Homeward Bound Part One: An Unexpected Journey

Chapter Twenty-Five

Her head hurt, a dull, throbbing pain hammering against her skull.

Bilba groaned and struggled to pull herself to consciousness.

What happened?

As awareness filtered back she became aware that almost her entire body felt sore and battered.

She pulled her eyes open and caught a faint, fuzzy white glow over her head.

Her vision cleared slowly and she realized she was looking at some kind of lichen. It covered the ceiling over her head and cast a pale light into the dark around her. Parts of it were blocked and as her mind cleared more she found herself lying in the midst of a large patch of some kind of mushroom. She could feel crushed stalks and caps under her back but it appeared she must have fallen dead center as undamaged ones surrounded her on all sides.

Carefully she pulled herself to a sitting position, wavering as dizziness assailed her.

It was a stroke of luck, her mind hazily supplied; the mushrooms must have cushioned her fall and probably saved her life.

Cushioned her fall.

Had she fallen?

Memory flooded back so sharp she gasped, one hand going to her chest.

Fili and Kili and the rest...the last time she'd seen them flashed through her mind and she shut her eyes.

And then the cave and the floor...Dwalin and the Ri brothers being dragged away...

Her eyes snapped open.

Thorin had fallen with her.

Where was Thorin?

Panic rose in her and she scrambled to her feet. Dizziness hit her once again and she staggered, one hand going to the wall for support. Again she closed her eyes and forced herself to take shallow breaths, in through her mouth and out through her nose.

The dizziness began to fade and, with it, even more of the fuzziness in her mind.

For the first time she became aware of the faint noise of water and...her eyes narrowed...was that...singing?

The sound drifted in and out, starting and stopping. Oddly it was when the sound stopped and silence reigned that she found herself the most unnerved.

She stepped out of the mushrooms carefully. There was no sign of her sword or of Thorin. Had he woken up, not seen her in the mushrooms and gone to search for her?

Or maybe he did see you and left you anyway.

Bilba opened her mouth to call for him and then shut it again as she, again, caught the faint sound of singing. It didn't sound like Thorin but she had never heard of an orc or goblin that went around belting out music.

Another, fainter sound that she couldn't identify came to her. It was rhythmic, going in time with the singing as though the singer was keeping time somehow.

She shuffled forward, sliding one foot slowly in front of another. The lichen provided some light but it was dim and didn't fully illuminate the floor. She didn't want to risk tripping over Thorin, or something else, and alerting whatever it was that was singing.

Her toe connected with something cold and small on the floor, it clattered a couple inches and came to a stop. Bilba froze but the singing went on unabated and she relaxed. She dropped to one knee and put her hand out, feeling through the dirt and whatever else was on the ground. Her fingers connected with something and she lifted it up, holding it up into the light from the lichen as best she could.