I have no excuse for why it has taken me so long to write this latest chapter, everyone. All I can say is that between work turning into a non-stop cluster for the past few months, various and sundry familial ailments, one out-of-state business trip and a killer case of writer's block, sitting down to write about our favorite dwarf/human couple has just not been in the cards.

Thank you to everyone who's stuck with me and encouraged me to keep going with this story. I promise you I never intended to give it up - these two are too dear to my heart to abandon them like that! :)

The day of the wedding dawned bright and clear, and Sigrid was going to scream.

"More?" she groaned as Dis' dwarf handmaidens clustered about her to wrap another beaded belt around her waist. "I'm not going to be able to walk with all these beads!"

"Nonsense," Dis argued from her seat at the vanity where she was holding court, approving beaded color combinations and directing her handmaidens as they outfitted the future queen in her wedding garb. "You're a big, strong girl. Anyway, they'll all be coming off again soon enough. Speaking of which, did you drink the little bottle I gave you, dear?"

Sigrid couldn't help but blush. She didn't know what she'd expected from a future mother-in-law, but it certainly hadn't involved speaking so frankly about the things Sigrid and Fili would end up doing together on their wedding night. "Yes, Lady Dis," she said shyly, painfully aware of the giggles from the dwarf girls around her.

"Hush, you lot," Dis said. "This is your future queen's wedding night we're talking about, not some fumble in the hay with a metalsmith fresh off the forge." There was a soft chorus of, "Sorry, your highness"-es, and Dis nodded in approval. "Good girls. Now then, you'll get another bottle at the feast. Normally we dwarfs only need one, but since Men tend to be a wee bit more fragile than dwarfs, I think it's best to give you a little more. Oin agrees."

Sigrid groaned. "You told Master Oin?"

"Of course! Now now, don't be shy, lass. You're going to be an honorary dwarf soon, and we ladies are in the minority where dwarfs are concerned. You'll have to get used to talking about girlish things with our lads. But don't you worry – they're good boys, and they're more scared of you than you are of them."

"You make it sound like I'm a wild animal."

"To most dwarf lads a female might as well be a wild animal: something to be approached with caution and care. Right, girls?" There was an agreeable murmur through the group of handmaidens. "There, see? Besides, Master Oin may be deaf as a post and a bit of an old fossil, but he's a skilled healer. Men and dwarfs alike used to seek him out in Ered Luin to tend their ills, so he knows your biology well enough to be a suitable physician. And according to Master Oin, two doses of the liqueur ought to be enough to make your first night with my Fili an enjoyable one." Her eyes twinkled merrily. "Ah, it'll do my boy good to have a fine woman in his bed every night. Nothing like a good wife to keep a dwarf's boots on the ground rather than climbing cliffs like a mountain goat." The handmaidens chattered their agreement. This was clearly a well-worn aphorism in dwarf circles.

"That's provided I'm able to make it to the altar," Sigrid complained as a beaded shawl was draped over her shoulders. "I genuinely think I won't be able to move, Lady Dis. Are all these beads necessary?"

"They indicate your status as the future Queen Under the Mountain, my lass. The more intricate and precious the beads, the higher the maid's status. We want to make sure that every dwarf at the ceremony recognizes your position."

"I can barely lift my arms!"

"Pish posh. Why, you should have seen my own wedding gown. I rattled like a dice cup!" Dis chortled. "Ah, it did me good to see my Vili's eyes as he looked at me."

Sigrid wanted to remind Dis that, height notwithstanding, dwarfs tended to be much stronger than Men. "You're going to need to carry me to the wedding, Lady Dis. Or perhaps lift me into one of your wheelbarrows and roll me to the altar."

"Oh goodness, girl, it's not that bad! Fine, fine. Come over here and let me have a look at you."

Sigrid tried to take a step, over balanced, and tumbled face first onto the floor in front of the dwarrow matron.

"Ow," she groaned.

"Hmm," Dis mused as she watched the handmaidens fuss around Sigrid, trying to set the future queen back on her feet. "Maybe not so many belts."

"Honestly, Fi, I don't know what your problem is," Kili complained as he listened to his brother being violently sick in the next room. "You'd think you were marrying some horsefaced old goblin the way you're going on about it."

The privy door opened and Fili leaned against the jamb. "Shut it, you pitiless skunk," he moaned. "You're not the one getting married today."

"Perhaps not, but if I was I'd be giddy as a bumblebee in a field of poppies," Kili protested. "I'd be marrying my lady of summer starlight, after all."

"You are sweet, meleth nin," Tauriel said with a kind smile as she approached Fili and dabbed at his ashen face with a damp cloth. "But your brother is suffering through a very common affliction that strikes many grooms on their wedding day."

"Bloody foolishness?"

"Nervous stomach," Tauriel corrected with an affectionate smile at her lover before returning her attention to Fili. "I'm certain Sigrid is feeling something very similar, Fili. You are both about to take a momentous step forward in your relationship."

"Mahal's beard, please don't tell me you're about to give Fili the talk about where little dwarfs come from," Kili groaned, flopping backward on his brother's bed and idly working a cat's cradle with a bit of string from his pocket.

"Ignore him, Fili," Tauriel said, smiling at the older prince as she knelt down to be closer to eye-level with him. "It's perfectly natural to be nervous."

"I shouldn't be," Fili said, feeling stupid and young and clumsy next to the willowy elf with the wise eyes. "I love her. She's my Sigrid. All I've wanted for what feels like forever is to have her by my side, to make her the happiest maid to ever walk in the sun or under the mountain. I don't know why I'm sick about it."

"I think you've answered your own question, mm?" Tauriel patted his brow with the cool handkerchief again. "You've waited a long time for this, and your plans and expectations are understandably high. But you mustn't overburden yourself so, your highness. Sigrid will be happy not because of the things you do, but because it is you who does them. You could build her a palace of gold and gems to rival the finest ever seen in Arda; or you could build her a straw-thatched hut of sticks and mud, cured with the sweat of your brow; or you could lay side by side on the green grass of the valley and build her castles in the clouds that drift apart to be built anew somewhere else; it doesn't matter. Sigrid will be happy regardless, because she will be with you and these are things you'll do together."

"But I'm taking her away from everything she's ever known..."

"Yes, but such is life." She smiled kindly, cupping his bristly cheek with one soft hand. "I left behind my home of six hundred years to live under the mountain with my love. I have not once regretted that decision. I am certain that your Sigrid will feel the same."

Fili offered her a wan smile in return. "My oaf of a brother doesn't deserve you, lady. You're far too good for him."

"Oi!" Kili protested from the bed.

Tauriel's eyes twinkled. "You know, Prince Legolas told me much the same thing when I left Mirkwood."

"OI!"

"It must be something crown princes understand that other princes don't."

"It must be so."

Fili chuckled at his brother's squawking protests, then sobered. "I am glad, lady Tauriel, that you will be here for my Sigrid. She will need a friendly face from the world beyond the Mountain who understands the peculiarities of living with dwarfs."

"I am still learning that myself, highness. Every day." Tauriel stood up and smoothed his hair. "Now let's get you into your wedding coat. Your bride will be ready soon."

Fili felt himself pale again. "Mahal..."

"Breathe, highness," Tauriel instructed, laying her hand on his shoulder. "Deep breaths."

Fili was working on his third deep, cleansing breath when Kili sat up, all smiles, and asked, "Here, do you think mother's given Sigrid the little bottle yet?"

"Kili!" Tauriel snapped, then groaned as Fili turned on his heel and bolted back into the privy. "My darling little fool, why did you do that? He was doing so well!"

Kili gave her a smug smile as the sound of Fili's retching came through the oak privy door. "That's what he gets for taking that ninny elf prince's side instead of mine."

Tauriel rolled her eyes – something she'd picked up from her time with the dwarfs – and went to fetch more ginger beer to soothe the crown prince's stomach.

The Little Bottle (Sigrid had begun inserting the capital letters whenever she thought about it) had dominated the new bride's thoughts ever since Dis had first mentioned the concoction the day before. "It's just a little apéritif, lass," the dwarrowdam assured her. "But instead of aiding the digestive system, it aids certain other natural appetites."

In other words, an aphrodisiac.

But an aphrodisiac with a twist.

Sigrid knew that a young woman's first time was usually... painful. It was one of the things she'd picked up from years of giggled conversations with friends and matronly advice from the older women back in Dale.

"But you see, we dwarfs can't be fussing over such things," Dis explained. "Dwarrow maids are too few and far between to be dealing with hindrances like that. So Mahal gave us this liqueur to take away the pain." She'd pressed The Little Bottle into Sigrid's hand with a secret smile and a wink. "Normally we don't share this outside of the Dwarrow, since it's our gift from the Maker himself. But as you're going to be an honorary dwarf, my lass, we'll share it with you."

The apéritif, as Dis had called it, tasted sweet and bubbly; a bit like strawberry champagne. Sigrid had drunk the first bottle with her breakfast and wondered if she was supposed to feel any different as a result. At the very least it seemed to have calmed her stomach, which had been twisting and rolling all night.

As she approached the open-air altar she wondered if there was something similar they could have given Fili. Her bridegroom looked pale and even a little green, with dark, bruised circles under his eyes. So while he was very dashing in his sapphire coat edged in gold, all she could do was worry about his poor tummy.

"My love, you look so ill," Sigrid whispered as she reached the altar and took Fili's hands. "Are you well? Have you drunk your ginger beer like I told you to?"

Fili offered her a small smile. "Tauriel was pouring it down my throat like water, love. Never you mind. I'm fine. Just eager to call you my wife."

Sigrid blushed and smiled, suddenly sharply aware of the hundreds of eyes – Dwarf, Man and Elf alike – that watched them from all sides of the crowded courtyard. "And I to call you husband, my Fili," she whispered, squeezing his hands. The smile he gave her in return was enough to calm whatever anxiety The Little Bottle might have left roiling in her stomach.

"You look beautiful," he whispered as Balin climbed the dais to begin the ceremony.

She giggled. "You should have seen me before they took away thirty pounds of beads."

He laughed, then quieted as Balin cleared his throat. The sussuration of voices around the courtyard dissipated until the only sound was that of the warm spring breeze rustling the distant grass of the valley spread out below them like a blanket of green.

"Lords and Ladies, Kings and countrymen, squires, maidens, and greybeards," Balin began, his lilting voice carrying to the farthest reaches of the courtyard, helped by the dwarfs' brilliant architectural skill and ear for harmonics. "We bid you welcome this fine day as we prepare to join together two kingdoms here at the foot of Erebor, in air scented by the delicate flowers of Dale.

"For all of us gathered here today the road has been long and treacherous. We have all of us known hardship and loss. A few short years ago my kin and I had no home to call our own. The Men who dwelt in the shadow of the mountain lived a hard scrabble life, always in fear that the wyrm would awaken to finish what it had begun so many long years ago. And our friends the Elves battled alone against ever growing darkness that turned their lovely Greenwood to a place of shadows." Sigrid heard a flutter of chatter from the crowd when Balin referred to the Elves as friends, but the white-bearded dwarf spoke over the voices until they faded again into nothing.

"Today, then, is not merely a wedding," Balin continued, the breeze ruffling his fine white beard. "Today we celebrate the beginning of a new age for all of us – Dwarrow, Man and Elf. An age of friendship, of camaraderie, and love.

"And it is love, above all, that brings us here this bright day, under the blue sky, in the waxing days of May. For we are here today to bless the union between two young hearts that have found in one another an equal and a bonny future: my lord, the Crown Prince Fili of Erebor, and the fair Sigrid, beloved Lady of Dale..."

Sigrid let the elder dwarf's words wash over her as she gazed into Fili's eyes. The deep sapphire shade of his wedding coat made his summer blue eyes deep as Long Lake, and she found herself remembering their first sweet union on the shores of that lake just a little more than year ago. At the time she hadn't thought what their future might hold together; it was too much simply trying to keep the day-to-day workings of the present on a steady, even keel to even think about such things. But now, standing on this dais, Fili's hands clasped in her own - calloused and achingly familiar - she knew that this was always where fate had intended her to be.

Even before I knew you, I lived for you.

That was what Fili had told her, and she'd thought him a fanciful poet at the time; a passionate romantic. Not so now.

She heard her voice reciting the marriage vows as if from a great distance, the words translated from Khuzdul to the Common Tongue so that all those in attendance could hear and understand.

I bind myself to you, in chains light as air,

Forged within my blood and bone,

Hammered by my heartbeat and linked by the steady hands of Mahal,

The Maker, the Shaper,

Who has forged a bond between us as unbreakable as diamond,

As rare as purest mithril,

As precious as hearth and beloved as home.

I bind myself to you,

My home, my hearth, my heart, my treasure.

I bind myself to you.

She felt the binding cloth being wound around their joined hands as she watched Fili's lips repeat the words she'd spoken, but this time in his traditional tongue.

Then his lips were coming closer, and suddenly the world exploded into a cacophony of sound and color as he kissed her, his strong arms wrapping around her waist and holding her close, beads and belts and shawls and all, as he plundered her mouth with blissful abandon. Sigrid felt giddy with delight as she leaned into the kiss, returning his eagerness tenfold and choosing to ignore the catcalls (Kili) and sobbing (Dis) and excitable clapping (Tilda; definitely Tilda) that were audible even above the roar of the happy throng. It was enough that she could kiss her Fili like this, in front of all and everyone, and know that he was hers.

"Friends, I present to you the Crown Prince and Princess, future King and Queen Under the Mountain!" Balin cheered, and Sigrid could hear the tears in the elderly dwarf's happy voice.

"Blessings be upon them!" Thorin bellowed, and the gathered dwarfs repeated the oath. "Blessings be upon them!"

"And when my brother sees fit to let his wife breathe again, we can eat!" Kili hollered. The crowd exploded with raucous laughter.

Fili broke away from her lips to gaze into her eyes. "My wife," he murmured, breathless and flushed, the ashen tone of his skin replaced with the healthy pink glow of a very happy man.

Sigrid beamed, tears prickling her eyes. "My husband," she whispered.

And then they were surrounded by friends and family, hugs and kisses, handshakes and back slaps, and Sigrid realized that the hand binding part of the ceremony wasn't just to symbolize their union, but also to keep the pair from being torn apart by the flood of well-wishers that swept them up like a river and bore them back to the mountain.

"I love you!" Sigrid shouted above the din, laughing.

Fili grinned and squeezed her bound hand tighter. "I love you, too," he said, and though he didn't shout, she felt sure she would have heard him a hundred miles away.

YAAAAAY WEDDINGS!

Just one or two more chapters after this! And God willing there won't be any more multi-month long waits between now and then. *knocks on wood with crossed fingers!*