~There were patchy, led colored clouds upon a blue canvas; the sun's rays shone happily down upon the small, lush, light green fields and even small people walking about them. Farmers whistled bird songs whilst a wheelbarrow led them to a sheep pen, little girls and boys ran about the playing field, kicking around a purple ball, and the elders were just rising.
Even though it was already elevensies.
The smell of greasy pork and baking sweet bread floated out of my home through the open kitchen windows, and into the Shire around us. My mother, Azaelia, was running about the kitchen, reading elevensies for my brother and I, even though she was one-hundred and twelve! I sat on the steps before our humble hobbit hole with a green door, my red, leather notebook sat on my lap and my eyes were closed, I let the sun hug me with his arms of warmth. All of a sudden something whizzed by my head and struck the door behind me, I turned quickly to find a violet ball running its way towards me. I shook my head and rolled my eyes as my brother, Till, came up to me, his face was the color of fresh strawberries in summer and his breathing equated the wind in a hurricane.
He could only point, I smiled and held out the ball to him, as he left I yelled back to him "Till! Be careful with that! You know that Mr. Gamgee doesn't enjoy it when you go trumping into his spice garden after it!" I called, Till nodded and hurried back to his friends, I smiled, Till was always a troublemaker, no matter what you told him, he would do the exact opposite. I watched the children play ball for a while, finally get bored of watching the ball fly through the air I stood and walked to the small bench beside the office window and plopped down, flipping through my journal and scanning the pages.
"Alright, Myrtle, Till! Elevensies!" Azaelia called, I stood and almost ran into our home. I was still hungry from first and second breakfast. Most people think hobbits are short and fat, and, in most cases, they would be correct.
In most cases.
I am not one of those cases.
In fact, I'm not a normal hobbit. I've been told multiple times by multiple hobbits.
I'm tall for a hobbit, for a fact, I'm the tallest hobbit in my family! I am four feet and five inches tall, I'm taller than my mother by three inches! As I mentioned before, most people think hobbits are fat, I've been compared to a skeleton before. Hobbits usually have very hairy feet, mine, have very little. All of the hobbits in my family have brown hair (or blonde) but my hair is almost the color white!
The three of us sat down for elevensies and mother brought up a dreaded topic.
Marriage.
"All I'm saying, Myrtle, is that you need to start thinking about it! You need to start looking for suitable hobbits to settle down with, to start your own family. Not that I'll ever be tired of having you here, darling, but, you really need to think about your future" She said, I poked my sausage absent mindedly.
"Who would want to marry her? I mean, she's a freak" Till said, mother hit Till's arm and Till giggled as he shoved a whole, boiled egg in his mouth. There was a short pause.
"I heard that Whitfurrows hobbit has his eye on you, darling, besides he's a nice hobbit, a gentleman he is." Mother said, I sighed. Todo Whitfurrows was a hobbit I had never really met, he would always stare at me when my friend Rosie-Posie Millstone and I would catch frogs by the river. Todo was a tall hobbit, he was even taller than me! He was equipped with black hair and green eyes, along with a nice build, he was the hobbit who made all female hobbits swoon.
"Could we please not talk about this, right now?" I asked, mother nodded and Till wore a devious grin on his face.
"She doesn't want to feel any worse about herself than she already does" Till snickered, this time, mother slapped Till on the cheek.
"Now don't you say another word, you" mother growled, Till nodded and continued bombarding his mouth with food, my appetite left me. That day it was my job to go pick the weeds from the top of our hobbit hole and as I did I sat and stared at the sky. What must it be like, out there, outside of the Shire? What are those strange places I saw on the map? And, most importantly, how can I get there?
I shook my head, I couldn't leave the Shire! What was I thinking? A hobbit in a big, wide world like that? I'd be squished or squashed or eaten or made into jam! I sighed and yanked a weed free from the ground, what was wrong with weeds?
Just because they're different from grass doesn't mean they're bad.
I threw the weed behind me and rubbed my face, I stood to turn and walk to the other side of the roof when I lost my footing and tumbled down our home, landing on the stone path to the green, front door. I laid on my back for a moment, breathing and waiting for the world to stop spinning like a merry-go-round. That's when I heard Mr. Gamgee's curses, Till had gone into his garden again. I sluggishly pulled myself to my feet and stumbled to the brown fence, there was a sign on the fence that was never explained to me 'No admittance, except on party business'. Mr. Gamgee came up to the fence, holding Till's pointed ear "I'm...I'm sorry, Mr. Gamgee, what did he do this time?"
"The little bugger ran into my spice garden again! You must keep him on a leash, Miss. Baggins, or he'll really get into trouble!" Mr. Gamgee growled, I nodded and stood away from the fence. Mr. Gamgee sighed and pushed Till into our yard "Miss. Baggins, I'd like to have a word with you, in my home" I nodded wearily and pulled Till inside, I pushed him in and yelled to mother where I was going, she nodded and smiled.
~Mr. Gamgee lived on Bagshot row, the neighborhood before my home, Bag-end. Mr. Gamgee's door was yellow and his home was smaller than Bag-end. We sat in plushy chairs by his fireplace where he served lemon tea and pastries. "You know, Myrtle, I didn't want to just discuss Till whilst you're here" Mr. Gamgee said, biting into a pastry. "I wanted to discuss your great-great-uncle, your great-great-uncle, Bilbo Baggins, was not different from you, not much anyways.
He went on an adventure, and what an adventure it was! He met a wizard named Gandalf the Grey and he agreed to be a burglar for the company of Thorin Oakenshield. Well, the company set off for the Lonely Mountain also known as the Dwarfish kingdom as Erebor, for; the dragon Smaug had taken it over and killed all those within. So, they all set off and your great-great-uncle saved their hides more than once! It was a dangerous road, but, they finally made it and Bilbo was sent into the Lonely Mountain to retrieve the Arkenstone!
The greatest jewel there is, was, and ever will be! Anyways, your great-great uncle Bilbo got it away from the dragon Smaug, and Smaug became so angry that he attacked the town of the lake men below, but, as much as the lake men tried, Smaug the all powerful could not be killed! Smaug's armor was made of the gold, jewels and valuables he wallowed in, his claws were iron, his teeth were as white as snow, yet, as sharp as a prickly hornspofel! His wings, Myrtle, his wings created hurricanes, thousands of hurricanes with each beat! And now, I come to the most deadly part of the dragon Smaug, his fire.
His fire, Myrtle, was equivalent to one trillion, summer, noon day suns!" Mr. Gamgee paused and I felt my heart beat accelerate, sweat poured from my forehead, I could practically feel the heat from Smaug's fire licking at my back.
"H-how was he stopped?" I asked in a meager voice, but I desperately wanted to know more! Mr. Gamgee smiled.
"They bargained with him. Which is very hard to do, you know, bargaining with a dragon. They surrendered completely, which, didn't satisfy the dragon Smaug, then, they gave him all of their gold and precious gems and crowned him King Under the Mountain. That's when Smaug the dragon gobbled up Thorin Oakenshield and Fili and Kili, Thorin's cousins, ending the line of Durin." Finished Mr. Gamgee a little too casually.
"T-That's it? What happened to Bilbo?" I asked, sitting straighter in the chair, Mr. Gamgee chuckled.
"Easy child, easy! Your great-great-uncle Bilbo came back to the Shire to find they were going to sell Bag-end! He bought everything back and adopted your great grandfather, Frodo Baggins." Mr. Gamgee said with a smile, I smiled too, I knew my great grandfather's story. He and Mr. Gamgee's father saved Middle Earth by throwing the ring of power back into Mount Doom, in Mordor.
~I thanked Mr. Gamgee and left, I smiled to myself. I knew what I was going to do.
I packed my things quietly as mother and Till slept that night, wrapping up an extreme amount of food and all of my money as well. I crept out of Bag-end wearing a dark green hood and a dark green leaf pendent that I was given, mother told me it was my great grandfather Frodo's. I took up a walking stick and smiled at the full moon as I walked out of Hobbiton. All of a sudden I felt a hand on my shoulder rip me back, I turned to find Rosie-Posie standing behind me, bag on her back, wrapped in a cloak, and a walking stick in her hand. "Rosie!
What are you doing here?" I growled in a whisper, we stood just outside the boarders of Hobbiton.
"I think the real question is why didn't you tell me you were leaving the Shire?" She asked, her brown hair gleaming in the moonlight, her blue eyes stared at me hard as I searched for an answer.
"I just decided it today, besides, you love the Shire, I am not in love with it anymore. I'm going on an adventure" I whispered to her, smiling, she shook her head playfully.
"But, I love you more than I love the Shire, you're my best friend, I could go so far as to call you my sister! You're not going anywhere alone, Myrtle." She whispered, I smiled and we began walking again. By second lunch we reached Bree and stopped at a legendary pub named 'The Prancing Pony', the pub was littered with drunk men, scary, drunk men. Rosie and I got a table and ate slowly. "So, where are we going, anyways?" She asked, shoving a roll into her mouth. I smiled.
"Dale" I answered, her food fell out of her hands.
"Dale? Why Dale?" She asked in a hushed tone. Again, I smiled.
"Rosie, my great-great-uncle was Bilbo Baggins and my great-grandfather was Frodo Baggins! I'm an adventurer, besides, I want to go see it, I want to see the Lonely Mountain and see the fabled Dale. Maybe even catch sight of a dragon or two" I answered with a smile. Rosie shook her head and laughed.
"We're going on an adventure" she said with a grin, we hit together our mugs and drank up, I coughed and hacked, it was my first time trying rum.
