No Place for Women

"Bifur,Bofur, and Bombur? Oin, Gloin? Ori, Nori, Dori? And finally Balin, Dwalin and Thorin?" I asked with a laugh, looking at Kili.

I was currently in the process of trying to learn all the names of the thirteen Dwarves sitting around me. And the Hobbit? I had already memorized his name. It was the easiest, probably because there's only one Hobbit, verse thirteen Dwarves.

We had spent the past few hours with the Dwarf men, trying our best to get to know them. Hearing the familiar, sweet sound of my sisters laugh, I looked over my shoulder to where she was sitting with Kili's older brother; Fili. I'm glad she was getting to know him, getting to know more about Dwarves in general actually; seeing as our father was a Dwarf, why wouldn't she want to know more about them?

"So, tell me more about you? What do you like?" Kili asked, looking into my eyes.

"Well," I slightly laughed, "I really like animals a lot."

He leaned in closer to me, and his fingers pushed my bangs away from my face; allowing him to see my eyes better. Upon hearing a rather loud squeak, Kili had a shocked look on his face, and he jumped back. Causing a rather large commtion.

"What was that?!" He shouted, looking at me with wide eyes.

I laughed, "It's only Sebastian."

Reaching one hand up behind my hair, and allowed the small hedgehog to get on my hand before reaching him out towards Kili. He came back to where he had been sitting next to me, and he looked at the small animal that was sitting on my hand.

"Where did you find him? I mean, you would've had to have left the safety Rivendell to have been able to catch him."

"Rivendells just about as safe as it is in the Green Wood." I laughed, "I would never catch animals and hurt them. I've only ever hunted for food, and even then that's rare. I never caught Sebastian...he would always follow us around the Green Woods; and finally just before we came here to visit with our mother, Radagast gave Sebastian to me as a gift."

Rovain's POV

"Please, Gandalf, I think it would be good for them. Besides, you know that they could help you in your endevers. Please." I asked, not looking away from him.

"I agree completely Lady Rovain. It would be good for your girls to experience the world that is unknown to them." Gandalf agreed, making a smile spread out on my face.

"No!" Thorin shouted, "The wild is no place for two little girls such as them. They'll never survive."

"Two little girls?" I laughed, "Those two little girls have lived in the Green Wood by themselves since they were quite little. You know nothing of their true strength." Gandalf placed a calming hand on my shoulder causing me to look up at him, "They took after their father you know. I would've never imagined that Kila could look so much like him, and remind me of him so much. And I think that's why they never stayed here in Rivendell with me; because Dwarves have never truely been accepted amongst the Elves. So with that fact being known, why would two daughters of one be accepted, even with their mother being an Elf?"

I knew I had gotten to the point that I was rambling, but that didn't matter to me. I knew my daughters had so many questions that I would never be able to answer. Questions about the rest of the world, questions about their fathers kind that I could never tell them; simply because I don't know. I knew nothing about the Dwarves before I had met their father, and I still know nothing now that he's gone.

"Please, Thorin Oakenshield, take them with you. I beg of you please." I said, standing.

"Alright," He whispered looking down at the table, " We will take them with us."

Kili's POV

"Kila." Calili yawned, "I'm sleepy. Will you sing me that song again?"

I watched as Kila stood from where she had been sitting next to me, and I felt a slight saddness wash over me. She walked over to her sister; taking the cloak off of her shoulders, leaving her bare, she rolled it up and sat it in her lap, allowing her sister to use it as a make shift pillow.

"Close your eyes." She whispered softly.

Calili did as she was told, and closed her eyes. Kila slowly began running her fingers through her sisters light blonde hair, and taking the flowers out so they wouldn't get crushed and tangled into her hair.

"Far over the misty mountains cold
To dungeons deep and caverns old
We must away ere break of day
To seek the pale enchanted gold.
The dwarves of yore made mightly spells,
While hammers fell like ringing bells
In places deep, where dark things sleep,
In hollow halls beneath the fells. "

I looked up in shock at the song the young girl was singing. Though it wasn't just the song that she was singing, but it was her voice. It was the voice I had heard earlier in the Green Wood, just before we had come here.

"For ancient king and elvish lord
There many a gleaming golden hoard
They shaped and wrought, and light they caught
To hide in gems on hilt of sward.
On silver necklaces they strung
The flowering stars, on crowns they hung
The dragon-fire, in twisted wire
They meshed the light of moon and sun."

All the members of the company quieted down, and looked to where the two girls where. Bofur was the first to start humming the same little melody that she was singing, then Bifur and Bombur joined him. Eventually we were all humming along with the song she was singing. I remember Thorin sang only one part while we were in the Shire, convincing Bilbo to join the company as our offical burglar.

"Far over the misty mountains cold
To dungeouns deep and caverns old
We must away, ere break of day,
To claim our long-forgotten gold. "

Once she was done singing, she looked up at everyone with a bit of confusion. I noticed that Calili was sleeping soundly where she was laying her head in her sisters lap. She moved her carefully, with slight help from Fili, to where she was laying flat on the ground; her head still on the make-shift pillow. I watched as Fili took her place next to the girl, as he lay next to her and tried to fall asleep.

"Where did you learn that song?" I asked as Kila sat back down next to me.

"I heard my dad sing it to us once. He taught me how to sing it." She expained, and then a sad look came over her face, "It was the last time I ever saw him to be honest."

"I'm sorry." I whispered, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and pulling her closer to me, "I heard you singing earlier....in the woods. I'm sure of it, it has to be you. I'd never mistake that voice again in my life."

"Why's that?" She asked, her big brown eyes looking up at me.

"I know it sounds strange, but there's just something about your voice....it makes me feel like I actually have somewhere that I belong. Our home was taken from us...but your voice. Your voice makes me believe that there's a home out there for me. Just waiting for me to find it." I explained, keeping my eyes locked on hers.

"I know what you're feeling. I've never felt like I belonged here, nor in Valinor. I've always felt rejects and outcasted because how much I've taken after my father, verses how much Calili looks like our mother. She's got all the Elvish features, while I took after our father. I don't think I'll ever understand why people have chosen to reject me for my parents actions. I just...I just want to find somewhere that I belong." She explained.

I watched silently as she looked over at her sleeping sister, and my sleeping brother who was next to her; he had one protective arm around her. I'd never seen my brother like that. I looked around the place to see that everyone else was asleep as well; the fire still small and burning in the center of the room, between us all. Upon feeling something press against my chest, I looked back to Kila.

Only to see her eyes where now shut, and she had her head laying lightly on my chest. Her hand just a few inches away from her nose; it made me laugh slighty. Slowly, I leaned down and kissed the top of her head before laying back on the ground and closing my eyes; trying to go to sleep as well.