The Light that Wakes [Bagginshield]

The Forge

Bilbo found that arranging the coronation ceremony of a Dwarf king was nothing like putting together a Hobbit party, even if that Hobbit party had been as splendid as the Shire had seen in many years. He had been the only one making decisions then, since it had been his party after all. In this case, however, he was not really making any decisions at all, which he found liberating in fact. All he had to do was to be around the place where decisions were being made and at the right time so he could put them into practice, at least those that had to do with the guest list and with writing out invitations nicely. Even so, it had taken up most of his time in the past two weeks, which was not a bad thing at all. It certainly kept his mind off things.

But right now, his mind was right back on things, as he made his way to the Forge, in search of Thorin. He had asked around a bit before finally finding out that Thorin had been seen around the Forge, and so, that was where he was going. Balin had asked to speak to Thorin and realised that he had no idea where he was. Bilbo had witnessed such moments of wondering where Thorin was many times during the past two weeks. Usually, the matter that Thorin was needed for was put to the side until he showed up on his own, but there had been times when somebody had simply been sent out to find him. This was one such time, and Bilbo had been tasked with the job. He wondered now why he had never thought to ask the person who had been sent before where he had found Thorin.

Either way, he had learned from reliable sources that Thorin had been seen making his way to the Forge, so he was going there now, not without a slight knot in his throat. He had not seen much of Thorin lately, which had allowed a certain comfortable distance to set in between himself and the knowledge that he did have a decision to make, and that he was the only one who could make it. Seeing Thorin now would inevitably bring that up again, and it wasn't necessarily comfortable to think about, especially with Thorin present. He still didn't know how he would be able to make a decision like that.

At least for the moment, however all Bilbo had to do was to find Thorin and tell him that he was needed, and he intended to acquit himself of that duty admirably.

He finally walked into the great Hall of the Forges, for the first time since they had entered the Mountain. The dragon had destroyed most of it, unfortunately, but the debris had been cleared in the meantime. Only one of the furnaces had been left intact and still had a moderate fire burning underneath, while the others had been brought down to stony stumps rising jagged from the ground.

Thorin was nowhere to be seen, however. There were a few dwarves working around the live furnace, but Thorin was not there.

Bilbo looked around until his gaze fell on an alcove carved into the side of the mountain, with firelight glowing behind its latticed window. He noticed then that there were a few more like it, but only one seemed to be occupied, at least by a fire pit.

He walked towards it carefully and listened in as he got closer to the window. From a distance, he had not been able to hear any sounds of smithing activity from the inside, although he was quite sure that was the purpose of these chambers. However, now that he was close by, he could distinguish the noise of a hammer pounding on metal in a steady rhythm. It must have been a small hammer, since the noise was light and high.

"Thorin?" he called in a mild voice near the window, without looking in. "Are you in there?"

The pounding stopped and Bilbo could instantly picture the hammer halt in mid-air. "Uh... yes," came Thorin's voice from inside, sounding a little breathless.

"What are you doing?"

"Working." Now the dwarf sounded a little gruff, which Bilbo found completely understandable since he had asked a really stupid question.