The author of this FanFiction owns no storylines or characters that belong to the original creator of The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings.

Just gonna upload another chapter even though there were no reviews/follows/favorites since the first one because uh, this... the document is 152 pages long, and I really want to be able to delete it from my Google Drive!

The world was very big to a two-year-old, even if that two-year-old was confined to the walls of the apartment that she and her family resided in. In fact, everything was big to her, including her cradle, and the shelf that her mother often pulled a book off of to read to her before she fell asleep at night.

Still, despite the fact that everything was so big, it didn't stop her from opening her door into another room, one that was always much brighter than her own, and one that was filled with books, even more books than the ones on her shelf that Mama read to her.

She liked to toddle over to those book, and try to pull one off of the shelf that it sat on, but she could never manage to do it. She just wasn't strong enough. Not yet, at any rate. She resolved that, when she was a bit stronger, she'd read all the books she wanted from this bright room, the one that was hidden in the walls of her nursery.

On one excursion to this bright room, she was trying to pull a book off the shelf, thinking that she must be stronger than she had been before the nap she'd been laid down to. She had renewed energy, and she grunted as she struggled to pull the book from the shelf so that she could read it.

"Oh my God."

She froze when an unfamiliar voice spoke from behind her, and she fell to her rump as she let go of the book. She looked over her shoulder, and up at the source of the voice.

Jon Davenport had almost tripped over the young toddler he found himself staring down at now. As his heart settled back to a more appropriate speed, he let out a breath and set down the books he'd been carrying on top of the shelf she was seated in front of, and then took a few steps back so that he could look at her without craning his neck.

The kid was no longer than the length of his forearm, and had a full head of black, shaggy hair. She blinked her blue eyes curiously at him as she tilted her head, examining him, obviously wondering if he was a threat or not.

From the inquisitive tilt of her head, to her blue eyes and dark hair, Jon immediately recognized who this child was, and how she'd managed to get into Dreamer's.

"Kamathi," he said softly, practically to himself.

Nonetheless, the kid's eyes brightened, and she grinned at him. She had teeth, so she needed to be at least two, now, which was impossible, considering he'd barely seen her a month and a half prior. She wobbled unsteadily to her feet, and took a tentative step towards him.

Jon let out another breath. "It's all right," he said to her. "You don't need to be afraid of me."

Kamathi hesitated, still uncertain, but then she took another step towards him, and then another.

Jon offered her a weak smile. "That's it," he said.

Kamathi walked slowly towards him, and when she reached him, Jon crouched down to be closer to her level, and he met her gaze. Kamathi stared at him for a moment, and then she turned and pointed to the shelf.

"Book!"

Jon couldn't help it; his grin grew. "Book?"

Kamathi nodded, and turned around, toddling back over to the shelf. She patted the spine of a book, and looked over at him again. "Book."

Jon couldn't believe this. Just as he'd met Cheyanne over a book, he was now meeting her daughter over one as well. And he had a feeling that if he crawled close enough to see the book Kamathi was patting, he'd see that it was the same book that he'd first bonded with her mother over.

So, he crawled over to her, and sat down beside the toddler, who looked at him, smiling again. He glanced down at the book she had her hand on, and let out a breath. The golden words that shone from beneath her fingers read The Hobbit.

"I don't think you'd like that book, Kam," he told her.

Kamathi's smile faded, and she glanced between him and the book, before she patted it again, with more fervor this time. "Book!" she insisted.

Jon wondered briefly if 'book' was the only word that she knew.

"There's plenty of other books," he said, gesturing towards the shelf. "I think you can pick another one."

Kamathi's face went through all the emotions of a toddler who'd just been told no, and was having to come up with another option. She glanced between him, and the book, and back again, and then she let out a noise of despair and sat down, right in Jon's lap.

Jon stiffened, and he looked down at the top of Kamathi's head, covered in her shaggy hair, then glanced around the shop, desperate to figure out what he was supposed to do with a toddler who most definitely didn't belong here.

"Uhm, okay," he said after a moment. He shifted so that he was seated more comfortably on the floor, and then he reached for the closest book he could grab, which happened to be a Dr. Suess.

Thanking his lucky stars, Jon set the book down across his lap, which in turn set it down across Kamathi's, and he opened it up to the first page.

"See?" he started, pointing to the colorful image of the Cat in the Hat that appeared on the title page. "This is a book you should be reading."

Kamathi's eyes rested on the Cat, and she reached out a hand and touched the image with her tiny fingers. After a moment, she giggled, and Jon's heart broke into a million pieces.

Crud, he thought to himself as he turned the page to get to the actual story. I'm about to fall in love with this kid.

Jon decided to stick with his plan nonetheless, and he began to read: "The sun did not shine. It was too wet to play. So we sat in the house, all that cold, cold, wet day."

By the time he'd reached the point of the story where the Cat came in, Kamathi was leaning back against his chest, her hair tickling his chin, and she was touching the images that appeared on each page, as though she was studying the pictures and understanding how they connected to what Jon was reading to her.

"... then he fell on his head! He came down with a bump, from up there on the ball, and Sally and I, we saw all the things fall!"

Kamathi let out a tiny gasp, as she pressed her hand against the image of the Cat falling off the ball, with all the things he'd been holding falling as well. She worriedly glanced back at Jon, as though asking him if everything was going to be all right, and Jon went on reading in order to show her that it would be.

He read about the Cat bringing in his Things to clean up the house, and Kamathi laughed a bit at their antics, pointing to the picture of the Things wrecking the house further. When the book took another abrupt turn, however, when the children's mother was about to appear, Kamathi went solemn again, obviously certain that nothing would end well for the children, for the fish, or for the Cat in the Hat and his Things, who left the house in a sad state.

"... and THEN! Who was back in the house? Why, the Cat!"

Kamathi brought her head up in surprise, and gasped when she saw the picture of the Cat returning to the house, to clean up the mess he'd created. Jon smiled to himself when she clapped her hands together excitedly, and went on: "'Have no fear of this mess,' said the Cat in the Hat. 'I always pick up all my playthings and so… I will show you another good trick that I know!'"

Jon read to her about how the Cat cleaned up the house, and Kamathi bounced up and down on his lap in happiness. He read to her about how the Cat and his Things left just before the children's mother came home, and he read to her about how their mother asked them what they'd been up to all day.

Kamathi leaned forward as he finished the last stanza: "Should we tell her about it? Now, what should we do? Well… what would you do if your mother asked you?"

Jon turned the page, and smiled to himself. "The end."

Kamathi grabbed for the edges of the book herself, and turned the page again, to the inner back cover. She cooed when she found the pictures of the Cat there, and she patted the images with both hands.

Jon exhaled, and leaned back against the shelf, letting the toddler look at the pictures and babble to herself. He knew that he needed to figure out how to get the kid back to Middle-earth before there was a panic, but he had no idea where to even begin.

"Kamathi," he said after a moment, deciding the best place to start was with the one who'd brought herself over in the first place. "Do you know how to get home?"

"Home." The toddler fiddled with the book for a moment, as though debating his question before responding. "Door?"

"Sure," Jon said, thinking of the portal, "you might've come here through a door of some sort."

Kamathi grunted as she struggled to stand up, still gripping the book, and Jon gave her rump a gentle nudge to get her upright. Kamathi then waddled over to the nearest blank wall, book in hand. She set it down on the floor, and straightened up again.

Jon watched as she pressed her hands together, and then she spread them apart. Immediately, a portal opened up on the wall, and Kamathi bent down to get her book, and then looked at him, clutching it to her chest. It was almost as big as she was.

"Home?" she asked, looking at the portal, and the blue and purple room on the other side.

Jon slid closer to the portal and peered through it for a moment. It certainly seemed like it might be her nursery in Erebor; there was a cradle, and a shelf that had a few books scattered on it.

"Yep, I think you did it," Jon agreed, relieved. He looked at her. "I don't know if I can let you take that book, though, kiddo."

Kamathi frowned at him, her little eyebrows drawing together. She squeezed the book closer to her chest. "Cat," she said sternly.

Jon smiled wearily. "All right," he sighed, "I guess you can keep it. But… don't let anyone see it, all right?"

Kamathi immediately grinned at him. "Cat!" she said happily.

"Kamathi!" The door of the room on the other side of the portal opened, and in rushed Fili, looking rather upset. He let out a relieved breath when he spotted the portal, and he hurried over to it, crouching down beside it. "Kamathi, what are you doing?"

"Book!" Kamathi told him, holding it out proudly.

Fili gazed at it, and then he looked at Jon, who offered him a wave of his hand. Fili nodded back, with an expression that said Thank you for watching her, and then he reached into the portal, grabbed Kamathi beneath her arms, and pulled her out of Earth. The portal closed almost at once.

And as soon as she was gone, Jon realized with no small amount of dread that he did, in fact, love the kid.

In Erebor, in another world, Fili was holding Kamathi tightly in relief. "Don't do that," he scolded her. "You scared me."

"Book!" Kamathi said, dropping her book in favor of reaching for the wall that the portal had been on.

"I know, I know," Fili told her, bending down to retrieve her book, "but you don't go there. It's dangerous."

He handed her the book, and then he set her down on the floor again, taking her hand. Kamathi made a distressed noise, and let go of the book, to reach once more for the wall, her tiny mouth tilted in a frown.

"Come on, Kamathi," Fili said, tugging despite the fact that she was still looking at the empty wall. "You father wants to see you."

Kamathi finally allowed him to pull her away at the promise of seeing her father, and Fili led her out of the nursery into the parlor, where Thorin was seated in one of the armchairs, going over one of his many reports on the mines.

"See? I told you; she was just waking up from her nap," Fili said, ushering Kamathi forward towards where her father sat.

Thorin smiled down at her; Kamathi giggled when he bent down to scoop her up into his arms. "Ah," he said, and then he pressed a kiss against the tip of her nose. Kamathi cooed, and tangled one of her hands into his hair, resting the other against his cheek.

"Kamathi," he started, looking at her, "you are the next great leader of our people."

A door opened, and Kamathi's eyes brightened when she saw her mother. She let go of her father's hair, and held her arms up to Cheyanne, who took the toddler up into her grasp and kissed her forehead.

"And you're going to do wonderful things, my sweet melody," she told Kamathi.

"Yes," Thorin agreed, "but first, you must learn where you're meant to be."

Cheyanne looked at him in surprise. "Right now? Are you sure?"

"She just woke up from a nap," Fili put in, and Cheyanne looked from her nephew, to her husband, and then to her daughter, who was beaming up at her.

"All right," she conceded after a moment, "but not for very long."

Thorin nodded and stood up himself, taking Kamathi back from her. Cheyanne watched as he carried her out of the apartment, Kamathi's eyes wide, and then she looked at Fili.

"Do you think -?"

"I think it's the perfect time," Fili said. "Kamathi's beginning to understand things more strongly now."

Cheyanne knew that was true, but she still didn't know if she wanted Kamathi to know that Erebor was much bigger than just the confines of their apartment. After all, with that knowledge came the need to explore.

Thorin carried Kamathi down the corridor and to the steps that would take them down to the throne hall. When he'd reached the bottom, he walked around to the front of the throne, and set Kamathi down before it.

"There," he said, crouching down beside her. "You see? That is the throne of Erebor."

Kamathi gazed at it, her forehead wrinkled in concentration. After a moment, she toddled forward until she could lean her hands against the base of it, and she looked over her shoulder at Thorin, who smiled encouragingly.

"One day, you're going to sit there, like I do now, and like your great-grandfather did before me," he told her, "only you'll be the first Queen Under the Mountain to ever do such a thing. It's quite a big deal, kurkarukê."

Kamathi turned her eyes back to the throne, and gazed upwards, towards the vacant area where the Arkenstone had previously presided, before it had been taken and turned into something less obnoxious, but still quite special.

The Princess pointed to the empty space, looking at her father questioningly, and Thorin nodded, walking over to where she was. "A special gem used to be there," he told her, "but the gem was taken down."

"Why?"

Thorin smiled a bit. "It was dangerous to have it there," he replied.

"Where?" Kamathi questioned.

"Somewhere safe," Thorin said. She frowned at him, so much like Cheyanne did when she knew that Thorin wasn't telling her a whole truth. "Do not worry, kurkarukê. One day, you will know the tale of that gem, but not yet."

Kamathi turned her eyes back to the empty space, and tilted her head for a moment, considering it. After a time, she looked at him again. "Else?" she said, pointing up to it.

Thorin took a moment to interpret what she meant. "Why don't we put something else up there?" Kamathi nodded, and Thorin shook his head. "It's not necessary."

Kamathi seemed annoyed by this, because she frowned up at the vacant hole. "Somet'ing," she insisted at last.

"I think it needs to be filled in," Thorin told her, frowning at the hole himself. "Too many bad memories."

Kamathi thought about this, and then she repeated what he'd said: "Fill in."

"Yes," he agreed after a moment, looking down at his daughter once more with a tiny smile. "That is a good idea, Kamathi. I'll have to ask someone to do it."

She smiled right back at him, and then held up her arms to him. "Up!"

Thorin scooped her up, and he pressed his forehead to hers. "I think you'll find the throne quite comfortable," he told her, carrying her back towards the stairs, "at least in a metaphorical sense."

He carried her up to the apartment again, and found Cheyanne sitting down to tea with Dwalin, who glanced up when Thorin entered the parlor. He grinned when he spotted Kamathi, and the princess held out her arms to him, recognizing him immediately.

Dwalin accepted the toddler onto his lap and bounced her up and down as he watched Thorin take a seat beside Cheyanne. "You showed her the throne?" he asked, and Thorin nodded.

"We decided together that the hole where the Arkenstone was needs to be filled in," he said.

Cheyanne glanced down at her wedding ring, which held a small bit of the Arkenstone. "About time," she said. "That hole does nothing but remind everyone of what happened."

"Indeed," Thorin responded, glancing over the table towards Dwalin. "What do you think?"

"I think that you should've filled it in a long time ago," Dwalin responded after a moment, offering a biscuit to Kamathi, who took it in eager hands and began to munch on it.

Thorin nodded in complete agreement, and looked over at Cheyanne. "She seemed to know what I was saying."

Cheyanne glanced up from where she was stirring honey into her tea, and raised an eyebrow. "You sound surprised," she said, and Thorin shook his head.

"Not at all," he replied. "It was just a comment. Has she been interacting more with what you say, too?"

Cheyanne looked at Kamathi, who was finishing up with her biscuit and pulling on Dwalin's hair. "I think so," she said after a moment of thought. "She's smart, Thorin. You know that she can already read?"

"Can she really?" Dwalin asked in surprise, pulling his hair out of Kamathi's hand.

"Well, perhaps it's more like her repeating what's already been read…" Cheyanne thought this over, and she shrugged. "It doesn't matter. She's smart."

Thorin chuckled, and reached over to take Kamathi from Dwalin when she started to blubber. He held her up so that she could see over the table, and, when she caught sight of her mother, she reached out with both hands and grabbed for her.

"Mama!"

Cheyanne offered Thorin a look of triumph, and the King rolled his eyes before handing Kamathi over to her. The young princess cooed happily as she exchanged hands, and she buried her face in Cheyanne's shoulder once she was seated on her lap.

"See?" Cheyanne queried, looking at the two Dwarves. "I told you she was smart. Smart enough to recognize the better parent."

"Don't you dare go there," Thorin warned, frowning at her. "You will not win that battle."

Cheyanne didn't seem to be listening anymore. She'd returned her attention to her tea. Thorin offered Dwalin an exasperated look, and Dwalin smiled to himself, settling back against his chair. He thought they were both fine parents.

Kurkarukê means 'tiny raven', I believe. It's been a minute.