Antics and Escapades
Bilbo leant back against Thorin and enjoyed the summer sun on his face. Light danced across his face, reflected by the scales of Rûkhuz's tail, as it twitched. The kit was growing well and was, according to his mother, a fine young dragon. According to Bilbo and Thorin he was a menace with bouts of good behaviour.
Thank the Valar that Bilbo had so many years experience with Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin and their pleading eyes, if he hadn't, who knows what damage Rûkhuz may have caused. Ori, Frerin and Lendarion were the least successful, when it came to denying those eyes. Gloín, Nori, Gimli, Estel (Aragorn) and Elrond held out the longest.
There was no denying that the clutch of kits were making life interesting.
Nearly a week after her hatching, Kibrîn caused havoc in poor Ori's life. She decided on her sixth night that she had to stay with the scribe, but not just Ori, she needed Dwalin there, too. The two ended up spending the night on a pallet in the Company's gathering room, neither of the dwarrow terribly happy, but with a delighted kit. While Dori was more than slightly scandalised, Thorin just reminded the Major Domo that if he and Bilbo Binding with a dragon was considered to be the same as a Marriage Bond then, the same applied to Ori and Dwalin. The fussy dwarf's reply of 'only if you agree that it's the same for Kíli and Tauriel as well as Legolas and Gimli', was received with alacrity by Thorin and Bilbo, but hesitation from Dís. The princess really wanted a formal wedding for her baby, Thorin consoled her with the knowledge that Fíli was working on his first Courting gift and had the consent of the dwarrowdam's only living relative, Daín's guard Kofté.
As for Lendarion? The orange-ish red female that his daughter called Rûnya, seemed to be a model of decorum. That was until Lendarion and Legolas were packing the elf's rooms in preparation for his family's return to Eryn Galen, four weeks old after the hatching. Clearing out the room that Senaria shared with Rûnya, the elf king and his brother found 4 dinner knives, a carving knife, 3 daggers, two blades without hafts and even one surgical scalpel. It seemed the fiery-coloured dragon liked blades. Lendarion was alarmed that all of these blades were found under his eight year old daughter's bed. Bilbo was of no comfort, he offered to teach the elfling how to use a small dagger, his premise for this was if the child knew how to handle a dagger, she was less likely to injure herself by incorrectly handling the blades stashed by the kit.
Marilla ran from Dís' ire on a daily basis. Frerin's Bonded had a hankering for Dís' hair-clasps and snuck into the princess' rooms every night, no matter how tightly the door was locked, somehow the kit still managed to break in and steal Dís' favourite clasp. It was obviously a game to the kit, because on the morning after Dís spent the entire night in the forges, making a near identical clasp, she offered a clasp to the kit as breakfast, but the kit feigned disinterest until Dís was eating. Then the kit, with as much stealth as possible, slid onto the chair beside Dís and with lightning fast reflex's stole the two clasps from the table, she was off the chair and out of the room, before anyone at the table realised she was moving, Dís after her, crying foul.
The blue male that Legolas and Gimli eventually called Scout, also had a taste for retrieving. Only Scout? He had a tendency to retrieve things that others misplaced. For days Ori moaned over having misplaced his favourite pair of knitting needles, it wasn't all that surprising really, given how much activity there was under the Mountain and on the road to Dale as those who planned to live in Dale worked on repairing the houses there. For three days, Ori moaned about his needles, Scout sitting diligently at his side seeming to listen intently, on the fourth day, he listened to Ori at morning tea and chirped reassurances at the dwarf. Suddenly he sat up straight and chittered at Ori for a minute before leaving the room in a very determined manner. Ori asked Gimli for a translation and Gimli's response startled the young dwarf. Gimli said that the chittering noise was what Scout made when he was asking if someone wanted something, which is why Gimli had said 'yes, please'. When the Company met for luncheon, on the table where Ori sat was a half made scarf, a bundle of yarn with his favourite needles push through it.
Over the next week, he retrieved Nori's favourite throwing knife (from Rûnya's stash), Estel's spinning top, Thorin's crown (the new one) it had slipped off Rûkhuz's neck and fallen into the unsorted part of the treasury and Rûkhuz diving after it had dislodged a huge amount of coins and buried both the crown and the kit, Rûkhuz took minutes to burrow his way out, much to Bilbo's panicked horror, thankfully the kit was unharmed, but certain he would be punished for loosing the crown. It took Bilbo a few minutes to explain that an accident was something that you didn't mean to do, but it still happened anyway. He wouldn't be punished for accidents.
Anzar could be found in the armoury on most days or, frequently, trying to tug a sword across the training grounds, he wasn't interested in anything other than swords or, on occasion, shields.
Buzrul was well suited to his intended Bond Line, if anyone turned from their horse or pony for more than a second, when they turned back, they often found the red dragon kit perched on the saddle. He liked nothing more than to drape himself across the rump of one of the huge draft horses Bard had purchased from the traders. The horses may have been skittish initially but quickly became familiar with the slinky red kit, he would spend hours winding his way through their legs. When one was injured by a falling rock when the parapet extension collapsed, Buzrul spent as much time with the stallion in the (nearly complete) animal building as Kíli would allow, crooning and humming whenever the carers were tending it.
Estel found Mahtar's stash of chess pieces only a few days before the travelling party were to leave. The poor lad had to stand up at lunch and apologise and ask Bilbo to help him made a sign so anyone missing pieces would know where to find them. Thorin made a chess set of pewter and silver with a dozen extra pieces and promised to teach the lad how to play as they journeyed south.
Peony brought Tari rabbits and small grouse each day until the priestess managed to get the kit to understand that Tari didn't eat meat. After that, for a few days Tari would find the kit watching everything prepared in their kitchen. Then Peony began to bring her person early season fruits, how the kit picked the fruit without breaking the delicate flesh was anyone's guess, she also kept bringing rabbits and grouse, but instead of giving them to Tari, they now went to either Primula, Esmeralda or Eglantine, whichever she saw first. She was very proud of feeding her hobbits.
Nukhda and Carmine would bring Gimris gems, the closer the stones matched their scales the happier they were. While Nukhda was not the smartest of the kits, Carmine probably was, but neither ever minded that each night after settling the kits, Nukhda in Gimris' bed and Carmine in her lovely nest-basket in the Company's gathering room, the dwarrowdam would give the day's gems to her father to be catalogued. On the days that Gimris took Nukhda out and about, Carmine would happily play with Halwâ and the children of the crèche.
Halwâ spent every day at the crèche, playing with the dwarflings and the human children. At any given point someone could look into the room and find her wrapped around a child, hanging from a shelf, romping between legs, bounding across tables, climbing walls or hanging from lanterns. When the children lay down for they naps or quiet time, Halwâ was usually in the middle of a puppy-pile of children, often the only part of her visible, was the tip of either a tail or a wing. When a child had to be taken to the infirmary, and let's be honest, injuries happen when children play, the kit would be running alongside until they got to the infirmary. Once in the infirmary she would sit up on her back legs to see the child, watching carefully as Óin treated the injuries before slithering up onto the bed and curling up as close as she could get to the child's head, crooning all the while.
Khalthâ might not have been all that large, but he made up for it in bravery. He was less than two weeks old when some bright spark, just arrived from the blue Mountains, decided that if some mates distracted Gloín, he could scoop up a flagon-full of coins. He didn't expect the kit to be any trouble, it normally stayed with Gloín and played in the tub of unsorted coins at his side, but Khalthâ's head lifted when he heard the sound of coins moving. He looked across the huge hall and with a screech that brought more than half a dozen more dragon kits down over balconies, swarmed across the piles of gold and grappling with the dwarf, other kits arriving and joining him, by the time the guards got to them the dwarf was completely encased in dragon kits, his arms and legs restrained. Khalthâ's tail twisted around the would-be thief's neck, his body and neck held out away from the dwarf's head, tendrils of smoke issuing from his mouth as he hissed. The dwarf and his three accomplices were happy to be lead away from the treasury, they were kept in the cells overnight before being given the option of returning to the Blue Mountains or of joining Daín's army. All four chose Daín's army.
Markhel, like his Bonded, loved weapons. If she saw a weapon laying anywhere unattended, she would take it to Fíli. It reached stage that Fíli like Estel, asked Bilbo to make him a sign, well, signs, he hung one on the wall in the communal dining area, he asked for (and got) a notice board beside Dwalin and Gimli's Guard office, where he put another sign, a third sign was on a wall in the marshalling yard, where riders gathered before leaving the Mountain and the last was posted on a notice board in Dale. The prince kept all Markhel's trophies in a large basket beside his desk in Thorin's office, the king would often see the kit bring another dagger or axe into the office and drop it straight into the basket, without Fíli even noticing. If she wasn't stealing knives she was cuddled up to Bahîth or playing tag with the young mountain lion, the two so close, they slept with the kit tucked up under the lion's chin or with the kit's tail gently looped around the lion's paw or neck. Sometimes the kit could be seen riding on the lion's back, stretched out, her head resting between the lion's ears, her body perfectly aligned with his.
The last thing Tauriel did every evening before leaving the animal building, was to check the name tags on all the stalls and cages, corresponded to the treatment folders kept in a basket on the door of the stall. Sabâs would remove the folders from the doors and bring them to the carer's desk. Kíli had Bofur make some timber-framed slates that bolted to each door, too, but this only had the name and species of the animal, nothing about it's injury or treatment, this was in the treatment folders, one for each patient, the same as Óin did in the infirmary.
The elf had noticed that many of the animals in their care would be much calmer if Tláli was around and this had not changed once Tláli Bonded with Galâm. In fact the larger animals would remain restless until the blue kit arrived each morning, with or without her dwarf. Once she'd arrived, Tauriel and Kíli could begin the morning's treatments, on the few days that the kit didn't join them, they struggled to see to many of their injured.
Askâd might have been the smallest of all the kits, but more than made up for it, he had no sense of fear. The tiny kit could often be seen hanging from balconies, leaping from one broken landing to another and scrambling into semi-blocked passages. The only time someone tried to push Nori's daughter out of their way the kit climbed the offender and tore of part of his ear. Since then people were polite with any child, especially as Thorin refused to compensate the injured dwarf, stating that children were their most precious resource and should be cherished, that there was little difference in pushing a child away to pushing a child over. The dwarf was lucky not to have been charged with attempting to harm Zeri.
Tilda and Sigrid spent most of their time working in the animal building, they weren't able to much in the way of treating injuries, but instead made up medications, rolled bandages, cleaned stalls, filled in notes, but in all this they left the comforting of the injured to the dragons. Honey, Galâm and Sabâs made their rounds alongside Tauriel and Kíli, snuggling horses, Rams, an Eagle and a multitude of smaller animals. The canines and felines had not qualms nuzzling the kits, while the birds were a little standoffish. On the few times the girls visited Dale to observe the progress there, the kit would follow, leaping from rock to rock, climbing walls and bounding across roofs. Like Askâd, Honey had little sense of fear.
Rûkhuz was without a doubt the ringleader when it cam to the kits. Khalthâ may have raised the alarm in the treasury, but it was Rûkhuz that orchestrated the capture of the dwarf and it was Rûkhuz that stayed outside the cell (until Bilbo came to collect him) hissing and growling. He could frequently be found with Askâd delving into tunnels or helping Anzar carry swords. Bilbo suspected that it was Rûkhuz that showed Marilla how to get into Dís' rooms, and Thorin had seen their kit and Scout chittering at each other and the king firmly believed that his Bonded was telling the other exactly where he could find a missing item. Balin and Tevrin had spotted Rûnya and Rûkhuz eyeing off daggers or knives only to hear later that someone was missing that particular dagger or knife.
Bilbo was glad that, besides Rûkhuz, only seven kits were going to be travelling south with them, Sabâs, Marilla, Scout, Mahtar, Buzrul, Anzar and Carmine, especially as Gandalf would be travelling with them. The wizard had arrived and within minutes he'd been mobbed by the kits, but they weren't interested in the wizard at all, oh no, all they wanted was to touch their snouts to the crystal hidden in the wizard's staff. When asked, Smaug said it was because the crystal buzzed and gave them a tingly, happy feeling, she said that Rûkhuz compared it to when Bilbo and Thorin cuddled with him before bed. It made him want to purr, like Bahîth. Wherever the wizard went he had kits tailing him. It wasn't until evening that the kits suddenly deserted the wizard and went looking for their Bonded people.
Two days south of Lendarion's Halls, Bilbo found himself looked forward to seeing Lothlorien, Rohan and Minas Tirith. Galadriel was the only elf that Bilbo had spoken to that knew, first hand, anything about the original dragons. Hopefully she would be able to tell them more and identify any major differences between their kits and what the dragons had been. Thorin hoped that travelling with Smaug would keep the kits mischief at bay for a while, he also was looking forward to the kits seeing Beorn, who was meeting them where the Old Forest Road left the Woodland Realm. The skin-changer had no idea what he was in for.
Rûkhuz = mischief maker {Bilbo and Thorin} blue male
Marilla = pearl {Frerin} blue female
Markhel = shield {Fíli – personal and eventual line bond} blue female
Sabâs = spice {Kíli and Tauriel - personal and eventual line bond} red male
Kibrîn = beastie {Dwalin and Ori} red female
Halwâ = sweetie {Mírtja and Óin – line bond} blue female
Khalthâ = sky blue {Gloín's and Bírzel} blue male
Askâd = shadow {Nori and Zeri - line bond} blue male
Scout {Gimli and Legolas} blue male
Honey {Bard – line bond} red female
Runya = red flame {Lendarion – line bond} red female
Anzar = steward {Anzar's going to Misas Tirith – line bond} blue male
Buzrul = of the plains {Buzrul's going to Rohan – line bond} red male
Mahtar = warrior (Estel – Aragorn} red female
Galâm = sparkles {Tláli) blue female
Nukhda = colourful {Gimris} blue female
Carmine {Dol Amroth – line bond} red female
Peony {Tari Foxglove & Temple-Smial – line bond} red female
