Disclaimer: I do not own The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, or any associated characters or concepts. Consider it disclaimed. Quotes in this chapter taken directly from The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien.

Summary: On the way to the Undying Lands, Billa is eaten by a time-traveling sea monster. The elves on board attack the monster in retaliation, and it escapes by swimming into the past: several decades into the past. Billa wakes up in a sweat, gasping and frightened, only to realize that she is back in her thirty-three-year old body. What on earth is she going to do?


Chapter 3

Billa woke up slowly, the stiffness in her back and the encroaching sunlight through the study window dancing in the background of her mind and pulling her into awareness. Oh yes, she thought, that's right. I fainted in the study. How silly of me.

She sat up, stretching out the kinks from spending several hours on the hard wood floor. Then, she clambered up into her desk chair, and stared at her papers. She needed a plan.

"I don't know what to do," she announced to the dust motes dancing in the sunlight. "However it happened, this is a tremendous opportunity and I don't want to spoil it." She leaned back in her chair, fingers steepled thoughtfully. "It would be lovely if I could find a way to start the quest early so as not to spend the next eighteen years in boredom. However, if I want to find the Ring again, I need to get us into the Misty Mountains as close to the original date as possible. There is no guarantee that I would be able to slip away the same way, or fall off into the exact same spot, or that Gollum would be there. Indeed, I doubt he drops his ring every day! Either I get there on the right day, or I have to be prepared to take it from him, and that is something I would rather avoid."

Having pondered this, she began to make a list. It looked something like this.

Things I Want to Change \ Things That Cannot Change

No one dies! \ Misty Mountains capture

Gold sickness- is that possible? \...

Relations with the elves\...

She knew the list was far from complete. She'd like to change their Mirkwood imprisonment as well, to improve relations with the elves of course, but on the other hand, she was loathe to give up the chance to rescue them. Hmmm... she thought. I have plenty of time to decide. Then a thought occurred to her, and she laughed out loud.

"I don't want to give up my chances to rescue them because that was when I was finally accepted! I was no longer seen as the weak little burden, but as a valuable and capable member of the company. Perhaps... if I can make it happen...If I were accepted from the start, it would be a good deal easier and there would be far less rescuing necessary. Mmm... Yes! That will be my goal for now." Indeed, a devious plot was brewing in her mind.

She couldn't change the date of the quest, because she needed to find the Ring. However, there was no reason she had to wait until the company came knocking in order to meet them, was there? No, she thought gleefully, no reason to wait at all!

She dashed around the office, gathering up her financial books and scrolls. Back at the desk, she spread them out and pored over them. The Bagginses had always been particularly well off, and she had inherited from both of her parents, and had spent hardly any of it. Yes, she thought, I have plenty of funds to start a 'business venture' of sorts. All that's left is to find my dwarves and convince them. I can buy toys from Bifur and Bofur to sell to fauntlings in the Shire. Thorin worked as a blacksmith, and there are forges in the Shire where he could ply his trade. But they were all wanderers, and I have no idea exactly where to find them. Nevertheless, find them and befriend them, I most certainly will.

She updated her list, now hoping to change the capture by elves and being hunted by orcs, as well as the first meeting at Bag End when she had been so flustered by them. She wanted to change the fate of Lake Town and find a way to kill Smaug without sacrificing hundreds of innocents in the process. She had eighteen years, after all. If there was a way, she could surely find it. And that last bloody battle, where Men and Elves and her brave Dwarves fought together... this most of all she hoped to change.

She spent the morning making plans, scribbling figures onto parchment and poring over maps. On their journey, they had traveled in a fairly straight line directly east from the Shire. The Blue Mountains, where her dwarves had settled in Ered Luin, were to the west and a little bit North. It was the journey of a few weeks, and she hardly had the supplies for it. It was a very long journey and there was no guarantee that her dwarves would be there. Perhaps, she thought, as she looked at the map once more, I will go first to Bree. I can get my feet wet, so to speak and get used to traveling again. And some of my dwarves may be there for trade, or I may hear news of them there. She nodded her head decisively. She would travel to Bree and get a feel for things.

She stretched as she stood up, arching her back and craning her limbs this way and that. How wonderful it was to move without the aches and pains of old age! To stand up straight, firm and tall as one was able, and to walk without a cane. Yes, to be young again was marvelous indeed. She skipped lightly around her smial, humming as she set out things to pack for her journey. A bedroll, a waterskin, nonperishables, her toughest clothes. She spent half an hour looking for Sting before remembering it was still waiting in a troll-hoard for her. Hmm. Something to buy or have forged, if I can find Thorin. As she thought about it further, she added a mail-coat or light armor to that list. And knives. Ha! I doubt Thorin's ever forged a set of weapons for a hobbit, she smirked to herself. Perhaps I should ease him in gently. She went to the kitchen to find her oldest and most battered set of pans to add to her bag, already planning how to needle at his pride and goad him into working with her. While she was there, she paused to dance a hobbit-jig, just because she could.

It would be a week's journey to walk to Bree, less if she bought a pony. She wishy-washed over that for a while, before deciding to trust her own feet for this little adventure.

Remembering how she came home to an auction last time she left on an adventure, Billa took precautions. She penned two notes, one for her gardener Halfast, and one for her oldest living uncle on her mother's side, Isumbras IV.

Dear Uncle/Mister Gamgee,

I've decided I need a little fresh air, and am taking a leisurely walking tour through the country. I may be gone for a few weeks or up to a few months. I'd appreciate it if you could keep an eye out on things while I'm gone. I'll try to send you a note every few weeks so as not to worry you.

Thank you ever so!

Billa Baggins

She folded and stamped each one, taking them down to the mailbox. She took a moment there to just stare out at the Shire, the endless, rolling green with little plumes of smoke rising from industrious little chimneys to mingle with the clouds. It had been twenty years since she looked on this view with clear eyes. It was still just as beautiful and peaceful as she remembered. The sun was falling near the horizon, and she wiped a tear from the corner of her eye before carefully settling herself (still in her nightgown and wrapped in a dressing gown! How scandalous) onto her front-porch bench to enjoy a beautiful sight that she hadn't seen in so very long.

After the sun had set, she dried a few more tears and shuffled back into her smial. She finished packing, rolling everything up tightly and stuffing it into an old sack. She would have to replace almost everything at Bree, for all she had were thin substitutes of real traveling gear.

Everything was packed, and she smoothed her hand over the worn bag. She set her sturdiest walking stick beside it- her only weapon until she got to Bree. Finally, she retired to bed, washing her face and brushing her hair before climbing into the so-soft bed. Nobody dies, she reminded herself, nobody dies. With visions of tall, broad figures with beards, and one little hobbit fauntling with dark curls and wide blue eyes dancing behind her eyes, she fell asleep with a smile on her face.