I don not own any of the characters, they belong the master of middle-earth J.R.R Tolkien. But I really wish I owned Merry and Pippin coz I just love them both sssssssoooooooo much. Please review this after as I need your input. This story was mainly inspired by Ruth Gordon (but I call her Ruthie Gondor)

A Hobbit in need

Kim walked along the streets of Edinburgh. It was raining and her clothes were soaked but she didn't care one bit. All that she wanted to do was go to her rat hole of a home and read her books, her wondrous, glorious books. Since her mum and dad died, books had become her only escape from her life and what seemed like never ending pain. Her dad had encouraged her love of books when he had still been alive. He had once been a Professor of Literature at the University of Edinburgh, but was sacked because he was accused of taking bribes from students who wanted to pass without having to do the work. This meant that he then had to get a job as a waiter in a local coffee shop, which hadn't paid much.

She'd read about vampires and fairies, dragons and monsters but most of all these she loved to read about hobbits. When she read Lord of the Rings for the first time when she was 7, she had loved it so much that she read it again and also read it once every year after that. Reading about hobbits had always made her feel better when she was afraid or sick of hearing her mum and dad shouting downstairs. This was always started when her mum screamed at her to go to bed, as she didn't want to even look at her right now. She would do as she was told, as always and read Lord of the Rings. Then after reading a good bit of it, she would lie on her bed and dream of the Shire. Sometimes the dreams had been so real, that she felt like she could have tasted the ale and hear Gandalf's fireworks go off with a great bang.

She would dream that she was a hobbit living in Brandyhall. She'd dream that she was playing tag with Merry and Pippin along the Hedge near the Old Forrest. Thinking about it now still brought the sound of their laughter to her ears. She imagined Pippins dad, Paladin, picking her up and swinging her around just like her dad did. Then he would let her go and do the same to Merry and Pippin (of course they were little hobbit children at this time). But then she would snap out of her dreams and find that there was no Merry and Pippin, no Paladin and no fireworks.

She was now 18 and was no longer 7, and there was never really time anymore for her to dream of the Shire. She had left school and was now in a full-time job at the library. It didn't pay that much but they were the only people who would give her a job. She did have all her Standard Grades (A/N Standard Grades are the Scottish version of GCSE's I'm not to sure what they are in America) and had done really well in English. She had wanted to become a writer or teach poetry at a college or university like her dad had done, but after she had finished high school she was still living with her foster parents who had then put her back into a home (which she left to go live on her own). She was too proud to go back there now, to ask for help even though she did need it.

As she walked along she let the rain wash over her. She stopped in the street and closed her eyes. She then heard a soft, warm voice in her ear. "Kim. It's time you joined the race that you should have been born into." She opened her eyes as quickly as she could muster. And a few meters in front of her stood Gandalf the White. He looked exactly like she thought he would be. He stood tall and proud, and his clothes and beard were as white as the whitest snow in the coldest of winters.

The rain didn't seem to touch him and he was as dry as if he were standing indoors, out of the cold rain. She heard his kind and calm voice in her ear again but the words did not come from his lips. "It is time you were given back to your rightful people." And before she could process what he was on about he was gone, like a summer's breeze.

When Kim got back to her basement apartment, the first thing that she did was find the first copy of Lord of the Rings that her dad had given her. It was tatty and some of the pages were falling out but she didn't want to read it, she just wanted to read the elvish writing that was on the inside. It was in sliver ink and it was written in a flowing script. She had learned how to speak and write in elvish when she was 8 from her dad and when she could finally read it herself it said, "To my darling little hobbit. May your heart guide you to the people that you belong with." When she found the Fellowship of the Ring, she sat on her bed and opened it to the first page. She ran her fingers over the sliver writing. She read what it said out loud and she listened to the words. Her dad had always called her his little hobbit or his little Brandybuck.

A raindrop tear fell onto the page. Kim set down the book and went in to her mockery of a kitchen and put the kettle on the stove. Tears ran down her face like water down stream. She missed her dad so much. When she was little he had bought her a blue light-sabre that glowed and she called it Sting. Then one Halloween he had helped her make a Pippin costume for her school Halloween party and she won 1st prize because of it. She smiled as she remembered her dads smiling face as she pretended to be her fathers favourite character and as he pretended to be Merry and they danced about the living room singing "Ho ho ho to the pub I go". She took the kettle off the stove when it started singing and she made herself a strong cup of coffee. She walked over to her bed again and settled under the covers and she started to read Lord of the Rings.

As she read she became tired even thought she had drank nearly 5 cups of very strong coffee. She had already read the Fellowship of the Ring and the Two Towers and she was half way through the Return of the King. Since she had read them so many times she could read all three in one night but when she started to get near the end were Frodo leaves she became very sleepy. In the book as Sam returned home, Kim fell asleep and the books fell to the floor out of her hands.

She woke up to the sound of rippling streams and soft wind through the branches of Willow trees. She sat up slowly as her head was spinning and she felt slightly sick as if she had been spun around and around very fast. When she sat up properly, she found that she was bare-footed and had soft curly hair on her feet. She was wearing an emerald green skirt that was half way up her shins, an emerald green corset and a white long sleeved shirt. Her hair was all in curls and her raven locks flowed down her back like a waterfall. Her hands went to her ears and she found that they were pointed. She couldn't believe what had happened. She couldn't be. But she was. No what a foolish idea. But all the evidence pointed to that conclusion. She was a hobbit of the Shire.

I hope you enjoyed this newly re-written chapter and please review it so I can change it again if I need to. Thanks.