First attempt ever at writing a fanfiction about the Lord of the Rings! So, first of all, just so that we're clear, I'm following the movie script, not the novel. Also, I am trying to not make my OC too Mary-Sueish, because there're a lot of Mary-Sue type fanfiction for Lord of the Rings... Anyway, I hope this first chapter is a nice intro to what I plan to do in the future! If it's positively received, I'll continue writing, for sure. :D

Chapter 1: The Shire and its Inhabitants

A bulky hand dipped the tip of a quill into the bottle of ink. In a handwriting more delicate than such a hand might suggest, words started being formed on the first page of an empty book.

The 22nd day of September in the year 1400 by Shire reckoning. Bag End, Bagshot Row, Hobbiton, West Farthing, The Shire, Middle Earth. The Third Age of this world. There and back again, A Hobbits tale, by Bilbo Baggins.

The introduction and the title decided, Bilbo Baggins, the author of the book, brought the feathery side of his quill to his chin, pensively.

"Now, where to begin?" Bilbo mumbled to himself. "Ah, yes! Concerning Hobbits."

Bilbo dipped his quill once more into the ink and resumed writing.

Hobbits have been living and farming in the four Farthings of the Shire for many hundreds of years quite content to ignore and be ignored by the world of the Big Folk. Middle Earth being, after all, full of strange creatures beyond count. Hobbits must seem of little importance, being neither renowned as great warriors, nor counted amongst the very wise.

A knock on the door broke Bilbo's concentration.

"Frodo, the door!"

There was no response to Bilbo's call.

"Frodo? Frodo! Where is that boy?"

Little did Bilbo know, Frodo was out in the grassy fields, spending time with his best friend, Holly. Holly was part of the Fallohides, just like Frodo. The Fallohides were a breed of Hobbits, the least numerous ones. They were generally taller than other Hobbits, even though Holly was still shorter than most male Hobbits. She had mid-length brown wavy hair, characteristic of her species. Frodo also had wavy dark brown hair, which was a bit shorter than Holly's however. His eyes were a mesmerizing light blue, distinguishing him from other Hobbits. Holly's eyes, however, were the very common brown colour. Finally, just like every other Hobbit, both of them had furry feet with leathery soles and slightly pointed ears.

Frodo was reading a book with his back leaning on a tree while Holly was gathering Southern Star flowers, one of the three most notable varieties of pipe-weed. She was using a kitchen knife, like always, to pick her flowers. Frodo had asked her before the reason why she did that, instead of just plucking them or using a small dagger like everyone else. She had replied that she felt more comfortable holding a kitchen knife, since it was the tool she used the most, considering she was the cook of her household.

"Don't you think Southern Star flowers are so beautiful before they're dried up to be smoked?"

Holly was looking at the small white flower, slowly turning it around with her fingers.

"Indeed…" Frodo lazily replied.

Holly glanced over at Frodo and found him engrossed in his novel.

"Are you even listening?"

"Mhm…"

Frodo didn't even look up from his book. Holly sighed. He had always been like that ever since they were children. They had been friends for as long as they could remember. Their parents were very close, which, in turn, made Holly and Frodo very close. Her parents were still alive and well, but not Frodo's, however. Bilbo was the one that took him in when this tragedy occurred.

"Hmm… Hmm hmm…"

Far in the distance, a voice was humming.

"Did you hear that?"

Holly got up, recognizing the slightly raspy male voice. Frodo finally got his eyes off his book and started following Holly who was heading towards the sound. The humming was getting louder as they got closer.

"It's Gandalf!" Holly exclaimed in excitement.

Looking down on the road, Holly and Frodo spotted Gandalf's wagon. Gandalf was an old wizard, widely known as Gandalf the Grey. Noticing them Gandalf brought his horses to a stop.

"Well if it isn't Frodo Baggins and Holly Hornblower, inseparable as always."

"How have you been, Gandalf? It's been ages!" Holly said in a jolly tone.

"At least you aren't going to miss Bilbo's birthday," Frodo tried to sound snarky, but his joy betrayed his words.

After the happy reunion, Holly and Frodo rode along with Gandalf in his wagon and headed towards Bilbo's place. Holly got off a bit earlier to head back home. She bid farewell to Frodo and Gandalf for the time being and headed to her family's house. As soon as she opened the round door, the characteristic smell of pipe-weed wafted through and invaded her nostrils. She was used to it, however, since her family was the main producer of the smoked goods. This was due to the fact that it was a member of their family, Tobold Hornblower, who first introduced pipe-weed into the Shire.

"Holly!" A female voice called out from deep within the house, "did you gather the Southern Stars?"

"Yes ma'!" Holly shouted back.

She went in with her basket full of the flowers and set them beside the other baskets that were either full of Old Toby or Longbottom leaves.

"Come on," her mother, Fanny Hornblower, came over and took one of the baskets, "we've got to finish up here fast before attending old Bilbo's birthday."

Holly gave her mother a nonchalant nod and proceeded in her daily tasks in the production of pipe-weed.

The sun was starting to set when Holly's father, Randall Hornblower, arrived home. After greeting his wife and his five children, the family got ready and headed for Bilbo's farewell party and birthday.

"I can't believe he's turning 111 years," Fanny said her husband while they were on their way.

"Yes, indeed," Randall managed to reply between puffs of his pipe, "and he's as energetic as ever; hasn't aged a bit for the past sixty years or so."

It did strike a lot of inhabitants of the Shire as strange. The average expectancy of a Hobbit's life is about a hundred years. To have surpassed that was not too uncommon, but to have not looked the part was out of the ordinary. Holly was happy, though, that he lived for so long. He was the only family Frodo had left, after all.

Randall helped out with the party's preparation, while Holly and her mother set the barrels of ready to smoke pipe-weed on one of the tables. All the guests who were already there, cheered at the arrival of the pipe-weed.

"Yes, yes, we went all out for this one," Fanny happily exclaimed, "there's goin' to be enough for all of ya."

Leaving her mother after having set all of the barrels down, Holly went around to look for Frodo. The sun had completely set now and she found him socializing and joking around with other male Hobbits that were about their age. She caught up to them and they all greeted her with welcoming smiles.

"Gandalf's getting ready!" One of the Hobbits said as they pointed at Gandalf.

Frodo, Holly, and everyone else looked at Gandalf lighting one of his fireworks. It launched in the sky, accompanied by the exclamations of everyone in the crowd. The firework exploded in the air, spreading like a flower in full bloom. It did not stop there, however. The separate rays of the firework spread even further and came down like luminous rain. Laughter, gasps of awe, and clapping were filling the area. Music started playing and Holly started dancing along with Frodo. While dancing, Frodo noticed Samwise Gamgee, his gardener, sitting at a table and looking at Rose Cotton. Frodo knew that Sam was quite interested in Rosie. Wanting to help him out, Frodo pushed Sam off the table, telling him to go dance with his longtime crush.

Then, it happened. One of the tents was propelled in the sky. It exploded, just like other fireworks, into a blazing dragon. More cheers from the crowd were lifted, until those cheers transformed into screams of terror when the dragon came flying down at them.

"Duck!" Frodo screamed as he pulled Holly to the ground with him.

Everyone else ducked until the Dragon passed through, going back up to the sky and exploding into numerous beautiful orange blossoms. Excited acclamations, now stronger than ever before, echoed from the crowd. Gandalf, knowing that someone must've taken one of his fireworks, set out to search for the criminal, or criminals. As he had suspected, Meriadoc Brandybuck and Peregrin Took, his first cousin. They were known to be the biggest troublemakers of the Shire.

At last, after all the festivities, Bilbo was asked to give his farewell speech. He went up on a podium, standing in front of all the guests. Everyone's attention was now focused on the party's host. The music stopped and the fireworks were put on hold.

"My dear Bagginses and Boffins," Frodo and the addressed families cheered, "Tooks and Brandybucks," Bilbo paused once more to let the ones concerned finish their cheering, "Grubbs," another cheer, "Chubbs," once more, "Hornblowers," Holly and her family were among those who cried out the loudest, "Bulgers, Bracegirdles, and Proudfoots."

"Proudfeet!" One of the heads of the family corrected Bilbo, generating loud laughter from the crowd.

Bilbo chuckled and kept going.

"Today is my 111th birthday!"

"Happy Birthday!" A few Hobbits lifted their beers in Bilbo's honour.

"Alas," Bilbo resumed, "eleventy-one years is far too short a time to live among such excellent and admirable hobbits. I don't know half of you half as well as I should like and I like less than half of you, half as well as you deserve."

There was a silence. Nobody really understood what Bilbo meant.

"I, er…" He sneakily reached for his pocket, "I have things to do…" when he reached into his pocket, Frodo and Gandalf looked at him curiously.

Holly looked at Frodo, also not really understanding why Bilbo's acting like that all of a sudden. Frodo just kept looking at his uncle.

"I've put this off for far too long," Bilbo adopted a serious tone as he hid his hands behind his back. "I regret to announce that this is the end. I'm going now. I bid you all farewell," he smiled at Frodo. "Goodbye."

The most curious thing then happened right before everyone's eyes. Bilbo disappeared. He completely vanished, leaving everyone in an extremely confused state.

"What?!" Holly screamed.

"How did that happen?" Frodo's voice was no more than a whisper.

"W-Where did he go? He just vanished!" Holly spun around in all directions, completely and utterly bewildered by this sudden turn of events.

Frodo's eyes worriedly and rapidly moved from one place to the other, trying to find Bilbo. Holly and Frodo both got up. After searching for while, they came to the conclusion that he really was nowhere to be found.

"Maybe he's back at his place," Holly suggested to a concerned Frodo.

"Yeah," Frodo nodded a few times. "Yeah, he's probably there. No, he's definitely there."

Frodo took off in a sprint towards Bagend, the place he lived in with Bilbo. Holly did her best to catch up with him. By the time she arrived at Bagend, she found Frodo standing in the doorway.

"He's gone, hasn't he" Frodo's voice was tinged with sadness.

Holly went up to Frodo and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"He talked for so long about leaving," Frodo walked further into the house, "I didn't think he'd really do it. Gandalf?"

That was when Holly noticed that Gandalf was inside. She quickly followed Frodo closely. Gandalf, seemingly only noticing their presence now, turned around.

"Hmm," Gandalf smiled at them.

His gaze then turned towards something that Frodo was holding.

"Bilbo's ring."

Holly looked as well. It was a ring. There was something strange about the ring. Holly couldn't take her eyes off of it. It captivated her. Gandalf noticed how her eyes lit with the dangerous flame that he'd also seen in Bilbo's eyes.

"Holly!" His commanding voice snapped her out of her trance.

She blinked a few times and looked away. Gandalf then opened an envelope to Frodo and motioned for him to deposit the ring inside.

"He's gone to stay with the elves," Gandalf said to Frodo as he sealed the envelope containing the ring, "he's left you Bagend along with all his possessions."

Gandalf then handed the sealed envelope to Frodo.

"The ring is yours now," Frodo carefully took the envelope from the wizard, "put it out of sight. Keep it secret, keep it safe."

Gandalf then got up and looked at Holly.

"You mustn't touch it, Holly."

Gandalf's authoritative voice forced Holly to nod.

"Where are you going?" Frodo asked.

"I have some things to attend to," Gandalf said as he headed through the door.

"What things?"

"Questions," he turned to face Frodo and Holly one last time. "Questions that need answering."

That was the last thing Gandalf said before he left the two of them, confused and lost. After trying to sort of their thoughts, Holly went home while Frodo headed for the bar, to try and get his mind off of things.

So how was it? Tell me what you thought in the reviews and whether or not I should continue writing!