Chapter Thirty Six: Back In Bree

Notes: Welcome back for another week! Last week was a lot emotionally and this week...will be better? Lol

In another life, I might have been half tempted to stick my head into the Prancing Pony to check in on my old master, but I had no interest in doing anything of the such. My chapter with Ferdinand had been closed, I was far more interested in getting a hot bath and something to eat. I'm sure I looked like a mountain woman, my long curls in disarray, my clothes filthy, and I was also armed like I was going to be going into a battle.

I could have tried to stop places but on my appearance alone I would have been kicked out, whether I knew the people there or not. So, I made my way down the main street, looking at the buildings and at the citizens, but did not stop because I had a different destination in mind.

I waved to the people I recognized, but most of them assumed I was some crazy swamp woman making her way through town, not someone who they knew once. I wasn't going to correct them at that point in time, I figured I had all the time in the world to reconnect with them. There was something amusing about the way they looked at me, it made me want to look in a mirror and see what kind of horrifying creature I resembled.

There was one person I waved to though, that immediately stopped in their tracks when they recognized me.

Joseph, my old bartender coworker at the Prancing Pony, dropped his satchel onto the ground. "Lydia?!"

I pulled on Gilda's reins to make her stop, actually surprised he saw through the dirt and grime. I gave him a small, dimpled smile and waved my fingers at him. He rushed over to me and wrapped his arms around me in a hug.

"Lydia Barclay! You're here!"

"Careful, you'll have to take a bath everyday this week to get the smell off you," I chuckled, patting him on the back.

He leaned away, holding onto my arms as if I was about to fly away. His eyes were wide, and so was his smile. "I can't believe it, after a few months I was sure you were gone for good! Where have you been?!"

"It's kind of a long story-"

"I need to know everything! I'm on my way to work right now, but please tell me you're staying in town so we can see each other again!"

"I think I'm staying for a while. Are you…?"

"Still at the Prancing Pony? Yeah I am but guess what?"

By the pure joy on his face, it could have only meant one thing. "Fern doesn't own it anymore?" I said in surprise.

"He got kicked out of the town, Lydia! The person he tried to hire to replace you was Mary Windsor." I grimaced, recognizing the last name of the most rich man in town. If his daughter went there and Ferdinand acted up… "Exactly, Lord Windsor heard an unsavory story from her and he was out no more than a month after you left. Now the place is owned by Frederick Jackson, if you remember him at all."

I did not but I nodded politely. I just was relieved I was never going to see that disgusting man ever again. I would like to believe that I was in a peaceful period of my life, but with my new weapons, who knows what one gross word would make me do. But, that day was never going to come and that was worth a sigh of relief.

He added, "That means that you can come back to work most likely, if you want to. Or at the very least, you can visit whenever you'd like."

"Thanks for the offer Joseph, I don't know what my plan is right now but it's good to hear there's an option for me there."

"Of course." He gave me another big hug. "I need to run, but you're not allowed to disappear again, okay?"

"I promise," I nodded.

He waved as he hurried off. While he disappeared from sight, I was overcome with nostalgia and gratitude for the warm home-coming from a friend. Considering how long it had been since I had seen a friendly face, I appreciated seeing him and held that warmth in my heart.

With what I knew was my next stop, I was going to take the kind welcome and someone being happy to see me.

I guided Gilda through the rest of Bree. We passed the remaining buildings and stalls of merchants before heading into the forest. I could not recall the last time I had been in those woods. Well, that was a lie. I knew exactly the last time I had been there, but it was so long ago it's hard to believe that much time had passed.

The trees felt like they bowed to me in the wind, welcoming me back to what once was my spring breeze was warm and smelled of wild flowers. Like lavender. It almost brought a tear to my eye in a single moment. My feet remembered the way like it was just yesterday that I was running around with my dad, hunting and scavenging for dinner.

I thought I had already gone through my emotions of my homecoming when I saw Bree, but entering those woods brought even more emotions out in me.

"I grew up here, Gilda. These trees raised me and they've gotten so tall," I whispered. I felt at ease for the first time in months. I slowed my steps, feeling my feet sink into the soft grass and moss. Every step felt so healing to my soul and I could breathe so clearly.

I ran my fingers against the bark as I walked past the trees. The birds sang up above me and I heard the river running nearby.

Up ahead, I saw a hobbit cottage begin to emerge from between the trees and the brush of the forest. It was quaint and tucked in a small hill, it was impossible to believe that there were once eight of us all crammed in there at once. My breathing went from easy to shaky as I was overcome with memories of my family. Images of us running around outside amongst the gardens and climbing on top of the hill appeared before me as I got closer and closer.

My childhood home, the home that belonged to my parents and was inherited by my oldest brother Eerin. Some of my happiest memories were made there. I bonded with my siblings, I hunted with my father, and I learned some hard lessons with my mother. There was a lot of horribleness that came out of it as well, I knew the time would come where I would have to confront those memories if this was the road I wanted to go on. For now, what I needed to confront was my brother.

I released Gilda so she could eat from the long grass and I went right up to the large, red, circular door. I recognized a chunk taken out of the wood from when dad was teaching me how to use the bow. I hesitated for a few moments then lifted my hand and knocked.

I listened closely as I heard some shifting inside. My stomach tightened as my nerves set in and I fidgeted with my fingers and wrists while I waited.

The door creaked open and my reflection stared back, my oldest brother looked at me with his dark brown eyes. "Who are you and what do you want?" he grumbled. His voice was deep and cracked, like he hadn't used it for decades.

"Eerin, it's me, Lydia," I said, putting my hand on the door carefully. "Can you let me in please? I'd like to speak with you."

"Lydia? Damn, you look like shit," he chuckled without humor. Can't say he looked fantastic either with dark circles under his eyes and him looking unkempt and thin which is abnormal for any hobbit. "Why would I let you in?"

"It's an incredibly long story, but the gist of it is that I just returned from a long journey and I was-"

"You are not staying here."

"Eerin, I understand that you've wanted to be left alone but after all this time, I'm sorry but I don't give a shit," I said bluntly. "I'm exhausted by every definition of the word and I need somewhere to stay. I'm your sister for love's sake."

"Get off my land, Lydia." He tried to close the door but I blocked it.

"I have been to Erebor, the dwarven kingdom and back. I have fought creatures three times my size and I have lost people dear to me." I connected with his eyes and muttered, "Let me borrow a bed for at least one night."

He was quiet for a moment and continued to look me over. "...You can't go stay with one of our sisters? I'm sure Gen has an open bed for you."

I rolled my eyes, not appreciating his twisted sense of humor that he's always had. Genevive and I had quite a tumultuous past with each other so if she were to see my face in the next century she would probably think it's too soon. I pushed on the door and allowed myself in, not in the mood to argue with him any longer.

I entered the home but was immediately thrown into a time loop. I looked around in disbelief, seeing the kitchen and living area being completely untouched.

"It's…it hasn't changed at all since the last time I was here…"

Eerin closed the door behind me and coughed into his handkerchief. Once he caught his breath he said, "Nothing needed to change."

I slowly wandered around the home in disbelief. The closer I looked though, not only had nothing been moved but it looked like it had been ages since anything was cleaned. Dust covered every surface and dirt covered the floor. Dishes were piled up in the corner of the kitchen. It looked run down, just like Eerin.

He said, "You have one night here, but then you need to make other arrangements." I ignored him, running my finger across the dusty dining room table. "If you need somewhere to stay, just do as our sisters did and find some soft Hobbiton man to shack up with."

"That won't be happening in a million lifetimes. Do you need help with upkeep around here? It's filthy."

He coughed again and I turned to look at him. "No, I don't need help."

"Are you sick or something?"

He gave me a dirty look. "It's just a cold I can't shake so I haven't been able to clean recently, leave me be."

It was easy to tell that this wasn't a few weeks or even months of dirt, this was years of neglect. Potentially all the way back to my parents' deaths. I had grown up with Eerin and he was never the sort to let things like this build up, he was actually extremely detail oriented and precise. It's what made him such a good thief back in those days before he completely cut himself out.

I could sense something strange going on, and I had a feeling it had something to do with that sickness of his. No one gets that thin just from "a cold".

I knew he wasn't going to just admit what was wrong with him though, and to be honest I was too exhausted to try and make a crack in the stone wall that was my oldest brother. The journey had left me drained, mind, body and soul. I wanted nothing more than to get cleaned up and go the hell to sleep in something at least akin to a bed.

I took a very cold shower using some water from the river and a bucket. It was not even close to as satisfying as the bath I took in Rivendell but I was not going to expect a hot spring to suddenly emerge out of the ground as much as I wished for it. It did fine with what I needed it for, to get the weeks of sweat and dirt off my skin and out of my hair. Under all the gunk I could see the scars I had earned after my journey with the dwarves. Most of them were relatively small but I certainly had some sizable ones that would have made the company proud. The one on my shoulder was from a dragon and the one on my foot was from an orc.

By the time that I got back to the house, I was relieved that Eerin didn't decide to lock me out when I was wrapped in nothing but a towel. I had left my clothes to soak in a wash basin which had already become a filthy shade of brown. I dumped out the water and filled it back up with additional buckets that I had taken from the river and threw the clothes back in. Gilda supervised me but was mostly focused on eating the clover.

These mundane tasks kept me upright for the moment but I could feel my limbs only get heavier and heavier. I wandered back into the house, Eerin reading quietly in the dining room and still coughing up a storm as I floated past like a ghost. I found the room where all us girls were crammed into and was relieved to at least find a slip to change into before falling face first onto the dusty, straw mattress. Once I got past the smell of dust, it was a smell I hadn't thought about since I was young. It was confronting, despite the memories of the three of us fighting for space on the bed.

It took only moments for me to fall asleep and I slept so hard that I didn't even recall if I dreamed or not. I went to sleep while the sun was still up and it felt like only moments had passed, but when I opened my eyes it was completely dark outside. I had only really meant to take a bit of a nap, but knowing Eerin was probably asleep I decided that I would just let myself rest for the remainder of the evening.

I just rolled over and passed out again. During the entire journey back to Bree I had slept so terribly, but something about being back in a place I once called home must have eased my mind enough for me to finally get some restful sleep. The only way I would have possibly slept harder would have been if Thorin was there next to me.