Author's Note: I thought that as you were all so patient waiting for me to get my act together these past few weeks, I would reward your patience with another update. We will be going back to one update a week after this I'm sorry to say but I am quite busy at work and I don't have much time to write so I can only handle updating once a week. I am currently writing chapter 28 (finally! You have no idea how long I was stuck on chapters 25 and 26 but I'll explain more about that when we a come to those chapters, but gods the amount of rewrites that I had do for those chapters, makes me want to cry just remembering), and hopefully with the way things are going, I might be able to keep my prediction that I made way back of Frodo meeting Thorin by chapter 30. Fingers crossed lol.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Over the Hills and Far Away
Where am I? Bilbo thought groggily. Her head was heavy and she felt sick in her gut. She could hear the noises of movement, of stomping feet and hooves, of ponies snorting softly and the low whispering of voices around her.
Where am I?
She sat up slowly for her brain quickly discovered that she was resting in the saddle of a horse and any jerky movements she might make were sure to make her fall off. Just like she was about to…
"Easy Miss." A large hand caught her hip before she completely fell off the horse.
She blinked, something about the voice sounded familiar and yet it stirred a terrible memory within her.
"Frodo." She croaked as she gripped the front of the saddle with both her hands and tried to force her blurring eyes to focus on something, anything. The light of the sun stung her eyes forcing her to shut them again.
"Your little lad is safe miss; he is with my brother as is your papa. Your cousins are a little way back but I believe they're alright as well, miss."
"Who are you?" Bilbo whispered, her head throbbing so badly that her eyes watered.
"Radin, miss. Radin son of Runira, at your service." She looked at the hand pressed firmly to her waist, keeping her from falling off the horse and knew immediately that it was no hand of a dwarf's. It was too large and the fingers too long, though it was caked with enough dirt and the skin callous enough that from a distance it could have easily passed for that of a dwarf's. A human blacksmith maybe? But he named himself as she had heard all Dwarves to name themselves, only difference being he had named a mother instead of a father.
She wanted to twist around to look at him but her head hurt too much to do such a thing so instead she continued to talk, question rather, because this lad, for he sounded quite young, seemed to be open enough to talk with her.
"Where are you taking me and my family? What do you want?" she felt the lad stiffen against her back but his hand on her waist remained gentle.
"I-I don't know." He replied softly. She could hear the pain in his voice, the indecision in it. He wanted to be here even less then she did, if that was even possible.
"Is my family alright?"
"Yes, miss. Your little boy was crying for you but my brother was able to calm him down. We have a sister of a similar age back home." Radin explained with a hint of shy pride that made Bilbo smile.
"Why are you and your brother here and not home with your family?" Bilbo asked gently and again she felt the lad stiffen.
"Because," he replied wistfully, "if we leave, we won't have any family to go back to. Sleep miss, we have a long journey ahead of us and you will need all your strength."
Bilbo had no wish for sleep; she wanted to find her son and pull him into her arms and tell him everything was going to be alright. She wanted to find those who had stolen them from their very home and yell and scream at them, make them do what was right and return her and her family back home to the Shire.
There were many things Bilbo wished to do instead of sleep but sleep as it usually did, won out in the end and she lay her throbbing head back against Radin's broad chest and allowed for the darkness to consume her once more.
When she woke it was going on dark and they were no longer moving. In fact she found herself lying on the ground near to where a camp fire was burning.
"Mama?"
"Frodo?" she twisted her head to see her son sitting by her side, his face smeared with dirt but otherwise he appeared unharmed. He was also not bound as she had just discovered she was.
Her hands and feet were bound with heavy, thick rope, though she was sure if she worked at it, she would be able to get her hands free and then of course her feet.
"Are you alright, darling heart. Have they hurt you?"
Her son shook his head.
"No Mama."
Bilbo breathed a sigh of relief before starting to worry over her father and her cousins. Hadn't the lad Radin said that they had come along on this misadventure?
She sat up slowly and cautiously, her head was still throbbing and with bound wrists the task of sitting up took a little longer than usual.
"Ah, awake are you my dear?" A voice sneered at her and Bilbo fought back the desire to kick the dwarf hard in his shins.
"No thanks to you or your men," Bilbo retorted, "and what's all this?" she gestured at her hands and feet.
"A precaution, that is all." Bovin replied silkily.
"A precaution? What Bovin," Bilbo's eyes flashed as she stared up into the dwarf's dark eyes, "you wouldn't be afraid of a little Halfling woman would you now?"
His slap was not unexpected and if she hadn't jerked her head back when she did, the blow would have been much more severe. Even so, her eyes watered as she spat out the blood that had been caused when her teeth had cut the inside of her mouth.
"Watch your tongue, Halfling or I'll cut it out." Frodo's arms came to wrap around her neck but Bilbo could do nothing more than glare at Bovin as he strode away, barking out orders for the other Halflings to be brought over to where she and Frodo sat.
"Fine pickle we're in." Was Paladin's first comment to her once he and the other three hobbits were marched over to where she and Frodo were sitting by the fire.
"Why didn't you run when I told you to?" Bilbo moaned wincing slightly at the pain she felt from her cheek as she spoke.
Her Brandybuck and Took cousins shrugged and Bilbo felt like thumping them behind their heads for being so loyally stupid. She could hear Lotho muttering darkly underneath his breath but she ignored him and turned her attention to her poor father who looked very weak and frail as he hunched down by the fire.
"Papa? Are you hurt?" she touched his shoulder gently with one of her bound hands. She felt him stiffen before relaxing. But beside for that he made no response to her question.
"Papa?" she looked into her father's face and felt her heart grow heavy. Her father had gone into one of his trances and would not come out of it until his mind felt good and ready. But who knew when that would be.
She sighs softly underneath her breath.
She sat quietly by the fire while her kin curl up near her, none complaining that they were hungry, each realising it would be best for the moment for them to keep their mouths shut.
She watched each of the dwarves carefully, analysing them as she had once done with her old company. Only this time, instead of doing this to help her better understand them, she did so in search for a weakness, any weakness that they might possess. She saw that one was carrying her little blade and fumes that he dared to take it from her home.
Only, she realised, that might work to her advantage. If she could just get her hands on her little blade she might be able to… what?
Get them all away from here safely? Not a chance. She was just one hobbit among five who could not fight. Two who might be of some help in a fight, one who could be helpful if he chose and one who was all but helpless. And then there was Frodo to consider.
She looked down at her brave little lad, who was curled up by her side his head resting on her thigh as he slept.
She frowned as she noticed something glinting underneath his collar. Carefully, so as to not draw the attention of any of the dwarves, Bilbo moved her bound hands to carefully draw back Frodo's tunic. She drew a deep breath inwards.
Her mithril coat. How was it? How did he…
She forced herself to get over her shock at her son wearing the coat and wondering how and when he had managed to slip it on even though she had all but forbidden him from doing so and forced herself to see the positives. The coat would protect her son from almost all kinds harm that could befall on him on this journey.
She would have to talk to him in the morning about keeping the coat a secret for those who had taken them would surely take the coat off him if they knew of its existence.
"You should be sleeping miss." Bilbo jumped and twisted her head around to address the speaker that she would sleep when she wished to sleep. But her voice went dry within her throat as she looked upon the speaker. Even though it was a dark night and the light of the fire was not glowing all the brightly she could see immediately that this dwarf – if he was a dwarf at all – was not normal.
He was too big for one thing, with his limbs being disproportion to his body. He had the height of a man with the build of a dwarf. His face was also odd, a mismatch of conflicting features, human and dwarf.
He seemed to notice her gaze on his oddly shaped face and blushed, ducking his head and making to move away.
"I'm-I'm sorry," Bilbo said quickly, "I did not mean to stare. Please, forgive me for my rudeness."
The oddly formed lad looked back at her, surprise written all over his features.
"You want me to for-forgive you?" he stuttered sounding confused along with amazed.
"Yes, please do. It was rude of me to stare." Bilbo said and watched as the lad's face twisted into what seemed to be smile.
"No one has ever apologized for staring at me before," he admitted as he moved slowly back to her side, "and believe me, plenty stare and point and yell things out and…" he trailed off and ducked his head once more.
"Are you Radin?" she asked, for he sounded very much like the lad she had spoken to earlier that day.
The lad nodded his head vigorously, causing for his long and brutally plaited braid to bounce wildly around his head.
Bilbo could help but smile as she watched his energetic movements and awkwardly held out her left hand, tucking her right one around her bounds.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Radin."
"Same to you miss." Radin said taking her tiny hand in his huge one and smiling shyly at her. They spoke for a few moments more before Radin was yelled at to get more firewood for the fire.
The lad sighed before shooting her a small smile over his shoulder as he lumbered off to gather more wood.
Bilbo settled back against the ground, curling her body protectively around her son and tried to sleep. Sleep did not come easily and when it did come, nightmares quickly followed.
For Bilbo, morning did not come quickly enough.
"Awake are we, little madam?" Bilbo glared over at Bovin, who was smirking down at her.
"Where are you taking us?" Bilbo growled causing the dwarf to only smirk all the wider at her.
"Over the hills and far away from your sweet little homeland, little miss and that is all you need to know." He replied before barking out orders for everyone to wake up and for breakfast to be started.
The camp quickly got moving and far too soon Bilbo found herself being swung once more onto Radin's horse. Frodo was quickly settled in the saddle in front of her by Radin before he too swung himself onto his horse. Radin reassured her that her father and cousins were quite safe; they were in the care of his younger brother and a dwarf friend.
Bilbo tried to keep this in mind, but once the company of kidnappers had started moving her mind quickly moved on to other things, such as trying to figure out where she and her family was being taken, searching for landmarks that she might remember from her last adventure.
She saw none and her stomach tighten with terror of the unknown.
She squeezed her eyes shut and hugged Frodo closer to her.
Gandalf… Lord Elrond… Beorn…. Thorin, she whispered inside of her head. Please, anyone of you, hear my pray and come and save my family from whatever fate we will meet at the end of this misadventure. Please, help us. Someone, anyone…
Author's Note: First off, I really hate Bovin. I swear ever since I created him in this fic I've had nothing but problems when it came to writing chapters that involve him. So from a writers POV he's a terrible character to write for and he's just a terrible character in this fic - he was originally a lot, lot worse in this fanfic but I've tone him down... a lot.
With the first few drafts of this fanfic, Bovin was sort of my Game of Throne's vent character where he embodied qualities from all the characters I hated in the series. But I had to change from that way of thinking or seriously if I had left him that way he originally written he would have become Middle-Earth's version of Ramsey Snow - Bolton. And for those of you who don't know the show\book series, he's a really, really bad, evil, absolutely horrid character who I want dead. So I thought, no, nope scrape that, I am not having Ramsey Snow anyway near this fanfic, so Bovin got rewritten so now he's sort of a cross between Tywin Lannister and maybe Roose Bolton and a few other characters.
See this is why you don't watch (listen) to Game of Thrones when writing fanfic that aren't about Game of Thrones, characters just slip in without your notice and start running the show and if you don't stop well... it doesn't bare thinking about.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter (It was another chapter that was written multiple times and made me want to cry). Next Chapter we're back with Thorin for a bit (Because I like messing with him and oddly enough he's parts in this arc are actually the most lighten-hearted, which is hilarious and kind of ironic considering his personality, but whatever). Chapter 24:Distractions aren't Always Good Things (I seriously need to come up with better chapter titles. If any of you think up a chapter title better than this one or passed ones, I'll - I'll give you a preview of the next chapter) will be updated sometime next week.