Disclaimer: I don't own Middle-earth, the Shire, hobbits, Bilbo or any other familiar people or places. Fortunately however, there are a few characters in this story that belong to me!

"Ellie? Ellie! Ell-ie!" the hobbit shouted. "Where is that girl?" he mumbled.

"Coming!" the young hobbit girl scrambled down out of her tree-house. Her blond braids bounced behind her as her bare feet pattered on the worn path.

"Ellie, where were you? Your mother's been looking for you for ages!"

"Sorry, uncle…" Ellie Brandybuck mumbled.

"Well, run ahead, and help your ma with supper."

"Yes, uncle."

The hobbit muttered to himself as the girl ran ahead. "She's far too adventurous for a hobbit. And that blond hair, most unnatural. Ah, she's just young, and been listening to that cracked old Bilbo's stories far too much, shouldn't wonder."

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Seventeen year old Ellie Brandybuck belonged to one of the oldest families in the Shire. The Brandybucks of Buckland (oh, wasn't that imaginative! Took a whole lot of thinking to come up with that one, didn't it!) were well respected in the Four Farthings, even if they were considered a little bit cracked by some. Ellie was strange, even for a Brandybuck.

To start with her mother was a Took. Now the Tooks were the oldest, wealthiest, and most well respected family in the Shire. But quite a few young 'uns over the years, went off on some strange quest or other, and never came back. The family did shush the whole affair up as much as they could and did rather well considering the circumstances.

She also had blond hair, a rather uncommon trait in the shire. Ellie was a third cousin, twice removed on her mother's side, to Bilbo Baggins. The Bilbo Baggins. Reported to have traveled in the WILD, with DWARVES and a WIZARD, and to have actually KILLED a real, live, fire-breathing DRAGON. Of course, none of this was true, according to most of the adults. But if you listened to Bilbo himself, like Ellie did, it turned out that most of it was true. While the old hobbit didn't actually kill the dragon, he certainly had a hand in it. And Ellie believed every word.

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Ellie wanted to go on all those adventures that old Bilbo talked about. The first time she met him, she was at Bag End with her cousin Meriadac, whom everyone generally just called Merry. He was a good twelve or so years older than she was, but Ellie was a tomboy and Merry thought that she was great fun, even if it did mean that the rest of the boys called him silly and noodle-headed to always have your baby girl cousin tagging along. Merry's friend Frodo was a first cousin to Bilbo, but on the Baggins side, rather than the Took side. Frodo was tall for a hobbit, dark haired with laughing bright blue eyes. Ellie liked him from the first. Frodo was thirty-two, almost an adult. They had the same birthday, Frodo and Ellie. September 22. It was also Bilbo's birthday on that day too.

Bilbo was always eager to tell a story to any willing ear. Frodo, who since he lived with Bilbo, had heard all the stories a thousand times, was very willing to hear them again. Merry and his best friend, Pippin Took, had also heard them many times, but to Ellie they were completely new. She sat listening to Bilbo for hours, enthralled at his wondrus tales. She came back again and again. That was last winter.

Now this fall Bilbo was turning Eleventy-one. One hundred and eleven! A marvelous age! And he was having a party. A very big party!