I woke up with a terrible headache. I buried my head in my hands still with my eyes closed, what had happened?. I got up from the bed holding on to the nightstand and then I opened my eyes. When I opened them I realized that I recognized that room ... that floor, those sheets, the furniture ...

I was... dead? That should be.

I approached to the mirror that hung in my room, a room which I had not seen for almost 20 years, since my 111 birthday, since...

"Frodo!"

I ran looking for him, there has been years since the last time I could had run like that!

I went out of the house and I kept screaming looking for my nephew.

"Frodo! Frodo! Where are you?!"

"Master Baggins?"

I looked to my right and I saw an old friend of mine, Hamfast Gamgee, but he looked younger. He had no lines of age or white hair like the last time I had saw him.

"Hamfast, have you seen Frodo?" I asked him really worried.

"Frodo?" He looked at me strangely. "There is no one called Frodo in the Shire, Mr. Baggins. Who is he?"

I kept looking around, but a persistent pain in my head did not let me concentrate.

"Frodo… He should be here. Fro…"

A painful prick of pain in my head made me fall to my knees, screaming. Flashes appeared in my head, like images, distant memories that did not seemed mine ...

There's a woman and a man ... I can not see them clearly, but they both are at the end of my bed... this bed... is not the same one of Bag End, no, this one is large with silk sheets.

I feel heavy, weak.

The woman speaks, but I find hard keeping my eyes open.

"... You have done a lot for us, Bilbo Baggins, but there is still in you a sadness that lasts for years ..."

I look away. I want to speak but I can not do it. I'm too weak, too tired to continue. The woman keeps talking and I try to listen to her.

"... We saw your adventure 80 years ago, my husband and me. We could not intervene back then, but if we had done it we might have prevented the death of your 3 dwarves, the sons of my husband. "

The man nods, but says nothing. I can not help it and tears fall down throw my cheek. I vividly remember Fili's death at Azog's hands, how Legolas told me that Kili was killed by Bolg, and unfortunately, I remember perfectly the death of... the death of Thorin. I remember his words and how the light of his eyes, which were no longer gray blinded by the disease, went off as I held him in my arms.

"Farewell good thief"

"You loved him, did you not?"

This time it is the man who speaks and the one who takes me from my thoughts, and I nod. The man looks at the woman, and she continues.

"I noticed it in your eyes more than once when you looked at him, I could see it in his as well, and I notice it now in yours again."

I look them both with tired eyes. Only a few knew how I felt. All the dwarves from the Company knew it, I did not had to tell them they just knew it, like Bard, Dain, Gandalf and Thranduil after the battle. The Fellowship of the Ring found out when I told our story before they have to leave. Gimli smiled because his father had told him already. I did not want anyone to know about it not even Frodo, but tears ran down my face and I had to tell. What good could have done saying it out loud? None. He was dead, no one could change it, not even now in my dying hour.

"You have also survived the rest of your friends, when you, being one of my children, should have reached my Garden quite before."

I remember how Gimli told me after returning from Mordor how Balin, Dwalin, Bifur and Ori had died in Moria. Balin become as Lord of Moria, had died after the arrival of the orcs and goblins to the city; Bifur died while he was digging, when the first wave of the army from the depths came to Moria; Ori... poor Ori, he died while he was writing the chronicles of the battle against Balin's grave; and Dwalin ... Dwalin died trying to protect Ori, but he could not and died next to him.

Nori became the chief spy of the King but during one of his assignments he was killed by a dwarf who wanted to assassinate Dain II.

Gimli told me that Dori had died of grief, that was what Gloin had told him since there was no apparent cause of death which occurred shortly after learning that his little brothers were dead.

Oin and Gloin had died with a few days apart of each other by a disease that dwarves from Ered Luin led to Erebor, but they died surrounded by their family, and that made Gimli smile a little when he told me.

Bombur died after an accident in the palace kitchens. He was survived by his wife and left fatherless his 8 children. Dain II helped them and his son Thorin III married one of Bombur's little girls.

And the last one was Bofur... he became aware that his family was dead and that he had nothing left, so he decided to go to see me, but he died before arriving at Bag End after an orc attack...

Tears run down my cheek, I am too old and I only want to meet again with my friends in Yavanna's Garden or Mahal's halls. As if she is reading my mind, she speaks again.

"You were his friend, yes, but Aulë, Mahal as dwarves call him, will nit let you be with them in the afterlife because you are a Hobbit and your place is with the rest of my children."

I sigh. I know I could not go to see them, but I have to try my hardest. I'll find my dwarves even if I have to face Aulë himself.

The woman and man smile and the woman approaches a bit to me. "What if I told you I can make you see them again? That you could prevent the suffering of your nephew and even yours?"

I open my eyes a lot. Frodo has never been the same after returning from Mordor. I've never seen his eyes shine with joy when he laughed with Sam, Merry and Pipin as he did before his journey... And it was my fault.

I look at her straight into her eyes. I am about to die of old age, my time has come, my heart has broken more times than it could bear, but I still have fire in my eyes. I'm not going to give up.

The woman smiles even more, as if she is reading my thoughts, and nods.

"You have to remember that we have given you a second chance, Bilbo Baggins. Remember what you have experienced and how you have suffered, you, your nephew, The Fellowship of the Ring, the Company of Thorin Oakenshield, and avoid the massacres before they take place. "

The man also approches to my bed, sits next to his wife, and starts talking. I barely can keep my eyes open.

"We hope in your alliance with Thorin, something that should had happen, that could not happen, that will link my children and my wife's children forever."

She strokes my cheek and my eyes start to close. Before I close them I see as the bedroom door opens and someone enters the room, but I am so tired that I close them without fear of what comes next, without fear of death.

I hear a few words when darkness comes over me.

"We'll meet again when you'll accomplish your task, Bilbo Baggins"

And I wake up.

I opened my eyes without looking at Hamfast, and I ran to my house. I went to see me into the mirror and I saw myself. I had no gray hair or age marks. It seemed like I was 50 again. I touched my face and put my other hand over the mirror.

"What have they done?"