Hello again! Sorry it has taken me so long to post my job is killing me at the moment. Please review and tell me what you think!
DaemonsThror - Inachis io- peacock- Icarni
Thrain- Picidae- woodpecker- Salix
Gandalf- Diomedeidae- albatross- Radalyn
Thorin- Unsettled- Lifthrasir/ lif
Bilbo- Unsettled- Sting {male}
Oin - Hyla arborea- Tree frog – Duke {male}
Gloin- Canis lupus familiaris- Boxer dog- Gurda
Nori- Pica pica- Magpie – furtum
Dori - Felis catus- Persian cat- Ambrosia
Ori-Vulpes zerda - Fenic fox- Baeflure
Bifur- Pteropodidae- Fruit bat- Stix
Bofur- Sciur vulgaris- red squirrel- Hesselay
Bombur- Anas platyrhynchos- mallard duck – Bek
Balin- Tyto alba- Barn owl- Alvis
Dwalin- Canis lupus familiaris- Tibetan Mastiff- Gemablax/Gem
Dis- Canis Lupus familiaris- Springer spaniel- Orion
Kili- Vulpes vulpes- Black fox- Rafarfrod/Rafa
Fili – Canis Lupus familiaris- Golden retriever- Skianfaxi/skian
Thorin"Lif...I-," Thorin began apprehensively as he and his daemon stood on the road outside BagEnd looking up at the illuminated windows of the small burrow.
"We're doing the right thing and it's the only thing that we can do. Now, let's go and whip this rabble into shape," Lifthrasir reassured gently before growling and showing her pearly white teeth; trailing her thick snow leopard tail up Thorin's leg and against the back of his knuckles.
Thorin smiled down at his daemon and sucking in one long steadying breath before pushing open the small creaking gate and ascending the steps towards the round wooden door. Lifthrasir leaped ahead of him with an easy spring in her Ibex form.
Gandalf's rune shone out of the forest green paint work almost mocking- A burglar Hobbit- really? Gandalf must be going senile in his old age. But then again the wizard had been most adamant when Thorin had met him in the Prancing Pony. Even with a few too many ales down him, Gandalf had been certain that the thirteenth member of the Company should be a Hobbit.
Even through the thick oak door, Thorin could hear the raucous laughter spilling from his nephews and loud exclamations from his friend Bofur, Thorin could even hear the odd comment from Dwalin, heartily seconded by Gem. Thorin shock his head and shot Lif a withering look, berating himself for letting the Company be lulled by the Hobbit's famous hospitality.
His dragged the door knocker down with unnecessary force and turned to take one last look down the road. After making sure he had not been followed, Thorin turned towards the low creak that the door made, and then stopped dead in his tracks, staring across the seemingly massive expanse of doorway and right into the eyes of his Burglar Hobbit.
*0*
In one clean swift movement, Bilbo seemed to forget all the etiquette and rules of courtesy that he had been taught as a tween, and instead openly gawked at the Dwarf standing on his doorstep.
This dwarf was different...No, I can't really call him different although he was. For Bilbo, staring into those deep blue eyes, it was like walking on melting ice above a lake; you knew it would crack but you couldn't resist seeing of it would take your weight.
Someone coughed loudly clearing their throat and Bilbo, shaking himself a little, looked down to see a large black mountain goat. An Ibex, a voice in the back of Bilbo's mind supplied for him helpfully. The daemon's dangerously looking horns came to Bilbo's shoulder, thick muscular shoulders and strong thighs covered in glossy black fur gave the Ibex a powerful air which matched her and her dwarf.
"Master Baggins, my name is Lifthrasir, daemon of Erebor. And this is my bearer, Thorin son of Thrain, heir to the throne of Erebor. We are at your service," the daemon said in a slow authoritative voice that showed her royal status and unyielding leadership.
When Bilbo opened his mouth no words decided to come out but without a moments hesitation, Sting wriggled out of Bilbo's arms and fell to the floor with a delicate hop. He stood on his back legs and tweaked his whiskers a little as he spoke. "I am Sting of BagEnd. This is my bearer, Bilbo Baggins, gentle Hobbit of the Shire and we are graciously at yours." At first the daemon spoke tentatively and carefully but his confidence did Bilbo's Took blood proud in the end as Sting and Lifthrasir did a very surprising thing.
Brushing past their bearers, Lifthrasir and Sting closed the gap between them, Sting had to rest both of his paws against the top Lifthrasir's nose as the two daemons pressed their foreheads together.
As the two daemons touched, Thorin and Bilbo felt a slight tingle at the nape of their necks but were too busy glaring at their daemons to recognise it.
When two daemons touched it was not in the same way as a One Touch or a Settling Love would touch; no, when two daemons touched it did not have the same meaning or eternal bounding the One Touch had but it was still highly irregular. Especially for Sting and Lifthrasir, as both daemons were infamous amongst their kin for their love of personal space, to touch on first meeting was...well, to put it in simple terms, it would be like meeting someone in the street and rubbing your face over theirs. The only normal situation for two daemons to touch would be if they had met before, they were kin or they were betrothed. And as Bilbo and Thorin were neither of these things, the Hobbit and Dwarf were both horrified by their daemon's behaviour.
"Sting!" Bilbo snapped harshly as his daemon drew away but suddenly the nights upheaval, the empty pantry, the dirty carpet, all Baggins stuffiness all seemed to round on the dwarf at the door. Bilbo's thinking was, apart from his daemon's terrible behaviour, that this dwarf was important and therefore it was his fault.
"Mister Oakenshield, please to meet you but would you like to explain to me why I have dwarves running wild around my house!" Bilbo snapped hysterically, his words grinding out through his teeth as his fists clenched at this side.
The dwarf made an impatient noise and easily brushed Bilbo aside with one powerful sweep of his arm. "So, you are the burglar. I doubt you have done much fighting in your time Master Baggins but it's clear you won't stoop to attacking guest at the door," Thorin replied in a haughty tone, not bothering to meet Bilbo's eye as he hung his coat up on the last empty peg behind the door.
"Wait just one cotton pickin-," Bilbo began angrily when their came a raucous up roar from inside the smial.
"Uncle!"
"Thorin!"
"Sire! His majesty has arrived!" A dozen shouts seemed to fill the air at once and for a second all the dwarves who had invaded Bilbo's house converged in his hallway in a mad melee of dwarf, daemon and Hobbit who was crushed up against the wall.
"Come, we saved you some soup and I think Dwalin left you a biscuit or two," a cheery voice called, Gloin, Bilbo thought. And without any warning, Bilbo spilled on the floor and was left to watch the receding footsteps upside down as the Dwarves once again disappeared into his dining room.
*0*
The nerve of dwarfs! How dare he! How dare he just waltz into his house- his family home- and insult him! Dwarfs! He had never met anyone with such a blatant disrespect for basic rules of hospitably and …and he'd trodden yet MORE mud into the carpet. If Thorin Prince of Sarcasm thought he could just wink those brilliant blue eyes and make Bilbo swoon, well he had another thing coming…..
It was needless to say that Bilbo was angry.
Actually by Hobbit standards Bilbo was more than angry, he was… furious. If Sting hadn't almost physically dragged Bilbo away, he was had punched Thorin right in his famous mocking face! Royalty be dammed, Bilbo wouldn't stand for his honour to be impeached.
What would his mother have said… and his father!
As a tween, Bilbo remembered when Old Took had joked that Bungo's prize winning tomatoes had been magicked rather than grown, even as a joke it had almost led to a family feud.
The nerve of that haughty, pompous, arrogant…
"Mister Baggins, do you know you've been cleaned that plate four times already?" The blonde haired dwarf asked casually, arching he eyebrow and given Bilbo an amused look.
Bilbo looked up startled, unaware that he had been taking his frustration out on the crockery. "I'm what? …Oh," Bilbo gasped as Fili tugged the plate out of his hands and easily reached up and placed it on the top shelf with the others. Bilbo shook his head at the carelessness, the thoughtlessness for his house his belongings and his plumbing.
Once again Bilbo felt his knees turn to jelly, he half sat half stumbled into a chair and reached for his tobacco pouch as he tried to stave off the tremble of his fingers. Suddenly it was if all the anxiety, the stress and the worry was laid bare on Bilbo's face and it sat heavily on his shoulders like an anvil. His chest deflated and he slumped in his chair as if the fight had gone out of him.
Sensing his bearer's weariness; Sting gently laid across Bilbo's feet and let his long rabbit ears brush against the tops of Bilbo's knees as he nuzzled the crook of his ankle.
"Mister Boggins, what ails?" Kili asked after noticing the sudden change in Bilbo. Brushing his dark fringe out of his eyes, Kili peered at the Hobbit.
Bilbo cupped his face in his hands for a moment and Sting leaned up to gently lick Bilbo's knee in a reassuring gesture. Scrubbing at the hot flush off his face, Bilbo turned to the two dwarfs who stood staring down at him as concern making their faces hard.
"I just want to know what you're all doing in my house? But no one will tell me," Bilbo said mournfully, wincing slightly when Bombur's duck daemon Bek knocked a saucepan off the draining board.
The brothers exchanged a flabbergasted look before Fili rounded on Bilbo and grabbed the Hobbit's shoulders. "You mean you don't know! Why didn't you just say, I thought Gandalf or Radalyn would have told you?!" Fili shouted before dragging Bilbo to his feet and hauling him to the dining room.
Bilbo's toes could barely touch the floor as Fili grabbed him by the braces and dragged him through the smial, with Sting and Kili eagerly following behind.
The Company and their daemons had congregated around Bilbo's dining table. It was cramped with all the dwarves hunched in Hobbit sized chairs; the larger daemons like Gem and Gloin's boxer dog daemon Gurda had to lie under the table, smaller daemons like Ori's fennec fox Baeflure easily scurried on top of the table, flying and climbing daemons like Bifur's fruit bat Stix and Bofur's red squirrel Hesslay were relegated to scrambling over the chandler.
Fili was actually quite glad that Skian and Rafa preferred the company of each other and were currently ripping apart Bilbo's linen cupboard.
"Watch it!" Dwalin grumbled as Fili and Bilbo barged passed, making him slop ale over his leather jerkin, as they pushed through the crowd of dwarves. After a hastily whispered argument and many complaints from Ori, Fili pushed Bilbo into a newly vacated seat between Nori and Dori, and turned to look down the table.
Sting cautiously eyed Dori's Persian cat daemon Ambrosia with distaste before turning into a sheepdog and resting his head on Bilbo's knee in an attempt to hearten his exhausted Hobbit. .
"Uncle-," Fili said loudly, trying to politely interrupt the close conversation that Thorin and Balin were sharing. Their heads were close together; Bilbo's soup lay almost forgotten on the table as the two dwarfs spoke under their breath.
"Uncle Thorin, Bilbo-," Fili tried again to little affect, he attempted to make his way to Thorin's side but they was just too many daemons and dwarfs. Fili sighed with exasperation and looked at his brother for help.
The youngest dwarf had been stood in the doorway watching the amusement as Fili took charge of the Hobbit. Fili was so much like Skianfaxi, although he claimed he wasn't. Fili's golden retriever daemon was haughty and regal and very very proper, all the things Fili very rarely was. But when Fili saw someone was suffering, he jumped into his role as easily as Thorin did.
Kili smiled and nodded at his brother, before reaching forward and tapping Thorin on the shoulder. "Uncle-," Kili began tentatively.
""What! In Durin's name, can I not have a moments peace from your prattling!?" Thorin snapped harshly as his head snapped around and he glared crossly at Kili.
Silence fell over the room and the merry party atmosphere died as Thorin's angry words echoed around the house. Even Balin and Alvis looked surprised at the princes' outburst. Lifthrasir jabbed at Thorin with her horns before going to apologise to Kili's black fox daemon Rafafrod.
Tentatively, Kili cleared his throat and pointed to Fili who was resting against the fireplace and watching over a very tired and very bedraggled Hobbit.
All eyes turned expectantly to Fili, the young dwarf straightened and swallowed. "It's Mr Bilbo see, the Hobbit doesn't know what's happening or why we're here. I just thought it was impolite and unbefitting the line of Durin to trespass on someone's hospitality," Fili said sternly, faltering under Thorin's disconcerting eyes but as Fili looked down at Bilbo he seemed to gain a conviction he didn't know he had.
"You mean to say that no one told you lad? Not even the wizard?" Bombur asked aghast, taking Bilbo shoulder and giving it a reassuring squeeze.
Bilbo turned and blinked at Bombur and then at the entire room, his mind was dazed and sleepy as if waking up from a long and troubled sleep. He slowly sat up straighter in his chair and reached down to stroke Sting under his chin.
"It had been many years since we had last seen Gandalf, in truth we did not recognise him and I suppose before he could tell me I…" Bilbo's mouth snapped shut as he remembered the events of this morning. It seemed like years since he had sat on his garden bench and soaked in the sun with a pipe of Old Toby. "I shut the door in his face."
The room filled with laughter and Bilbo was unceremoniously slapped on the back by several of the dwarves. An easy silence fell when Thorin stood and braced himself against the table, fixing his unyielding stare on Bilbo.
"Even though many in this room still do not know the particulars of our meeting, do you mean to tell me that Gandalf and Radalyn gave you no knowledge of the events that would follow or your involvement?" Thorin ground out through his teeth, frustration palpable in his dark tone and the tightness of his shoulders.
Bilbo nodded silently as Sting leapt into the air and settled around his neck as a ginger tomcat.
Thorin made a noise of frustration, thoughtfully dragging a hand through his coarse beard, he paused a moment before reaching into his royal blue tunic and pulling out a worn piece of parchment. Tossing it on the table and turning back the corners for all the Company to see. Thorin stood, he knuckles clenched behind his back and his chest puffed out.
"Since you know little of the world outside the Shire, Hobbit, you should be told the events many years ago which culminated in our meeting here tonight," Thorin stated callously, his lips pulling into a small sneer.
Bilbo felt Sting's heckles raise and his breathing cease as the cat bared its fangs of the dwarf. Thorin was too busy looking at his own daemon to notice, so Bilbo placed a calming hand on Sting's neck and quietened his daemon.
Some people were rude and brutish and had no concept of manners or others feelings, and one of those people was evidently Thorin. The sanctimonious, arrogant, insufferable …
"Many years ago, before your race had settled here in the Shire, there was a place of great power. A kingdom far to the east, where it was rumoured that one could speak with the gods and where golden dust filled the air as light danced on a full moon," Thorin began slowly, as if recited an old bedtime story. His voice was deep and lilting, it rumbled through the silence of the room and lulled Bilbo deeper into his drowsiness- so much so that Sting had to nip the back of his neck to keep him awake.
"A mountain range of great power and legend, so powerful that some with the right knowledge could pass through to other worlds," Ori gasped excitedly and Bilbo looked round thinking it was some kind of joke. It wasn't.
"From my father to my Grandfather, we have searched long and hard for this kingdom, the birthplace of the dwarves. And finally, it has come to me, to us, to take back this sacred place." Thorin paused and nodded slowly at the disbelieving and awed expressions of his Company.
"My friends, we are going to take back Ered Luin once and for all!" The dwarves erupted in cheers and mugs of Bilbo's finest ale were glugged down by the barrel. Bofur's red squirrel began doing erratic summersaults as her barer downed yet another tankard. Bek waddled down the table and dipped her beak into Bombur's ale.
"How did you lose it?" Bilbo whispered in Sting's fluffy ear just as silence fell. The room tensed, Thorin glared at Bilbo over the frothy head of the pint. There was a chilly silence, making Bilbo shift uncomfortably in his seat and Sting let out a low whistle.
Balin cleared his throat, absently stroking Alvis's soft white feathers. "Ancient scrolls state that the mountain range was plagued by ghosts and spirits, who converged and consumed our people. With no way to fight them, our ancestors fled and travelled east."
"And this is where you want to go back to, a mountain filled with ghosts?" Sting asked with a smirk making his whiskers curl in amusement. The dwarves shifted with discontent and shuffled like ducks with bristling feathers. Bilbo laid his hand on the back of Sting's neck in a sign of caution: if Bilbo knew anything about dwarves it was that they were not to be mocked.
With cold blue eyes fixed on Bilbo, Thorin stepped forwards and raised his fist, waiting until silence. Bilbo excepted fiery anger and mean words but none came, instead from one of the dark corners of the ceiling came a small rustling noise. Hobbits have excellent hearing and vision but even Bilbo had to strain to see the midnight black wings of the fruit bat peel open and glide through the air and down into the his bearer's breast pocket.
Nori spoke evenly, stroking his breast pocket absently as he reported to the Company. "Reports are all the same, the mountain stirs and there has been great movement from the north east towards Ered Luin. However the main gate, guard tower and underground tunnels all remain closed or blocked, nothing is getting in or out of that mountain at the moment."
'How would you know that? You've never been past the Misty Mountains," asked Bifur with interest as he leaned back in his chair and lit his long wooden pipe.
'Just because I've never been across the Misty Mountains before doesn't mean that I don't have eyes and ears everywhere. I could tell you things about your own mother that would make a whore blush,' Nori smiled devilishly and winked.
'Don't you talk about Mama!'
'What did you say!?'
'Hadan!' Shouted the Bifur, Bofur and Bombur in outrage, the brothers jumped to their feet, fists at the ready. Daemons leapt from the table and into the air or under the table to square up to one of the sons of Ri's daemons. Nori pushed back from his chair and stood, staring into Bifur's eyes. Furtum hovering in the air, claws outstretched towards the bat Stix.
'Enough!' Thorin bellowed slamming his fist against the table as Lifrasir tossed her horns and stamped her hooves on the wooden floor. Silence fell across the room, all eyes fixed on the tort body and flashing blue eyes of their leader.
'We must make stealth and secrecy our ally. Eyes may be looking towards the mountain. We must, at all cost, free our homeland, our birth right and all those poor souls who have been imprisoned…'
'Imprisoned! What do you mean imprisoned?!' Bilbo squeaked suddenly before he could stop himself. Thorin took one long breath before turning toward Bilbo and fixing him with his unyielding blue gaze.