STORY WARNINGS AHEAD
I'm giving Belladonna Dwarf blood. I'm completely screwing with canon here, but only because I don't like the fact Hobbits don't live as long as Dwarves. In this fic, it will be stated that her grandfather was a Dwarf and he and her grandmother travelled on the road for quite some time before discovering and settling down in the Shire. So, she's got the lifespan of a Dwarf. Bilbo will have this lifespan too.

The other thing I'm doing is making Belladonna 47 years old, instead of the age of 38 she was when she got pregnant with Bilbo. The reason for that is because I wanted to give her this previous life of doing adventurous things and having the knowledge of protecting herself and survival outside the Shire.

The other thing I'm doing is giving her Dwarf blood. I'm completely screwing with canon here, but only because I don't like the fact Hobbits don't live as long as Dwarves. In this fic, it will be stated that her grandfather was a Dwarf and he and her grandmother travelled on the road for quite some time before discovering and settling down in the Shire. So, she's got the lifespan of a Dwarf. Bilbo will have this lifespan too.

Now that the warnings are out of the way, read on if you wish!


Bungo smiled as he caught sight of his beloved Belladonna pulling up the weeds in their garden. She'd been told by numerous others to rest, that the child growing inside her could be hurt if his mother strained herself too much. Belladonna clearly disagreed if this was anything to go by.

She straightened herself up and turned, her blue-green eyes lighting up when she saw him. "Afternoon!"

"The same to you, Bella." He made his way over to his wife to give her a kiss and place a hand on her still flat-stomach. "And what do you think the little one has to say about all this?"

Belladonna rolled her eyes. "All this foolishness! A bit of gardening never hurt anyone."

"I know, love, but I think we'd all feel a lot better if-"

"If I sat around doing nothing?"

"Well, yes," Bungo agreed, "you're only two and a half weeks in, and so much could go wrong."

"It won't go wrong," Belladonna stated, "besides, fresh air is best for children, everyone knows that."

Bungo perked up. "What if you rested in the garden?"

"In order to rest, one has to have tired herself out," Belladonna replied. "Believe me, pulling up a weed or two is hardly tiring!"

Seeing that this was an argument he couldn't possibly win, Bungo decided to concede. She was right after all, he supposed. She surprised him with a kiss to the cheek and headed back towards their home.

"Come on, you, help me with the supper."


Miles from Bungo and Belladonna's peaceful Shire, there were Mountains, streaked with mist, tall, cold and forbidding to Yavanna's creatures who preferred the moist, crumbling soil to the sharp, unforgiving rocks that littered the Mountain's pathways. Most of all, they, particularly the Took clan, feared the creatures that resided in the Mountains.
It all started with Bullroarer Took, the Hobbit famous for ending the life of the monstrous Goblin King in the Battle of Greenfields. It was thanks to her uncle that Belladonna's many ventures never took her any further than Rivendell, for she too feared the wrath of the creatures at the loss of their King.

They were right to fear the Goblins.

The current Goblin King, a colossal monstrosity, standing taller than the biggest Elf, rolls of fat hanging off his large body, looked down at his subjects with wide, shining eyes.

"We know where the Tooks are hiding!"

A loud cheer went up in approval at these words.

"You," he pointed a wooden staff at them, "will find them and kill them all! Every last descendant of the Tooks! Kill them!"

An even louder cheer met the Goblin Kings speech. He quietened them with a loud bang of his staff to the cold stone floor.

"In fact, leave none alive!"

The noise that met this decision was so high in volume that the Goblin King half-thought he could feel the Mountain shake. He grinned. Soon, he thought to himself, those hairy-footed wastrels would be taught a lesson they wouldn't forget.


The March evening was surprisingly quite warm . Belladonna rubbed her swollen belly and sighed contentedly as she watched the sun, red as fire edge closer to the darkening hills in the horizon. The birds were oddly quiet that day, she noticed, but apart from that, everything had gone the same way as it usually did.

Bungo's cousin had brought his daughter to see them. She was bright eyed and bouncy, a flurry of brown curls on the top of her head and she seemed silently curious about everything, from where she was perched on her father's knee.

Would her little one be as curious? Belladonna wondered to herself. Perhaps he would just be content with the world as Bungo was. She secretly hoped he would be curious about it, wanting to explore it all, just as she had.

There was a sudden gust of wind and Bungo's head popped out the window. "Come back in, Bella!"

"You're far too protective, Bungo!" she called back.

He came outside, a woolen blanket in his arms. "With you there's no such thing!" And with that, he proceeded to wrap the thing around her. She bit back a sigh, but couldn't help but snuggle close to him as he placed an arm around her shoulders and drew her closer.

"Our child doesn't stand a chance. You'll probably be putting woollies on him in the middle of summer, too!"

"I don't think you'd let me." Bungo said. "And if he's anything like you, he won't either!"

She chuckled. "So, I should think!"

"It's going to be a cold night tonight," Bungo warned, laying a hand on his unborn child. "I'd like it if you'd come back inside after the sun finally leaves us."

Knowing her husband would strongly dislike her staying out all this supposedly cold night, Belladonna agreed. She rather fancied an early night, anyway.


Full up with Bungo's creamy mashed potatoes and lamb chops, Belladonna hauled herself up and padded off into their bedroom. She supposed it had been the warm sun that had made her feel tired now, and she simply wanted to lay down on the plush, goose-feather mattress and sink into a deep sleep. Not one minute had she gotten herself under the blanket covering their bed, did Bungo join her, sliding tender arms around her stomach, kissing her neck and shoulders.

"I love you," he told her, repeating the same reminder he always did every morning and night.

"I love you, too." Belladonna mumbled, holding onto his arms.

It didn't take long for sleep to claim her. Bungo stayed awake, staring at the golden head of his wife. Sometimes, he did just that, staring at this spirited goddess who had been so very difficult to ask to accept his proposal of courting (mainly due to those ventures she so often left for during her youth). She was amazing.

He let his fingers brush themselves through her golden curls and smiled at her content expression. Her long eyelashes rested on her cheekbones, making her look years younger than she truly was. He leaned over to kiss her brow and lay his head on his pillow, slowly dropping off to the sound of her slow breathing.

What seemed like seconds later, a loud bang echoed through the smial. Bungo sat up, looking wildly around. There was another sound, this time from the front door, it seemed. Bungo got up and went to answer the visitor's inconsiderately loud knocking.

Dishevelled brown curls told him this was one of the Bracegirdle clan. He looked at Bungo with a look of such fear and anxiety that the latter felt an icy chill sweep through his body. "What is it?"

"Goblins have been seen several miles from here," the Bracegirdle warned. "Get your wife and run."

Without asking why they currently had Goblins in their home, Bungo nodded and went to rouse Belladonna. His thoughts were not with whys and hows, they were with his sleeping wife and unborn baby.


She mumbled when he tenderly shook her shoulders and a bleary turquoise eye opened and peered at him. "Wh'd'zzit, B'go?"

"Goblins."

"What?!"

His spouse leaped out of bed and stared at him in horror, all tiredness long gone. "Goblins?!"

"Yes, they were spotted a few miles away, don't know where, I didn't ask, but.."

"Get dressed," Belladonna ordered, cutting through his babbling. "Get into something hard-wearing..your gardening clothes should do..." She dropped to her knees and pulled a heavy-looking box from under the bed. In here lay her old travelling garments and she tore them from their hiding place and began swapping her nightgown for the long blue tunic and trousers. The trousers had always been loose and she was grateful for that now, as they would accommodate her growing bump. Turning around, she noted with relief that Bungo had done as she'd requested and was now clad in the deep green he wore in their garden.

"Now what?" Bungo asked, feeling more and more helpless as the seconds ticked by.

"We leave." was her reply.

Bungo now had many questions buzzing around his head, but he followed her as she made her way to the door. A hoarse, high-pitched shriek in the distance made both wince and Belladonna bit her lip in worry.

"They're here."


The first of the Tooks had been easy enough to kill. After that, all the Goblins had to do was cut through the seemingly endless supply of little people that came running out of their little homes to see what was going on. Now they were coursing through the Shire, like fire through earth and killing any living creature that they saw.
One Goblin noticed the house with the green door. He saw two shadows bobbing about courtesy of the warm yellow light pouring through the windows. He raised his sword, gave a hissing yell and ran towards the smial.


Inside, Belladonna was searching through her chest of treasures, pushing aside little trinkets, jeweled rings, compasses, arrow heads... until she found the twisted dagger that an Elf had once gifted to her, 'should you ever need protection'. She saw a flash of red and recognized her grandfather's ring. Lifting it out, she suddenly realised where they were going to go.

Her grandfather had been dead for fifty years, but she knew he had been known in the Dwarvish community and had travelled with her grandmother until they'd settled in the Shire to have her da and all his brothers and sisters. He had been a Dwarrow, himself, she remembered and long had the children of Aule shown kindness to the children of Yavanna.

They would go to the Dwarves.

Just as she came to this decision, there was a loud clattering of glass and she felt her heart freeze. Slowly turning, she found herself face to face with the one creature on Middle Earth she'd always feared. Its popping eyes widened as it came nearer and it raised its blade, coming closer and closer...

"HEY!"

Bungo had been by the window when the creature had burst in and had been still with shock and fear, but the sight of his wife about to get gutted by a Goblin brought him very much out of that shock and fear, and without thinking, he grabbed a walking stick and cracked it over the Goblin's head, causing it to stagger and drop, a trickle of black blood oozing out of its head.

Bungo reached his hand out to Belladonna. "Come on," he urged. "Let's go."

Looking into the brilliant emerald green of her husband's anxious gaze, Belladonna nodded. They had already wasted too much time.


Is it good? Do you like it? Please do tell!

(I had to write it, Ori the Plot Bunny attacked again!)