Chapter One
Returning Home

By MiLady Oakenshield

"A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it."

Kildri sat in silence with his wife, he on one side of their small kitchen table and her seated on the other. They sipped very quietly at their stew, as quietly as one could while eating rabbit stew with cooked vegetables, but quite hard to do so and resist the urge to slurp it down. More than often it was just the two of them in the house and so quiet was definitely not uncommon. The occasional visitor would be her brother- though he never announced when he would be coming and would always just showing; annoying her to no end every time he did so. Dis was a good hostess. She would cater to him on the whim and sometimes spoil him by bringing a bagged lunch to the forge. He was teased for it but it was something both siblings looked forward to.

Her husband couldn't cook worth a damn. He tried once, and ended up putting Thorin in bed for half a week with severe nausea and diarrhea. By that end, Dis had forbidden Kildri from ever touching anymore of the cooking. His job was to shut up, eat it and enjoy it. And for the most part, he seemed perfectly content with the idea. He enjoyed her cooking anyway and would always compliment her choices, though he was beginning to get tired of rabbit stew. Try as she might to put some variety in their meals, sometimes their choices were limited. There was never a bounty of meat and not everyone in city was willing to trade or sell to dwarves.

Some dwarves started hunting more for themselves. Dis knew Thorin had begun going on hunting trips with Dwalin and Bofur. And on those occasions, she would get herself some caribou or even a nice deer.

Somewhere between thinking about where their next meal was coming from and remembering he had something important to say, Kildri looked over to his worn leather pack by the door while he noticed his wife was distracted by her meal. Looking back to her, the yellow-bearded and brown-eyed dwarf husband realized she had been watching him and the perk in her brows meant she was curious and either waiting for him to say something, or waiting for the right time to ask when he was leaving; obviously the pack she caught him stuffing the other night had meant something.

"When?"

Kildri sighed and lowered his spoon into his bowl. "Tomorrow morning. Early. Thorin and I travel to Gondor and I suspect we won't be back for several months." He watched her eyes widen and knows this wasn't the kind of news pleasant to her ears. He hated leaving her as often as he did but he didn't have that choice to stay home when her work as a seamstress was hardly enough.

Dis's disappoint was definitely obvious. "Kili- " she started, using a nickname for him she had started calling him long before they were married and still just courting each other. " –you promised me you would not be taking such commissions anymore. We were talking about starting a family. We can't do that if you are always working. I cannot be expected to raise dwarflings by myself- "

He slammed his open hand on the table, causing her to jump. "I do what I do to keep you happy, wife! I do not do it lightly. If I could, I would stay home with you more often. Do you not see? I want to be able to shower you with everything you could want… " He looked down at his bowl. "…but you and I both know a baby is not one of them. After the losses of other children we've conceived, I refuse to put myself though that again. My heart cannot take it and I know yours can't either."

Dis immediately climbed away from the table and sealed herself away in their bedroom. The door slammed behind her. Kildri remained sitting at the table for several minutes while he thought about it but then he started hearing her cries and that always put a darkened feeling in his heart. He made a promise to her brother to never make her cry and he always managed somehow to forget that.

Kildri moved away from the kitchen table and followed after her. He turned the knob and pushed it open just an inch. He peaked his head in first with his brown eyes moving onto their bed where she lay curled up in a small ball and her plump brunette locks cushioned into her pillows. She seemed to know he was there but yet made no motion to sit up and look at him. She was waiting for him to come to her. Alright then. Kildri moved further into the bedroom shutting the door behind him. He walked across their floor until he was standing at his side of the bed, his wife's back to him.

Kildri lowered himself to the bed and immediately pulled his arm around her, then burying his face in the crook of her neck, letting himself breathe in her sweet scent. His fingers intertwined with hers. Dis smiled despite her tears then brought her husband's hand to her lips and skipped her mouth across each of his knuckles. She held his hand against her heart then turned slowly to face him. Kildri lifted a hand to the side of her face, his fingers memorizing every line of her jaw and cheek bones.

He brought his lips to her forehead, then to the tip of her nose. "I apologize, Dis," he admitted in a solemn, low voice. "My words were never meant to hurt you and I should have thought about the ones I said before I said them. I want to give you children but I fear that it is my fault you have not been able to produce any." Kildri looked saddened by this.

"You are not to blame, my husband." She lifted her mouth up to his lips. "I will still love you in spite of everything." Her fingers started pulling at the strings of his tunic. "And we can always practice for now…"

Kildri smirked. "I can never deny you."

He slipped her clothing from her body then removed his own and made love to his wife several times that night.

..

Seven months and three weeks to the day, Kildri and Thorin found themselves looking upon a familiar sight. The one thing Kildri looked forward to was knowing his wife would be waiting for him, and a warm fire would be cracking in the hearth with a pint of ale at the table. He was so hungry for her attention and the warmth of her body that he could make love to her for the next week. He looked forward to doting upon her the way she deserved. With the purse of money made from the commission, he'd be able to buy her that silver necklace he always wanted to but never could because he could never afford nice things.

In a lot of respects, Kildri owed a great deal of gratitude to Thorin; it was him that introduced the yellow-bearded traveler to Dis, gave him a job and place to stay. It was Thorin that offered him a friend when he had none. Kildri had made the Blue Mountains his home and he was glad to be seeing it again after such a long time on the road.

"Welcome home, Thorin."

Thorin lifted his head and saw what his brother-in-law could see; a village crowned in all the glory and splendor he'd come to love for so many years- their home, lying out in the open, as if nothing had changed at all. Something inside his chest felt warm and feverish. At this pace, they would be home before the fall of the sun which always put him in a jubilant mood; he hated traveling at night. "A dangerous travel it is." His father would say.

When in Gondor, they had been treated to a night's stay at the inn while their ponies were given new shoes and groomed. On the road, they would hunker down in any cave they could find using the bed rolls they dragged along with them. The occasional town would pop up here and there, and the inn keeper would be more than willing to offer them a room but it would be a welcomed comfort to be able to sleep in their own beds again.

..

Kildri woke up that morning when the sun was still new and the birds were still in their nests and Dis was still buried naked under their bed sheets. He left a kiss on her brow, dressed appropriately for travel and slipped out of their bedroom. He did not think about breakfast for himself when he wandered to the door for his riding boots and his pack. His sword and small recurve bow lay out next to a quiver of freshly binded arrows, courtesy of his wife no doubt. She must have done it sometime early in the morning while he still slept.

He grabbed his riding boots and dragged them to the couch by the far window in the living room where he dropped carelessly down onto one of the cushions. Kildri slipped his feet into each one of his boots and laced them up, tugging the strings as tightly together as possible. While it might have seemed that he could leave his home unnoticed, a presence in the doorway had announced herself in nothing but a sheet wrapped around her bare body, the folds held tightly against her bosom.

She cleared her throat once, drawing his attention, then walked to him. "Did you really think you could leave my side without a proper goodbye?" Her large hips swayed this way and that under the protection of her baby blue sheet. They framed her voluptuous form in a perfect and delicate form nicely.

"I thought I did that last night?" His left brow had lifted but the corners of his lips had tugged to a smirk.

Dis nodded. "That you did but I meant seeing you off. Did you honestly think you could have me wake up cold to your presence and an empty house?"

"No." Kildri rose to his feet and took her hands. "I knew there was no way of leaving without saying goodbye." He raised each hand to his lips and kissed them in turn. "I will return to you as quickly as I can. I promise. And then- " His voice broke off as his right hand begun trailing down her jaw, to her neck and across her collar bone to her chest. His fingers casually brushed over the rise of her breasts then his lips came down to hers.

"Oh, you are such a tease." She lifted a hand to his tunic, entwined her fingers in the draw strings and pulled him in close to her for a kiss.

Kildri smiled in spite of himself. The thought of sleeping with his wife in their bed on their first night back had his loins burning. A knot in his stomach had twisted. It would be a surprise to see him so much earlier than expected. He pictured a grand meal to celebrate with all the finest cakes, biscuits and sausages this side of Ered Luin. His wife was such an excellent cook. She spoiled him rotten.

So after he and Thorin brought their ponies to the stables, pulled off the tackle and brushed the animals down, Kildri was more than ready to go home. He couldn't get away fast enough it seemed. The second he could, he fled the stables and no doubt left his brother-in-law standing there with a smirk on his face.

When he reached his small but comfortable house between three tall standing trees and an open front yard, Kildri twisted the knob open to his front door and pushed it open with the brightest smile on his face than the last night he was home and his wife was singing his praises before she mounted him like an experienced rider would a thorough bred.

He had already shed off one boot by the time he reached for the second and shrugged off the arrow quiver from his shoulder to the floor. His constructed bow rested next to it. "Dis?" Kildri's voice rang soft and low, afraid that he might startle her if his voice was too high; she was no stranger to raising a blade to someone walking into her home uninvited.

When she didn't answer and he noticed the candles in the house had been extinguished, he went on to assume she had gone to bed. The door was slowly shut behind him as he started moving across the floor towards the bed room. He could see the blunt flicker of light from a small crack. He gave the door a light push until he could see inside the room. His wife was sound asleep in their bed, resting on her right side as she so often did. The sheets and furs were pulled up to her neck and her dark hair flowed evenly over her neck.

Smiling to himself, Kildri walked over to her. He brushed hair from her face and leaned down to place a soft kiss on the brow just above her left eyelid. Dis stirred at this motion. A soft groan vibrated her throat as she turned, her shoulders nudging the sheets ever so slightly as her body moved. When her lids opened, she looked upon her husband's face and smiled.

"Hey. You're home." She sounded both surprised and pleased simultaneously; Dis did not expect him home so early, nor did she think she'd when he'd come home. "How did it go?"

"As well as can be expected. How are you?"

"We're good."

We?

Kildri stared hard. What exactly did she mean by we? He was suddenly nervous. Did she have someone else here with her? Would he have a reason to be jealous? His unblinking facial expression gave him away. Chuckling to herself, Dis took his hand and placed it on her very swollen belly. Kildri's heart jumped into his throat when he felt something kick against his palm. He looked down to his wife's heavily pregnant tummy then slowly slipped in behind her whilst still keeping his hand against her body.

He waited a moment until he felt another kick, and then a smile brightened his face. His hand moved around Dis's belly more as if he were studying it in great detail. As Kildri lifted his head again to have his eyes stare into his wife's face, he lifted his second hand to her brow and smoothed over the ridge of her forehead with his thumb. She took his hand and kissed his fingers.

He stole a kiss then wrapped one protective around them both. "Yes we are."

Author's Note-And there is chapter one. I'm considering getting rid of the prologue and just starting the story with this chapter but I haven't fully decided yet. Please let me know what you think of this chapter by submitting your reviews. I look forward to reading them… and I will gladly give out Thorin shaped brownies to those who leave a review ^_^