04.
Disagreement and Departure

After a moment of pause and everyone watching Bilbo's unconscious body on the floor, Gandalf and Ygritte stood to help the Hobbit. He woke up as they helped him to his feet and moved him away from everyone else. Aninth didn't follow, so she didn't know where the three had gone to.

Everyone slowly vacated the dining room, going their own ways and Aninth found herself alone again. A sigh fell from her lips and she picked Ryvniss up off her shoulder and deposited him on her forearm.

"You still think I'm doing the right thing, don't you, Ryv?" she asked him, "putting up with all of this to get to return to my mother's home?"

"Well, it's not like she can do it," the Dragon told her.

"That's not something you have to remind me of," Aninth said sadly, "I feel my parents' absence every day."

"Maybe being in the place where you mother grew up will lessen that," he said.

"Are you saying you think it is worth it?"

"Weren't you listening to me at all?" he asked as he climbed up her arm to curl around her neck once more.

Aninth rolled her eyes and finally picked herself up, leaving the dining room. Once in the hallway, she didn't know which way to go and found herself staring at a painting hung on the wall.

It was of the Shire, just as the sun was beginning to rise over the hill that Bag End was on. She could see the market and the great pond and the big empty field just barely in sight on the left side of the painting that was used for parties.

It seemed no matter where she looked or what she said, there was no avoiding thinking of her parents. The parties that she had attended as a girl with her father in the Shire were some of her best memories of him.

She wished that they could see her now, visiting the Shire and joining the quest to take back Erebor. They would have been so proud of her.

When the hairs on the back of her neck bristled, Aninth turned to see Thorin staring at her. Her gaze hardened as he saw his scowl dip from her face to the Dragon around her neck.

Aninth approached Thorin, a scowl on her face to match his. With her arms crossed over her chest, she was sure he knew she wasn't happy. She looked up at him, ready for whatever comments he would make.

"I am not leaving this quest, so you may as well stop blatantly glaring at me and my companion," Aninth told him.

"I was not-"

"But you were," Aninth interrupted. Thorin looked surprised. "I know that you care about your people a lot and weren't expecting me to be on this quest, but all I want to do is see the place where my mother grew up. She told me many stories and other things about Erebor. So just... keep in that in mind."

Without waiting for him to respond, she passed him down the hall. Aninth figured that the longer they talked about it, the more likely it was for them to start arguing and she really didn't want to get into a shouting match with Thorin at that moment.

In the living room, Aninth sat herself down in a corner next to a window where the others were gathering. She saw Ygritte across the room. As all the Dwarfs arrived in the living room, more pipes were brought out until almost everyone had one. 

It started off as a hum that surprised Aninth, but eventually, Thorin began to sing in a deep and soothing voice that perhaps surprised Aninth even more. As the song continued, others joined in on the song.

"Far over the misty mountains cold, to dungeons deep and caverns old. We must away ere break of day to find our long­forgotten gold. The pines were roaring on the height..."

Unlike the song that they had sung while cleaning Bilbo's dishes, this one was softer. This one was not about teasing a Hobbit they had just met, no, this one was about the day that Smaug had attacked Erebor. Aninth closed her eyes and listened as they finished off the song.

"...the winds were moaning in the night, the fire was red, it flaming spread, the trees like torches blazed with light."

❖

In the morning, as everyone rode on horseback away from the Shire, Aninth learned something about Ryvniss that she surprisingly hadn't known about her Dragon companion.

He detested horses.

She couldn't understand why, at first, since he had never expressed his dislike in the past when they'd encountered wild horses or domesticated ones in their travels. But it was one offhand comment that made it all come crashing down on her.

They were too slow.

"Stop laughing," Ryvniss requested.

"I'm sorry," Aninth apologized, "but this is quite the amusing revelation for me."

"I can't understand why," he said with a huff.

"Because for all other beings, a horse is the fastest way to travel. You must understand that we are the exception," she explained.

"Of course," he answered.

"And besides, we are a part of this Company, we can't just leave them behind while we fly ahead and they don't even know that you can have a rider, so there's that," Aninth said.

"They could take turns," he argued.

"I believe you would get tired of that long before you carried thirteen Dwarves, two Wizards and me any substantial distance," she pointed out.

Ryvniss huffed.

"You know I'm right, you're just too stubborn. You protest it, but you earned the title of 'The Stubborn' fair and square," she told him.

"I did not."

"And I rest my case."

They rode on and Aninth began to wonder what they were going to do the further away from the Shire they got. She had been told that Bilbo had refused to sign the contract and accompany them and the further they went, the more she worried that Gandalf was wrong and he wasn't going to join them after all.

She had a plan, though it was not one that she liked very much. But if they got far enough away that there was no chance of Bilbo showing up and he hadn't, then she would tell them her plan, whether Thorin liked it or not.

"Wait! Wait!"

Aninth pulled on the reins of her pony, and it came to a stop as she looked back towards the sound of the voice. What she saw was none other than Bilbo Baggins himself, running to catch up with them, the contract flailing in the wind as it was tightly clutched in his hand.

The panting Hobbit came to a stop at Balin's side and handed him the contract. In the morning before they had set off, a round of introductions had been done so that both Aninth and Ygritte were aware of whose company they were in.

"I signed it!" Bilbo said, panting slightly. He must have run for some time if he had caught up with them, Aninth thought.

Balin took the contract and inspected it with a pocket­glass. After a moment, he smiled at Bilbo. "Everything appears to be in order. Welcome, Master Baggins, to the Company of Thorin Oakenshield."

Several of the Dwarves cheered in relief. They had a burglar. Aninth herself was relieved. She hadn't liked her plan and was glad that she wouldn't have to implement it.

"Give him a pony," Thorin said before kicking his pony to start moving again.

"No, no, no, no, that­ that won't be necessary, thank you, but I­--I'm sure I can keep up on foot. I­-I­-I've done my fair share of walking holidays, you know. I even got as far as Frogmorton once­ -- " Bilbo's speech is cut off as two of the Fili and Kili rode alongside him, picking him up from behind and putting him on a pony.

They rode on.

"Come on, Nori, pay up. Go on!" Oin shouted. The sound of a money sack being tossed and caught reached Aninth's ears.

"Hey, hey, hey!" The Dwarves burst into laughter. 

Bilbo moved his horse so that he was on one side of Ygritte and Gandalf was on her other side and Aninth heard him question what the tossing of money was about.

Oh, Dwarves and their bets, she thought.

When Bilbo asked what they had both chosen, he was answered with them each catching a sack of money. Aninth smiled to herself and almost wished she had gotten in on the bet as well. Her hope at not having to implement her plan would have gained her some coin.

After a moment, Bilbo sneezed loudly. "Ohh. All this horse hair, I'm having a reaction." Bilbo began to frantically search his pockets for something. "No, no, wait, wait, stop! Stop!" Bilbo shouted, pulling his pony to a stop, "we have to turn around," the hobbit stressed.

Objections began to be thrown around, asking what the problem was.

"What on earth is the matter?" Gandalf asked.

"I forgot my handkerchief."

Aninth rolled her eyes and sighed. Hobbits were so homely and kind-hearted that it made her briefly wonder why she didn't visit the Shire more often. Then she remembered her father and that was all the answer she needed.

Bofur tore a strip of cloth from his clothing and tossed it to Bilbo. "Here! Use this," he told him.

Bilbo caught the rag with a look of disgust on his face, that made many of the Dwarves laugh.

"Move on," Thorin ordered.

"You'll have to manage without pocket­handkerchiefs and a good many other things, Bilbo Baggins, before we reach our journey's end," Gandalf told him, "you were born to the rolling hills and little rivers of the Shire, but home is now behind you; the world is ahead."