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 5
Bree had several inns and twice that many pubs, and Billa knew she would have a long night seeking information. She started by asking at each inn if there were any dwarves staying with them, saying that she had been traveling with a group of dwarves but they had gotten separated and she knew they intended to stop in Bree. All of the inns answered negatively, and she decided she would ask at the Prancing Pony after checking the pubs. She started at one end of the long main road in Bree, and planned to go pub to pub up the road, and then back down the other side.
Before she met the company, she had never frequented a pub like these in her life. A trip to the Green Dragon was very different from these rough, dim places! But, the company had been through several spots like these, both in Bree and Laketown. Bofur and Nori had whispered into her ear many tricks about the goings-on at pubs, and she knew what she ought to do in order to gather information in the most efficient and polite way possible.
She began by going up to the bartender, showing him a coin, and saying she was looking for dwarves from the Blue Mountains, would he have any information? The bartender at The Crown shook his oily head, smiling with yellow teeth and saying that dwarves and little folk didn't often come in the door.
"Well then, good man, which doors do they often go into?" she asked smartly, feeling several hard eyes drilling into her back and thinking that perhaps little folk didn't come in this door for a very good reason. He raised an eyebrow, and she put two coins down on the counter. He smiled again and told her with his rough accent that the smaller folk usually stayed in the pubs around the Prancing Pony, as it had the best accommodations for folk of their size, and there was an old forge on that end of town that some of the travelling blacksmiths would use. As he spoke, she could feel and hear several large, tall persons walking up behind her, looming over her and breathing heavily.
Billa thanked him promptly, hopped down from the counter, and ducked under and around the Big Folk who had started to surround her stool until she was safely outside. She swerved into an alley and into the shadows, putting her back against the wall and breathing hard. Those eyes had felt predatory, and it had been a long time since she had felt like prey. She gripped her walking stick tightly and took a few experimental swings with it. It was no Sting, but she could crack a few heads with it, and it was long enough to even out the disparity of her short hobbit arms versus larger, taller attackers. She felt a little safer as she thought of this.
It was just as she was having these thoughts that she heard a shout, a yelp, and a scuffle out on the street. Warily, she peered around the corner. Then, she gaped.
Kili, sister-son of Thorin son of Thrain son of Thror, King Under the Mountain, was just a few yards away! What's more, he was being waylaid by several men larger and stronger than him, with no other dwarves in sight. Kili had always been poorer at hand-to-hand combat, and his nose was already bloodied. He was unarmed, but his face was set in a glare that rivaled Thorin's, and she could see that he didn't mean to back down. She could also see knives glinting in the hands of his attackers, and before she knew it, she was charging into the fray with a battle cry, waving her walking stick with a ferocity that she hadn't felt since she was on the quest with Thorin Oakenshield and Company.
Surprise was on her side, as was determination and her natural protective instincts. She struck two attackers in the head with her stick, bloodying a nose and an ear before thrusting her stick like a pike into the stomachs of two others. Those four groaned and either toppled to the ground or curled up around their injuries, staying well out of the fight. One more remained, and he had blood on his fist that had likely come from Kili's nose. Rage burned in her veins when she saw that.
"Get away from my nephew, you filthy louts!" she snarled, jabbing her stick towards them. "Get out of here!"
The leader sneered at her, shaking that bloody fist in her direction. "That there is a dwarf you're protecting, stupid halfling. Go get your eyes checked and stay out of this," he said.
"I don't care if he is a dwarf or a dragon," she spat at him, "This is five against one, and I will not stand for it. Get out of here before I whack your skull in, you treacherous weasel." One of the men she had socked in the stomach came at her with a knife, and this time her stick batted the knife out of his hand and then smashed him right in the nose. He fell like a stone, and she whirled her stick back again to menace the leader, who finally conceded the battle, but not without some parting words.
"Watch out, dwarf boy. You won't always have a stupid halfling to protect you. Stay away from here, or we'll be watching," he sneered. He stood firm while his thugs stumbled away, holding a tense staring contest. Billa didn't look away. Finally, he backed off, turning to enter the pub Billa had just vacated.
After a moment or so, Billa relaxed and turned to look at the young, dark-haired, beardless dwarf who had wormed his way into her heart almost as quickly as Frodo had. He had a hand clutched over his bleeding nose, and he was gaping at her with a mixture of relief, suspicion, and embarrassment. After enduring a minute of his gaping, Billa quickly realized she would have to break the silence.
"I hope you are not really injured, Master Dwarf. Are you traveling with anyone who can see to your nose? How bad is it?" She asked kindly, trying to ignore the nerves starting up as her adrenaline faded. Even as young as he was now, at perhaps 59 or 60, he still was a few inches taller than her and several inches broader. She fumbled in her pocket and produced a handkerchief, before tenderly prying his hand away from his nose and turning his face this way and that to inspect his nose in the dim lamplight.
"It doesn't look broken," she informed him as she gently pressed the handkerchief to his nose to stop the blood flow. His hand settled back over his nose automatically and she patted his shoulder kindly. Still, he gaped at her. She wanted to ask him where he was staying and if she could walk him back, but she rather doubted he would speak for a few more minutes, so she had to think of something else.
"Well, Master Dwarf, it's dark and it's not safe for a lass like me to be out alone this late at night." His eyes bulged to discover his rescuer was, in fact, female. She continued cheerfully, "Would you be so kind as to escort me safely back to my lodgings at the Prancing Pony?"
Eyes wide, he only just managed a nod. She took his arm like a courting pair of lovers, whereupon his eyes bulged again, and started to walk towards the Prancing Pony. She smirked inside at rendering the young dwarf so speechless. She had no doubt that he had snuck out to explore against Thorin's wishes and had bitten off more than he could chew on the wrong side of town, and she was very glad that she had been there to help him, for she was really quite fond of him. Still, remembering the way he had teased her in the early days of the Company, she was quite pleased to have shocked him. As they walked quietly, and he darted wide-eyed and confused glances at her, she smiled and hoped that meetings with the rest of the Company would go just as favorably as this one had.
