Chapter 32

Sam Gamgee didn't much like crows around his garden or his chickens. But when he rounded the hedge to check his northern fenceline, he stopped in his tracks.

"Now you're no crow, I'll allow that," he said aloud. He was alone this morning, doing chores as needed doing, so no one could see him talking to a bird out here near the fence.

Except the large dark bird that sat calm and still was no mere bird.

"Sam Gamgee, at your service, my lord raven." Sam managed a most respectful bow.

In return the raven flapped once, then stood on one foot and gently extended the other toward the surprised hobbit. The bird seemed to carefully point its strong black beak to the west and gurgled something, making small flexing motions with the extended foot. There, around the bird's ankle was a twist of leather.

"Oh, let me help you there," Sam said, dropping his tool bucket and approaching quickly but carefully, hands out. "You've got a message there or I'm a tadpole's auntie."

The raven looked at him side-eye but held his pose.

"I'm to take that from your leg, I'd say. May I?" Sam extended his gardener's hands and wary of the formidable beak, offered a finger for the bird to touch, then found a small clasp to release and the leather fell from the raven's leg into Sam's open palm.

"Oh you are a very clever bird," Sam smiled. "I've no nuts just now, but how about a handful of sunflower seeds?" He backed away, checked the mid-morning meal Rosie had packed, and quickly found the pouch of seeds. He emptied it atop a flat rock and retreated.

"All yours, in my thanks for this," he smiled, untwisting the leather to reveal a message written in dwarf runes. He wasn't sure he could translate it while standing here in the far field, but he did know what the last rune meant. Kili, Ered Luin.

"King Kili," Sam said aloud. This, he decided, warranted a return to Bag End and Frodo's office (Sam never could call it HIS office. It was Frodo's and Bilbo's before him…) and he would need to do a proper job of decoding the khuzdul.

Sam searched three bookshelves before finding the particular leather-bound book he needed and opened it to the back appendices. He flipped four pages until he reached the one with the heading, "On the Dwarves of Erebor." Ten pages after that, he found the chart of corresponding characters that Bilbo had always used to decode messages from his old company of Dwarves. It was a strange hybrid of a code–written in dwarf runes but spelling out common speech. At least it kept nosy hobbits from knowing exactly what messages were being exchanged.

G. (Sam recognized the usual abbreviated word for Gamgee) I'm sending N (Nyr) and the kids to you with two elf friends, Tuilind and Yanu, as I kindly accept your invitation for them to join you for midsummer f. (festivities.) They will be safer traveling with Shirefolk and I'll meet you at the lake (Annuminas) a few days after A. (Aragorn) arrives. Yours, K.

Sam's smile was big and he slowly exhaled. A dwarf queen! Coming here to Hobbiton! And the young princes…and would the new little princess be along?

He was out of his chair and down the hall in moments. "Rosie!"

"Here!" she called.

He followed the sound of her voice and headed toward the pantry, discovering her adding a sack of taters to the potato bin,.

"We'll have to order up more ham and sausages, Rosie," he declared.

She laughed, ever good natured. "Are you expecting cousins?"

"Same as," he said. "My good friend Kili is sending his lady wife…"

Her smile was instant. "And the babies? I would so love to meet the children!" Her eyes were alight with excitement.

"Dwarrows, they're called," Sam said, blinking. "And I can hardly believe–the Lady will have 2 escorts!"

"Dwarves with swords?"

Sam's eyes were wide as he shook his head at her. "Elves, Rosie," he let his breath out. "Elves right here in Hobbiton."

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A/N: Thanks for reading! So hard to get notices of new chapters out right now-FFIC alerts are not working with my gmail account, so I'm not getting any updates. Am I the only one?

Thanks for FINDING the chapter and for reading! Hand on heart to you-send a PM or add a review and let me know if you're reading along. If you regularly check for PMs, then PM me and I'll PM alerts to you if that would help. -Summer