Blue eyes, filled with terror, watched as men and women chased her. While her eyes were always filled with terror, seeing the people happened every so often as she looked over her shoulder and the people would be closer. She didn't understand why they were chasing her. What had she done wrong? Her tiny legs could barely keep her ahead of them and finally they gave out. She tripped and fell face down in the dust.

Cries of "monster", "demon", "witch", and "plague" were shouted at her. The leader grabbed her roughly by the arm and lifted her off the ground. She cried out in pain as her arm popped out of its socket.

"We caught it!" he cried and the mob dragged her back to the village, all the while she screamed and begged for them to let her go.

It felt like hours that they tortured her, trying to get her to confess to her misdeeds against the ignorant villagers.

She was tied to a pole in the middle of the village, her clothes stripped from her. There, they whipped her mercilessly. Angry red gashes littered her skin. The tiny child wept, still wondering what she had done to deserve this treatment.

"Please, I didn't do it!" she shouted at the top of her lungs.

"Liar!"

"Witch!"

"Kill her!"

"Burn her!"

It was only after she was exhausted beyond measure and her body completely battered, that they tied her down to the wood pile and began to set it on fire.

Her throat was raw from her screams, now all she did was sit there and wait. She hoped that it was all over now. She closed her eyes and awaited death to follow.

A burst of light and fire lit up the sky, Aza smiled as sparks flew to and fro.

"Another!" she called to Cobryn, eyes full of child-like glee.

The man grumbled, but fetched another firework and returned to her.

Gandalf moved it into the right position and then Aza, using her fire magic, lit the fuse with a single finger. The three took several steps back to give the explosive room. It flew into the air and exploded, creating brilliant lights in the night sky.

Aza looked over and could see some Hobbits dancing to the cheery music. Some Hobbits were drinking heavily or eating heavily and still some were offering Birthday greetings to Bilbo.

Gandalf gave Aza a look that told her that it was her turn to take care of the fireworks. She smiled and nodded. Once he was gone she turned to Cobryn. "Your turn," she handed him her heavy robe and ran off to dance and drink with the others.

As she danced off, Cobryn glared at her.

The young woman snuck up behind Bilbo as he told his story about the trolls to a group of young Hobbits.

"So, there I was" he said in a very dramatic fashion, "at the mercy of three monstrous trolls. Have you ever heard of a troll? Do you know what a Troll is? Great big nasty twenty foot high smelly things…and they're arguing...arguing about how they were going to cook us!"

A little Hobbit girl made a face of fright. Aza smiled. "So cute…"

"Whether it be turned on a spit or minced in a pie or whether they were going to sit on us one by one and squash us into jelly! But they spent so long arguing the whether-to's and why-for's that the sun's first light crept over the top of the trees...and turned them all to stone!"

Aza leaned down to Bilbo's shoulder just as the children gasped. "I think you're forgetting the part where Gandalf and I managed to move a rather large stone."

Bilbo jumped, but managed to regain his composure. "Of course, of course. You shouldn't sneak up on an old man, you'll stun my heart." He mopped his forehead with a handkerchief.

Aza laughed. "Come." She helped her friend get up. "I know no one else, which means you must dance with me."

The older hobbit laughed as she pulled him to the dance. The children, however, followed them and Aza smirked. Snapping her fingers she caused small sparks to fly. The children laughed at the sight. Then, with a flourish of the hand, she created larger sparks that formed butterflies.

The children laughed and chased them.

"Come!" she insisted, "Dance with me!"

Bilbo laughed as he tried to keep up with her.

While still an average human height, she towered over the Hobbits that surrounded her. Her slim arms and legs flew around as she attempted to dance in the same manner the other Hobbits were. However, she looked just as awkward as Gandalf as he dance among them.

Letting out a laugh Aza spun in a circle, the frayed material of her dress poofing out slightly.

It was only when a firework came from far where Cobryn was shooting them off, that she paused her dancing. Her eyes widened.

"Uh-oh," she muttered as she realized which one had gone off. Looking over at Cobryn, his expression betrayed his surprise.

As the firework's sparks morphed themselves into the form of a dragon, Aza shouted to the other Hobbits, "Get down!" She looked to Bilbo who was still unaware of the coming danger. "Bilbo, look out! Dragon!"

"There hasn't been a dragon in these parts for a thousand years!" was Bilbo's delayed response.

With a shove she managed to push Bilbo along so that he, as well as many other Hobbits, avoided the terrible fate of being barbequed by the firework dragon. The dragon flew into the horizon where it met it's end in an explosion of fireworks.

The Hobbits cheered, thinking it was all a part of the act.

Aza, Gandalf, and Cobryn, however, knew better.

They caught the perpetrators, two young, male Hobbits.

Gandalf grabbed them by the ears. " Meridoc Brandybuck and Peregrin Took...I might have known…"

"What shall you do with them, master?" Aza asked, looking at the singed Hobbits. If that firework hadn't been so hard to create she might have felt sorry for them. Their hair was standing on end and covered in black soot from standing so close to the firework when it went off.

Gandalf gave them the task of washing dishes.

Cobryn, angry that someone had managed to trick him, watched them with a horrible look in his eye. If he had the power, he would have not just singed their hair as the firework had done. He would have seen to it that they were little better than marks on the ground.

"It's still dirty," he said and dropped the dish back in the barrel. "Again."

The two Hobbits groaned as more dishes were being piled next to them.

Aza and Gandalf sat farther off.

"It may have been a bit harsh to leave Cobryn in charge of them," Gandalf said.

"I'm not doing it for them," Aza said quietly as she sipped her ale. "If Cobryn doesn't feel like he has gotten revenge then he is going to be a nightmare later."

Gandalf nodded and raised his pipe to his lips.

As they settled into their seats, their vise in hand, many of the Hobbits cried for Bilbo to give a speech.

Bilbo obliged and, stepping onto a stool in order to be seen by the company, bowed at the applause. "My dear Bagginses, and Boffins, Tooks and Brandybucks...Grubbs, Chubbs, Hornblowers, Bolgers, Bracegirdles and Proudfoots..."

From the crowd, an older Hobbit with his feet propped up, shouted, "Proudfeet!"

"Today is my one hundred and eleventh birthday. Yes, and alas...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 as well as well as you deserve."

Half of the guests clapped and the other half tried to figure out if it was a compliment or not.

"I have...things to do and I have put this off for far too long...I regret to announce, this is the end. I am going now. I bid you all a very fond farewell!"

With that, Bilbo disappeared from the crowd.

Aza's eyebrows knitted together. "That's interesting…"