AN: Thank you all for the faves and follows of this story! It means a lot! :D

Chapter Two: Elderbell

Arian fell into a deep slumber and stayed in that state for a day. Her journey had taken quite a toll on her and it was her own fault since she walked without stopping through wind and rain, day and night and ate very little food because she could not afford to stop. She needed to get to Hobbiton as fast as she possibly could out of fear that she was being tracked. But Arian was small and swift, so it would have been difficult for anyone to follow her.

Since Arian had awoken from her slumber, she stayed in her home for the next week since she still felt very tired but she didn't just stay in her bed, she pottered around the burrow and familiarised herself with her new home. The wardrobe had a small selection of clothing similar to the clothing of the Hobbits and Arian assumed this was Gandalf's doing again. He had been far too kind to her. Today she wore a light beige coloured blouse with long sleeves but she rolled them up, a brown underbust bodice, a salmon coloured skirt which ended just above her calves and brown flat pumps. She rather liked this clothing, it was simple and comfy and this almost resembled the Hobbits way of life.

She patted her skirt down and she smiled but then she remembered that she had a problem. There was very little food left in the pantry... which meant she had to go and get more... and that meant going outside. Back where Arian lived before she didn't have to worry about these problems.

She groaned and grabbed her old leather bag; made sure she had money with her and trudged over to the front door. It was midmorning and it was obvious that there would be hobbits around and Arian was anxious. She worried about if they asked her questions about whom she was and why she was living in Hobbiton because she would have no idea how to answer them. If they asked where she came from however, that was easy, she would say Rivendell. But if they asked that question, 'why was she was living in Hobbiton'...

'Maybe I should have thought of an answer for that before I left..." Arian thought and now found herself already outside of the door to her burrow.

She shut and locked the door and wandered down the path into Hobbiton. It was very warm and sunny today but it wasn't an uncomfortable warmness and now Hobbiton was starting to look as charming as Gandalf had explained to her. There were continuous rolling, green hills and some she could tell were hobbit-holes by the tiny doors. Arian could already see some hobbits working in the nearby fields and most didn't pay much attention to her but there was now this slight feeling of tension in the atmosphere. Arian tried to think nothing of it.

She continued to walk down the road and then the peace returned and in the distance she heard some hobbit children playing. Arian smiled. The Hobbits clearly knew nothing of the danger and darkness that existed outside of the Shire and life here was easy and beautiful. In truth, Arian was very sceptical about coming here as she already knew of the easy life of the Hobbits and felt like she wouldn't fit in. She thought that life here would be too easy, and it would be the same old thing every day, but these first few moments outside of her burrow started to slowly change her opinion on this place. Apart from the few Hobbits in the fields, nobody seemed to be paying much attention to her, and they just carried on doing whatever it was they were doing. This was a relief, so far.

Arian felt at ease for the first time in a while. Before she came here Arian's life was not dangerous, it was just difficult. Every day was fraught with problems, and her sister-...

No. She was fine. Arian was safe in the Shire and her sister was definitely safe in Rivendell. Nothing could hurt them. Arian didn't need to think about anything now.

Then she was suddenly brought out of her thoughts by some distressed and raised voiced in the distance. Arian's curiosity kicked in and she went to investigate. She listened very carefully and the voices brought her along the path, over a bridge and she found herself by a building which she assumed was the Green Dragon which an old friend had told her about, and Arian had found where the voices were coming from.

There were three hobbits. Two of them were frantically bickering and Arian was very curious to what was going on. One of the bickering hobbits had almost golden hair and the other had brown. Arian felt bad that she thought that their bickering was almost comical.

The third and rather old hobbit was inspecting the contents of a few small barrels and he had a troubled look on his face while looking at what was in them. Arian became even more inquisitive and she decided to listen to the two younger hobbits quarrel.

"Why didn't you check it to make sure nothing was on it!" the brown haired one said and his arms were raised in exasperation.

"Nothing was ever wrong with it before so I didn't bother!" said the other. "If you were so concerned about there being something wrong with it then you should have checked yourself, Merry."

The two hobbits continued to argue and Arian continued to watch. This argument seemed to go on for a while and they both kept on blaming the other about something that was wrong with whatever was in those barrels. Arian started to wonder how long she had been standing there watching this rumpus and then the hobbits noticed her.

The golden haired one noticed her first.

"Oi! You know that staring is very rude! You could at least come over here and help!"

Arian instantly became embarrassed and annoyed with herself. Damn her curiosity! Deciding that it would have been wrong to just leave, she gingerly walked over to them to offer her assistance.

"I apologise but I'm just very curious about what is causing you both such distress, I suppose I could assist you." said Arian.

Her voice was very soft and melodic and nothing like the two hobbits had ever heard before, but they knew straight away that she wasn't from the Shire or Buckland and maybe not even from Bree. They were very suspicious of Arian and her appearance. She looked like a hobbit from first glance but when they looked at her closely they could see that she was quite different. The two hobbits were now having second thoughts about letting her investigate their problem. They noticed Arian's tiny feet and her slightly different shaped ears and were intrigued as well as a little apprehensive of her. But she seemed polite when she spoke to them so they saw no harm in letting her help.

Then the hobbit named Merry spoke.

"My cousin Pippin here thought it would be a good idea to test the pipe-weed before anyone else tried it but it seems to have this disgusting aroma and taste which almost made both of us ill."

"My idea?! Merry, it was your idea! And it was your fault for not checking to see if there were any-"

Merry and Pippin began another argument and Arian was still confused. They didn't even clarify what was wrong with the pipe-weed before squabbling at each other again.

"Don't bother with them, lass. They're nothing but mischievous rascals." This voice came from the older hobbit and he was kneeling down and still inspecting the dried leaves. "These few barrels of Longbottom Leaf just have a bit of mildew on them that's all... but I can't say I've seen anything like it..."

"Do you mind if I take a look?" Arian said and knelt down in front of the older hobbit.

"Not at all, but I wouldn't touch the stuff if I were you." The older hobbit handed Arian one of the barrels which was already open. Merry and Pippin now ended their argument and were peering over Arian's shoulder, and were doubtful that she knew what this mould was.

Arian examined the mildew and it had this awful, sickly light green colour. It took a few minutes for her to recognise what this mould was and then she remembered that she had read about something like this mould once.

"Ah. I do know what this is..." Arian said slowly, Merry and Pippin looked both shocked and relieved. "It's called Farmers Bain, and it is common in the east and it usually just damages crops but I've never seen it in this form before..."

"Well at least we now know what it is, do you know how to get rid of it?" asked the older Hobbit.

"Yes, I do...," said Arian, though her expression didn't fill the hobbits with joy. "The plant we need is called Elderbell. But the flower is very rare, and I haven't seen one in years."

The three hobbits looked a little disheartened.

"What does the flower look like?" asked Pippin.

"Elderbell looks very much like a bluebell except it is white and has its distinctive golden colour inside where the pollen is," Arian replied and stood up. "It is a very ancient flower, hence its name, which may be why it's so rare now."

"Well," Merry spoke after a moment of musing, "I think it's still worth us having a look to see if we can find this flower."

"It will be a long search." Arian warned.

"If this flower is the only thing that will save our pipe-weed then I don't care how long it takes to find it." said Pippin.

The older hobbit looked at Merry and Pippin with amusement.

"Are you two actually going to do something that will benefit the town instead of causing havoc?" He chuckled.

"Gaffer, I am most offended!" Merry said while mimicking the voice of an upper-class hobbit.

The Gaffer, as Arian assumed was the older hobbit's nickname, started to gather all the barrels of the affected pipe-weed and he told them he was going to dispose of them immediately before the Farmers Bain began to spread to the other barrels. While he was doing that, Merry and Pippin had volunteered to assist Arian in finding the elusive Elderbell flower and the three began to walk away from the Green Dragon and out into the grassy plains of the Shire.

Arian had already learnt a lot about Merry and Pippin as they wandered around, searching for the Elderbell flower. She had already learnt that they were both considered troublemakers and were cousins. They didn't live in Hobbiton however, Merry lived in Buckland and Pippin lived in one of the Great Smials in Tuckborough. They told her that they were visiting their relative named Frodo, and that name didn't spark any interest but when they said that his uncle was named Bilbo...

Bilbo... She knew that name...

Arian told the cousins that she was the new resident who had moved into the little hobbit-hole bordering Hobbiton and she laughed when Merry told her that many of the hobbits believed her to be something of great evil and it was clear to see that she wasn't. They told her about the silly rumours and Arian couldn't believe her ears. She wasn't offended, she was just quite amused and if the other Hobbits had met her they would have possibly disregarded those rumours immediately.

But Arian was just glad that Pippin and Merry had not asked her about where she came from or why she was in Hobbiton. Pippin then wandered ahead of Merry and Arian and he seemed to be getting frustrated at how elusive this Elderbell was. Arian did warn them that this would be difficult.

Then Merry asked one of the dreaded questions...

"So Arian," he began. "Where do you come from? Your accent sounds very different to us Hobbits in the Shire."

"I hail from Rivendell." Arian felt like she answered his question far too quickly.

"Ah, I should have guessed. You do sound like one of those elves. Hang on..." Merry had a puzzled look on his face. "If you lived in Rivendell, why move to live in a place like the Shire?"

Arian's heart was in her mouth. She didn't know what to say and almost started to panic but it seemed that luck was in her favour since they both heard Pippin give a shout of joy.

"What have you found Pippin?" Arian shouted and she and Merry ran towards Pippin's shouts.

They soon found him and they found themselves in a little grove with a few trees with leaves of a beautiful shade of green. And then they saw what Pippin was screaming about.

"Arian... I thought you said that Elderbell was rare..." Pippin said quietly.

"I did..." Arian said barely louder than a whisper.

What they saw was a sea of white flowers with little specks of gold. Elderbell seemed to be indigenous to this area and Arian was so shocked she could barely speak. Whenever she found an Elderbell it would only ever be one or two plants, but this... She had never seen anything like this.

"Right..." Arian began after coming to her senses. "We do not need to take many flowers; we don't want to completely destroy the area. Just take a few handfuls and we'll put them in my bag."

As she instructed, the three went to work immediately while making sure not to accidently squish any of the flowers and it wasn't long before they had gathered enough of the plant to return to Hobbiton. Merry and Pippin's love for pipe-weed must have motivated them to get this job done so quickly.

Soon enough they arrived back in Hobbiton and found the Gaffer and he was surprised that both Merry and Pippin had kept to their word about helping to found the Elderbell since he thought they would give up. But the Gaffer was proved wrong. Arian gave the Elderbell to the older hobbit and told him to let it dry out in the sun for a while and when it was dry he needed to add it to the barrels of Longbottom Leaf that were not affected by the mildew to prevent them from developing Farmers Bain. The Gaffer was very thankful for her help.

Afterwards, Arian remembered why she had left her burrow in the first place and Merry and Pippin were willing to help her to buy foodstuffs for her pantry and the Gaffer gave her some of his own potatoes. Arian had seemed to have made a good impression on the hobbits so far and had already become friends of Merry and Pippin.

And then her mind drifted and she remembered Bilbo.

'I wonder if he remembers me." She thought.

AN: I made up the plant 'Elderbell' and the mould 'Farmers Bain' if anyone is wondering.