Then the Ainur were afraid, and they did not yet comprehend the words that were said to them;
and Melkor was filled with shame, of which came secret anger.
But Ilúvatar arose in splendour, and he went forth from the fair regions that he had made for the Ainur;
and the Ainur followed him.

- Excerpt from Tolkien's Morgoth's Ring, the tenth instalment of The History of Middle-Earth. A piece from the Ainulindalë, the Great Song, recited by Pengoloð to Ælfwine.

Chapter 11: Final days of rest

Solana awoke to the sound of a rather loud thud. Her eyes snapped open – she realized with a start that the sun was already out and shining brightly – and they zeroed in on where the sound came from; it was Bofur, apparently having tripped on the way to wake her up and he was grumbling about it when she giggled.

Bofur shot an annoyed glance at Solana. "Yes, laugh it off." He couldn't contain a twitch of his lips though, finding his ungracefulness rather funny himself. "You need to get up, however, or there will be no breakfast left for you."

In a surprisingly fast move, Solana jumped up and made her way to the porch where, true to Bifur's shouted directions (she understood enough of the Black Language to have a conversation with him now), a large breakfast laid… or what was left of it. What had once undoubtedly been a veritable feast was now reduced to a few toasted sandwiches, two sausages, half a pan of beans, which dwarves apparently didn't like much, and a single egg. With a hungry grin, Solana seated herself at the table and began putting together a full English breakfast, of the kind she had every weekend back home.

"We left this for you, Miss Potter!" A bright voice suddenly came from behind, causing Solana to clamp onto the sandwich she had been holding to her mouth with her teeth and whip around to point her wand at the one who sneaked up on her; Fili and Kili both squeaked in fright and dove to the ground, wrapping their arms around their heads as if it would protect them should Solana suddenly attack. "Please don't hurt us Miss Potter!" Kili begged rather amusingly.

"Yes, please don't!" Fili added.

"We never meant to scare you, Miss Potter!"

"No, we didn't!"

"Stop repeating me, Fili!"

"Yes, please – wait, what?"

Solana had to chuckle at the two brothers' antics, and did so after storing her wand away and placing her egg-beans-and-sausage-sandwich back on the table. Hearing this, Fili and Kili looked up with wide eyes to see Solana looking at them with an amused smile. "Well, it's alright then, if you truly didn't mean it. Now get up off the floor, I'm not going to harm you." She glanced around the garden as the two young Dwarves did as she said. "Where is Gandalf, by the way?"

"Oh! Well, out and about somewhere, I suppose." Kili shrugged and scratched the back of his neck, before taking out a chair and plopping down in it. On the other side of the table, his brother did the same. "He told us last night that we had many miles to cover today, but I am beginning to think that that was just a trick to get us into bed." He shrugged again. "Who knows what goes on the mind of Wizard. Er – no offense."

"None taken."

Oo0oO

It wasn't until supper that Solana saw Gandalf again; during the day, she had set out to find Beorn to ask if he knew about Earth, which took quite a while, given the size of his property. Unfortunately, Beorn was gone as well, so her questions had to wait until that evening.

Gandalf walked in just before sunset, taking a seat at the table where the Dwarves and Solana were eating dinner as if he hadn't just been gone an entire day. The Wizard calmly puffed his pipe as Oin cried out, "Where is our host, and where have you been all day?" Other Dwarves joined in with more questions, all save for Thorin, who was staring at Gandalf rather moodily, because they couldn't move on without either Gandalf or Beorn giving them directions. This continued for around half a minute, until Gandalf held up a hand and they fell quiet.

"One question at a time please – and none 'till after supper! I haven't had a bite since breakfast, save for a small hand of blueberries from a small bush and a walnut that a passing squirrel was kind enough to bestow upon me."

Despite their anxiousness to get answers from Gandalf, the old Wizard ate calmly, as if there weren't thirteen people peering at him while a fourteenth blew colourful smoke rings that floated around his head. At last, Gandalf pushed away his plate and jug – to the Dwarves' annoyance he had eaten two whole loaves (with masses of butter and honey and clotted cream) and drunk at least a quart of mead, which took quite a while – and he took out his pipe as well, putting a bit of tobacco inside.

"I shall answer the second question first," Gandalf announced, "But bless me! This is a splendid place for smoke rings indeed, Miss Potter! I think I will join you, if you do not mind. Thorin, do join in."

And indeed, for a long time the dwarves could not get a word more out of him, he was so busy sending smoke rings dodging round the pillars of the hall and around Solana's creations, changing them into all sorts of different shapes and colours, and setting them at last chasing one another out of the hole in the roof, being careful not to collide with Solana's smoke creatures. They must have looked very queer from outside, popping out into the air one after another, green, blue, red, silver-grey, yellow, white; big ones, little ones; little ones dodging through big ones and joining into figure-eights, and going off like a flock of birds into the distance, while small Phoenixes, Dragons, and Unicorns made their way around and through them in full flight and gallop, dispersing the smoke figurines they went through.

"I have been picking out bear-tracks." Gandalf said at last, when the sun had disappeared beyond the mountains, and the stars were visible outside. "There must have been a regular bears' meeting outside here last night. I soon saw that Beorn could not have made all of the tracks; there were far too many of them, and they were of various sizes too. I should say there were little bears, large bears, ordinary bears, and gigantic big bears, all dancing outside from dark to nearly dawn. They came from almost every direction, except from the west over the river, from the Mountains. In that direction only one set of footprints led—none coming, only ones going away from here. I followed these as far as the Carrock. There they disappeared into the river, but the water was too deep and strong beyond the rock for me to cross. It is easy enough, as you remember, to get from this bank to the Carrock by the ford, but on the other side is a cliff standing up from a swirling channel. I had to walk miles before I found a place where the river was wide and shallow enough for me to wade and swim, and then miles back again to pick up the tracks again. By that time it was too late for me to follow them far. They went straight off in the direction of the pine-woods on the east side of the Misty Mountains, where we had our pleasant little party with the Wargs the night before last. And now I think I have answered your first question, too," ended Gandalf, and he sat a long while silent.

Solana frowned. "So – it was Beorn that went over that river, back in the direction where the Eagles picked us up? Did I get that right?" Gandalf nodded once. "…Why?"

Gandalf shrugged. "To gather information, I suppose. And to see if our story were true. But for now – I do believe there were still songs to be sung?"

The young Istari's lips twitched as the dwarves all happily called out in affirmative and gathered their instruments, before they began to play a piece of jovial music. She hung back when they began to sing, and continued to smoke her pipe along with Gandalf, blowing standard rings for once. And after a large amount of songs, sad, silly, and sophisticated, Gandalf told them once more that it was time to sleep, and that they had a lot of miles to cover the next day; and though everyone turned a sceptical eye at the Wizard, they complied and were all fast asleep on their respective beds before the hour was up.

Oo0oO

Next morning they were all wakened by Beorn himself, who had apparently come home sometime in the night. "So here you all are still!" He said in his usual gruff voice. He glanced over the company and laughed, "Not eaten up by Wargs or goblins or wicked bears yet I see!" Beorn chuckled as Bombur's stomach growled loudly. "You still need your fill of bread and honey, I hear. Come and have some more, I put everything on the table outside!"

And thus, they all went to the table with him. The shape-shifter was jovial for a change; indeed, he seemed to be in a splendidly good humour and set them all laughing, chuckling and giggling with his funny stories. Fortunately, they did not stay curious about where he had been or why he was so nice to them long, for he told them himself. He had been over the river and right back up into the mountains – Beorn was incredibly fast in his bear-form, many times more so than any human in full-sprint. From the burnt wolf-glade he had soon figured out that that part of their story was true, but that was not all he found; he had caught a Warg and a goblin wandering in the woods. From these he had got news: the goblin patrols were still hunting with Wargs for the dwarves, and they were fiercely angry because of the death of the Great Goblin, the chief wolf, and of many of his high-ranking servants. That was what they told him when he forced them, something Solana longed to have seen and helped with, but he guessed there was more wickedness than this afoot, and that a great raid of the whole goblin army with their wolf-allies into the lands shadowed by the mountains might soon be made to find the dwarves, or to take vengeance on the men and creatures that lived there, and who they thought must be sheltering them.

"It was a good story, that of yours," said Beorn at last, when everyone was done with their breakfast and he was nearly done with his story, "but I like it still better now I am sure it is true. You must forgive my not taking your word. If you lived near the edge of Mirkwood, you would take the word of no one that you did not know as well as your brother or better. As it is, I can only say that I have hurried home as fast as I could to see that you were safe, and to offer you any help that I can. I shall think more kindly of both dwarves and the other Wizards – and Witch – after this. Killed the Great Goblin, killed the Great Goblin!" he chuckled fiercely to himself.

"What did you do with the Warg and Goblin?" Gloin asked, curious.

"Come and see!" Beorn chuckled again and led them around the house to the gate, where a goblin's head was stuck on a pike and a Warg's hide hang from a tree. Solana grinned and nodded in approval, while a few of the younger dwarves became slightly green-faced; there was still blood dripping from the goblin's neck, and the Warg's hide hadn't been cleaned thoroughly, and bits and pieces of skin were still attached to the thing. Gandalf, having become used to such sights long ago – though not to the idea of spilling out someone's insides, force-feeding them to the still-alive person, and then making them explode – turned to Beorn and began explaining the reason for their trip across the Misty Mountains, so that the man would be able to give them the most help he could offer, which was quite a lot.

He would provide ponies for each of the dwarves, and horses for Gandalf and Solana, for their journey to the forest. He would lade them with food to last them for weeks with care, and packed so as to be as easy as possible to carry out of habit – Solana had asked him about Earth and her skills as a Witch during breakfast, and the answer she got was "A planet called Earth? You've got a good imagination, missy." – including nuts, flour, sealed jars of dried fruits, and red earthenware pots of honey, and twice-baked cakes that would keep good a long time, and on a little of which they could last long. The making of these was one of Beorn's secrets, but he told them honey was in them, as in most of his foods, and they were good to eat, though they made one thirsty.

Water, Beorn said, they would not need to carry this side of the forest, for there were streams and springs along the road. "But your way through Mirkwood is dark, dangerous and difficult. Water is not easy to find there, nor food. The time is not yet come for nuts – though it may be past and gone indeed before you get to the other side – and nuts are about all that grows there fit for Dwarven or Istari consumption; in there the wild things are dark, queer, and savage. I will provide you with lots of skins for carrying water, and I will give you some bows and arrows. But I doubt very much whether anything you find in Mirkwood will be wholesome to eat or to drink; perhaps you will spot a single rabbit or bird through your entire journey there. There is one stream there, I know, black and strong which crosses the path. That you should neither drink of, nor bathe in; for I have heard that it carries enchantment and a great drowsiness and forgetfulness. And in the dim shadows of that place I do not think you will shoot anything, wholesome or unwholesome, without straying from the path. That you MUST NOT do, for any reason.

"That is all the advice I can give you. Beyond the edge of the forest I cannot help you much; you must depend on your luck and your courage and the food I send with you. At the gate of the forest I must ask you to send back my horses and ponies. But I wish you all speed, and my house is open to you, if ever you come back this way again."

They thanked him, of course, and while Solana, and Gandalf simply said exactly that, the dwarves said farewell with bows and sweepings of their hoods and with many an "at your service, O master of the wide wooden halls!" – or, in the case of Thorin, one of each of those. But their spirits sank at his grave words, and they all felt that the adventure was far more dangerous than they had thought, while all the time, even if they passed all the perils of the road, the dragon was waiting at the end, ready to gobble them up and let them simmer for the rest of eternity in his stomach.

For the rest of the morning, the party was busy with preparations. Soon after midday they ate with Beorn for the last time, and after the amazing meal they mounted the steeds he was lending them, and, bidding him many farewells, they rode off through his gate at a good pace, headed for Mirkwood at last.

Review Replies!

Chaosrin: Considering the fact that Hogwarts is pretty much stuck in the middle ages, and Arda is as well (Middle-Earth, Middle Ages – see the connection?) I figured Solana would feel very much at home there, not in the need of ovens, fridges, supermarkets and the like to survive. And the reason for sticking this close to the normal storyline is to not lose any readers that have forgotten parts of the Hobbit and can't follow along any more.

JohnyS: No, she definitely didn't immerse herself in the dark arts; doing so would mean that she was the second coming of Lucius Malfoy, Melkor, Voldemort, and Sauron at the same time, and Solana definitely isn't a wealthy-as-fuck Valar with a snake fetish and an eye as big as a small country. Right? …Right?

Solana is very much a – well, I wouldn't say a feminist, but someone who does not like it when females are looked down upon. Throughout this story you will most likely see this again, if not for a long time.

And as for practicing her Crucios… She'll get the chance eventually. Just don't expect it to be anytime soon.

The rest of the reviewers get a Thank You, as always.