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A quick climb and a creative use of her garden fence as a footstool, Bilba managed to successfully, if not comfortably, seat herself on the back of her mount.
After a few hours of riding she felt confident enough to pull out some embroidery. She had picked up the habit from an old aunt who specialized in using gold thread. Amadel had cooed in delight when Bilba had showed off her first attempts.
"You have chosen a worthy craft, khajimel," she chuckled. "The light in your eye is the same as when I cut my first diamond. If you wish, I will teach you to make small gems to sew into your metal pictures."
Bilba's current project was a silver shroud. Hopefully amadel's ancestor's would not mind the hobbit custom of placing such items of remembrance upon grave sites. Her sorrow required more than a simple braid to ease her heart.
Thus occupied, Bilba spent the first week at the back of the company with minimal contact with the dwarves and wizard. She was content to remain to herself, and the rest respected her desire of privacy. The few times anyone did look at her and open his mouth as if to speak, the words would die in his throat when he caught sight of her mourning braids, and he would quickly turn away.
Then, quite unexpectedly, she found herself with two grinning faces on either side of her pony. Sighing, the hobbit packed away her project and eyed the boys. Some kind of mischief was a foot, but she didn't know them well enough to guess at it yet.
The boys looked physically near her age, but all of Kayli's descendants retained their youthful looks long past when a regular hobbit would have lost theirs. The two most likely were her senior in years, but Bilba was pretty sure she beat them in maturity.
"So, your grandmother was a dwarf?" Fili asked from her left as they rode.
Bilba cautiously nodded. "Yes. She came from the Blue Mountains."
"What did you say her name was?" Kili said from her right. She turned to face him, brows lowered suspiciously as she wondered what kind of trick thy were about to pull on her. Her Took cousins had similar glints in their eyes when they plotted something which could get them into trouble later.
"Kayli."
The dwarfs shared a look, before focusing on the hobbit between them.
"Did she ever mention having a brother?"
She shrugged. "Amadel never spoke much about her past, except to my great-uncle, and he rode off one day without a backwards glance. She's kept things to herself since then, I think so I wouldn't run off too."
"Did you know that darrows aren't born with second names like you hobbits?" Fili said, randomly.
"We're named with similar runes in our names," Kili chirped, before she could muster up a reply. "They're like family runes!"
"Is that why so many of the company have rhyming names?" Bilba said, interested despite herself.
The boys beamed at her. "Exactly!"
She hummed, filing the information under 'interesting but not relevant.' After all, her family went by traditional hobbit naming conventions.
The boys appeared ready to bombard her with more words, when Thorin called for the company to stop. Bilba used the distraction to guide her pony away. They seemed unwilling to approach her again with the others within earshot, so she made a point to stick close to the fire where Dori was cooking.
Then the whole debacle with the three trolls happened, and Bilba wondered if all men were so dumb as to charge a monster head on, or if it was just dwarves. Her grandmother had taught her more sense than that, so she was more inclined to believe it a failing of the opposite gender.
Her musings were cut short by a mad dash from wargs and subsequent rescue by elves.
Bilba had never given much thought to the Eldar beyond searching them out in the woods of the Shire as a child. Despite that, she stared in awe at the beautiful architecture of Rivendell, and was quite upset that the company's glorious leader had to go and insult their hosts before they had even been shown to clean lodgings.
Her displeasure with the dwarves sparked enough rebellion in her for the hobbit to take the offer of a room from the nice elf while the rest of the company slept outside.
The feather bed cinched her resolve.
Despite the infinitely inviting option of laying under the blanket for days on end, Bilba soon grew bored and indulged her desire to explore.
The gardens were exquisite, and took her breath away. She was so engrossed just gazing up, up, and up into the graceful trees and architecture, that she nearly tripped over the lone elf sitting quietly on a bench.
"I'm terribly sorry!" the hobbit stuttered, straightening her coat. "I hope I haven't disturbed you!"
The elf laughed, her voice glittering through the flora around them. "No harm has been done, little hafling."
Bilba fidgeted. "Uh, is that embroidery you're doing?"
"Yes, would you like to see?" the elf tucked away the needle before handing the rolled fabric out to her. Bilba eagerly studied the thread work, comparing it to her own with little shame.
"Is that a primrose? It looks like one, but the petal colors are all wrong," the hobbit trailed off.
"The taurn kalina lets us see the hidden flower patterns," the elf says, fingering the spiky patterns decorating the embroidered flowers.
Bilba frowned. "What does that mean?"
The elf laughed, a light tinkling giggle like silver bells. Bilba flushed, not sure whether she was being made fun of or not.
"Peace little one, I mean you no disrespect. I simply forget that the eyes of others cannot see as well as mine. I was laughing at myself." The elf visibly contained her mirth, and pointed to the patterns Bilba had not recognized.
"There is no word for taurn kalina in the common tongue, nor for n'taurn kalina. They are what we name the different pieces of light. The flower patterns are visible when taurn kalina shines brightly upon the plants. I am not the best to explain what they are." She shrugged apologetically.
"I think I understand," Bilba said, thinking of a similar conversation she had long ago concerning flowers.
She opened her mouth to ask more, but a familiar shout disrupted the peaceful surroundings.
"Hey Bilba!" Kili dashed down the walkway and seized her arm in his. With a cheeky nod to the elf, who had broken out into giggles again, he pulled her away.
"Kili!" she squeaked, as he manhandled her to a deserted hallway. "Let me go!"
Immediately her feet met the floor, and a pair of pleading blue eyes locked onto hers with disturbing accuracy. "Bilba, I need your help! Please?"
Half drowned kittens could not emulate even half the adorable pitying look on that cursed dwarf's face.
The hobbit groaned and resisted the urge to bang her head against something. "What do you want?"
Kili pulled open his coat and dug around in the inner pocket, before shoving something small and warm into her hands. Bilba squeaked again when the pink thing wriggled and blinked at the sudden change in light.
"Ah, no! Don't drop him!" Kili flinched to catch the thing, but Bilba's hands remained steady.
"Kili, what is it?" she said, trying to keep her voice quiet.
The thing mumbled in displeasure at the same time Kili pouted. "He's not an 'it', this is Rufus! He's my naked mole rat!"
"Right," Bilba prodded 'Rufus' experimentally, mindful of his sharp teeth. "Why is he here?"
"Uncle told me to leave him at home," the young dwarf looked sheepish, "but I couldn't just leave him behind! He gets lonely without me."
Bilba tried not to groan. "And I suppose you need me to look after him-"
"Until Fili can distract Uncle Thorin long enough for me to sneak him back into my pack," Kili agreed. "He eats roots and vegetables mostly."
She sighed, and reluctantly tucked the rodent into her coat. "You owe me."
Kili grinned widely and pulled her into a hug. "I knew I could count on you!"
"You are such a child," she huffed when he released her.
"You wouldn't look much older than me, even with a beard!"
Bilba rolled her eyes. All of amadel's children had looked much younger than their years would indicate, at least by hobbit standards. Perhaps the dwarven blood extended their lifespan beyond the norm, Bilba wasn't sure. None of Kayli's descendants had yet died of natural causes, leading many in the Shire to believe her blood cursed.
Belladonna had been the only one brave enough to disregard superstition and visit, after her mother had tried so hard so distance herself from the old dwarf before marrying the Old Took. Belladonna's death seemed to only encourage the other hobbit's whispers.
Heartbreak, blood, and vanishing: that was Bilba's legacy. The folk in Hobbiton would probably break open her will the moment her departure on this mad quest was discovered.
She shook her head smartly to derail her train of thought. "I'm past fifty, quite a respectable age for a hobbit."
"Really?" Kili looked delighted. "Well I'm past seventy, so there!" He stuck his tongue out at her."
"It's like you don't want me to help you," Bilba said dryly.
"Oh please don't change your mind!"
She shooed him away. "I won't! Now scat, before you are missed."
Rufus remained as her pocket companion until the dwarves left Rivendell. In that time, Bilba decided that while the creature was not conventionally appealing, there was something quite cute about it's wrinkled appearance. She was almost, almost mind you, reluctant to return him to Kili when the journey resumed.
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A/N:
Finally those elvin word translations have context.
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Review Replies
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To: LXS
Yes, Billa needs a hug. I'm trying to convey that the reason she went on the quest was because she thinks her grandmother would want her to. It is her way of mourning her death. So, yes, lots of hugs needed.
The gems have context, sort of. First, they show how rich Bilba is to everyone who is not a hobbit. She's got piles of diamonds and rubies in her house, and doesn't find much value in them besides how shiny they are. To the dwarves, however, she appears like some kind of baroness, with her braids, riches, relation to the Shire's ruler, and land. She has no idea about this though. Second, they show off her grandmother's ability to find treasure on a whim.
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To: Dreams2Paper11
Yeah, I get what you mean about Kayli not sounding dwarvish. I wanted something that did not sound too foreign to the reader, and didn't want it to sound too pretentious. Is there like a dwarf name creation site or something?
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Dwarvish translations
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amadel - mother of all mothers. Closest word I could find to grandmother.
khajimel- gift of all gifts. I use it as an endearment, like when people say a child is a 'gift from above.'
urjukhudh - color. Here I'm using it to mean something like luster.
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Elvish Translations
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kalina - light
taurn - high
n'taurn - low
taurn kalina - high light, aka: ultraviolet, ect. I made up this concept based on science.
n'taurn kalina - low light, aka: red light spectrum, radio waves, ect. I made up this concept based on science.