Beautiful
--by Egon Starcollector
Disclaimer: I don't own anything connected to Middle Earth...although I'm renting parts of it at a very reasonable rate. *winks*
Author's Note: I never intended to write a LOTR fanfiction. Then, one night last week, this entire story came to me in a dream. A DREAM, for crying out loud! It wouldn't leave me alone, so I started writing. *shrug* This isn't a Mary-Sue, so don't think it; I can't write those if I want to be able to look in the mirror--even though I admit to a crush on Elijah Wood's version of Frodo (fortunately, my boyfriend knows I prefer brainy George Clooney lookalikes).
This fic is humbly dedicated to Elijah Wood, who has made "pervy hobbit fanciers" of us all.
~*~*~ Prologue ~*~*~
Her name was Bella, a human word for beautiful. She was indeed a lovely child, even under the dirt of countless days. When Posco Hardbottle first saw the girl he would call his daughter, she was sitting in a ditch with tears streaming down her little face. Tears of hunger, no doubt, for he saw that she was so thin and weak that she could barely dig for worms to eat.
*A human child,* he thought. *Can't be more than five. I wonder what she's doing here?* He approached her cautiously. "Hi sweetie...I'm Posco. What's your name?"
"Bella."
"That's a pretty name. Bella what?" She shrugged. He tried a different approach. "What are you doing in the ditch? Aren't your mommy and daddy looking for you?"
"Daddy's gone. Mommy went to sleep and didn't wake up...she smells funny. And I'm hungry!" she wailed.
Never again was the child heard to utter those words. Posco and his wife Daisy adopted her, naming her Bella Hardbottle. She was the joy of their lives, for she was as sweet and good as she was pretty.
She grew to young womanhood all too soon. By her eighteenth summer, she had reached a height of nearly five feet and towered over her adopted family. But she loved them, and they her. Nevertheless, she decided that year that it was time to make her own way in the Shire. She hired on at the house called Bag End, home of Frodo Baggins and his longtime friends Sam and Rose Gamgee. They needed someone to help with the housework now that Sam and Rosie's children were grown, and Rose decided that Bella was just the girl they needed.
And that was how it began....
--by Egon Starcollector
Disclaimer: I don't own anything connected to Middle Earth...although I'm renting parts of it at a very reasonable rate. *winks*
Author's Note: I never intended to write a LOTR fanfiction. Then, one night last week, this entire story came to me in a dream. A DREAM, for crying out loud! It wouldn't leave me alone, so I started writing. *shrug* This isn't a Mary-Sue, so don't think it; I can't write those if I want to be able to look in the mirror--even though I admit to a crush on Elijah Wood's version of Frodo (fortunately, my boyfriend knows I prefer brainy George Clooney lookalikes).
This fic is humbly dedicated to Elijah Wood, who has made "pervy hobbit fanciers" of us all.
~*~*~ Prologue ~*~*~
Her name was Bella, a human word for beautiful. She was indeed a lovely child, even under the dirt of countless days. When Posco Hardbottle first saw the girl he would call his daughter, she was sitting in a ditch with tears streaming down her little face. Tears of hunger, no doubt, for he saw that she was so thin and weak that she could barely dig for worms to eat.
*A human child,* he thought. *Can't be more than five. I wonder what she's doing here?* He approached her cautiously. "Hi sweetie...I'm Posco. What's your name?"
"Bella."
"That's a pretty name. Bella what?" She shrugged. He tried a different approach. "What are you doing in the ditch? Aren't your mommy and daddy looking for you?"
"Daddy's gone. Mommy went to sleep and didn't wake up...she smells funny. And I'm hungry!" she wailed.
Never again was the child heard to utter those words. Posco and his wife Daisy adopted her, naming her Bella Hardbottle. She was the joy of their lives, for she was as sweet and good as she was pretty.
She grew to young womanhood all too soon. By her eighteenth summer, she had reached a height of nearly five feet and towered over her adopted family. But she loved them, and they her. Nevertheless, she decided that year that it was time to make her own way in the Shire. She hired on at the house called Bag End, home of Frodo Baggins and his longtime friends Sam and Rose Gamgee. They needed someone to help with the housework now that Sam and Rosie's children were grown, and Rose decided that Bella was just the girl they needed.
And that was how it began....