Hello everyone! First I want to thank everyone that has reviewed, followed, or favorited my story, those kinds of things make me really want to update as much as I can. Second I want to say that the only character(s) I own in this is Lalemwen and any other original characters that I might come up with later on. The story will be largely composed of the movie, but I'm going to put as much of the book in as I can and in later chapters I will have a lot more original stuff than I do right now because I'm sure as I go along there will be a lot more opportunities for that (not that there aren't now, I just wasn't sure how to put a lot of that in these first two chapters without them dragging). This chapter is much longer than the first (hope you don't mind), but I wanted to save Rivendell for it's own chapter. I hope you enjoy reading and I would love it if you left a review!
The next morning I woke up in the spare bedroom of Bag End and I honestly wasn't quite sure how I had gotten there. The sun had begun to rise so I decided I'd get up and fix some breakfast for Bilbo since I knew he'd had a very rough night. When I walked out of the bedroom I was very surprised to see that everything was spotlessly clean, the dwarves really knew how to clean up, I was surprised. I looked around in what was left of the pantry and was able to find some food for myself and Bilbo. As I was finishing up cooking I heard the door to Bilbo's bedroom open and he sighed with relief that it was just me there and no dwarves.
"Lalemwen. Thank goodness. I don't think I've ever been so happy to see you in my house," Bilbo said with a light chuckle, sitting down at the table on my orders.
"You do have to admit that the dwarves cleaned up very well though," I said, putting the food on some plates and the plates on the table. Bilbo insisted on making the tea though.
"So everything that happened last nia actually happened?" Bilbo asked me apprehensively as he poured tea for both of us.
"I hate to tell you this, but yes, it did actually happen," I said as he sat down and we began to eat. He just sighed and changed the subject.
"Well, how long do you plan to stay here in Hobbiton?" he asked me.
"I'm not really sure yet. As long as I desire to I suppose," I said, continuing to eat. I saw Bilbo glance over at something then and looked over to see the contract sitting on the dining room table.
Bilbo sighed and gave me a look. "Well, Lalemwen, I don't know about you, but I think I might fancy an adventure," he said with a determined look.
I smiled brightly and replied, "I think I do too,"
We quickly finished eating and cleaning everything up. I began to get all of my belongings together when Bilbo came into the spare room looking kind of nervous.
"So, uh, what exactly do I need to bring with me?" he asked me.
"Here, I'll come help you," I said since I was done packing up my stuff. After I helped him get everything he needed together we headed towards the door. I opened it and stepped outside, looking back to say something to Bilbo but he wasn't behind me like I thought he was. I went back in the door and found him standing in front of the fireplace in his sitting room looking around. From that room you could also see the kitchen, dining room, and the hallway where all the other rooms were so I figured he was taking everything in since this could very possibly be the last time he sees his home.
"Oh, Lalemwen, I'm sorry, I didn't realize you were standing there waiting for me. I just wanted to, uh, take one last look before leaving," he said as he walked towards me, an apologetic look on his face.
"It's okay. I know you'll miss this place. We will need to hurry to catch up to the others though," I said as we walked back towards the front door. Bilbo closed and locked his door, shaking the handle to double check it was locked and we were on our way to find the company of Thorin Oakenshield. Luckily we ran quick enough that the company was still in the Shire when we found them, though I got ahead of Bilbo a couple of times and had to stop and wait for him.
"Wait! Wait!" Bilbo yeled when we saw the dwarves in front of us. "I signed it," he said, handing the contract to Balin.
Balin studied the contract and said, "Everything seems to be in order. Welcome, Master Baggins, to the Company of Thorin Oakenshield,"
"Give them ponies," Thorin said from the front of the group. I was perfectly fine with being on a horse, I often used one to travel around The Shire, but Bilbo didn't seem so sure.
"Uh, you know, I think I could keep up on foot, I've done my fair share of walking holidays, there's no need - ahhh!" Bilbo tried to say but was pulled up onto to a pony by Fili and Kili.
"Come on, Nori, pay up!" a dwarf behind us yelled, making me turn and look curiously behind me and small sacks of coins began being thrown around.
"What's this all about?" Bilbo asked.
"Well, some of the dwarves made wagers," Gandalf said.
"On what exactly?" I asked suspiciously.
"Well, on whether or not Bilbo would show up or not, most of them bet that you wouldn't," Gandalf said, directing his last comment to Bilbo.
"And what did you think?" Bilbo asked and at that moment Gandalf caught a bag of coins that was thrown to him and he had a mischievous smile on his face. "My dear fellow, I didn't doubt you for a moment," Gandalf said, pocketing his coins. Suddenly Bilbo started violently sneezing.
"Are you okay, Bilbo?" I asked him.
"Ugh, all this horse hair," he said, reaching into his pockets for his pocket handkerchief, but couldn't find it. "Stop stop! We have to turn around!" Bilbo said, still searching his pockets.
"What on earth is the matter?" Gandalf said as we came to a halt.
"I can't find my handkerchief," Bilbo said, still trying to search his pockets.
"Here," Bofur said, tearing some fabric off of something on his body. "Use this!" he said as he threw the piece of fabric at Bilbo. Bilbo caught it, but looked at it in disgust.
"My dear Bilbo, you will have to do without pocket handkerchiefs on this journey, as well as many other things," Gandalf said as we began to move again. We travelled for at least a week, only stopping when we absolutely had to eat or sleep and I could tell Bilbo was growing weary.
"Are you all right, Bilbo?" I asked him one night when we had stopped under some trees for the night.
"Yes, just tired is all," he said, trying to find a place to settle down for the night.
"Lalemwen, come here please," Thorin called to me from the edge of our small encampment. "I was wondering what you could tell me about your family?" he asked me as I approached him.
"Oh, um, honestly not much, both my mother and father died when I was very young. I was just five years old when my father died and seventeen when my mother died," I told Thorin and he was listening intently so I continued, "My father was human but my mother was a dwarf, that's really all I know," I finished, knowing that it wasn't much to go on, but Thorin just nodded, deep in thought.
"Have you really lived in the Shire for your whole life?" he asked me.
"My mother told me before she died that we spent a couple of years in the Blue Mountains after I was born, but I was too young to remember. Other than that I've spent my whole life travelling around the Shire," I said as Thorin paced in front of me.
"Were your parents old enough to have been in Dale and Erebor when Smaug came?" Thorin asked me and I could tell he was thinking very hard about something.
"Perhaps. They were a little bit older than what was considered normal when I was born. My father would have been extremely young when Smaug came to the mountain I think," I said, not completely sure if they were there for that or not. Thorin just grunted and motioned for me to leave him, so I walked back over to Bilbo and found he was already asleep, so I settled in myself, hoping to get some sleep that night. After that night, Thorin didn't ask me about my parents again, but I would often see him staring down at his hands deep in thought. The journey was turning out to be rather uneventful so far, but I knew that wouldn't last for long. The next time we stopped for any large amount of time, I couldn't sleep and saw Bilbo get up and walk over to his pony with an apple. He had surprisingly grown very fond of his pony. As he was talking softly to her, I heard an unfamiliar sound off in the distance and Bilbo looked up in worry.
"What was that?" Bilbo asked Fili and Kili, who were on the first watch for the night and I sat up to listen to them.
"Orcs," Kili said darkly.
"Orcs?" Bilbo asked, making his way over to the two dwarves and Thorin woke up suddenly when Bilbo mentioned orcs.
"Throat cutters, there'll be dozens of them out there, the lowlands are crawling with them," Fili said and I could tell he was just trying to scare Bilbo, and it was working.
"They strike in the wee small hours of the morning while everyone's asleep, quick and quiet, no screams, just lots of blood," Kili said, thoroughly terrifying poor Bilbo. He turned away from Fili and Kili and the two started chuckling. I was about to give them a piece of my mind when Thorin spoke up.
"You think that's funny? You think a night raid by orcs is a joke?" he said to them and Bilbo turned and looked at them with a lot of hurt in his eyes.
"We didn't mean anything by it," Kili said, looking down in shame.
"Of course you didn't. You know nothing of the world," Thorin said, walking away from his nephews. I walked over to Bilbo and he just turned away from me, which hurt more than I would care to admit.
"Don't mind him, laddie," Balin said to Kili. "Thorin has more cause than most to hate orcs," he said, leaning on one of the rocks on the cliff face we had made camp on. The two younger dwarves looked at their uncle with a mix of disbelief and curiosity. Balin told the story of how Thror tried to reclaim Moria, though it was overrun by orcs. By the end of his story, everyone in the company was standing up with all of their attention on Thorin. I now understood Thorin's obsession with wanting to take back Erebor and his issue with the pale orc, Azog. I just stared at him as he turned around to face the rest of us.
"The pale orc, what happened to him?" Bilbo asked and I hadn't even noticed that he had sat down and had his arms around his knees.
"He slunk back into the hole from whence he came. The filth died of his wounds long ago," Thorin said, walking back through the camp, ignoring just about everyone he passed. Gandalf and Balin shared a look at that and for some reason I had a feeling that Thorin was wrong about that. As we travelled a few more days, it began to rain and it didn't seem like it would ever stop. I mostly stayed at the back of the group to myself. I hated the rain and travelling in it for days just put me in a sour mood, so everyone mostly left me alone until the weather cleared up. When it finally stopped raining we came across ruins of what looked like a house.
"We'll camp here for the night," Thorin said. I saw Gandalf looking around the place and could tell he wasn't thrilled with this spot.
"I think it would be wiser to move on, we could make for the Hidden Valley" Gandalf shouted to us, but Thorin was having none of that.
"I told you already, I will not go near that place," I heard Thorin say to Gandalf, wondering what problem Thorin had with the elves of Rivendell, but instead of listening to their conversation I turned back to Bilbo and the other dwarves and helped set up a makeshift camp, though I agreed with Gandalf about moving on because I had a very uneasy feeling about this place.
"Am I the only one that feels uneasy about stopping here for the night?" Bilbo asked me as we set up places to sleep.
"No, I feel it too. I wish Thorin would listen to Gandalf," I said.
"I suppose what we have heard about the stubbornness of dwarves is true after all," Bilbo said quietly, seeing Thorin walking back over to the group. We saw Gandalf walk in the opposite direction of Thorin looking rather annoyed.
"Is everything all right? Gandalf? Where are you going?" Bilbo said as the wizard passed us.
"To seek the company of the only one around here who's got any sense," Gandalf said, not stopping.
"And who's that?" Bilbo asked and I could tell he was worried about Gandalf leaving.
"Myself, Mr. Baggins! I've had quite enough of dwarves for one day," Gandalf said and walked out of sight.
"You know, I really don't blame him," I said, walking up next to Bilbo and he just grunted at me.
"Come on Bilbo, we're hungry," I heard Thorin say, having forgotten that it was Bilbo's turn to scrape up something for dinner.
"Is he coming back?" Bilbo said to Balin before going to do what he was told and Balin just gave him a look. After dinner was ready I got myself a bowl of whatever type of soup Bilbo had come up with and sat away from everyone else, still not liking the feeling of the place we were currently inhabiting.
"Lalemwen, would you like to go with me to find Fili and Kili? I'm taking food to them," Bilbo said as he passed me.
"No, I just need to sit with my thoughts for a moment," I said, not looking up at him.
"All right, well I'll be back in a moment," he said and walked away to find the two young dwarves. I stayed in my own thoughts for quite some time and the next time I looked up, I was the only one at our makeshift campsite. I got up quickly, wondering where everyone had gone when I heard what sounded like a fight off in the woods. I followed the sound and saw Bilbo and the dwarves fighting three mountain trolls. I hadn't brought any weapon with me so I hid behind a tree trying to think of something to do. Suddenly it grew quiet and I heard Kili yell Bilbo's name.
"Lay down your arms or we'll rip his off," a troll said and I finally turned around to see two of the trolls holding Bilbo by his arms and legs. I kept trying to think of something I could possibly do but was coming up with nothing and when I looked over next Bilbo and the dwarves were all in sacks in a pile and the trolls were discussing exactly how they should cook them. I knew a little bit about trolls and knew that they were out and about at night for a reason.
"Wait!" I heard Bilbo say and turned to see him hopping into a standing position in his sack. "You are making a terrible mistake," he said to the trolls and I knew he was trying to stall whatever it was they were going to do.
"You can't reason with them, they're halfwits!" a dwarf that was currently being turned over the fire said.
"Half wits? Then what does that make us?" I recognized Bofur's voice and he had a point in all honesty.
"I, uh, I mean with the seasoning," Bilbo continued, making it up as he went along.
"What are you talking about?" a troll said.
"Well, have you smelt them?" Bilbo said and I had to suppress a laugh. "You're going to need something stronger than sage to cover that up," he said, the dwarves muttering their displeasure.
"And what do you know about cooking dwarf?" a different troll said as he turned the dwarves over the fire.
"Shut up. Let the burglarobbit talk," another troll said.
"I, uh, um, the secret to cooking dwarf is…" Bilbo started and I could tell he hadn't quite thought this statement through, but he continued anyway. "The secret to cooking dwarf is… to skin them first!" and every dwarf there started yelling at the poor hobbit, not realizing that Bilbo was just trying to stall until the sun began to come up. Suddenly, I saw something moving very quickly through the woods and could have sworn I saw the familiar point of a grey hat. The next thing I heard from the troll conversation was something about them all having parasites or something like that. I just rolled my eyes and started moving towards where I thought I had seen Gandalf and soon found him.
"Gandalf," I whispered to him and he turned, surprised to see me.
"Lalemwen, I thought you were with the rest of the dwarves," he said.
"No, I managed not to get into that one somehow. What do you want me to do?" I asked him, hoping there was something I could do since I felt so completely useless at the moment.
"Go see if you can distract them more. I want to wait until the sun has risen just a little bit more before stepping in," Gandalf said and I nodded, making my way towards the trolls.
"Oi, dimwit," I yelled to the trolls, walking up behind them cockily.
"Huh?" the stupid one said, looking around behind him, wondering where exactly I was.
"Down here you dense toadstool," I said, completely aware of how badly this could end. The last thing you wanted to do was insult a troll, even a stupid one.
"Who you calling dense?" one of the other trolls said, also turning around to see where it was I'd come from. I chanced a glance at Bilbo and saw him standing there staring at me with his mouth open. Thankfully Gandalf chose that moment to jump into the situation.
"The dawn will take you all!" Gandalf yelled and split a large rock with his staff, bathing the trolls in the early morning sunlight. I almost didn't hold back a laugh at the look on Bilbo's face when he saw Gandalf standing on top of that large rock. I immediately went over to him and helped him get out of that awful sack and he was also still surprised that I was there.
"I thought for sure that you had just left us to die," he said as I untied the rope that tightened to top of his sack.
"You know I would never do that to you. I just wasn't exactly sure what I could do until I saw Gandalf," I said, pulling the sack down as he stepped out of it. He was looking at me intently and for a moment I got lost in his gaze when I stood straight again, but I quickly looked away, feeling my face heating up in a blush. I had never seen Bilbo look at me in that way before and wasn't exactly sure what to make of it.
"Thank you," he whispered, stepping closer to me.
"You're welcome," I breathed out and stepped away from him hurriedly, not totally sure what exactly had just come over me. Soon Gandalf and Thorin got everyone to look for a possible cave that the trolls could have been living in since they were so far from the mountains. We definitely found the cave all right, I could smell it well before I could see it, but troll treasure was worth facing the stench.
"Ugh, what's that stench?" Ori asked as we all walked into the cave.
"It's a troll hoard, what did you expect? And be careful what you touch," Gandalf said, leading the way.
"Seems a shame to just leave it lying around," I heard Bofur say behind me and looked back to see him moving some gold around with his foot.
"Agreed. Nori, get a shovel," Gloin said and I turned away from the rest of the dwarves, rolling my eyes and looking around for anything that caught my eye. I just walked around on my own, looking at the gold and jewels, hoping to find something for myself since everyone else was seeming to have such good luck, though it wasn't hard to please dwarves when it came to gold and jewels.
"Uh, Lalemwen, come over here, I think you might like some of these over here," Bilbo said from my left and I went over to him to see what he had found. There was a chest full of silver and gems, all in various forms of jewelry and just the stones themselves.
"Wow, that sure is a lot for just three trolls," I said, picking up a necklace filled with sapphires and rubies.
"Come on, let's go," Thorin called before I could decide if I wanted to take anything with me. I rolled my eyes and walked out of the cave with Bilbo trailing behind me.
"Bilbo," I heard Gandalf call to him once we were out of the cave and he handed the hobbit a small sword that looked to me to be made by elves. Bilbo tried not to take it, but of course Gandalf insisted and I knew at some point it would probably come in handy for the hobbit as we were leaving the roads that were well travelled and safe for small trails through the woods, not knowing who or what could be out there.
"Something's coming!" Thorin shouted and I turned to look in the direction all the noise in the forest was coming from. Gandalf made us all move to be ready to fight if the occasion arose, but I was hoping that whoever this visitor was was someone that didn't want to kill us. Soon a short and rather fat wizard pulled up on a sleigh pulled by rabbits, though they didn't look like normal rabbits, there were far too big to be normal rabbits.
"Thieves, fire, murder!" the new arrival yelled as he pulled to a stop in front of us, which seemed rather odd to me.
"Radagast. Radagast the Brown," Gandalf said as he walked over to the other wizard. "What on earth are you doing here?" he questioned the other wizard.
"I was looking for you, Gandalf. Something's wrong. Something's terribly wrong." Radagast said quickly and urgently.
"Yes," Gandalf said slowly and I could tell he was very sure about the validity of what the other wizard was about to tell him. Radagast went to tell Gandalf what he was there for, but before he said anything he acted as though he completely forgot what he was about to tell the other wizard. I tuned out the rest of the conversation they were having, studying the forest around us, hoping no other expected visitors showed up. I walked away from the group of dwarves, keeping an eye and ear out for anything out of place because for some reason I had a really bad feeling about staying in this forest for much longer. Suddenly a howl was heard in the distance and I snapped my head over in the direction it came from.
"What was that? Are there wolves here?" Bilbo said, rightfully scared of what just made that sound.
"No, that is not a wolf," Bofur said and there was the sound of branches snapping behind us and a warg suddenly jumped at us all and Thorin managed to kill it, but not before another came up behind him, ready to kill, but this one was shot with an arrow by Kili and finished off by Dwalin.
"Warg scouts. Which means an orc pack is not far behind," Thorin said, clearly not happy about this.
"Orc pack?" Bilbo asked incredulously and a bit fearfully.
"Who did you tell about your quest beyond your kin?" Gandalf questioned Thorin.
"No one," Thorin said, seeming to not believe that Gandalf was questioning him.
"Who did you tell!?" Gandalf said again, clearly not happy about what was happening.
"No one, I swear. What in Durin's name is going on?" Thorin said.
"You are being hunted," Gandalf said, though that should have been obvious.
"We've got to get out of here," Dwalin said.
"We can't, we have no ponies! They bolted," Ori said and I knew then that we didn't have any chance of getting away from this.
"I'll draw them off," Radagast said and I had a very hard time believing that his rabbits could outrun wargs and it seemed Gandalf didn't really believe it either.
"These are Gundabad wargs, they will outrun you," Gandalf said to the other wizard.
"These are Rhosgobel rabbits. I'd like to see them try," Radagast said and I had to admit, he almost had me convinced. Radagast soon made his exit, hopefully giving us enough time to find a way out of this hole we'd been put in. We all followed Gandalf out of the forest and behind a large rock, waiting for the okay to run.
"Come on," Gandalf said and all ran, hoping to avoid the orcs. Radagast crossed our path more than once and we always started running in the opposite direction we saw him going or hiding as he passed us.
"Where are you leading us?" Thorin asked as we all began to run from behind another rock, but Gandalf didn't answer and I had an idea of where exactly he might be taking us. Kili shot a warg and orc that was on a rock we were hiding behind and as soon as I heard the awful noise from the warg I knew that we were no longer safe. I just hoped Gandalf had a good plan. I heard the rest of the pack making their way towards us and looked to Gandalf for what to do, not sure if we would all make it out of this alive. Bilbo looked absolutely terrified, and for good reason, but I wish there could have been some way I could have made him feel better.
"Move! Run!" Gandalf said in desperation and I ran as fast as I possibly could, but always making sure Bilbo was keeping up with us. I had a bad feeling that we were going to end up having to fight our way out of this one as Gandalf led us through the open field we were running across, but soon the orcs had us surrounded on both sides. I saw Gandalf run towards a particular rock and just hoped he had found a way out for us. We all were stanced for battle when Gandalf yelled to us.
"This way!" he said from what looked like the inside of a rock. I wasn't so sure about getting in a rock, but I trusted Gandalf and ran for my life towards that rock, launching myself over the edge with the rest of the dwarves. When everyone had gotten down into the large crevice of the rock, we heard a loud horn that sounded suspiciously like elves and an orc fell into the crevice with us, luckily he was dead.
"Elves," Thorin said, throwing the arrow he pulled out of the orc to the ground.
"I can't see where the pathway leads. Do we follow it or no?" Dwalin said, having moved to the end of a small tunnel in the crevice.
"Follow it of course!" Bofur said and I had to agree with him on that. All of the dwarves began to follow the path, Bilbo and myself behind them with Gandalf taking the rear at a distance.
"I have a funny feeling that the dwarves are not going to like where Gandalf is taking us," I said to Bilbo as we walked through the pathway and it seemed to shrink in size, making it difficult for some of the dwarves to squeeze through it.
"I would have to agree," Bilbo said. "Gandalf, where are we?" he then asked Gandalf.
"You can feel it?" Gandalf said and the three of us stopped walking and I knew exactly what he was talking about.
"Yes, it feels, well, it feels like magic," Bilbo said, sounding unsure of himself.
"That's exactly what it is. A very powerful magic." Gandalf said.
"Elves," I said softly and Gandalf just looked at me, not wanting to give anything away.
"There's light ahead," Dwalin said, having taken the front of the group. We came to a large opening in the rock face and my suspicions were confirmed. We had arrived at Rivendell.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter and please leave a review to let me know what you thought of a longer chapter versus the length of the first chapter!