Chapter 6

"this is our mother." luca said as he showed them their mother's grave. the forest was beautiful, it was alive with bird song and the gentle rustling of the trees. the grave its self was modest and a patch of eustoma grew in front of it.

"mommy," luna smiled at the head stone as she knelt by it, "this is going to be our last goodbye for a while now. we're going on an adventure with bilbo. I'll miss you and i promise I'll come back." she fisted the grass as tears slipped down her tanned cheeks "you're free now- we're free and… and" she fell into silent sobs as her brothers hugged either side of her.

"we'll miss you mother, and I promise that I will protect our family." luca said in a determined voice as the three picked a flower each and headed back to the ponies. the company looked at the siblings and luca nodded to thorin, "we know a short cut to the main road from here." he said and thorin let him pull into the lead.

the journey was fun, león was chatting with bombur and bilbo about recipes, luna was giggling and laughing at the antics of kili, fili and bofur whilst learning bifur's sign language so that they could communicate and luca…

"I couldn't give a flying rats arse!" he yelled at slightly pale oin, he had gained everyone's attention, "if you think I'm just going to sell this off, you've another thing coming! it was my grandfather's and I bloody well intend to give it to either my child or my brother and sister's heirs, not to a greedy old fool who'd let it collect dust in some dingy treasury!" he finished with and icy tone before glaring at the dwarf and pulling his pony round to join dori, nori and ori.

"what was all that about?" asked a slightly impressed nori, "I've never seen gloin look so scared in his life!" luca's shoulders heaved as he took in deep, laboured breaths before turning to him with a sad look in his eyes.

"he spotted my grandfather's fob watch," he pulled out a black object, the size of a large duck egg. it was flat and had many gems in the inlay and showed the image of two koi fish, made to look like the ying yang symbol. the opened it up and it showed a mother of pearl clock face with bright silver numbers and ticking hands, the inlay was a soft sky blue and in black calligraphy, the phrase, "tide and time waiteth for no man" was seen. the back of the fob watch had a deep blue tinge to it and had a stylized water lily in white on it.

"it is a beautiful piece luca, what did oin say about it?" nori asked as luca rubbed a thumb over the glass before closing it and hiding it somewhere on his person.

"he wanted to buy it." was the stiff reply and the brothers shared a look between them; although he was a good banker, gloin never understood the sentimental value of things, "he said that it would fetch a good price and that the money would do more better that the watch." he spat out as he burnt holes into the back of the dwarf's head, "and well you heard my answer."

oin sighed and slowed his horse to join the trio, "I apologies for my brother, he's a stickler for money and well… he" he tapered off not knowing how to finish. luca just sighed and looked at the horizon.

"apologies aren't needed oin; I probably reacted too strongly; it's the only heir loom that I managed to get from our old home last night. that necklace, luna is wearing was her great grandmother's; it's been passed down from each female in the family for generations. león has our great grandfather's ring. our father sold everything else and melted the others. I also managed to savage this." he looked around quickly and pulled out a beautiful but damaged piece of jewellery.

"I want to mend it and give it to bilbo; as thanks for all the help he has given us. however;" he put it back in his satchel and smirked, "I might just save it for something completely different." nori followed the smirking hobbit's gaze and had to bite back his laughter. bilbo was practically fawning over thorin and thorin was gazing longingly at the hobbit.

"ah, a wedding present, well we might have a problem with that." said nori and luca looked at him, "our king suffers from extreme emotional constipation- he couldn't express his feelings if his life depended on it." they stifled their laughter until león put in:

"oh please; it took mr bilbo is like emotional quicksand; once he doubts, say goodbye to any chance of him acting upon his desires." the three then cracked up loudly, drawing the attentions of their talk's subjects.

"what's so amusing león?" asked bilbo and they all cracked up again.

"oh nothing mr bilbo!" smiled luna as she looked at her brothers, "I was just remarking that mr nori's hair reminded me of those star fishes you showed us when we were younger." she smiled sweetly and bilbo just looked fondly back at her before turning back and gazing upon thorin's back.