Work Text:
Ori stared at the tangle of roses, the petals all a deep, rich crimson in the early morning light. He could hear Kíli and Tauriel talking as they cooked breakfast on the camp stove – well, while Tauriel cooked and Kíli stole bits and pieces from the skillet since he wasn't allowed to cook after what Fíli described as the Incident with the Burning Water.
They had tried to conduct more EVP sessions after their shock, but nothing had come up on their recordings. Even the sensors in the halls revealed not a single fluctuation during the night. Fíli said it was a good thing, that this way they had a baseline and Ori agreed with him. It was just...how did this spirit, this Bilbo know their names? Was he really the long lost B-name owner and heir of the original Baggins line?
(And why, for the love of Mahal, did Ori keep wanting to call him Burglar ?)
Very little about this made sense. Ori didn't even know if he'd publish any of this on his ArdaTube channel. There was no way anyone would believe them. They'd call them all fakes and frauds. Sure they had EVPs but the validity of such recorders were dubious at best. Now, to be fair, most EVPs sounded like a bunch of sounds put in the blender and the ear could hear what it wanted to hear, but this...these were words. These were names . These were sentences .
None of it made sense. It was giving Ori a headache just trying to think it all through.
Most of the morning and afternoon was spent editing the footage they already had. Ori and Nori argued a bit on keeping some of the more dramatic stuff – Ori just couldn't see how they could keep the spontaneous flower appearance, not without people shouting them down as fakes and frauds – but Nori was all for keeping it in.
It was a long afternoon.
The night was longer still and more disappointing. They captured a few odd sounds but further checking turned up a small field mouse scurrying along the wall where the sensors did not reach. That meant Fíli and Dwalin were sidelined for several more hours while they fixed the holes and figured out where best to set up the little sensors. There were no more EVPs though they did pick up an odd gollumgollum sound which none of them thought was real. Nori was the one who pointed out it sounded more like an owl who had indigestion and that got a good laugh out of everyone. They packed it in for that night and Ori was only a little disappointed when he went to sleep since when he came back to their main camp site he found that somehow Fíli's cot and bedroll had migrated closer to his during the day.
Ori ignored the pointed looks Nori was giving him and hid his face under the flap of the sleeping bag. He also did not peek out at Fíli as the lights were turned out. Nope. Not him. And no one would be able to prove it, either.
The next day started with a bit of a panic since they were all roused at dawn to what sounded like a minor cave in. Thorin and Dwalin had them all stay back as they edged down the hall, looking for any signs of disturbance. Thorin called back that they should call in Bofur since it looked as though part of the ceiling had given way during the night. All of them were on edge at that. So they spent most of the morning and afternoon hauling their equipment back outside and waiting for Bofur to show up with his crew. To Ori's surprise Bofur showed up not just with his brother and cousin, but Dori as well. It shouldn't have been so shocking since Ori well knew that Bofur was courting Ori's older brother, but Ori didn't think Dori would come out to a work site with Bofur.
“I came because of you, silly,” Dori told him when Ori asked him about it later.
“But you hate going into places like this? And anyway what about your tea house?”
“Oh it is running just fine. Why? Don't want your big brother out here?”
“That's not what I said!”
After Bofur and his crew had given the all clear – with also a warning that Glóin and Óin were on their way, having heard about the roof falling in – they lugged all their equipment back into the front hall of Bag End and set everything back up. The evening was derailed yet again when not only did Glóin and Óin show up, but Balin as well. Óin insisted on making sure everyone was checked over but refused to stay at the camp site to sleep, as did Glóin. Balin just smirked at them all – including Ori – and stroked his beard, saying he would be staying at the lovely inn down the road with a proper bed, thank you. Bofur and his crew – and Dori – weren't going to stay the night either, but Dori did promise – or threaten – that they would be staying in the area to be on hand in case there were any more structural issues. Then the rest of the night was taken up with showing the Company –
Ori stopped and gave himself a shake at that thought. Where did that come from?
Anyway. The rest of the night was taken up with showing the newcomers the footage they had and around what was left of Bag End. It was far too late to set up for more sessions by the time Bofur and Dori left for the night. Ori watched them go, seeing their headlights disappear out of the parking lot, the beams sweeping across the pond that was at the bottom of the hill from Bag End. Ori let his night vision return as the car's brake lights vanished around the corner, staring out over the field below his perch. It was said, both in lore that had been handed down and in the Red Book of Westmarch, that there had been a grand party of some sort in the field below, and that there was once a great Party Tree that dominated the area. Nothing was left of it now and no records told of why the tree had been cut down but Ori picked out a possible hillock that could have once been a stump of a great tree, once upon a time.
Then he gave himself a shake and turned to go inside.
As he passed the open hole that was once a window the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. Ori stopped, head turning slow, catching something moving out of the corner of his eye. He spun around, breath caught in his throat...but there was nothing there. Just shadows and the sound of the wind passing through the grasses.
“Ori?”
The sound of Fíli's voice made Ori almost jump out of his skin. “Fíli!” He put a hand to his chest. “You gave me a fright.”
“Sorry, didn't mean to,” Fíli stepped out of the shadows to Ori's right, the old porch overhang long gone. “Something happen?”
“Just nerves,” Ori waved it off. “Thought I saw something moving. You know how it is.”
“Where did you see it?”
Ori glanced at him from the corner of his eye, even as Fíli came close enough that their shoulders brushed. “There,” he pointed, “through that hole. It was probably nothing.”
“You've already caught more incredible footage than anyone in the ghost hunting business ever has before. I think you shouldn't doubt yourself so much.”
Ori caught his lower lip between his teeth and had to shrug. He could almost trick himself into feeling the warmth of Fíli's shoulder through his shirt. “It was just luck, probably.”
“Luck,” Fíli echoed, softer. His eyes were on the shadowed hole. “Maybe.”
“Fíli?”
“Sorry, sorry. It's just this place...” He shook his head and finally looked at Ori, a rueful smile curling his mouth. “I get now why Uncle would always talk about it.”
Ori shut his mouth and had to nod. He had joined Thorin's expedition in its last year, after they had not found anything for more than eighteen months. Ori remembered how Thorin would sometimes just sit at Bag End at the end of the day, as the rest of their team packed up for the night, staring up at it with a gaze like he was looking at something very far away. Sometimes Dwalin would join them, both sitting there hand in hand as the sun set over the fields of the Shire, turning everything gold and crimson before twilight fell.
Ori did jump at the touch of Fíli's hand on his elbow, the warmth of his hand curling around Ori's arm as he was tugged forward. “Come on, Dwalin is cooking tonight and he makes a mean chili. Just don't let Uncle Thorin touch anything on your plate. Trust me, I think Kíli got his abilities with cooking from him.”
“Y-Yeah, sure, I –”
“Hey! Hey who's there!” Thorin's shout made both of them rush forward. The front hall was well lit and Ori could smell the scent of chili on the air. But it was the sight of Thorin rushing down the hall – the same hall that had part of the roof fall in – that caught his eye. Dwalin had spun around, spoon raised like a club, watching as his husband disappeared into the thick shadows of the rest of the ruin.
“Uncle!”
“Thorin!”
Ori stayed back and let Fíli go first. He fumbled with his phone, pulling up Bofur's number, just in case. He didn't hear any strange noises, though, and it didn't seem like any more of the roof was giving way. They all waited in tense silence as they heard Fíli's voice, his words muffled by the earthen walls, echo down the hall. Then Ori heard the sound of Thorin talking, then Fíli again, before the both of them reappeared back in the light of the front hall.
Thorin was pale and trembling. Dwalin dropped his spoon back into the pot and was on his husband in an instant. They got Thorin sitting down in one of the camp chairs as they gathered around.
“There was someone in the hall,” Thorin took the hot cup of coco that Dwalin pressed into his hands, curling around it. Dwalin was pressed up close to his side. “I could...I could see them. But it was strange.”
“Strange?”
“They were...they were small, whoever they were, and it was...it was like...it was like they were surrounded in blue fire.”
Ori exchanged a look with Fíli. “Blue fire?”
Thorin shook his head, taking a shaking sip of his coco. “It sounds insane but I swear to you that's what I saw. They were just...standing there,” he pointed at where their lights faded into the long hall and the shadows took over. “Right outside the light. I thought...I thought it was one of you throwing a shadow from the lamps. But then Nori moved and the shadow didn't and that...I thought,” he tilted his head to one side, eyes squinting shut even as Dwalin draped and arm over his shoulder. “I thought I heard someone call my name and there was a sound of – of a battle. I'm not sure. Then I thought, well that's stupid, and figured it was someone playing a trick on us. That's when I yelled out.” He opened his eyes and stared down into his cup. “Clearly I need to get some more sleep.”
“The shadows have always been strange here,” Dwalin murmured against his temple. “Come on, let's get you settled with some food. It's been a long day.”
“Yes, you're right. Food and sleep, that's the best thing for me.”
Ori stayed back as the rest gathered around the stove for dinner. He glanced down the hall, staying in the well lit part of the area where their camp lights were set up. A tiny sliver of the sky could be seen from where the ceiling had given way. He thought...he thought he saw a shadow move across it but it was probably nothing. A cloud or an owl, nothing more.
The uneasy feeling followed him all the way through dinner, though, and stayed even as he got ready for bed. His dreams were strange and dark, and he felt like he had been running through some sort of strange underground city for ages when he woke. His head hurt and he wanted nothing more than to curl up in his bed in his apartment and just turn on the TV and lounge about for a few hours. But his permit time was ticking and he could lay about later. He needed make the most out of every minute he had in Hobbiton.
That day the rest of their strange company – Ori gave himself another shake but what else could they call their motley crew? Company it was – came up early for a proper tour of the Hobbiton area. This time they brought their gear along and Ori thought they caught some very interesting knocks in the old mill site. There had once been a grange but legend had it that some Men had come in at the end of the Third Age and torn it down, which was then said to have led to the Battle of Bywater. No one really knew the truth but they thought they caught some strange cries during an EVP session, but nothing like the singing Ori had caught that first time on his own.
That night they were all on edge, with Dwalin sticking close to Thorin's side the whole time. It was Ori's turn to cook, but pasta and jarred sauce was easy enough. It didn't help that Fíli offered to help him with it, standing hip to hip with Ori at the camp stove as they stirred the sauce and made sure the noodles didn't over cook. Ori Very Firmly ignored the look Nori sent him as they went to sleep that night.
Ori woke to pure darkness, not sure what had startled him awake. He lay there, staring up at the black ceiling, trying to calm his heart. Then, right at the edge of his hearing, he thought he heard sniffing .
Ori sat up in bed, his flashlight already in his hand. He swept over the rest of the sleepers, heart caught in his throat. There was nothing there. Still, the hairs at the back of his neck did not lay down. Ori kept sweeping the light across them all, trying to find the source of that sound. Maybe...maybe it was someone snoring. Just. Odd breathing in their sleep. Surely...surely that was all it could be –
come away now a voice whispered and Ori bit back a scream. they're our friends, come away now, all is well
Ori shivered, gaze fixed on the hall where it looked...where it looked like there were two figures moving. One crouched low to the ground, moving strangely on all fours. The other was standing over them, one hand held out, like it was coaxing the other.
thieves , the first voice said. burglar. baggins .
yes, yes, I know you're upset, but its in the past. come along, let's go home
thief, said the voice again. And then they were gone.
“What,” said Fíli's voice right next to Ori's ear. “was that.”
Ori yelped, almost falling off his cot. That's when he realized that everyone else was awake as well, all of them staring at the hallway with wide, wide eyes. Warm arms caught Ori before he could fall, pulling him up against a warm chest. Ori fought down a blush – and failed, miserably – even as lamp after lamp turned on in the hall.
“That was...that was audible,” Thorin had a cowlick at the back of his head sticking up straight. Dwalin was getting up as well, pulling a shirt over his head to hide the wide expanse of tattoos that covered his chest. “That was – you all heard that, right?”
They all murmured their agreement, even as Dwalin and Nori got up to check their equipment. They had all agreed to keep the sensors and one recorder going all night, just in case they missed something. Ori felt his ears burning as Fíli released him, even as he stayed close to Ori's side. Ori saw Kíli and Tauriel curl up together, both of them watching the hall as the rest of them gathered around the table where the computers were set up.
“It's not there,” Nori told them some time later. Both he and Dwalin glared at their equipment.
“But we all heard it,” Ori said.
Nori shrugged, poking at their set up. “I know but it's not there.”
“Maybe we should set up a few more recording stations,” Fíli said. Ori nodded his agreement. “It probably wasn't close enough to pick up the audio.”
“But we could hear it just fine,” Thorin muttered. “Do you...do you think that was...”
They all stared at the empty hall. “No,” Ori finally said. They all looked at him. “I don't think that was Bilbo. That was someone...two someones else.”
They spent the next hour setting up several more recording areas. No one went by themselves. Ori successfully fought down a blush when Fíli went with him into what was thought to be an old pantry to set up his lot of the equipment. It didn't look like Fíli was affected at all which made Ori just duck his head a little further and tried to ignore the odd sinking in his stomach. He clearly needed more sleep.
They all slept in the next day but over a tense breakfast – more of a brunch really – Nori and Dwalin announced that there had been nothing more recorded for the rest of the night. They left the equipment running as they went out to see the rest of Hobbiton, with Dwalin and Thorin volunteering to stay back and watch over the camp as they explored. From the faces Fíli and Kíli made, Ori decided he didn't want to know about anything else that might happen while they were gone.
Seeing the rest of the ruins was fun and took up most of the day. They ended up on the hill overlooking Bag End at sunset, watching the stars come out one by one even as the rich rose scent from the still-unexplained flowers perfumed the air. It was while they were sitting there, with Fíli again at Ori's side which still confused him, that he heard it.
“Hush,” he held up a hand, ears straining. “It's...Nori, get the camera out!”
Everyone but Nori and Kíli froze, listening even as the other two were busy pulling out their gear. Ori closed his eyes and tilted his head, wincing when the wind changed and the sound of the grasses shushing over the hill drowned out all sound. The wind crested and then died away, leaving everything still. And then...and then ...
O Elbereth! Gilthoniel!
We still remember, we who dwell
In this far land beneath the trees,
Thy starlight on the Western Seas
.
Ori blinked open wet eyes, feeling his hand being taken by Fíli at his side. The song faded, even as it felt like there were more voices joining the song.
“Oh,” he heard Tauriel say and looked over to see her pale faced and with one hand on her chest. “Oh,” she repeated, softer, as Kíli dropped his camera and went to her side.
“What was that? Do you know?” Fíli asked, turning to look at Ori even as their hands were still linked. It didn't feel like Fíli was in any rush to pull away.
“I don't...”
“There used to be groups of my kind here,” Tauriel said, gaze still distant even as color came back to her cheeks. Kíli hovered at her side. “I heard about it from my grandmother, before she went to the sea. She said...sometimes the songs linger like an echo in the places where our ancestors walked the land. I think...I think you just caught one of them.”
“Do you know who they could have been?”
She shook her head and then paused. “Maybe. I think I need to talk to Thorin.”
They caused quite the stir when they barreled back into camp. Thorin and Dwalin were wroth when they found out they had missed the singing – though Ori thought Thorin didn't look quite so upset when he found out it was elven singing they missed, but that was besides the point – and after some clarifying questions, and a poke about the internet, they figured that the singing had to have come from at least the Third Age, due to the dialect used in the song. That, according to Tauriel, meant there was a very good chance that they'd caught an echo of one Gildor Inglorion on their recordings.
Ori couldn't believe it. If nothing else the singing alone would be worth camping out rough for two weeks straight.
There was still nothing from Bag End, not even an EVP, by the next morning. They all broke up into smaller groups then, with both Ori and Nori going to Dori's rental to take a shower and do some wash in the afternoon. Nori, thankfully, did not snitch about Ori's growing closeness with Fíli to their older brother, which was odd in and of itself. Ori had noticed that Nori had been tense since the strange hallway incident, but when Ori asked him about it Nori just brushed it off. Ori set it aside since there was nothing that could move Nori when he didn't want to be moved. His brother would talk when he was good and ready and not one second before.
That night, as they got ready for bed, they did catch a sound on their equipment, as well as hearing it themselves as they ate dinner back at camp. The rising howl of a warg split the night, making a shiver run down Ori's spine. All of them were silent and still as the sound wound up and up before breaking off in a series of high yips. Then it was gone.
“There haven't been wargs seen since the Sixth Age,” Thorin said into the silence that was left. “That...that has to be a hound.”
“Strange hound,” Dwalin growled.
“Could it be a wolf?” Ori glanced between them.
Thorin and Dwalin shared a look. “Could be,” Dwalin grunted.
None of them slept well that night.
The next morning Thorin and Dwalin were up before anyone else in camp. Ori soon found out why. They'd gone down to their camper to report the sound of a maybe-wolf to the local authorities and found that someone had been messing with their camper at some point. That led to a call with the local police and reports being made but it didn't look like anything had been taken. The police looked rather skeptical when they told them about the howling they'd heard the night before, and brushed off the incident as nothing more than dogs howling at the moon.
Ori didn't like them much. Still, the police took Thorin's information and told them to make sure to lock their vehicle next time. Neither Ori's car nor Fíli's truck had been touched. None of them were best pleased by the time the police left and there was little time to set up their gear for any more recordings. Ori thought about trying the door knocking again but...it didn't feel right. He'd found, as he'd gotten more and more into ghost hunting, that a lot of the hunts were more about how one felt rather than what you thought you had to do. So Ori let the idea slide as they settled into camp and picked over what evidence they had already gathered.
(And if, perhaps, Ori didn't mind yet again that Fíli was pressed up next to him as they juggled laptops and external hard drives? Well. No one but him needed to know that, now did they?)
But from the moment Ori woke up the next morning, he knew something was going to happen. The hairs on the back of his neck and on his arms were prickling from the moment he opened his eyes. Everyone else seemed to feel it too, all of them a touch jumpy, and no one went anywhere alone.
It was late in the afternoon when Ori and Fíli went to the pantry to retrieve the recorder there. Ori had just stood, laughing at a joke Fíli said when everything went black . Ori's head swam. It felt...it felt like...there was someone running, it felt like he was running, and above them...above them there was the sound of wings .
There was a roar and Ori heard shouting coming from camp. He darted out into the hall to see a figure outlined by the sudden flash of their camp lights exploding one by one. The figure – a shadow – swept towards him, black and blue and strange and –
“BILBO!”
Ori's breath left him in a rush as Thorin's shout filled the ruins of Bag End. He landed on his back, Fíli caught in the cradle of his legs, as it felt like something big swept low over them, the sheer heat making Ori's skin prickle. “What was –,” Ori broke off when he raised his head and found Fíli braced over him, his face kissing close as they stared at each other from over that small distance.
“I...” said Fíli. His gaze moved to Ori's mouth.
“Fíli,” Ori said. Anything else was interrupted by the arrival of Nori who looked wild-eyed and dangerous as he hauled Fíli off Ori and hauled them both into camp.
Half of their equipment was ruined. Most of the camp lights were destroyed. The camera with the recording of the singing was half melted , but at least they had backed up all their files to a cloud drive when they had been down at the parking lot. Ori tried his best to put the – the – the moment he'd had with Fíli out of his mind as they tried to salvage what was left of their gear. Some of their chairs also had odd bits of melted plastic on their frame. Dwalin and Nori salvaged what was left of their main computer set up and after a second argument in a row Nori stalked off into the light of the sunset for a smoke to clear his head.
“Did you,” Fíli stopped Ori as most everyone moved towards the camp stove that had thankfully remained intact. “Did you feel...warm? I mean,” it might have been Ori's imagination but it looked like Fíli blushed. “There was, uh. Heat? When that – I mean, did you feel like something...”
“Swept over us, yes,” Ori tried not to blush as well. “I – I felt it. The, uh. The heat,” he looked away. “It felt big,” then he wanted to brain himself. “The thing. That. That swept over us. That was definitely not – uh. Yeah.”
“I...Did I hurt you?” Fíli moved closer, one hand on Ori's arm. “I landed on you pretty hard.”
“I'm fine,” Ori murmured, unable to look away as Fíli leaned towards him.
“Hey, hey everyone. Get out here right now.”
Nori's shout broke the moment. Ori was absolutely going to do something terrible to him at his next convenience. Still, Nori kept shouting so Ori had to follow when Fíli turned away, headed for the door.
Ori's annoyance slipped away as he joined everyone on the roof of Bag End. For just as the bramble of roses had appeared, there were now day lilies of all colors, twisting through the spots of earth left that the roses did not cover.
It was the wrong season for day lilies to bloom. And, as Ori stared out over the sudden blooms, he felt a trickle of ice slide down his spine. The sun slipped over the horizon, the crimson and gold of the sunset being hid behind a wall of clouds. The temperature dropped. Ori shivered. In the shadows it looked...it looked almost like the flowers themselves were wilting, hanging low on their stems. Even their perfume was faded.
Ori curled his arms around his front, fighting down a shiver. Then he looked down, going still even as everyone else was busy trying to take pictures of the new flowers in the fading light.
It felt...it felt for one strange second, like there was drumming coming from underneath his feet.