A Shot in the dark (Bagginshield)

Chapter Forty

Dís had always prided herself on being practical.

As the only daughter in a family full of thickheaded and overly emotional males, her voice of reason was a rare gift. Her father—Mahâl bless his heart—had been a kind Dwarf who tried to live a life with honor and duty. Sadly, he was also very dense, and could never see when he was being played and used like a puppet. Her brothers were no better; Thorin having inherited the same thickness from their father while Frerin had been too kind to even think that someone would ever lie to him. She had spent most of her younger years either dragging their butts out of trouble, or leaving them to burn for her benefit because they needed to learn that she was not to be crossed.

Dís loved her brothers dearly but that didn't mean she was going to cut them any slack.

Being one of the few sensible people in her family—Óin being the other, and possibly Fíli if he could learn to say no to his brother—meant that it was her job to watch out for everyone. She did it subtly, of course, because her brother and cousins were proud Dwarves who were also ridiculously sensitive, and would brood if they knew what she did for them. So out of respect for their pride (and to save her from their whining) she operated from the background; acting out the part as the poor widowed princess who needed her brother and sons to depend upon. In reality she was the one who slit the throat of their enemies and had their bodies thrown into the river, and she was the one who made sure her foolish offspring didn't end up in jail.

But her newest dilemma... it was going to require a bit more tact than normal.

"What are you glaring at?"

Dís looked up from the letter she had received from Óin, and met the dark eyes of one of the loveliest Dwarves in the mountain. "Óin has sent me a letter concerning my dear older brother. Apparently Thorin has gone and proposed marriage to one of the members of the Company."

Súna, the wife of her kinsmen Glóin and one of the few Dwarves she actually enjoyed being around, raised her fair brows. "Oh? And who is the unlucky Dwarf that has captured our dense king's attention?"

"He's not a Dwarf; he's a Hobbit," she replied, pursing her lips together and tapping her long nails against the marble table. "A Bilbo Baggins from the Shire. He's their burglar and the one who ensured Smaug's demise."

"A Hobbit? I thought they never left their lands," Súna commented, blinking her large eyes once. For Súna, that was a declaration of complete surprise and shock.

"Well this one did thanks to that wizard," she sneered, tossing the letter onto the table and leaning back into her chair.

Out of all the possible outcomes she had predicted for this quest, Thorin falling in love was not one of them. At worst she thought she would lose a family member or—Mahâl forbid—both her sons and brother. She had hoped they would succeed, sure, but didn't put a whole lot of faith in Thorin's plans. But this? This was the last thing she had expected when her brother and sons had marched off to reclaim their home from Smaug.

"You're upset," Súna remarked, tilting her head to the side and causing her mass of blonde braids to tumble over her shoulder. "Why? Because your brother has fallen in love without your permission? Or because you have to share him with someone else for the first time in your life?

"Neither. I'm annoyed because I don't know this Hobbit," she answered honestly because Súna would notice if she lied. "Who is he? Why did he join the quest? What is his family like? What are his roots? What does he hope to gain with this marriage? This Baggins is a stranger to me and I don't like it."

The beautiful Dwarf before her smirked. The look made her jaw stand out and highlighted her full lips even more. Dís found herself both annoyed and awed. She knew she was attractive in her own way, but she had nothing on her cousin's wife. Súna was a classical Dwarven beauty from her thick hair to her large bosom. Why she chose Glóin of all Dwarves Dís would never know.