Author's Notes:

I've toyed with this AU off and on for quite a while. When the May challenge for 2013 was for an AU, I decided to do it. Knowing that it could end up getting completely out of hand, I decided that I would make each chapter only 500 words, and would limit it to 10 chapters. (I succeeded in the first goal, but failed in the second, as I needed two more chapters and an epilogue, bringing the total to 13.)

I figured that was the only way I could write it by the deadline. As it was, I still did not quite finish—but most of what went over was tweaking the word count. A few RL interruptions meant that it did not get completed until two days after the monthly reveal date. Most of that was tweaking the word count, and rearranging some events. Chapter 11 was a late addition.

The original inspiration was/is the 1937 first edition of The Hobbit, in which Gollum was a much less villainous character, and the ring a more benign and less ominous object.

In this AU, the ring Bilbo brings home has some properties of any Ring of Power as described by Gandalf (even the Lesser Rings he mentions): it will extend the life and render invisible any mortal who wears it. But there's no lust for power involved—this ring was never touched by Sauron.

Sámaril, as I indicated in a previous note, was the creator of this particular little ring; perhaps it was the last one he made. I am most grateful to pandemonium_213 for the loan of her OC, and for the nice Quenya translation of the inscription. I love how generous she is with her universe—she's so much fun to work with!

I wanted to give Radagast a chance to shine in this. He actually is the one who precipitates everything by his two discoveries: that the fish had swallowed the Ring, and that Saruman was a traitor before Gandalf had a chance to be entrapped by him. This resulted in an accelerated timeline. If there are any questions as to how the Brown Wizard accomplished his mission: he used various beasts relay fashion, to carry it to it's destination, each creature carrying the Ring according to its nature. His belief that the animals would not be tempted by the power of the Ring because they live completely in the "now" was well-founded. If you are fond of the Radagast of movie-verse, I would not object to you imagining him at some point racing alongside the River in his rabbit sled as he keeps track of whichever beast is carrying the Ring at the time. Of course, I'd never actually write such a scene. ;)

You may also notice a wee little tribute to movie-verse LotR at the end of the Epilogue!

The title went through a few changes, but I thought finally that this one was the most ironic (and misleading) of various titles I considered!

There are a lot of missing scenes, some in fact which were partially written, but then discarded as not furthering the plot enough. I may very well not be finished with this AU, and might at some point add additional "gapfillers" to help explain some things a little better.

I hope everyone enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed writing it!

Dreamflower