DISCLAIMER for Middle-earth and the stories it contains, anything that either doesn't quite line up with canon, doesn't quite make complete sense, doesn't follow science or the order in which things were created real time (e.g lithium-ion batteries without modern science). This was made in a day with little to no research but I tried to make it as true as I could. ALSO DISCLAIMER for the initial idea. I read a story like this and I was like 'what if this happened instead?' The story idea I got this from was The Quiet Rise by esama on AO3 if anyone wants to read that as well - it's more comedy based then mine.

This was supposed to be entertaining and funny, but by the end of it, it was more of a 'and this could have happed too so why not!' sort of fic…

Enjoy!


When Arthedain fell in the war, the many lands surrounding the vast and powerful kingdom fell into disarray without direction or leadership. Villagers were raised and pillaged by enemy armies or men with nothing more to lose. Lands were desecrated by the hundreds of thousands of men and Dúnedain now without a home or a land to call their own as they traveled south. Their footprints marring the land until all that was left was a trail worn by the many feet walking its path. Green grasslands turned into nothing more then brown waste.

New Villagers were set up across the land as refuges settled down to make a home for themselves. Men banded together to fight against the scourge that forced them from their homes, holing themselves up behind their wooden barricades. New leaders – not kings – were chosen from good or powerful men to lead them in these trying times.

One such land affected by the fall of the kingdom of the Dúnedain was the Shire, a peaceful land previously protected by the vast kingdom in return for the fresh produce grown by the folk who lived in the land. The folk barely knew what to do now that the Dúnedain king was gone and in order to protect themselves from the enemies – orc and men alike – who would wish them harm, the Thrain ordered the bridges to the outer lands to be destroyed. Any Hobbit living or working beyond the Brandywine River was recalled and given temporary lodging inside the Shire's borders until such time as permanent homes could be built.

It was just in time too, as not long after the outer lands were evacuated were they overrun by dark creatures who looted and pillaged the previously hobbit filled homes. The hobbits could only watch from the other side of the river as their homes were taken from them, but luckily, none of the creatures saw them, let alone were brave enough to attempt to cross the raging waters of the Brandywine.

The men who knew of the Shire's whereabouts were also not brave enough to cross, especially since they were under the impression that the hobbits were just as homeless as they were, given the state of the pillaged houses they came across.

Across the water, in the safety of the Shire, the Hobbit's praised the Thrain's quick thinking an accepted him as their proper ruler. Before, the title of Thrain was given by the Dúnedain King to the person who would act as an embassy between the Shire and the Dúnedain. Now, the Thrain was their leader.

The next decade was tense before everything in the surrounding land began to settle, and with it, a time of peace began. Within the Shire, the peace was felt not just in the lack of enemies but also the profound safety of their homes.

Previously, over half of the produce grown by the hobbits had been sold to the kingdom that held their allegiance. Now, they had a massive surplus of unneeded food, but with it, the reliability of food security throughout the entire year. No longer would they have to worry about starving through the winter. More celebrations were held to consume the increase of food – for even with a massive surplus, a hobbit would never want to waste food if possible – and the number of meals a Hobbit ate increased from 5 to 7.

But with every celebration where wine and ale were a main part, there was a sudden increase of children, many of which were born out of wedlock. With the sheer number of pregnancies and the love of children that all hobbits had, none of the expectant mothers were punished for laying with another out of wedlock like they would have before. Truly, it was something that Hobbit's didn't particular care about to begin with anyways as long as the child was supported and raised, no one said much of anything. The law to always bare children in wedlock was one enforced on them by their previous rulers, but now they were free to live as they wish.

In the span of a few decades, the population of the Shire nearly tripled. Partially due to the increase in safety of it's inhabitants, partially due to the massive surplus of food and the celebrations that entailed, and partially due to more families being able to support a larger family. However, due to this, more and more hobbits were left being unable to work because they had to stay home to tend to the children. Something had to be done.

It started out simple, with one Brandybuck elder, she was over 90 years old going around to the surrounding neighbors and telling them quite simply, "You give me your children and I will tend to them while you go work. Come collect them at the end of the day." Wanting a respite, and a need to get back to work, all her neighbors had agreed and the next day, Old Mrs. Gutrude Brandybuck was beset by over fifty hobbit children. Hobbit families were large, and she had volunteered to mind over 17 families' young. For those first few months, Gutrude supervised the children as they played in a designated field together with their sticks. The younger children – those who had not learnt to walk just yet – were placed on a picnic mat nearby to be more carefully supervised by the single adult. The older children ran around the area, playing, stick fighting, laughing and generally having a good time.

By the hobbits in the area the place was aptly named the Daycare, as the children were left there for the day to be cared for. However, as the act became more popular, and more hobbit children were left under Gutrude's care, it quickly became too much for her old bones. The younger children, she could handle, but some of the older ones were just too fast for her to keep up with and were often becoming just a little bit too violent for the Hobbit's liking.

It was at a time when a pair of boys were belittling a much younger child out of earshot and sight of old Mrs. Gutrude when a passing Hobbit lass spotted them. Sandy was of a good age with a number of children of her own, and seeing those Sacvillle boys picking on the young Browtuck, well, she wouldn't stand by that. She quickly jumped the fence, getting behind the boys at fault, grabbed them by the ear and twisted.

"How dare you do something this – this cruel! You boys don't deserve to be here with the other children playing. You are coming with me!" Sandy decreed, leading them off to the old lady in charge at the top of the hill.

Now, Sandy use to be a scribe for the old Kingdom, and if there was one thing she knew to do to both take up the boys fun but still require them to learn and be tired – at least mentally – at the end of the day, it was to teach them to read and write. Not many people could actually do so, as it was something only Scribes were required to know, and even that was taught on the job.

With a quick talking to with Mrs. Gutrude, the boys were taken back to her home, put down at the dining table with an inkwell and paper to learn their alphabet. They were forced to come back for lessons for the rest of the week as punishment. However, at the end of it, when the boys could now lord over the others how they knew the alphabet – they didn't, not really, they just knew the first ten or twelve characters – the other children got jealous and told their parents. The next week, Sandy took in not only those two Sacville boys, but also the rest of the older children – those old enough to learn at least.

It only lasted a week before Sandy went up to the Thrain himself to complain that a) her house was not big enough to teach them all from and b) her alone was not enough to teach all the children needing to learn. The Thrain said a solution would be found and Sandy was left to go back. Sandy herself enlisted four of her friends from back in their scribing days to take as many children off her hands as possible. In the end, they each had a maximum of 15 children they agreed to teach their letters too. Mostly because the majority of hobbit dining tables can fit 15 and no more.

Over the next few months, the practice of both the Daycare and the teaching from Scribes to their children was copied across the Shire and more hobbits were able to go back to work, freeing up time during the day to get what needed to be done, done. In that time, the Thrain held many meetings with house elders to decide what should be done with the massive influx of children during the day. Six months after Sandy brought the problem to their attention, it was decided that Scribes without jobs – there were many as most Scribes were hired by the old Kingdom were now without jobs, and the Shire had never needed that many Scribes to begin with – would be given a new job as 'Teachers' and teach the children the alphabet but also their numbers. The children would be divided up by age and be taught accordingly. A specially built house was made with brightly, naturally lit rooms filled with desks for the teachers to use while teaching.

Over the years, the amount the children learned grew to include herbology, foraging and farming practices, rudimentary medicines, the basics to trades such as wood crafting and forging to help them decide early on what they want to do when they become of age. The inhabitants of the Shire became more educated on average then all but the elves over those years.

With the increase of literacy in the Shire, came the increase in the popularity of sending letters. Quickly, the supply of parchment – a type of paper derived from pig skin – ran dry. Hobbits looked into other methods of creating parchment, or something better and thus came the discovery of Paper – made from woodchips. The first every paper farm in the Shire was started, one large enough to support the entirety of the Shire threefold for a decade once the trees grew. The tree type selected was fast growing and could be harvested for paper within a decade. Plantations of the trees were planted in rotations so that there would always be a large harvest of trees each year.

Once there was enough paper to be publicly available, and quickly used by the general populace, writing became something sought after. It began the days of storytelling as their stories – previously recorded by their scribes or by word of mouth – were put to paper to be kept forever more. their lore, histories, and records were kept and stored within a great library. The knowledge of the elders was preserved and built upon by the next generations to come.

But with the opening of the great library also came a burst of imagination. People now wrote stories not just on what has happened in the past, but also things that haven't happened yet or even things that are so fantastical they couldn't possibly happen. Some stories were based in different lands where nothing was the same as authors wrote down whatever they wanted. Where every writer wrote about the 'what if?' scenarios that never happen. Or even just to tell a story they thought about that wasn't even real.

These were obviously kept away from the actual records of history and dubbed acts of fiction – the imagination of the creator. They were designed and created for the enjoyment of the reader and not for record keeping.

Letters became more popular and Hobbits were sending more and more of them each day until one hobbit had the bright idea to be paid to give people their letters for other people and get paid to do so. It started out small, as most things do, were they worked for just a group of their little family groups before spreading out to the Shire. They labeled themselves the 'Post' and would send any letters for the other hobbits. It wasn't a very popular business to begin with as it was ultimately faster and cheaper just to send their own children with their letters. Until they started making delivery boxes for hobbits to put their letter in to be collected and distributed. It quickly became easier for them to collect the letters and they became not only faster then the children but also much more reliable as they didn't get distracted by pies on windowsills.

It wasn't until one Hobbit working in the Post found that they were wasting so much time knocking on doors and hoping that the receiver of the letter was home, that the invention of the Post Box was made. The Post worker could just leave the letter in the box and the Hobbit could check to see if they had anything for the day when they next could. And that, that is when the Post became highly sought after and very popularly used.

Now, it is very important to understand a few simple things about hobbits that differed from the other races. Of course, there was the fact which everyone knew that they were not fighters and detested anything like it, and they weighted the price of good food, family and home above all else. But there was also the fact that hobbits enjoyed simplicity and efficiency. If there was a way to use a loom instead of weaving by hand, the loom was used. It was quicker and produced more, even if the overall quality of the creation could not match the masterful work of the dwarven crafters. They had hundreds of children to clothe; they didn't care if the clothes were embroidered with the finest silk or a comfortable shirt and shorts to run around and get dirty in.

If there was a way to do things easier, Hobbits would find it and it would be done. That's just who they were.

And this mentality led to some of the greatest inventions of the time. One of which was the typewriter. It started when a young author with too many stories to tell and not enough time in the day to write them complained to his friend that "Writing all day hurts my wrists and I have to start the whole page again if I am to make a mistake. It takes forever and I'll never be able to publish my books at this rate." Now, nothing was actually able to help the young lad in his time, but the complain to his friend that late evening did start a revolutionary idea in the young smith's mind.

'What if I make something to do the writing for us?'

It began as stamps, imprinting the letters onto the paper for people at first, but it was difficult to keep things in line, so the paper was held down. But then some letters might come out wonky or smudged due to the hand of the hobbit – and the act of inking and stamping the stamps actually took longer than it did to just write. It was his life's work, thirty years of trial and error before he created the first ever typewriter. Other inventions such as the wind-up clock to keep track of the time, stencils to better draw schematics and even telescopes to better admire the stars with were also made.

The typewriter quickly became very popular with the Scribes writing books to be sold.

Another thing that came with the advancement of education was the increase of Hobbits that desired to know about everything and anything they could get their hands on. Things such as herbology for example, each plant was broken down into their parts and explored in the greatest of details. How they grew, the best type of soil to use for each type of pant were explored and experimented with. What were the uses of the leaves, roots, branches, stems, flowers and fruits? Is this edible? No, well then, what else can it be used for? Poison? Medicine? How can it be used and it what sort of manner? Rubbed into the skin or powdered to be inhaled? So many questions and not enough answers.

But it wasn't just herbology that was questioned to the finest degree. The stars, the soil they used to grow their plants, the elements, farming techniques to improve crop yield, the efficiency of forges and methods to improve, the acts of creating this or that and how they could be improved or become more efficient? So many things to explore.

A school just for these sorts of questions was opened for those who had finished their first schoolings. It was a school of schools, and later dubbed the name a Collage of schools, which will be later shortened to simply Collage. It was where those who wished to learn more about the land they lived in went to.

But there was an underlying factor that continued to grow almost unrecognized for a long time before it was noticed and that was the ever-growing population. It had become almost too large for the Shire to support. Sure, they had enough food and water for everyone to go around with still plenty to spare. But there wasn't enough space and room in the hobbit holes for everyone to live. There were many houses with three or four generations of hobbits living in them, and with an average of 7 children per couple, it was quickly becoming a nightmare.

One Hobbit, one who worked in the collage and studied the art in which the Shire was created and built to best live off the land and thus how it could be improved was designated the task of designing and allocating land for hobbits to expand to. The eastern edges of the Shire were promptly chosen for the task and thus began the first ever Shire Expansion. First, land was allocated for farmland and pathways, then areas that could be suitable for houses. The river was rerouted so that the land had ample water to supply the farms and the wells as necessary, having the side effect of taking the raging river somewhat. But with the rerouting of the river also came with the people who now spent time studying the movements of the water and how it traversed the land.

Over the next twenty years where smails were built and moved into, shops and markets were opened, farms were grown, and the hobbits expanded eastwards. Of course, that initial eastern movement wasn't the only one, and once that project was finished, almost immediately, another two were started, one moving further eastward into the Far downs and then into the beginnings of the Tower hills, and a second expansion planned to move further south into swamp land. Though, the second project was on hold until such time as the scholars figured out how to deal with the swamp lands to be more livable.

It was in this time that the previous and so far, very long lived Thrain passed away and handed the job off to his grandson, Iverby Took as he was the only who knew what it was that his grandfather does as Thrain. Of course, when that was pointed out, it perked the Hobbit's inquisitive mind as to what made a ruler and the different types of rulers. Over Iverby's time as Thrain, their entire governance changed from a singular person from a hereditary position to a council of elected Hobbits from different areas each coming to represent their group of people. At the head of which was the Thrain. However, with this new type of governance came the introduction of a separate entity for Law and Order to both keep the governance in check but also make it clearer what was acceptable and not acceptable behavior for ordinary hobbits. Of course, it didn't constrict the daily lives of Hobbits, but it did decree that acts such as laying with a child or murder of a fellow Hobbit were most strictly not allowed and can be punished by putting the perpetrator into jail – a system adopted by the Old Kingdom. The jail was, however, kept almost completely empty over the centuries, for Hobbits were a peaceful race and arguments almost never got that far for murder to happen and children are a most precious things – even if there were so many of them now – and no one would dare touch one is such a way until they were old enough.

Another area of study that grew was the art of medicine. First beginning as an offshoot from the basic herbology into further discovery of what would help the body fight off illnesses and the like better soon grew into an exploration of the body and how it worked. At first, they were given side eyes and questioned on where they got the bodies to dissect from as they were wary of grave robbers, but it was put at ease when a system was created for people to sign up for their bodies to be used for science after their death. Not that many people sighed up for it, but there was enough for the study of the body to begin and thus the discovery of organs and their uses such as the lungs, liver, kidneys, intestines, heart and so much more. how they worked and which parts were connected to what.

The first occurrence of a hobbit doctor cutting someone living open to treat an already mortal injury to their insides was met with very little success, but the practice grew, and the idea had merit and over the course of a century a new practice was created, different from a doctor and was instead a Surgeon, someone who was practiced in cutting living people open to treat wounds inside the body and not just out. And over time? They just got better at it.

One inventive hobbit, who really had a hard time carrying in their daily water from the well due to an injury caused by a farming accident in their youth studied the art of waterways and how they were routed into farmlands and more. He coined the art of plumbing and made it so that he would have running water inside his house at all times. It took a while, like all things did, and even a few floodings inside his smial before he managed to make it work. But by the end of it, he had a workable and practical method of routing water into his house and even an area where he could boil a part of the water to have a reliable and constant supply of hot water and even an area to flush his toilet waste out. In the beginning, especially after the first few indoor floodings, he had been called mad and maybe a slight bit queer, but when he was finished and was able to show off his working and practical plumbing system to the other Hobbits, by Yavanna were they jealous. His house was the envy of many hobbits in the Shire.

Almost like a wildfire, plumbing became a part of every new building and was installed into all the old ones. Every Hobbit smail had access to not only running water, but hot water at any time of day without having to take a trip down to the well to collect buckets of water. Baths days became every day and cleaning became less of a trial and more of a routine now that water was easily available in the comfort of their own homes.

With the availability of fresh water, fresh food, and amazing medicine – compared to other areas in middle earth – the average lifespan of a hobbit increased from 80 to around 140, something that was noted and brought to the elders. The coming of age was also increased from 24 to 33 as it was found that Hobbits don't actually stop growing until around 33 year old, even if they could have children at 24.

However, the expansion of the Shire was not without its own trials, as when the Hobbits began moving towards the wilder ranges of the North, the first group were beset by a small band of Orcs, and all but one was killed. Now remember, Hobbits did not like to fight, rather detested it actually, but a band of orcs had just murdered a group of their Hobbits without a second thought and that was a danger they couldn't have in their peaceful land. The bounder forces – which used to only patrol the Shire to keep unrest down and settle arguments between people and maybe even enter the forests to keep track of predator numbers such as wolves – were now trained to fight and kill orcs or enemies that mean them harm. Of course, unlike other races, they didn't learn the art of war – though that was studied, just like everything else – nor did they learn to fight with axe or sword. Instead, they learnt to throw knives, and poisons from slings into soup pots. They wielded a number of larger knifes for close range combat just in case and quickly became known for their skills for dealing with threats quickly and quietly. They found no pleasure in dying on the battlefield, not when they could poison them in their sleep and let the dead corpses with no casualties speak for themselves.

That wasn't to say they looked like trained killers, in fact, a boulder hobbit was almost indistinguishable from a normal hobbit. When on duty they wore their armor, yes, but that was under their clothes and only a hobbit could tell you if they were actually just a normal hobbit, or if they were blending into the crowd in order to get closer to the threat before pricking them with a small needle as they walk past. By the time the enemy – this is for men or dwarves that came much later, when hobbits started spreading outside of their borders once more – knew they were poisoned, it was too late to do anything about it, and they would not live to see the next day.

But that came much later when their borders opened. That was still a good few centuries off by this point.

Because of the threat caused by orcs encroaching on their ever growing land – not that there were ever many Orcs at any one time – a bounder guard was set up in every outer facing settlement, with only smaller ones further inward to the Hobbit Nation. The hobbit guard posts were tasked with keeping track of what was in the surrounding lands and disposing of any… threats.

It was not a job for the faint of heart.

For the next century, the Hobbit Empire was of a repetitive nature. They grew, they expanded, they explored the lands closest to them, they expanded some more, they grew, they built, and they farmed. The lands they lived on thrived and their homes continued to be built into the lands as it proved to be the best source of insulation against the cold of winter and heat of summer. Artificial hills were made from the soil carved from the land when the rivers were rerouted, and homes were built into the hills once the earth was packed and solid. The act of rerouting the rivers in the south to supply the farmlands and the hobbit homes with water in turn dried up areas of the vast swamplands and made it available for more hobbits to built homes on and around. Disasters such as floods, frozen winters, great storms, fires and other wild weather events were planned for, and of course, studied. A whole new area called meteorology, or the study of weather was begun when it was noted that certain areas always got more rainfall and why that was. Cloud patterns and weather patterns were measured, and hobbits became very good at predicting when storms would occur weeks before they would happen.

When the Pedologists – the Hobbits who studied the soils – noticed that as they moved further south the composition of the ground itself changed, it was only then that groups of Hobbits started wanting to explore outside their border. Of course, nothing was of a very strong desire and more of a curiosity of 'what is out there?' itching at the back of their minds.

And of course, when a Hobbit doesn't know something, well, there was only one thing they could do. Ten years after the question was first posed, a group of twenty Hobbits were put together to explore and visit the lands outside the Shire. The first bridges across the Brandywine were rebuilt – which was heavily guarded (not that it was obvious) – and the first Hobbit adventurers set off to learn about the people around them. Their initial explorations were not far, simply to the land of Bree and back. They went further and further, eventually arriving in the halls of Rivendell to the East and the grey havens to the west. The overall opinion of the Elves, as far as the hobbits could tell, was of curious bewilderment and the elves treated them as naïve children to the lands they lived in.

Of course, they used this belief that they were lesser beings in need of education to learn everything there was to know in both of the Elven settlements before bringing that knowledge back to their own homes and spreading the knowledge freely to whomever wanted to know. Sindarin became common knowledge as more people wanted to talk to elves if they ever visited – they didn't, not for another century at least, the elves still believed Hobbits to be nothing more then curious children.

But that wasn't enough for the Hobbit's thirst for knowledge, and they were quickly pointed north towards the Dwarrow Settlement of Ered Luin and south to Rohan and Gondor. Soon enough, the Hobbits had some of the most accurate and vast maps of all the lands. They traveled to the eastern kingdoms of Lothlorien, Greenwood, Dale and Erabor, and the Iron Hills. Even further still, they traveled to the far east into Rhun territory and quickly became in love with the amount of spice available in the eastern kingdom. And thus, the first trade route set up outside of the Shire was not with the elves or even Dwarrow, but instead with the very far distant land of Rhun for their glorious spices.

Back in the kingdom of Hobbits, they had grown to cover almost the entire west side of the Brandywine River, vastly outnumbering any other nation by a very wide margin. Their homes were mapped from the edges of Lake Evendim to the far south where river touches ocean. Of course, with the Land they owned taking up such a vast area of land, it became increasingly more difficult to move people, resources and equipment from place to place. A trip from the northern settlements to the southern could take months by horse and cart even if all the roads were looked after, maintained and well used. It took too long.

And so, something was done about it.

Over the past few years, a discovery slightly underscored by many other discoveries is the ability to generate energy. So far, only research has gone into it and nothing much publicly available as of yet since the most efficient way to generate energy was through the act of burning oils and coal – which both released toxic gasses into the air. Which, for the nature loving and farming loving Hobbits, was a massive no-no. Instead, other methods were found, the best so far was the river itself. Plans had been made and put in place and a massive dam on the Lake that the Brandywine originates from was made. In the dam, giant water wheels were set so that the weight of the water itself turned the wheels and created a massive influx of energy to be used for whatever it was they desired.

Which created a massive boom of exploration into the scientific area.

With energy now a resource that could be readily used, a resource they had quite a lot of now, even more research was put forward to discovery what exactly they could do with that. One such discovery is the invention of the lightbulb to light Hobbit smials. This was world changing as now Hobbits had light – that wasn't from burning wax candles – at all times of the day. Power was routed down from the Dam through underground tunnels dug out to transfer lines and lines of metal cables made from a copper core – which they found conducted electricity much better than other metals – and insulated to prevent power leakage with a few other materials to each and every hobbit home so that they all had power available.

In fact, it was this invention that started the Hobbits trading with the Dwarrow settlements around Arda. Vast amounts of food in exchange for very very long, and large cables made from this metal you done like using in the majority of your metal workings (it was too dull and too weak). It was still usable, but not anywhere near as much as gold or silver. Ered Luin profited the most from the deal as not only did they have best supply of copper – and were more willing to trade with their neighbor then further nations as they could see quite clearly how vast it had grown – they also had very unfarmable land. The trade with the Hobbits provided them with a massive influx of food, and food security. But not only food, the Hobbits provided them with knowledge on plumbing, sicknesses and more.

Over the course of the next fifty years as the Dwarrow hesitantly added these new methods of house keeping to their own homes, there was a sudden increase of Dwarrow children born and less infant deaths and premature deaths. It was later found that an illness in the waterways that had been festering and growing in the still reservoirs on top of the mountains was the cause of the slowly decreasing birth rates. With the water flowing constantly in and out of the mountain, being renewed with clean water from rain and flushed out through the many homes, the illness could not survive. It needed still, calm water to fester and could not do that anymore.

Still, a method to kill the illness was found by the Hobbits who studied them. it was a method that wasn't even that hard for the dwarven crafters, as it involved passing the water though large tunnels filled with semi-permeable membranes made by the Hobbits that would catch anything inside the water. They had to be cleaned regularly, but that wasn't a big deal for the hard-working Dwarrow. It was left for the Dwarrow to do what they will with the knowledge.

Suffice to say, the number of Dwarven children increased over the years as the illness that causes infertility in the male population and no other symptoms was killed off.

This knowledge was freely spread to other Dwarrow nations as they needed it too.

But anyways, back to the ability of power and energy. With an effective way to power things now, one Hobbit lass tried (and succeeded) to create a way to make travel faster. And that, was the invention of the train. They wouldn't run on the road and it would make more sense if they had a fixed route that they would not deviate from so that they could always be found. They hired the Dwarrow from the Iron Hills – because they have a lot of iron – to craft them long lines of iron tracks and to make them a path traveling over the lands of the Iron Hills, past Erabor and Dale – to their utter confusion, curiosity and complete bewilderment – through the Greenwood – with the blessing of the Elven King Thandruil as both Durin Folk and the Elves still got mostly along at this point in time (and a large payment with the promise of food, which the Hobbits were now known for) – under the misty mountains through dwarven made tunnels, parallel but north of the east road, through the Weather Hills before arriving a few days travel north of the original land of the Shire.

It was coined the great east to west railroad, and it took a massive 25 years to make.

While the Dwarrow of the Iron hills were doing this, however, the Hobbits of the Shire were experimenting with a much smaller rail – only half a mile in length – to make the train to travel on it. For it to be powered by the dam, it would either need to be connected – something they couldn't do – or the power needed to be stored. This was when the first lithium-ion battery was made, surprisingly by the Dwarrow and not the Hobbits as they were slowly dragged into the new and improved age of innovation. With the innovations and creations shown to them by the Hobbits, the Dwarrow leapt down the proverbial rabbit hole to discover all they could about the new crafts they could make. They took what the Hobbits learnt about electricity, metal conductivity, electrodes and more and advanced their own creations through methods such as electrolytic plating and more. It was through this experimentation that they found that metals could hold charges for an extended period of time to be used later through ion exchange.

With a now reliable method of retaining charge away from the dam, the Hobbits created an engine of sorts, to use the batteries to power itself as it pulled itself across the tracks. It was the largest and most amazing invention of the time. By the time the east to west railroad was in place, the train that would carry resources across it was finished. The track cut across the entirety of middle earth and made a massive boon to trade between those nations near the tracks. It cut down months' worth of travel on treacherous roads down to barely a week from one end to the other.

It wasn't long before a number of other tracks were put into motion. Smaller sections around the Hobbit nation to connect the Hobbits together, and the first ever train opening to the public. Ered Luin and the grey havens were connected to the same line, whereas another was built going south from the Iron Hills towards Gondor while another was made to travel east from the bottom end of the Hobbit nation to the kingdom of Rohan before connecting back up with the Gondor end to create one big circuit across Middle Earth. There were many more trains that traveled the tracks, always headed in an anti-clockwise direction for simplicity's stake.

The creation of the Great Rail Circuit was not without its problems however. The tracks were constantly attacked by Orcs, Goblins and even men who wished to reap the rewards from the riches that the train carried. At first, the trains had to stop for each large log that cut across the track, where it would be then attacked. There was a constant guard placed onto the train, an impressive show of unity as the guard was made of equal amounts Dwarrow, elf, men and Hobbits. Furthermore, the Dwarrow of the Iron Hills created a front for the train which could ram and destroy almost anything that was dumb enough to get in the way of the charging train. The front was sharpened to cut through wooden logs, tapered to the sides to throw the logs out of the way. There were also two loose clamps that were placed in front of the top wheels that would pick up and debris in front of the wheels on the tracks and throw it off as the train traveled to prevent the train from derailing – it happened once and they didn't want it to happen again.

But the increase of Orc and Goblin attacks made the Hobbit's curious. What, exactly, were they after? Who did they listen too? Why were they even here? Of course, they knew that they were Melkor's spawn and spread destruction and corruption across the land, but what did that mean? Why was there some places overrun easily then others? Why did Dwarrow nations keep being lost over the ages to the fell darkness? One of the most obvious leads, was of course, the rings of power. Everyone knew about them, magic rings that followed the command of the One Ring. But if everyone knew that, why did Dwarrow Kings still wear them? Why were two out of three of the ancient Elvish Kingdoms protected by these rings? What caused the nine men doomed to die turn into ring wraiths? The reseach into this would later become Bungo Bagins and Belladonna Took's life work as they not only find the hiding places for many of the rings but also made a way to track them. They never removed the rings from where they were hidden, however, as they were either in the hands of Kings and Lords who didn't want to give up their prized possessions, or tucked away in cursed mountains where it would be dumb to remove them so that the curse could spread. That was until they came up with a way to contain the taint. Belladonna went on many adventures with the wandering wizard to find these places, using the time to also investigate the ring adorning the wizard's finger. Bungo spent his time researching what the taint of each of the rings could do and are doing to the people and nations that wield them. One thing he did link to the Elvish Rings of power was the extreme lack of Elflings being born because the could not handle the taint and darkness in the air around them. The Mirwood elves still had elflings born every few centuries, the youngest being a maiden named Taurial. Whereas the other Elvish kingdoms hadn't seen an Elfling birth in over 2000 years, with the youngest being Elrond's daughter Arwen. With the darkness spreading in the previously named Greenwood, they also hadn't experienced any since it started. King Thaundril was a lot less resentful that his kingdom was the only one unprotected by the rings power since that was discovered.

While Hobbits were puzzling their brain about what this could mean and how this affects different things, and more importantly, where in the world were each of the rings, an almost catastrophic disaster occurred – at least for the Dwarrow, the Hobbits were almost completely unaffected.

The Dragon Smaug attacked and took the Kingdom of Erabor, Killing the King and his son in the attack. Only the secondary heir, Thorin son of Thrain and his siblings, Prince Fenrin and the Lady Dis survived of the direct Royal lineage. It was a massive set back to the people of Erabor, but it could have been much worse if the rail road had not been there. Carriages numbering in the hundreds over many trains carried the people of Erabor over land, forests, and plains and under mountains. An evacuation of a home that would have once ended the lives of the people through starvation, thirst, or illness was quickly taken out of the equation. They were all brought to the land of the Hobbit nation and were then given a choice.

The Hobbits would provide free transport to any other Dwarrow nation that they wished to live in, for then to live the rest of their lives there or until such time as they could return to their home in safety.

They could become fully fledged citizens of the Hobbit Nation and follow their rule and Law with all the benefits of a Hobbit in the nations; free education, free healthcare, clean water, power, a safe comfortable home and of course, a garden.

They could open up a new mining settlement in the mountains to the south of the Hobbit Nation and mine the main component of black power found there. The new mining settlement would not be a Dwarrow nation, but instead a part of the Hobbit Nation simply run by Dwarrow as Hobbits are not known for their thirst for mining or living underground. This one also came with the promise that within the next century, the Hobbits will find a way to kill the dragon and free the mountain they used to call home.

Very few chose the second option. Dwarrow were their own people and wished to continue living as Dwarrow. Very few could live outside a mountain happily. That isn't to say no one chose this option, there was just very few.

Most ended up choosing the first or third option. The first were for the people who just wanted to live their lives, but the third was for those who wanted their homes back. Thorin Son of Thrain and rightful heir to the Throne as King Under the Mountain chose the third option, leading his people to start a new settlement in the mountains south of the Hobbit nation for the Black Powder. They may not have the mountain as their own, and may have simply been hired by the Hobbits to mine out the stuff, but they were a proud race and if anyone ever saw the carven stone that made their halls, they would be dumb to believe that the Dwarrow didn't name this their new home.

Like all Hobbit owned dwellings, the mountain was provided with clean water, plumbing systems, energy and affordable food. The Dwarrow of the black power mountains wanted for nothing but their home back.

Thorin was a good leader, one of the greatest in fact – even if he was quite young – and led his people in building and mining out what the hobbits want in return for finding a way to free them of their dragon problem. Very few Dwarrow actually believed it was possible for the kind Hobbit folk to find a way to kill the dragon, but none of them wished to say it out loud just in case they did find a way to kill the dragon. No one wanted an enemy out of a nation that could slay a dragon.

It actually only took the Hobbit's 70 years to complete.

Using the Black Powder mined by the Dwarrow, the Hobbits created explosives, growing on from the fireworks that the Old Grey Wandering Wizard showed them year ago. They just made them more dangerous. Instead of exploding into an array of brilliant colors, the explosion would happen in a narrow cylinder of area where a metal ball was packed. The force created by the explosion would send the metal ball shooting off at dangerously fast speeds. Once they had a working prototype – it was way too small to work on dragons – the Hobbits started increasing the size and power of the projectile. They sharpened the end so it would pierce better, following the example of the black arrows – the only known weapon that could pierce a dragons hide – slightly but they also inserted rotating cylinders inside the barrels of the weapons that would force the projectiles to rotate. The front of the weapons were also packed tightly with a spark starter and Black Powder that would explode on contact.

The dragon slaying weapon was aptly named a warhead and was also used against legions of Orcs that threatened the nations – when there was enough to warrant such measure. They were still very good at poisoning their enemies.

The usage of the warheads were very restricted, with only a very few people allowed anywhere near them. One such Hobbit trained in the usage of the weapon was one Bilbo Baggins who, with a small company lead by Thorin himself, boarded the train for the long ride around the Great Circuit until they arrived at the foot of the mountain. One of the carriages on the train was packed with two weapons to launch the warheads into the air, and over thirty warheads. They had certainly come prepared.

With the help of the Train Guard, they unloaded the weapons – very carefully – onto the Dale train station and then further up to Raven Hill. The settlement of Lake Town was evacuated and both the train and the men were kept securely in the kingdom of the Mirwood Elves – the name had changed over the last century as an infestation of spiders, and dark things grew in the woods. It had only recently been found out by Belladonna that not only did Sauron live, but he was infesting Dol Guldur. At the same time, a company of wizards and elves were off to rid that land of the filth.

Getting the dragon's attention was as simple as firing a warhead at the great dwarven gate. The stone, weathered by time, crumpled in a shocking and destructive show of power. Even the 13 Dwarrow that accompanied Bilbo had underestimated the sheer power the metal could give. The Dragon exited the mountain, yelling in a deep, tainted voice, "Who dares to challenge me! Smaug, King Under the Mountain! Show yourselves!" he spewed fire from his lips.

While he had been shouting, Bilbo had reloaded, aimed and shot his first warhead launcher, hitting the dragon directly on his chest, the force sending him to the ground. The warhead had managed to shatter and damage a very large amount of the beast's chest scales, but not kill the beast. It was bleeding weakly, but not dead.

Bilbo quickly moved over to the second – already loaded – warhead launcher and aimed and fired.

To be perfectly honest, it was over much quicker than first thought. But then again, the warheads were very powerful.

It was also at this time that a legion of Orcs set off from both Dol Guldur and the dark lord Sauron was banished to the lands of Mordor. The legions of orcs didn't end up being that large of a threat, not when Bilbo still had a good 27 warheads that he had permission to use on orcs and dragon alike. With an army right there – a week after the dragon had been killed – and a warhead right here, most people wouldn't need to think much of it. The warheads destroyed a good half of the first orc army, the elves and the Dwarrow army that Dain brought easily dealt with the rest. The second army was decimated by the eagles that came to celebrate the death of the dragon (Smaug thought giant eagles made a good snack and interrupted their migration patterns).

The Dwarrow of Erabor were quickly moved back to their nation, and as payment, King Thorin gave Bilbo three of the dwarven rings of power – one that had been rightfully his, one brought to Erabor from one of the fallen kingdoms and one no one knew the origins too – which were quickly stored away in a sealed lead box enchanted by Gandalf to resist and suppress the power of the Rings. It was the first dwarven rings added to the collection as all the rings of men had been collected from the tomb a decade before. It was Bilbo's mission to collect them for their eventual destruction. The warhead launchers were loaded back onto the trains – there were no left over warheads – to be taken back to the Shire while Bilbo took the long road back.

With an Elvish escort, Bilbo was taken to Dol Guldur, where he found another one of the dwarven rings, before travelling further south to the kingdom of Lothlorien. With a promise to connect the kingdom to the railroad circuit, the Hobbit left the kingdom with an elvish ring before travelling to the gap of Rohan, catching the train back up to Rivendell where he got the second elvish ring. While he travelled there, the reading he got from the 'Sauron-taint-tracker' his parents had made were massive, peaking in the direction of south of the misty mountains from the train tunnel. From Rivendell, a company of over 50 elves set off to accompany Bilbo through the misty mountain caves where they found Goblin Town – which was destroyed and burnt like the filth it was – and the creature named Gollum who carried the One Ring. Gollum was put out of his misery and the One Ring was stored away alongside the other rings of power in the sealed lead box.

For the next thirty years, Bilbo spent his life travelling, following the Sauron-taint-tracker his late parents had made in order to find the remaining missing dwarven rings of power. The tracker took him across all of middle earth, sometimes accompanied by fellow Hobbits, other times the Rangers of the North, but most often Elves or Dwarrow. If there was no one available from any of the free nations to accompany him, then Gandalf was there, providing unhelpful commentary, misleading statements of the wizarding nature and the detailed histories of each of the places the visited that only one who had been there could tell. Bilbo became one of the most well-traveled Hobbits and armed with a small 'Gun,' the prototype weapon of the Dragon Slayer, he wasn't without protection.

But he found them all. Well, all but one that he was absolutely certain was in Moria. An exploration of the mines years back had discovered what exactly lived there – a Balrog – and the place was under a permanent: Do Not Enter Without An Army, Wizard And A Fuck Ton Of Warheads. There were plans hosted by the dwarven nations to retake the mountains, supported by the Hobbits with their exploding weapons to clear out the mine. Since the Slaying of Smaug, the warheads used by Hobbits have been improved and perfected so it may even be possible to kill Durin's Bane. If they retook Moria, the Goblins of the Misty Mountains would lose a massive foothill, the loss would set them back so far they may be able to rid the vermin from the mountain for good.

But that was for someone else to do, as Bilbo was now well into his nineties and was getting well on in age. His heir, nephew and adopted son Frodo was given the Lead Sealed Box of Rings of Power, and as much as Bilbo loathed the idea of handing this job off to someone else, Frodo took it willingly, hiding it in a cubby hole until such time as Moria was retaken so that the last Ring could be found. When they were all found, a quest would be embarked upon to destroy them all at once. Already, there was production and planning beginning for things the Hobbits who go to war may need when they go to Mordor.

But Moria was first.

The reclaiming of Moria was a long and arduous task. They brought their warheads, Dragon Slayers, guns and weapons. 500 elves, 2,500 dwarrow, 150 men, 6 Dúnedain rangers, two wizards (Gandalf and Radagast) and 10,000 trained and armed Hobbits. The Hobbit nation was so large that deploying 10,000 bounders – 150 of which who could use the warheads – was a small matter, it was barely anything in comparison to the sheer number of Hobbits. Not that they were being sent to their deaths, however, there was no way the Nation would agree to that. The death of even a single Hobbit was a tragic affair, the government would never voluntarily send 10,000 to their deaths.

Their forces were great, but so were the Goblins. The trains was constantly travelling to and from the eastern side of Moria – where the main gates stand – carting off the injured, bringing in replacements, equipment, resources and more warheads. They drew the main goblin forces out of the mountain, fighting with all their might to rid of the Orc and Goblin scum. The leaders were quickly taken out by Hobbit snipers – one such one was a pale orc who really despised Thorin for some reason. It was in this battlefield that Thorin earned the title Oakenshield as he defended himself against that pale orc with nothing but an oakenshield before the Hobbit nearly 500m back could get a shot in to take off his head.

The battle itself took over a week fighting in front of the mountain. Then they started moving forward, Dwarven forces at the front to guide the way, Hobbits armed with Warheads on wheels and Elves behind to find their way up tall buildings and high places to take pot shots with their long bows. It was another week on top of that before Durin's Bane finally appeared in all its flaming, sword wielding glory. The might of Gandalf, Glorfindel, Elrond and Radagast shielded against the foul beast's initial attack while the Hobbits reloaded. At a signal by the head bounder, all 100 armed warheads were aimed and shot towards the beast.

There are very few things that could survive that, and the Balrog was not one of them.

It was two months later when Frodo entered the mountain with a guard of bounders and Dwarrow, following the Sauron-taint-tracker down into the depths of the mountain where a ring of dark make was found.

The Dwarven armies stayed in the mines of Khazad-dûm, protecting it as they slowly rid the place of the filth that lived there for so long.

That was the end of that, and the start of the Destruction of the Rings.

It wasn't even a long trip. The Hobbit and elven armies gained help from the Rohan, and the elephant riders of the wild men of Rhun – the Hobbits had continued to trade with them even after all this time, but they didn't want a train in their lands as the elephants might charge them – and Gondor armies to march on Mordor. While they drew the armies out of Mordor, Frodo and a small group of Hobbits trained in the art of staying hidden and disappearing in plain sight infiltrated the lands through a set of mountain tunnels that Gandalf remembered from a long time ago. they made their way up the mountain, unseen by the all-seeing eye and promptly dropped the lead encased rings into the fire.

Then the volcano exploded.

The Hobbit's found some high ground to rest on while they waited to see what would happen. They didn't have to wait longer than a day before rescue came to them in the form of Eagles – again, they really didn't like Sauron, he interrupted their migration patterns and were happy to help – who picked them up and carried them back to Gondor. There were massive parties throughout the lands of Middle earth and over the next few centuries orc and goblin sightings decreased too almost nothing. Miraculously, no one even noticed when the white wizard Saruman accidentally tripped due to a strong wind and fell off his tower, landing on some very sharp rocks that impaled him.

They reclaimed three more ancient dwarven settlements, Gundabad, Belegost and Nogrod in that time, taking them away from Goblin hands and leaving them nowhere to breed. The lands became safer and nation borders grew, though the Hobbit nation didn't grow too much more as they had become an acceptable size.

Over those centuries after the rings were not only taken away from elvish settlements, and then destroyed, the number of Elflings born increased from 1 every 1000 years to 1 every thirty years. Similarly, the rate of dwarven births increased as well, and soon enough it wasn't just the Hobbits that needed to expand.

And that is how the Great Hobbit Expansion changed Middle-Earth for the better (even if there are too many Sacville-Baggins Hobbits).


Heh… I have no regrets.