Born of Fire

By A.D. Reese

A tale of great sorrow, and a love unlike any other.

Concern

Concern. That's the word that could most accurately describe the little one on the day of Truth. He had been thinking about how he was to confront her of the issue. Was it an issue at all? Frodo though about it, convincing himself that if he couldn't see that she was clearly an elf, than the question was appropriate. Though the hobbits of the Shire may be fooled, Frodo Baggins was not, and he felt as though there was something he did not know.

Frodo Baggins did not like being left out of the loop. No, he didn't like that at all. Rowen was at home at Bag End, but she left quite often, and didn't return for days at a time. Frodo feared that one day she would just not come home at all, and his Rowen would be gone.

"Rowen," He began that day, standing in front of her as she cleaned an impressive sword. It was a charmed dagger, that she warned him burned red hot if he tried to touch it, and it glowed when "danger" were near. It seemed farfetched, but he believed her. It was a gorgeous weapon, with gold and copper adhered to the hilt and blade, and it coined the name Hollow. He had always wanted to wield something like that, but he knew it would be far too heavy for him. And he was in the Shire, where nothing exciting ever happened.

"Yes, da'len?" She questioned, the pads of her fingers sliding over the tip of the blade as she tested its sharpness.

"Why're you always leaving?" he asked her, concerned as he noted the bag sitting at her feet. Her polishing of the blade did not still, as though she had been prepared for such a question. "Are you returning to your elves?"

Rowen looked up at him, raising a thin eyebrow. Elves? She wondered. "I've just heard so many stories of them sailing West." He said, his eyebrows furrowed in fear.

"I'm not an elf, Frodo." She said, shaking her head as she placed Hollow into its hilt. "I have a secret." She murmured.

Frodo frowned at her and opened his mouth, but she held up a finger. "You have to keep this secret, da'len. For only our Bilbo knows." Frodo bit at his lip. "If you do not keep this a secret, I will have to be away for a long time." His eyes grew wide, nearly filling with tears.

"I won't tell a soul, not even Samwise Gamgee!" Rowen grinned at him and patted the seat beside her. Frodo took a seat, his hands in his lap nervously.

"What do you know of dragons?" She asked him softly.

"Bilbo told me that they're kind, but that's not what the others say. They say that dragons are vicious-cruel. That they're greedy, and big and scary." His child-like reaction would have been endearing any other day, but at this moment she made a disappointed noise.

"That's not very nice, Frodo." She said, pushing some hair behind her pointed ears. "What if I told you that I was a dragon and that it is actually quite hurtful that you think so low of me." Frodo shook his head at her, confused. Then he grew still and looked down, ashamed of himself.

"But you have hands." He said quietly. "And you fit through the door…where are your wings? The teeth?" Rowen gave him a small smile.

"How do you think I'm so good at magic, darling? I have practiced for ages trying to walk among the common folk." Frodo opened his mouth to deny her when her hunger for raw meat come back to mind.

"Can you prove it?" He asked her, slightly excited to see if she was what she said. Much to his surprise, her right hand turned into a claw, and his mouth formed a little 'O' in surprise.

Concerned, he asked her if it hurt, to which she laughed and replied, "No, Frodo. It doesn't hurt."

She waited for a long while before she looked at him her eyes serious and her face like stone. "Are you afraid of me now?" She questioned.

"Of course not!" Little Frodo exclaimed. "I know that the others are wrong now, and Bilbo must have been right-because you could never hurt anyone!" He gave her a cheeky smile to which she ruffled his dark curls. "What of your family?" He asked her. "is that why you're gone so often?"

"Yes and no," She began, resting her chin on her hands. "My mother died a long while ago, as did all of my siblings aside from Aragon. My father also lives, but I know not where. Many of my kind have gone West, so I think that is where he has run off to." She didn't not tell him of the meetings that she attended due to the darkness that was extending over the land. If the shadow was not vanquished, the dragons would be forced to retreat into the West. To the undying lands, where evil could not reach.

"What is your brother like?" Frodo asked excitedly.

"He is brave, kind, and an awful singer." She laughed. "Though he will try to have you believing different." Frodo laughed as the serious tone in her voice, and they filled that afternoon with stories of her home. She hid from him the worst of it, so she did not tell him of Nastari or her mother's demise.

That night, they snuck out to the stars, and she showed him her stories in displays of magic and light and laughs in the distance. He watched as beautiful dragons soared through the sky lit up by magic fairy lights. A feeling of sadness washed over Frodo as he looked up at his smiling caretaker.

She had been his surrogate for as long as he was at Bag End. She had let him sleep with her, and allowed him to braid her hair as she told him old stories of his uncle. He was always sad before she left on a trip, and a part of him knew she would be gone in the morning, leaving him asleep in her large bed wondering where his caretaker had gone.

"You will come back, won't you?" Frodo asked her as he watched the display.

"Do I not always return?" She replied. He nodded quietly and reached out to hold her hand.

!

I got the idea of her sword from bleach. Sns. I just think the ideas of zanpakuto is so lit tbh.

I am using ideas from dragon age, inheritance cycle, and bleach at this point. Reese, have you no original ideas?