Chapter Text
Once upon a time there was a Hobbitess in a hole, that is where they live, not in the ground like their Lady’s beloved plants but in house under the earth. This Hobbitess was not like the other Hobbits no she was a priestess for the Lady Yavanna, the Lady of the ground, the goddess of the fields and harvest.
Bilbo Baggins wasn’t like the other priestesses as she has the blessing of the Green Lady, with said blessing she can talk with plants and though the plants she can talk with the Lady when the Lady calls upon her.
Which is not a lot, only when something big is happening.
Like one time many years ago when there was a Dwarf passing by and the Lady helped her get to them and help them though the Shire, they were nice after finding out she was there to help them and not hurt them.
But right now, Bilbo was working with her garden in seeing what every one of them need this fine morn, it was before breakfast when most Hobbits were starting to make it but for Bilbo she liked to take care of his garden before eating for the day, as she was a priestess for the Mother then she takes care of the plants first.
And that was what she was doing when she was called upon by the Lady. All Bilbo did after hearing what was to happen later that day, all she could do was smile, someone needed her, and if the Lady said take it then she must.
So, after taking care of the plants she goes back into her house and starts to get everything ready for her guests. After she gets out of her gardening clothes, and into her every day.
A simple white button down and a green skirt, she didn’t like skirts but as a priestess she must wear one. Then she puts on her veil and jewelry her every present jade bangle always sits on her right wrist, next she puts on his jade earrings they are small but make an even smaller sound when she moves, then her rings one on her right hand is made of jade and the other for her left hand is made of gold that shows she is of the Thain’s family and the last ring a simple silver ring with a tree in the middle of it to show that she is a priestess of Lady Yavanna.
With her veil over her hair, one couldn’t see the small braid in it or the curls of her golden-brown hair. So, she sits and waits with the plants chattering about the guests to come; they love new guests.
Has Bilbo sat and waited she thinks of the first time she was called upon by the Green Lady, she had just turned of age and was in the middle of walking with one of the priestesses through the garden of the Lady that they made for her when she was called upon.
And of course, she went with the other priestess and found them looking mad at not being where they were trying to be, so Bilbo walked up to them, the Dwarf looked ready to fight but Bilbo stopped them with a look and a simple “do you need help getting somewhere?”
It was easy to get them where they were going, and with a little bit of walking the two got to Bree and Bilbo bowed her head hoping them safe travel, they didn’t say anything but nodded their head as well and left without a word, but Bilbo smiled at them as she had gotten her first request for the Mother of her people and she was more than happy to help anyone.
Then someone was standing at her gate watching her with a small frown. It was Gandalf the Gray, one of her mother's old friends.
“Well, Hello, good morn, Lady Gandalf, it has been some years.” She smiled at the old lady still hearing the plants talking about being tired of seeing Gandalf after all those years of her around.
“You're a priestess Bilbo Baggins child of Belladonna Took and Bungo Baggins of the Shire?” asked the witch.
“The ones blessed by the Great Mother become priestesses my lady, you should know this by now.” she said calmly, that is when she hears some of her relatives' blend of chaos walking over to her and Gandalf, Bilbo sighed and got up with a look over to the witch who was tapping her gate door with her staff after that she walked away, but Bilbo knew something like this was going to happen.
But soon all Bilbo could do was be with her family as they, the Took side of the family talked over one another, her great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandmother had a vision of Bilbo leaving the next morning so they are all here to say good bye before she is too busy with packing and putting together a dinner for many.
But most don’t stay for long only the one that had had the vision stayed, she had known this day was coming but she was still saddened by it, but Bilbo told her that she would be careful and have the plants help her when needed. After promising her Grandmother Lulena she had left with a kiss to Bilbo’s cheek.
That is when Bilbo started to get her house ready for guests, getting rooms already for them and starting up a list of things she is going to need for the dinner that she is making. Then she was off.
After a few hours of cook she was done, then when the table was set and ready for all of them the first whispers from the plants started about someone walking up to her house. So, she went to wait outside on her bench.
The Dwarf had no hair on the sides of their head but looked at the door then up at her, “are you the burglar?” they asked, Bilbo wasn’t sure if the Dwarf was a man or woman with the beard but from their voice she thinks they are a lady.
“It would seem that is what Lady Gandalf put on my door but I don’t think so, but if that is the role that I have been given then it must be, how may I call you?” She asks not wanting to be rude.
“Dwalin daughter of Fundin.” She spoke, “at your service.” She said as she bowed.
Bilbo smiled at her then bow as well, “Bilbo Baggins priestess of Lady Yavanna, daughter of Belladonna Baggins nee Took and Bungo Baggins of the Shire, at your service.” Then she opened the gate and started to walk her up to the door. “I have dinner all ready for you and the others come this way and please take of your boots and put them by the door and put your axes on the weapons holder at the door and your cloak can go on the other side of the door.”
She hummed, seeming a little shocked at what was going on. When they got to the dining room, she was even more shocked at the meal in front of her. “Is this all for us?”
“Well of course Lady Dwalin, I know there is more of you all is this not enough for you all?” Bilbo looked at the fest on her table and thought of what she had to make more for them.
To Dwalin it was too much for all of them; it is as if this was meant for a small army and not thirteen hungry Dwarves that have not had a good meal in years. “No this is good.”
Bilbo smiled at her then made sure she was sitting and eating before she herself got some food before the others got there. They made some small talk but they were mainly quiet as they ate.
After Bilbo was done eating, she heard the whispers again but this time she didn’t get up before there was knocking on her door, as she didn’t want to have the Dwarf with her to question it too much.
“Please keep eating I well go see who it is, I will only be a moment.” Then she was up and walking to the door after putting her used dishes in the kitchen.
She opened the door to see in older Dwarf with two younger ones at her sides with an arm on both as if they would run away if not for the hand holding them.
She smiled at them, then the older one started to introduce herself after she was done, she looked at the younger ones with a hard look and they did the same.
“Fili-”
“Kili-"
“At your service!” They said at the same time.
“Bilbo Baggins priestess of Lady Yavanna, daughter of Belladonna Baggins nee Took and Bungo Baggins of the Shire, at your service, please come in your boots by the door please and weapons on the weapons holder and your cloaks can go on the other side of the door, dinner is in the dining room and there is someone else here as well.” Bilbo bowed and stepped out of the way for them as she pointed to where she was talking about where everything is to go.
Then she saw that Lady Dwalin had come out of the dining room and was walking fast over to them. “Balin, you made it, and with the two troublemakers.” then they head butted one another as hard as they could, if Bilbo didn’t know better than she would feel sorry for their heads, but she known this was how they greeted family, and all she could do was smile at them softly.
The two troublemakers were next for Dwalin to greet, but it was softer than the one that she gave Balin. Then after the greeting was done Bilbo herd them into the dining room for them to eat, but this time Bilbo let them have some time to catch up, as it seemed they have been apart for a long time and needed to talk about things was best done when someone new was not there. So, she left them to sit in one of the other rooms, waiting for the next knock or if the four in her dining room needed anything.
It didn’t take long for the next set of knocks to come when Bilbo opened the door it was a group of five and not three like the last time, once the introduce were done Bilbo told them what to do with their things like she did with the others and took them to her dining room where the others were waiting for them having heard the knocking, even more introduce went around and then when they were all seated again Bilbo left them once more.
It didn’t take long for the next knock, but Bilbo thought was going to be the last of the knocking at the door, but when she opened the door there was one person missing, having been told by Lady Dwalin that there was going to be thirteen Dwarves in her house, she thought the last knock was going to be the last four, but it was three Dwarves and a witch.
Who (minus the witch) all fell on to her floor when she opened the door. “Oh, dear are all of you all right?” Bilbo asked going to help them off the floor, but they all seem to be fine, but she had no idea.
The one with a too big hat answered, “we are all righty lass, but can you help me up?”
Bilbo helped the one with a big hat up, and Gandalf helped the one with the axe head in her head, and then the one with the big hat and the one with the axe head in her head helped the last one of the ground, who was very well fed. But that is a good thing.
“Are you sure you are all right?” Bilbo asked again has she closed the door with everyone on inside.
“We are dear, I’m Bofur, this is my little sister Bombur and our aunt Bifur, at your service!” They all bowed together and Bilbo smiled at all of them then bowed to introduce herself to the three then walked to the dining room as well and left them all to catch up.
It took longer for the last to knock, but it was a powerful knock, Bilbo got to the door before the others, but they all still come out when they heard it from the dining room.
It was the same Dwarf that got lost all that time ago, “you’re the one from a few years ago, please come on in.” Bilbo said.
The Dwarf did, then the dwarf introduced herself, “Thorin Oakenshield daughter of Thrain, at your service, thank you for helping me though the Shire.”
“Bilbo Baggins priestess of Yavanna, daughter of Belladonna Baggins nee Took and Bungo Baggins, it is all right, it is only what was right, if you were to go into the Old Woods it would have been bad.” Then told Thorin where she could put her things and let the others take her to the dining room.
Then she goes back to her sitting room to wait for when she is needed. That is when Gandalf comes to see her. “Where is Belladonna? She would love all of this and try to come along.” She asked after she sat in front of Bilbo.
Bilbo looked up at her from her book, “she passed in a too cold winter, and the too hot summer killed my father, I was too young to be by myself, so the Garden took me in.”
The Garden is what they call their church for Yavanna, and where the orphans of the Fell Winter were taken. There was a lot of them, many people had died that winter and summer. She was taken in by the Garden, and it helped her morn the deaths of them being somewhere with flowers and plants everywhere.
But no one knew that at the time of their deaths she was there, sitting by them trying her best to help them, it didn’t work out for her, they died and left her here in a too big house all by herself.
“I’m so sorry, Bilbo, you were still young when that all happened...” Gandalf looked away from her, then someone called out to them for they are needed.
Bilbo gets there first having got up before the witch, when she got into the dining room she saw that all the food was gone, she smiled at this and started to clean up, no one really stopped her but they all helped her clean up, and it went by faster than it would have if it was only herself doing it.
Then after cleaning up, they all sat at the table to talk about what way they were going to be taking. Bilbo looked at the map for a long time before saying something, “your map is old, if you would like I can get my map that is from the last months?”
The Dwarves and Witch all looked at her like she was crazy, but Thorin looked at her for a second then nodded. “That would help.”
It didn’t take Bilbo long to get it from her study. When she got back into the dining room, she gave the map to Thorin and sat back down. That is when someone remembers to give her the contract that they have for her to sign.
She reads it over at the table seeing things she had thought was going to be on there and some that she didn’t, like words and what she could guess was Khuzdul, she looked up at them as they all looked at her.
She smiled at them and asked her first question of many, “what do the, I’m guessing Khuzdul say?”
The older Dwarf Balin that gave her the contract looked a little sheepish, “well we didn’t really know that our burglar was going to be a Hobbit as Tharkun didn’t tell us, and it is common for Dwarf contracts to have Khuzdul on it.”
“I see, and I know that you Dwarves like to keep your language a secret, and so do we Hobbits, if you cannot tell what it means then the feeling of what it says?” She asks, not looking at Gandalf and her sound of confusion.
“It is something like you must follow the rules of the contract.” Balin said softly after looking at Thorin for the okay.
“I see, and what is this stone? And this is about Erebor, yes? The Dragon?” She asked softly not wanting to remember them to much of what happened.
“The Arkenstone is the one thing that can clam me as Queen to the other lords and ladies of the Dwarves. Yes, we are going to Erebor, and once we have the Arkenstone, we well have help from the other lords to kill that, Dragon.” Said Thorin as she looked at the two maps.
“I see, so I guessing I will have to get this Arkenstone from the Dragon?” She asked again.
They all looked at her in shock that she found out that fast. “Yes.” Said Dwalin not looking at her but at the table as if it was hard to even say.
Bilbo looked at all of them and sighed, then to the shock of everyone there she signed her name on the line and handed the contract back to Balin. “I will go, I will help you all get your home back from this Dragon and I will help you without needing any reward, I help those who need it, and I will help you all here. But I know you Dwarves are going to find a way to reward me anyway, when you get you home back just send seeds to the Shire that is enough for me.”
“You really think we can take back Erebor?” Asked Dori, looking as shocked as the others.
“Yes.”
“And the reward? Do you not have something you want? Gold? Jade? Silver? Anything?” asked Thorin this time with even more shock than the others.
“Nothing you can give me, not even as Queen Under the Mountain, you would have to be a god to bring the dead back to life, Lady Oakenshield.” Bilbo smiled softly at the Dwarf in front of her, even as a sad look that went over her face at Bilbo’s words.
That is when Gandalf spoke up, “Hobbits have their own language?” Having no idea that they did, as none of the Hobbits that she had befriended had told her about this.
Bilbo looked at her like she was stupid. “Did you think you know everything about Hobbits? Yes, we have our own language given to us by the Green Lady. When there are non-Hobbits near, we go to the common language like the other races, other than men they have no other language.”
“Really? All these years of having been friends of the Hobbits and I have heard not of this language.” She said mainly to herself and not to the others.
“You would have to marry a Hobbit to learn it, that is when we share our language and culture, and as you have never married a Hobbit then you wouldn’t know of any of this.” She said back with a small smile.
“Interesting, so what can you tell us?” asked Thorin.
Bilbo looked at her with a soft smile, “we are the children of Lady Yavanna, we like flowers and plants like the Great Mother, some flowers mean one thing and other mean another flowers have a language for us, we like good food, and growing our own food.” she looked at all of them then sighed, “and don’t give a Hobbit a garden without wanting to marry said Hobbit, as that is part of getting married here in the Shire.”
“Oh, you all really like the plants.” Said Kili.
Bilbo laughed at that, “yes, we do young one.”
“I’m not that young Miss Boggins!” She says as she blushes even harder.
At this Bilbo softened, she laughs softer this time, “it’s Baggins and I see that dear.”
Kili looked up at the correction and smiled mischievously then looked at her sister to see if she was having the same idea as her. When she saw the same mischievous smile on her sister’s face, she smiled even harder.
Bilbo sighed softly at this, knowing that this name is not going to go away for some time now. But she is fine with that, nothing like some good old fun for the younger ones in the group.
Shaking her head she got up from the table, “if the talking is all done for the night then I say that we should all go to sleep now as we will have to get up early, I have rooms ready for all of you but some of you will have to share if that is okay?”
They all nodded and started to get up; Bilbo took them all to the rooms she had made up for all of them. The ones that are sisters or related share the rooms; Gandalf gets her own room because Bilbo had to make her a longer bed by putting two beds together.
The next morning Bilbo started to make breakfast before anyone was up, before the sun was up, after some time of the smell of cooking filled the house, the others started to leave the rooms, they were given for the night, coming to see what the smell was.
When the first few got into the kitchen, Bilbo set them into the dining room with tea to wait for breakfast to be ready before they could start taking some of it.
When breakfast was fully done Bilbo had the others go get the ones that were not wake yet so that they can all eat together.
None of the Dwarves were ready for the day, with their hair unbraided and their clothes all over the place, Bilbo on the other hand, was ready having taken care of her plants earlier that morning, she has a dark green button down with a waist coat the color of moss, her veil is a travel veil which is shorter than her normal veil, and it is the same color as her belladonnas growing outside, and her trousers are a dark brown.
After they were all done with breakfast they all started to get ready for the day, as they did that Bilbo got her bow ready by stringing it, turning it into a working bow, that is when she hears a gasp from behind her.
When she looked, she saw one of the younger ones, Kili. “Can I help you dear?” She asks softly.
“You use a bow too?!?” She asked close to jumping up and down. Bilbo smiles softly at this.
“I do, I have been learning it since I was a fauntling or babe. Mother loved that I wanted to learn to shoot a bow as she ones did, and it helped with my business outside of the Shire.” She smiled at that, “go dear you still have a lot of getting ready to do.”
Kili looked done at herself and then ran back to her room with her sister and aunt.
Bilbo chuckled a little bit then went back to her bow. Once it was ready, she goes into her backyard to see if it was ready to shoot. She ready the bow with an arrow and pulled the string back and shot.
The arrow hit the target; after pulling the arrow back out, she went back inside to wait for the others. Her travel pack is already and all she can do now is wait for the other to be ready.
By the time they were on the road, it was about time for second breakfast, Bilbo known that the Dwarves don’t know the way that Hobbits eat or the fact that they needed food for energy, but it is not the first time Bilbo has fasted.
Bilbo made sure to be ahead of the others to make sure that they don’t go the wrong way. With Thorin holding the maps, it was better for her to lead them out of the Shire.
One of the others came walking up to her, it was Bofur, “so, why are you cool with all of this?”
Bilbo looked over at the Dwarf with a too big hat and sighed, “being a priestess of Lady Yavanna you must been okay with a lot of things and this is one of them, but I was planning on leaving the Shire soon this has helped me do it faster, and if anything happens then the Garden knows what to do with my things.”
“What is the Garden?” asked one of the young ones that came over with her younger sister, Fili.
Bilbo looked at Fili and Kili and smiled a little. “The Garden is like what you all call a church I think, at least that is what men calls it.”
Boths girls look at one another then back at the Hobbit, “we call it the Stone or Mahal’s Halls.” Said Fili with a look of understanding going over her face.
“There are only Hobbits in Hobbiton now a days but when us Hobbits were more like the Hobbits of old, we used to call the Lady of Green Kementári like our brothers’ the Ents and the Shape-Changers, but now we have little time to spoke with our more tree brothers and form changing brothers.” She said not thinking too much of it.
But it seems all of the Dwarves around them started at this, “what do you mean the Hobbits of old?” asked one that Bilbo was sure was Nori.
Bilbo looked up at them then at Gandalf as if asking but she seems to be in her own world, “you all most not know this then, well it is not a secret of the Hobbits, but once upon a time we Hobbits looked a little more like the Ents and that is to say we had leaves and flowers for hair, and our tails also had leaves and flowers on them. But one day Men found out about us, thinking we would be fun to test somethings on, and now after Men had some Hobbitess have their children and killing the ones that don’t look more like them, we have the Hobbits of today, though it is rare for a Hobbit now to have the flowers and leaves of hair there was some with it back in the day, but now we only have hair like the others. We also could change some small things about our forms like our older brothers the Shape-Changers, but that was taken from us as well.”
It was Gloin’s time to spoke up, “what did you do with the Men that did this to your people and why live so close to them now!”
Bilbo looked at her and the others that are now asking the same thing, all she could do was sigh, “the Lady with the help of her other children the Ents and the Shape-Changers killed the ones that did it, and none of the Men that live in Bree would do this, they know what had happened in the past and know not to now, least the Green Mother take out the hate she has for Men on them for the way they treat her land, and her children.”
The Dwarves all nodded at that. Now seeing what their Creator saw in the Goddess of fields and harvest, she was fierily for a Lady of the ground and greens. But if that is their Creator’s One, then they are more than happy to hear more about her from someone that knows a lot about her.
“Tell us more about your Green Lady, lass.” Said Oin the older sister of Gloin.
Bilbo looked at all of them for a second seeing that they truly wanted to hear about Yavanna, then she remembers that their Creator was Aulë, the husband of her Lady. So, she starts to tell them about the Lady that she has helped and who has helped her more then she can know.
When they got to Bree the Hobbitess had them all go to stay the night at the Prancing Pony, Bilbo made sure that the Dwarves got rooms and meals for the night and morning before they leave for the woods, she knows who runs the Pony and is more than willing to call in a favor if needed.
But it was not needed, Bilbo told her old friend that she was helping the Dwarves, and they all got their rooms and meals for free.
Thanks to the fact that once Bilbo had helped the owner when they really needed it, and that was that.
They only stayed the night and were off after having breakfast, their first real day in the woods and not in the Shire or Bree.