Chapter Two

Party, Travels and Horses

Amy, Emily and Stephanie had been at the Shire for a week now. They had explained everything and were very grateful to them as they offered them places to stay and actually believed them. The guys had explained that they were now what they called hobbits. Emily and Stephanie was staying with Merry and Pippin but Amy had to stay with Frodo as there was not enough room for all three of them. Amy didn't seem to mind, she liked Frodo and they got on well together. They had met Frodo's uncle and Amy especially seemed to like him. He was happy and kind, what was not to like? Frodo had explained how it was his uncle's birthday tomorrow and how they were invited to come.

"So how old will he be?" Amy asked.

"One hundred and eleven." Frodo answered as he poured them some tea.

"Do hobbits usually live that long?" Frodo shook his head as he sat down at the table.

"Not usually."

"Well Bilbo is strange to be able to live that long." she mused. She smiled in thanks as he passed her the cup of tea and sipped it gratefully. "So, who is coming?" This made Frodo laugh.

"Everyone, even the ones not invited." Amy shook her head and grabbed a biscuit. After she finished the tea she stood and smiled at Frodo.

"Well, I am going to bed." she said quietly. "I will see you tomorrow." Frodo nodded and bid her goodnight. Amy walked to her bedroom and grabbed her nightgown and crawled into the bed. She stared at the ceiling for a while. She was really worried, it had been a week now and still no sign of Michaela or Alicia. She was praying that they were alright and no harm had come to them. She sighed and made herself go to sleep.

She woke up the next morning and grumbled under her breath before getting up. She went to the bathroom and poured herself a bath before setting out a green dress for herself on the bed and then she got into the bath to relax, wake herself up properly and get cleaned. When she was done she towel dried her hair and slipped into the dress. It came to just below her knees and the sleeves rode down to her elbows and slipped off the shoulders slightly. She walked out the room when she was done and found Frodo already in the kitchen wearing some black suspenders and a white shirt underneath. He smiled at her as she came in and motioned to the table where he had already set out the food.

She sat down and ate happily. "I will see you later Amy, I have to go and meet Gandalf." Frodo said and he stood up. Amy nodded her head.

"I will see you then." She watched him leave and frowned. She cleared the table and briefly wondered where Bilbo was. She had begun to deeply care about Bilbo and Frodo from her time here, they had done so much for her and she hadn't asked for it. She stepped outside and made her way to where Emily and Stephanie was staying. It was slightly further away and was about a fifteen minute walk. She finally got there and knocked on the door. She smiled at Emily when it was opened and she saw her friend.

"What are you doing here?"

"Well Frodo has gone to meet Gandalf and I have no idea where Bilbo is." she explained. Emily nodded and let her inside. She stayed there until it was time for them all to go down to the party. She walked next to Stephanie and nudged her arm.

"What?" Stephanie asked.

"Have you noticed that Emily and Pippin are getting on really well?" she smiled slyly. Stephanie looked back to where Pippin and Emily were laughing and carrying on as they walked down to the party.

"As a matter of fact I have."

The party was lovely and amazing. Gandalf had firework going off in different sizes and colours and Bilbo was sat over the way with some children, he looked like he was telling them stories. People were dancing to the merry music and Amy's jaw dropped as she saw the size of the cake. It could feed hundreds! She shook her head and congratulated the person who made that cake. That is a job well done. She smiled as she saw Frodo dancing in the centre with a lot of other people. She laughed softly, Frodo so couldn't dance at all.

Emily looked up towards the dark starry sky as a particularly beautiful firework just went off and exploded in the sky. They all walked over to a table where Sam was sitting and peaking glances at Rosie, the woman that works in the Green Dragon. She was beautiful with blue eyes and strawberry blonde hair. She was dancing with lots of people and having fun. Frodo came jogging over with a huge smile on his face.

"Go on Sam, ask Rosie for a dance." he said with the huge grin still in place. Sam suddenly looked nervous and Steph had to stop from laughing. He looked back at Rosie and took a drink.

"I think I am just going to get another ale." he muttered and stood from his seat.

"Oh no you don't." Frodo said shaking his head grabbed Sam's shoulders. He pushed him just at the right moment as Rosie turned around and they bumped into each other. Amy watched with a small smile on her face as Frodo laughed at the now dancing Samwise. Another firework went off in the sky to a loud bang. Emily raised her head to see Gandalf chuckle to himself about something and gather more fireworks. She swayed gently to the music and looked around when she was tapped on the shoulder. She turned to see a grinning Pippin.

"Yes?" she grinned. He held out his hand.

"Would you like to dance?" Her grin widened.

"I would love to." she responded and let herself be dragged to where the others were dancing. Emily laughed as she moved to the beat and started to dance joyfully. Merry came back and that had alerted them that he had left in the first place and slammed some mugs of ale down on the table. The girls didn't really drink ale but being here and everyone else drinking it they had tried it and now had gotten used to the taste of ale. Stephanie grabbed hers with a thank you and took a sip. Frodo and Amy sat next to her and Merry was sat opposite.

After a while Pippin and Emily came back and sat down and grabbed a mug of ale each. Emily seemed slightly out of breath and her cheeks were red. Merry whacked Pippin on the arm and gave him a look. Pippin stood abruptly and they announced they would be back later.

"Where are they off to?" Amy questioned as she watched them run away and out of sight.

"No idea." Frodo said as he took a drink. She supposed he was used to this behaviour and shrugged it off. "I will be right back you three, I am just going to see Bilbo for a second."

"Ok." they said in unison.

"So," Amy leered towards Emily. Emily looked started and her eyes widened.

"What?" she squeaked. The two girls smirked at her and she shook her head. "What?"

"You and Pippin?" Amy smirked as the girl blushed.

"What about it?" she said in an indifferent voice.

"Oh don't act dumb, we both know you like him." She blushed a deeper shade of red.

"He is fun."

"Fun?" they scoffed. Emily raised her head and her eyes widened. Just as she did that people started to scream and run.

"Under the table!" she yelled and they shot under the table that they were sat at.

"What is going on?" Amy demanded.

"Dragon." she said breathlessly. Their eyes widened and as they looked up from the gap in the table the dragon exploded and turned into colourful sparks. They breath a sigh of relief and came up as people were staring and clapping in cheers at the wonderful display. Frodo suddenly came running over looking concerned.

"Are you's ok?" he asked. They nodded and sat back down in their seats. He smiled and sat down as well. "Speech!" he suddenly yelled towards Bilbo. Everyone cheered and started to clap. Bilbo stood on a barrel in front of the entire crowd and smiled at them.

"My dear Bagginses and Boffins," he said loudly which got a loud cheer from part of the group. "Tooks and Brandybucks." This brought on another cheer from a part of the crowd. "Grubbs." A cheer. "Hornblowers." A cheer. "Bulgers." A cheer. "Bracegirdles." A cheer. "And Proudfoots." he said lastly to get the last cheer from the last part of the crowd. "Today is my one hundrend and eleventh birthday!" he shouted. The crowd cheered and raised their glasses. The three girls just quietly copied.

"Happy Birthday!" Emily shouted loudly making her friends roll her eyes.

"Alas, elevnty-one years is far too short a time to live among such excellent and admirable hobbits." he said to another cheer. "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."

This said made everyone confused and nobody said anything. Stephanie looked towards her friends, who shrugged in return and turned back to concentrate.

"I, er, have things to do." he said quietly and reached for his pocket and took something out of it. He clenched his fist and helf it behind his back. "I've put this off ar too long." The hobbits all looked up to him questioningly and curiously. "I regret to announce This is the End. I'm going now. I bid you all a very fond farewell." Frodo frowned and looked at his uncle curiously, who Amy noticed gave him a small smile in return just before he whispered the last word. "Goodbye."

Suddenly he just disappeared and everyone was in an uproar. Frodo sat up looking astonished and eveyone stood up and started to panic. Amy grabbed Frodo's arm and he looked at her. She gave him a small smile and he gave her a weak one back. Stephanie was still looking at the spot he vanished at.

Alicia followed after the strange man and kept her mouth shut. She had been with him a week now and she was happy that he was letting her stay with him as she had no where else to go and didn't know this place well. He had practically looked at her like she was crazy when she went on a rant about how she is not from this place and she was from Earth. He managed to calm her down but it only ended in tears as she was worried for her friends. She eventually fell asleep from exhaustion and she thought he may have been thankful for that.

He had explained about this Dark Lord Sauron and orcs and what not. Much to her displeasure he taught her how to use a sword. To say she was rubbish was an understatement but she had stuck at it and she had gotten much better. She could at least block average blows now. A bow was no problem for her as she had taken archery lessons with Amy and Michaela for about six months. Amy and Michaela had been doing it much longer than her but she was still good. Of course Michaela was better than all three of them.

Right now she had no idea where she was going and was just following him blindly. He had explained how his name was Aragorn but for now when they were out in public she would have to call him Strider. She didn't understand why but she had agreed to it none the less. She sighed in pain as he legs started to cramp up. "Can we rest for five minutes?" she whined. He turned to look at her and sighed.

"Five minutes." he said firmly. She nodded gratefully and plopped down next to a tree and groaned in relief. Strider shook his head and looked out into the patch of trees.

It had been a few days since Bilbo had disappeared at his party. Frodo had told them that he was gone and had left the Shire. He had left not long after he had vanished and told Amy when she came back a few hours later. Some were upset that he was gone and some were indifferent. Right now they were sitting in the Green Dragon and the girls were watching as Merry and Pippin were singing and dancing on the tables. Frodo was up at the bar and getting the drinks and Sam was just watching and drinking his ale.

Hey ho, to the bottle I go!
To heal my heart and drown my woe.
Rain
may fall and wind may blow.
But there still be –
many miles to go!

Sweet is the sound of the pouring rain,
and the stream that falls
from hill to plain.
Better than rain or rippling brook

Merry and Pippin were singing the song merrily and Merry stopped singing and let Pippin sing the last line on his own.

There's a mug of beer inside this Took!

They clinked mugs and started to drink heartily as everyone started to clap and cheer. Amy smiled and clapped. She was going over in her head how long she had been away from home and away from Michaela and Alicia. She calculated it had been nearly two weeks now. She smiled and grabbed the mug that Frodo passed her and took a sip. "Thanks."

"No trouble." he said and took a large drink of his own. Merry and Pippin climbed off the table and sat down on the seats. Amy, Frodo and Emily watched as Sam turned to look around at Rosie and quickly looked away to take a drink as she smiled sweetly at him. Emily bit her lip and Frodo shook his head at his friend. Later on during the night they all left the pub and were walking out as Sam turned to look at Rosie. A man had gotten down on his knee and raised his hands to her.

"Good night, sweet maiden of the golden ale!" he said dramatically. Sam scowled.

"Oi, mind who you're sweet talking to!" he grumbled and turned away. Frodo smiled.

"Don't worry Sam, Rosie knows an idiot when she sees one." He clapped him on the back. Sam smiled uncertainly at him.

"Does she?" Emily snorted in amusement and Steph and Amy whacked her arms. 'What?' she mouthed with a playful grin on her face.

"Will be seeing you." Merry said and waved them goodbye.

"See you later, Steph, Emily." Amy called and waved.

"Bye!" they shouted and ran after the two male hobbits. Frodo and Amy split up with Sam a few minutes later and walked back to his home. They walked in uncertainly and saw that the windows were open and papers were flying around the rooms. Frodo was grabbed from behind and Amy yelped and jumped backwards.

"Very good." Legolas said and inclined his head. Michaela smiled slightly.

"Thank you." They put the swords down and made their way back inside. She had to admit the forest was beautiful but it was kind of dark here. She shook her head and followed him inside.

"Would you like something to eat?" he asked politely. She nodded her head and let him lead her to a living room. He gave something to her and she frowned. "Lambas bread. In all the time you have been here and you haven't tried it." She took a small bite. To her it tasted abit like shortbread mixed with cake dough. Weird.

"It's nice." she complimented. He smiled and took a bite himself.

"Is there anything you would like to do today?" he asked absently as they went to sit down.

"Hm. I don't know. What do you normally do on a normal day?" He put down the Lambas bread and sat back.

"Normally?" She nodded. "Practise my aim and do my duties."

"Sounds boring." she mumbled. He chuckled and shook his head

"Not all the time." he corrected. She had been here for a while and everyday she spent it with Legolas. He was very polite and kind, funny, handsome, caring, the list could go on. She smiled and tucked some of her hair behind her ears.

"Maybe we could go on the horses?" she suggested. He looked up and smiled.

"Great idea."