A Tale of Time

Chapter 11: The Wait to be Heard

Chapter 11: The Wait to be Heard

Bilbo sits in his home, looking over his kitchen pantry for anything he could bring with him to Gailien's. While she loved to cook, she has never been one for desserts, so the responsibility has been left to him. But sadly, it seems that his stock has been run dry of anything sweet so he settles on a bottle of wine he may or may not have stolen from Rivendell.

Then there is a loud rapping at his round, green door. He must be running late.

"Sorry," he calls out, looking over the wine bottle as he marches to the door. "I lost track of t-...oh." At his door, rather than Gailien and the tall Elf are two people he wasn't sure he'd ever see again. "Kili? Fili?" A shocked smile breaks over his face. "What in the world are you doing here?"

The brothers stand at his door, just as they had the first time when they came in uninvited. Well, they are still uninvited this time, but he is much happier to be at their service. They are almost dressed the same as they were, Kili in his blue hood, a bow strapped across his back, black-feathered arrows in his quiver. For a moment, he is lost in a sense of déjà vu, and he almost wonders if Gandalf is wandering around somewhere.

"Bilbo!" Kili greets, stepping over the threshold. "It is good to see you."

Bilbo breaks from his daze, nodding hastily and stepping aside to allow the brothers in. Unlike last time, they carefully place their weapons down on top of a storage box at the foot of the door.

"It's been a long time," Fili also greets, placing a hand on his shoulder. From behind him, Bilbo hears the shuffling of papers. He spins around, finding Kili holding up a drawing of himself.

"Did you draw this?" he asks.

"Uh, no," Bilbo stammers, clasping his hands in front of him. "Gailien drew any of the drawings you see around here. She's been working on her hand-eye coordination."

Fili mumbles something to himself about 'hand-eye coordination?' But Kili ignores that statement, his head turning about. "She's still here? We were worried that something had happened to her on the way back." His voice drifts off as he starts to wander around Bag End. Bilbo turns back to Fili, swallowing. The blond prince is looking around, sorting through a large pile of papers that Gailien had given him for his story. They are smaller, but in much greater detail than normal – perfect for a book.

Fili stops on his own, staring intently at it. The drawing of him is smiling broadly at something, as though about to laugh at someone else.

"We didn't come here just to see Gailien," he says eventually, placing the paper back down. "We wanted to see how our burglar was doing as well."

Bilbo smiles, bowing forward slightly. "Ah, thank you. I'm doing fine. Everything seems almost back to normal." He looks fondly around his home. "But it'll never be the same."

"I don't think anybody is the same as they were before. How was the road back?"

Bilbo winces slightly, a gesture that the future king doesn't miss. "It was harder than we were anticipating. Nowhere near what we faced on the way there, but we ran into Orcs just past the Misty Mountains and they got us pretty well."

Fili notes the long scar that pokes over the top of his coat, up along over his shoulder. "I hope you are both alright now though."

"We are," he answers half honestly. "But I should tell you that-"

"It's quite late, is she still out?" Kili questions, marching back into the front entrance. The brothers look to Bilbo who pushes his lips forward, trying to put words together in his head. "Has she left already? Did we miss her on the road?"