I used to think that Elves knew everything, Men could do anything, Bilbo would
always take care of me. I thought my life in the Shire would go on forever - days
of sunshine to wander the land I loved, cold, dark nights gathered around the
fireside drinking beer, roasting apples and sharing stories, and a world so safe
and secure nothing could upset it. Even when Gandalf explained the golden snare
I held, and the shadowed fate of Middle-Earth suddenly came, dark and real, into
my cosy Hobbit-hole I still thought another would take the burden.
Now I've grown up.