I am making A LOT of stuff up in the mammoth chapter so I hope it's okay :)I cut this chapter so you'll get to visit Thorin's chambers tomorrow, or I'd never have finished this chapter.
/ / / Moving Into Erebor \ \ \
Bilbo awoke the next morning to the rumbling sound of Thorin snoring. He could remember when the dwarves snoring had been enough to keep him awake even when he was exhausted but now he found the sound comforting. He stretched against the soft furs and sat up. He had a lot to do before they went up to the mountain and Bilbo wanted to give Thorin as much time to rest before they moved as he could. Bilbo used the skills he had taken advantage of as a burglar to fold and tie his furs into a bundle and lock the tea he had mixed up into a secure container. He would have to organise for all of his tools to be given back to their rightful owners and he would need to find a way to purchase the things he would need now that he was staying in Erebor.
Bilbo touched his new clothes carefully and smiled before he folded them gently and found the material that was wrapped around them when they had been given to him. He carefully tucked the clothes in and tied the bundle up. When he turned he found Thorin watching him with a small smile curling his lips.
"You are awake," Bilbo said. "How do you feel?"
"Rested," Thorin paused. "And sore."
Bilbo nodded. "We should go for a walk; it will help with your stiffness."
"And let me guess…more tea?"
Bilbo raised an eyebrow. "If you do not want my tea, do not have any. I shall go and find out who I need to give my tools back to instead."
"What do you need to return?" Thorin asked, sitting up.
"The tables, and the mortar and pestle. I do not have anything to take with me but the clothes you gave me and my tea, which I suppose I shall be drinking now."
"I will drink your tea, Bilbo," Thorin said. "But I find that I am starving."
Bilbo grinned at him. "Excellent, I will go and get you something to eat." Bilbo smiled and walked from the tent. When he returned Thorin was dressed again ready for his journey.
"I do not think I could eat that much," Thorin said, with a laugh when Bilbo put the plate down in front of him.
"Try though," Bilbo said. "You have a lot of energy to replenish and you may surprise yourself."
"I have organised the ponies," Thorin said, as he ate heartily. "They will arrive for us within an hour. Do you have everything ready."
"Just my clothes," Bilbo said.
"Do not forget your mail and sword, Master Baggins," Thorin said. "Whatever else you need we will find for you, little one."
"I do have half of a treasure to spend," Bilbo said, with a smile. He looked under the cot where he had put his chainmail and sword the first day when he was caring for Thorin. As he pulled it out he saw the flash of gold – the ring he had stolen from Gollum. Bilbo thought for a moment about putting it in his pocket but he did not need it within Erebor so he left it bundled up safely within the mithril mail and added that to his small bundle of clothes.
"What would you buy with it if you were at home, at Bag End?"
"Books and food," Bilbo said immediately. "I have all the other things I truly need, but one can never have too much food or too many books."
Thorin nodded and returned to his meal.
/\/\/\
The ponies arrived for them and Gani rushed in to secure the items to their backs before Thorin strode out of the tent and up onto the back of one of the ponies. Bilbo saw the little foot stool he had used and moments later Gani moved it to the other pony.
"Sorry, Sire," he said, loudly. "That was meant to be next to Master Baggins' ride."
Bilbo bit his lip against a smile. He was glad that Thorin had been given the stool and was thankful that Gani was so very good at reading a situation as well as being an imposingly large figure of a dwarf. Bilbo was going to miss Gani when they relocated into Erebor.
"Please be more careful in the future," Thorin said, with a titled head. "I expect you in the mountain by this afternoon for your position with Bilbo."
"Position?" Bilbo asked, as Gani stepped back and inclined his head with a smile.
"King Thorin," Gani said, "has offered me the role of your guide while you are under the mountain."
"Until you become familiar with the tunnels and walkways," Thorin said, shifting on the pony with something that looked surprisingly close to a grimace. "I do not know about a hobbit's sense of direction but there are many ways to be lost under the mountain and dwarves can found their way out of mountains as though they have a map."
"I will not allow you get lost, Master Baggins," Gani said, with a short bow. "I will be at the mountain by tonight."
"We should leave," Thorin said.
"I shall see you later, Gani," Bilbo said, and then turned to Thorin. "Lead on, I cannot wait to see the mountain again."
Thorin smiled at him and turned to encourage his pony towards the gates of Erebor. They approached the dwarf mountain not from the hidden door, like the last time Bilbo had been in the mountain, but this time they approached the city by the long path that moved through the bones of the old town of Dale.
"I shall start work on the town as soon as I can," Thorin said. "I can still remember it on a warm summer's day. I would come down to visit the market and it would be full of sunshine and fresh air. It was a lovely place to be. It was full of food and song along with the sounds and smells of metalwork."
"It was the dwarf town?"
"It was a town of Men and yet there were always a great number of dwarves here and I do not know if Men will return here," Thorin said. "We traded here, shared our wares with Men and elves and any that came to us. This was our way of displaying all that we have to be proud of as the dwarves of Erebor. Individuals would travel for days to visit us and ask for things to be made as we have always been the very best of smiths." Something dark settled over Thorin's face. "We have been forced, for a long time, to work for others, to lower ourselves below our skills and our worth," Thorin finished with a growl.
"Not anymore," Bilbo said. "Your mountain will be rebuilt and then folk with travel from all over Middle Earth for the wares of Durin's Folk."
Thorin smiled weakly as they continued to travel through the skeleton of the city. Bilbo could see places that had been cleared already, rubble and evidence of neglect disappearing in preparation for Thorin's eventual plan to rebuild the city. They slowly winded through the town and up the slopes, the walls around them that were still standing were burned black but Bilbo knew they would have been white once.
"If Smaug had never come here these walls would have stood into the Fourth Age," Thorin said. "My ancestors mined these bricks from our mountain, tended them with such care, and then traded to the men who chose to settle in the shadow of our Kingdom. The city was beautiful."
"You can make it that way again. There may be Men who choose to help. Bard may want to reclaim his ancestor's land as you did," Bilbo said, he wished he could do something to lessen the sadness that clung to Thorin and deepened with every step they took into the town. Bilbo knew there would be much to do before the Kingdom was rebuilt but the long road ahead of Thorin was now weighing down on the dwarf and Bilbo knew he could not do anything to help no matter what herbs and treatments he used. Bilbo hated being useless.
"Bilbo," Thorin said, yanking the hobbit out of his musings. "Do not worry, when my dwarves have all returned from the Blue Mountains we shall rebuild our mountain and this town quickly."
"Of course," Bilbo said.
"They are as anxious as I am to have their home rebuilt. Only a third of the dwarves I have left remember Erebor as it was but we will have our home again and no one will ever take it from us this time, not while I breathe."
Thorin looked fierce by the end of his speech and Bilbo watched him as they rode up the mountain ignoring the town around them. Then the dwarf stopped abruptly and turned to Bilbo with a look of utter glee. Bilbo followed his gaze to…the side of a mountain. Bilbo had never felt so small in his life. The side of the mountain was almost sheer and cut into it was a towering entry, the door before them was large enough to welcome a giant, the doors were closed, the face of them a rich, emerald green and covered in a swirling, beautiful mass of carvings.
"The doors are not carved for beauty," Thorin said and Bilbo realised the Dwarf King was now directly next to him. "They are there for protection, the first of three doors into the mountain."
Bilbo looked up, above the doors was a balcony, hidden by a half-wall and above that and to the side a number were other sections all designed to allow the inhabitants to look out over the city and the roads beyond for any visitor that could come for them.
"There are a lot of balconies in the wall," Bilbo said. "They must have an amazing view."
"They do, I saw Smaug coming from one of them. They provide a place for our archers to destroy any enemies stupid enough to think they could take the mountain but we could do nothing in the face of a dragon."
"They are for archers?" Bilbo asked. There were no such things in the Shire which had never seen a war.
"If we have to hold off an enemy all three of the doors would be barred and the archers would stand at those openings. There would be rows of them just in case and they would be the very first line of defence. What do you do in the Shire to protect your home?"
Bilbo turned in the saddle to look at Thorin. "We have never had a war. If someone came into your home without your permission you would tell their mother and they would get a thorough punishment from her. As you said when we met, I am not a warrior and there are no warriors in the Shire, or the need for any."
Thorin smiled. "That is a good thing; I do hope it remains so for all of the remaining days of dwarves and hobbits."
Bilbo smiled. "You are going to have to teach me, Thorin, since I looked at those strongholds and saw a very nice balcony."
"I will take you up there," Thorin said, "when I am a little stronger. There are many stairs between the hallways we will be entering and the very top of our mountain dwellings."
"I look forward to that," Bilbo said, and looked at the doors again.
"Though, if you would like you could ask Gani to take you," Thorin said quietly.
Bilbo turned to him again. "You will be too busy, I understand."
"No," Thorin said, quickly. "It is simply that you will have to wait until I can take you; though…I would enjoy being the one to show you."
Bilbo smiled at him. "Then I shall wait until you can take me. I want to see your home, Thorin, and there is no one better suited to showing it to me than you are."
"Come," Thorin said. "We will go inside; there is a bell next to Durin's feet."
"Durin's feet?" Bilbo asked startled away from Thorin's smile.
"Sit back and take in the whole wall," Thorin said, and suddenly Bilbo realised that there was a giant dwarf sentry on either side of the carved wall of the mountain.
"Oh."
"On the left is Durin I, the father of our line, on the right is Durin IV, who moved us to Erebor as our stronghold."
"I did not even see them."
"It is because there is much to look at, we should head inside though," Thorin said. "We have further to travel."
Bilbo nodded and watched as Thorin started riding for the door, before they were there a strange, loud whirring took over and the ground rumbled for a moment before the doors in front of them started to open. Bilbo pulled tight on his reins and sat to watch the great doors slowly, slowly creep open, they moved smoothly – probably controlled by some dwarfish engineering and Bilbo could see the darkness within slowly exposed to his eyes. There was a second set of doors behind them, Thorin had said, but they were still hidden in darkness. Bilbo realised that Thorin had stopped riding forward too, he was watching the door open with such joy and yet Bilbo thought he could see the gentle glisten of tears in his eyes. Bilbo found watching Thorin was much more interesting than watching the great doors open and when Thorin finally turned away from gates Bilbo dropped his gaze and he found the great doors open their very tips brushing the sides of the dwarf guardians. Bilbo could see now, a second wall, much like the first, with balconies for archers and another set of doors; much smaller than the first.
"The second doors are more intricately carved," Thorin said. "Since the outer doors have never been breached and we have less fear of them ever falling to destruction, the makers spent more time making them an example of their skill. Wait until you see the inner doors, they are beautiful, I have dreamed of them. In times of peace the two outer doors have stood open to all, allowing free entry to the great entry hall and the town outside."
"They survived the dragon?"
"This stone is resistant to fire," Thorin said. "But the day the dragon came the doors were open and he was able to strike us before we could close them. I shall have to look at them and see what we can do to improve them and protect our dwarves."
"Show me?" Bilbo said, hoping to change the subject.
Thorin smiled and started to ride for the door. When they made it, Thorin slipped from the back of his pony with a grimace and handed the reins to the dwarf that rushed out from one of the small rooms on either side of the open door.
"Sire," the dwarf said, with a small head bow. "I will organise your belongings to be sent to your room."
"Thank you, Salin," Thorin said, before he watched Bilbo get off his own pony and walk to Thorin's side.
When they were out of earshot of the guards Bilbo whispered at Thorin. "Are you feeling well?"
"I have waited many years to see my home again, I feel excellent."
Bilbo stepped close and followed Thorin towards the second set of doors which opened for them like the last. Bilbo was a little sorry that he had not been able to look at them up close but he assumed he would have more time to investigate the gates while he was in Erebor. Beyond the second doors was another pair, almost the same height but this set of doors was inlaid with gold and silver and Bilbo could see that the carvings depicted middle earth, the lonely mountain and the town outside large and prominent with carvings of the grey mountains and the blue mountains to the west with the sea beyond and the ash mountains below. Bilbo's eyes flicked to where the Shire should be but found nothing to mark his home, its omission made him feel homesick for the first time in days.
"The carvings are beautiful," Bilbo said, unable to pull his eyes from the blank stone that should be his home.
Thorin must have noticed where he was looking for he said. "The Shire is not on the door as the engravers only marked the strongholds of the Dwarven Kings."
"Oh no," Bilbo said, with a shake of his head. "I just…it made me miss home for the first time in days. It is nothing, how do we get in through this door."
"King Thorin," a male dwarf said, rushing over. "I was instructed to wait until you were ready before opening the final door."
Thorin looked at him. "You were told to open the doors for me."
The dwarf dropped his head. "As is fitting for our returning King."
Thorin smiled. "Open them when you are ready, Bak," Thorin straightened and suddenly Bilbo felt like he was seeing the King ready to greet his subjects in a way he had never seen before.
Bilbo smiled at Bak, who rushed into the guard room at the side of the small section between the two doors and did something that started the doors in front of Bilbo and Thorin opening. Bilbo alternated watching Thorin and the slowly opening doors before he looked at the gap between them and saw a sea of dwarves. Bilbo watched in surprise as the doors opened to reveal a great number of dwarves staring at Thorin until the doors were completely open and a great cheer rose up from the crowd. Bilbo turned to look at Thorin who was staring at his subjects with shock. Bilbo stepped away from him and down into the hall so that Thorin, King Under the Mountain, was standing before them all without an unknown hobbit standing beside him.
When Bilbo was standing with the rest of the dwarves Bofur came to stand beside him.
"He is home," Bilbo said, watching Thorin step down into the crowd to speak to his dwarves.
"We all are," Bofur said. "I have never known a home that was meant to be ours. I wanted to thank you, little Bilbo, for all of your help on the road, but mainly for saving Thorin."
"I am happy that I came on this adventure," Bilbo said, unable to stop watching Thorin as he stopped to talk to many dwarves as he stepped further into the giant hall. "I am very happy that I was here to save Thorin."
Bofur smiled down at him gently. "You care a lot for the King."
Bilbo looked down at his feet for a moment.
"I am glad," Bofur continued. "You would be very good for the King, I wish you all the luck in the world and if you ever need any help I can be found easily."
Bilbo bit his lip and looked at Bofur. "Dwarves…do they…he said that…I am."
Bofur clapped a hand to Bilbo's shoulder. "Bilbo, if the King has any sense he shall claim you for his own for all the rest of his days. One thing you must remember though, dwarves, once they chose their partner, remain together forever."
"I am a hobbit," Bilbo said, unsure.
Bofur grinned at him widely. "Why on earth would he care about that?"
"He is King…"
"And if he chose you, little hobbit, then he would be a very smart King indeed."
Bilbo blushed and changed the subject. "You know I am a quite respectable height for a hobbit and really no more than a head shorter than you."
Bofur laughed as he turned and walked away.
/ / /
I have been asked a number of times if Frodo is going to be joining this story and at the moment I am torn. I did a little research and he wasn't even born until 27 years after the beginning of The Hobbit so I would have to alter time (which I will happily do since I have a vague idea for getting rid of that ring) to have him a part of it and I wouldn't do it until after Thorin and Bilbo get together so…I am asking you for your opinions would you like to eventually see Frodo in this story?
Also, it's quite late so I apologise for any errors in my edit.
