CHAPTER TWO - The Shire
IT RAINED HEAVILY, the storm was awful. After spending many glorious years in Rivendell, a message, sent by pigeon was sent to Nixie by Gandalf the Grey. He wanted her to come on a Quest with thirteen dwarves - a Quest to reclaim Erebor. At first, the Water Nymph's immediate reaction was a firm no. Then the woman realised how much the Wizard had done over the years for her and suddenly felt guilty, so reluctantly she accepted the Quest.
During Nixie's time in Rivendell, she grew to love the Elves that lived there - in turn, they learnt to love their precious Nenlilime. Eventually, Nixie gave up on figuring out what the nickname meant; her Elvish speech had become rough over the years and she could only speak a few sentences, despite learning it when she was younger. Nixie had no idea how to wield a sword or shoot a bow and arrow when she first entered Rivendell, Elrond ended up teaching her.
The Elf Lord ended up teaching Nixie many things, like how to make a fire, create a weapon out of nothing and above all stay alive. In return for this, Nixie began to help the Elves by creating rivers and streams where they needed it most and offered help when it came to transport via boat. Nixie was an expert now when it came to duelling with swords; though she could shoot a bow and arrow she wasn't a very good shot.
Lord Elrond ended up gifting Nixie a stunning Elvish blade, it was curved and made out of a light-weight, yet strong metal. The handle was like any handle, it was comfortable to the grip and in Nixie's case, it was blue. On the sheath of the sword, there were waterlilies carefully embroidered into the fabric, as well as small waves. It was beautiful and it was supposedly forged in the sweltering fires of a dragon (though she never truly believed that).
So there the Water Nymph was, riding on a pony in the freezing cold weather. She didn't mind the rain though, so she didn't have her hood up - Nixie loved the rain, but she couldn't believe she had travelled all this way to meet the Company of Thorin Oakenshield in a peaceful place called the Shire. The creatures that lived there were known as Hobbits (Halflings), Nixie, however, knew Hobbits far too well. They didn't like to adventure out of the safe borders of the Shire and lived a very simple life.
That was probably the reason Nixie took such interest in Lyssa Goodchild, was because she was one of the only Hobbits she knew that had dared to adventure outside of the Shire. Lyssa was a kind soul, though she rather liked to gossip with Nixie about Belladonna Took and how much of a cow she was. Nixie didn't particularly care for gossip - but, she did find it amusing when her Hobbit friend got so flustered about another Hobbit boy she particularly liked; Bilbo Baggins. The mere memory of it brought a smile to the Nymph's face; she missed Lyssa, maybe now more than ever.
Currently, Nixie's pony, Cerberus, was having a least than pleasant experience as a loud clap of thunder boomed. In an attempt to calm Cerberus down, Nixie stroked his thick black mane, whispering words of comfort to her loyal pony. Nixie could tell the ground was deeply filled with oozing, sickly brown mud as Cerberus' hooves began to lower into the ground with every waking step. Suddenly, the moon shone down startling the Horse and Water Nymph - almost instantly Cerberus sped up, nearly causing Nixie to fall off of the pony!
Within minutes they were in Hobbiton, the torrential rain had ceased, but the ground was far beyond dry. Nixie found shelter for Cerberus where many other ponies were, the Water Nymph assumed these ponies must have belonged to the rest of the Company. She tied Cerberus up, a bit of a distance away from the rest of the ponies mainly because he was a bit aggressive to others (she didn't want her pony to let her down). Despite being already late, Nixie hurried to find the moon rune that should've been on one of the doors of one of the many Hobbit-holes.
On a luscious, steep green hill in the moonlight, a moon rune glowed. It was only drawn small, something Gandalf the Grey had probably done to be considerate. Halfway up the hill, Nixie began to hear obnoxiously loud noise; so, the dwarves had gotten there. Nixie smelt food; meat. Meat was something Nixie hadn't had in a long time, that was due to the fact that the Elves were strictly vegetarian - so, the Water Nymph had gone over thirty years without meat. It was awful.
Tentatively, Nixie trudged up the hill - inwardly kicking herself as she saw the path up to the building. She wished she took that path. The Hobbit-holes door was large, short and circular; it was nice though, due to the fact Nixie could actually walk through it without feeling minuscule. Politely, though she wished she had the indecency to bang violently on the door, Nixie knocked three times.
Behind the door, Nixie heard a very irritated voice. "No, no, no!" shouted the voice angrily, "I don't want any more dwarves or Wizards in my home!" this was definitely the right place, "No more!" The door opened and Nixie saw a living Hobbit for the first time in many years, "I beg your pardon, Miss," the Hobbit apologised, "Do come in."
The absolutely drenched Nixie nodded her head thankfully and stepped in through the door. Inside of the home were walls that were painted white, the windows were stain glass and also circular like the vast majority of Hobbit Architecture. "Thank you, Mr...?" Nixie thanked the Hobbit, outstretching her pale hand.
The Hobbit that was wearing a white shirt, with brown stripes and charcoal coloured trousers took Nixie's cold hand into his warm one - shaking it vigorously, "Baggins, Bilbo Baggins."
How coincidental? This Hobbit was the Hobbit that had captured Lyssa's heart, but, now was not the time to be digging around in the past. Today was about the present, "You may call me Nixie, Bilbo," Nixie said, grinning at the Hobbit's expression, "Do you have a towel?"
"Of course." Bilbo hurried off trying to find a towel for Nixie, eventually, he found a fluffy, baby pink towel and came scurrying back to Nixie. "Here you go."
The Water Nymph nodded a polite thanks taking off of her damp cloak, hanging it up where the rest of them were, as well as that Nixie took her muddy boots off by the door. Nixie was wearing an elegant white shirt, it had slightly wider bell sleeves, but they weren't overly massive. It was clearly an elven design, though the light blue embroidery was barely visible, as well as that she wore tight-fitting black trousers and was wearing light blue socks.
Swiftly, the Nymph began to dry her hair rather aggressively. Then Nixie realised she had been a complete and utter fool, she didn't need a towel - she knew the exact spell to make her hair dry. "Jasaku arimordium," Nixie lightly said, thinking and directing her energy on her cloak and her hair. Within mere seconds, her hair, as well as her cloak was dry. Nixie folded the towel and placed it on the side of a wooden box, which had scuffs of mud on it - she inwardly scowled.
Silently, Nixie made her way forwards, to the Dining Room. What she assumed to be the entire Company was sat around the rather small table, feasting away on various sorts of scrumptious food. The laughter seemingly died when Nixie revealed herself to be in the doorway, the oldest Dwarf with a white beard and wiry matching hair looked like he was about to faint.
A Dwarf with a gruff dark beard, bald head and flowing hair from half the head down, looked at his brother, "You alright, Balin? You look like you've seen a ghost!" he joked. He had clearly not seen the Nymph yet.
An old raspy voice spoke up - Gandalf. "That's because he has Master Dwarf," Gandalf explained in a matter-a-fact tone. "Sit down, Nixie," Gandalf demanded, pulling a chair forth.
The Water Nymph smiled lightly, nodding her head to Gandalf. She sat down, feeling watchful and weary eyes on her. The Dwarf who clearly hadn't seen her before almost instantly stood up, "Dwalin at your service M'lady," Dwalin said, bowing his head to her.
"Balin, at your demand, Lady Nixie," Balin introduced himself, looking expectantly at the other Dwarves to get up and bow. "Get up you fools! We are in the presence of Royalty!"
It was at that point Nixie remembered both Balin and Dwalin, who knew who Nixie truly was. Nixie was indeed Nymph Royalty, suddenly she wished she would have never accepted Gandalf's plea to go on a Quest; she hated it when people found out who she was. Dwarves stood up rather quickly, bashing into the side of tables as they did so.
Two Dwarves, that were very clearly brother's stood at the demand of the two of the most serious Dwarves. "Fili," the strawberry-blonde haired one said.
"Kili," the dark-haired archer said. Nixie could tell he was an archer, mainly by the spare arrow in his pocket.
"At your service, Your Highness!" they finished in unison, making the Water Nymph chuckle very lightly.
"Oin and Gloin, at your service, M'Lady."
"Bofur, Bombur and Bifur at your service, Your Grace," Bifur, the Dwarf with unruly black hair that cascaded down into his beard was clearly speaking Khuzdul. It was probably the exact things his cousins or brothers had said.
"Dori, Nori and Ori at your command, Your Highness!"
"Thank you for the introductions," Nixie cooly said, "But there is no need to address me by my Royal title, I am merely Nixie," she told them, in response to that Gandalf huffed and Nixie shot him a sharp glare.
"You are worthy of that title, Nixie," Gandalf said, the Grey Wizard was about to continue - but saw the intimidating glare of the Nymph and thought better of himself.
Lord Elrond was also indeed shocked when Nixie revealed to him that she was Royalty - the Elf Lord was mad, mainly due to the fact she had gone two years without telling him. It apparently hurt him more than she knew. But the Nymph felt she was no Royalty - not anymore. What was a Princess without a Kingdom? Yet alone a people to lead. If Nixie was worthy of that title, why did they cross the Great Sea without her?
Nixie was far away from her thoughts when a polite, older Dwarf began to talk to her. He had a chubby, round face and a rather large forehead, his silky silver hair was braided thoroughly and he spouted a silver beard that interloped with his moustache. Nixie recognised him as Dori.
"Could I tempt you with a cup of soothing camomile tea?" Dori inquired, smiling lightly at the smaller creature.
In reply, Nixie beamed back at him. "No thank you, Dori - though I fancy a rather large ale - if that's not a bother," she requested to which the Dwarf nodded.
An uproar went around the table, the uproar being laughter. The Dwarves couldn't believe a Princess was drinking Ale! "Bless my beard! She'd be a perfect wife," cried Kili, rather too loudly than he intended to, Nixie obviously heard - this caused the Dwarf to slunk back into his chair; bright red in the face.
That was when Nixie truly knew, that this would be a long night.
A/N: If you wouldn't mind showing support by giving the story a vote, it'd be much appreciated x