Two Brothers

~ The first talk ~

Thorin was eating supper with Dis, Kili and Fili. It had been a quiet day, nothing much happened. His nephews had been playing in the river nearby their house. Thankfully there had been no trouble. No one nearly drowned and no one had hurt himself. Yes, it was a good day.

Thorin looked at Kili and Dis. Kili was trying to convince her that it would be good for a dwarfling to stay up after 7 pm, because: 'maybe little dwarves would help her to clean up tomorrow.' Dis merely chuckled and told Kili he was going to bed before 7 pm. His youngest nephew pouted. Thorin' lips showed a little smile. 

He looked at his oldest nephew who hadn't said a word during supper. Instead he was poking his spoon in his soup. The bowl was still completely filled. 'Aren't you going to eat Fili?' Fili looked up at Thorin and quickly lowered his gaze again. 'I'm not really hungry.' Thorin sighed and put his spoon down. 'You know you must eat well if you ever want to be a great king.'

Fili didn't answer but instead lowered his own spoon as well. Thorin looked at him. It seemed like something was bothering the dwarfling. He turned to Dis to ask her to handle this but she gave him the look again. Thorin nodded and turned back to Fili. 'What's the matter laddie?'

Fili concentrated on his bowl once more before looking up at Thorin. 'Where do babys come from?' 

Thorin stared at him in disbelief and frankly out of words. 'Uhm...' He turned to ask Dis for advice but saw she and Kili had quickly left the table as soon as the question was asked. 'Great,' Thorin thought, 'what am I going to do?' Fili still looked at him with a serious face and Thorin knew he had to answer this.

'Why do you exactly want to know this?' Thorin began. Fili turned red and appeared to have a sudden interest in his bowl again. Thorin sighed. 'What have you done?' 'I've done nothing!' Fili shouted while looking up at his uncle with a confused look. 'I just wondered where they come from... First mothers get big bellies and suddenly there is a baby...'

Thorin knew this day would come but he didn't want it to come so quickly. The boy was only 23 (5/7 years in human years)! Thorin tried to think about what he should say. He obviously didn't prepair this talk. He would have been alright with Fili discovering things on his own rather them him needing to explain things to him. Thorin sighed.

'Well, the babys come from... the love between a father and mother.' Fili tilted his head and looked confused. 'I don't understand.' Thorin nodded, maybe that had been to easy. 'If a father and mother love each other, well, things happen and then there can be a baby.' Fili frowned. This really wasn't going to be an easy task.

'But, what exactly happens uncle?' Fili wouldn't give up until he had an answer that would satisfy him. Thorin tried to think really hard but couldn't come up with anything that would please Fili. And he certainly couldn't tell the truth yet... could he? No, he couldn't. Dis would never forgive him if he told him already. He was just too young.

Thorin cleared his throat in order to get more time to think about an answer. 'When a women and a man are grown up they... can... cuddle together... Yes, they cuddle. And then there can be a baby.' Thorin noticed he said something wrong because Fili's eyes opened wide. 'So if mommy and I cuddle...' Thorin realised his mistake. 'No, no,no,no... no! That's not what I meant.' Fili still looked confused and scared at the same time.

'They cuddle together.. naked.' Fili cringed his nose. 'Ieuw! Why would they do that?' Thorin smiled, he had saved his own skin. Hopefully. 'Grown ups do that because they want to have a baby.' Fili looked disgusted by the idea. 'Good, let's keep it that way' Thorin thought.