Chapter 1

Elizabeth Gunner skipped happily along a stepping-stone pathway, her black curls bouncing along with her. Little did the 7-year old know that a thunderstorm or as she called it, a "Boom" storm was coming.

Nevertheless, when the first clap of thunder echoed across the woods, Elizabeth became frightened and she ran not towards safety but away from it. She hid in the open trunk of her favorite tree and started crying.

A large bolt of lightening struck the tree and Elizabeth covered her ears, afraid.

When Elizabeth opened her eyes, the scary clouds were gone and the sun was out. She took a step out and looked around. There was a funny looking house a few steps away and she ran across a dirt path and listened to an elderly voice that spoke to himself.

"The 22nd day of September, in the year 1400, by Shire-reckoning. Bag End, Bag Shot Row, Hobbiton, Westfarthing, the Shire, Middle Earth," the voice took a breath and then continued. "The Third Age of this world. There and Back Again…A Hobbit's Tale, by Bilbo Baggins. Now…where to begin?"

The man, apparently named Bilbo Baggins took a deeper breath.

"Ah, yes, 'concerning Hobbits'

Hobbits have been living and farming in the four Farthings of the Shire for many hundreds of years…"

Elizabeth became quite bored by listening to this man drone on about whatever hobbits were. She walked around the bend of the circle-shaped house until she found the door. She studied it, for no apparent reason. A lot of 7-year olds did odd things like that.

Elizabeth sat, watching the round, green door for some time, until she heard a wagon approaching. She hid quickly in the grass next to the door, trying to be as quiet as possible.

An old man, a wizard-like fellow in grey walked up to the door and rapped on it with his long walking stick. He was much taller than the door, which looked like it had been made for a child.

The voice that Elizabeth had heard earlier came from inside.

"No, thank you! We don't want anymore visitors, well-wishers or distant relations."

The old man in gray answered with a very cheerful voice.

"And what about very old friends?" he asked.

When the man inside heard that he immediately opened the door. He too, was much shorter than the man in gray, but nevertheless, he ran to embrace him.

Needless to say, the man in gray had to kneel to meet the embrace of the smaller man.

At this moment, Elizabeth's nose chose to be tickled by the grass. She sneezed her little girl sneeze and quickly covered her mouth.

Both men suddenly stared at the grass.

"I didn't know my grass could sneeze." The shorter man remarked, very interested in the grass.

"It cannot, my dear friend, I believe someone small is eavesdropping." The man in grey said. He pushed aside the grass to reveal Elizabeth.

"Why it's just a child!" Bilbo exclaimed.

"A human child at that," the man in gray reminded Bilbo. "How the Valar did she arrive here?"

Elizabeth stood up and touched the man in gray's walking stick.

"Why do you need a stick?" she asked, out of the blue.

"It's my walking stick," the man in gray answered, realizing that Elizabeth was unaware of where she was. "What do they call you?"

"Mommy says I'm not s'posed to talk to stwangers." Elizabeth said, mispronouncing her R's.

"I think she would tell you that it's all right to talk to me." The man in gray said.

"Tell me your name first." Elizabeth answered.

"My name's Gandalf." Gandalf answered kindly.

"I'm Ewizabeth, and I'm 7 years old," Elizabeth answered.

Gandalf kneeled in front of Elizabeth and whispered in her ear.

"Oops, I'm Elizabeth." She repeated. She looked at Bilbo. "You're Bilbo. I heard you talking through your window."

Bilbo smiled. "Pleasure to meet you, Miss Elizabeth. Why don't the both of you come inside?"

"Okay," Elizabeth said, grabbing Gandalf's hand as they walked through the doors.

Bilbo set out some 1296 wine for himself and tea for Gandalf. He set out some water for Elizabeth and to eat he brought out a sponge cake.

Elizabeth sat in a chair that fit her perfectly, not to big, not to small. In fact, Bilbo wasn't much taller than Elizabeth and that was saying something considering that he was much older than she was.

Elizabeth looked at the wine in Bilbo's glass. "What's that?"

Bilbo looked up from his conversation with Gandalf.

"What? Oh, this? This is 1296 wine, laid down by my father." He said proudly.

"Can I try some?" Elizabeth asked.

"Oh, I really don't think you'd like it, Miss Elizabeth." Bilbo said.

"Please?" Elizabeth begged, using her puppy eyes.

"Well, alright then," Bilbo said, falling prey to Elizabeth's puppy eyes. He handed her his glass and watched her interestedly along with Gandalf.

She took one sip, gave a sour face, but swallowed.

"It tastes funny." She said.

Gandalf and Bilbo just smiled knowingly and continued on with their conversation. Elizabeth just sat there munching on sponge cake, drinking water and vaguely listening to Gandalf's conversation with Bilbo

Elizabeth's ears perked up when she heard Bilbo say the word 'party'.

"There's gonna be a party?" she asked excitedly. "Can I come?"

"Of course, you can, child, of course!" Bilbo exclaimed.

"Is Barney gonna be there?" Elizabeth asked.

"Barney?" Bilbo asked, confused.

"He's my friend. He's a purple dinosaur with a green tummy."

"I don't think Bilbo invited any dinosaurs tonight, my dear." Gandalf said gently, stopping Bilbo from asking any more questions.

"Will you be there, Gandalf?" Elizabeth asked.

"Yes, and I'll be shooting fireworks." Gandalf answered, in order to raise the child's attention.

"Fireworks? You mean those big pretty explosions that mommy took me to on my birthday?" Elizabeth asked, excited.

"Yes, those fireworks." Gandalf answered.

"Yay! I can't wait! I'm gonna see fireworks and when I go home, you can tell mommy how many I saw and she'll be so happy!"

Gandalf smiled simply, not knowing whether the child would be going home or not.

"When is your birthday?" Bilbo asked, changing the subject.

"My birthday is October 24, seven days away from Halloween and I'll be 8!"

"I won't ask what Halloween is, but I will tell you that whenever your birthday comes, if I'm around, I shall congratulate you." Gandalf said.

"Now," Bilbo said, "About my party, I'm thinking that maybe you shouldn't use that big Dragon firecracker…"

A Firecracker exploded, raining a shower of little glittery sparkles around everybody. There were drinks all around, along with a gigantic fruitcake and there was music. Hobbits danced and played instruments while Elizabeth watched Gandalf's firecrackers along with everyone else.

As Gandalf shot off a firecracker that turned into glittering butterflies, Elizabeth smiled and clapped her hands with glee. But unlike the hobbit children, she did not run after them.

Gandalf went to get more firecrackers and Elizabeth's eyes followed him. As he left, she noticed that two hobbits were jumping into his cart and stole a large Dragon firecracker. She frowned and jumped from her seat to set them straight.

Elizabeth entered the same tent that the two hobbits had, just as they lit the firecracker.

"Done," the first one said.

"You're s'posed to stick it in the ground!" said the second.

"It is in the ground!" Replied the first.

"Outside!" answered the second.

"This was your idea!" exclaimed the first.

Elizabeth saw that the firecracker was about to go off, but she stayed where she was, wondering what was to happen.

The firecracker shot off and both Elizabeth and the two hobbits screamed. The hobbits had been knocked off their feet when the cracker had gone off and they ignored the tent that had landed over the very frightened Elizabeth.

Their faces were dirty and black, but they stared up at the sky, where the firecracker exploded into a dragon.

Elizabeth, who stayed huddle under the tent tarp, covered her ears, crying.

The dragon came back towards the crowd of hobbits. All of them dropped to their knees and covered their heads only to look back up to a sky filled with beautiful firecracker explosions.

The two hobbits were standing by now, and were very pleased with them.

"That was good." Said the second one.

"Let's get another," agreed the first.

But they didn't notice Gandalf behind them until he'd grabbed one of their ears with each hand.

"Meriadoc Brandybuck and Peregrin Took. I might've known." Gandalf said. "A little human girl followed you into that tent; most likely to set you two straight. Where is she?"

"What are you talking about?" Meriadoc asked.

Gandalf shook his head in a frustrated way. "Go over there and wash those dishes. When I come back, if you're not there—"

"Don't worry, we'll be there." Peregrin said quickly and ushered his friend towards the dishes.

Gandalf frowned at the troublemakers as he watched them go, but he turned his head to the tent tarp, where a small lump was quivering.

Gandalf lifted the tarp and threw it aside. He turned to the quivering, dirty and frightened form of Elizabeth.

"Elizabeth?" he asked gently.

She looked up into Gandalf's kind eyes and for the first time, Gandalf saw tears in the little girl's eyes.

"Mommy never said the fireworks were scary. She just said they were pretty." Elizabeth sobbed.

Gandalf held out his arms to hug Elizabeth. She ran into his embrace and cried. "It's all right, my dear, fireworks don't hurt you, they're just loud."

"Speech!" many of the hobbits called out.

Gandalf glanced at Bilbo.

"Why don't we go watch Bilbo?" he asked gently.

Elizabeth nodded, rubbing her eyes.

Gandalf picked the little girl up in his arms and carried her to his seat. Together, he and Elizabeth watched a drunken Bilbo give his speech.

By the time Bilbo had said that that day was his one hundred and eleventh birthday, Gandalf could tell that Elizabeth had fallen asleep in his arms.

Gandalf laid the child on his gray cloak, on a chair and listened in one Bilbo's conversation.

"I ha-have things to do," Bilbo said as he reached into his pocket. Whatever he'd retrieved, he held behind his pocket.

"I've put this off for far too long," Bilbo continued. "I regret to announce that this is the end. I'm going now. I bid you all a very fond fair well. Goodbye."

And with that, Bilbo disappeared. Immediately, Gandalf left and went to Bilbo's house, sensing that he would need to return there.

After the party guests had cleared out and the clean up crew were the only ones left beside Frodo, they begun the clean up.

Frodo smiled at Merry and Pippin who'd just finished their dish duty.

"Hey," Merry warned. "Don't get me started. It was just a bit of fun and Gandalf had to go and ruin it."

"Ya, ruin it." Pippin echoed.

"You shouldn't have taken the Dragon firecracker." Frodo scolded. "That's the biggest one Gandalf had and he was saving it for some elf's birth year party."

"Who cares? It was fun."

"Ya, it was fun." Pippin echoed again.

"Pippin?"

"Yes, Merry?"

"Shut up."

Frodo just shook his head and looked around. His eyes stopped on the sleeping child that Gandalf and Bilbo had found the day that Gandalf had arrived.

He smiled at the sleeping girl and picked her up in his arms, heading for Bag End.

((A/N: There. That's the first chapter of my newest fanfic. As boring as it seems at the moment, the next chapter will be MUCH more interesting, believe me.

But what do YOU think? Too much original content? Should I change some? You tell me. I'm still working on it and would appreciate any review AS LONG AS YOU SAY IT IN A NICE WAY.))