(So, I wanted to write this for it's adorable potential, but I didn't want to make my own world out of laziness. So I kinda borrowed LotR. I tried not to butcher it, and only said things I really thought were true for the universe. It's just a light setting, and I love the shire so :P.)
(BTW, I dont own the Lord of the Rings serise, duh)
A Lady Like No Other
Young hobbits growing up listened intently to the tales of the elderly, stories of grandeur and excitement (Like that of the tale of Bilbo Baggins, Barrel Rider, or Frodo Baggins, Ring Bearer). But to one young hobbit named Mathiew Diggle these stories held every wonder in the world. Great heroes of old who gave all themselves for others and armies ready to die for the right. Many of the young hobbits would play pretend, being heroes in their own rights in realms far off and mysterious. But they didn't like him, they never let him play with them. 'oh do not hang around that one.' their parents would tell them, 'that one is a right odd hobbit he is.' or 'got a bit of Took or Baggins in him he must.' This hurt him, to have no one to share his adventure with; but he decided that he didn't need them, he could have adventures all by himself.
In early summer, frost still clinging to the night air, he woke early and ran out into the forests in search for fairies and pixies and trolls. He usually went into the east woods to play, because the other kids would make him leave the open field where they played, but that day he chose to explore the western forest. He picked up his walking stick , gaining a splinter in the process, and ran through the trees, over logs and beyond a river to a rocky outcropping which he climbed.
"I am the Diggle, great warrior of Hobbiton and protector of the western woods!" he proclaimed as he raised his little wooden stave in the air like a sword then he jumped down onto a mossy stone below.
Pointing to a large toad on the ground he yelled, "Surrender ye beasty, or I will fell thou with but one swing!" to which he got a board croak in response. "Fine then, monster of the darkest wood, you've sealed you're own fate!" He moved to jump down to the ground and strike next to the toad but the moment his little, furry and bare hobbit feet touched the ground he heard it creak below him and the moss covered board broke beneath him. He dropped his stick as he fell, smacking into walls and outcroppings he fell for far longer than he though was possible; finally landing with a surprising splash into a bone chilling underground pond. At first he panicked, he had little experience with swimming, but he quickly surfaced gasping for air and looking about himself. High, high above him he saw a spot of light and to his left he saw a tunnel leading away. Grabbing his floating stick he floundered to the shore and pulled himself up.
Breathing heavily and ringing out his icy wet clothing he sighed as he looked up at where he fell and said, "No getting up back that way." But he got a quick smile then a strong look in his eye; this was his adventure, his chance to make his own great tales. Getting up and brushing off the dirt on his cloths he began walking down the dim, dank hallway. He realized it was a stone hallway after a moments inspection, as the walls were squared and the floor relatively smooth and he was very glad to find it had no offshoot tunnels, only a slight decline downward. This caused him to frown, for he wanted to go up, not down, but as he had no other way to go but back he kept going forward. It got darker and darker as he went farther in, until he was walking in complete darkness and using his stick as a cane and shivering up a storm. But as the ground levelled out a light glow appeared in the distance and the now scared but excited boy began running towards the light, thinking it to be the surface.
He ran out of the cold tunnel and just stopped short of a huge mound of gold, "that's larger than my house." he mumbled as he buttoned his jacket, "That's larger than the biggest building in the Shire!" The room he stood in was enormous, the ceiling was almost out of his sight but for a scattered few beams of light that illuminated the space. It seemed to once be a hall, with delicate pillars beautiful in construction with vine and leaf patterns adorning them.
But the magnificence of the room didn't hold his attention for long for soon the boys eyes shifted towards the mounds of treasure. Swords, axes, bows and other weapons along with gold uncountable and more gems than could ever be appraised created the great mound before him. Mathiew slowly walked onto the warm pile examining the various weapons, much to big for hobbit hands not to mention child hobbit hands but as he walked over the jingling coin mounds he spotted something that made him excited. A sword (more of a very small knife really) laid upon the pile, it was just his size. He carefully picked his way across the pile until he stood before it and he scooped it up. It had various decorative markings on it and though it was very small for a human it weighed heavily in his little hobbit hands. A thought suddenly popped into his head and he looked around in fear; in the stories a dragon would guard such treasure with a great viciousness. But as he regarded the cavern he saw nothing.
'Perhaps the beast is dead?' he thought to himself as he picked his way down the mound, pocketing a few coins as he did. Looking about the cavernous hall he spotted a stair that led upwards and began to walk towards it, pockets jingling with the warm coins in his pocket.
'Warm coins...' he thought absently, 'Warm-'then it all clicked in his child mind a moment too late.
There was a rustling of coins behind him and a female voice boomed around him, freezing him with fear, "And where do you think you're going, little thief? When you've taken so much of my plunder." He couldn't move, he couldn't think he felt paralysed until the dragon spoke again, "Oh, little thief, turn this way and tell me you're name, wont you?"
Shaking with fear he slowly turned about and looked at the monster in front of him. Redder than the setting sun she was massive; her leathery wings stretched up off her back and rose up intimidatingly; her posture was relaxed, though one of her claws materialized out of a nearby mound to block his exit; but what entranced him were her eyes. They burned with an intensity so strong he could not speak to answer her.
"I'll only ask a second time, youngling, what is you're name?" she boomed again, a tinge of anger present in her rumbling tones.
Taking a moment to find his voice he mumbled, "Mathiew." then cleared his throat and said louder, "Mathiew."
"Mathiew." she repeated as she shifted, her nearing claw forcing the boy hobbit closer, "What a ... mortal little name. Tell me, do you know who I am?" The young hobbit shook his head. "Ah well, it has been ages since my days in the sky, and mortals quickly forget the eternal." came a slightly disappointed sigh but then she focused on him completely, "I am Pshirrta, Queen of Quiet Hills; dragonnette of higher sky's; flame of the highest clouds!" she claimed with extra enthusiasm. The poor little Diggle had to cover his ears at the tremendous noise.
Lowering her serpentine face before his tiny form (So small was he, he could have disappeared into her own nose should he have chosen to do so!) she growled, "But enough of introductions, little thief. You've tried to take something of mine, and I don't appreciate rogues at any time; but particularly not when they've taken what's mine."
Mathiew was now trembling as her more than singeing breath washed over him; he was going to die. He looked at his feet, not willing to see his own demise. But it didn't not come. Her fiery breath did not come to crisp him, her claws didn't move and he was pretty sure she hadn't swallowed him whole. He risked a glance up to find her giant draconian face smirking at his tiny, helpless form. This angered him; he did not want to be toyed with, if it was to end he wanted it ended; like the heroes in the stories.
Suddenly she spoke, not as loud as before but as he was so close to her mouth the heat was almost unbearable, "But, little one I'm willing to offer you a chance, a slim one it may be, but a chance at life. We'll play a game, oh it's one of my favourites." she paused then continued as she lifted her head far above him, "I'm going to ask you a riddle, and you're going to answer. If you answer it correctly then you may ask me a riddle. If you win then I'll allow you to leave, without my treasure mind you, but if you answer wrongly then ... well I assume you can imagine what will happen."
The young hobbit, regaining his ability to breath smoothly nodded and stuttered, "A-ask away."
Grinning widely and taking a deep, deep breath she said, "Ahh, good! How about to start off an easy one, for a thief so little ...,
Round like an apple, deep like a cup,
yet all the kings horses cant pull it up"
This puzzled the little hobbit for only a moment but then he thought of his chores, seeding the farm, miliking their cow and fetching water for his mother from the well. "It's a well!" he said happily, proudly; which made the dragon grin wider and coil tighter around his fidgeting form.
"Very good!" Pshirrta mocked, "Your turn now, make it a good one."
He looked around the chamber, trying to scrounge for a riddle, any riddle to ask and made an 'ah!' face when he thought of one;
Looking up into her huge eyes he asked,
"Give me food, and I will live; give me water,
and I will die. What am I?"
She laughed, the sound echoing around them and reverberating throughout the chamber so loudly it threatened to shake Mathiew's bones from his skin. Recomposing herself the dragon looked down at her prisoner and bellowed, "Why little one, while I'm flattered you chose to tell a riddle about me though I highly doubt it's in your favour to do so!"
Confused the child hobbit shouted, "But it isn't about you! You guessed wrongly! I'm free to go!" then he emptied his pockets of the dragon's coins (but not her knife) and preceded to walk around her claw and over her tail to the exit.
He didn't get far before her claw was forcing him back to where he had stood before, "Oh but little one, the answer is fire! And am I not fire? Shall I be forced to demonstrate?" she asked playfully as she brought her face close to him and her breath got even hotter, accompanied by a glow in her throat.
"No, no that wont be required!" he shouted holding up his hands defensively, "Ask me another riddle!"
The glow disappearing and the heat dissipating a touch she enquired,
"At night they come without being fetched, and by day they
are lost without being stolen. What are they?"
This he had to think about for a moment, and he sat down on the pile of gold to do so. He looked about the room to help him think of the answer. 'Darkness?' he thought but then dismissed it, the darkness was not a 'they'. Looking up through one of the holes in the almost infinitely high up ceiling it came to him through one of the holes that let in light.
"The stars!" he shouted (He could hardly believe it was night already, but the stars he saw confirmed it.), to which she frowned.
"Yes." she hissed, "I haven't flown with them in so long. Come now, ask another!"
He sighed and thought as he played with his walking stick, shifting it around in his hands but a little stab of pain caught his attention. The splinter from earlier! He smiled and looked up at the dragon then said,
"I went into the woods and got it. I sat down to seek it. I brought it
home with me because I couldn't find it. What is it?"
This had the dragon puzzled for quite some time (Mathiew thought this riddle quite clever on his part, as he doubted the dragon had ever had or felt a pain such as a splinter before!), and eventually he gained the courage to ask, "Well, do you have an answer to my riddle?"
"Hold on a moment, young thief, what's your hurry?" she hissed with irritation , making it obvious to him she was stuck, to which he mumbled, "My mother is sure to be missing me..." But still he waited for another twenty minuets (Twenty very hungry minuets for he'd only eaten this morning!) before she growled, "Fine! You've won! You have your freedom on one condition!"
"But I win I go free! That was the deal!" Mathiew frowned, crossing his arms.
The dragon's tail swooped about angrily around his right side before flicking off another way, "I want to know the answer to the riddle!" she bellowed, ignoring his complaints.
"A splinter." He stated, then began inching past her claw. This answer stunned her and left a shocked and dumbfounded look on her serpentine visage. Then she groaned and moved her claw from his path, to which he smiled.
He began at a run towards the stair but her tail quickly returned to block his path as she stated coldly, "You may have won your freedom, but that doesn't mean you may pick trinkets from my treasure." Getting a sheepish grin he pulled the blade out from inside his coat and placed it on the ground.
Her tail moved from his path and again he made a break for the stairs, her voice echoing after him, "Do come again, little thief Mathiew. I have enjoyed your company and would relish a rematch!"
He made it home well after the time his family would have supped and had dinner. His mother, Mrs. Diggle, was waiting outside with his father pacing the yard with fear stricken on her face, but when she saw him she immediately looked enraged, "Wha' ave you been up tu, ya little trouble maker? Eh? You've scared me enought ta nevher let ya go out again! An' look at yer cloths! Dirty and wet all the way through they are!"
Frowning in embarrassment (Though secretly just happy to be home at all!) the young hobbit told her, "I'm sorry mama, I lost track of time and decided to have a little nap in the woods. I shouldn't done it, I know, and I wont be doin' it again." Seeming happy with that reply her angry face softened, though his father looked ready to give him a right beating! But his father, Mr. Diggle said nothing and let his mother take him into the hole and get cleaned up.