Homeward Bound Part Two: Grace and Redemption

Chapter Thirty-Six

"Hello Bilba."

The voice came from behind her. Bilba whirled, and memory crashed down on her like a thundering wave.

"My lady, Yavanna," she breathed, immediately dropping to her knees.

The woman standing on the path with her laughed. "Rise, Bilba. There will be no bowing among friends, I think."

The words mirrored the ones she'd spoken the last time they'd met, as did the location. The only thing that was different was the lady herself. Whereas, the last time she'd had green tinged skin and hair the color of the sun, her skin was now a golden brown and her hair had turned into a mix of reds, golds and honey brown.

Autumn, Bilba realized with a start. They were just entering into that season, and the lady reflected it. Even her gown, which had been shimmering and adorned with flowers the last time, was now a muted gold, and adorned with leaves of all colors.

"I can't believe I forgot you," Bilba said in slowly dawning horror, "after all you've done for me."

Her memory, now complete, reached all the way to the awful days after the troll attack, when a quiet voice inside her mind had led her to a pair of Rangers who'd protected her and seen her home.

"It was as I wished," Yavanna said simply. "I could not aid you on your quest, and I feared how reckless you might become if you knew I was watching."

She sounded both amused and exasperated, and Bilba couldn't help but smile a bit in response. "I blame the dwarves for that."

"They could not have brought it out," Yavanna said dryly, "had it not been there to begin with."

Bilba flushed. "Fair enough." Now that she thought about it, she had slapped Thorin the first time she'd met him, hadn't see? Granted, the rest of the dwarves had been driving her to distraction, but still...

She frowned, turning her attention back to the matter at hand. "Was that you then, just after the spider? The voice I heard?"

"Was it?" Yavanna asked innocently, tilting her head slightly as if trying to remember. "It seems I cannot recall." She refocused on Bilba, her eyes glittering as if someone had set the very stars into them. "Walk with me, dear one, for we have much to discuss and little time with which to do it."

She turned without waiting for a response, and started off down the path. Bilba scrambled to keep up with her noting, as she did, that she no longer felt any pain or fatigue from her journey, or the rather serious stab wound. An awful suspicion began to take root in her mind, but she stubbornly refused to look at it for the moment.

Instead she turned her eyes on Bag End as she rushed past, where it stood like a silent sentinel on the hill. When she'd been here last time, wherever here was, there had been noise and voices coming from inside as if a party were being thrown. She'd recognized a few of the voices, though it had been years upon years since she'd heard them.

"Where have they all gone?" she asked, as she caught up to Yavanna, falling in alongside the taller figure.

Yavanna didn't answer. Bilba hesitated, and then asked in a small voice, "Am I dead?"

There was still no answer, so she took the hint and stayed quiet, though a small, petulant part of her wondered at the refusal to answer questions right after insisting they had little time.

She wasn't Thorin, however, and knew better than to voice such things, so instead she simply looked around as they walked. There was a light breeze, she noted, rustling the tips of the grass in the fields and meadows, but aside from that there was nothing. No sound of birds, no buzzing of insects, not even the babble of the Brandywine as it made its way merrily through the midst of Hobbiton.