Standing in front of Harlow Corynn, was a man cloaked in gray from head to toe.
"Erm, can I help you, sir?" She asked hesitantly. It was a risky question as she would feel inclined to help him if he asked for food or a blanket, since she had asked, after all.
The man hummed thoughtfully, only adding to Harlow's suspicions. Perhaps he was a merchant, and then she'd have to deal with his pestering to buy something when really, she had no money to spare.
"Yes. Yes, I do believe we can help each other." he gave her a soft smile, like he knew what she was thinking. "Could you tell me where the Corynn residence is?"
Harlow flinched as though she had been slapped.
That name rang of dragon fire and jewels under the misty mountains. The flashes of children's screams and her own mingled as she felt her eyes sting. "Who...Who wants to know?" Harlow's noble side wanted shake her silly for showing such weakness.
"I am Gandalf." He bowed his head slightly. "I am Gandalf the Grey, your ladyship."
"Shut up!" she hissed, looking around wildley, afriad someone might have heard him. When she was satisfied that no one was around, Harlow's chocolate brown eyes were as sharp as Elven swords. "How do you know who I am? How did you find me?"
"I am a wizard, Miss Corynn." Gandalf replied. "I know many things."
"I don't go by that name anymore." Harlow's voice softened as her mind wandered to her long dead family. "It's Agatha Willowbloom, now. I'm a Hobbit from Bree. A completely normal, quiet Hobbit that has done nothing extraordinary in her life ever."
"But you long for it, do you not?" The wizard persisted. "You long for adventure."
"Adventure won't pay the bills, Mr. Gandalf!" Agatha hissed, suppressing Harlow's desperate cry of 'Yes!' for adventure. "I have to think about my family! My brother needs more clothes, since he's always out climbing trees and my cousin can barely support us on his own."
Gandalf's eyes sparkled. "What if I...helped you?"
"What?"
"I have a job. One that both you and your cousin could take and in pays well. Enough to pay of your debt tenfold." the old wizard offered.
Agatha hesitated. That much money? There had to be a catch, a price that was more expensive than all the world's gold. Nevertheless, her curiosity defied her voice of reason. "...What job?"
"I need two bodyguards for a friend of mine that will be leaving Hobbiton for a while." Gandalf shifted uncomfortably. This was the catch. "He'll be going on a quest. I will give you the details later, if you decide to come."
There was the first alarm bell.
But still, the offer was tempting. "I'll talk to him about it." Agatha settled as a reply. No matter what it was, she and her cousins made decisions together. They had pulled each other out of the fiery inferno that day and they had risen her brother together.
But long before that, they had fought and hunted together, teased each other, laughed with each other, cried with each other.
Agatha and Harlow both would not make official decisions like this without talking to their cousin, William, first.
The wizard nodded, satisfied and turned around on his merry way. "If you shall decide to come, meet us at Bilbo Baggins' house tomorrow night!"
"Will!" Agatha whispered sharply to her older cousin, who was transfixed on a pretty Hobbit lady with curly red hair. Will could never get a girlfriend if his life depended on it. "William!" still nothing. Sighing, Agatha leaned over to whisper in his ear. "Aeron."
As expected, William whipped around, his eyes full of shock and horror. "Agatha, what are you-"
"Shut up and come with me."
Agatha had to count to ten to try and push Harlow back down. Harlow was a sarcastic, free-spirited, half-Hobbit, half-Dwarf. Agatha was a quiet, shy Hobbit from Bree that was plain.
They were two different sides of a coin. They had to be kept seperate.
Agatha led Will from out of the bustling birthday party of Lobelia Sacks-full-whatever.
Whoa. Down, Harlow. Down. Agatha reminded herself as she pulled her cousin behind a cart.
"Harlow, what were you thinking!" Will, or really at the moment, Aeron hissed in her ear. "What if someone heard us?"
"It was the only way to get you to stop drooling over that poor girl and listen to me." she shot back. Then, she glanced around again. "Someone offered us a job today. A wizard."
"A wizard?" Will repeated, face scruntched up in confusion.
Agatha nodded. "Apperantly it's some sort of bodyguard job."
"Bodyguards? Why in the world would a wizard want bodyguards?" her cousin asked, suspcious.
"Not him." Agatha shook her head. "A friend of his. Bilbo Baggins."
"The Hobbit that likes to sit in his garden and smoke a pipe? The one that hired me and Jr. for work last summer?" William confirmed. "Why in the world would he leave Hobbiton?"
"Said it was some sort of quest or whatever, but that's not the point." Agatha whispered. "The point is that he knew my name. My real one."
Will's head snapped up. "Then he really is a wizard..."
Agatha nodded.
"What else did he say?"
Agatha looked down at her hands, repeating the wizard's words in her head. Sure, the man might've been legit, but was he telling the truth? "He...He said that...that the money from the quest would be enough to pay off our debt...tenfold."
The look in Will's face was enough. He didn't believe that she was telling the truth.
But his eyes began to wander, back to the party where the little children were. Among them, was Gildon Jr., Agatha's brother.
When Will turned back to Agatha, they both knew.
They were going on a very unexpected journey.