As much as Bilbo longed to go and see his soulmate, he was also quite frightened. Who wouldn't be, after all, to see the person that they were destined to be with for the rest of their lives. So many thoughts swam through his head as they had done during the whole of his adventure. Especially more so now that there were no dwarves to distract him from his musings (not that he particularly minded their distractions, so banish the thought). He was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn't even notice as his soul drifted upward into the night sky until he was far above the treetops.

"Woah!" said Bilbo when he finally came to himself and looked down at his feet. He would have jumped in his surprise if there was any solid ground beneath him. Instead he threw out his arms as though he were on a tight rope (an event that no hobbit would ever try with their large feet) balancing against the wind. He stayed like that for several moments, biting his lip and flailing his arms. And then he laughed at himself. "How silly!" he said. "If I were going to fall than I would have done so already. Or I wouldn't have come up here in the first place. We hobbits may enjoy the climbing of trees on occasion, though I suppose that is really only the faunts, but we surely can't fly. No one can. Oh except for maybe that man in that tale. Oh what was he called again? The one who made wings and flew too close to the sun? Oh, I don't remember. And I shouldn't fear that the same will happen to me, I suppose, what with it being night and all. But I suppose, if I keep dilly dallying here, then day will break and then I may have to worry. Only, where exactly am I supposed to go? Wasn't there supposed to be some way to see the connection with one's soulmate or something of that nature?"

As though summoned by his very words, a golden thread glittered in the light of the moon emanating from his heart and disappearing into the distance.

"Aha!" Bilbo laughed clapping his hands together. "Of course! The string of fate! I read about this in one of my stories I think. Well, that must be a good sign." After all, if someone has written about it, then they must have experienced it and returned back from it alive.

Bilbo took a step forward, and another, and another, but he did not move. Or if he did, it was barely so. The air was not, after all, very stable ground to push off from and all hobbits knew that any sort of walking should always be done on stable ground lest one slips and injures (or even muddle the hair on) one of their lovely big feet.

"Hmmm." Bilbo brought up his legs and tucked his feet crosswise beneath his knees and crossed his arms across his chest. This was a favorite of his thinking poses when he had the space to do so, but he did not often adopt it because his father's thinking chair (which was far more comfortable than any other place to think) was too small to fit him if he should be all crossed. So nowadays he only took up this pose when he was truly perplexed. And what a perplexing situation he was in now; he could see where to go, but could not get there. He could not return to the dwarves even if he could figure out how to move his spirit one way or another (he couldn't even figure out how he had managed to rise to such a height when he wasn't paying attention) because he couldn't actually see a destination, only a direction.

"This is hardly fair," he said to the string (perhaps talking to inanimate objects was a little much, but it's not as though there was anyone else to talk to, the birds weren't even out at this hour). "How could you show me where to go, but not actually take me there?" He thought for a moment about tugging on it until he was pulled along, but that idea was quickly thrown away by the thought that the string might snap (it did look very thin) and he would lose his connection forever. "I don't know what you're playing at here," he said, "but I'm starting to lose my patience, I'll have you know."

When that did not work and after a moment's hesitation, Bilbo frowned. And then a fear suddenly struck him. What if he was stuck like this? There were many hobbits that had gone off in the same way as he was doing only to never return. What if all of them were just stuck levitating over where their body was? For the rest of their days? Bilbo's heart pounded (much to Oin's distress as he was still keeping watch over Bilbo's body) and he clutched at his chest. "I don't want to be stuck here," he said. It was too much. To go all this way on all these adventures and to make so many friends only to be stuck in the middle of the sky staring at a golden thread that was his only connection to his soulmate. The only thing he would ever see of his soulmate. No. No, Bilbo would not be stuck here. He would go and see his soulmate, no matter what this stupid string thought about it.

And then, suddenly, the string pulled taught, tugging Bilbo with it. Bilbo flailed, his limbs caught in a tangle when he wasn't expecting the movement and he unraveled until he was laying on his stomach. He laughed again, this time high-pitched and giddy, as he spread out his arms and allowed himself to be tugged along. He was flying! He was actually flying! And as much as he had thought that he would hate to ever try such a thing (hobbit's were a people of the earth and they detested leaving it or its plants thank you very much), it was actually quite exhilarating. He passed over ranges of mountains and plenty of fields and trees. He may have passed near Rivendell, though he wasn't quite sure, but he could clearly make out at least some of the land that belonged to the Shire with the midday's sun. And it was all so fun to watch in the day or the night as the sun rose and fell in what felt like seconds to him.

Funnily enough, Bilbo was actually quite familiar with most of the way that he went. Of course, he couldn't quite make out all the landmarks that he had noted on his way to the Lonely Mountain, but he quite correctly identified some of the larger ones on his way. At first, he thought that he was going to go back to the Shire and he was more than a little annoyed (if he had just waited a little bit longer than his soulmate would have come to him), but he was soon far past it and into a land that he only recognized from his mother's maps. Until at last he came upon a range of Mountains.