Chapter 14: Moving In
Author Note!
Good News Everyone! I uploaded two chapters today! Aren't you lucky? They are a total of 5,431 words. I have to split them up because they just didn't fit together well, but I had already written everything. So make sure to read 14 and 15 because they are both new.
Thank you for reading please leave a comment or favorite or just send me warm fuzzy thoughts!
PS keep an eye out for the creepy POV... they are going to be coming up a lot! bwahahahahah
Chapter 14
"I am going to miss you so much!" Legolas was crouched before her so she could give him a proper hug.
"Billa, I will only be a few days away, should you have need of me and you may send me a raven at any time." He pulled back from her embrace to look down on her fondly, "The Greenwood will always be open to you, Billa Mountain Mother." He dropped a kiss on her brow before mounting his horse next to Thranduil and with one last look they began their journey back to the Woods. They had stayed for the Coronation and after a day of recovery the last of the Elves were headed back, to help keep trade flowing to the mountain residents and to combat the darkness that was still lingering in their lands.
"Come now Billa," Balin clasped his hand on her shoulder when the Elves disappeared beyond Dale, "let me show you home."
And while she knew it would be a strange place to get used to in comparison to her green shire, she couldn't help but feel at peace for the first time in a very long time. "Yes Balin, bring me home."
Home turned out to be a set of rooms in the royal wing, which was also housing the rest of the Company, the rooms weren't as luxurious as Bag end, but were far better than the tent city they had been staying in and even though her mattress was only filled with straw it was still a mattress.
"Just set your bag down in your room" Balin was showing her around their apartment "and I will teach you to use the water system."
A system which hadn't been ruined by Smaug's invasion and brought hot water from the deep mountain springs into every house in Erebor, the rest of the plumbing system had also been restored to many parts of the reclaimed mountain. Billa would be taking a long, hot soak tonight, something she hadn't had since Rivendell, a full six months prior.
"Now lass, get your jaw off the floor, I'm not done with the tour yet!" reluctantly Billa followed Balin from the bathing chamber and out into the hallway.
"Thorin's room is at the end of the hall and Fili and Kili have the one across from ours. The Ri brothers are at the end with the Ur family across from them, Oin and Gloin at the ones next to ours."
The only door left turned out to be a large communal meeting room that Thorin would be using to organize the reclamation efforts and to hold council meetings.
"Now let me show you the dining hall, we'll be taking our meals there for the winter and then I will show you to the library, where Ori is waiting to put you to work I am sure."
Billa's tour would take the rest of the day and by the time she and Ori had finished the mountain was quiet and still. Balin, who was still awake and reading reports by their living room fire, wished her a good night as she stumbled exhausted and dust covered, into her bed. Her sleep was deep and dreamless.
"Billa!" her head popped up from the stack of dusty tomes she was investigating, "Come see what I found." the excitement in Ori's voices was palpable.
She took off like a shot, searching through the many bookshelves that had been shaken or tipped during Smaug's invasion. She found her friend behind a dusty stack of books, each as thick as her waist.
"What did you find Ori?" she started wiping the dust from the tomes.
"These are the Ritual Tomes and Mahal's Edicts!" he was practically squeaking in his excitement. "They have all our festivals and rites recorded in them. These ones have our oldest laws and histories that were spoken by Mahal at our creation. Balin and I had hoped they would be intact, but they seem to need only a little restoration work."
"That's great, I think, but why are these so important? We already had the coronation and that went just fine. Aren't these rituals also oral knowledge?"
He tore his gaze from his book to look up at her, "Well, some of them are, the ones that we do every year or for weddings and births. But some of these are only done during royal weddings which haven't happened since Thrain was married and none of us were even alive for it."
"But Dis-?"
"But Dis" he interrupted her interruption "Didn't have a royal wedding, she married a miner of Ered Luin and even though Fili and Kili are Thorin's heirs, their Mother chose not to have a royal ceremony while we were in exile."
The mountain bell tolled the seventh hour of the evening, interrupting their conversation.
"Come on Ori, we can show these to Balin tomorrow. It's time to meet the others for dinner!"
Billa untied the cloth covering her hair and shook the dust from her apron before threading her arm through Ori's and heading off to meet their comrades for a warm meal and some beer.
"And then she said, 'You have to skin them first!'" Bofur's tale of the Company's evening spent with the Mountain trolls was a favorite of the Iron Hills dwarrow and people of Laketown and tonight with the Dining Hall warm and full of food the miner wove stories about the harrowing journey they took to reclaim their home. With Billa at his side and Fili and Kili acting out the parts of Trolls the people ignored the first snowstorm of winter that raged outside content and happy in their temporary lodgings. None of the Company noticing the gaze that followed their Burglar's every move.
Their cool gaze followed her movements from the corner, the way she threw her head back and laughed how she leaned on the disgusting Broadbeam's shoulder. They should not touch her. No one should touch her, she was their Amadel and she was so beautiful in the torchlight.