Returning Home: A Hobbit Fanfiction

Chapter 1 - There and Back Again

"I need you both to listen to me now, all right?" Samara rested a trembling hand on both of her daughters' small - too small, too young, how would they survive? - shoulders. "It's very important that you do exactly what I say." A wolf howled in the distance and her grip tightened involuntarily as she glanced over her shoulder, the familiar clash of weapon against weapon reaching her ears.

Her eldest - but still young, too young - nodded, brow furrowed. "Amad, what's going on?" she asked hesitantly; confused, but still too trusting in her parents' ability to do anything to be very afraid. "Why did we stop? Why did the others go on without us?"

Samara swallowed hard. "I need you to take your sister's hand when I tell you to," she said instead, focusing hard on keeping her voice steady. "And then you're both going to run as fast as you can over to the forest we saw earlier, and climb a tree and stay there until your adad or I, or..." She closed her eyes briefly. "Or another adult comes to get you. It's just like hide-and-go-find, you have to be super quiet until we find you. Do you think you can do that?"

Her daughter nodded hesitantly, fear finally filling her eyes when another howl filled the air. "Amad... I'm scared," she whimpered. "I'm not brave like you or Adad. I don't want to go alone!"

Samara closed her eyes and drew in a shuddering breath before resting her forehead on her daughter's. "I know you are, daughter of my heart. I am as well. But courage does not mean the absence of fear. It simply means acting in spite of it." She brushed a loose lock of hair behind her daughter's ear and tilted her chin to look up at her. "And you're both going to need to be very courageous now, my hearts. I'm sorry."

"Samara, send them off," Thokar's deep voice broke into their conversation. "They need to go while they still can. Loureth bought us some time, but not much." Her husband's heavyset figure knelt in front of the two girls, his normally rough voice gentling as he spoke to them. "Your amad and I have to go and fight. Can you be brave for me?"

Her youngest nodded excitedly, still too young to fully understand the danger. "Brave like you, Adad!" she piped up, expression falling into her best 'threatening' face, which looked about as fear-inspiring as a newborn kitten, and giving a growl that was more adorable than anything else.

He gave her a broken smile. "And what a fearsome warrior you are," he told her, voice breaking halfway through. "I am very proud." He kissed her on the forehead and whispered something in her ear too low for Samara to hear before doing the same to her sister. Pushing to his feet, he moved to his wife's side and rested his forehead upon hers, both of them closing their eyes and enjoying their last, brief moment of peace together. "I'm sorry it had to end like this," he said softly.

Samara slowly pulled away and smiled at him through her tears. "At least we will be together," she told him, voice thick.

Thokar nodded, cupping her cheek and giving her one last tender kiss. "Together," he promised. He reluctantly stepped away, his hand falling away from her face as his eyes studied her and their daughters, as if committing them to memory. "I will see you all in his halls," he swore before drawing his axe and striding resolutely around the large boulder they'd taken refuge behind when the attack had started.

As soon as he'd disappeared around the bend, Samara knelt in front of her daughters. "I need you to run now. And don't look back, no matter what you hear. Either of you. You keep going. Do you understand?" she said firmly. They both nodded, her oldest close to tears as she finally started to understand the situation they were in.

"Good," she said, forcing herself to give them one last smile in hopes that their last memory of her would be happy. "Remember, your adad and I love you very much. Look after each other, and be kind to all, no matter what. And don't take your necklaces off! Now go!" She turned them around and gave them a gentle push in the direction of the forest, the opposite way of the battle happening behind them.