Hummingbird Heartbeat

Chapter 47

Chapter 47

It was, in fact, a week before the two set out. Two ponies and a horse were at the gates of Erebor where the Company, Dain, and Bard all stood, watching as the Hobbit, the Fairy and the Wizard mounted.

"I'll not return for a while. I have things to do," Gandalf announced loudly and everyone rolled their eyes. Wizards.

"I was serious. Come by any time," Bilbo begged as he hugged Bofur again and Ori handed him a sketch of the hobbit. "And I'll be back next summer to visit, just until autumn," he vowed and everyone nodded. Maranda was breathing heavily and unevenly as she hugged Tauriel, who she got along with very well, and Kili.

"You will come back, right? You won't up and disappear on me?" Kili begged and she laughed.

"Who, me? Not a chance," she said and Kili choked down a sob. She pulled him into a hug and squeezed him tightly. "Count the suns until Durin's day. I'll be back before the last moon of Autumn," she whispered in his ear. She hugged everyone else and finally she was next to Thorin as Dori sobbed hysterically into Bilbo's coat.

"Leaving me, I see," Thorin said softly and she scoffed in what should have been a confident voice.

"Oh please. Someone has to keep an eye on the idiot you hired. You realize I had to get Bilbo out of trouble? Yeah, that was me. Who knows what mischief he'll find going home. And I can fly back in no time. Besides, you Dwarves crowd me. I'm a Fairy not a four headed horse," she snipped theatrically. They were both silent for a moment and she leapt into Thorin's arms as he hugged her tightly.

"Promise me you'll come back," he mumbled into her ear.

"Oh I swear on my father's blood," she murmured and he squeezed before letting her go. She cleared her throat and blinked away her tears. "But you know what's gonna happen right?" she said dryly and he arched an eyebrow. "I'm gonna come back and Smaug will have risen from the dead or-or Thranduil will have grown a pair of bat wings and taken over the Mountain or some such nonsense and I'm just going to have go get Bilbo and we'll have to sort out all of your problems. Again." There was a round of laughter and she grinned.

She climbed up onto her pony and scratched at her neck in discomfort. She looked back at her Company, many of whom were teary eyed and upset looking. She bit her lip.

"Fi," she said and tossed him the pearl. He caught it carefully and stared at it. "I'll be back for that if nothing else. Keep an eye on it and don't break it," she warned and Gandalf started down the path. Bilbo waved vigorously and rode after him, shouting goodbye's over and over and 'I'll miss you!'s twice as many times. Maranda turned her pony around and gazed back at her friends, her family, really, and smiled wetly. "I'm coming back," she choked out and they nodded. She span the silver ring on her thumb so it caught the light and Thorin raised his chin in pride. She still had it.

She galloped after Gandalf and Bilbo and three were silent until Gandalf began struggling with his pipe. Bilbo and Maranda watched him for a time and he smiled at the two. There was a moment of silence then soft laughter as the three travelers went on and on down the road, through Dale, past Esgaroth, into Mirkwood, stopping at Beorns, over the Mountains, visiting Rivendell, picking up gold at the Troll Shaw and at last at the Shire. Gandalf left, warning Bilbo about magic rings and he and Maranda rode into the woods in silence.

"He's right you know," Maranda said.

"I said I lost it," Bilbo said firmly.

"Yeah. That's what you said," Maranda said tersely. Bilbo shot her a look and she glanced at him. "Bilbo, the quest for Erebor is done, but I can still see a future of fire and darkness. You and I have little to do with it. But that Ring is not yet done with it's fate. Be careful, Bilbo." The hobbit nodded and touched his pocket gently.

"I will." As he rode into the Shire, his contract and the picture Ori sketched of him firmly in hand Maranda rode up the next hill looking out over the wide expanses of Middle Earth.

Bye, don't follow me!

She smiled faintly. She was so silly last year. Now here she was, a young hero of nineteen, a Fairy, a Dwarf-Friend, a fighter, a sorceress. her iPod was tucked into her bag with her guitar. The cloak Fili and Kili got her resting on her saddle. The armor Thranduil gave her strapped on over her Esgaroth clothes and the Silver ring of Thorin the Second on her thumb, reflecting the light.

"Bring me that horizon," she breathed and urged her pony down the hill.