The Restless Hobbit

Rumours, Stories & Adventures

It was a glorious summer. The fields were a lush green and the birds sang their cheerful chorus as the bees buzzed around all the budding flowers. All the hobbits in Hobbiton were taking advantage of such fine weather to tend to their crops in time for the harvest, or selling their goods at the marketplace. All hobbits, except one.

Bilbo Baggins remained mostly indoors in his little home under the hill. He always had a relatively comfortable life after he inherited Bag End from his parents, but now he had riches, riches beyond anything he ever imagined for a hobbit like himself, and so he did not need to earn. Needless to say the hobbit became restless.

One day Bilbo decided that he wanted to write down all of his adventures with the dwarves into a book, but whenever he tried to start there was always some distraction or other. Neighbours were curious about his new found wealth and hoped to catch a glimpse of the treasures he now possessed. Bilbo was one step ahead of them and made sure the treasures were kept secure and well out of sight.

This did not stop his relatives pestering him. He was told by Hamfast Gamgee, Bilbo's gardener and good friend, that because he had been away for so long on his adventures that most of the neighbourhood had presumed he was dead. This in turn had caused much keen interest and speculation on who would inherit Bag End, and so Bilbo's relatives had tried to seize the property for their own, much to Hamfast's protests. On Bilbo's return, he had managed to claim Bag End back from his relatives before it was too late. Many arguments followed but in the end Bilbo won his rightful claim on the property.

After such an unpleasant homecoming, Bilbo preferred to spend his time alone. He enjoyed reading in his study, or when he dared, he would venture outside into the garden to help Hamfast tend to the plants, or simply contented himself by sitting quietly on the garden bench smoking a pipe.

Smoking was very therapeutic as Bilbo found his mind drifted away to another place. He would see fire and a dragon. He would see the dwarves he befriended and the ones that were lost in battle… He doubted he would ever see such a great character like Thorin again. And Gandalf, well he was the most remarkable person he had ever met in his life. In fact Bilbo would be eternally grateful that Gandalf had nudge, or rather pushed Bilbo out into a world he never even knew existed.

Now that he was back to normality, Bilbo found it hard to adjust back to who he once was. Deep down he knew he could never be the hobbit he was before. This was the reason that he now kept himself secluded from the neighbours, because even by hobbits standards he was appearing very unsociable. There was talk around the village on what he had been up to while he was away; certainly nothing a well respecting hobbit should be doing.

No, thought Bilbo, as he sat on the bench in his front garden, he had definitely lost any decent reputation he once possessed, but how he longed for another adventure now. Sighing he puffed his pipe and stared into the distance again. His thoughts were only disturbed when he heard muttering coming from the gate. When he looked over however, he could see no one.

Frowning, Bilbo stood up slowly, trying to hear where the muffled noises were coming from. Taking a tentative step he moved closer to the gate. The muffles stopped altogether now. Smiling, Bilbo took another step closer, bent over the gate and shouted "Got you!" to the pair of children crouching behind it who then screamed in fright, before bursting into laughter at being caught hiding.

"Bilbo!" said the little girl still giggling, "You frightened us!"

"Yeah," laughed the smaller boy, "that wasn't very nice."

"Well you two little trolls shouldn't have been trying to sneak up on me should you?" asked Bilbo trying not to smile as he opened the gate to the only visitors he let onto the property these days.

"We only came to hear your stories again." said Hugo getting to his feet and walking into the garden.

Rose followed him, "Yeah we haven't heard your stories in such a long time!"

Bilbo couldn't resist laughing now, "It's only been a week!" The two children stared at him with pleading eyes. After all a week was a long time to a child. "Alright," he said sitting back down on his bench, "what stories would you like to hear?"

"About the dwarves." said Hugo, already sounding awestruck.

"No," said Rose shaking her head, "The dragon, let's hear about the dragon."

Hugo nodded in agreement. "Yeah the dragon!"

"Alright." said Bilbo pausing for a moment, "Well… firstly the dragon's name was Smaug and he was the fiercest dragon that ever lived…"

Bilbo went on tell the children a very animated version of his encounter with the terrifying Smaug. He used his arms in gestures to emphasize the size of the dragon, and ashes from his pipe to express the smoke and fire it breathed. The two young ones listened to their storyteller in awe for they had never heard of such stories before Bilbo's.

"However did you escape Smaug?" asked Rose in amazement.

This stopped Bilbo in his tracks. He still did not dare mention the ring he found, it was too precious to him for anyone to know about it, not even to the children who sat in front of him now. Thinking he eventually replied with "With a lot of riddles and clever hobbit cunning."

"Then what happened?" asked Rose persisting.

"Ah well that is a story for another day." replied Bilbo knowing that the children had probably stayed longer than they should have. "It's time you two got yourselves home."

The two children expressed their disappointment with moans and sad faces.

"You can't be sad." He said, trying to appease them, "I'll tell you more stories soon. And besides, you can't be sad or the angry Smaug will come after you!" he then made a roaring noise and chased them out of the garden to which they screamed and giggled as they ran.

"Goodbye Bilbo!" the two shouted as they ran towards home.

As he waved back to them, an older hobbit came passing by shaking his head as he stared at Bilbo disapprovingly.

"You should be ashamed." The older hobbit said, "Encouraging the young like that. Telling them stories about adventures and goodness knows what. It's not right Bilbo, do you hear me?"

"It's just harmless stories." replied Bilbo, slightly taken aback.

The older hobbit wagged his finger at him with a disgruntled expression, "It's a disturbance of the peace. We don't need anything like that around here."

"No," muttered Bilbo quietly to himself, "that's the problem."

"What?"

"I said that's the problem!" replied Bilbo more loudly before turning on his heels and making his way back into the house, ignoring the indignation of the other hobbit.

Once the front door was shut Bilbo leant against it and covered his face with his hands. He just didn't belong in Hobbiton anymore, and there was nothing he could do about it. No one understood him. No one cared. He decided then and there; he had to go on a journey. He didn't know where, just somewhere he could clear his head.

Decision made. He would leave in the morning.