(A/N- start)

Yeah... I spent some time on this. I wanted to show a few snapshots of the days after the 10th chapter.

So I did... And it took a little while to write to my satisfaction.

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own any of Tolkein, or Prototype. I wouldn't be working for a CoE team and chasing geese if I did.

(A/N- end)

Ch 11- Snapshots

Two days after the feast, outside the fortress of Dol Guldur.

Gandalf fell off the Silence he had been riding, and tried not to vomit. The Silence moved it a way that was unique among riding animals- it's head stayed perfectly still while it's body writhed over the landscape. Since the rider was sitting in a natural saddle that formed from the beast's horns, it should have been a very smooth ride.

And it was. But Gandalf was used to a very bumpy ride, and the lack of sensation and movement unnerved him extremely.

"Are you alright?" The somewhat musical voice of the source of his nausea asked, smirking slightly. From the short journey they had experienced together, Eris has made it perfectly clear that she wasn't particularly fond of Gandalf- and Gandalf returned the sentiment. "If you needed to rest during the trip, you should have just said so."

"He is indeed old." Galadriel stated as she and Elrond both rode up in their own Silences- Eris had brought a dozen of the offputting beasts with them. "But he knows more than I do about his health."

Radagast pulled up in his bunny-sled, looking somewhat confused while absently petting the black thunder-bird that, while looking smug, was perched on his hat. "Gandalf, why did this odd creature ask for me to be here?"

"Those things speak?" Gandalf asked wearily. "Why am I not surprised that creatures that she controls can speak."

"It should be fairly obvious." Muttered his mount, which caused everyone except Eris to jump back in shock.

"Setting that disturbing moment aside." Elrond stated as he pulled out his swords. "Why are we here Mithrandir? I didn't get a chance to ask during the ride."

Unsaid was the additional 'because I was screaming like a little bitch due to the excessive speeds that my mount was traveling'. Out of courtesy, no-one mentioned this fact.

Gandalf leaned on his staff, belaying the weariness that plagued his bones these days. "High-King Smaug-"

"Wait!" Radagast held up a hand. "The dragon is a king now?"

"Yes." Sighed Gandalf. "Smaug said he could feel all of us- all the currently-present Maiar. And he named Sauron as one of them."

There was silence at this statement.

"Yeah, I had to ask about that myself." Eris was lounging against her dedicated Silence, which she had named Oculus (for reasons of her own), with her long black hair spinning and twisting in the air around her like it was alive.

"The dragon named four of us." Gandalf managed convey a sense of imminent doom. "And, as you know, there are only three wizards here in the East."

Galadriel nodded gravely. "Which is why Gandalf came to me. Between my scrying and the direction that Smaug gave, we found that he may still be within Dol Guldur."

"We can finally end what Man failed to end." Elrond gravely stated.

Eris gave him an odd look. "Ooookayyyyy... Right... Look, I don't even know why you wanted to get here so fast. I know literally nothing about this other than the fact that a creature like Gandalf here, one named Marion, is in or near this castle." She lifted a hand, and watched as sinuous black hair twined around her fingers.

The thunder-bird lifted off, wings a blur as it moved in a manner reminiscent of a hummingbird, over to nip at her hair before settling on one of the horns of Oculus. Oculus, for his part, cracked half-a-dozen eyes to look at the bird, before closing them and drifting into what looked like sleep.

Galadriel looked at Eris with an expression is flight distaste. "This is not a confrontation you could win in any case, so you have no need to understand anything here." She turned to the other three members of the party. "Mithrandir, Elrond, you will come with me. Radagast, do you think you can contribute?"

"From a distance, perhaps." The small man sighed. "But you know my talents are not with death, but life."

The elf-lady patted his shoulder gently. "As are mine- but we may be facing servants of the enemy here."

Elrond and Gandalf began walking towards the fortress, with Gandalf following just behind them.

Eris looked over to where Radagast was gently petting the large four-winged hummingbird. The thunder bird appeared to appreciate the attention. "Have you ever felt that you were regulated to the sidelines?"

"Of course." The wizard agreed, pulling a small piece of fruit out of a pocket and watching with rapt attention as the bird's beak opened into three prongs, which gently took hold of the fruit, and slicing it into tiny pieces with an ease that showed how sharp the edges of said beak were. "But I do what I can to help. Sauron, or Marion as he was once called, is dangerous, and a threat to all life in Middle Earth."

"So..." Eris drew out the sound. "Do you think I should help them? I mean, there are a great deal of warm entities in that structure, most of them larger than Gandalf or his two elf-buddies."

The wizard snapped to focus on her. "How many?"

Eris counted under her breath for a moment, before shrugging. "Maybe a few hundred. More as I look deeper, below the castle, but the soil and stone tends to blur the ping and heat signatures."

Radagast stood up, audibly creaking. "That is not good, not good at all!" He brandished his staff. "I would not see my friends be crushed under a tide of orcs or worse!"

Eris gently pushed him back down, hair spiraling into various odd shapes in the distinct lack-of-wind. "Settle down old man. I'll go in and help your friends." She patted him on the head, and whistled once.

Every since Silence shot to their feet, and their horns ratcheted around- the buldges concealing hidden mechanisms, allowing their horns to either be seats for riders, or, like now, wedge-shaped helmets that covers their faces and turned the normally disturbing creatures into the stuff of nightmares.

"Protect the riders, as usual." Several slight sneezes, the canine version of a laugh could be heard if one was listening for it. "Go."

On that word, the dozen beasts surged over the ground, swarming into the castle with a speed that denied belief.

"They are... Fast." Radagast deadpanned.

Then Eris grinned, and Radagast shrank back- it was the grin of a hunter, one that knew its prey was limping and ready to become food.

"Yes..." She smirked, and took a few steps towards the castle. "But I shouldn't let them have all the fun. I will be back in a moment... Oculus, protect the old man."

The remaining silence opened a half-dozen eyes, and then, like a big cat, grabbed the Wizard with it's paws, and curled around him.

Eris jumped, cracking the ground as she shot straight into the castle, comet-trail of hair behind her spiraling into points as she ascended.

Back in Erebor

Smaug rubbed a spot right next to one of his horns with a knuckle. Two dwarves had caused him more pain than the entire mountain-full had before this moment.

The reason?

Balin and Ori, two of the Dwarven Commanders working under the dwarf 'king' Thorin, had approached Smaug with a contract, to solidify their position. Well, several contacts, all in fiddly little writing that his eyes couldn't even see.

So he sent for Astrid, who could read dwarf- although, for whom the legalese was taxing and confusing beyond all reason. She did manage to translate it, and, as he was going over the document in his head, a few small issues occurred to him.

"A share of my teasure?" Smaug hissed, his eyes snapping open to look at the two calm dwarves, one with fairly large spectacles and the other with an ear-trumpet. "You would have me give up more of my treasure for uses that I would not know of?"

The two dwarves looked at each other, and one sighed.

"Yes, high king." Balin adjusted his ear-trumpet. "See, we came on this venture expecting to receive a share of the treasure when, well... You were killed."

Smaug smirked. "I see..."

Ori adjusted his spectacles. "But since that is obviously not going to happen, and that you want to bring more dwarves back to Erebor, we have to make it worth their while."

"Living in the city, access to the (frankly massive) farming zones, military support from Dale with the Silenced Riders, and with ME both keeping my territory safe is not enough?" Smaug couldn't help but sound amused. Such audacity! "Well, I did want to know what they needed..."

"Yes, the Arkenstone. Thorin needs it to establish legitimacy. But there is still the matter of damages." Ori stated.

"Loss of wages and crops." Added Balin.

"And let's not forget displacement!" Ori took off his glasses, cleaned them with a handkerchief, and put them back on. "Our clans-dwarves need to travel nearly a hundred miles just to get here! That's not a cheap journey by any accounts, even riding."

"Reimbursement would ease a great many potential naysayers..." Considered Smaug.

"For that, we need-"

"Treasure." Smaug interrupted the dwarves- he wasn't paying attention to which was which at the moment. "And that is the problem- I want to maintain a set currency valuation, and not every problem can be solved with gold."

It was worth every pang of this headache to see the utterly perplexed look cross the dwarves faces.

"But..." He rumbled, stretching out his wings in the cavernous hall. "I am sure we can come to a suitable arrangement."

Balin raised his ear-trunpet. "What do you mean by 'set currency valuation'?"

Dol Guldur

As the two elves and wizard searched they city, they found nothing.

"Is it possible that Smaug was wrong?" Elrond wondered aloud as he reached out, trying to find any traces of darkness with his soul and other sense.

"I can feel the spell of concealment on this place." Gandalf scowled. "Unpleasant and oily, it clings to everything."

"I concur." Galadriel held out a hand to Gandalf. "Mithrandir, shall we exorcise the evil from this place?"

The old man nodded, and a faint smile cross his face. "As it was in the old days, my lady. I'll lead and you channel?"

There was a tap on a ledge above them, and a voice filtered down even as the three sought the source.

"Sounds... Erotic." Eris purred as she jumped down from a beam, landing with a thud and cracking of flagstone under her feet. "But please go on- I will keep an eye out for the orcs surrounding us."

"You can see them?!" Demanded Elrond, before Galadriel raised a hand to forestall him.

"Eris, we are about to preform delicate magic. Please do not make... Unsavory comments." The elf-lady deadpanned. Then, quick as a flash, she placed a hand on Gandalf's shoulder, and her eyes began glowing. "Now, my friend."

Gandalf lifted his staff, and intoned gravely. "Cé ná ulco sis nurtaina!" He slammed his staff's butt into the flagstones with his last syllable, and a surge of light pulsed over the area in a rapidly-expanding glowing bubble.

Eris blinked, as she felt nothing as that wave passed. "Huh. Neat."

"You feel... The same? Not unsettled or uncomfortable?" Elrond inquired, even as dozens of orcs were highlighted by the bubble.

The orcs seemed surprised, but only hesitated as the wave slid over them.

"Why would I feel uncomfortable?" Eris's hair shot out, needle-thin spikes with miniature whipcracks passing over entire squads of orcs and leaving them to drop to the ground, even as her Silences bowled into the clusters of snarling orcs and tore through their ranks, leaving only the silent dead in their wake..

"I didn't feel anything then- and I will have questions for Gandalf after this errand is over. Now..." Her hairs snagged an Orc, even as he leapt from above and behind her. "Where is AZOG!" She yelled, the sheer volume shaking dust from the ancient stones.

The Orc in her grasp chuckled, even as her hair began to crush and perforate him. "He is far from here, witch. He was told to leave by the master, who awaits your death!" He laughed momentarily, right before his body fountained blood as he was diced by the multitude of hairs.

"That was... Distasteful." Galadriel deadpanned as she wiped some blood off her cheek. "And thank you, Eris, for removing so many from this world."

Eris whistled, and the ledges around her were quickly filled with the Silences. "Someday... Someday soon." She said offhandedly. "One of you is going to fill me in on this world's history- and I have a feeling that I am not going to like it."

"Be that as it may, there are still nine wraiths here- and Sauron, to contend with." Gandalf deadpanned.

Said wraiths decided to take this moment to appear from various statues scattered around the courtyard, wielding the blades that the statues held in now-misty fingers. They couldn't be seen directly- but to Eris and the Silences they appeared to be exceptionally cold spots.

Galadriel sighed, brought her hands together, and closed her eyes- only to flare with power as a corona of burning white flame emitted from the air around her.

Eris took a step back. "Well, that escalated quickly."

Elrond glared at her.

"Ash nazg durbatulûk."

The voice echoed throughout the dead city, causing torches that the orcs had dropped to sputter out, and the meager starlight to quickly be overtaken by clouds.

"What just happened?" Eris asked in the silence.

"Ash nazg gimbatul."

The wraiths exploded into movement- only for each to be pounced on by a Silence. This didn't actually do anything to the wraiths, and they passed right through the creatures without touching them- though their weapons remained trapped.

"Ash nazg thrakatulûk."

Elrond ran one of the weaponless wraiths through, causing to scream and shatter- then reform elsewhere.

"Um... How do you hurt these things?" Eris flinched as she felt something swipe through her body, forcing her internal temperature to drop. She couldn't see these things, she couldn't really touch these things- how the hell would you fight them? She began switching from spectrum to spectrum, finally seeing something odd in the infrared.

Galadriel pulsed out a sphere of white fire, which obliterated the wraiths nearest her- but soon they reformed, cold spots against the rapidly chilling darkness. "Fire. Light and fire always harm those of darkness and cold."

Eris blinked. "But that doesn't..." She sighed. "Fine." Her hair curled around her, as the Silence pack took up positions around the fighting, then taking cover.. "Y'all might want to cover your eyes."

And the hair cocoon unfurled.

Light, light so bright that it burned through the closed eyes of Gandalf, Elrond, and Galadriel- but all three basked in it. It etched the stones, emitting immense amounts of heat even as it poured our of the woman's armor, causing sunburns on Galadriel, Elrond and Gandalf's faces.

The wraiths weren't so lucky. Screaming, and writhing, the spots got colder, but eventually they just appeared to... Evaporate. Fade into the background.

A second or so later, the light abruptly shut off, and Eris, panting heavily, leaned over, her hair retracting very, very quickly. A Silence jumped into the retreating mass, just as her armor opened and a flood of clear slime erupted from hidden ports, all the chemical energy it contained had been used up.

After a second or so, with her hair only down to her ankles in length now (compared to the reach-across-a-town-square-to-crush-you length it had been), Eris sat down on another Silence, which buoyed her up gently. "Yeah... Not doing that again until I get a richer food storage system set up."

"Agh burzum-ishi krimpatul!"

The echoes died away as a spark of flame emerged from the middle of the courtyard, appearing to walk forward as it slowly got bigger. Once it stopped walking, the armored figure, flanked by wings of shadow, flared it's wings and laughed.

That was not a pleasant sound.

"Yeah... No." Deadpanned the woman. "I'm not dealing with this shit."

Neither was the scream as Eris had gestured with a hand, and every single Silence opened it's mouth and sprayed a rapidly cooling foam at the entity. Soon it was buried under a mountain of foam- a glowing mountain of foam that had smothered it.

"If any of you want to pitch in!" Eris yelled, jumping onto a wall and clinging there as her armor morphed into large, pulsating sacks, and two arms tipped with sphincters extended from her back. "Now would be the time!"

Galadriel began glowing again- but this time, it was as if lit from within. Not in the attractive, flushed appearance that sentence would imply- more like someone had removed her organs, blood, bones, muscles, and then filled the resulting structure with moonlight. She pointed a glowing clawed hand at the burning wraith, even as it emerged from the foam. "You have no power here! Traitor! Nameless! Shapeless! I send you back to the void, from when you came!"

Sauron was flung back- and through several buildings, segments of city, and ruins, before shooting away towards Mordor.

Eris blinked a few times, before throwing up her hands. "What!" She pointed at the now slumping Galadriel. "The fuck!?"

Elrond grimaced. "That last word- I do not know what it meant, but it did not sound appropriate."

"Doesn't matter." Eris snapped, turning to Gandalf. "Hey Gandalf- how the hell do Orcs reproduce? They only don't have any reproductive gametes... Okay, you didn't understand that. Um... They don't have the method by which children are created within mortals."

Galadriel blushed as Elrond and Gandalf gaped, all three completely poleaxed by the question.

Some of the most interesting and rewarding work is done through management. Finding what needs to be done, who can do it well, making sure they have what they need to do it well, and then repeating to make sure projects get done on time, and under budget. But, since it makes for terrible storytelling, this is usually glossed over.

Therefore, we fast-forward just a bit before the Orcs arrive.

Three weeks after Dol Guldur

The city was prepared. Defenses had been erected, people had been armed, and the majority of the civilian population had been evacuated (along with whatever belongings they didn't want to risk being looted by orcs) into a large, easily defensible chamber within the bowls of Erebor.

Bard sat atop his mount, surrounded by his men, on one of the rooftops, looking in the general direction that he had been informed that attack would come.

Unlike the last few times that Laketown had been attacked (where the floating town had retracted the drawbridge, and sent a message to the elves), Dale could be easily sieged by the horde of orcs, goblins, and a few trolls that they had spotted.

They had plenty of warning though- when Eris and Gandalf had returned from wherever they had gone, she had begun training his men on the process of riding and basic mounted combat aboard a Silence. Most of it can be simplified to 'hold on, don't fall off, and remember the Silence is smarter than you- so trust it', which was more than a little condescending, but the things were fast. And they even had weapons and armor- a halberd that could be braced against the horns of a Silence, every one thin and made centuries ago as some unclaimed purchases for the Horse-emperor of the Rohhirim before their empire collapsed, and plate armor that covered the rider and the face of the Silence (the only vulnerable parts).

They had known that the Dwarves were arrive a full day in advance, and they had known about the Orc horde for the last three... Only because Silence Riders had run patrols on Smaug's instruction.

Dwarves had been easy to incorporate- Smaug was a little desperate to actually get an idea of what was left in his home, and once the population had settled in, they had quickly begun re-using areas that the human inhabitants couldn't understand the purpose of.

The dwarves were still getting used to the idea that a Dragon wouldn't be trying to kill them through some obscure method, but they were working on that.

Across the high plain that sat between Dale and Erebor, farmland lay quiet, temporary houses evacuated and farm animals hidden within Erebor. Between every field and along the terraces that had been carved into one of the hills, black trees stood out amount the green, untamed paths, and brown of fertilized (mixed with animal shit- a new concept that Eris had introduced, to a great deal of grumbling) fields.

They were sleeping Silences- and Bard was severely creeped out by that fact. One of the most dangerous hunting animals he had ever seen could pretend to be a tree if it wanted.

He sought down a shudder, even as he turned his attention to the Doorstep of Erebor.

A few legions of armored dwarves manned the entrance, spread out around it with their own mounts- pigs mainly. Armored, huge, and mean pigs.

Bard was ripped out of his musings as the Silent Trees that he could see began changing colors- pulsing through red, blue, yellow, and shiny white in ripples away from one of the hills. Eris had told him that might happen- but it was still unsettling. It was even more unsettling when several trees stopped flashing colors, ripped themselves out of the earth, and slithered away at the insane speeds that a Silence could move at.

The giant worms that erupted from the ground were not a pleasant sight either. Thankfully, they didn't remain present above ground for long, and after all of that?

After all of that, the Horde of Orcs was a more welcome sight. The size of said horde... Not so much.

The sight of dwarven ranks parting, leaving enough room for Smaug to climb out of the gate, was a very, very welcome sight.

Azog the Defiler stood on the edge of ruins very, very high above what would become the killing floor... His killing floor. His land. His horde, and his hoard.

The Orc didn't even smirk as he thought the pun- he had more important things to do... Controlling the battle with semaphore towers would be hard enough, but his goblins did good enough work.

As his army erupted from the earth- first, the Were-worms dug the path, positioning his forces in an ideal place from which to assault both Erebor, Dale, and-

Was that a dragon?

He muttered the question to his lieutenant, who muttered an affirmative. Yes- it is a dragon.

"Glob..." Azog swore. This would be a very short campeign. Still, he signaled for the trolls to attack towards Erebor, while the main bulk of his force would follow them.

His army, after a moment of indecision, charged.

Ten thousand orcs, goblins, and a smattering of armored trolls- all on foot since the Warg cavalry had been lost at Dol Guldur, ran at the dragon and his dwarven door-guards, while the five siege trolls and their crews set up on a rise so that they could actually begin firing.

None of them got that far.

As the dwarves turtled, shields overlapping to form a wall and roof that would have made the Romans proud, Smaug inhaled.

A small, black-armored figure, who was overlooked by everyone until this point as she was standing next to a dragon, whistled twice. The odd harmonics echoed across the battlefield, not slowing or stopping the orcs- but that wasn't the primary effect.

A thunderous buzz sprang up, and anyone from Dale or Erebor would have sworn, hands down, that a cloud of black specks that buzzed like the largest swarm of bees ever flowed out of Erebor and rose like a wave over the battlefield.

Then Smaug exhaled. A white-hot Lance of flame emerged from his maw, as if the sun momentarily had been summoned to earth, burning away every single Orc in it's path, and leaving nothing but glowing glass and molten iron behind once he stopped.

That made everyone pause. The orcs stopped mid-charge... Well, slid to a stop.

"You dare attack me!" Thundered Smaug. "My home? My tenants?! You do not just march an army into anywhere protected by a dragon without negotiation, you... Trespassers!" His eyes narrowed. "The penalty for such an action... Is death. DIE."

The wave descended, and the orcs began to retreat, even as the first siege troll was finally loaded and launched. It didn't help.

The tide of thunderbirds accelerated, going from a hover to supersonic in less than the distance of Smaug's wing. The shockwave shattered the Orc line, even though no Orc was touched, their bodies were crushed as if beneath the fists of a giant. The wave passed around the siege trolls, shattering the wood-metal structures that had been formed into the catapults that they were carrying like cheap glass. Only two of the massive trolls survived, and one of them couldn't stand- it just lay on its face, whimpering as the bones in its arms and legs had been obliterated by the concussive pulses- as had one eye.

The wave of thunderbirds retreated back into Erebor, leaving behind a devastated army- which the Dwarven line waited for. At most, one in ten survived, but that was still over a thousand orcs, goblins, and trolls combined.

Smaug looked down towards his forces, his glowing gaze sweeping over the Dwarven Warriors. "I will leave the mopping up to you. Capture of possible..." The dragon smirked as he turned around. "They can always push ore carts." He climbed back into the mountain, and his forces, both on the Doorstep and in Dale roared in approval.

As if that was the signal, both sides acted in concert. The dwarves closed their ranks, and reformed into a single, massive battering ram a few hundred strong, while the riders in Dale set off, their black mounts quickly closing with the main horde.

There was one siege troll still standing though- bleeding from ears and nose, staggering, but still standing on feet and knuckles.

There was a titanic wet tearing-ripping-thud, and suddenly that troll had a hole where it's chest should be. In seconds, the creature was engulfed in tentacles that appeared fibrous on its huge frame, and collapsed as the black tendrils began to implode, leaving Eris behind once her hair had vanished. She soon disappeared, jumping high into the sky in the general direction of the semaphore that had provided the initial instructions for the Orc forces.

The surviving Orc forces found themselves between the metaphorical hammer and anvil at this point- the hammer being played by the Dale Riders, while the anvil was being played by the Dwarves. As orcs ran from the Riders, they inevitably found themselves diced by the spiky turtle that the dwarves had formed into, while those who fought were quickly cut down by the halberds of the Riders.

Infantry was generally on its weakest while in the move unless charging, and being pincered by mounted cavalry alongside stationary infantry was not ideal.

At the beginning of the battle there had been five hundred dwarves, fifty human-Silence pairs, and ten thousand orcs/trolls/goblins. At the end, less than half an hour in, neither human nor dwarves had any casualties other than being sick due to their ride or the sheer amount of blood that was covering everything, while there were eighty captured orcs, a hundred or so goblins, and two trolls (one mountain, one siege).

It would take months to plow all the blood up and remove the debris from the fields.

Azog was... Well, he had no words for what just happened.

His forces had been disintegrated under a force so overwhelming it actually scared him, and then had been expertly skewered by a sledge-and-shield. Now... He had no horde.

There was a slight whistling sound, and he looked up- only to see a man-sized black shape slam into the ground next to him, and whirl around, a black whip slicing through the semaphore towers. The insect-like carapace retracted, and floating black hair drifted out from the confines of the helmet as it revealed a woman.

Her grin unsettled Azog- for a very, very short time. The arm that had sliced through the semaphore poles shot out, grabbed him with tendrils as thick as his fingers, and dragged him towards the small woman. He didn't even have time to speak before she stabbed an arm into his stomach, and pain flooded through his body, followed by a curious numbness. He would kill her for wounding him-

By the time that thought had crossed his mind, his mind and thoughts belonged to Eris.

Two hours later, she tossed a metal arm and the empty head of Azog the Defiler onto the waiting lap of Thorin- and then offered to turn it into a cup.

Azog the Defilier was never forgotten- if only because the head was always seen as the Dwarf King's goblet.

Several weeks later...

Bilbo patted down his pockets as he returned to rode into the Shire aboard Oculus- Eris's personal Silence. He was met with an odd mixture of wonder from the children (probably Tooks based on their noses) and a great deal of fear from the adults. It made sense- he was riding a monster, from their point of view.

That's why he made sure to greet everyone he recognized, and say at least a cursory 'Goodmorning!' To everyone else. They usually relaxed at this point. Still, people were paying him some deference, and he didn't want to have his errand put off too much.

Since the battle, he had been very, very busy. Preparing space for hobbits to begin building was difficult enough, especially since he didn't know what was needed for that sort of preparation. And, since it was winter, Dale was relying on the odd 'plump helmet' crops that the dwarves had managed to grow... Something about Orc blood made the weird pumpkin-things grow quickly, even underground, and they had enough food- even some sort of alcohol- for the winter.

Anyway, he had needed to work out with Eris and Balin what was needed to establish a community of Hobbits on the lonely mountain. Land was a given- they had lots of it. Wood would be needed to build their homes, and the elves had agreed over a month ago to allow woodcutters to harvest trees from the surrounding forests, so that was fine. Food they would have come spring, and the ground was rich enough after the battle that it could support multiple types of crops planted in the way hobbits loved.

Land was set aside, wood was stockpiled, and a number of different types of seeds were cherry-picked and collected in preparation for the arrival.

As Bilbo rode to his house, he noticed that there was no-one near it- a fact that he found was both odd, but pleasant, as his relatives may have wanted to steal his house. Still, he did see his Gardner, Hamfast Gamgee. He grinned widely. "Hamfast! How have you been my old friend? I haven't seen you for a few months!"

"Master Bilbo?" The somewhat fat hobbit stood up, shears in hand, and smiled, brushing some of his wavy hair out of his face. "Where have you been?"

Then it hit him- a few months. Bilbo wince. "Oh, I haven't paid you for the last few months! I am so sorry about that, here-" he pulled out a saddlebag from behind the padding that this Silence allowed him to put on its head. "-your back-pay."

The older hobbit accepted the gold coins, and grinned. "You were always on time, and I knew when you returned I's patience would pay off."

"Patience usually does." Bilbo slid off the Silence, which grumbled before padding over to a spot of grass, and it's fur spread out to catch as much light as possible. "I've been traveling, and exploring the world a bit Hamfast- and you would not believe what I have found."

Hamfast leant against a fence post, nodding sagely. "Oh really Master Bilbo? Then tell me."

Bilbo took a deep breath, and told him.

Hamfast didn't believe him. Neither did anyone in the pub- but his relative Drogo and his recently-married wife Primula were interested, especially when he explained that Eris was willing to send something to collect any hobbits who wanted to look around the growing Erebor Territory. Drogo and Primula helped Bilbo encourage a number of other Brandybucks and Tooks, while Hamfast and his wife agreed to come along since 'every hobbit would have their own house'.

The massive gasbag with wings that arrived when he asked the Silence to call for said creature was not what he had in mind- but it was more than big enough for everyone they had brought, and it's many tendril-like bottom limbs were easily able to carry the associated luggage brought on by an anticipated move.

The End

I hope everyone enjoyed the story! Reviews are appreciated, as always, and I hope you enjoy your Friday and weekend.

Take it easy!