The Secrets of Angband Manor: a Sauron x Bilbo x Melkor

Mother Dearest

One afternoon in the weeks that followed, Melkor had decided to retire for a mid-afternoon nap, meaning that Bilbo had some extra free time.

Choosing to explore the mansion, Bilbo wandered around the corridors, walking past various art pieces and paintings that he occasionally stopped to admire.

Standing in front of a painting depicting the Númenorian myth of 'the Abduction of Persephone', Bilbo looked at the titular character of the painting: Persephone did not look scared nor was she trying to get out of Hades' grip, she looked relieved as she looked over Hades' shoulders to gaze at the enraged Demeter.

There were many different versions of the myth: some bad where Hades outright kidnapped Persephone and forced her to marry him and tricked her into eating the pomegranate seeds; and good ones where she stumbled across the Underworld and became friends with Hades and eventually begged him to take her from her controlling mother for good, willingly married him, and had to be forced by Zeus to return to her mother for part of the year because Demeter was threatening to kill all life in the world if she didn't.

As if reading Bilbo's mind, the following painting showed Persephone sitting on a throne beside Hades' own in a dark throne room, their hands entwined as they looked on to their court of ghosts and mythological creatures, the blissful smile on the new queen's face conveying all that needed to be said about her situation.

The final painting of the set then showed Persephone and Hades in a cave entrance, Persephone looking back at Hades longingly as she walks to Demeter who is waiting in the snow outside.

Bilbo had always been fond of this version of the myth -that the lord of death 'stole' away a bride and gave her a safe place to blossom into herself away from her mother that never would let her grow up- but he found more than ever that he related to Persephone.

Being taken out of his thoughts by the sound of squeals, Bilbo's pale green eyes left the paintings and he walked towards the source.

***

As he got closer, he noticed the voices sounded incredibly young and -for a moment- Bilbo was worried that the Bauglirs had kidnapped children.

Opening the door, Bilbo saw two children no older than four playing together on the floor while a woman silently watched them.

The twins, a boy and a girl, stared at him as he entered the room, both having a striking resemblance to Melkor.

The girl walked up to Bilbo curiously before taking his hand and squealing, "Mama!"

Bilbo sputtered for a moment, staring at the little girl in shock, "What?"

The little girl did not seemed bothered by his confusion, dragging Bilbo towards her twin, "Look Ana, mama here!"

The little boy said nothing, but took Bilbo's other hand and looked up at him with big black doe-like eyes and tried to pull him down to where the toys were.

As soon as he sat on the floor, the two toddlers were sitting on his lap cuddling against him, resting their heads on his chest while continuing to play with each other.

Bilbo's heart swelled at the sight, he had always wanted a large family -being an only child of older parents, meaning that all his cousins were nearly adults when he had been born, coupled with his strange (compared to his neighbors) personality meant he had spent most of his childhood alone- but seeing that he had never so much as kissed someone he had low hoped of making that dream reality.

And even with these adorable babies calling him 'mama', he had to remind himself that he wasn't and instead looked to the silent woman in the room that he assumed was their nanny.