Return to Me (Kili)

Chapter Four: Leaving Home

Priscilla spent the rest of the morning sweeping and dusting out the pantry floor and shelves, since it hadn't exactly been bare since they'd moved in, and was in need of some tidying up. After it was clean enough, she walked to market and bought some bread and some milk and more eggs, along with other things, and brought the fresh groceries home. She made a few pies, singing to herself, and while they were baking, tidied up the rest of the house, even though the dwarves had left it spotless.

There really wasn't much to do, but she swept all the floors and organized her little study area. It wasn't any more quiet than it usually was, for Bilbo wasn't one to make a ruckus, but the house felt different without him there. She wasn't sure that she liked it, let alone if she could bear it the whole time he was gone. And if he didn't return... She quickly pushed the thought out of her mind and went to check the oven.

Grabbing a few oven mitts, she took the pies to the window to cool in the breeze, as she always did. She set them down to the side, leaned to open the window, and set them on the sill. Then, grabbing a much loved and favorite book, she plopped herself on the sill next to the pies and began to read.

She hadn't gotten very far at all into the book before she shifted and found herself elbowing a hard object out from underneath her pillow. She looked at it, curious.

It was a small, round, polished stone, of labradorite. It shined in the sunlight and reflected different colors and shades. She thought to herself. It looked familiar. In fact...

She turned it over to find runes on the other side.

Of course.

Kili.

She grinned.

By now, it was past midday and well into the afternoon, and she didn't know how far the Company had made it without her, but by her great-great-great-great uncle Bullroarer Took's club, she was going to catch up. She didn't need a wizard and a dwarven king to tell her she couldn't come. She had herself, and perhaps a little help from another certain dwarf, to tell her she could go, and that was all she needed.

She sat for a moment, holding the stone, then glanced at the pies, and her book, and then the stone again. Surely he hadn't left it for her to find one day. He'd practically left it in plain sight, which meant he intended for her to find it, and in order for him to keep that promise like she'd asked him to, he needed the stone, right? So she had to return it! And, once she was there, she would tag along and say it wasn't worth going all the way home if she'd come all this way already, right?

Well, even if it hadn't been what Kili intended, she was doing it anyway. She was going on an adventure, and nothing was going to stop her this time, even if it killed her.

She got up quickly, rushing to find another pack in a closet somewhere. She stuffed some dresses in, and some blouses, and even some stockings, for she liked to wear them even though she was a hobbit and didn't need to. She packed some other things as well, food, and a blanket, then surveying her room for what she supposed could very well be the last time, she shut the door and hurried off.

As she walked through the front room again, she noticed Bilbo's handkerchief on the fireplace mantle, and sighed, smiling. He would be missing that, for sure. She grabbed it, and wrapped Kili's stone into it, and placed it into the pocket in her dress so she wouldn't lose it. Then, she grabbed the two pies she had made, went through the front door, locked it behind her, and started walking.

She handed the pies to the first two people she saw, too happy to care whom or if she got anything in return.

"You aren't going off after Bilbo, are you Priscilla?" her neighbor, Blossom, called after her as she walked.