Eight seconds is a blink of an eye for most people. But for some people eight seconds can stretch on for a life time. In that short of time a person's life can change. For a bull rider these eight seconds can mean triumph and victory, in other cases nothing but disappointment and pain. This is the story of a bull rider and a barrel rider, their triumph, their love, and their loss.

*Beep Beep*

Bilba Baggins groaned as she slapped her hand on the sleep button. She had just had the strangest dream about a mountain and a dragon. Glaring at her clock that was cheerily saying 6:30 in the morning, she wanted nothing more than to curl up and go back to sleep. But she could already hear the cattle bellowing and Myrtle neighing. She shivered as she rolled out of her cocoon of blankets and pulled on a pair of jeans and a long sleeve flannel shirt, before stumbling to the bathroom to throw some cold water in her face. She grimaced at the rat nest her hair was, but just sighed as she grabbed a brush and tried to tame the curls into semblance of order, but soon just gave up and threw it up in a ponytail.

Rubbing her eyes she made her way down the stairs, heading straight into the kitchen and pushing the button on her coffee maker before she grabbed a jacket and headed out the door just as the coffee started to brew. The morning was a little chilly as the sun was hiding from behind the clouds, but she took the time to stretch and take a few deep breaths of the morning air. Bending down she grabbed her pair of gum boots and slipped them on, before heading towards the barn. Bilba was careful as she walked so not to step on the cats that were milling around her feet, demanding to be feed. Opening the feed room, she carefully measured out a scoop of cat food and dumped it just outside the door. Her cats zoomed from under her feet and attacked the food, making it easier for Bilba to fill her two 5 gallon buckets with cattle feed and oats. She headed back outside and emptied the oats in a bowl in the padlock, smiling as Myrtle came up to greet her before turning to eat her oats.

Whistling she headed to the pasture, ignoring the running forms of the 8 feeder calves that came rushing at the sight of the bucket. She had long ago lost the fear of cattle and walked calmly through the bodies to dump the feed into two feeders. The calves crowded around, ignoring Bilba as she made her way back to the fence, frowning at the sight of the pasture. The calves had eaten most of the grass, and it would still be a few days before she could move them to the bottom 20. She would have to feed them a bale of hay to tide them over until she and Hamfast could finish putting up the hot wire down the bottom.

But that would have to wait until after she had her first cup of coffee. She entered the house, breathing deeply the scent of brewed coffee as she made her way to the sink. Washing her hands she grabbed a mug and poured a cup of coffee with just a dab of milk into the mug. Humming she opened the fridge and pulled out a few eggs, scrambled eyes with toast sounded good. She made to grab three when the phone on the wall started to ring. Sighing she closed the door of the fridge and picked up the phone, wondering who in their right mind would call this early in the morning.

"Hello"

"Bilba how nice it is for you to pick up the phone, the last few times I've called all I've gotten was the machine" came the snarky voice of Lobelia Sackville-Baggins. Bilba resisted the urge to cut the phone line to escape the following conversation.

"Why Lobelia, I'm sorry to have missed your calls," She was also sorry she didn't let the machine pick up this call. "I've been a tad busy helping Hamfast work the ground for planting." Bilba regretted the words as soon as they were out of her mouth.

"So you're having Hamfast work your ground again this year. Otho was just in the fields yesterday, if we had more ground to work he would be right back out there today."

Bilba knew were the conversation was heading, and wasn't going to go down that particular road today. "I'm sorry Lobelia, but some ones at the door, it's been nice talking to you good-bye" she said very quickly and as polite as she could before she hung up the phone before Lobelia could say another word.

Suddenly she didn't feel hungry anymore. Draining her cup of coffee, she stalked back outside, heading for the tractor. She had sold most of the larger equipment to Hamfast, but she still had a few pieces of machinery around the farm. She climbed on top of her 4020 John Deere and headed out to the pasture with a hay bale on the back loader. The calves began to follow her hungrily as she made her way into the pasture with the hay bale. Maneuvering around she managed to drop the hay bale into a hay ring. She barely had time to get out of the way before the calves began to tear into the bale.

She stayed on the tractor for the rest of the morning, grinding corn and moving hay bales for easy access for the coming weeks. She was parking the tractor back to it place when she was startled at the sound of a horn honking. She watched frowning from on top of the tractor as she watched a silver car pull up into her drive way, if it was Lobelia coming in person to subtlety making hints that she should kick the Gamgee's off the land and rent it to Otho, like she had done last time Bilba had hung up she was going to do something she wouldn't regret. It was slightly better than three years ago when a court decided to side with Bilba and let her keep the family farm instead of letting Lobelia take it from her, since her Mother hadn't left a will and her Fathers had named her Mother as beneficiary, neither had expected to die so young.

Her frowned deepened when she saw who got out of the car, a tall man in a grey suit with a long grey beard. "Gandalf" she muttered as she turned off the tractor and swung off of it. She almost wished it was Lobelia after all, she had learned at an early age that when Gandalf showed up unexpectedly something bad would follow. She forced her mouth into a pleasant smile as she walked up to him, taking off her work gloves.

"Good morning Gandalf"

Gandalf raised one bushy grey eyebrow. ""Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?"

"I mean that it was a good morning until you showed up Gandalf," she said a bit rudely, not in the mood to play his riddles. "What do you want?"

Gandalf just smiled, though the twinkle in his eye was gone. "I'm looking for someone to ride in a circuit."

Bilba froze, the sounds of a horse screaming, and a dog barking echoed in her ears. She turned to look at Gandalf, "No Gandalf" she said in a trembling voice. "Try my cousins, they would be happy to help." She tried to retreat, "I've got chores to do, but it was nice to see you again."

"Bilba you act like I'm some salesman selling insurance at the door, will you at least hear me out?" asked Gandalf as he walked after her.

Bilba slowly turned back to Gandalf, "I left that life long ago Gandalf and I'm not going back to it. If you ever want to talk about other things you're welcome to come to dinner, but I'm not going back to the rodeo, I'm not my Mother Gandalf. I will not go back to that life."

She missed the calculating look in Gandalf's eyes before he nodded. "Perhaps within the next few days I'll take you up on that offer. It would be nice to catch up on old times."

Bilba smiled and nodded, "Yes it would, so I should expect you later this week?"

"Indeed, now I must be off, I will see you soon my dear" said Gandalf as he headed back to his car. Glad to see Bilba heading inside after saying her farewells, Gandalf chuckled as he drove to the end of the lane. "Sooner then you realize." Stopping beside the sign at the edge of the drive that said Bag End, Gandalf set a sign next to it, chuckling he pulled off onto the highway he had a few phone calls to make.