Okay guys! Next and final chapter is basically a showdown between Dis and Kayleigh. Ready the popcorn dear readers!
Also; public service announcement. 3instein Complex has done some beautiful, wonderful and amazing fanart! I just cry about it all the time. Seriously. Here is the link: .com (/) art/Kayleigh-Gallagher-Character-Sketch-371300872? q=gallery%3A3insteincomplex&qo=0
The people I love the most are:
Viper (well here if your answer! :)
Musje5 (PM me with any questions you have! I have a load of backstory to this that I haven't really gotten down here!)
Suheyla (It was so hard writing the parents! Like how could you suspect they'd act to it?)
Guestgirl (you are so welcome!)
Ari
3insteinComplex (I did mention Rivendell! I might do spin-offs. The Hangover - Middle-Earth style!)
volvagia09 (that is probably the greatest compliment ever!)
Ilya (read and find out my dear :)
I had basically missed all the good stuff! Bilbo, upon White Council telling him that his little magic ring was the One Ring, had taken it upon himself to cast it into the fiery chasm from whence it came! Now turned out Mordor wasn't uninhabited when Gandalf's eagles (who hadn't joined in the Battle of Five Armies) dared fly close enough to inspect it. However all they needed was, as Legolas so blithely put it in the films, a diversion. So the White Council battled the Necromancer in Dol Goldur, drawing it out and making it last so that Thorin's, Galadriel's and Aragorn's armies could make the distraction at the Black Gate. Kili had taken the place of Gimli in that golden trio by the way. Also Aragorn? Totally King of Gondor at the young, young age of thirty something. Apparently it had played out that he was stubbornly refusing but everyone harped on at him until Ecthelion stepped down from his role as Steward and refused to rule unless Aragorn took up the throne. So the year I was out of commission Aragorn trailed Ecthelion to learn how to rule and Arwen has done the becoming mortal thing. All I need to do is wait for Eowyn and Faramir to be born and all of my otp's will be complete! Somehow in the past year peace had fallen across Middle-Earth. The time of the elves was still fading but Elrond felt pretty chill about it considering the dwarrows and elves were beginning to put aside their differences, most races were united and the One Ring was destroyed. All jolly good but guess what guys. I'D MISSED IT ALL.
Worst of all I'd missed Bilbo taking his siesta in Mordor, coming back all weighed down with his experience (although not as bad as Frodo's might have been). I'd missed the super sweet way Thorin and Company had put him back together again. I'd missed the wedding, although thankfully not my own. The moment Fili had discovered Karnok was in my body, well her body, he'd taken out the marriage braid almost immediately. The previous plan had been that ours would be the second wedding in a reclaimed Erebor but the kibosh had been put on that obviously. I'd missed the rebuilding of Erebor. It's still going on though and will take absolute years to restore it to its former glory. Hopefully Bilbo's little hobbit contingency would stop there being any more gold fussing. Would any of you believe it if I told you that the Took side of Bilbo's family had taken it upon themselves to settle in some of the nearby hills of Erebor? They arrived for Bilbo's wedding because there would naturally have to be a hobbit wedding in the halls of the Lonely Mountain and decided to stay. Because the Men of Dale and Esgaroth and the Dwarrows of Erebor need folks of a sensible sort if they're ever to survive.
This brings me not-quite-so-neatly to why Fili, Kili, Leoglas and Karnok were travelling through Mirkwood-now-Greenwood. A couple of caravans were a week behind us as we went towards the Shire. This was basically to persuade some other hobbit families to join them in the creatively named Newshire. Bilbo had predicted that all would stay in the Shire although some of the Brandybuck's may be persuaded to visit. I didn't mind that so long as Primula Brandybuck and Drogo Baggins got their shit together and then all would be right with the world. Besides, even if no one came, then trade would be a wonderful thing to set up. Dwarrows had taken an unexpected liking to Bilbo's doilies and when he informed them that other hobbits were better at crafting them the demand for a trade link went that much higher.
This long bout of story-telling, which I have compressed into so many words for you, took us the rest of the night and all the day to Thrandy's palace. As soon as we rode in to his now thoroughly paradisal courtyard he shot one risen eyebrow look at me perched upon Fee's pony (like hell either of us were letting each other go for even five seconds after a year apart) and welcomed me back to Middle-Earth, "I am glad you have returned She-Dwarf." I didn't know whether to be flattered or insulted that he couldn't be bothered to remember my name, "You can fulfil our deal. Save Bilbo the other emissaries that Thorin sends are too boorish to bear."
"You know Thranduil, even though we only knew each other a limited time it would be nice of you to remember my name." Fee helped me down from the pony and instantly tucked me in to his side.
"All of Middle-Earth knows your name. Kayleigh Gallagher, the missing Phoenix of Erebor. You simply have not asked that I use it." Halfway through this sentence Thranduil had turned and swept like the creepy Dementor he is down some passageway making it pretty obvious that we had to follow him. Follow him we did, in to a small sort of living room with a roaring fire that, dare I say it, was almost cosy. There were pillows everywhere and there were no windows, just the orange of the fire against white walls. Something told me that these were made specifically for the use of visiting dwarrows. A most obliging gesture considering our last visit. Make that mylast visit. The others had been before if their almost rehearsed movements in getting around the fire were anything to go by.
"Oh. Well. Kayleigh's cool. None of that Phoenix stuff as cool as it is. Slightly overdramatic. Where did that even come from? Wait, how does all of Middle-Earth know my name?"
"Ori's book regarding the Quest for Erebor is well documented and told as legend by all races." Legolas said with a smug grin on his face since he knew this would make me squirm. It's kind of embarrassing considering all that I'd actually done was die very ungracefully and read a couple of books. I hadn't bothered to check if Tolkein's writing had changed because it might confirm my 'madness' if it hadn't. Tempted as I was that alone was enough to stop me from reading. After that time passed as Thranduil filled me in on the changes from his point of view. Naturally he still hated dwarrows but was much more tolerant of them now and tempers between the two Kings were still frayed but mending. Thranduil was confident that once Fee and I ruled the link between us would be solid once more. It was a while before we retired for the night. I was graciously given the room Karnok used but Legolas simply showed me to Fili's with that smirk of his. Then I found out what I really wanted to know.
Hours later we lay in bed wrapped up in each other, having relearned our saves. Fili's skill level remained unchanged which gave me some comfort, "no Kay I didn't sleep with Karnok and neither have I touched another in your absence. Admittedly I kissed Karnok once when she woke up two days after the battle but got punched in the jaw for my efforts." I was liking her more and more, "and you? I understand things to be different in your world." I didn't miss the nervous tensing of his body.
"Wasn't my world any more. My world is here you moron. I'm a dwarf with a One. So no, I touched no other either. Even punched a few men of my own who tried." Instantly Fee relaxed against me. His fingers fiddled with the marriage braid he'd put in my hair the day before and redone tonight. A monologue was definitely coming judging by the growing atmosphere. My beautiful husband didn't disappoint.
"It was strange watching your body wandering about without you in it. Did you know she was toymaker? She got really close to Bofur and I couldn't help but hate him when I thought they'd start courting even though it wasn't you. The face was the same but she didn't walk like you, put your hair in to a ponytail like you and not even her voice was the same. Her accent was normal." Well yeah. Hers was Westron and mine was Welsh, pretty big difference, "But then he went and courted someone else. I checked every day that it was you. Kayleigh or Karnok?" Wow maybe you should have met my mother Fee, you have so much in common. "Then bam!" He copied a phrase I used a lot showing that my influence hadn't left the moment I did, "you're kicking us awake in the middle of the night screeching. It was the best sound I've ever heard in my entire life. I was inconsolable for the first six months. Unbearable Kili called me," which he did to me too, repeatedly, "and then I researched as much as I could in to this but found nothing. Just as Uncle had decided that a trip to the Shire was needed you came back." Suddenly I found myself pulled so tightly against Fili's chest that I couldn't breathe. I almost started crying. Okay I admit it. I started crying. It was just so weird! Being back with Fee, a married couple once more and in the land and world I loved so much, "promise me you'll not die again. And never leave again."
"I promise. Now, about returning to Erebor... How badly do you think we can freak Thorin out?"