Eeeeeeee, you guys have no idea how stoked I was to see that Call Me Home has already reached 30 reviews! You guys are absolutely incredible and I feel so, so blessed.
A quick shout-out to CoffeeRanger, who has been so lovely so far- you're awesome, and don't worry, we haven't seen the last of Bilba and our dwarves yet! There's been some tweaking with the timeline to make everything work out right.
And I will be continuing Call Me Home through the quest! I've already begun working on the very first drafts of those chapters- and oh, are they ever rough.
Inspired by a prompt I stumbled upon by lateforerebor on tumblr.
Summary: Bilba "Bell" Baggins decides that she's waited quite long enough to take her mother's advice and old stories and go on an adventure of her own. What she didn't expect was to end up in Ered Luin and be adopted by dwarves! AU, Pre-Quest, Undecided Pairings.
-;-
Life without Bilba was… odd, for the first couple of weeks after her departure.
Ori, so used to getting into intellectual discussions over the translations that Balin continued to leave him as assignments, frequently turned and asked the air whether or not that this particular word happened to be "bird" or "bear" in Sindarin, only to blink and silently return to his work as he realized that the hobbit wasn't there.
Dori's work at the Goose shifted slightly. Where Bilba had been the glue to hold the males in the kitchen together, the trio of them all found themselves feeling slightly displaced as they readjusted themselves accordingly so that they could continue their work. Bombur and Rorin still got on well, both being cheerful sorts, but Dori resorted back to his crankier self as he rearranged shifts and began the search for yet another cook.
And Nori- well, no one really knew what went on in Nori's head, only that he seemed to be stuck in a more thoughtful state than usual, as if he were trying to solve a particularly difficult conundrum. What he did know, however, was that Bilba had left her fourth and final bead of her set behind when she had left. As well as this, he made no efforts in reclaiming his old room- it had seen far more use with Bilba living in it, and it simply didn't quite seem right to displace her belongings.
Dori was surprised that Nori had even continued to stay after the hobbit lass had left. It had seemed as though Bilba were the only thing standing between he and Nori at times, given that they got along as well as dwarves and elves most of the time. But, as the first month passed by, it appeared as though Nori planned on staying a while longer.
It was also about this time that rumors began circling Ered Luin- the prince was leaving once again to continue searching for the king. It was a well-known fact that Thorin Oakenshield, son of Thrain, son of Thror had been following the whispers that the lost king was still alive. He had been chasing them for the past several seasons, and had only briefly returned at the beginning of the spring for whatever reason. Now he was setting out once again, and this time he was taking his right hand, Dwalin son of Fundin, with him. Balin, Ori said, seemed to be doing well despite the fact that his brother was leaving Ered Luin.
Bofur and his brother both didn't quite know how to deal with the Ri brothers- well, Bombur did, but Bofur was left with a rather sulky and strange Nori to deal with- and Bifur had only met the lass once, during one of his absentminded episodes.
But, as they quickly discovered, Bilba was not gone.
Not quite.
At the month mark, a rather exhausted looking dove fluttered on the windowsill of their residence, bringing with it a large letter. Dori gave responsibility of nursing the poor thing back to health, given his youngest brother's tendency to look after wounded animals.
Dear Dori, Nori and Ori,
I hope this letter finds you in good spirits, as I certainly am!
My return to the Shire was uneventful, though I must admit that I sorely missed the three of you- and still do, really. My Bag End is much too quiet, and I realize that while in the Blue Mountains I found something rather important with you- a family. Now, I know it is sentimental, but you know how I am wont to get in such a manner when I fall into my thoughts. Bag End was built as a family home, and I find that as a single, unmarried Hobbit of nearly fifty summers, this place is simply not the home I remember it to be.
In fact, I am considering leaving it to one of my cousins- Primula. She won't be of her majority for a couple of years yet, but I imagine that it will be a marvelous home for her and her children when the time comes. She and I were close- well, as close as we could be, considering she currently lives in the south with the rest of the Tooks- as faunts, and I think Bag End will be in good hands with her.
Better than those blasted Sackville-Bagginses, anyway.
Did you know that they made not one, but three attempts to break into Bag End whilst I was away? Three! Lobelia must be getting desperate. However, she'll have to pry my mother's silver from my cold, dead fingers if she'll ever want it. Which I am sure that she would be all too happy to oblige, now that I think of it.
I will return for a short visit again, and likely arrive several weeks after this letter finds you- approximately midsummer, as I arrived last year. However, I think I shall return to the Shire for the harvest- I don't think I could miss another year of my cousins' famous apple brews! I shall also stay the winter, as travelling will likely turn too perilous. Come the spring and summer, however, you shall see me once more!
Nori, you are most welcome to move back into your room- it is yours, after all. Just mind the bead that I left behind, and don't pocket it absently. I know you tend to do things like that when you grow bored.
Ori, make sure to keep up with your Sindarin translations- they truly do help in learning the language, I promise. My mother made me translate three whole books before I finally managed to figure out what she was up to, and I can speak it quite well these days, if I do say so myself.
And Dori, I must thank you once again for opening your home and your heart to me, despite my being a completely difference race than your own. Since returning to the Shire, I realize now that we are not so different. Hobbits can be just as suspicious and wary of outsiders as you, but I have found that dwarrow are much easier to get on with.
I sincerely pray you never have to meet the Baggins side of the family.
I must be off, there are some matters to attend to and I am off to the south again to visit my cousins this day. Remember to watch for me on the mountain path!
May your harvests be bountiful,
Bilba Baggins
-;-
The Shire, Bilba realized once she had begun settling in again, was not the same place of quiet tranquility that she had once enjoyed. The silence was too silent, and her neighbors were actively avoiding her, not that she cared a whit. The lot of them were close-minded, wool-over-their-eyes-ninnies, and she would cheerfully tell them as much if she got the blasted opportunity.
Hobbits, you see, are rather judgemental creatures at their cores.
The first thing to know is about wealth- your smial directly represented that wealth, and those who were less fortunate were often looked down upon for such a thing. Bag End was one of the most extravagant smials in the entirety of the Shire, with the exceptions of the Tooks and Brandybucks. Given their histories for wandering and trading, quite a bit of coin had come their way and shifted hands throughout the family tree.
Belladonna in particular had inherited quite a sum when she was younger, and had invested it and traded it to hone her talents until she had amassed a fortune. Bungo Baggins, on the other side, came from a wealthy line overall- handed down from one son to the next until it came to him.
The next was marriage. While many a Hobbit were known to have a romp- or twenty- throughout their tween years, they were eventually expected to marry, settle down, and have many children. Bungo and Belladonna were known to be rather odd given they only had one child, but the Tooks laughed and nodded and said it was quite like their sister/cousin to do such a thing.
Bilba was seen as rather odd herself, considering that she had never quite become inclined to romp with more than two or three lads and lasses as a tween, and she had never settled or married, either. Even now, there were whispers of what would happen to the fortune when she died, for she had not named an heir, nor had she provided one.
And these things both led to the most vital of Hobbit society- their respectability.
It was completely unrespectable to go on adventures and quests, to which the Tooks and Brandybucks had always laughed at, which made them more than a little odd in the eyes of the rest of the Hobbit families. A respectable Hobbit would marry right out of their tweens, make sure their wealth was large and their children many, and would never do anything to jeopardize their standing in society.
And Bilba Baggins, the odd spinster, as they had begun calling her, had gone adventuring to the west.
Those who knew her well, such as Hamfast Gamgee and his wife- had practically been raised with the lasses of Bag End, and as their gardener had come to grips with the fact that there were always going to be the exasperated sighs and murmurs and pinching the bridges of noses when it came to Belladonna and Bilba Baggins.
But quite truthfully, as Bilba had realized, she didn't care what the others thought of her now. She had finally realized why her mother had encouraged her to go out and see the world for herself. It was much more than her books and maps, and she would never have figured it out if it hadn't been for her mother's words.
And oh, the first couple of days were all too amusing for the hobbit lass, watching her neighbors quickly see that she had not in fact died as the rumors had said. Not that it would mean much, considering that her will and other papers were safely in the hands of her mother's family. She knew the Tooks would never allow their Belladonna's home to fall into the hands of a Sackville-Baggins.
So, it was a week after she returned to the Shire that Bilba Baggins threw herself into preparations to leave again. She went to the market the day after and immediately began buying provisions that would keep for the near month journey, as well as sending off a dove to her aunt Mirabella, who was known for her excellent oilskins, hoping to commission one for her trip.
Then there were the quilts and blankets, just in case any dwarves or other company might come calling while she was still there- a small chance, she knew, but just in case!
"Odd," the hobbits whispered as she passed. "Vanishing for so long and then returning to this."
"Unmarried," others would say, "and yet she goes traipsing off without care as to what will happen to her fortune when she passes!"
Oh, wouldn't they just love to know that they didn't stand a chance. Bilba thought smugly as she went about her business, collecting and knitting and sewing gifts for her dwarves and continuing to collect other objects for her smial.
One day in particular, she went knocking on Hamfast's door, cheerfully depositing a rather large sum of coin into the surprised gardener's hands and telling him that he had done a simply marvelous job of keeping Bag End looking beautiful, and that if he wouldn't mind doing it a little longer she would be ever so grateful.
And during every evening, the lass would sit out on her stoop and smoke her pipe, watching the smoke curl up towards the sky and thinking how wonderful life truly was. How marvelous the world was, outside of her books and maps, and how blessed they were to be able to walk upon the earth. The Shire was lovely, but since her wanderings had begun Bilba realized that it was not just the Shire but everything that was lovely.
She began writing, too. Of how her mother's words had finally gotten through her thick Took skull and she had begun her own wanderings. It would never be published, of course, but it felt right to get the words onto parchment with the ink- not to mention how soothing it was to scrawl a few lines into her journal each morning while she made breakfast.
Finally, Bilba began to reconnect with her Took and Brandybuck cousins. There were no shortage of them, and after passing through, a handful of them followed her back to Hobbiton for a brief stay. Not immediately, of course- they gave her a few days before showing up eagerly at her doorstep like a pack of lost pups, all of them asking what her adventure was like. It was odd, really, how easily they accepted her as she was compared to the rest of the hobbits who lived nearby.
Refreshing would be the word she chose.
-;-
It was about this time that a wandering wizard cloaked in grey caught faint whispers of a lost prince searching for his kin, among his travels to the far north. Searching for the lost king of Erebor, the Lonely Mountain, tore asunder by the great and terrible drake Smaug.
Perhaps, the wizard thought, there will be some merit to these rumors.
And so on he continued, his course altered for the south, an idea forming in the back of his mind as he went, those who did not know of him murmuring of his strange ways and form.
Perhaps, he thought, there is a chance.