Chapter Text
Bella fell back on her bed in the Queen's Chambers, the air leaving her lungs in an exhausted rush. It had been a very, very long day and this bed – big enough to fit all of Gaffer Gamgee's growing brood with ease – was rather a comfort to her sore back. Bless the dwarf who had put the warming pans underneath it earlier. Bella stretched a bit, feeling naught but relief as her back and shoulders twisted and popped. Carrying her daughters was not getting any easier the older they became.
The first view of Erebor, though, as the morning mist had started to burn off... Now that had been something. Bella hadn't seen Erebor in over five years and to see the change in it, compared with the memory of her last view – the juxtaposition of the two images was rather intense.
“Mama, you said that Erebor was all broken up rocks. Like Farmer Maggot's wall on his farm when that tree came down on it last year,” Eglantine had called out to her mother from her seat in front of her father on his pony.
“I promise that I told no falsehood,” Bella said in response.
“Ah, you'd be surprised with what desperation and cold weather can do for one's work ethic,” Bofur chimed in. “We got them doors rebuilt before the winter was over.”
“You rebuilt the doors in a winter?” Bella somewhat rhetorically asked, thunderstruck.
“Yup. We moved the badly injured, ill, infirm, elderly and young inside the mountain pretty soon after you were gone. Anyone who so much as fit the qualification of 'able to hold a hammer' was thrown at this thing,” Bofur casually explained as he waved a hand at the tall, magnificent edifice that were Erebor's doors rebuilt.
Thora, who was sitting in front of Fili on his pony and riding abreast of Bella's own shaggy little mount (name of Emerald, apparently) looked up at the mountain, her little mouth a perfect 'o' of awe.
“Those are big doors. Really, really big doors,”
spoke Bella in awe.
“What an astute observation you have made there auntie,” Kili said with a cheeky grin, nearly falling off his pony with a squawk of mixed indignation and terror when Dwalin moves past him and cuffs him upside the head.
“I see what you're doing!” Kili yelled after a chuckling Dwalin.
“And you're being a twit,” Fili cheerfully says to his brother as he helps him right himself in his saddle.
“I think I may vomit,” Bella muttered as they walked the ponies under a sturdy overhang and the party began dismounting.
“There's nothing to worry about,” Thorin reassured Bella as the whispers began and then spread like wild fire of the return of the king after almost a year's absence.
“'Nothing to worry about?'” Bella parroted back at Thorin as he handed the reins of his pony off to a stable hand and came to help Bella down to the ground. “Thorin, people are staring and whispering.”
“Well, it is only natural,” Thorin said as he offered his arm to Bella. “Many of these dwarrow have never seen a hobbit before. And didn't a great many hobbits stare and whisper when we were in the Shire?”
“Point taken,” Bella grudgingly agreed as they joined the others. She was pleased to see that Thora and Eglantine were being held by Fili and Kili; the gathering crowd – despite Thorin's point – was alarming her a little.
“Tell me that dwarrow do not gossip like fishmonger's wives,” Dori said, eyeing the crowd a bit critically as they caught up to their group and began moving toward the giant doors, “and I shall call you a liar.”
“Nori's already gone and disappeared,” Ori offered up as Dwalin peeled off to go speak to a dwarrow holding a long boar spear and sporting an incredibly bushy ginger beard and mustache.
The whispering followed them all the way to the Royal Wing, sounding almost like a breeze on a springtime day. And Bella was no fool, so of course she noticed the several sets of eyes that were watching her and her children with a less than friendly or curious bend. While Thorin did indeed have a point that many of the dwarrow now living in the mountain had likely never set eyes on a hobbit before, many were undoubtedly unhappy (at best) about a foreigner being brought into their household, so to speak, much less the royal line.
Well, it's tough nuts to that lot. Bella thought as the guards fell in step all around them.
“Where is Dis?” Thorin inquired of a guard as they passed through a rather marvelous arch bedecked in jewels and gold and silver, an arch that apparently marked the boundary area for the royal's area of the mountain.
“The Lady Dis is currently in council; I dispatched a guard to inform her of your arrival,” The bushy ginger dwarf Bella had seen Dwalin speaking with earlier told Thorin.
“Which means imminent death for you,” Dwalin chuckled.
“Oh, brother, please,” Balin chastised the younger son of Fundin, smacking him over the head with the thin leather-bound volume in his hand. “Act your age, would you?”
“Never!” Dwalin declared with glee as they passed through doors of superb craftsmanship; the glimpse Bella got of them as two brawny dwarrow guards opened them for the approaching party was evidence enough.
“Fee,” Thora said in possibly the loudest stage whisper in the history of Arda – the lack of guile and open honesty in children were two things Bella loved. “Why's Uncle Dwalin 'pecting Papa to go squish?”
“You'll understand in a bit, sweetheart,” Fili promised her.
“Oh, my,” Was all Bella could get out of her mouth when they entered the Royal Wing proper. Sumptuous fabrics, luxuriously thick rugs, and glittering wall carvings and decoration as far as the eye can see.
“And this is just the antechamber,” Kili said with a giggle at Bella's agog expression. “That hall leads to my mum's chambers and mine and Fili's. That one there leads to a small sorta guest wing for the realllllly important guests and that hall leads to the King and Queen's chambers. A bright spark of an ancestor of mine a loooooong, long time ago figured out the key to a happy marriage was apparently separate bedrooms. Either that or he kept getting kicked out of his bedroom.”
“Why would a king be kicked out of his own bedroom?” A curious Eglantine had inquired.
“Er... you'll figure it out when you're older, I promise,” Kili hastily said under a threat of stink eye from his uncle.
There were several rather ridiculous sounding giggles coming from behind Bella, she could only roll her eyes and keep walking.
We are definitely not in the Shire anymore, was the first thought to pierce the blankness wrought by the utter, ridiculous opulence that were the king and queen's chambers.
“I know what you're thinking: These are the prettiest rooms you've ever seen in your life, auntie,” Kili started in the usual style employed by him and his brother amongst friends – nothing short of grandiose and over the top.
“That's one way to put it,” Bella distractedly agreed. “These rooms are certainly very... fine.”
“I'm sure it will take you some time to get used to your surroundings, Bella, but there's a certain something through here that I think might help you in your adjustment,” Thorin offered up.
“Then, by all means, lead the way, please,” Bella replied, privately wondering what there could be inside of what was surely the largest mountain in the world that could possibly help a creature used to greenery and open spaces (ie Bella herself) adjust to her new home.
Thorin lead the way down the hall and through doors that were even more opulent than those leading to the Royal Wing (a feat Bella had not even thought possible, yet here they were) – marvels of beaten and hammered gold and ebony decorated in gems, filigree and carvings that had surely been a by-gone craftsman's masterpiece.
“We'll give you a tour of your new quarter's in a moment; I think that you will want to see this first,” Thorin promised, moving toward some doors that Bella hadn't noticed when they had first entered the Queen's chambers – her chambers.
Dwalin moved forward, tossing to Thorin a key that he must have received when they had arrived, possibly from massive ginger bearded dwarf.
“I would close your eyes, Bella,” Balin said, appearing at Bella's elbow, a large smile on his face.
Bella rolled her eyes, partly in amusement, partly at just being able to feel the almost child-like glee that was permeating the air. But she did close her eyes and allow herself to be lead forward. It was fairly easy (not to mention quick) to ascertain that it was Fili and Kili who had each taken Bella by an arm and lead her across the room. Especially with a “Watch your step,” or a “I'd lift up your foot, save your toes a damn painful stubbing... now, auntie,” there along with plenty of colorful commentary and hints that were deliberately obtuse.
“I feel a breeze. Are we outside of the mountain?”
“Just a moment's patience more, and you'll be rewarded, I promise, auntie,” Fili swore. “Alright, we're going to be lifting you up now.”
Careful hands were then moved to Bella's elbows and she felt the air around her shift and then –
“I feel grass under my feet. Why do I feel grass under my feet?”
“Alright, Bella, you can open your eyes now,” Thorin said from somewhere close by.
Bella slowly opened her eyes, blinking against the sunlight and theoretically felt her mouth drop open and theoretically felt her feet take her a few steps forward.
“H-How in the – It's grass! On the– the bleeding mountainside!”
Bella stepped a few more feet forward into the large but bare garden that held so much promise just by the sheer amount of space.
“There are going to be craftsmen coming to install glass doors and panels – so you and the girls can come out here no matter the weather or time of year,” Thorin started to explain.
“This might be the best idea you've had in years,” Oin declared, picking up a pinch of dirt from a near by planter and crumbling it between his fingers. “Sunlight provides something vital to those who dwell above ground. Hobbits, men, even the elves.”
“What would happen if they don't get sunlight?” Fili asked, looking suddenly apprehensive.
“It's rather a list: Rickets, joint pain ranging from mild to severe, hair loss, any wounds received would heal far slower, they get sick or get infections far more often, fatigue, their bones could become brittle and fragile...”
And, as Oin is reading off this list in the most casual tone – almost as if he were discussing the weather, Bella feels herself growing a tad green around the gills, as it were, and every dwarrow present is looking increasingly horrified.
“Uncle Thorin's best idea yet!” Kili loudly interrupts their resident, mostly deaf healer. Who, for his part, shoots Kili a sharp look of annoyance, because he clearly had no idea how much he was freaking everyone out.
“Thank you, Kili.”
“I don't want my bones to break,” Eglantine said, her tone a little wobbly.
“I don't want my hair to fall out,” Thora chimes in, her lower lip beginning to tremble a touch.
“Darlings, unless you take after your cousins here – which, please don't make me grey before my time – getting rickets isn't something you'll need to worry about,” Bella was quick to reassure her children. Turning, she next addressed herself to Thorin. “Thorin, this is wonderful and... surprisingly thoughtful, thank you. I'll be able to spend the winter planning out this garden. I just hope that it wasn't too much trouble.”
“It wasn't. This used to be my grandmother's garden; she liked to fancy she had a green thumb -”
“The only thing Queen Dris could successfully grow were the bits and bobs used by Nori's predecessor,” Dwalin darkly chuckled. “She killed everything else.”
“Yes, thank you, Dwalin,” Thorin said somewhat testily – but he didn't contradict his oldest friend. “As I was saying. This used to be my grandmother's garden, but it was smaller in her day. I ordered it to be enlarged and more grass added and areas for... cultivation or whatever it is you do since we can be reasonably sure that you can actually grow things here that aren't of a poisonous nature.”
“And now, shall we show you where you'll be laying your head after a long day's pottering around the garden?” Balin cheerily suggested.
And before anyone can so much as utter a syllable, before Bella can even try to form something approximating a sentence after the sheer surprise that was this gift from Thorin –
“WHERE ARE THOSE IDIOT SONS OF MINE??”
“Aaaaaand there's Dis,” Thorin deadpanned as the blood drained from Fili and Kili's faces.
“We're dead.”
“We're doomed.”
Fili and Kili dive around Bofur and Nori and Bifur, tucking and rolling to bound to their feet as a whirl of skirts and braids comes storming out into the garden.
“YOU TWO,” You'd have to be as thick as a Bracegirdle (and Bella was not, no matter what anyone said) to not be able to deduce that the current loud disturbance of the day came in the form of the Lady Dis.
“Mum, look!” Kili said, holding a baffled Eglantine up and out from his body like she was a shield. Or sacrificial lamb to his mother's anger. Neither option pleased Bella greatly, it needed to be said. Especially when Fili held up her other child in the exact same fashion.
“Amê dashtân, put the children down,” Dis ground out through her teeth. “They will not save you from the thrashing that's been eight months in the offing for the single worst explanatory note that's ever had the misfortune to be written into existence.”
“Oi, what did you put in that note to mum – It wasn't what I told you, was it?” Fili demanded, rounding on his younger brother.
“I don't even remember what I wrote!” Kili protested, neither son of Durin putting their cousins down, still apparently believing or foolishly holding onto the hope that they would be sufficient protection from their mother. Despite very recent verbal communication to the contrary.
Bella exchanged a look with Thorin and he rolled his eyes, but stepped forward to pluck first Thora from Fili's arms (passing her off to Bella) and then taking Eglantine from Kili before perching her on his hip as he stepped well out of the firing line.
And, oh, boy, does Dis fire. No one says anything, or dares to move while Dis reads both her boys the riot act. In multiple languages and with multiple hand gestures that Bella is imminently grateful that the girls cannot understand. Both boys try to get a word in edgewise but Dis is just not having it, so they both end up shuffling their feet and looking at the floor for prolonged periods until Dis feels she has said her piece and then pulls both Fili and Kili in a strangling hug.
“It's good to see that some things never change,” Bofur cheerfully says into the ensuing silence.
“Oh, please,” Dis snorts with a dismissive wave of her hand. “And just who might these sweet little creatures be?”
Both girls shrink back a little at this sudden change in demeanor and attitude, clinging a little tighter to their respective parents. Eglantine untangles her hand from where it had been clutching to the collar of Thorin's greatcoat and pokes him in the nose to get his attention.
“Why's that lady have a longer beard than you?” And, dear Yavanna, it's like the nose incident all over again.
“Because I chose to keep my beard shorter, sweetheart. You'll understand one day, I promise.”
All things considered, it wasn't the worst explanation he had given for something, Bella reflects internally. And it was age-appropriate, too.
“Oh, she is darling,” Dis coos, her eyes going soft at the corners.
“Mum, allow us to do the honors,” Fili says grandly, bounding up to his mother and flinging an arm around her shoulders.
“Yes, let's,” Kili echoed his brother both in tone and mannerism, moving to his mother's other side.
“Our cousin's, Eglantine and Thora; they're twins and Eglantine is the eldest,” Fili explained, motioning to each of the girls in turn.
“Twins?” Dis echoed, her brow furrowing slightly. “I don't think the Line of Durin has ever had twins before.”
“Perhaps not, but my family lines house their fair share of multiple births,” Bella offered up in explanation.
“And this their mum, Bella – she makes amazing food. You've got to try
her apple and quince pie,” Kili raved. “Jinivere loves her.”
“So, you would be the woman who's cooking my boys have been about for the last several years. The hobbit.”
And the way Dis says, “the hobbit,” is just so utterly reminiscent of how Thorin had said it in her front hall in Bag End. It felt like a lifetime ago, but it was so strikingly similar that Bella can't help the snort of laughter that escapes her – and neither can several others present.
“Did I say something amusing?”
“Yes, mum, just go with yes,” Fili chuckled with eyes a-twinkle with amusement.
“But, yes, I am she. I'm Belladonna Baggins, and it's a pleasure to finally meet the woman Fili and Kili raved about.”
The day does not slowed down from there. After being shown around hers and the girls (incredibly) opulent bedrooms, which both girls loved just for the size of their room because “all the toys we could fit in here!”, they had gone and tracked down Bombur, who was in the kitchens being visited by his wife, Tonil, who had brought along their nearly 7 month old little girl, Tonilia. And hadn't Bifur and Bofur both gone into exultations of delight at meeting their little niece and wasn't it such good luck, an incredibly good omen for them all that every baby born to members of the Company thus far had all been girls?
Little Tonilia, with her happy, gummy little grin and her very ginger peach fuzz, so entranced Bofur and Bifur they didn't even notice when everyone else bid farewell to Tonil and Bombur and quit the kitchens.
After the kitchens it was the forges and the workshops. Neither Thora or Eglantine was allowed near any active flame or anything that might have just been inside said flame. Which earned Thorin a few brownie points, it must be said.
And then came the market closest to their new home, a hustling, bustling hive of people, voices, sights and smells. And then it was the guild halls, the upper and lower training fields, the mine entrances, the library (which they nearly lost Bella and Ori to), the mushroom caves and on and on and on.
It's a whirlwind and Bella honestly cannot recall half the things said to her today. But at least she'll have the time to sort everything out and get acquainted with these new surroundings of theirs. At least, this is what Bella tells herself as they eat dinner in the dining room attached to the kitchen she hadn't known existed in the royal wing earlier. And didn't that present possibilities?
Both Thora and Eglantine, who had been very curious and asked lots and lots of questions every chance they had on the whirlwind tour today, were almost nodding off into their dessert and so the decision had been made to call it an early night. And once the girls are washed, dressed in some clean night clothes, and tucked into bed with their favored animals, Bella bids Thorin good night and just flops back first onto her bed. Once she manages to climb up onto it, at least.