Clarity of Vision, Chapter 2
Apr. 13th, 2013 10:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mithenTitle: Clarity of Vision, Chapter 2
Relationship: Thorin/Bilbo
Characters: Bilbo Baggins, Fíli, Kíli, Dís
Fandom: Hobbit
Warnings/Spoilers: None
Rating: G
Word Count: 2100
Story Summary: In a Middle-Earth where Erebor never fell, a shadow remains in the heart of the Lonely Mountain. Bilbo Baggins finds himself drawn reluctantly into a quest that will lead him across the continent--from Bree to Lake Evendim to the icy North and beyond--with a party of five dwarves searching for an artifact that will cure the ailing King Thrór.
Chapter Summary: Bilbo is just going to give these two young dwarves a little help, and then it's back to Hobbiton for him. Yes indeed. No adventures here.
"--don't you see, Mr. Boggins, this is our only chance!" Kíli was looking at him with such imploring eyes that Bilbo didn't have the heart to correct him. "They'll notice we're gone soon, this is our only chance to get away and go find Uncle Thorin!"
"So you see, we need you to go to the Prancing Pony and buy--well, whatever we'd need to strike out on our own," Fíli said. He looked at Kíli. "What will we need?"
"Oh, food," Kíli said vaguely. "And I guess...rope?"
Bilbo had never struck off into the wilderness before, but he had gone camping as far away as Tuckborough. "You'll need a tinderbox as well," he said.
"Yes, that!" Fíli seized him by the shoulders. "We can't do it, the inn is full of dwarves."
"I had noticed that," Bilbo said.
"Yes, yes, it's the delegation traveling from Erebor to Ered Luin, we convinced them to let us come along, but we've been asking about Uncle Thorin all the way, and now we've finally found him, and we're only two days behind him, and we're not going to lose him now, are we, Kíli?" Fíli finished in a rush, and Kíli shook his head vigorously. "So we need you to buy us the things we need." Fíli rummaged in a pouch and grabbed Bilbo's hand. Bilbo stared as a cascade of tiny diamonds fell into his palm. "That should cover it, don't you think?"
"I--I should think so!"
"We'll go to the stables and buy ponies and we'll meet you outside the West Gate in an hour." Fíli turned him around and pushed him gently back up the hill. "Go on, that's a good halfling, we're counting on you!"
"Oh, oh!" Kíli cried as Bilbo started to walk away. "And whatever you do, don't tell our mother we're leaving!"
"That's true," Fíli said, "Good thinking, brother. You can't miss her," he said to Bilbo. "She'll be wearing midnight-blue, and her hair is black but her beard is nearly all silver now. It's the stress," he added in an undertone. "It's really better not to talk to her at all, come to think of it."
"Her beard," Bilbo said, blinking. "Right."
Fíli nudged him in the back. "We've got to hurry, they'll notice we're gone soon," he urged. "One hour, the West Gate!"
"Thank you, thank you so much, Mr. Boggins!" said Kíli, and the two of them ran off toward the stables.
Bilbo looked down at the small fortune glittering in his hand, frowning. Then he headed toward the Prancing Pony.
: : :
"--and I'll need a week's worth of rations, and some rope. And I guess three canteens. And two more packs."
"Going camping with friends, are you, Mr. Baggins?"
Bilbo looked nervously around the common room of the Prancing Pony, filled with dwarves drinking and throwing food. "Yes, that's right. With my cousins from Staddle."
"Good weather for it," said Benjamin Butterbur. "I'll be right back, then." He went to a back room, and Bilbo tried to stand as casually as possible and not make any eye contact.
"You've met my sons, I see."
Bilbo jumped to find a female dwarf in a midnight-blue dress, her silver beard heavy with gemmed jewelry, standing at his shoulder. "Your sons, ma'am? I don't believe I've had the pleasure, though I'm sure they're delightful boys--"
"--They are indeed," the dwarf said. "Brave and good and true, though perhaps just a trifle sheltered and over-trusting." She nodded down at the diamonds in his hand, and Bilbo closed his fingers over them with a guilty start. "A lesser man would be on his way home with a pocketful of treasure, and my sons would be stranded and poorer--if possibly wiser, I suppose. It eases my heart to know that someone responsible, level-headed, and kind will be keeping an eye on them." She smiled, but her eyes were somehow sad. "Thank you so much," she murmured.
"I--well--um--you're welcome," Bilbo finished lamely, unable to tell her that he had no intention of haring off across the countryside with two strange dwarves.
"I shall cover for them and make sure no one tries to fetch them back. May Mahal bless you for your kindness," she said. "And if you happen to see my brother..." Her mouth tightened. "Tell him I believe in him."
: : :
Half an hour later, nearly buried under the weight of three packs and a box full of spun-sugar candy, Bilbo Baggins staggered toward the West Gate. No more dwarves! he thought angrily to himself. Hand over the packs, tell them good luck, and get back to the Shire where you belong!
His heart fell as he rounded the corner of the gate and saw Fíli and Kíli standing with three shaggy ponies.
Their faces lit up when they saw him. "You did it!" Kíli whooped, running up to grab the packs out of his hands. "Let's get out of here before they come after us!"
They swung themselves up into their saddles, then turned around and looked at Bilbo.
"Now, I don't think--I mean, I think it was about time I was getting home, don't you?" stammered Bilbo, looking away from the disappointment on the brothers' faces.
"We were rather hoping you'd come with us," said Fíli. "We'd pay you well, of course."
"Yes, we still haven't had time to even hear how our uncle is doing," Kíli chimed in.
"Or Balin and Dwalin," Fíli added.
"Good old Balin," said Kíli, smiling. "And Mister Dwalin. I've missed them."
"Besides," said Fíli, "You seem to know a lot about this traveling business."
"Oh, I wouldn't say that, exactly," said Bilbo. They looked at each other and Bilbo shuffled his feet awkwardly. "I really should get back to the Shire. I mean, I've got this sugar candy I have to get back," he said, hoisting the box in something like an apologetic shrug. "And my birthday party to prepare for, and I need to pay the grocer, and weed the window boxes, and...you know...stuff."
"Very well," said Fíli, his voice sad. "Good luck to you on your road, then. Come along, Kíli." He clucked to his pony, and they started off down the road.
Bilbo watched them go away from Bree, away from the safe walls he knew. Against his will, he heard again Thorin's gruff and contemptuous voice: You would not last a day outside your safe little world!
"Stop! Wait!" he called after Fíli and Kíli, running toward them. They turned, quick smiles on their faces, and let him catch up.
Bilbo stopped to catch his breath. "You're going south," he explained, wheezing. "Fornost is north."
"Oh," Fíli and Kíli said in unison.
"Good grief," Bilbo muttered to himself, then raised his voice: "I suppose I can travel with you until you catch up with your uncle. But then I'm heading back to the Shire!"
Beaming, Kíli hopped down from his pony to help Bilbo swing into the stirrups of the third pony: the fattest and littlest. "You won't regret this, Mr. Baggins!"
It was lunacy to feel happy that the dwarf had remembered his name correctly. But as Bilbo kicked the pony and it snorted and started to trot north away from Bree, he realized that he was smiling.
: : :
He wasn't smiling so much six hours later, when Fíli called a halt for the night and they began to set up camp at the side of the road. "I thought there'd be an inn or something," Bilbo grumbled as they rolled out blankets on the ground. But north of Bree there was very little but scattered farms, and the suspicious farmers peering out at them did not seem likely to offer hospitality.
However, the brothers' spirits were high as they started a small fire (with only a few false starts), tossing a song back and forth between them about a maid with hair like silk. "Even if there were inns, we couldn't stay there," Fíli said, interrupting his song to answer Bilbo. "They'd think to search there."
"We're going to have to be cunning and sneaky to avoid recapture," Kíli nodded, pleased with himself, and broke into a cheerful whistle as he started to whittle a piece of wood.
Bilbo sincerely doubted an entire diplomatic delegation would get sidetracked looking for two runaway pages, or scribes, or whatever they were. He thought about telling them that their mother had blessed the enterprise and would be covering for them, but decided to let them enjoy their guile. He settled down on a rock rather gingerly--he'd never ridden for so long in one day--and brought up the pressing question: "What's for dinner?"
Fíli and Kíli looked blank. "Well...rations, I guess." Kíli pulled a paper-wrapped block from his pack, broke off a corner, and nibbled at it. "I guess that's food," he said, grimacing. He looked at Bilbo. "Don't you have something a little tastier?"
Bilbo involuntarily clutched at his pack. His biscuits and lemon drops, his precious viola tea! There was no possibility these two would appreciate their exquisite flavors. And the sugar candy was for his birthday party. He peeked into the pack, shifting the delicacies safely aside. "Well, I have some herbs and a little fine-milled flour. If we had some rabbit or or fowl, I could probably make some stew."
Kíli leapt to his feet, his face shining. "Then I am your dwarf, Mr. Baggins." He unshouldered his bow and announced, "I shall return shortly."
Bilbo wasn't sure he felt comfortable knowing Kíli was running around with a projectile weapon. "Will he be all right?"
Fíli looked unconcerned as he took a drink from his canteen. "Oh, don't worry about him. He's the best dwarf I know with the bow. Everyone said it was a silly weapon for a dwarf, but we've been hunting around Erebor and he nearly never misses with it."
Sure enough, Kíli returned within an hour with two rabbits. He and Fíli managed to dress them with some involved Díscussion, and soon Bilbo had a small pot of rabbit stew bubbling over the campfire. When Fíli ate a spoonful, his eyes widened. "This is amazing!" He stared down at the spoon. "How did you make something so good?"
"Well, the herbs help a lot," Bilbo said. The stew was quite good, and he took another bite, feeling proud.
"Herbs. You mean those green flecky things?" The brothers poked at their bowls with interest, peppering Bilbo with questions about its preparation in between mouthfuls and ecstatic compliments.
"Stew isn't hard to make," Bilbo pointed out.
Kíli scraped the last remnants from his bowl with meticulous care and licked his spoon. "Will you teach us sometime?"
"Well." Bilbo frowned. "I'm only going to be with you for a few more days, so it's going to have to be soon."
"Oh. I forgot," Kíli said, crestfallen. Then he brightened. "But if we can learn to cook a little, we'll be able to cook for Uncle Thorin when we see him again!"
"That's a great idea!" enthused Fíli. He glanced at Bilbo, who had made an involuntary snorting sound. "What's the matter?"
"No offense, but I can't imagine your uncle overflowing with gratitude for anything."
Fíli frowned as if Bilbo had missed the point. "Well, he's a little rough around the edges--"
"--the edges?" Bilbo huffed. "Your uncle is without a doubt the most impolite, high-handed, ill-mannered person I've ever met--and I know Lobelia Sackville-Baggins, so that's saying something."
Kíli sat up straight, scowling. "Now see here, Mr. Baggins!" he said sharply, his affable tone gone. "You don't understand Uncle Thorin at all."
"He's right," said Fíli. "Maybe he's not the most affectionate of fellows, but Uncle Thorin has been through a lot, and he's got his reasons for being the way he is, and we won't tolerate people speaking ill of him."
They nodded emphatically in unison.
"Reasons?" Bilbo snorted again. "I'd like to hear those."
Fíli and Kíli both leaned forward as if they thought Bilbo would never ask. "Well," Fíli started, despite Bilbo's stammer that he hadn't meant it literally, "That is a story that begins about two hundred years ago..."
Relationship: Thorin/Bilbo
Characters: Bilbo Baggins, Fíli, Kíli, Dís
Fandom: Hobbit
Warnings/Spoilers: None
Rating: G
Word Count: 2100
Story Summary: In a Middle-Earth where Erebor never fell, a shadow remains in the heart of the Lonely Mountain. Bilbo Baggins finds himself drawn reluctantly into a quest that will lead him across the continent--from Bree to Lake Evendim to the icy North and beyond--with a party of five dwarves searching for an artifact that will cure the ailing King Thrór.
Chapter Summary: Bilbo is just going to give these two young dwarves a little help, and then it's back to Hobbiton for him. Yes indeed. No adventures here.
"--don't you see, Mr. Boggins, this is our only chance!" Kíli was looking at him with such imploring eyes that Bilbo didn't have the heart to correct him. "They'll notice we're gone soon, this is our only chance to get away and go find Uncle Thorin!"
"So you see, we need you to go to the Prancing Pony and buy--well, whatever we'd need to strike out on our own," Fíli said. He looked at Kíli. "What will we need?"
"Oh, food," Kíli said vaguely. "And I guess...rope?"
Bilbo had never struck off into the wilderness before, but he had gone camping as far away as Tuckborough. "You'll need a tinderbox as well," he said.
"Yes, that!" Fíli seized him by the shoulders. "We can't do it, the inn is full of dwarves."
"I had noticed that," Bilbo said.
"Yes, yes, it's the delegation traveling from Erebor to Ered Luin, we convinced them to let us come along, but we've been asking about Uncle Thorin all the way, and now we've finally found him, and we're only two days behind him, and we're not going to lose him now, are we, Kíli?" Fíli finished in a rush, and Kíli shook his head vigorously. "So we need you to buy us the things we need." Fíli rummaged in a pouch and grabbed Bilbo's hand. Bilbo stared as a cascade of tiny diamonds fell into his palm. "That should cover it, don't you think?"
"I--I should think so!"
"We'll go to the stables and buy ponies and we'll meet you outside the West Gate in an hour." Fíli turned him around and pushed him gently back up the hill. "Go on, that's a good halfling, we're counting on you!"
"Oh, oh!" Kíli cried as Bilbo started to walk away. "And whatever you do, don't tell our mother we're leaving!"
"That's true," Fíli said, "Good thinking, brother. You can't miss her," he said to Bilbo. "She'll be wearing midnight-blue, and her hair is black but her beard is nearly all silver now. It's the stress," he added in an undertone. "It's really better not to talk to her at all, come to think of it."
"Her beard," Bilbo said, blinking. "Right."
Fíli nudged him in the back. "We've got to hurry, they'll notice we're gone soon," he urged. "One hour, the West Gate!"
"Thank you, thank you so much, Mr. Boggins!" said Kíli, and the two of them ran off toward the stables.
Bilbo looked down at the small fortune glittering in his hand, frowning. Then he headed toward the Prancing Pony.
: : :
"--and I'll need a week's worth of rations, and some rope. And I guess three canteens. And two more packs."
"Going camping with friends, are you, Mr. Baggins?"
Bilbo looked nervously around the common room of the Prancing Pony, filled with dwarves drinking and throwing food. "Yes, that's right. With my cousins from Staddle."
"Good weather for it," said Benjamin Butterbur. "I'll be right back, then." He went to a back room, and Bilbo tried to stand as casually as possible and not make any eye contact.
"You've met my sons, I see."
Bilbo jumped to find a female dwarf in a midnight-blue dress, her silver beard heavy with gemmed jewelry, standing at his shoulder. "Your sons, ma'am? I don't believe I've had the pleasure, though I'm sure they're delightful boys--"
"--They are indeed," the dwarf said. "Brave and good and true, though perhaps just a trifle sheltered and over-trusting." She nodded down at the diamonds in his hand, and Bilbo closed his fingers over them with a guilty start. "A lesser man would be on his way home with a pocketful of treasure, and my sons would be stranded and poorer--if possibly wiser, I suppose. It eases my heart to know that someone responsible, level-headed, and kind will be keeping an eye on them." She smiled, but her eyes were somehow sad. "Thank you so much," she murmured.
"I--well--um--you're welcome," Bilbo finished lamely, unable to tell her that he had no intention of haring off across the countryside with two strange dwarves.
"I shall cover for them and make sure no one tries to fetch them back. May Mahal bless you for your kindness," she said. "And if you happen to see my brother..." Her mouth tightened. "Tell him I believe in him."
: : :
Half an hour later, nearly buried under the weight of three packs and a box full of spun-sugar candy, Bilbo Baggins staggered toward the West Gate. No more dwarves! he thought angrily to himself. Hand over the packs, tell them good luck, and get back to the Shire where you belong!
His heart fell as he rounded the corner of the gate and saw Fíli and Kíli standing with three shaggy ponies.
Their faces lit up when they saw him. "You did it!" Kíli whooped, running up to grab the packs out of his hands. "Let's get out of here before they come after us!"
They swung themselves up into their saddles, then turned around and looked at Bilbo.
"Now, I don't think--I mean, I think it was about time I was getting home, don't you?" stammered Bilbo, looking away from the disappointment on the brothers' faces.
"We were rather hoping you'd come with us," said Fíli. "We'd pay you well, of course."
"Yes, we still haven't had time to even hear how our uncle is doing," Kíli chimed in.
"Or Balin and Dwalin," Fíli added.
"Good old Balin," said Kíli, smiling. "And Mister Dwalin. I've missed them."
"Besides," said Fíli, "You seem to know a lot about this traveling business."
"Oh, I wouldn't say that, exactly," said Bilbo. They looked at each other and Bilbo shuffled his feet awkwardly. "I really should get back to the Shire. I mean, I've got this sugar candy I have to get back," he said, hoisting the box in something like an apologetic shrug. "And my birthday party to prepare for, and I need to pay the grocer, and weed the window boxes, and...you know...stuff."
"Very well," said Fíli, his voice sad. "Good luck to you on your road, then. Come along, Kíli." He clucked to his pony, and they started off down the road.
Bilbo watched them go away from Bree, away from the safe walls he knew. Against his will, he heard again Thorin's gruff and contemptuous voice: You would not last a day outside your safe little world!
"Stop! Wait!" he called after Fíli and Kíli, running toward them. They turned, quick smiles on their faces, and let him catch up.
Bilbo stopped to catch his breath. "You're going south," he explained, wheezing. "Fornost is north."
"Oh," Fíli and Kíli said in unison.
"Good grief," Bilbo muttered to himself, then raised his voice: "I suppose I can travel with you until you catch up with your uncle. But then I'm heading back to the Shire!"
Beaming, Kíli hopped down from his pony to help Bilbo swing into the stirrups of the third pony: the fattest and littlest. "You won't regret this, Mr. Baggins!"
It was lunacy to feel happy that the dwarf had remembered his name correctly. But as Bilbo kicked the pony and it snorted and started to trot north away from Bree, he realized that he was smiling.
: : :
He wasn't smiling so much six hours later, when Fíli called a halt for the night and they began to set up camp at the side of the road. "I thought there'd be an inn or something," Bilbo grumbled as they rolled out blankets on the ground. But north of Bree there was very little but scattered farms, and the suspicious farmers peering out at them did not seem likely to offer hospitality.
However, the brothers' spirits were high as they started a small fire (with only a few false starts), tossing a song back and forth between them about a maid with hair like silk. "Even if there were inns, we couldn't stay there," Fíli said, interrupting his song to answer Bilbo. "They'd think to search there."
"We're going to have to be cunning and sneaky to avoid recapture," Kíli nodded, pleased with himself, and broke into a cheerful whistle as he started to whittle a piece of wood.
Bilbo sincerely doubted an entire diplomatic delegation would get sidetracked looking for two runaway pages, or scribes, or whatever they were. He thought about telling them that their mother had blessed the enterprise and would be covering for them, but decided to let them enjoy their guile. He settled down on a rock rather gingerly--he'd never ridden for so long in one day--and brought up the pressing question: "What's for dinner?"
Fíli and Kíli looked blank. "Well...rations, I guess." Kíli pulled a paper-wrapped block from his pack, broke off a corner, and nibbled at it. "I guess that's food," he said, grimacing. He looked at Bilbo. "Don't you have something a little tastier?"
Bilbo involuntarily clutched at his pack. His biscuits and lemon drops, his precious viola tea! There was no possibility these two would appreciate their exquisite flavors. And the sugar candy was for his birthday party. He peeked into the pack, shifting the delicacies safely aside. "Well, I have some herbs and a little fine-milled flour. If we had some rabbit or or fowl, I could probably make some stew."
Kíli leapt to his feet, his face shining. "Then I am your dwarf, Mr. Baggins." He unshouldered his bow and announced, "I shall return shortly."
Bilbo wasn't sure he felt comfortable knowing Kíli was running around with a projectile weapon. "Will he be all right?"
Fíli looked unconcerned as he took a drink from his canteen. "Oh, don't worry about him. He's the best dwarf I know with the bow. Everyone said it was a silly weapon for a dwarf, but we've been hunting around Erebor and he nearly never misses with it."
Sure enough, Kíli returned within an hour with two rabbits. He and Fíli managed to dress them with some involved Díscussion, and soon Bilbo had a small pot of rabbit stew bubbling over the campfire. When Fíli ate a spoonful, his eyes widened. "This is amazing!" He stared down at the spoon. "How did you make something so good?"
"Well, the herbs help a lot," Bilbo said. The stew was quite good, and he took another bite, feeling proud.
"Herbs. You mean those green flecky things?" The brothers poked at their bowls with interest, peppering Bilbo with questions about its preparation in between mouthfuls and ecstatic compliments.
"Stew isn't hard to make," Bilbo pointed out.
Kíli scraped the last remnants from his bowl with meticulous care and licked his spoon. "Will you teach us sometime?"
"Well." Bilbo frowned. "I'm only going to be with you for a few more days, so it's going to have to be soon."
"Oh. I forgot," Kíli said, crestfallen. Then he brightened. "But if we can learn to cook a little, we'll be able to cook for Uncle Thorin when we see him again!"
"That's a great idea!" enthused Fíli. He glanced at Bilbo, who had made an involuntary snorting sound. "What's the matter?"
"No offense, but I can't imagine your uncle overflowing with gratitude for anything."
Fíli frowned as if Bilbo had missed the point. "Well, he's a little rough around the edges--"
"--the edges?" Bilbo huffed. "Your uncle is without a doubt the most impolite, high-handed, ill-mannered person I've ever met--and I know Lobelia Sackville-Baggins, so that's saying something."
Kíli sat up straight, scowling. "Now see here, Mr. Baggins!" he said sharply, his affable tone gone. "You don't understand Uncle Thorin at all."
"He's right," said Fíli. "Maybe he's not the most affectionate of fellows, but Uncle Thorin has been through a lot, and he's got his reasons for being the way he is, and we won't tolerate people speaking ill of him."
They nodded emphatically in unison.
"Reasons?" Bilbo snorted again. "I'd like to hear those."
Fíli and Kíli both leaned forward as if they thought Bilbo would never ask. "Well," Fíli started, despite Bilbo's stammer that he hadn't meant it literally, "That is a story that begins about two hundred years ago..."