A Shot in the Dark (Thilbo - Bagginshield)

Prologue

Opening his eyes, he saw a familiar ceiling in a typical home.

When he sat up, he found himself in his old room. It was not the room he had left behind in Bag End as a withering old Hobbit - and condemning Frodo with the fate of that damn ring, his mind viciously reminded him - but a room from a lifetime ago. It was a room he had changed thoroughly with a passion fueled by the stubborn Baggins's determination to outrun painful memories.

It was the room he had before he left for Erebor.

Is this a cruel jest of magic or the afterlife? he wondered, staring with an open mouth at his surroundings. When he had last closed his eyes, he had been on a boat on his way to the Undying Lands. So this was certainly not what he had been expecting to see after waking up from his nap in his cabin.

Eru could not be so cruel as to cast him into a place that reminded him of what was long lost, right...?

When his eyes fell upon the full-length mirror - his mother's mirror that Frodo accidentally cracked forty years ago - he nearly fell out of bed. For what he saw in it was not the familiar wrinkled face he had grown to know but a young one that he had nearly forgotten.

Shaking, he scrambled out beneath the mountain of blankets and quilts and stumbled over to the mirror. Grasping the edge of it, he stared at the face of the young Hobbit before him with freckled skin and thick brown curls and felt something inside him crack.

"I'm young again," he said aloud, watching the face in front of him repeat his words. "I'm young again, and in my old house in Bag End before I went to Erebor-"

Understanding dawned on him and brought him to his knees. He recalled a story from long ago of a Hobbit lass that had watched her beloved die in an accident. When she awoke the day after his funeral, she relived the days before the accident repeatedly and was able to save her beloved from his cruel fate.

He did not know what manner of powers had given him such a choice or what he had done to deserve such a rare and wonderful gift. But he knew there would be a war over an ancient ring. This war would bring death upon all the races and change all the lands for the first time in centuries. From this war, great heroes would rise from each race; with each great hero, an equally great villain would grow to meet them. Four Hobbits would fight and win this war, one of them being his precious Frodo. And though they would win this war because of the strength of his nephew, it would also forever change the lad in ways he had never wanted.

He also knew that, at that exact moment, a dragon was sleeping in a glorious Dwarven city under an equally majestic mountain. The dragon stole this city for its treasures and drove out the great people who had built it. He also knew that at that exact moment, a certain Dwarven king was doing everything he could to reclaim it. And with the help of twelve other Dwarves, a Wizard, and a Hobbit, this king would embark on a journey to change them all. In this journey, he knew that he would create a bond with each of them and eventually even come to love the stubborn king. But before he could speak of his feelings, he would watch this great king die in battle shortly after reclaiming his home from the selfish dragon.

And damn, if Bilbo Baggins would allow all that to happen again.