ILL OMENS ‒ THE HOBBIT

☁CHAPTER II☁

 In the daytime, if Inanna had done this, the Hobbits around the Shire would have seen her and pointed. They would have shouted hellos and waved at her in her raven form. As a raven, she could hear the wind better. Inanna knew all the secrets of the Shire, thanks to the wind. Her wings caught an updraft that came out of nowhere. The night had brought a gentle wind at first but now the wind was howling. On it, it brought a piece of surprising news that made Inanna cut her night fly short.

She flexed her wings and made a wide arc to turn around. She soared across the Shire: She had been on the outskirts and she wasn't aware that she had made it that far until just then. Inanna flew across the dead market and across the fields and made it closer to their Hobbit hole. It was just as the wind had told her, there were dozens of horses tied up outside of it and she could hear raucous laughter filling it inside. Inanna flew in circles above the hole, invisible in the night as she watched a new stranger stalk up to the green door. She noticed the noise in the Hobbit hole silence and she watched Gandalf the Grey open the door for the dark stranger. Innana couldn't see much of him. Inanna went and perched in a tree, preening her feathers.

She had already decided it would be good for Bilbo.

Inanna grew bored quickly however and took up flying again, but not for long. The curiosity of the strange people in their Hobbit Hole won eventually and she found herself flying faster towards the open window than she thought she should have. She could already hear Bilbo screaming at her for her speed. It was too late to stop when she noticed the window was not open like it normally was for her and she barely got a glimpse of a room full of dwarves before she slammed into the window as a raven.

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The loud noise of a force hitting the window stopped the whole conversation before it even began and all eyes landed on a dark mass that was on Bilbo's window sill. Bilbo looked appalled and Gandalf began choking on his pipe.

"Oh," Gandalf stuttered when Bilbo didn't open his mouth, "Do open the window and bring her in will you? Fili, Kili..."
Kili, being the closest to the window, opens it up much to everyone's confusion. Who could ever fit through a tiny window?

He only stares for a minute and that confirms for Bilbo who it could be and he closes his eyes and begins to mutter, exasperated beyond belief, "How many times..." He gritted his teeth, "Have I told that girl to watch where she's flying?"

Thorin looks over his shoulder when he heard the Hobbit and raises an eyebrow, "Told who?"

Gandalf nods, understanding of the situation but everyone can only watch as a very confused Kili pulls an unconscious raven into the room. Gandalf takes a drag of his pipe and Bilbo begins to tap his foot on the ground with his arms crossed out of stress.

Kili looks down at his hands that cradle the raven, "Why am I holding a bird?"

Ori pipes up from the other corner, "and why did you refer to the bird as she?"

Gandalf sputters on his pipe and avoids answering, "Come, give her here, Kili." Kili carefully transfers the raven into Gandalf's care as Thorin sternly watches, his food forgotten on the table. Oin holds up his hearing trumpet, thinking someone might be talking even in the silence. Bilbo hovers over Gandalf's shoulder making sure nothing is severely wrong with the raven. Gandalf mutters something and slowly the raven gains consciousness, fluttering its wings and cawing before it looks around the room of confused dwarves.

Gandalf chuckles, "I have not seen you in quite a long time, my dear. Won't you change back?"

Bilbo mutters something to himself and quickly leaves the room to grab her dressing gown as the company watches the raven fly to open space.

Slowly the raven becomes not a raven. Slowly, Inanna's form takes place and in the excitement of seeing Gandalf, she forgets that the transformation from animal to human leaves her missing something. Dori hurriedly covers Ori's eyes but no one covers Kili's as Fili is staring along with everyone else. Balin and Dwalin and some of the taken dwarves like Gloin have the good sense to look away when Inanna turns out naked.

Inanna grins and stands up, "Gandalf the Grey! My, I haven't seen you in years! How are the fireworks?"

Bilbo comes back into the room and lets out a scandalized gasp, "Inanna! Clothes first, chat later!" He throws her robe at her.

Inanna blinks as she catches her robe, looking down at herself before flushing, "oh. My bad. Um..." She quickly wraps the robe around her figure as she clears her throat. Inanna looks around the room and successfully avoids eye contact until she meets some very, very blue eyes that are right beside her.

Inanna becomes taken aback by the look on the dwarf's face. He's stern but very handsome with dark hair and a short beard... Are dwarves supposed to be this handsome? He was looking at her with sharp and analytical eyes. She needed to look away before she got lost in them. She cleared her throat and successfully broke the connection as she finally looked at the rest of the table. She blinked. They stared. Gandalf coughed on his pipe again as Bilbo sighed.

"Everyone, I would like you to meet Inanna Baggins."

Everyone immediately glanced at Bilbo and Balin asked the question everyone had been thinking, "are congratulations on a marriage in order...?"
Inanna just about gagged at the thought and Bilbo made a face as he explained, "No, no. Inanna here is my ward. I took her in a long time ago..." he muttered something under his breath, "No use giving details to these gruff dwarfs, however..."

Inanna nodded and fidgeted as a cold breeze went up her robe, and as Balin apologized for the misunderstanding, she announced, "I will be getting dressed if any wizard, hobbit, or dwarf needs me, which I doubt you will as it seems as though by the atmosphere you will be plenty busy."
Inanna twirled on her feet and her curls bounced as she skipped out of the room, leaving them all in awed and confused silence.

Kili and Fili whistled in unison, every dwarf in the room giving the two a sharp look. They both held their arms up in surrender. Thorin found himself glancing in the direction Inanna went as her door closed. What an odd woman...

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A little Inanna held her new baby brother, Zu, as her other baby brother, Iva, sat beside them. Her mother, Zana, had just given birth to Zu and was smiling on the bed right next to them. Inanna's father, Dagan, was in the room as well, an arm wrapped around his exhausted wife as he kissed her forehead.

Zana gripped his hand, "look at our family, Dagan..." She met his eyes and smiled, "Zu looks just like you, you know..."
Dagan chuckled softly, "Well, my love, the other two take after you in everything."

The two smiled at each other and kissed, breaking apart in laughing when they hear Inanna and Iva start to gag. The moment ended when little baby Zu began to fuss.