Here is the next chapter! I've really liked all the reviews I've been getting. Keep them up!
Anyway, I'm sorry this chapter isn't as long, but I promise they will become more lengthy and detailed as time goes on.
"No. There is no way we are doing this," Bilbo was pretty belligerent at this point, waving his arms around to emphasize his point.
"Then let me just sleep on the floor and we won't have to deal with it," I repeated perhaps for the twelfth time. I had sobered up a bit by now, but the crushing weight of my fatigue was starting to have its effect on me.
He vigorously shook his head. "Out of the question."
I sighed, exasperated. "Then you can sleep on the floor."
He sighed in return and looked at the floor with a somewhat painful expression on his face.
"If that's the way it has to be."
"Come on, Bilbo. We can be adults about this," I tried to persuade him. "I'm sure if we can be mature about this we can both sleep on the bed without any problems or mishaps."
He was silent for a moment. It was too dark to see what his face was doing, but I could tell that he was considering the option.
"I just...I don't think it would be a good idea," he finally said. "It's just improper and I don't think I would be able to sleep."
"Well how about if we just don't face each other? We can be on opposite ends and pretend there is some form of space between us. Pretend I'm one of your friends and we're just having a sleepover," I offered, hoping he knew what a sleepover was. I just wanted to get some sleep, even if it meant I had to sleep on the roof.
He was quiet again, and I could see him wringing his hands in the subtle moonlight. The candle had gone out by this point; we had spent an awful long time arguing over the sleeping arrangements.
"Fine. Then I'm sleeping on the floor whether you like it or not," I said defiantly, then grabbed a pillow and a spare quilt, and moved to lay on the floor.
"Wait," Bilbo came over to me and grabbed the quilt before I could situate myself.
"What now, Bilbo?" I slumped my shoulders, feeling utterly exhausted by both this conversation and the day itself.
"I'm willing to try it," he said quietly. "If I can't get to sleep in a half an hour, I'm moving to the floor, without question."
"Are you sure about this?" I asked as I stood back up.
He hesitated, then nodded his head.
"Alright," I said, relieved that we finally came to an agreement. "Which side do you want?"
He stared at the bed for a second, deciding.
"I think I'll take this side," he said, pointing to the left side of the bed.
"Okay," I mumbled. My eyes were beginning to shut on their own accord by now.
We had both put our pajamas on separately beforehand, so we were already set for bed. Right before that, however, I honestly thought Bilbo was going to have a nervous breakdown. After he first noticed the bed when we walked in, he was speechless for a few minutes, and started pacing the room. Then, abruptly, he had stopped, and announced that he was going to talk to the innkeeper about this to see if we could get a different room. While he was gone, I changed into my pajamas, and in about a minute, he had returned, looking even more angry than he was before.
"He's nowhere to be found!" he harrumphed.
I laughed. "It's probably because it's after midnight. He has to go to bed too, you know."
After that, I left the room to let him get changed. When I came back in, he was intently staring at the bed, as if he was trying to split it in half telepathically. I'm not going to lie, it was an interesting sight to see.
I'm glad I was able to finally calm him down enough so we could get some much needed rest. We both got into the bed at the same time, and I was reminded of those historical movies where royal couples get married, then awkwardly get into bed for their dreaded wedding night. I chuckled to myself at the thought.
Putting it out of my mind, I quickly rolled over to face away from Bilbo. The window was on the wall opposite me, so I stared out of it at the moon, and slowly felt myself start to drift off.
There were a few times when I was brought back to consciousness whenever Bilbo shuffled on his side of the bed. I looked over at him, and saw that he was as far away from me as he could get. Being hobbits, the bed already gave us a large gap in the middle between us, but Bilbo was so paranoid that he was almost hanging off the edge. At last seemed to have found a comfortable spot and stopped moving, and I turned back over to my side. Within just a few minutes I was fast asleep.
When I opened my eyes the next morning, it took me a long time to realize that I wasn't facing my side of the bed, and that I was lying face up. When I moved my head to see where I was situated, my chin met with something fuzzy. I looked down and almost yelped when I saw that Bilbo had moved from his rigid position of lying practically on the edge of the bed to lying on my shoulder. He was almost in the exact middle of the bed, and his entire body was facing me, almost as if he was trying to cling to me for dear life. His arms and legs were spread out over my body, and his head was cradled in the nook of my arm, between my shoulder and collar bones. He was softly snoring, and his face had a relaxed, peaceful expression.
I started to inwardly freak out. I wanted to get up, so that he wouldn't wake up to see us in this uncompromising position and have a panic attack, but on the other hand, if I moved, that in itself would wake him up.
Bilbo continued to sleep soundly as I tried to figure out a way to squeeze out of this predicament. After thinking for a minute or so, I figured I would just try to slip out of Bilbo's embrace slowly enough that he hopefully wouldn't stir.
I reached my left arm out to grab the edge of the bed and started to inch my way over by pulling myself. I discovered very quickly that this wasn't going to work very well, because Bilbo's head remained on my shoulder, so his body followed mine.
Crap. Now I had to figure out a way to move his head and body off of me without causing complete chaos. I decided just to gamble and take my chances.
I carefully put my hands on his head (hmm, soft hair) and moved him over onto his own pillow. I was surprised at how he didn't stir at all. His breathing didn't even change. Must be a heavy sleeper I thought. After I gently placed his head on his pillow, I used my body to move the rest of his over to his side. I froze when he started to move his body himself, but he just grunted a few times before turning over to face the other direction. He didn't even open an eye.
I breathed a sigh of relief as he resumed his deep sleep and heavy breathing. I lifted the blanket and got out of bed as quietly as possible and quickly got dressed. I debated whether or not to wake Bilbo up or just go downstairs to have breakfast. I decided on the latter.
As I walked down the stairs, I could already tell that the tavern was pretty empty. I figured everyone had had a lot more to drink than I did and were sleeping in to cure their hangovers. I didn't have one myself, but then, I had only had a pint of ale, and I hardly think that's much cause for a hangover.
I sat down at a table, and one of the barkeeps waited on me. They didn't have much of a selection for breakfast, so I just had cold ham, some toast, and a glass of wine. By the time I was done eating, Bilbo still hadn't come downstairs and the tavern was now starting to fill up with more people. I decided now would be the time to ask if anyone had seen Gandalf. I walked up to the bar and called the barkeeper over to me.
"Excuse me, but have you seen a wizard come through here recently?" I asked him. He looked at me strangely. I guess he didn't really like it when people talked to him unless they bought a drink.
"Not sure if I 'ave," he said grumpily. "What does this wizard look like?"
I thought for a second. "From what I remember, he wears gray robes. In fact, he's known as Gandalf the Grey. He also wears a pointed hat, has a long white beard, and carries a staff. Have you seen him?"
The barkeeper rubbed his chin for a moment.
"Ya know, I think I might 'ave," he said.
"Do you remember when?"
"Must 'ave been about a fortnight ago," he answered.
"Did he ever say if he was heading anywhere from here?"
He thought again for a moment.
"To be honest, I don't think 'e ever mentioned anythin' to me," he replied.
I sighed. "Okay, thank you for telling me what you know."
He gave me a slight dirty look when I hopped off the bar stool without buying anything.
I walked over to the innkeeper's desk. He was ruffling through some papers, and looked quite bored. As soon as I got his attention, he looked grateful to be distracted.
"Hello there, little miss! How was the room last night? Was it to your liking?" he winked at me. I tried my hardest to keep myself from cracking up in front of him.
"Uh, yeah, it worked fine," I said with a telltale smirk. "I was wondering if you've seen Gandalf the Grey come through here a few weeks ago?"
"Oh yes!" he answered right away. "He was here, alright. He stayed two nights here, and was much of an entertainment for the other guests. Especially with his fantastic smoke rings."
"Yeah, that sounds like him," I commented. "Did he ever mention if there was somewhere specific he was headed for after stopping through here?"
"I do recall him saying something about going to see the elves," he said.
"Elves?" I asked. That revealed something, at least, but then, I knew very well that there was more than one area in Middle-earth that housed elves.
"Did he say to what specific elvish location he was going?" I asked, hopeful.
"I believe he mentioned that he would be going to see Lord Elrond in Rivendell.
"Lord Elrond," I said to myself. Now that was another character I was definitely excited to meet. "Thank you so much, sir."
"My pleasure, miss," he said with a smile.
I made my way up the stairs back to Bilbo's and my room. I was so excited to tell Bilbo about my news that I entered the room without knocking, and immediately regretted it.
There was a quick yelp of surprise as I came in and found Bilbo in the middle of putting his trousers on.
"Oh God, sorry!" I gasped as I jumped back out of the room and shut the door. I stood just outside the room, mentally kicking myself for forgetting to knock.
Why did I keep having these accidents with Bilbo? If this kept going, Bilbo would no longer be able to trust me. He was taking me on this journey out of the goodness of his heart to bring me back to my home. The last thing I wanted was for him to start to change his mind about helping me, and then I would be abandoned and left on my own. But not only that, I cherished Bilbo and the friendship and generosity he had shown me. If I lost him as a friend, I would honestly be heartbroken.
I waited for another five minutes before knocking on the door.
"Bilbo, I'm really sorry for walking in on you," I said through the door. "Is it alright to come in? I have something to tell you."
It was several seconds before I heard a muffled "come in" from the other side. I opened the door slowly, and saw Bilbo folding some of his clothes and packing them away into his bag.
"Are you alright?" I asked gently.
"I'm fine," he said shortly. I noticed that he wasn't making eye contact with me. God did I feel terrible.
"Bilbo, I really am sorry. I should have knocked first," I said with a sincere apologetic tone.
He took a long intake of breath and exhaled slowly.
"It's not that," he said, putting the last of his things into his bag and closing the flap. "Though, yes that was a shocking start to my morning, to say the least."
I frowned. What could he be talking about? I thought.
"I woke up and you were gone," he said, daring to look at me now. "I panicked. I thought you were kidnapped. You have no idea how worried I was. It wasn't until I went out into the hallway to look for you that I ran into one of the barkeepers, and he told me you had gone downstairs early. I went down there to see for myself and I saw you talking to the innkeeper. Look," he turned his body towards me. He really looked concerned. "I don't mind you going out and doing things on your own without me, but please just inform me whenever you do leave my side. You're not from this world, and I would never forgive myself if anything ever happened to you." I thought I saw his eyes get watery, but it could have just been a trick of the light or my imagination.
I came over to the bed and sat down next to him.
"I promise that from now on I'll tell you whenever I'm about to wander off," I said reassuringly. I dared to put my hand on his. "I'm sorry to have scared you like that."
He looked up at me then, and I wasn't mistaken when I thought I saw some tears. There were a few running down his face.
"Oh, Bilbo, there's no need to cry." I reached over and gave him a hug, and I felt his body tense up for just a second before he relaxed and hugged me back.
We broke the embrace and he rubbed his hand over his face. There was another awkward silence as we both didn't know what to say, but then I remembered what I came to tell him.
"Oh, I have some news for you," I announced as I got up to pack my things. "I talked to the innkeeper, and he told me that Gandalf was here just a few weeks ago. He said that he headed for Rivendell to see Lord Elrond."
"Rivendell?" Bilbo said. I could tell right away that this made him happy. "Oh, how I miss that place. I'll be glad to see it again." He now had a big smile on his face, and we finished packing up our things quickly. We went downstairs to get Bilbo something to eat, thanked the innkeeper for the hospitality (there was a point when Bilbo was about to complain to the innkeeper about our bed situation but I hurried us out the door before he could do any damage), and we were on our way.
We were both now in a good mood, and we walked down the road and out of Bree with much anticipation of seeing the elves, and possibly Gandalf.