The Light that Wakes [Bagginshield]

Beyond Borders

It was past midday and the sun was beginning to lose its blinding brightness as it travelled South over the valley of Dale. Bilbo and Thorin had been standing together on the terrace overlooking the Front Gate of Erebor for about half an hour, talking, but mostly not. It bothered neither of them, as neither struggled to find something new to say when silence naturally ensued.

After some time, however, as Bilbo had expected, Thorin let out a heavy sigh and looked at Bilbo with a weary smile.

"Time to go back?" asked Bilbo.

Thorin nodded his head.

"I'll go get Dwalin. Hang on."

Bilbo walked back inside the Mountain and went down the stairs into the Great Hall. After a quick look around, he spotted Dwalin standing not too far away, near one of the great pillars on each side of the entrance, talking to his brother. Dwalin caught sight of him almost at the same time – he was perhaps looking out for Bilbo coming down the stairs to get him – and met him half way.

"Thorin would like to come back inside now," said Bilbo, looking up into what he expected to be Dwalin's rough face. It was indeed Dwalin's face up close, but it did not bear any particular roughness.

Dwalin acknowledged with a simple nod and even with the shade of a smile, then he started up the stairs. He acted surprisingly tolerant that day. Perhaps he was too glad that he was getting at least part of the Thorin he knew back to display any other reaction. It certainly made Bilbo's life much easier. He did not follow the dwarf back up to the terrace, although he had meant to. Now that he had found the ever-kind Balin, he preferred to stay there and wait with him.

"So," began Balin, finding himself alone with Bilbo and thus incapable of not striking up a conversation, "it seems the day we have all been waiting for has finally come."

Bilbo smiled to him. He couldn't help it. "So it seems."

"He looks happy."

"He has reason, finally."

Balin smiled back, also because he couldn't help it. He had always been the most calm and collected of the Dwarves, never allowing himself to despair no matter how difficult the circumstances. His confidence had really helped Bilbo maintain his hope that Thorin would pull through when the odds did not look to be in his favour. But even Balin seemed relieved now in a way that went beyond all that. Bilbo walked closer to him and said nothing more. He understood that Balin and the others had been waiting for this moment not just since the battle, but for much longer. There was not much more to be said about that.

Finally, Thorin and Dwalin appeared at the top of the stairs. There was no further commotion in the Great Hall at their appearance. People raised their heads to them, inevitably drawn to Thorin's image in the flesh, but their awe made no further sound. They seemed to understand that even Thorin wanted and needed a break from being revered openly. They should have and did understand by now that he knew who he was and what he had to do all too well, even when he walked among them with a limp.

Thorin looked grateful for the atmosphere of utter normalcy in the room. He held on quite tightly to Dwalin's arm as he stepped onto the floor of the Great Hall and met Bilbo and Balin again. He did not try to hide it. He seemed to want one simple thing: to sit down somewhere with his old friends, share a pint of Dwarvish ale and talk about something other than dragons, gold and war. And that was what they did.

They spent the next couple of hours around a table in the Banquet Hall, Thorin, Bilbo, the Dwarves that had been part of the Company to take back Erebor, and Dain. This particular gathering and its atmosphere of disinterested merrymaking reminded Bilbo of the night when the Dwarves that he currently called his friends had invited themselves into his home and even arranged a regular party, but only while Thorin had been absent. Now he was present, and even if this was not exactly a party, the feeling of levity was the same, as were the lack of heavy topics in their conversation and the lack of dark clouds over anyone's head. Time went by quickly enough for everyone to be surprised when Oin observed, in a moment of lucidity, that it had been dark outside for quite a while, and Thorin announced that he preferred to retire for the evening. Everyone bid him good night and expressed hopes that they would see him again the following day. Even if it would not be exactly the following day, they were sure that they would all see him again very soon, and it put a visible light on their faces that had not really been there before.