To Be a Hobbit
Disclaimer: I own nothing. I am a poor uni student.
Lost and Found
Ladlaurë screamed as the wolves closed in around her. Beside her, her husband Lothellon drew his great sword, pushing in front of their ten-year old son.
Brethilríl's shrieks of fear nearly broke his mother's heart, as she could do nothing to help the child. He was due to start his formal training and schooling this year, and though he shakily held his mother's slim sword, he did not know how to use it.
Ladlaurë spied a branch overhanging the path, and she whispered to her daughter to climb as high as she could, and make no sound, before pitching the seven-year-old into the air. Brethildíl did not shout, but the wolves did not miss her, for though she was small and soundless, she was in the full sight of the closest wolves. A moment later, Lothellon had boosted Brethilríl into the tree. Ladlaurë took off her sword belt, thrusting it through the branches and into Brethilríl's hands. "Use this if you must," she instructed, before turning to face the fast approaching wolves.
Ladlaurë drew her dagger, swiping haphazardly at a wolf's snarling maw, but a high, childish scream rang out, causing her to stumble as her heart froze in fear.
Please be safe, she wished for her children, as her sight filled with blood –her husband's, her own, she could no longer tell.
All that mattered was that the little children in the tree far above stayed out of the wolves' reach.
Brethildíl fell out of the tree when the wolves started to feast on her parents bodies, for she could not cope with the horror she was witnessing. Instead of hitting the hard ground, though, she tumbled off a rock, and winded, landed in the river with a loud splash. She had knocked her head on the rock, and the cold water woke her sharply before she lost consciousness upon hitting another rock, this one poking out of the river.
Brethilríl looked from the wolves on the ground to the river below, and decided to take his chances with his sister. He leapt into the water, but it was shallower than it appeared, and he dashed his head against a rock. The ten-year-old floated face-up down the river, staring uncomprehendingly up at the uncaring sky.
.
Fili and Kili had never been so excited. They had never been allowed to join a travelling party, and though their mother Dis argued that they were too young, she had relented in the name of a lesson, for both her sons and her brother.
Kili had his toy bow and some blunt arrows, and Fili had two sharp daggers. They ran beside their uncle, though Thorin himself was merely striding along, until suddenly something changed, and the little group of Dwarves started yelling, the boys adding their childish voices to the mix.
Kili squealed when he saw a blood-covered wolf come towards him, raising his little bow as he yelled for the adults' attention. "Look at me!" he cried, before letting the arrow fly.
Suddenly, though, he was knocked off his feet with a great force, and a horrible pain appeared to tear through his side. The few adults shouted, but Kili was already gone, having fallen into the swift-flowing river, blood the only thing he left behind.
Kili was three.
Fili was eight. He may have still been a small child, but he was not going to let a wolf hurt his brother, or a river take the child away. He leaped into the river, remembering to sheath his knives first, and swam towards his baby brother.
Thorin never had a chance, for he, Dwalin and Balin were busy killing the wolves, who had been feasting on a rather gruesome group of people, elves or men, they could not tell.
The boys were gone.
.
Belladonna Took was visiting relatives in Buckland. The whole family had gone to the river, in a very un-hobbitish fashion, to fish, swim and play in the Brandywine.
She was fishing, not really paying attention to the water, when suddenly her line went taut, nearly pulling her off the bank. Screaming caught her attention, and she realised that her line had entangled in a person's curly hair!
Shouting for help, Belladonna waded into the river, and a few of her cousins helped her to pull the shivering figure out of the water. A mass of dark curls had to be cut free of the line, and when Belladonna laid the figure down to check for any injuries, it split into four little people, as small as hobbit children.
One who had been previously hidden were clearly injured, with bright blood still leaking from gory wounds which looked much like a dog bite on his shoulder. The tallest had a great cut on his head, matting his wild tangled curls. The third was awake, and wide-eyed, and he stared at the hobbits in no small amount of fear as they checked him for injuries, finding none other than from exposure to the cold and wet river He seemed to be the one who had held the children together in the water. The fourth, one with the wild curls, had a bruised head, and even unconscious she bent towards one side, as if in pain.
.
Belladonna had taken the children in, her cousins whom she was staying with happy to let them join the family for the time being. All four of them slept all afternoon and night, while Belladonna had messages sent up the river to whomever might be found that four children had been fished from the river, half-dead.
The smallest, a little boy with dark hair, had still been clutching a toy bow when he had been found. His shoulder and chest had deep lacerations, and the healer had given him a tea which would put him in a deep sleep, allowing his wounds to start to heal, before cleaning and bandaging the wounds. She had promised Belladonna nothing, for she did not know how long the child had been bleeding, nor if the child's wounds might be infected.
The girl woke while the healer tended her. Though she was nearly twice the height of the little boys, she looked no older, perhaps as young even as the blonde. She suffered a bruised head, and a bruised side. The healer had given her a sleeping draught, too, but not before the girl whispered in a voice devoid of any feeling, "they are dead. The wolves ate them. They are dead."
"The boys are alive," the healer soothed the girl, but she shook her head, as if in a trance, before repeating her hollow phrases.
They are dead.
The words would haunt Belladonna's nightmares. No child should ever carry that much grief.
The third child, the oldest, had a single gash on his head, other than the effects of exposure to the cold river. He had likely lost a lot of blood, and the healer worried that he would not last the night.
The fourth child, the blonde, was uninjured, but he had been frantic with worry and grief. He, like the girl, mentioned wolves, the few times he spoke. Finally, the healer gave him a draught, and Belladonna left the four children in the room she had been staying in, before returning to the kitchen to help her cousins with dinner, after the healer left.
During dinner, Belladonna and her cousins (the sisters Poppy and Daffodil) spoke of the children worriedly. There was little to be done other than wait for them to wake up, and hope that their messages would find the children's family alive and well, and not eaten by wolves.
.
Thorin, Dwalin and Balin searched far down the river, and soon saw the round doors and windows indicative of hobbits. It was getting late, and the hobbit farmer who answered the door they tried invited them in for the night, offering them dinner, though the dwarves would have been happy to simply have their question answered and move on to keep looking.
After the meal, the hobbit informed them very apologetically that their search was at an end, for a ways downriver four children had been fished from the river, dead.
Thorin, Dwalin and Balin cried in a huddle in the sitting room, while the farmer and his wife let them have their privacy, for they knew the pain of losing a child, their own son having fallen ill the previous winter.
.
Poppy fixed breakfast while Daffodil and Belladonna altered some clothing to hopefully fit the children. The enticing smells soon drew the four children to the kitchen door, each clutching a blanket around themselves for their clothes had been taken by the hobbits.
"You can have breakfast when it's ready," Belladonna said, picking up the newly altered garments and approaching the children. She held them out before her, offering the linen and cotton to them with a kind smile. "I'm not sure if these will fit, but I can always alter them some more. Get dressed."
The oldest boy was fully capable of dressing himself, though he took a little while to work out the unfamiliar clothing. Poppy ended up helping the littlest boy get dressed, and had to redo the blonde boy's ties on his trousers, while Belladonna helped the girl to get the pieces in the right places. Though the girl had been found in boys' travelling clothes, Belladonna had altered a dress for her, for the girl was indeed taller and thinner than most hobbits.
The little boys, on the other hand, were shorter and wider, though the width came from their shoulders rather than their tummies, unlike hobbit children.
Soon they were back in the kitchen, and he hobbit women introduced themselves first. Belladonna the children would remember for her long curly brown hair and loving eyes, while Daffodil's hair was bright blonde and Poppy's hair was just as long and curly, but as red as her sister's was yellow.
"So what happened to you, my little river-children?" Belladonna asked.
The boys exchanged glances, before accepting their plates of bacon and eggs from Poppy. The girl, however, was frowning in concentration.
"I'm Fili," the blonde boy finally said. "My baby brother is Kili. We have fancy names but Uncle Thorin says we can't tell people those." The little boy smiled, before returning his attention to his plate, getting more food on his face, hands and the table than he did in his mouth. Belladonna wondered if he was so young that his mother still handled his cutlery for him, and circled the table to kneel by the child, who allowed her to wipe his face and hands and then help him to eat.
The little blonde boy was handling his own cutlery fine, though he was not a little messy – he'd already dripped yolk onto his front in two places. He drew a breath, then pressed on, proving surprisingly articulate for such a young child. "The wolf got Kili, he fell in the water. I jumped in, but I couldn't get out. Then I saw her in the water, and I grabbed her, too, but I still couldn't get out. Then I saw him in the water, too, and I caught him when we got stuck on a log. We floated a long way."
"Wolves," the girl suddenly said. "Wolves were eating our parents."
"I saw them," Fili said, while Kili covered his face and cried. "The wolves tried to eat Kili and me. They must have ate our uncles."
"Eaten," the oldest boy corrected absently. "The wolves have eaten our parents."
Belladonna comforted Kili as he cried, and Poppy and Daffodil comforted the other children. Somewhere in her heart, Belladonna decided to adopt these little orphans, for they had no family to go back to.
"You won't ever have to worry about wolves again," she promised, hugging Kili tight to her, though she spoke to all three children.
"What's your name, love?" Poppy asked the girl in her arms, who hiccupped, but murmured, "Dill. I have a fancy name, too, but it's too similar to my brother's."
"Dill it is then," Belladonna said firmly, picking up Kili's fork again to feed him the last of his breakfast. "What about you, nameless one?"
"Ril," he answered promptly. "My proper name is fancy and too close to Dill's. Nana and Ada said we don't have to use our proper names until we come of age."
.
No-one claimed the four children for a week, and Belladonna had to return to Hobbiton, for she was to marry Bungo Baggins at midsummer. So, packing up her belongings and the children, and ensuring that Kili had his toy bow, Fili his little daggers, Ril his little sword and Dill her slightly larger toy bow, they set off to the hobbit town.
"Who is Bungo?" Fili asked, peeking over the edge of the waggon as Belladonna drove. Kili and Dill, on either side of the blonde, reflected his enthusiasm in their round faces. Ril, sitting beside Belladonna, turned his own face with rapt attention unto her.
Belladonna smiled as she thought of her beloved. "Bungo is my fiancée," she explained, returning her gaze to the path. "He is a Baggins, and he is building a hobbit hole in the Hill opposite Bywater just for me."
"Will he like us?" Dill asked anxiously. Belladonna chuckled as she answered.
"Of course he will! He's so in love with me that he'll get his proper gentlehobbit's hands dirty to build me a home, and when he sees your adorable faces, he'll fall in love with you, too."
.
When they did finally reach Hobbiton, they did not immediately go to the Hill, instead stopping at the Green Dragon, a charming little inn. Belladonna ushered the children in, carrying Kili on her hip, and when they saw the counter was just the right size for them, Ril, Dill and Fili excitedly rushed in, all but ignoring the hobbits gathered at small tables.
"A glass of your finest Dorwinion," Dill said, putting on a voice which seemed to be an imitation of someone she knew well. "My brother will have mulled cider and for my manservant, some cold milk."
Fili, standing beside her, didn't miss a beat. "I am no manservant," he said, copying his uncle Thorin as he had once seen him in an inn. "A pint of ale, if you please."
"Juice and milk it is," the hobbit lass behind the bar answered, fetching the glasses with an indulging smile. "So who do you belong to? I've not seen you before."
Dill thanked her for the juice, and turned to point out Belladonna, who was introducing young Kili to a group of male hobbits at a table. "We're staying with Miss Belladonna," Dill explained while Ril and Fili gulped their milk.
A moment later, Belladonna approached the bar, with a wide smile. "Marigold, how are you? Have you seen Bungo? Oh, these are Dill, Ril, Fili and Kili, my river-children. Could I have some milk please?"
As Marigold laughed at Belladonna's haphazard chatter, she provided glasses of milk for both Kili and Belladonna. "Bungo hasn't come down yet. He's spending all his days on that hole, you know. He wants to give it to you on your wedding day."
As Belladonna and Marigold chattered, Kili sipped his milk, though much of it did miss his mouth, covering yet another new tunic. Fili and Dill spotted a group of children just outside, and Fili tugged on Belladonna's skirt until he got her attention. "Can we please play outside, Miss Belladonna?" he asked, while Dill pointed to the children playing by the water.
"Stay close," she ordered, "and stay together. I want you to come in as soon as it gets dark, or as soon as the other children go home, whichever comes first."
Ril, Dill and Fili nodded solemly, finished their drinks, and ran outside, winding through hobbits coming into the inn.
"Mae govannen," Dill called as they approached, and the hobbit children turned, though none seemed to understand her. She blushed, realising that she'd used her native language, rather than the one she'd learned alongside her mother tongue for use with other races. "Hello," she tried again.
"I'm Fili," Fili said proudly. "This is my new friend Dill, and her brother Ril. Can we play with you, please?"
The four children huddled together, and whispered for a moment, Dill's sharp Elvish ears catching every lisped word. Soon, though, they separated with grins. "Okay," the tallest, a hobbit boy with dark curls to his ears said, "I'm Tom. That's Sandy, Emerald, and Freddy."
Sandy had light brown curls to halfway down her back, and big brown eyes. Emerald's eyes were blue and her hair red, and Freddy had black curls. They showed the newcomers their game, and soon Ril, Dill and Fili were skipping rocks across the water with the hobbit children. Laughter surrounded the group, until someone had the idea to draw in the dirt.
Fili immediately pulled out his knives, offering one to Ril, and the pair of them started scratching shapes into the dirt. They were quite proud of their efforts, but someone screamed, and suddenly their playmates were taken away by tall, angry hobbit adults.
Fili and Ril looked up at the angry hobbit parents, not understanding what had happened. "Do we have to go inside now?" Dill asked, and Fili and Ril both shrugged.
"He's got knives! I'm not letting my little Sandy near anyone with knives, child or no!"
The frightened voice confused Fili more than anything else. He looked down at his little dagger, so small it could barely be called a knife, and back up to the angry hobbit woman holding Sandy in a tight hug. "I won't hurt anyone," he promised, lifting the knife to show its edge. "See? It's not even sharp. I couldn't hurt her even if I tried."
"What's this?" a strong voice cried, and the angry hobbits cleared a path, allowing a very important looking male hobbit to pass, whispering amongst themselves. Fili gulped, and Ril gave his second knife back, which he quickly sheathed, along with his first. The three children pressed together, and looked up into the dark face, backed by the dying sunlight against the hill and the lake.
"Well? What's the problem? I see three children playing in the dirt."
"He had knives!" Sandy's mother called, and the hobbit knelt to peer down at Fili.
"Does he indeed?" He held out a hand, palm up, and said to Fili, "can you show me your fearsome knives, little boy?"
Fili nodded, but hesitated, before a nudge from Dill prompted him to take out his knives. He handed them over to the strange hobbit, who looked them over for a moment before handing them back.
"I daresay these are no weapons. Are they?"
Fili shook his head, answering in a small voice, "No, Mister. My – my uncle made them for me, but he did not put an edge on them."
"Bungo!" a relieved voice called, as Belladonna pushed her way through the crowd, Kili on her hip.
"Bella!" he answered, rising to greet the kind hobbit woman. "Who's this?" he asked, ruffling Kili's hair as he drew back from the hug he'd given Belladonna.
"This is Kili, and Fili, and Dill and Ril. I fished them out of the river."
"Did you now?" he asked, idly noticing that the small crowd had dispersed as the light faded. "I'd better get all the rooms finished before we move in, then," he commented, smiling at the children and his fiancée.
Dill, Ril and Fili exchanged happy smiles. They may be very young, but even Dill recognised that this stranger, Bungo, had accepted them into his home.
.
They stayed at the Green Dragon for a few more nights, and Bungo spent his days up on the Hill. He even let Fili, Ril and Dill help one day, decorating the rooms with all sorts of items. Fili's knives were placed on a board above the mantelpiece, with Dill and Kili's toy bows mounted on hooks on either side. Ril's little sword was kept much higher, almost to the ceiling, mounted above Fili's knives. That blade, unlike the others, was a real weapon, and though the ten-year-old could not wield it, it was still sharp and dangerous.
Soon, Hobbiton was bustling, and the children got their first taste of hobbit parties. Bungo and Belladonna's wedding was especially magnificent, and Kili got to toddle up the aisle next to a pretty little cousin of Bungo's called Rosemary. Dill was the flowergirl, and she enjoyed the familiar task, for though she had not strewn flowers at a wedding before, she and her friend Aldanna had enjoyed throwing flowers at the spring and summer parties. Ril got to be part of the wedding party, one of the groomsmen, though a particularly short one.
Roses, violets, bluebells and daffodils had donated their petals to Dill's basket, and the multi-coloured carpet covered the floor prettily before Belladonna walked up the aisle to meet Bungo and her family.
Fili, the last to walk the aisle, was the ringbearer. He carried two gold rings on a cushion, and proudly covered the petal-strewn distance behind the bride.
Belladonna married Bungo Baggins on mid-years day, and Fili, Kili, Ril and Dill were glad.
.
North of the Shire, Thorin, Dwalin and Balin had returned to the mountains. Dis cried upon hearing of the death of her sons, and refused food and water, for she had no wish to linger in this world, having so recently lost her husband, and now her sons.
Far away, in Mirkwood, Lothelleth cried herself to sleep. She had known the moment her brother, Lothellon, had been struck down. With no other protection, for Ladlaurë was a seamstress and had no training in self-defence, there was no way that Brethilríl and Brethildíl could have survived.
But in in the Shire, untouched by the troubles of the world, Fili, Kili, Ril and Dill were happy. That evening, Bungo presented their new home to Belladonna, with the words, "Welcome to Bag End, my love."
.
Bilbo was born a few years later, and he became a brother to Dill, Ril, Kili and Fili. It seemed to the hobbits that Bungo and Belladonna's adopted children were strange, for they did not seem to grow, and would not eat as much as a hobbit was wont to. Dill, though she gained height each year, never gained any width, and would eat no more than three meals a day, while her blood brother Ril mirrored her unnatural growth.
Fili and Kili were slow to gain height, though they muscled up quickly, for they were constantly brawling, often dragging Dill and Ril into their arguments. All four insisted on learning to use weapons, though there were few teachers in the Shire. Bungo managed to find a Shiriff who would teach them to wield knives and bows, and that became how they spent their days.
By the time Bilbo was born, Fili had started to show signs of a beard. He knew it was normal for dwarf children to grow a beard by eleven, and indeed thought his beard had come in late. He was not nearing puberty just yet, and still very much a child, but he was just a little proud when he noticed one morning in the mirror that he had wisps on his jawline.
The hobbits, though, had not been so impressed when Fili had shown himself with the beard. Teasing and scorn had hurt him, and the hobbits who were not his adopted family seemed to think that being a dwarf and having a beard were not desirable traits. He ran home crying to Belladonna, who passed her baby to Bungo to comfort the crying child. Dill, who had followed Fili home, explained what had happened, and Kili added his six-year-old's version of the story. Ril, who stumbled in during this conversation covered in dirt and bruises, smirked as he explained that the hobbit children would no longer torment Fili for fear of Ril's retribution.
Belladonna explained that perhaps it was best that they pretend to be hobbits, for though everyone knew they were adopted, none knew for sure that they were dwarves, and actually not even Belladonna and Bungo knew that Dill and Ril were elves.
She resolved to help Fili shave each morning, so that he would be spared the pain of teasing and exclusion, and soon the incident was forgotten, as Bungo spread a rumour about the boy having dried food on his chin that one day.
Five years later, Kili encountered his own beginnings of a beard, and joined his brother in the bathroom each morning to allow Bungo or Belladonna to shave their cheeks.
Bilbo grew up, and the hobbit children they had befriended grew up, but Fili, Kili, Ril and Dill stayed children. Dill and Ril had reached an adult hobbit's shoulder by the time Bilbo turned twenty, while Fili was not far behind.
The Fell Winter came, and with it came the wolves, crossing into the Shire from the north in search of food. Kili, Fili, Ril and Dill joined the adult hobbits protecting their land, carrying bows and knives, while Ril had his little sword from the wall.
For each wolf they saw, they saw again the terror of the day they had lost their families to wolves like these. Belladonna insisted the children stay inside, but Bungo allowed them to join him on short expeditions to eradicate the wolves around Hobbiton.
Ril, Dill, Fili and Kili joined the line of hobbit archers, and raised their bows when they heard the distinctive howls.
No-one would ever be entirely sure what had happened that day. Ril, Dill, Fili and Kili all had their own stories, and the only thing that was agreed upon was the size of the wolf which had mauled Bungo, killing him instantly.
Belladonna went mad with grief, and refused to leave her husband's grave after the funeral. Kili, Fili, Ril and Dill tried to guard her, and Bilbo helped too, but finally a wolf got her, too.
Ril, Dill, Kili, Fili, and Bilbo shut themselves inside Bag End, and did not come out until a Shirriff knocked on the door, letting them know that the wolves were gone.
.
Life continued on without Belladonna and Bungo, though to Dill it would never be the same. She had lost more family members than she had left, as had her brothers. Bilbo, having lost his parents, was a ghost in the hobbit hole, and his own grief was crushing enough that he did not realise, or perhaps understand, that to Fili, Kili, Ril and Dill, this was the second time wolves had taken their parents away.
Years passed, and Dill, Ril, Fili and Kili worked every day on their archery. They had long since grown out of the little toy bows Dill and Kili had been found with, but the Shirriff, Palton, had managed to find them longer and stronger bows as they grew. Bilbo joined them sometimes, though he often spent time with the gardener, chatting and musing about his strange siblings, who were clearly not quite hobbits, though they dressed like them and acted much like them.
.
It was a warm spring morning when Ril, Dill, Fili and Kili left on a hunting trip, fantasies about killing wolves filling their active imaginations, and Bilbo opted to stay behind. The morning before he expected them back, he was approached on his porch by a very tall stranger.
Once Gandalf had left, Bilbo was all aflutter. What on earth was that all about? Adventures? No, thank you! Dill, Ril, Fili or Kili might be interested, if they weren't so fixated on killing wolves, but none of his siblings had grown out of their stage of dreaming of revenge. Indeed, though Fili and even Kili had started to look and act more like adults, Ril and Dill were still undeniably children, indeed Bilbo thought of them as teenagers, not quite into their tweens, though they had both surpassed him in height by now.
It was evening when a loud knock came on the door.
Before Bilbo knew it, he was playing host to eleven dwarves and a wizard, who were talking about taking him on an adventure to take back a treasure from a dragon.
His siblings' talk of vengeance on wolves suddenly seemed an awful lot more realistic in comparison.