wasn't, of course.

Because, next came the feasting.

This went on for a very long time, with course after course being brought out and almost instantly consumed. I didn't have much of an appetite at this particular wedding, but I still acquitted myself well in a potato-eating competition with Nori.

The procedure for this, in case you've never participated in one, goes something like this:

All participants try and stuff as many potatoes into their mouths as possible, without a) swallowing or b) being sick. All spectators must cheer loudly, and bang their cups on the table.

It gets really funny when one of the participants tries to talk, and ends up spraying bits of potato everywhere.

After the feast came the dancing, and the drinking. Due to the fact that only a small amount of female dwarves were present, only about half of those who attended the wedding were able to participate in the former of these activities, but that was alright, because there was ale enough for everyone to join in on the latter.

I got tired of glumly watching the newly wedded couple dance - after a few minutes every burst of happy laughter and every swish of Gudny's skirts became deafeningly loud and painful to hear.

Well, I thought, might as well start drinking now.

I could just imagine the remainder of the evening drift by in a series of drinks, and despite the fact that normally no prospect would be more appealing, I couldn't summon up any enthusiasm.

I threaded my way through the crowds, until I reached the large ale barrel that stood in one corner of the hall. Nori had selflessly offered to mind it, which meant mainly checking from time to time to see if it was empty yet, and getting himself as many drinks as he liked.

He was sitting there when I reached it, leaning back in his chair beside it and smoking his pipe, while beside him Bofur was playing a tune on his flure. I nodded, gloomily, to them both and made to get a fresh pint from the barrel, but Nori stuck out one foot and stopped me.

"Sorry, Kili,' he said "I was told to let you have two pints, and no more."

"What? Why? Who told you?"

Nori shrugged, apologetically, and Bofur stopped playing to look at me with an aggravating mixture of sympathy and amusement.

"Thorin," he explained, simply.

I launched into a vivid and colourful description of both Bofur and Nori's parentage, invited them to do something which was actually impossible, and rounded it off by wishing that they would both rip out their own entrails and nail them to trees. I might have stamped my foot a few times - I can't remember.

It was a childish display, I must admit, and it wasn't even their fault. Thorin was clever as well as good at looking majestic, and he knew what sort of mood I was in and the sort of drinking that I was likely to do, but still...

I turned away from the ale barrel, in search of something to kick, and almost tripped over someone who had been sitting on a stool, watching the dancing.

"Sorry," I mumbled, now feeling a little ashamed of myself.

The dwarf looked up and I saw that what I'd automatically assumed to be a 'he' was in fact a 'she'. She looked to be a bit younger than me, and as soon as she jumped to her feet nervously, I saw that she was quite a lot shorter too - barely coming up to my shoulder.

She had light brown hair, a wisp of a beard along her jawline, and somehow, a very familiar face. It wasn't just her features that were familiar, but also that eager and faintly apologetic expression...

"Hold on," I said, before she had the chance to say anything "You wouldn't be related to Dori, and Nori, and Ori, by any chance?"

"'M their sister," said the dwarf, with a nervous and faintly confused smile.

"Their sister?" I repeated, before turning around to see Nori nodding "You never told me you had a sister!"

"Dori was telling you about her only last week," said Nori "I distinctly remember him mentioning Oddny..."

"Yes, well, how do you expect me to pay attention? Whenever Dori starts on about something, I just sort of drift off..."

To my slight surprise, Oddny laughed at this.

"I'm Kili," I said, feeling that I might as well introduce myself "At your service."

Oddny grabbed a handful skirts in each fist (I noticed that, unlike Ori, she'd steered more or less clear of knitted clothes, except for one large sort of tunic, and a scarf), and sank into an awkward curtsy.

"I've heard about you," she said, and I noticed that she was blushing. I'd never seen Gudny blush, and hadn't even known that people actually did it.

It wasn't the first time that someone had told me that they'd heard of me before, but they usually said it in the kind of weary tone that makes it clear that they'd not heard anything good. Oddny managed to say it as if she had heard many good and exciting things about me and could hardly believe that I was standing there, in the flesh.

For the first time all evening, I grinned.

That made her blush all the more.