Author's Note

Sorry it took a while. A holiday, a Chinese test and a broken keyboard got in the way...anyhoo, first chapter.

thewolf74: Thanks for the first review! Turns out reviews really do accelerate the writing process...


1

Quiet as an owl, she landed in a tree with a clear view of Hobbiton. Making sure to blend in with the shadows of the tree, she surveyed the quiet holes and the well-kept gardens until she found the door Gandalf had described. It was a green one, but what mostly interested her was the oddly blue glowing letter 'F' that had been placed on it. Figuring that must be the one where she had to be, she jumped from the branch she had been perching on and glided silently over to the hole, landing smoothly on top of it. Immediately, she vanished her wings, changed her colour in order to blend in with the dewed grass that covered the hole's roof and curled up just above the door. Lying flat on her belly, she paused for a moment and pricked up her ears, while at the same time looking out with her mind at the Hobbit below her, looking and listening for any sign that she had been spotted. With a small surge of relief, she convinced herself that Hobbiton was as quiet as it had been a minute ago and that the inhabitant of this particular hole continued radiating calmness and contentment as he prepared his supper.

Sure, had it been day, she wouldn't have been able to hide like this, but as the dusk had almost passed into night, her camouflage would suffice. Besides, if there was one thing she had learned in her life, it was that people rarely saw something they weren't expecting to see.

And they never, ever, looked up.

Fine, two things then.

Judging it safe, she moved around a bit to get comfortable, curling her long tail around her until she could use the furry knob on the end as a pillow to lean her head against. She knew she was up for a bit of a wait and, trusting her ears to warn her in time when the first Dwarves would show up, went over everything Gandalf had told her a few days ago one last time.

She sits down in front of him and asks him what it was he wants to talk to her about. Gandalf walks her to a rock on the lakeshore and, after seating himself on it and letting out a sigh, commences with a lengthy talk.

He begins with a story about Dwarves, gold, gems and jewels. About a King whose love of gold had grown too deep and the sickness that had begun to grow within him. Eventually, about a dragon. About ruin, death and destruction. About a people without a home, ever seeking revenge on the dragon that had chased them out of their Mountain.

After having described the Blue Mountains in which they were now (temporarily) living, he pauses. She waits a decent amount of time, waiting for him to continue. When it becomes obvious he isn't going to, she says: "Lovely story, but I assume you didn't come all this way to tell me a tale. I don't see how this is all related to me."

She thinks she senses a faint whiff of contentment, but she can't be sure.

The Wizard continues by telling her about the King of these Dwarves, Thorin Oakenshield. Though he does not say it out loud, Gandalf hints at him being the one who convinced Thorin to lead a Company to the Lonely Mountain and reclaim the Arkenstone (apparently a jewel needed to convince other Dwarves to join him, though she has never really understood the value of jewels, as they did not have a fae). And that, he says, is where she comes in.

She listens closely. He invites her to join said Company, in order to help the Company reach the Mountain. Knowing exactly what he needs to say to convince her, he barely hides a grin while saying this would be a wonderful opportunity to satisfy her insatiable curiosity about Dwarves and other things along the road.

Of course, she thought, there was no way she could have said no to that prospect. And, after having experienced the Dwarves up close and probably having had her fill of adventure for a while, she had already decided her next place to stay: Hobbiton. Even before having seen it, it had sounded like the perfect place to recover from exhausting adventures, while at the same time stirring a bit of life into the place.

There was one problem though. Gandalf had carefully explained that Dwarves were not fond of dragons, especially these particular Dwarves. Personally, she did not share that opinion at all, and had gotten rather excited at the prospect of seeing one. After all, she probably looked more like a dragon than any other creature she knew of.

Gandalf had managed to grab her attention again and his next words had cleared the joy right out of her mind. He feared, that if she showed herself with all her dragonish features, Thorin would be too blinded by his hatred for dragons to get a balanced opinion of her and would probably expel her from the Company without a second thought. So, he had (after much discussion) struck a deal with her. She wouldn't reveal herself fully until the first plains after Bree, and then he would do all he could to convince Thorin to give her a chance.

The reason she was currently lying on the roof instead of going in, was that Gandalf had decided it would be best for her to get a general idea of the Dwarves before they saw her. And he'd told her to wait for him to introduce her, for she looked so odd there might be panic if she strolled through the door without any preparation. So, she waited for the Wizard to arrive.

She was just trying to find some solace by telling herself that, although she wouldn't be allowed to let it out for a while, her fire still burned inside her, when she was shaken out of her thoughts by heavy footsteps.

The heavy thumps stood out from the peaceful evening chorus of crickets chirping, cows mooing and the river running. Squinting her eyes, she tried to make out the shape of the Dwarf lumbering towards her. Even with her good night vision, she couldn't get a good look at him until he was less than five meters away from his destination.

It would have been easier to know who she was dealing with, if she could have used her mind to look. But as she knew lowering the boundaries of her mind would cause her eyes and the tips of her ears to glow in the dark, that wasn't an option. So she used her other senses instead. The Dwarf looked sturdy and straightforward. He smelled like a warrior, of sweat and blood, a scent that made her snout ripple and she had to keep back a soft growl. Later into the night, she reminded herself, you'll be able to get a good look at him with your mind. Until then, don't judge.

By now, the warrior-Dwarf had reached the green front door and, after having convinced himself that it was the right one by checking out the blue 'F', rang the bell. After a few moments, she heard the door open.

"Dwalin, at your service," she heard the Dwarf say.

After a pause, she heard the rustling of fabric and the Hobbit stuttering, "Uh…Bilbo Baggins, at – at yours."

As the Dwarf stomped into the hole, she heard Bilbo Baggins stammering, in an utterly perplexed voice:, "Do – do we know each other?"

She caught the Dwarf's answer: a simple "No", spoken as if Dwalin found it a rather preposterous question. She chuckled quietly, having a vague idea that not everyone had been informed there would be a meeting here tonight.

After the second Dwarf, a wise and friendly looking (and smelling) one with a long white beard, who introduced himself as Balin, that suspicion had gotten even stronger. At Balin's "At your service", instead of the correct "At yours", all she heard was a "Good evening". She had to give it to Balin; he reacted to the impoliteness with a friendly "Yes, it is. Although I think it might rain later" followed by "Am I late?"

"Late for what?" Bilbo asked. Clearly, Gandalf had not told him there would be a number of Dwarves standing on his doorstep. She wondered if he had told him she would come. She doubted it.

As she listened to the noises of Balin and Dwalin greeting each other (did they have to be so loud?), she kept waiting for Gandalf to arrive. Up next came two Dwarves at once. After the door opened she heard a small desperate whimper come from Bilbo, although she doubted anyone else heard. The two Dwarves now standing in front of Bilbo introduced themselves as "Fíli"(fair) and "Kíli"(dark), before bowing in unison with yet another "At your service".

"You must be Mr. Boggins!" Kíli said with a broad smile, but clearly the Hobbit had somewhat recovered from his initial shock and was growing bolder.

"Nope, you can't come in, you've come to the wrong house," he declared at once and made to shut the door. Sadly for him, Dwarves were a lot stronger than Hobbits and these two also seemed relatively young. They pushed the door back open without too much trouble, much to the Hobbit's bewilderment.

"What? Has it been cancelled?" Kíli demanded.

"No one told us," Fíli added, with a side-glance at who she now realized was probably his brother.

"Canc- No, nothing has been cancelled!" Bilbo said, starting to sound positively pissed off.

"That's a relief," Kíli said, before shoving the poor Hobbit aside. He and his brother marched into the hole without a second glance.

Listening to the ever louder growing noises inside, she started to get impatient and her belly rumbled. If that Wizard doesn't show up soon, I'm going in to eat, introduction be damned, she thought. And she would have, had she not, at that moment, heard a commotion in the dark.

She pricked up her ears to hear a mass of Dwarves approaching the hole, with Gandalf trailing behind them. They made their way towards the door, their steps loud enough to wake up half of Hobbiton and the other half by their grunting and groaning. When they had reached the green door, they rang the bell. But instead of waiting until the door opened, they evidently decided Bilbo was taking too long and started a conversation of their own. Leaning against the door, they all toppled in front of Bilbo after he'd pulled, or rather, jerked the door open.

Hearing a lot of "Get off me!" and other, less polite comments, she chanced a peek and peered over the edge and into the hallway. Seeing eight Dwarves lying in front of the shocked Hobbit, she burst into laughter before muffling it by putting her forepaws over her snout. Fortunately, thanks to the amount of Dwarvish cursing in the hole, no one heard but Gandalf, who, upon seeing her shaking with supressed laughter, shot her a stern look before relenting. He gave a quick nod before stepping back.

"Before you all run to dinner," the Wizard addressed the Dwarves, who were getting to their feet, "I would like to introduce someone else."

Finally, having mastered her laughter, she opened her mind once again and took a second to take in the familiar feeling. Then, she lowered herself upside down from the roof and gazed into the hole.