Firefly [Dwalin/OC]

Riina & Dwalin

To Dwarves, especially those of the Blue Mountains, family means everything.

Even if not everyone showed such affection in public, they certainly did when either alone or in the presence of close family and friends. Granted, even then, there are some who rarely show much timid emotions save for the rarest and most special occasions.

One of these Dwarves was Dwalin, Son of Fundin, brother of Balin.

He was a warrior, bred and trained for warfare and such, with tattoos on his broad forearms and giant hands, large biceps, a bristly beard and a mohawk of hair on top of his head that was steadily thinning out as he aged, even though he was considered young still.

Dwalin was one of those people who you did not want to mess with, and everyone know it. Everyone saw him as intimidating with a split second of eye contact, everyone knew that he would not hesitate to attack ot even mildly bruise you if you threatened him or someone he was close to. He was one of those people who rarely showed much vulnerability if he could help it. But when he did, it was around the nephews and sister of his closest friend and cousin: Torin, so THrain, son of Thror. When around them, Dwalin remained as stoic as ever, but there was always a bit of a soft side that Thorin's young nephews - Fíli and Kíli - seemed to bring out in the warrior.

Whenever around these two Dwarflings in public, others were genuinely surprised to see such a rare smile coming from Dwalin, but the more they saw of it, while still rare, they grew accustomed to it whenever Fíli and Kíli were involved.

Dwalin was also one of those tough guys with a rough around the edges personality, and while he allowed his soft side to appear around Fíli and Kíli, he didn't do it so much for anyone else. This was mainly for his own reasons, but also u to his greatest belief: That he would never grow to care for another so intimately. It was almost every Dwarf's dream to find a lad or lass and have something special develop between them - if not forever then at least for a while. And Dwalin was no exception, but while he had found many a Dwarf maiden attractive during the rebuilding of their lives in the Blue Mountains since their exile from Erebor, he had felt no major pull towards them. Also, he felt he was too busy helping Thorin occasionally babysit his nephews, organise the guards within their village, and many other things that one finds themselves doing in life, to ponder on such things.

At least, until that day when he saw her.

A Dwarf lass, clothed in breeches and a plain tunic with a thick belt sitting snugly around her waist. Her fiery red hair was tied in a long braid running the length of her back, with several strands of it falling across her face which held a pair of sapphire blue eyes with a certain spark to them, a round nose, and luscious lips which hid gleaming teeth except when pulled back in a smile. She had all the right curves for a maiden of her race, neither lacking not exceeding in muscle, she had the right amount and what looked like a strong butt and strong hands if she was able to wield such a weapon as the one she had in her hands. Her beard was short, he saw, meaning she was young, but not too young, so Dwalin reckoned she was around middle aged, if not a decade or so apart from him in age.

He saw her first in the forest at the edge of the village, er face set in concentration as she directed a young Dwarf before her. She had a short sword sitting at her belt, but even as the Dwarf she was facing raised his own short sword against her, she made no move to draw her own. Instead she raised a wooden staff, and at first Dwalin panicked she was under attack - until he heard her giving instructions on how to parry, block and strike accordingly when in a fight. He relaxed and carried on with his work. Bt for the rest of the say he could not get the image of the fiery-haired lass out of his mind.

Who was she? And why didn't he remember seeing her before? A Swarf lass in the Blue Mountains is not exactly hard to miss. As there are so few of them, even if they so tend to blend in with the men.