Chapter Text
Screams echoed through the halls of Bag End, an unusual sound for such a pleasant place to be sure. Drogo Baggins, the current master of Bag End, paced in the sitting room puffing on his pipe. Down the hall his cousin was struggling to give birth to a child he’d never expected her to have. It had been a shock when the inn keep of the Green Dragon showed up on his doorstep with an envelope from Belladonna Baggins. His cousin had been considered a bit odd asking all sorts of odd questions about strange languages. Many Hobbits had guessed, correctly, that her Tuning was coming from someone outside the Shire, quite unusual indeed. According to the inn keep, Bruno, she’d run off in the company of thirteen dwarves. The letter in the envelope explained what had happened. Her Tuning was a Dwarf, one of the ones in the company and she was leaving with them on a quest. If she would return she did not know, but in the letter she had included the deed to Bag End. When she did not return after eight months he and Prunella moved in.
It had been an even bigger shock when near thirteen months after she vanished she reappeared on the doorstep of Bag End in the company of five elves and one wizard, heavily pregnant and distraught. It had taken weeks to get the story out of her. Her One, her Tuning, was dead, had passed in a great battle to reclaim his homeland. She’d left, four of the elves accompanying her on orders from the King of Mirkwood. The wizard had found her at a friends house and learned of her condition summoned eagles to take them over the Misty Mountains. They had made it to Rivendell where Bella had spent the winter under the watchful eyes of the elves. When the thaw began Bella had asked to be taken home. Now with summer beginning to bloom the baby was finally arriving. Drogo jumped as someone stooped to step through the doorway. It was the Wizard, Gandalf.
“Not yet.” He said answering Drogo’s unspoken question. Drogo offered him the small container of long leaf and the Wizard gratefully accepted. Drogo paced once more around the room before turning back to Gandalf.
“Do they think she’ll live?” He asked. He was not normally this blunt but he’d heard the elves muttering between themselves since they had arrived. He did not speak elvish but he did know the looks on their faces. His wife, Prunella, was a midwife and she’d had that look a few times when she wondered if the baby or mother would survive. Gandalf took a puff on his pipe and frowned.
“I don’t know. This isn’t something I’ve encountered before. Dwarven children are difficult to carry at the best of times. But she is much stronger than any could guess.” Gandalf took another puff on the pipe. He had made no mention to anyone that when he left Erebor Thorin yet lived. The King Under the Mountain had made no mention of Bella to him, nor asked him to join the search. Gandalf was worried that the gold madness might take hold of Thorin once more. If it did it would be better for Bella and her child both if he believed her dead and lost to him forever. She was not out of the woods yet, he thought as another scream echoed from the bedroom she was in. It was part of why Arwen had accompanied them from Rivendell and why all four of the elves Thranduil had sent with Bella were still here. They had promised to see her safe and had grown fond of her during their short trip to Rivendell and the months there. Both Garret and Aldon were waiting outside Bag End, keeping out disapproving relatives who might interrupt what was proving to be a difficult birth. Eryn and Nessa were in the room with Arwen and Prunella trying to keep both mother and child alive. Gandalf stiffened as he realized silence had fallen.
Then like a crack through the early morning hours a sharp cry sounded and he slumped in his chair. The babe lived, the line of Durin really was far too strong for its own good. He and Drogo exchanged a look and waited for a moment before Eryn stepped into the room pushing bark brown hair out of her face. She smiled.
“Miss Bella says to come meet the little lady.” She said and Drogo rushed down the hall. Gandalf paused laying a hand on Eryn’s arm.
“How is she?” He asked. Eryn smiled though it was a little forced.
“They are both strong, we have no doubts they will live.” Gandalf followed her and Drogo down the hall and when he reached the room he realized why Eryn’s smile had been forced. The baby laying in Belladonna’s arms was, in coloring, a carbon copy of her father. The tuft of hair already on her head was black as night, the eyes peering up at her mother were bright blue. But her ears were pointed like her mothers and at the base of the blanket Gandalf could make out a hairy set of feet, though the hair was just as dark as the hair on her head. Bella looked tired but smiled down at her daughter.
“Hello little one. Welcome to the world Freda.” She had tears in her eyes. As she looked down at the child in her arms who was squirming as though she would soon begin to cry again she began to hum and then to sing. Everyone present fell silent. This was the first time she had sung since hearing that Thorin had passed.
Far over the Misty Mountains cold
Through dungeons deep and caverns old.
Freda quieted, staring at her mother intently as though even now she could understand the song.
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Across the world Thorin sat up straighter in his chair. Fili raised an eyebrow as Thorin glanced around and his breath stuttered out of him. Kili laid a hand on his uncle’s shoulder and Thorin looked up at him.
“She’s singing.” He managed as a tear slid down his face. Kili sat down next to Thorin with a near silent curse. It had been just almost ten months since the battle of five armies, since Bella, believing Thorin dead, had fled Erebor in the company of four of Thranduil’s men and Beorn the skin changer. By the time they’d been able to spare someone to seek Beorn out winter had truly set in and it was too dangerous to send anyone out. Thorin had not heard Bella sing since before they had taken back Erebor from Smaug and part of him had despaired of ever hearing her again. He had tried to sing again, to let her know the only way he could that he still lived but every time he tried his voice caught in his throat. What if she hated him for everything he’d said on the gate of Erebor in his gold madness?
He wasn’t sure this would be the case, she had come to warn them when she’d discovered the second orc army heading for them. She’d saved Fili and helped Tauriel get Kili out of the battle when his leg was broken. If not for her the whole line of Durin may have ended that day but she’d pulled away from him that day too. Something she hadn’t even done when he was in the depths of his gold madness. He was glad they were alone in the royal apartments of Erebor as the tears slipped down his face.