Chapter Text
“ It is one thing to know that your child will grow up and fall in love with the one that shares their mark and an entirely different thing to see the proof before your eyes; proof that your child will not only lead a different life from you, but be taken from you by someone who you may never get the chance to know …”
-From the personal journal of Belladonna Baggins
Billa Baggins had grown up knowing that she was different, and it was not simply because of the fact that she was a Took-Baggins. While that was indeed a partial factor to her strangeness, what was more definite was her flowering on the back of her left ear. Unlike other Hobbit flowerings that marked out the name of their soul mates, Billa’s flower was in a different language that was clearly not Hobbitish, with rough runes that were slightly warm to the touch rather than a name with vines and vivid green things seemingly growing out of it. Even hidden behind riotous copper curls everyone in the Shire knew that Billa was not ever going to marry another respectable hobbit, unless she chose not to fulfill her flowering- an idea of great abhorrence to Hobbits.
In private, the young lady was glad that normal Hobbits kept their distance, because it had given way to Billa’s truest friends to appear- the Tooks and Brandybucks. Granted a majority of her cousins on her mother’s side also bore another hobbit name on their ears, but there were several whose flowerings were written in other languages; one even bore the name of an elf! Thus it was quite regular for young Miss. Baggins to be seen walking back and forth to her cousin’s homes whenever she could manage to sneak away from her parents.
Now, Mr. Bungo Baggins and Mrs. Belladonna Baggins, ne Took, were truly wonderful parents- if a bit over protective of their only child. The slightly elder of the pair often recited the deeds of his ancestors to the young woman and lectured her on proper gentle-hobbit behavior, while teaching her to read and write. Belladonna however went against every Took standard in that she most certainly did not tell her daughter too many stories of the outside world; she did not encourage her child to head off on adventures. Instead she taught her daughter how to embroider, sew and, how to properly tend to a garden. All of this proper raising quite disappointed her family, though the approval of the Baggins side and thereby, most of Hobbiton, grew more and more with every proper and respectable teaching that young Billa soaked up.
That is not to say that Billa Baggins was not adventurous- she was in fact more adventurous than her grandfather, Old Took, had been at her age. Billa simply learned ways to hide it, and if that meant no one saw her managing to sneak out a hidden door she had made in her room- well, she was a Took after all. This adventurous streak also meant she knew various little tidbits from having run into, sometimes quite literally, the Rangers. Thus, it was with a mind full of suspicion and a certain amount of experience that, on a day where both her parents were out and unlikely to return home within a sort while, Billa crept into the cellar, moved several barrels out of the way and pried off three loose wooden panels from the wall to reveal the small wooden chest hidden in the hole that was there.
It was something she had begun noticing not long after a particular dream she had had about a bear; where her father would sometimes get a letter or her mother would receive a small package, and when they thought she wasn’t looking, one of them would sneak downstairs. It wasn’t until she had been sent to the cellar to grab a bottle of wine during a party, that Billa discovered where it was exactly that her parents hid those particular things. Now, nearly ten years later, Billa, ever eager and curious, peered at what it was her parents thought to hide. There was not much to be seen outside of a small chest, save a musty old traveling cloak, a oddly shaped spearhead, and a few old ill-treated trinkets. For the time being Billa ignored these other interesting items and slipped the chest out of its hiding place, promptly taking it to her room where she might peruse it's contents without accidentally being spotted.
Picking the chest's lock ruined her lock picking set but, thankfully the lock released as she broke the very last set of her available tools. A grin of triumph passed over her lovely face as she lifted the lid and peered down at the contents exitedly, only to frown in puzzlement when all she saw was letters. Letters that hadn’t even been unsealed, which of course to a rather curious hobbit was an odd thing to discover. Seemingly her father had, to some extent, remained his organized self with the contents of the box and had placed the letters in some fashion or another. Knowing her father organization preferences as well as Billa did, it was not long until she found the first letter that had been put into the box. Two things made green eyes widen in surprise, the first being the postal date- which dated back nearly twenty years, and the second being that it was not her parents’ names that were written on the front of the letter but hers!
I'm certain you can imagine the shock and surprise that filled the youngest Baggins' expression, however it was not only shock and surprise that filled her. No indeed, somewhere in the back of her mind Billana Baggins, for the first time felt the beginnings of what would be a long developing anger towards her parents. Now I must, in all good consciousness pause for a moment here to inform you, kind reader, that Mr. and Mrs. Baggins were not cruel or rather terrible parents. Indeed, in many ways they were the best parents to have ever walked Middle Earth. However their situation as Hobbits- creatures naturally suspicious of anyone who was not a Hobbit- and the fact that they only ever had Billana meant that their over protectiveness was vast and sometimes prevented them from being the rather reasonable folk that they were wont to be otherwise. Of course had Billana not been their only child, already marked forever to never truly belong to the Shire, then perhaps things might have been quite different. But then again if they had not been themselves then this tale might not have ever come to pass.
Now for many moments Billa could not help but admire the elegant scripture that lay upon the parchment that she held before her. Never had she seen her name written quite so beautifully in her life. The 'B's were astoundingly complex with elegant swirls that intertwined each letter in her name in order to connect each individual with the whole and create her name, and for a moment she felt warmth race through her veins, momentarily pressing all other emotion back into the recesses of her mind as she thought that maybe- just maybe- this person was someone special.
Sounds from outside brought her back to the present and forced urgency upon the hobbit lass, who did not know when it was that her parents would return. She scanned through the tops of all the letters, all of which were addressed to her, in addition to three small packages and two small books, placed at the very bottom of the chest. Knowing that her parents were likely to be familiar with the scripture, Billa was quick to set to work, and by the time her parents returned from the market at sunset the chest was back in its former hiding spot with nothing but blank copies of the letters, two small books from her flaunting years, and three similarly shapes packages. The originals were all tucked safely away in another chest, hidden in the secret passageway that led from her room to the outlying gardens on the far side of the Hill. Hopefully soon she would get the chance to read them…