An Unexpected Addition (Thilbo - Bagginshield)

Dissent

"All quick, efficient, and hobbit-friendly," added Dwalin.

"That's excellent, Frodo."

"Good work, laddie."

Frodo gave them all a proud smile and turned back to Dwalin, demanding another round of tackling to practice his newly learned moves. It was apparently quite rare to even see dwarf children anymore, a direct result of the high mortality rate that had plagued the dwarven cities and overall population in the last hundred years. Frodo was one of the few youths left in Erebor of any species, most of the others belonging to dwarf mothers who'd migrated to the Lonely Mountain on the last caravan. And even though Bilbo had not seen a great deal of the population yet, it was very clear that males vastly outnumbered females and children.

And that was never a good sign in any population.

"I've finally finished them," said a familiar voice to Bilbo's left side. "A dropped stitch or two in the left glove, but I've fixed those pretty well, I think."

"They look wonderful, Ori."

The young dwarf had been diligently working on several sets of knitted clothes for Frodo, each of them with unique designs and specially fitted to the little hobbit. Bilbo had tried to tell him that such finery wasn't necessary, but Ori had insisted upon it. In order to show his gratitude, Bilbo had been baking the dwarf his favorite mixed berry scones once a week. It seemed that every member of the Company had a particular baked food that all of them loved, so Bilbo had taken to repaying each of them for their services or child-care help with buttery foods.

"Owww! You've got me!"

Bilbo looked up and watched as Frodo smacked the warrior dwarf in the groin. It was a defensive exercise, of course, but that did little to lessen the sheer hilarity that was Dwalin getting beat up by a hobbit child.

"Now go for the eyes!"

So far, his list included pumpkin cupcakes for Dwalin, vanilla cupcakes with lots of icing for Fíli, mixed berry scones for Ori, blueberry tarts for Bifur, blackberry muffins for Óin, honey cakes for Dori, raspberry sticky buns for Nori, strawberry cheesecake for Kíli, pumpkin cobbler for Balin, red velvet cookie sandwiches for Bofur, apple crisp for Bombur, lemon meringue pie for Glóin, and then chocolate and raspberry mousse for the King Under the Mountain himself. It seemed that dwarves were devoted lovers of berries and Bilbo could barely keep his jam jars full with them coming in and out of his kitchen during the day.

"Frodo will love these," said Bilbo as he examined one of the pairs of blue gloves Ori had made for his nephew. "They'll be perfect for winter."

"I padded the inside of those for extra insulation," explained Ori. "And these ones here are fingerless for autumn. And I've been working on a blanket, too."

The dwarf reached into his pack and pulled out a beautiful blue and silver knitted blanket, perfectly hobbit-sized and wide enough to fit both uncle and nephew during one of Erebor's chilly nights. Bilbo ran his fingers over the intricate silver pattern that lay on the dark blue yarn, amazed by the young dwarf's thoughtfulness and astounding talent for detail. A small pile of knitted hats, scarves, arm and leg warmers, over-shirts, and gloves were resting on the ground between them.

Bilbo pointed to the pattern on the front of the blanket, curious as to why half of the garments were decorated with it. "What does this symbol mean?"

"That's the insignia of the line of Durin," said Ori. "I thought it'd be a nice touch given the circumstances."

The hobbit blinked in confusion. "Circumstances?"

"You're living in the royal wing," stated Ori, "Across the hall from both the royal princes and directly beside the King himself. In our society, that automatically makes you an honorary member of the Durin family. It's extremely rare, of course, since not even an important dignitary or visiting royal from another kingdom would be permitted to stay in such a residence. Circumstances like these are generally viewed as..."