I'm so sorry for the long wait! I hope this makes up for it.

Thank you everyone for your encouraging comments. We're moving ahead rather quickly in this chapter. The next two or three chapters will be at a moderately fast pace also with fairly large time jumps, and then we will have a very large jump into the future.

As always, enjoy.

Chapter Seven

Meliot

Mrs. Bolger was slumbering peacefully when Estella pushed the door open. The dank scent of sweat filled her nose as light spilled from the hall into the darkened room, though she hardly took notice of it.

All others had seemed to vanish from the room for the time being, and Estella was grateful for it. She crept in, clutching a book tightly to her chest. She was acutely aware of the creaking of the floorboards with every step she took, and the sound of her heart pounding fiercely against her chest as though attempting to break free.

Her mother's chest rose and fell, and despite the lingering traces of fatigue and sweat that loitered still, all seemed well. A small bundled was cradled firmly in her arms, and instantaneously a tiny smile tugged at Estella's mouth.

She drew a chair next to the bed and perched in it, book neatly on her lap. She hesitated, unsure of whether or not to wake her mother. After a moment, she decided rest was quite possibly the best thing for the elder hobbit. Carefully setting the book on the floor she leaned forward in her chair and daintily used two fingers to pull back a blanket corner from the bundle her mother held.

Feelings came to her in a rush, and she resolved that if any form of love at first site did exist, it certainly applied here. For silent minute after silent minute she gazed lovingly upon the face of her younger sister.

Plump, pink cheeks and tiny features adorned the perfect little face, and, slowly, Estella stroked the fuzz atop the new babe's head as she slowly awoke. Her tiny hand moved ever-so-slightly, petite fingers barely shifting. Her eyes flickered, and the shadows cast by her eyelashes danced upon her cheeks.

"This is the first time since she's been born that she's been silent," a sudden voice said softly, causing Estella to start. Her eyes flew upwards to her mother, who was wearily smiling back at her. "We should cherish this time."

Estella sat back in her chair slowly. "She's tiny," she said quietly at last. Mrs. Bolger sighed and nodded.

"She came early, surprising us all," she told Estella. "You know as well as the rest of us that we did not expect her for another week at least."

"She didn't come too early, did she?" Estella gasped, fear suddenly striking her. She knew babies had been known to die when born too prematurely. She would not have her new sister, whom she had only just met, snatched away from her!

A reassuring smile graced her mother's weary face. "She will be fine." Estella let her breath out in a rush as her terror-filled emotions dwindled away.

"I got quite a pleasant surprise," she told her mother after a moment's silence. "When I arrived back home today! I would not have been gone the whole day if I had known... I was shocked when Fatty informed me my new sister was a few hours old already when I returned." Estella shook her head with a small smile, her eyes straying back to the babe and her soft, pleasing features. Hew new sister... how long, now, had she been waiting for her? Months. At last, the newest edition to the family had arrived.

"May I hold her, Mother?"

Her mother complied, and it was as the babe slowly stirred and clumsily grabbed towards Estella, and the lass took the babe's hand gently, gazing down into her auburn eyes with such love and compassion for the small child she now had her whole life to get to know, that Mrs. Bolger said: "What do you think of the name Melilot?"

Estella smiled and held her sister close to her, breathing in the fresh scent only new baby's brought, delicately stroking her head. "My Meli-lass," she breathed.

And Melilot cooed gently, a small, inept hand slowly enfolding around one of Estella's curls. Estella laid a tender kiss upon her soft forehead and handed her back to her mother.

"That's all?" Mrs. Bolger asked with a teasing smile.

"I've remembered something," Estella explained. She retrieved the book from the floor and flipped the pages open. Halfway through, a loose piece of parchment had been stuck amid two pages. Estella pulled it out gradually, once again surveying the drawing Merry had helped her to complete. With a small smile, she propped it up on the bedside table, where both mother and new baby could see.

"There," she said. "Now everything is absolutely perfect." She smiled. "I told Merry the babe would be a girl!"

Mrs. Bolger didn't respond, for she was studying the picture Estella had set up. "Did you draw this by yourself?" she asked. Estella colored slightly.

"No," she admitted. "Merry helped me."

Her mother nodded. "Still," she said quietly. "You have talent, Estella."

"No, not really," Estella said, turning redder still. "Merry suggested I do something special for the new baby, something that she would forever cherish. I know she's much too young now, but I suppose she may cherish it when she gets older."

"She is lucky to come into this world with an older sister like you," Mrs. Bolger said, and then shifted Meliot into her left arm, extending her right to her other daughter invitingly. Estella hesitated, though not for long: she left her chair and crawled into the comforting, warm embrace of her mother.

They lay like that for a while; Estella curled against her mother's side with an arm wrapped protectively about her, gazing at her new sister, who was sleeping peacefully. Were all hobbits really once that tiny? It seemed miraculous that something could start that small and grow to be as big as any of them.

"Are you sleeping, Estella?" her mother's soft voice and warm breath against her ear startled her. She shook her head slowly.

"No," she said. "Just thinking."

"About what, 'Stella-lass?"

Estella paused. "Was I really that small once?" she asked sheepishly at last. Her mother laughed.

"Yes, Stell, yes you were." She squeezed Estella tightly to her side. Estella willing snuggled in. She found it suddenly a struggle to keep her eyes open. Reaching out, she tenderly laid a hand over her sister's. It was almost frightening to touch her; she was so fragile. Suppose she broke? It certainly seemed possible, at least to Estella.

"Meliot will grow faster than you realize, Estella. Soon she'll be running around after you and Fatty, wanting to be just like you and do everything you do."

Estella thought of her chores and screwed up her face into a grimace. "I have no complaints about that," she said. "Especially if it's the dishes she wants to do!"

Her mother laughed and pressed a kiss atop Estella's curls. Nothing more was said. It wasn't long before Estella dozed off, and the last thing she saw before she closed her eyes was the passive face of Meliot - a sweet vision that afterwards danced through her dreams.