The author of this FanFiction owns no storylines or characters that belong to the original creator of The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings.
"Kamathi!" Bilbo exclaimed, poking his head into the nursery, where the princess was supposed to be, but was not. The Hobbit let out a frustrated grunt and retreated back into the main parlor, wriggling his nose.
Where could the child be? She was only four, and rising to the height of his knee. She couldn't have gone far.
Could she?
"Oh, dear," Bilbo murmured as the thought settled, and he quickly dashed into the main bedchamber. "Kamathi?" He peered under the bed, hoping that she was merely playing a game that he had not been clued into, but she was not there, either.
"Ooh…" Bilbo cursed a bit and started to sit up again.
"Looking for something?"
The Hobbit hit his head on the bed as someone spoke and startled him. He groaned and rubbed at the bump before turning and looking at whoever it was that had spoken.
Gandalf was standing there with his hands on top of his staff, gazing down at him, an eyebrow raised.
Bilbo huffed a bit and settled onto his knees. "I don't know where Kamathi's gone," he admitted, glancing around the bedchamber.
Gandalf sighed to himself and tapped on the floor with his staff. Immediately, one of the walls of the bedchamber seemed to slide open, and a laughing Kamathi stumbled out of it, pushing her hair back out of her eyes.
"Unca Bilbo!" she exclaimed happily when she saw the Hobbit sitting on the floor. Immediately, she ran across the room and dove into his lap, and Bilbo grunted a bit from the force, glaring at Gandalf all the while. Kamathi nuzzled into his neck, and his glare faded.
"What did I tell you?" Bilbo asked her, exhaling. "You aren't supposed to hide where I can't find you."
"But then it's not hiding," Kamathi responded with a yawn.
Bilbo shook his head to himself, but all the same hugged her closer, glancing up at Gandalf again. The wizard was watching Kamathi with a bemused expression, halfway between worry and pride. The young Dwarf-Hobbit had faded away into sleep, which was a blessing, considering Bilbo had been trying to find her in order to put her down for a nap.
He managed to scoop her up into his arms and carry her out of the bedchamber and to her own, Gandalf trailing after them. When Kamathi was in her bed, Bilbo retreated from the room, closing the door part way behind him. He then turned to Gandalf and crossed his arms, foot tapping.
"What?" the wizard asked, frowning at him.
"You cannot encourage things like that," Bilbo replied, gesturing in the direction of the bedchamber. "If Cheyanne and Thorin knew that she was doing that…"
"She isn't going far, Bilbo," Gandalf said, settling down into an armchair with a sigh.
"No, but she's still opening portals, and it's dangerous!" Bilbo retorted. "Soon enough, Vicuthar will catch on, and he'll take advantage of these little hiding games she plays."
Gandalf shook his head. "If she's hiding, he can't find her, can he?"
"What?" Bilbo asked, sinking down into an armchair of his own.
"Kamathi goes through her portals to Earth, and then they close," Gandalf explained. "She hides them, essentially. If she can hide them from us, she is obviously hiding them from Vicuthar as well, which is partially the reason he has not yet found her."
Bilbo's frown deepened. "So, what you're saying is that Vicuthar is only drawn to open portals," he said slowly.
"Yes," Gandalf replied with a nod. "As long as Kamathi remembers to close them, there should be no problem."
Bilbo snorted. "Aside from the fact that Cheyanne is going to lose her mind when she realizes." He blinked. "And Thorin is not going to be happy, either."
"Not going to be happy about what?" Both Hobbit and wizard turned to find Fili standing in the open doorway of the apartment, his arms crossed.
"Nothing," Bilbo mumbled, sliding out of the chair. "Are you here to take over?"
"That's what I was told," Fili responded, stepping into the room.
"Thank you," Bilbo said. "She just went down for a nap, but with her energy, I don't expect it to last much longer than a half hour." He exhaled and looked between Gandalf and Fili. "I'm going to try and take a nap of my own."
The two of them watched the Hobbit leave the apartment, the door closing behind him. Fili then turned to Gandalf with a raised eyebrow, and the wizard sighed to himself.
"She's learning on her own," he said. "I haven't said anything to her about it."
"And yet… she knows how to close them," Fili commented. "Seems a bit suspicious, don't you think?"
Gandalf narrowed his eyes. "It seems that the child understands what she is capable of doing," he corrected dryly.
"Of course," Fili said, holding up his hands. "That's all it is, most definitely."
Gandalf frowned to himself as he watched Fili poke his head into the nursery, and then close the door a bit more, before turning back to the wizard. "Does she know where she goes?" he queried.
"I do not believe so," Gandalf answered. "I don't doubt she just believes it to be another part of the mountain."
"Well, as long as she doesn't know, and closes them behind her… we don't have anything to worry about," Fili said. "Right?"
Gandalf shook his head. "We have no way of knowing. Vicuthar is more powerful on Earth than I had thought he would be."
Fili lowered his gaze to the floor, seeming to consider something. After a moment, he looked up. "Maybe we should tell Cheyanne and Thorin," he said.
"Not an option," Gandalf replied.
"Why not?" Fili asked him. "They are her parents, Gandalf. Don't they deserve to know?"
"To know that their daughter is unknowingly putting herself and the entirety of Middle-earth at risk, and that there is nothing we can do about it?" Gandalf returned. Fili blinked at him, and looked down again. "No," Gandalf said. "I don't believe it is a good idea to tell them."
Because they were busy talking, neither noticed when the door to the nursery opened just the slightest bit. Kamathi poked her head out and glanced around, spotting her cousin and the wizard sitting together. They weren't looking in her direction, and she slipped out of her room before scurrying across the parlor to the door of the apartment.
Without hesitating, she jumped up and struggled to latch onto the door handle. She missed the first time, and she landed with a small grunt. Huffing, the young Dwarf-Hobbit climbed back up to her feet and jumped again. This time, she managed to get the handle, and she landed back on her toes. Pulling as hard as she could, she managed to get the heavy door open just wide enough for her to stick her arm through and push it open further.
Kamathi slid her way through the gap and out into the hallway on the other side. She glanced first one way, and then the other. She'd never been out of the apartment on her own before, which meant the places she had gone exploring weren't many. She had the ambition to change that.
She headed down the left side of the hall, skipping a bit. She didn't know what she was going to find, but she hoped that she'd finally figure out where the place with all the books was. She wanted to be able to show it to Bilbo, who didn't seem to think she was telling the truth whenever she talked about it.
She didn't know if it was an actual place in the mountain, however. She'd only ever gotten to it while in the nursery.
She'd barely made it to the end of the corridor before she heard the sound of heavy boots hitting the floor further down the hall. Kamathi froze, and glanced over her shoulder. She didn't know if she should attempt to get back to the apartment without being caught, or just stay and wait for whoever it was coming down the hall to find her.
With a tiny sigh, the princess settled down on the floor to wait.
"Ah." She glanced up at the voice, and saw Dwalin was the one approaching. He paused a few steps away from where she sat, and glanced over his shoulder. "I think your daughter was trying to escape."
Uh oh.
Cheyanne stepped around Dwalin, and exhaled at the sight of Kamathi seated on the floor.
Her daughter met her gaze, and Cheyanne shook her head to herself when she saw the defeated expression on Kamathi's face.
"Who was watching you?" she queried. "I know it wasn't Bilbo; he would've never let you get this far."
Kamathi rose unsteadily to her feet and started to toddle away from her mother, arms out. "I wanna see -"
Cheyanne easily caught up with her daughter, and lifted her into the air. "Kamathi, you have to stay here," she scolded lightly. "You could easily get lost, and we don't want that happening."
"Not lost," Kamathi stated after a moment.
Cheyanne, taking that as an agreement to her statement rather than an argument, smiled and turned, carrying Kamathi back to the apartment.
Already, both Gandalf and Fili were racing around the system of connected rooms, obviously looking for the princess.
Cheyanne and Dwalin exchanged a glance, and then Cheyanne cleared her throat.
Immediately, Fili, who had been crouched on the floor and looking under the only sofa in the parlor, sat up and glanced over his shoulder towards her, relief covering his face as soon as he saw she carried Kamathi in her arms.
"Gandalf, I found her," he called, rising to his feet.
"You found her?" Cheyanne questioned, raising an eyebrow.
"Well… in theory," Fili responded, shrugging.
Gandalf appeared from the main bedchamber, and he rested his staff on the ground, giving Kamathi an accusatory look that the child much too easily understood for her tender age. She responded by sticking out her tongue at him.
Cheyanne set her down on the floor, and gestured towards the nursery. "Room, now," she ordered.
Kamathi dragged her feet as she walked across the parlor towards the partially opened door of the nursery, and she quietly stepped inside it.
Gandalf took one look at Cheyanne's expression, saw the fire in her eyes, and closed the door with a wave of his staff. Just in time, too, because Cheyanne was crossing her arms, eyes narrowing.
"How did she manage to get past two of you?" the queen demanded.
"She's small," Fili said when Gandalf didn't speak.
"Not good enough," Cheyanne growled. She stalked forward until she could poke Gandalf in the chest. "I know that you have been letting her do whatever she wants whenever you can get away with it, but this isn't one of your stories." She pointed towards the closed nursery door. "That is my daughter, not one of your characters. You cannot treat her as such, do you hear me?"
"I -"
"No." Cheyanne held up her hand to cut him off. "I don't want you to try and explain anything. Just… stop treating all this as though it's simply something that's happening in a book. It may be that way for you, but for me, and for Thorin, and for her…" She gestured towards the nursery again. "... this is real, Gandalf, and I don't want anything happening to her. She is not your title character, and so you leave her out of whatever it is you plan on writing next."
Gandalf gazed at her for a long moment without speaking, and Cheyanne stared right back, her fists clenched at her sides.
Finally, the wizard exhaled. "Cheyanne, your daughter is what I'm writing next," he told her.
Cheyanne's eyes hardened even further, if that was possible. "Find something else."
"There is nothing else," Gandalf retorted. "You and Thorin are what I wrote, and Kamathi is the product of that. Therefore, I wrote her, too, and I'll be writing her until she chooses to continue writing her story on her own." Gandalf moved both hands to his staff, and gave Cheyanne a steady look. "Only she can decide that, however, just as you did."
Cheyanne seemed ready to smack him, but before she could, a gentle hand took hold of her wrist, and pulled her away from the wizard a few paces. She relaxed only when Thorin placed his arm around her waist, and turned her so that he could pull her against his chest.
"Must you always make things so complicated?" he asked Gandalf, who shrugged.
"It's the way it all works," he said.
Thorin sighed, and passed his hand through Cheyanne's hair. "You must know that he would never put Kamathi in any danger, don't you?" he murmured to the queen.
Cheyanne didn't reply, and Thorin glanced over at Fili. "Your mother is looking for you," he said.
Fili nodded, and gazed at Cheyanne a moment longer before he exited the apartment. Thorin shuffled Cheyanne towards Dwalin.
"Why don't you take her down to the library?" Thorin suggested. "I need to speak with Gandalf."
Dwalin stepped forward and took her arm, moving Cheyanne towards the door of the apartment. "Come on, Chey," he mumbled, glancing back over his shoulder towards Thorin, who offered him a nod.
Dwalin led Cheyanne out of the apartment, closing the door behind him, and then Thorin turned to look at Gandalf, scowling only slightly.
"Thorin…"
"I do not want to know why you write the things you do," Thorin said before Gandalf could speak further. "I only want to know why you cannot leave us alone while you do so."
"You are the things I write, Thorin," Gandalf said. "I have not meddled in your life or Cheyanne's since I helped cure her. Now, however, I must keep a hand in Kamathi's life, or I fear bad things will happen."
"And you're not planning on causing any of those bad things yourself?" Thorin questioned, crossing his arms.
"I will not put your daughter in immediate danger," Gandalf promised. "I care for her, just as I care for Cheyanne. I merely want to write what's necessary for her life to follow a particular path."
"Why can't you let lives follow whatever paths they want to follow?"
"If I did that, you and Cheyanne would not be together," Gandalf responded sharply. "In fact, you would be dead, and so would your nephews. Would you have preferred that?"
Thorin gazed at him for a moment, and then he turned away. "No," he said quietly.
"Then let me do what I must to make sure your daughter receives the same happy ending as you and your wife." Gandalf took a step towards Thorin. "I promise you that all that will happen does so with my best intentions."
Thorin let out a breath. "Can she open portals on her own?" he asked, glancing over at Gandalf. The wizard hesitated a moment, before he nodded, once. The king looked down again. "We cannot tell Cheyanne."
"No," Gandalf agreed, "we cannot."
Thorin nodded to himself, and looked towards the nursery. "She does not understand what she can do, or where she goes."
"No," Gandalf said again. "And she won't, for now."
"For now." Thorin released a mirthless chuckle. "That's a nice thought."
"Perhaps you should speak with her," Gandalf suggested, nodding towards the nursery.
"She's four."
"And what she understands already is far beyond any other child her age."
Thorin had to admit that much was true.
He stepped towards the nursery, and pushed the door open. Kamathi was seated on the edge of her bed, and she looked up when the door opened. Immediately, her eyes lit up when she saw him, and she scooted off of her bed and hurried across the room to where he was.
"'adad!"
Thorin leaned down and scooped her up when she reached him. He spun her around in a circle, and then held her away from him, unable to keep from smiling.
"Hello, kurkarukê," he greeted.
Kamathi responded by reaching forward and wrapping her arms around his neck, sighing happily.
Thorin pressed his hand to the back of her head and closed his eyes, wanting nothing more than to keep her in his arms and safe from whatever Gandalf's future for her had in store. He knew that Kamathi would come through it all just fine, because Gandalf wanted her to, but still, as a father, Thorin could only worry.
Kamathi murmured something, and Thorin held her away from him. "What did you say?" he asked her.
"Is Mama mad?"
"No," Thorin replied, smiling again. "No, of course not."
"She yelled."
"I know, but it wasn't about you," Thorin told his daughter.
Kamathi frowned at him, and Thorin exhaled. "Kamathi, have you… have you been… going places without someone with you?"
The princess blinked, then her frown evaporated, and she gave her father a big grin. "Books!"
"Books," Thorin repeated.
Kamathi nodded vigorously. "Books!" she said again. "Unca Bilbo says no, but books!" She struggled to get out of Thorin's arms, and the King set her down on the floor. Grunting, Kamathi climbed to her feet and waddled towards one of the walls of the nursery.
Thorin watched as she planted her feet in front of it, and then she pressed her hands together before spreading them apart, as though she were opening the doors of a cabinet, or a box. As she did so, the wall seemed to open. It parted with a flash of natural light that was not coming from the window, and Thorin let out a breath when he saw where Kamathi had opened a portal.
"Dreamer's," he said quietly, stepping towards the portal.
Kamathi looked up at her father with a wide smile, obviously pleased. "Books!" she said exuberantly, gesturing towards the portal.
"I see them," Thorin assured, crouching down beside her. He peered through the portal, examining the shelves of the bookstore. All of them were indeed covered with books, and although they was severely outnumbered by the amount of books in Erebor's library, there were a lot of them.
Somewhere on the other side of the portal, there was a small ding. Thorin stiffened, and glanced down at Kamathi, whose eyes were glittering.
"Kamathi, kurkarukê, I need you to close this," Thorin whispered to her.
She looked up at him, the light in her eyes fading away to be replaced by confusion. "No," she said stubbornly.
"Yes," Thorin persisted. "Close it. Now."
"Thorin?"
The king glanced up towards the portal again, and saw Jon Davenport standing on the other side, eyes wide. Sighing, Thorin straightened up, picking up Kamathi as well.
"Hello, Jon," he greeted.
"Hi," Jon returned after a moment. "What… what are you doing?"
"Kamathi opened a portal," Thorin answered. "She wanted to show me the books."
Jon looked at the dark haired child that Thorin was holding. "That's Kamathi? But… she's…" He shook his head. "I don't understand."
Jon had seen Kamathi two months ago, when he'd read her the book. She had been much smaller, and her hair had only reached the nape of her neck. Now it was past her shoulders.
"Time must pass differently in your world and ours," Thorin said. "I wish we could talk further, but… I do not know how long we can have this open before Vicuthar comes."
"Right, right," Jon replied quickly. "I just… wow." He shook his head. "She's beautiful, Thorin. You and Cheyanne are doing a great job."
Thorin had to smile at that. "Thank you," he said. He then looked down at Kamathi, who was watching Jon closely, as though she knew who she was, but had no idea why. "I would explain, but…"
"But it's not safe," Jon said for him. "I get it. It's fine."
Thankfully, Gandalf came into the nursery at that moment, and he crossed the room to where Thorin stood before the portal.
"Good to see you, Jon," he greeted, stepping through the portal. He looked back at Thorin. "Take Kamathi out of the room, and the portal will close on its own."
Thorin nodded, and then he frowned. "You're staying?"
"Not for long. I'll be back."
"Fine," Thorin said, and then he turned and carried Kamathi away from the portal. As soon as they were out of the nursery, the portal closed, returning to the normal wall of Dreamer's that Jon was used to. He reached out and touched it with the tip of his finger, shaking his head in disbelief.
"I can't believe she's gotten so big," he said to Gandalf. "I just saw her two months ago, and she was… smaller."
"Yes, well, one year for us in Middle-earth is only a month here," Gandalf explained. "Now, Jonathan, we have a few things to discuss."
"Right, well…" Jon shrugged. "I haven't seen robe or hair of Vicuthar, so that's good. Uh… I had no idea that she was opening portals in the shop, but now I do, so there's that, too…"
"Jonathan." He looked at the wizard, and Gandalf exhaled. "I know this must be quite a surprise to you… considering what Cheyanne's decision was, the last time you saw us."
"But you're the writer, and you can do whatever the hell you want when it comes to them, right?"
Gandalf sighed. "That is not the point," he said as calmly as he could manage. "The point is… Thorin knows that Kamathi can open portals, but Cheyanne does not."
"And…?" Jon queried, not seeing what Gandalf was trying to tell him.
"And… she will not know, for as long as we can keep it hidden," Gandalf concluded. "Which means that you must not tell Kamathi who you are, if she ever asks."
"You don't trust her not to tell her mother?"
"Jon, Kamathi is everything her mother is, and more," Gandalf told him. He smiled a bit. "It's remarkable, in fact, just how alike she and Cheyanne are."
Jon swallowed. "I know," he whispered. "I… I know."
Gandalf offered him a sympathetic look, but his voice was stern: "You must not tell her who you are, because if you do, she will tell her mother about you, and what must occur will not."
Jon exhaled shakily, and wiped at his eyes, which were filling with tears. "What needs to happen?" he asked, looking at Gandalf.
"That is for me to know, and for you to react to when it does." Jon glanced downwards, and Gandalf placed his hand on his shoulder. "Promise me, Jon. You will not tell Kamathi who you are."
Jon nodded, once. "I promise," he said, softly. "I… I'm just a bookshop owner."
Gandalf smiled to himself. "Good." He moved away from Jon, and waved his staff in front of the wall. Another portal formed there, leading back into the nursery, and Gandalf stepped through it, glancing back over his shoulder once.
"Keep an eye out for Vicuthar," he advised. "If you see anything out of the ordinary, all you need to do is call for me."
Jon nodded again, and Gandalf closed the portal.
"How did I get wrapped up in all this?" Jon asked himself with a tired sigh, and then he turned away from the portal-vacant wall to open the shop, and begin his day.
Poor Jon!
Uh, translations... 'adad means "father"... and that's it. Cool.