Disclaimer: I do not own The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, or any associated characters or concepts. Quotes in this chapter taken directly from The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien.
Note: In this chapter, Thorin finds an unconventional way of taking revenge for what he sees as her charity to his nephews. Poor Billa's cheeks just won't stop blushing! Smug!Thorin.
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 12
The next few days followed a pattern. She would wake up clean and refreshed, and then spend a few hours with Fili and Kili wandering around the town and the surrounding hills so as to keep her feet used to heavy walking. Then, when Thorin or Dis (once, it was Dwalin!) tracked them down, she would invite the newcomer to lunch with her.
Thorin and Dis tended to ignore her. Dwalin stared at her for a moment, surprised by her friendliness, but finally said, "Not today, lassie," before dragging the lads away. Then she would wander down to the stables and ask to exercise a pony. At first she had to leave a deposit, but after a few days she could get away with just a smile and some conversation from the old ostler. He taught her some tricks to handling the pony, and once he spent two whole hours working with her until she could mount the pony all by herself. She was so pleased that she brought him a cake the next time she came to see him. His name was Bill.
Two days after she commissioned the pans, she started popping into the forge to ask how they were coming. At first he would just grunt and then ignore her. When she loitered stubbornly, holding out for conversation, he would finally pause and tell her to come back in a few days. Then she would take her leave, but only until the next day.
However, Thorin never seemed to wear a shirt in the heat of the forge, which so flustered her that she started coming earlier and earlier, trying to catch him wearing a tunic in the cooler morning air. Once she came just a few minutes after he had first entered the forge, when the the sun was low and the morning air was chilly. He had been clothed when she followed him from the Prancing Pony, and she held high hopes that she would finally be able to talk at him without distraction. She had only just walked through the door when she saw him reach down and strip off the shirt, his back muscles rippling in a breath-taking display that made her heart pound and left her dizzy. It was one thing to walk in on a shirtless man. It was another thing entirely to watch him take his shirt off! She couldn't hear anything except the pounding of her heart in her ears as she fled the forge. She tried to take refuge with Fili and Kili, but Thorin came to collect them almost right away, and worse, he still wasn't wearing a shirt! She squeaked and, blushing, made her apologies to the boys before fleeing his presence. It was too much!
She took refuge in the stable and the old ostler found her hiding in one of the stalls. Bill took one look at her flaming cheeks and her distraught expression before offering to thump whichever lad was bothering her.
"It-it's not quite like that, Mister Bill," she said, wringing her hands. "It's just- he just-" It was so embarrassing, and hard to say. She forced it out. "He just keeps taking off his tunic! And it's so embarrassing, and I don't know where to look, and he's just so smug about it!" She was angry now, and punched a bale of hay with a scowl as she vented to Bill.
Bill had the good sense to hide his laughter behind his hand as he listened. This definitely wasn't the problem he had imagined. He listened for a few minutes more as she ranted about stubborn dwarves and their stupid muscles. It was only when she started to sniffle in distress about how things weren't going at all to plan that he interrupted her.
Bill gently patted her shoulder and produced two brushes from his many pockets. "Come here, lass, and brush out Myrtle with me while I think of some advice for you." She sniffled and nodded, wiping her eyes with a pocket-handkerchief before taking the brush. The pony was warm, and soft, and knickered quietly as both tall old ostler and short young hobbit brushed and rubbed her. The rhythmic motions helped to relax Billa, and her face eventually returned to her natural coloring.
Finally, Bill knew what to say. "It's like this, lass," he started, "Right now, you're the pony and he's holding the reins. He knows exactly what to do to get a certain reaction from you. He kicks in his heels, and you bolt, just like he wants. So you have two options. You can either keep bolting when he kicks in his heels, or you can start bucking. Throw him off and take back the reins, lass!" He gently patted her curly little head. "You're a sweet lass and you deserve the world. But you're also fierce, and you know how to take what you want. Don't be afraid to knock him down a few pegs. If he's a good man, he'll respect you for it, and you deserve a good man. All right lass?" he asked.
Billa couldn't contain herself. She hugged Bill as tight as she could. "Thank you Mister Bill. I'm so glad you're here. May I take out a pony for an extra-long ride today? I'll be leaving in a few days and I want to get over the saddle-soreness."
Bill smiled and patted her head. "Of course, lass. Just come back every few hours and I'll have a new pony saddled and ready for you. You're getting the hang of it! I'm very proud of you."
Billa beamed and held him tighter. A few minutes later, she was up on a pony, trotting through Bree and plotting how best to take the reins back from a too-smug dwarf who deserved to be kicked in the shins.
