I'm thinking there's only one more chapter to go after this (not bad for a fic that was meant to be a two-shot...). Hope you enjoy, and thanks to everyone who's been commenting (and especially to the anon commenters who I haven't been able to reply to - your feedback means a lot!)
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The sky outside the hobbit hole was pale grey and almost featureless, and there was not a breath of wind to stir the air. Indeed, Hobbiton itself seemed to have subsided into a peaceful, almost somnolent state, for although Bilbo had opened the windows he heard few voices drifting up the hill, and those he did hear were calm and contented in tone, though as to the words, he could not make them out. As it was outside, so too inside, for aside from the mildly unpleasant conversation with Kili in the morning, the peace was unbroken by anything shocking or unexpected all day. Indeed, it was the quietest and least upsetting day that Bilbo could remember passing since his return - perhaps even since he had opened his door to Dwalin in the first place. Indeed, it was quite the sort of day he had imagined when he had thought of how he would bring his friends to the Shire, and all the good that it would do them.
And yet, despite the lack of incident, despite Bilbo's contentment and Fili's cheerful mood, there was still one thing that was not quite as Bilbo would have wished. For Kili, although he was not withdrawn as he had been in days past, seemed hung about by gloom, not deep and dark, but present nonetheless. He sat in his chair in the corner, and he answered when spoken to and helped with breakfast and second breakfast without hesitation or distress. And yet, he was not happy, nor yet even quite peaceful, and he did not move for himself all day, not even to look at his pictures. Even a visit by Esmeralda could not shift the cloud that enfolded him. The little hobbitling arrived in middle of the morning and, after an initial burst of enthusiasm, seemed somewhat subdued herself, though not in an unhappy way. Kili spoke to her without any more reserve than was usual, and listened to her read to him, and allowed her to sit on his knee and fuss with his hair. But he seemed somehow distant nonetheless, and when she left to go home for her lunch, he sank once again into silence, and barely surfaced from it for the rest of the day.
Well, it was rather vexing, to be sure! But nonetheless, Bilbo told himself that he should not worry overmuch. For after all, Kili had slept little, and sat up worrying half the night - and over the most foolish things, to boot - and then he had been given a great deal to think about very early in the morning, when he was no doubt still thinking about all the many things that had happened the day before. And what was more, he certainly had not been entirely pleased with the answers he had received that morning, for Bilbo's insistence that he must simply learn not to worry so much, and Fili's declaration that sadness was an inevitable and even necessary part of a life fully lived were both true enough, and yet neither was good news, or easy to hear. And so he let Kili be, and told Fili to do likewise when he began to fret about it, and thus the peace of the day was unbroken, though not untarnished.
Kili slept in the little guest room again that night, for although Bilbo was eager for him to rejoin his brother in the more comfortable room along the hallway, yet given his odd state all day, he did not feel the time was quite right to suggest it. And so Bilbo slept there, too, but this time he did not close his eyes until Kili fell asleep, for he wanted to ensure his friend would get at least some rest that night.
Sleep, alas, was not so easy to come by as Bilbo would have liked, for the inevitable nightmare made its appearance shortly after midnight, and this time was violent enough that Bilbo woke, too - although in fact, he had been sleeping rather lightly, feeling somewhat ashamed of himself for having let Kili sit up alone all the previous night. Kili, it seemed, was exhausted enough that he fell back to sleep only an hour or so after waking, but Bilbo found himself restless for a little while longer, staring at the ceiling and wondering how long it would be before he felt safe to sleep in his own bed again. So it was that when he awoke in the morning, he felt rather irritable, and was short with both Fili and Kili over breakfast, though his tired state was hardly their fault. As for Kili, he might have slept longer than Bilbo the previous night, but it did not seem to have dispelled his odd mood. All in all, it was a difficult start to the day, and so Bilbo was pleased to hear the little knock at the door that he had come to recognise as Esmeralda, for he felt they were all in need of something to lighten the atmosphere.
The little hobbitling beamed up at Bilbo when he opened the door. "Good morning, Mr. Bilbo!" she cried. "I've got a present for Mr. Kili!"
"A present!" Bilbo said, feeling immediately cheered. "Well, you had better come and give it to him, then, hadn't you?"
Esmeralda needed no more invitation than this, and squirmed past Bilbo's legs into the hallway - which, if her mother had been present, she would have received a scolding for - racing before him to the living room. "Mr. Kili!" she burst out as soon as she spotted her friend. "Mama has made you a dolly!" And she ran over to his chair and held up a rag doll, very much like the one that had been lost, but rather larger and with what appeared to be a luxuriant woollen beard.
Kili looked rather startled by this - indeed, although Esmeralda was a quiet child, relatively speaking, she had made her announcement at a volume that had left rather a ringing in Bilbo's ears - but after a moment he reached out and took the doll from Esmeralda's outstretched hand. It fitted his own hand much better than the previous doll had, and he turned it over and inspected it with interest. Bilbo came closer to see it himself, and Fili, too, leaned over from his chair with interest. It had dark brown woollen hair and button eyes, and both its hair and beard were braided here and there.
"I told Mama you were sad again, and she said you needed a doll, and she was sorry she didn't understand why before," Esmeralda said. "It's a dwarf!"
"Yes," Kili said, stroking the doll's beard thoughtfully. "It is dwarf." He looked up at her and held the doll out. "It is good doll, thank you Esmalda."
"Why are you giving it to me?" Esmeralda asked. "It's your doll!" She raised her little hand and pushed the doll back towards Kili.
Kili stared at her and then held the doll out again. "You ask back," he said. "I should give doll back. It is not right, keep doll."
Esmeralda looked quite confused by this, and Bilbo jumped in hastily. "No, Kili," he said. "You can keep this doll. No-one will ask for it back. That was a mistake that Begonia made, and she is very sorry."
Kili stared at him for a long moment. "I keep doll?" he said finally, as if he was not quite sure he had understood.
"Yes," Bilbo said firmly, and reached out, closing Kili's fingers around the doll. "It is your doll." Kili stared at him a moment longer, then nodded quickly and looked down at the doll. Bilbo smiled, for the little thing had an odd sort of fierce expression that was rather familiar.
"It looks like your uncle, don't you think?" he asked. "Maybe you should call it Thorin."
Kili glanced up at him with an expression of some surprise. "Thorin is he-dwarf name," he said. "Doll is she-dwarf."
"Oh, now!" Bilbo said. "You cannot possibly be able to tell such a thing!"
Fili leaned over, peering closely at the doll, then looked over at Bilbo.
"He is right, Mr. Baggins," he said. "It is certainly a she-dwarf."
Bilbo found himself briefly speechless, and Fili looked rather amused. "I do not believe you," Bilbo said finally. "You say these things only to make fun of me!"
But of course, it was not Fili who had first said it, and when Bilbo turned to Kili he found the little dwarf looking rather worried. "It is she," he said, holding up the doll for Bilbo to see. "Look."
"Ah, yes," Fili said. "I am sure my brother is playing a marvellous joke on you, Mr. Baggins. It is very much like him to do so."
This, Bilbo had no answer to, and so he simply made a disgruntled noise and sat down in his chair with a thump. "Well," he said, "if not Thorin, then what? She must have a name!"
Kili frowned at him. "Why not already doll have name?" he asked.
"Because she's brand new!" Esmeralda piped up. "Mama only finished her this morning."
Kili did not look much enlightened by this, and Fili leaned forward and touched his arm. "She is only just made, my brother," he said. "She is brand new, and so no-one has had time to give her a name yet. You must choose a name for her."
At this, Kili looked rather alarmed. "I not know name," he said, and then held out the doll to Fili. "You choose name, I not know."
"No, silly," Esmeralda said. "She's your doll, you have to choose."
Fili smiled and pushed the doll back towards Kili. "She is right, you know," he said. "You must choose."
Kili stared at him. "I not know name," he insisted.
"You should call her Poppy!" Esmeralda said. Bilbo tutted a little.
"Now, young Esmeralda," he said, "you must let Kili choose the name. And besides," he added, noting the rather pained look on Fili's face, "I suspect Poppy is not a very suitable name for a dwarf."
Esmeralda frowned and turned to look at Fili. "Poppy's a pretty name!" she insisted.
"Dwarf women are not named for flowers," Fili replied. "It is not our way."
Esmeralda's frown grew deeper. "Well, what are they named for, then?" she asked.
"They are named for battle, or the forge, or the glories that Mahal has given to us," Fili said.
"There are no flowers in dwarvish kingdoms," Bilbo added. "They are all underground, you see."
"No flowers!" Esmeralda cried, looking entirely horrified. "Are there no flowers in your garden at home, Mr. Kili?"
Kili seemed to be having some trouble following the conversation. "I not have garden," he said after a moment's hesitation. "Home is mountain. No flowers in mountain."
"And so dwarf women are not named after flowers," Bilbo said hastily, for he had enough experience dealing with Kili to be concerned that this conversation might be heading in a difficult direction. "Dwarves are different from hobbits, Esmeralda, certainly you already know that."
Esmeralda looked quite put out for a moment, but then she brightened. "I am named for a stone," she declared, turning back to Fili now. "A pretty green stone, not a flower at all!"
Fili smiled at her. "That you are," he said. "It is a good name. A dwarvish woman could certainly bear your name and be proud of it, if only it were translated into our language."
Esmeralda puffed up her chest at this. "I could be a dwarf woman!" she cried, turning to Kili. "Couldn't I, Mr. Kili?"
Kili regarded her seriously for a long moment. "You not have beard," he said finally, and then reached out and turned her head, pushing her hair back from her ears. "Ears are wrong," he added. "Hobbit ears."
"Maybe I can grow a beard when I get older," Esmeralda said, and Bilbo had the horrible feeling she would be going back to her mother telling tales of how she would one day grow the mightiest beard in all the seven kingdoms of Durin. He cleared his throat sharply.
"Well, but what are you going to name the doll?" he asked, hoping to steer the conversation in a direction less likely to bring Begonia's wrath down upon him. But Kili only hunched his shoulders and shook his head.
"I not know name," he muttered. "How I can know name?"
"Oh, it's easy!" Esmeralda cried. "You just look at her and see what she looks like!"
Kili pondered this for a moment, staring at the doll. Then he looked at Esmeralda. "She look like doll," he said. "Dwarf doll."
"No, see," Esmeralda said, and pointed at Fili. "He looks like Mr. Fili. It fits him. Doesn't it fit? And Mr. Bilbo looks like Mr. Bilbo! If he was called Mr. Fili it would be all wrong!"
Kili stared at her in puzzled silence, but Esmeralda seemed quite happy to be stared at, sticking her fingers in her mouth and staring right back. Finally, Kili looked away and Bilbo stood up.
"Well," he said, "certainly you do not have to decide right away. It is not easy, when everyone is looking at you! But now, it is a beautiful day - shall we go and sit outside?" But then a thought struck him, and he turned suddenly to Kili. "Or - would you like to go for a walk?"
This was something of a risk on Bilbo's part, for of course Kili was still in a strange sort of mood and perhaps not quite as robust in his state of mind as he might have been. But on the other hand, the little dwarf had stirred from the immediate environs of the hobbit hole only twice since his arrival in Hobbiton, both times at night, and neither expedition had ended particularly well. he had seen nothing of the gentle green land that Bilbo loved so dearly, and that must surely have a healing influence, and now that he seemed mostly recovered from the shocks of the last days, Bilbo decided that it was high time for that to change.
Kili looked mildly confused. "Walk?" he said. "Where walk?"
"Oh, wherever we feel like walking!" Bilbo said. "We will just follow our noses and see where they lead us."
This pronouncement seemed only to increase Kili's confusion, and in fact, he quickly began to look rather worried. Bilbo shook his head and smiled.
"Oh, come now, master dwarf," he said. "It is nothing to be troubled over. It is only a walk! I know you know how to walk." And he took Kili's arm and tugged on it until the little dwarf came to his feet.
"I know where the best mushrooms are!" Esmeralda announced. "Do you like mushrooms, Mr. Kili?"
Kili stared at her, still looking rather upset, and Fili jumped to his feet and quickly took her hand. "Come then," he said to her, "let us go and find a basket." And he pulled her firmly from the room, leaving Kili and Bilbo alone.
"Well," Bilbo said, "I think a walk will do you good. You have been rather out of sorts, after all."
Kili's mouth twitched, but he nodded. "Yes," he said. "I walk."
Bilbo smiled. "Splendid!" he said. "Well, let us go, then, before the weather turns!" And he turned to leave, glancing behind him to see that Kili was following. But Kili had stopped by his little table, and now he tucked his doll into his pocket and scooped his pictures into his arms, holding them with great gentleness. Bilbo paused and frowned at him.
"I don't think it is a good idea to take your pictures," he said. "Why, they might get muddy or torn, and I know you do not want that."
Kili stared at him, unblinking. "I should leave pictures?" he said after a long pause.
"Yes," Bilbo said firmly. "You should leave the pictures."
Kili looked most reluctant to do this, but after a moment during which he was apparently wrestling with himself, he laid the pictures carefully down. Bilbo, watching this, came swiftly to the conclusion that whatever was upsetting Kili must be dealt with before they went out, and he went back over to him and put a hand on his arm.
"You can look at the pictures when we come back," he said. "Surely you can bear to be parted from them for a few hours?"
Kili looked sharply at him, and then the trouble in his face dissolved into an expression of great relief. "We come back?" he said.
"Of course we are coming back!" Bilbo cried, and then he suddenly understood what it was that was causing Kili such distress. "Oh, no, master dwarf, you have misunderstood entirely!" he said. "You do not - do you not understand what it means, to go for a walk?" And as he said it, he went back in his mind over the last year, and came to the conclusion that, although Kili had walked around in Beorn's garden, and in Erebor, he almost certainly had never had this particular idea explained to him.
"Yes, I understand walk," Kili said. "Yes. I know this."
"Yes, yes, I know you know walk," Bilbo said, "but do you understand go for a walk? It is rather different, you know."
Kili's lack of comprehension was made clear by his puzzled frown. "Different?" he said. "It is walk. How is walk can be different?"
"Well," Bilbo said, and then paused and thought a moment. "Well, when you go for a walk, it is not because you have a particular place you want to get to. It is walking only because walking is enjoyable, and because it is good to be outside and to see the world. You walk out from your house, and you come back to your house, and in the meantime perhaps you visit somewhere in particular, but perhaps you only wander through the countryside. It is quite different from walking to go somewhere, as we did when we walked from Erebor to the Shire."
This seemed rather difficult for Kili to understand. "Why walk, not go somewhere?" he asked. "Go back same place? Why do this?"
"Hm," Bilbo said. "Well, do you remember when we were in Erebor and I told you all about the Shire? I told you of the woods and the fields and the little birds. And how do you think you could see those things, then, if you did not go for a walk? There are many lovely things to see, not to mention it does one good to get out of the house." He paused, and then added, "It is a kind of hobby, I suppose."
"Hobby?" Kili said. "Like Ori draw?"
"Yes," Bilbo said. "It is just like Ori's drawing. He draws only for the pleasure of it, and we will walk for the same reason."
Kili did not look entirely convinced that walking could be something done for pleasure, but he nodded his head. "Yes," he said. "Go for walk is hobby. I understand." He glanced quickly at his pictures, and then back at Bilbo. "It is good, we not leave Shire," he said quietly.
Bilbo beamed at him. "Well, I am very glad you think so!" he said. "Come on, now. Your brother is waiting."
To begin with, they walked through Hobbiton, but it quickly became clear that this was not an ideal route for them to take, for every hobbit they met - and it seemed most of the village was out and about, with the weather being so glorious - hastened towards them with a smile, eager to finally meet the two dwarves who had been the main subject of gossip since they arrived, and even more so since the rescue of Esmeralda. All were effusive in their thanks, patting Esmeralda on the head and introducing themselves with great enthusiasm. The little hobbitling herself preened under all the attention, and Fili smiled and bowed and declared himself at the service of all and sundry, but Kili quickly became tense and nervous, and began to garble his words and hide his face behind his hair. After the Bolgers ran up unexpectedly from behind them, causing Kili to stumble back in alarm and glance around as if considering whether to bolt entirely (though both Bilbo and Fili caught hold of his arms before they could discover whether he would have done so or not), Bilbo declared that it was altogether too crowded, and they turned their steps away from the hillside and the river and towards the open fields and patches of woodland that lay to the north. And if they walked rather more briskly than was pleasant, and if Fili swept Esmeralda into his arms so that she did not slow them down, well, all the hobbits who saw them go would no doubt think it was only some peculiarity of dwarves to always be in a hurry.
Once they had escaped the attention and busyness of Hobbiton, matters began to proceed much more pleasantly. Kili quickly lost his hunted look, and listened with deep concentration to Bilbo as he explained all the flowers and birds that they saw, and told gentle stories of things that he had seen or done in this or that field or copse. Esmeralda, too, had a great many things to say, and divided her time between chattering away to anyone who would listen (but mostly to Kili, of course) and skipping off by herself to look for mushrooms. Whenever she found them, she would come running back and take Kili by the hand, and the whole party would follow her lead, so that after a while their basket was becoming rather full.
Mushrooms, as it turned out, were something that Kili already seemed to know something about. Bilbo began by trying to explain to him which were safe to eat and which were not, only to find that he knew all of them already, along with the berries they saw in the bushes, although of course he did not know their names in Common. So they passed a pleasurable time gathering, although it seemed to Bilbo that Kili contributed very little to the basket, for most of the things he picked found their way immediately into his mouth, and it was not until Kili reached for a spray of particularly luscious-looking red berries that Bilbo had to step in.
"Ah, not those, my lad," he said. "Those will make your stomach hurt."
Kili nodded. "Yes," he said. "Make hurt." He stared at Bilbo for a moment, as if unsure why he had spoken, and then reached out again for the berries, picking the spray and efficiently stripping the berries from it. Bilbo watched in some confusion, unsure what he might want with them if not to eat them, but then he raised the handful of berries towards his mouth, and it was only the fact that Fili jumped forward and grasped his wrist that stopped him from swallowing them. Kili stared at his brother, and Fili shook his wrist gently so that the berries scattered to the ground.
"Mr. Baggins says they are not good to eat, my brother," he said. "They will give you stomach ache."
Kili frowned at him. "Not bad hurt," he said. "Only hurt few hours."
Fili stared at him in astonishment, and Bilbo felt rather the same way, finding himself momentarily speechless. When he recovered, he shook his head in confusion. "But why would you want to eat them, then?" he asked. "Certainly they will not kill you, but that is no reason to eat something that is unpleasant and will cause you harm!"
Kili opened his mouth and then closed it again, looking suddenly enlightened. "Yes," he said hesitantly. "Not - not eat. Yes. I understand."
And Bilbo, thinking of how Kili ate everything that was given to him, even if he could not possibly be hungry, thinking again of those many years when he had undoubtedly had to survive on the shortest of commons, thought that maybe he understood, too. He patted Kili's arm and smiled at him. "Quite right," he said. "You do not have to eat anything that isn't nice to eat. And you certainly should not eat anything that will cause you pain! Not when there is good food in plenty to be had whenever you wish it."
At this moment, Esmeralda came skipping towards them, declaring that she had found a place were fairies lived and wouldn't Mr. Fili please tell a story? And so they all followed her, and they found themselves in a little glade which seemed indeed as if fairies might live there, for the grass was soft and green and dappled with little patches of sunlight, which danced whenever the breeze ran its fingers through the treetops, and little birds sang in the bushes all around as though it were the first day of spring, and not autumn at all. They seated themselves all four on a fallen tree, and Fili smiled at Esmeralda, and then at Kili.
"Well, and would you like to hear a story as well, my brother?" he asked.
"Snow story?" Kili asked hopefully, but Fili laughed and shook his head.
"I have told Esmeralda the snow story before," he said, quite ignoring the fact that he had told it to Kili, too, more times now than Bilbo could keep track of. "I'm sure she would like to her a different one."
"Can you tell a story about Mr. Kili when he was as small as I am?" Esmeralda asked, bouncing off the log in her excitement.
"As small as you?" Fili asked. "Why, that is very small indeed!" And he smiled again at Kili, who was looking rather as though he did not believe he had ever been as small as Esmeralda. "Hm, well, let's see. Oh, when I was seventeen and Kili was twelve - he was as small as you then, and I was not much bigger - our Uncle Thorin took us to the market."
It was a tale well told, and well chosen, too, for although it had drama of a sort, as the high-spirited dwarflings got themselves into various scrapes while their long-suffering uncle sought them high and low, it was the kind of drama that was well-suited for the ears of a little hobbitling, not to mention those of a dwarf who had seen quite enough of more violent kinds of events. Both of them listened with rapt attention, and Bilbo, too, found himself quite enchanted, not only by the appearance of Fili and Kili in the story, but also by their story-uncle, who was ten feet tall and had a voice like thunder, and who tore his beard in frustration as he was once again outwitted by his lively nephews. It was a side of Thorin that Bilbo had never really thought about before, and he felt oddly privileged to be allowed this glimpse into what it might be like, to grow up with such a dwarf as your uncle and guardian. Had he been asked before the story began, he might have shuddered and said he did not even wish to imagine it; and yet, as the tale progressed and Thorin at last found his nephews and took them in his arms with the greatest tenderness (before, of course, subjecting them to a lecture that was enough to make their ears turn black), he thought perhaps - well, perhaps it might not have been so very bad.
The story thus left both Esmeralda and Bilbo in a cheerful mood. But on Kili, it seemed to have the opposite effect, for the malaise that had had him in its grip for two days now - and which had shown some signs of lifting during their walk - seemed suddenly to wrap itself around him again, and he sat on the fallen tree and frowned at nothing and seemed most unhappy. After a little while, it became clear that this state of affairs was not going to improve no matter how much Bilbo and Fili tried to cheer him up and no matter how many flowers Esmeralda brought him, and so Bilbo got briskly to his feet and declared that it was time for them all to go home - and that Esmeralda should go to her own home, and not Bag End, for her mother was no doubt wondering where she was.
Home, though, did not seem to lift Kili's mood, even when Bilbo put his pictures in his lap, and it was a quiet and rather dull party they made for lunch. Afterwards, when Bilbo was washing the plates, Fili came into the kitchen and leaned against the table.
"Mr. Baggins," he said, "something is troubling my brother."
Bilbo rinsed the last plate, set it to dry, wiped his hands on a tea-towel, and then turned to give his full attention to Fili.
"It does rather seem that way," he said.
"I think - I think it is not only what we spoke of yesterday," Fili said. "I think there might be something else."
Bilbo nodded, for he had been coming to the same conclusion as he did the washing up (he always found that the sink was an excellent venue for having a good think). "You may be right, my lad," he said.
Fili looked quite relieved at this. "Then you will talk to him?" he asked.
Bilbo opened his mouth to say certainly I will, but then it occurred to him that this might present something of an opportunity. For although Fili had been a great deal improved in the last days, Bilbo had not forgotten the bitter jealousy and despair he had expressed while ill and half-delirious, and he knew that it was not enough simply to try and bring things back to the state they had been in before - that they must be improved, and improved a great deal. So he did not say certainly I will, but instead something else entirely.
"I, talk to him?" he said. "Why should I talk to him, when it is you who is so concerned?"
Fili frowned at him in some confusion. "You do not mean you think I should talk to him, surely?" he asked.
"And why should I not mean that?" Bilbo said. "You are his brother, after all, and I know your tongue works perfectly well, though I will admit that you have used it to say many foolish things in the last week or two."
"We have talked about this," Fili said, shaking his head now. "I do not know how to speak to him as you do. I only ever make things worse."
"Perhaps we have talked about it," Bilbo said, "but I certainly never agreed with such ridiculous sentiments. And you act as though I was an expert in difficult conversations with unhappy dwarves from the moment you came to my door last year! I assure you, I did not know how to speak to him to begin with, either, and most frustrating it was to learn! But if I can learn it, then you certainly can."
Fili did not look very sure that he could, and Bilbo took his arm insistently. "Now, look here, master dwarf," he said, "how will it be when you go back to Erebor without me if you cannot even talk to your brother about the things that trouble him? Do you think he will be quite recovered by then, and no longer need your help?" (Bilbo, of course, had no plans to allow Fili to take his brother back to Erebor alone, but to mention that would have been contrary to his purposes at that moment, and so he kept his peace.)
"Of course not," Fili said. "But it is many months until then!"
"All the better to start now, so that you have a great deal of time to get used to it!" Bilbo said. He patted Fili's arm. "I rather think your brother is not the only one who needs to practice some things," he added. "Now, come along! The longer you wait, the longer your brother will be out of sorts."
And he took Fili by the arm, and led him through to the living room, for he still seemed rather reluctant to go by himself. Once they were there, though, he seemed to accept the challenge Bilbo had presented him with, and he squared his shoulders and pulled his chair round until it was facing Kili where he sat in the corner. Bilbo pulled his own chair so that it was nearby, though not too near, for he did not wish it to be too easy for Fili to pass the conversation over to him.
Fili sat a moment with his hands on his knees, and Kili regarded him with mild curiosity, until at last he spoke.
"I have a question to ask you," he said.
Kili waited, but when it seemed Fili would not speak on, he nodded uncertainly, glancing at Bilbo.
"Yes," he said. "You ask."
Fili seemed briefly speechless, but then he drew himself up a little. "Something is troubling you," he said. "I would know what it is."
This seemed to rather confuse Kili. "You know what it is?" he said. "What it is?"
"No, that is not what I-" Fili started, and then shook his head. "I mean to ask you what it is," he said. "Will you tell me what is the matter?"
Kili stared at him for a moment, then abruptly looked away. "No there is matter," he said. "Nothing is matter."
"Yes, there is," Fili said. "Something is the matter. Will you not tell me what it is?"
"No matter," Kili said again, though his voice had become rather muffled, for he had dropped his head and his hair was falling across his face. "Only I am tired."
Fili shot Bilbo a helpless glance, and the look on his face seemed to suggest he was already on the verge of giving up. Bilbo leaned over and patted his arm, but did not come to his rescue, instead nodding his head in Kili's direction and raising his eyebrows in a rather pointed manner. Fili stared at him, his expression despairing, and he shook his head vehemently.
"Oh, now," Bilbo murmured. "He is your brother. Of course you know how to speak to him."
Fili stared at him a moment longer, but then a look of determination came over his face, and he turned back to face Kili. Still, it was clear that he was not quite sure how to proceed, and he simply sat for a little while and watched his brother, who watched him back from under his hair. Finally, though, Fili spoke.
"I know you, my brother," was what he said. "I have known you since before you were born. I have known you all the days of your life, and until the orcs took you from me, there was not a day you lived that I did not see your face. You may not remember those days, but I do." He leaned forward and took up Kili's hand between his own, and this - or perhaps the words, or perhaps a combination of the two - had Kili raising his head and staring at his brother. "I know you, brother," Fili repeated, "and I know that something is making you unhappy. Please, I ask you only to tell me what it is. Tell me what it is, so that I can help you."
He stopped speaking, then, and only sat, holding his brother's gaze and pressing his hand. There was silence for a long moment, but then Kili shook his head and looked away.
"You can not help," he said.
"How can you know that?" Fili asked. "You cannot know, unless you tell me what it is. And if I cannot help, then I will stand at your side, and suffer it with you, for that is what it is to be a brother."
Kili glanced briefly up at him, frowning as if he had not considered this side to being a brother before. But still he was reluctant, and he shook his head once more.
"You not like hear," he said. "It is not good thing."
Fili looked apprehensive at this, but he set his jaw and squeezed Kili's hand. "I would rather hear the worst than imagine it," he said. "Do not leave me to wonder, I beg of you."
Kili did not seem convinced by this, though, and he glanced at Bilbo with a worried frown, and then looked back at Fili. "You not leave?" he said.
Now it was Fili's turn to frown. "Leave?" he asked. "Why would I leave?"
Kili's mouth twitched. "You ask me before," he said. "Ask water. I said you water, said you orcs game. You leave. You did be ill. I should - I should not told you."
Realisation dawned on Fili's face, and he sat back in his chair, letting go of his brother's hand and running his own hand over his mouth and chin. "No, Kili," he said. "That was not your fault. That was - it was a mistake I made. I should not have asked you. I thought I was ready to hear it, but I was not. I was not ready." He leaned forward again, looking steadily into Kili's eyes. "I am ready now. I am ready now, my brother, I swear it."
There was silence for a moment. Kili sat watching his brother, and Fili allowed himself to be watched, and did not look away. At last, Kili looked at Bilbo, as if to see what he thought of the matter. Bilbo, of course, did not speak, for he was determined to stay out of the conversation altogether if he could, but he smiled. This, it seemed, was enough, for Kili turned back to his brother.
"You not leave," he said.
"I will not leave," Fili repeated solemnly.
Kili nodded cautiously. "I forgot things," he said, and then glanced quickly at Bilbo, his face full of trouble. "I forgot many things."
Fili waited a moment, but when it seemed that Kili would not speak further, he nodded. "Yes, my brother," he said. "You have forgotten many things."
"Not before orcs things," Kili said. "I forgot - I forgot after orcs things." He half-ducked his head, seeming to be wrestling with the urge to hide himself. "Many things," he muttered.
"What kind of things?" Fili asked, shooting Bilbo an alarmed look. And indeed, Bilbo was sitting up straighter himself, now, for he had not anticipated this answer in the slightest.
"I forgot - uncle's name," Kili said. "It is Thorin, Thorin Thorin," he added, as if to himself. "Other dwarf names, also forgot. And - words, how say in past. Teach is taught, tell is told. All these I forgot."
Bilbo felt rather relieved at this answer, for of course he had known about all these lapses in memory already. Fili, too, seemed a little less worried. "But these are only small things," he said. "Anyone could have forgotten these things."
"No, it is more," Kili said. "I forgot - forgot father."
Fili shook his head, looking confused. "You never knew our father," he said. "He died before you were born."
"Yes," Kili said. "It is I forgot word. Forgot - not word. Forgot thing. I forgot father is thing. I know you did told me father."
"Yes," Fili said slowly. "I have told you about our father. I have told you more than once."
Kili nodded. "I forgot," he said. "I can not remember it."
Fili frowned, but now at last Bilbo could not longer hold himself back, for he remember the conversation to which Kili was referring, and there was a question he could not restrain himself from asking.
"But Kili," he said, leaning forward, "you told me you remembered. When you forgot the word, you told me you remembered Fili telling you about your father, and about what a father was."
Kili looked quite unhappy at this, and would not meet Bilbo's eye. "Yes, I tell you this," he said. "It was not right."
"What do you mean, it is not-" Bilbo paused, frowning in incredulity. "Do you mean to say you lied to me? That you deliberately told me something you knew was not true?"
Kili still did not look at him. "It was not true," he whispered.
Well! Bilbo sat back in his chair in some astonishment. Certainly, Kili had often avoided telling him all the details of something they were discussing, or in many cases refused to discuss it at all, but Bilbo could not recall another occasion on which the little dwarf had outright lied. Or at least, he realised with a sinking heart, there were no other occasions that he had found out about.
"But-" he said, and his voice came out rather louder than he expected, causing Kili to flinch away from him just slightly. Bilbo stopped speaking immediately, and sat silent for a moment, feeling a mixture of guilt and betrayal. "But that is the only time you have lied to me?" he said finally, speaking in as gentle a tone as he could muster. "You do not lie to me often, my lad, surely you do not?"
Kili glanced up at him for the briefest moment. "Not often," he said.
Well, at this answer Bilbo felt the anger in him overcome the guilt. Really, it would not do! Perhaps if he had thought about it a little harder, he might have wondered why he was so very upset that Kili had lied - for after all, no-one tells the full truth all the time, though they may swear that they do - but he did not think about it harder, but only felt betrayed, and upset, and not a little annoyed. "Well, you should not!" he said sharply. "You should not lie, Kili. I know you know this, whatever those dratted orcs taught you."
Kili seemed to pull into himself a little at this admonishment, but his face assumed something of a mulish expression.
"You lie me," he said sullenly.
"I do not!" Bilbo cried. "When have I lied to you?"
At this, Kili looked up, and Bilbo was surprised to see something hard and bitter about the corners of his mouth. "You lie me food," he said. "You say food is best, I cook best food. It is not best. If I not should lie, why is you can lie me?"
"Well, that is quite different!" spluttered Bilbo. "I only did that because I wanted you to be happy. I did not want your feelings to be hurt! And besides, it was very good, for a first effort."
"Is not different," Kili said. "I also want you happy. This is why I say remember father. I know you not like I forgot things. It is same."
Bilbo opened his mouth to argue that it was not at all the same, but Fili laid a hand on his arm.
"Mr. Baggins," he said quietly. "You are upsetting him."
And indeed it was true, for Kili looked almost distraught, and he was gripping the arms of his chair so tightly that his knuckles showed white through the skin. At this sight, Bilbo's anger drained away, and he drew a deep breath and let it out in a sigh.
"Well," he said. "Well, it is done now, anyway. But my dear lad, I must ask you not to lie to my in future. I only wish to help you, and I cannot help you if you do not tell me the truth."
Kili stared at him, unblinking, and Bilbo quickly realised that, given the argument they had been having, his request was rather unfair. "And certainly I promise I will not lie to you!" he added hastily. "I shall be as honest as the day is long, and that's all there is to it."
Kili watched him for a moment longer, and then nodded, his hands loosening a little on the chair. "Yes," he said. "I not lie."
Fili, who had been looking steadily more upset throughout this conversation, leaned forward then. "Well, that is settled," he said. "But Kili, this business of you forgetting things - are there other things you have forgotten? How much - how many things?" His tone was urgent, and it was clear that Kili's untruths meant very little to him in the face of this more troubling problem.
For a moment, Bilbo thought Kili would not answer. But at last he drew a deep breath. "I not know," he said. "Many things, I forgot."
"What things?" Fili asked. "You must tell me what you have forgotten."
But Kili only stared at him, his expression growing rather incredulous. "How I can know this?" he asked. "I not remember these things."
Fili looked rather as though he had been slapped at this, and he gaped at Kili, for of course his answer was the only one that could make sense, and yet it did not help matters at all. And Bilbo, who knew the fear that lurked in Fili's heart that one day his brother might forget him once again, thought that perhaps this conversation was becoming a little much for his young friend, who after all had been bed-bound with gloom only days before, and decided that it was time he stepped in.
"Well, it cannot be anything very big, or we would have noticed," he said, patting Kili's arm, and then patting Fili's arm for good measure. "It is not good, certainly not! But it is not the end of the world."
Kili turned to him, looking quite miserable. "I not want forgot," he said. "Already forgot too many things."
"I know, my lad," Bilbo said, trying to sound cheerful, though it was no easy task. "But they are only small things. They are only small! And we will remind you when you forget, just as I did with the verbs. It is no great hardship." He smiled encouragingly at Kili, and then at Fili, who was still staring at his brother, apparently having been struck speechless.
"Things not stay," Kili said, and he lifted a hand to his head, pressing his fingertips against his temple, staring at Bilbo with something like despair in his eyes. "They not stay in head. Head is broken, things not stay."
Bilbo did not reply for a moment, for he was wrestling with a surge of pity, and he did not wish for it to show through in his voice. It was while he thus fought with himself that Fili leaned suddenly forward again, his face intent. "Your head," he said, and then "-the orcs - did they-" He stopped a moment, as if gathering himself, then plunged onwards. "Did they hit you about the head?" he asked.
Kili frowned at him. "Yes," he said. "Orcs hit head. Hit all places, head, back, chest. Also with feet. Orcs like hit."
"Yes, yes, that is all I wanted to know," Fili said hastily, holding up a hand. Then it seemed he was briefly overcome by his emotions, for his mouth snapped shut and he clenched his jaw, his hands curling into fists on his knees as he stared fixedly at the floor. But the moment passed, and he did not leave, but instead loosened his hands and breathed deeply through his nose, two long breaths, before turning back to his brother.
"It is something I have seen," he said. "Dwarves who have fought in many battles, who have suffered many blows to the head. They become forgetful, just as you are, my brother. They forget names, conversations, where they have left things. It is not unusual."
Kili stared at him, looking rather amazed. "Other dwarfs also forgot?" he asked.
"Yes," Fili said. "Other dwarves also forget. It is a mark of their great courage and strength, for it shows that they have survived blows that would have killed a weaker creature." He gazed steadily into Kili's face, as if willing him to believe in what he said. "It is because you are so strong," he said. "They could not kill you, although they tried."
Kili's mouth fell open a little, and it seemed he needed a moment or two to assimilate this unexpected information. But when the moment passed, he shook his head with a troubled frown.
"Other dwarfs forgot friends?" he asked.
Fili's face took on an alarmed expression once again. "You have forgotten your friends?" he asked. "Which friends have you forgotten?"
"No," Kili said, "I not - I not forgot friends. I am scared, forgot friends. Other dwarfs forgot friends?"
"Oh," Fili said, "oh, no. No, they forget only small things, just as you have. They do not forget who their friends and family are. It is only small things, things that do not matter."
"Yes, matter," Kili said, frowning at Fili. "Yes, forgot is matter. You think important. You always ask, I remember. Always ask. You not want I forgot."
Fili seemed briefly stunned into silence by this, and Bilbo felt rather guilty himself, for he, too, frequently asked Kili if he remembered things, and now he felt that perhaps that might have done more harm than he had imagined. But he did not intervene, and Fili quickly found his voice again.
"Of course I want you to remember," he said. "But it is not because - it is not because you mean less to me when you do not remember. It is not that at all. It is only that I remember when you were happy, and I wish you could remember that, too." He took up Kili's hand again, pressing it between his own. "I wish you could remember me," he said, very quietly.
Kili shook his head slowly. "I not remember," he said. "I know you. Know you now. You are brother."
Fili's troubled expression twisted at this, and Bilbo was not entirely sure if he would laugh or cry. But in the event, he did neither, but only bowed his head for a moment, as if wrestling with himself, and then smiled at his brother, though his eyes were rather too bright.
"I am your brother," he said. "Yes, I am your brother indeed. And no-one can take that from you, Kili. The orcs cannot take that."
Kili's expression darkened all of a sudden, and he scowled. "Orcs already take," he said. "Orcs take everything."
At this, Fili shook his head. "They have not," he said. "They have not taken everything. And these things - they are small things. We will remind you, just as Mr. Baggins said. When you forget something, we will remind you, that is all."
Kili's scowl did not fade. "If I forget again?" he said.
"Then we will remind you again," Fili said. "I will remind you. I will remind you a hundred times. A thousand." He reached out now and put his hands on Kili's shoulders. "I will remind you every day for the rest of our lives, if that is what is needed."
Kili's mouth fell open a little, but he did not speak, only staring at Fili with an expression that seemed somewhere between fear and hope. Fili stared back steadily, but Bilbo had come to know the emotional moods of his young friend rather intimately in the last few weeks, and it was clear to him that despite his apparent calm and confidence, he was fraying a little around the edges. Indeed, it had not escaped Bilbo that Kili had voiced the very fear that Fili himself had expressed not so very long ago - that he would forget who his loved ones were - and he had no doubt that Fili required a little time to recover from such a difficult conversation, and yet felt he could not while Kili was watching him. So, then, it was time for Bilbo once more to step in.
"Well, then!" he cried, leaping to his feet. "Once again you have been fretting over nothing, my lad. A little forgetfulness is quite to be expected! But come, you are rather out of sorts. Why do you not come with me to the kitchen, and I will show you how to make a cake. You would like that, would you not?" And he did not wait for Kili to answer this question, but instead took his arm and tugged him from his chair, for it seemed to him that Kili had spent far too much time with nothing to do but think since they arrived in Bag End, and too much thinking never did anyone any good.
"Come on, then!" he cried, towing Kili behind him into the kitchen, and not missing the grateful look Fili threw him. "Cake!" And he installed Kili on a stool by the table, and went to fetch some eggs.
When he arrived back in the kitchen, however, it was to see that Kili had begun to look gloomy once again. Bilbo sighed to himself - but after all, it was clear the poor little dwarf was beset by all kinds of worries, and so it was hardly surprising that he should not be cheered merely by a few words of reassurance. Yes, Bilbo decided. It was definitely time to make a cake.
"Now!" he said, sounding if anything a little overly cheerful and setting down his ingredients on the table. "We will need flour and honey, you see? And we will need eggs. The first thing to do is to beat the eggs." And he set a bowl down in front of Kili, and a basket of eggs at his elbow. "So, you break the eggs into the bowl," he said, and took up an egg, showing Kili how to do this. "Here," he said, putting a second egg into the little dwarf's hand. "You try it."
Kili looked doubtfully at the egg in his hand, then stood up and mimicked Bilbo's action. But it seemed his hand shook, or perhaps he was holding the egg too gently, for he dropped it and it landed on the tabletop with a crack. It did not smash entirely, but thick, slimy albumen immediately began to leak out across the wood of the table.
"Oh!" Bilbo cried. "Oh, dear. Well, it does not matter." And he was about to say there are plenty more eggs where that came from, but he did not, for Kili, who had been staring at the broken egg with an odd expression on his face, suddenly brought his palm down on top of it, crushing it entirely and sending yolk and white across the table in all directions.
Bilbo stared in astonishment, first at the mess on the table, and then at Kili, who stood frowning down at his hand. "What did you do that for?" he asked.
Kili made no answer, nor indeed any sign that he had heard Bilbo at all. Instead, he lifted his hand from the table and reached for the basket, picking up another egg. He made no attempt to break this into the bowl; rather, he smashed it down on top of the first, grinding the heel of his palm into the mess of eggshell. And before Bilbo could protest - although in truth he found himself quite speechless - Kili had picked up a third egg, and, with silent concentration, sent it the way of the first two. By now, the table was running with sticky, uncooked egg, and there was imminent danger that it would begin to drip on the floor. And yet Bilbo found himself frozen, unable to step in or even to speak, so transfixed was he by Kili's inexplicable actions. Kili, for his part, seemed to have forgotten entirely that Bilbo was there. Egg after egg found its end under his hand, and by the time he stopped - and he stopped only because there were no eggs left in the basket - he was shaking and breathing heavily, as if he had been running. But when the last egg cracked under his fist, Bilbo at last found his voice again, though when he spoke it was rather squeaky and not at all commanding.
"Master dwarf!" he said. "What are you about?"
Kili jerked, as if startled, and glanced up at Bilbo, looking momentarily confused. Then he looked back at the table, strewn now with fragments of shell and a spreading lake of congealing egg, which dripped in thick, slimy strands to a puddle on the floor below. His eyes grew suddenly almost comically wide, and he snatched his hands back from the table and stumbled backwards, mouth opening slightly and chest heaving as if he could not get enough air. He lifted his eyes once more to meet Bilbo's, and the look of pure terror on his face had Bilbo leaping forward, palms raised.
"Oh now, no, no, my lad," he said. "You are not in trouble. I am not angry! I will not punish you. Come now, come, you have known me now for many months. When have I ever punished you?"
Kili shook his head mutely, but he still seemed half panicked. His backwards motion was arrested when he hit the sink, and he scrabbled his sticky hands along it, staring fixedly at Bilbo.
"I am not angry," Bilbo repeated. "I am not angry. Do you understand me?" He took a step closer, and was gratified to see that Kili did not try and move away, but only stared at him, shoulders hunching as he struggled for breath. Bilbo took another step, and another, and then he was close enough to lay a gentle hand on Kili's arm.
"I am not angry," he said. "I will not punish you. Come, now, my lad, you must try to calm down." And he stroked Kili's arm soothingly, and murmured nonsense that came back again and again to I am not angry and I will not punish you. And after a while, it seemed the words had their intended effect, for Kili's breath seemed to come easier, and his shoulders slumped a little. At last, Bilbo took him by the arm and turned him around so he was facing the sink.
"Wash those hands, my lad," he said. "It will make you feel better." And he tutted a little - though very quietly - at the table, and at the wall by the sink, too, which Kili had managed to leave smeary handprints on. But there were more pressing problems than egg on the walls (although once upon a time, Bilbo might not have imagined that such a thing was possible), and when Kili's hands were clean, Bilbo found him a stool to sit on - though not at the table, for of course it was still a dripping mess.
"I am not angry, my lad," Bilbo repeated, "but I would like to know why you have done this. Why did you break all the eggs? Do you know why?"
Kili simply stared - but this was more or less what Bilbo had expected, for he was well accustomed to the effect that any kind of shock had on the little dwarf. And so he waited patiently, and wondered, and was determinedly cheerful, until at last Kili shook his head.
"I am sad?" he said.
Bilbo stared at him in some confusion. "Sad?" he said. "Why would being sad make you want to break eggs?"
Kili did not appear to know the answer to this question, and he began to look miserable indeed. Bilbo, though, was thinking of the revelations of the previous morning, of how Kili did not seem yet to quite understand some of the things he was feeling. And he though, too, of the dark mood that had hung over the little dwarf all that day and the day before, and the unusually vehement outbursts that he had produced while talking about his missing memories with Fili. And so our hobbit, being by now long accustomed to trying to understand his friend's thought processes, looked from the mess on the table to Kili's unhappy face, and began to think that maybe he understood.
"Oh," he said. "No, Kili, I do not think you are sad. I think - I think perhaps you may be angry."
Kili looked amazed by this. "Angry?" he said. "I not angry." But he glanced quickly at the table himself, and then at his hand, raising it and flexing it as if considering how it could have caused such a mess. After a moment of this contemplation, he frowned. "Why I am angry?"
"Oh, my dear lad," Bilbo said. "I think of all creatures on this earth, you have the most right to be angry." And he smiled and patted Kili's knee. "It is good. It is a good thing! It is not right for you never to be angry about what has happened to you."
But Kili did not look as though he thought it was a good thing - in fact, he looked quite distressed. "No," he said, shaking his head. "I not like. How I can be not angry?"
"Well," Bilbo said, and then stopped. In truth, he had little idea what the answer to this might be, for when hobbits are angry, they generally bang dishes about in the kitchen, or do some vigorous scrubbing, but Bilbo felt somehow that this would not help Kili. He thought for a moment, and then jumped to his feet.
"You stay there for just a moment, my lad," he said. "I will come back directly."
And he hurried from the kitchen into the living room, where he found Fili, looking mostly recovered from his earlier emotional exhaustion and sitting now in his chair warming his hands at the fire.
"Master dwarf," Bilbo said, "I need your help. Your brother is angry."
Fili looked up and frowned. "Angry?" he asked. "What have you done to make him angry?"
"I have done nothing at all!" Bilbo cried, rather put out that Fili should assume such a thing. "It is not me he is angry with."
"Then who-" Fili started, and then a look of realisation dawned across his face. "He is angry?" he asked, sounding faintly astonished.
"Yes," Bilbo said. "In fact, I think he might be quite furious, although he is fighting against it." He shook his head. "I rather think that we hobbits do not feel anger in the same way as you dwarves, and so I do not know what to tell him to help. What is it that dwarves do when they are angry?"
Fili sat up a little straighter. "We take revenge," he said, in a deep voice that was worthy of his uncle. Bilbo, however, was not quite as impressed by this as he might have been, had he been an impressionable young dwarf lad and not a slightly crotchety hobbit who had had quite enough of the theatrics of Durin's Folk to last him a lifetime.
"I see," he said, raising his eyebrows. "So I should advise him to find some orcs to kill, should I?"
Fili had the good grace to look mildly sheepish. "Well, if we cannot take revenge, then we go to spar, or to the forge," he said, and even as he spoke it was clear he realised how unsuitable both of these options were. But then his expression cleared. "Or sometimes-" he said, and then leaped to his feet, striding past Bilbo into the kitchen. Bilbo scurried after him, grumbling a little under his breath, and found him casting a contemplative eye over his brother.
"Yes," he said. "That will do quite well enough." He reached out and took Kili's arm. "Come, then, brother," he said. "We are going out?"
"Out?" Kili asked, glancing at Bilbo in confusion, though he came to his feet easily enough. "I not make cake?"
"You can make your cake later," Bilbo said. "For now, you are going out with your brother. I shall fetch your coat."
"He will not need it," Fili said, holding up his hand. He was already towing Kili towards the front door, and Bilbo hurried after them.
"Are you sure," he said. "It is getting rather cold outside."
"I am quite sure, Mr. Baggins," Fili said, and swung the door open.
Kili was looking rather confused by now. "Where we go?" he asked, glancing from Fili to Bilbo and back. "We go walk?"
"No, we are not going to walk, my brother," Fili said, with a strange sort of smile. "We are going to run."
Kili frowned at him. "Run?" he said. "Why run?"
"Because it will make you feel better," Fili said. "Are you ready?"
Kili did not look particularly ready. Fili, however, did not wait for an answer, but jogged a little way down the path and then paused, waiting. Kili stared after him and then looked anxiously at Bilbo.
"Go on, then," Bilbo said. "Your brother is waiting. Run!"
And after a brief hesitation, Kili did as he was told, loping down the path towards Fili. When he drew level, Fili started once more to jog, and then to lengthen his stride, so that in a few moments both dwarves were running with that even, ground-eating stride with which Bilbo was intimately familiar. In only a few moments, they turned the corner of the hillside and were lost to view. Nonetheless, Bilbo found himself staring after them for long enough that he was still doing so when Hamfast Gamgee arrived at the hobbit hole a few minutes later.
"Was that your dwarves I just saw pelting along the hill, Mr. Bilbo?" he asked.
"It was indeed," Bilbo said.
"Well, I'll be," Hamfast said, scratching his head. "My Ma, she showed me out of the window. Sent me up here to find out if something was wrong." He gave Bilbo a worried frown. "Nothing is wrong, I hope?"
"Nothing you need worry about," Bilbo said. "They are just running for the sake of it."
Hamfast's expression became somewhat incredulous at this. "Well, they are rather odd creatures, if you don't mind my saying so, Mr. Bilbo," he said.
"I do not mind at all!" Bilbo said with a chuckle. "Now then, since you have come all the way up here, why do you not come in for some tea?"
And he led Hamfast inside, and only paused once in the doorway to glance back to where his friends had disappeared into the soft green world of the Shire.