Hello my name is Sacha (even though my username is zuppercat) and I'm 16 years old and from Holland so I hope my English is a bit understandable. Well anyway, enjoy the story. ;) :p
Sorry if some things aren't right. Like Gandalf getting a vision. I don't know if he can do that. Or the names of things.
Summary: It was 4 years after the battle had ended when Thorin got a letter from Gandalf saying that he'd had a vision of a little dwarfling called Tyko with white hair and green eyes. The boy had apparently been left behind in the forest (not on purpose) and now they had to take him home. Follow the company as they go on a journey to take little Tyko home. Protecting him and taking care of him was something that came along with it. Kili and Fili can't get enough of his cuteness. (Without Bilbo sorry. With Thorin, Kili and Fili though.)
It had been 4 years since the battle of the five armies (sorry I didn't know what else to call it). They had reclaimed Erebor and had said their goodbyes to Bilbo. (That was four years ago. The first part of the story is the moment after the battle and a few months afterwards.) It of course wasn't like they'd never see him again. The plan was to visit him every few years. Or the other way around of course.
Kili, Fili and Thorin had almost died, but thanks to Gandalf, Oin and some elves they survived. Nobody (except for Gandalf and Bilbo maybe) liked having to ask the elves for help. But they on the other hand knew they didn't have much of a choice and didn't say anything. They after all preferred having those three alive instead of..well..dead.
After months of recovery and rebuilding Erebor everything seemed to go smoothly. A lot of other dwarfs arrived from the blue mountains to come live in Erebor, including Dis. Which meant a lot of yelling and screaming. Thorin almost lost his hearing because of that. She calmed down soon enough though after hearing the princes were recovering smoothly and that Thorin had overcome his dragon sickness because of Bilbo. She was sad she couldn't thank the little hobbit though. He had after all done so much for them. kili and Fili had calmed her down after telling her that Bilbo had left with a smile on his face. He had also gotten part of the treasure even though he kept saying he didn't need it. He'd said hobbits didn't care much about treasures. Not that they'd listened to him. They said he would get part of the treasure, no matter what he said. In the end he'd given in and left after saying good bye and with the treasure obviously.
It had been four years since then. Everyone had recovered and was working again. There hadn't happened much the last 4 years, until one day there was a special letter on Thorin's desk. A letter from Gandalf with surprising news.
Thorin's eyes had gone wide open from shock after reading the letter and had called everyone from the company to his office. (Except for Bilbo sorry. I really like him. But he's not part of this story. :( )
Every single one of them stood there feeling a bit uncomfortable. Why were all of them called here?! Had something happened?! They didn't know, but they sure would like to know as soon as possible.
They all stared at Thorin and waited until he would say something, which he luckily did after a few (long) seconds. "..There has been an accident..four years ago.." He started looking at a letter in his hand. "..accident..?" and "..four years ago..?" could be heard along the dwarfs. "..I got a letter from Gandalf saying he'd seen a vision about.. something that had happened four years ago without us knowing.. or.. realising.." Thorin said still looking at the letter in his hand which Gandalf had apparently written. Some whispers could be heard and then Kili suddenly said sounding worried and scared: "There hasn't happened anything to Bilbo right?!" The whispers went quiet and were replaced with silence. Everyone was looking at Thorin hoping he would say that that wasn't the case. "No, no, Bilbo is fine." Thorin said feeling a bit more relieved at the thought of Bilbo being ok. But still felt quite worried but mostly stupid for not knowing or noticing something happened to one of his people. It didn't matter if he didn't know them. There in the mean time could be heard some relieved sighs in the room. They were glad Bilbo was ok. They were still a bit afraid though. Thorin seemed to have calmed only a little bit after saying that Bilbo was fine and that that wasn't the problem. Now the question was: What wasgoing on?! What had happened that was so bad it made Thorin worry so much?!
"Tell us what's on your mind laddie. What happened four years ago?" Balin said trying to calm Thorin down and get some information at the same time.
"It was something that happened while the other dwarfs were traveling from the blue mountain to Erebor. They had been traveling for a while when they were attacked by a few Orcs. It was taken care of quickly enough. But not fast enough to save the lives of some innocent dwarfs." Thorin started telling them. This they knew of course. They had heard about it from Dis. Dis had told them they had quickly moved on not being able to bury the bodies because of the risk of having to face more Orcs. Luckily for them nothing had happened afterwards and they were able to continue traveling without any troubles. They'd arrived at Erebor a few weeks later.
"Why are you telling us this?" Bofur said not really understanding why they had to listen to the same (sad) story all over again. It was sad enough for the people who died and for the people who knew these people. Or rather dwarfs.
"Because.." Thorin answered looking up from his letter, "..there was someone left behind back then, without any of us knowing he was missing but still alive. And not just someone. A dwarfling who was only 8 years old (4 in human years) back then and probably 12 years old (6 in human years) by now." There fell a silence which followed with a lot of talking and questions. "A dwarfling?!" "So young?!" "Does that mean he's still alive?! How?!" "How could we not know about this?! This should have been noticed by at least someone, right?!" The last question was asked by Dwalin who looked just as mad, shocked and worried as all the others. Thorin just wanted to answer but Balin was faster and said: "Probably everyone who knew him had died..right?! There weren't many people who knew him I think. He was too young for that. At least that's what I think." Thorin just replied with a nod and said: "Gandalf didn't know about this until recently. He found out about it a while ago and send me this letter. He said it was probably for the best if we would go and fetch the boy. He can't continue living there like that. It's not safe for a little dwarfling. I'm quite surprised that he survived that long. We'll be going on a journey to bring him home. I'll be going with you. Dis will look out for the kingdom in the mean time. I already discussed this with her. We'll be leaving in 2 days. Understood?!" Everyone replied with some cheers and ran off to prepare for their journey. They were worried for the little dwarfling but exited at the same time. They were really looking forward to going on a journey again. Even Thorin had to admit that he was looking forward to it.
It was about two weeks later that they started asking questions about the little dwarfling. They had been traveling for a while now and were almost there. Well, it was actually Kili and Fili who started asking questions.
"So what's his name?" Kili started wanting to ask this question for a while. "Yeah, and what does he look like?!" Fili followed also wanting to know more. The rest of the company came closer wanting to know as well.
"His name is Tyko and he doesn't really have all the dwarfish looks yet. Like a beard and a lot of hair and stuff. He does have his own kind of looks. He for example has a lot of white hair on top of his head and wild green eyes. At least that's what Gandalf told me. I honestly don't know that much about him yet. His last name isn't known either. Just these little facts." Thorin said. "We'll just have to get to know him better then, right?!" Bofur said while Bombur nodded agreeing. "We can also teach him about a lot of stuff. He has missed a few years of learning after all." Nori said. "We just have to make sure you don't teach him anything Nori!" Someone said and everyone began to laugh.
It was a few hours later when they arrived at the forest where the dwarfling called Tyko was supposed to live. They got of their pony's and started walking while looking around for the little boy.
It was 10 minutes later and they still hadn't found him. What if he had died after all..? They hoped not. So they just continued looking for him. He should be around here somewhere, even if he was..dead.. They started calling his name hoping he would hear them. "Tyko!" "Tyko, where are you?!" "We're here to bring you home!" "Tyko!" "Tyko!"
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In the mean time a young dwarfling with a lot of wild white hair and big and wild green eyes sat high in a tree. He'd woken up because he heard someone yelling. And not just yelling, they were calling his name and he had no idea why! He didn't know what they were or why they were here looking for him. Well, maybe that wasn't fair. He didn't even know what he was. He didn't know anything really. The only thing he knew was that his name was Tyko and that he'd lived here for quite a while already. Well, ok, ok, he knew more than that. He also knew that he was 12 years old (6 in human years) and that he had been living here since he was only 8 years old (4 years old). True, true, there were a lot of years before he came here. He just didn't remember them. The only thing he knew was that he'd woken up under a dead woman one day and that he couldn't remember much. Only little things like his age and his name. Somehow he knew that that dead woman was his mother but.. it wasn't like he was really sad about it. He didn't want to be mean to her but he just didn't remember her or any of the other..beings. (He had no idea what to call them. He didn't even know what he was for.. being..) Luckily for him he remembered some survival lessons even though he had no idea why he'd had to take it anyway. Maybe it was normal to take survival lessons..? He had no idea. Not that it really mattered. It was quite handy knowing how to make a fire without smoke (Why would he have to do it without the smoke anyway..? Ah well not that it really mattered. He just did as he was told. Not that he remembered the..beings that were teaching him.) Those survival lessons were probably why he had been able to survive for so long.
His clothes were way to big four years ago. Even though he had no idea why his clothes were so big in the first place, it was quite handy having clothes that fit. What if they were the right size back then. Then they wouldn't fit anymore and he'd have to grab some clothes of the dead beings. He didn't even want to think about it. It was just way to gross. He did wonder what would happen in the future. He would grow out of his clothes eventually after all. But on the other hand maybe he wouldn't even have to worry about that. There were strange beings on the ground calling for him saying things about going home. Maybe he was the same kind of being like them. That didn't sound so bad. Not bad at all. He didn't mean any harm by saying 'being' by the way. He just didn't have any other word to use for it. It was quite strange that he did remember his survival lessons but that he didn't remember what kind of being he was. Pretty strange.
Tyko looked down at the dwarves (Not that he knew they were dwarves) and decided it wouldn't hurt to scare them a little bit. He didn't know why but he really really really really wanted to scare them. Just for fun of course. He didn't want them to get a heart attack or anything. Just a little scare, that's all.
He jumped a few trees further until he was a few meters ahead of them. He'd learned to do that these four years by the way. Jumping from tree to tree. He could already climb them but jumping from tree to tree was still difficult for him back then. Now it wasn't a problem anymore though. Although, he was quite sure he'd learn it eventually if he hadn't been laying under his dead mother and out of sight. He didn't know why he knew it but he was sure that there were still others like him. He also knew that they'd left him behind but definitely not on purpose. As he was saying, he was laying under his dead mother and out of sight. So it wasn't that surprising that they hadn't seen him. How he'd gotten under his dead mother in the first place was a mystery to him. Or why she and the others were dead. He didn't get that either.
The strange beings had come closer by the way and had just stopped at the right spot. It was now or never. He jumped down and grabbed a branch of the tree at the bottom so he was hanging right in front of them. At the same time he screamed and got some screaming back as a response, at least from the few weird beings in front of him. Tyko laughed still hanging on the tree branch. This sure was funny. He'd never done something like this before and couldn't stop laughing because of it.
At the same time with the dwarfs:
They had just been walking and searching for the boy when he appeared right in front of them. He'd apparently jumped out of a tree and grabbed the lowest branch so he was hanging right in front of them. He screamed which gave him a few screams in response. Bombur and Bofur had been standing closest to the boy or back than the branch when it happened. They were 2 of the few who'd screamed while others just made surprised noises. They hadn't expected him to suddenly fall out of a tree. The boy which they assumed was named Tyko was laughing and still hanging onto the branch.
Now that they'd calmed down a bit they could finally focus on how he looked. His hair and eyes were indeed just as Thorin or maybe rather Gandalf said they looked. He was indeed still a very young dwarfling. He was really small after all. Maybe a bit too small. But that's probably because of him having to survive in the forest for so long. He was also rather skinny and pale, it didn't seem very healthy. It made them worry because dwarflings shouldn't be so skinny and pale. They always cared a lot about their dwarflings and always made sure they were healthy. But apparently it didn't happen with this one. And that.. that made them sad. Cause.. they really did care a lot for each other so they just couldn't stand it when something like this happens. Especially if it is a dwarfling.
He and his clothes were full of mud but luckily no blood. He was apparently not wounded. At least that was something to be relieved about.
Dwalin walked forwards and put the boy on the ground. Which he did more gently than you'd expect him to do. The boy stopped laughing and looked at each of them curiously. Thorin at the same time stepped forward and introduced each and every one of them. "You must be Tyko." Thorin said to the boy, who only nodded in response still feeling a bit overwhelmed and not really knowing what to do. Some of the others wanted to smack him on the head for saying it so.. well.. Thorin like.. But they decided against it because it was Thorin. Even though that didn't make any sense.
"We've come to bring you home!" Kili said grinning and Fili responded with the same big grin: "Back to Erebor!" They were now both sitting in front of little Tyko so that they were almost on the same height. Even then they were bigger than him, so small was he. Again all the dwarves were sighing and wanted to smack those two on the head just like they wanted to do with Thorin (Dwalin had done so already. He'd said that he could have scared the little Tyko. Even though that sounded a bit weird for Dwalin to say.) Now the princes could be scaring him. They should be more careful.
Kili and Fili were ruffling his hair when they suddenly frowned looked at each other and then back at Tyko and said: "I wonder if we can braid is hair. It's long enough but it's standing upwards instead of hanging down. Won't his braids stand up because of that to..?" Nobody knew an answer to that. They were trying to come up with an answer when Tyko suddenly said sounding confused: "Erebor? Braids?" "That's right every dwarf has braids. Maybe you didn't learn that yet but it is one of the most important things for a dwarf." Balin said calmly explaining it to Tyko. Tyko just looked confused and said: "What are dwarfs..?" Everyone just stared at him while he just looked confused. What..are..dwarfs.. echoed through their heads. Good question. They forgot about it for a few seconds as well. What are dwarfs anyway?! I mean it was just a simple question. He just asked what dwarfs were. He just asked... Just then it clicked. Dwarfs. He didn't know what dwarfs were. Oh no he didn't know what dwarfs were! Did that mean he didn't know anything?! Like anything at all?! What about the blue mountain?! Or anything else?! Don't panic, I repeat, don't panic! We'll just have to explain everything to him. That's no big deal. We'll have time enough for it on our way back. No worries, no worries. Just like Nori said, we'll teach him everything. We'll just have to teach him a little bit more than we'd expected to do. They'd also have to get some more meat on his bones. And a bath maybe. They could braid his hair after the bath to. And don't forget that they'd have to get to know him better. Maybe this journey was going to be even more fun than they'd expected it to. They couldn't wait to get started. (Even though they had to admit that they had a panic attack for a few seconds 'twice')