Hey, guys. Back with another chapter. This may be a longer one. I'm hoping to get through the whole scene at Bag End in this chapter. Also, just for the sake of this story, the main dining room is big enough to accommodate the Dwarves and our three Avengers.
Let's get to it.
Chapter 3- An Unexpected Party
Steve and Bucky stare into the fire, silent and thinking about what's happened in the last 24 hours. T'Challa is standing over a table, studying a map of Middle-Earth.
It's been a few hours since Gandalf dropped them off with Bilbo. Bilbo has been a very gracious host. He has asked them more about themselves in an effort to get to know them, and done everything he could to make sure he was comfortable.
At the moment, he's in the kitchen, cooking dinner. He had returned from a brief trip to the market just a short time ago.
"Excuse me, friends." The three of them turn to see Bilbo standing in the doorway to the kitchen, which doubled as a smaller dining room.
"I have finished dinner. If you all are ready," he says.
The three of them all stand up. "Thank you, Bilbo. We're very grateful for your hospitality," Steve says.
"Oh, it's no problem, Steve. It's the least I can do," Bilbo says as he gestures for them to come into the kitchen.
The three of them sit down with Bilbo around a small table. Each has a plate with half a fried fish, some potatoes, and a small cake each.
"I apologize for it not being much. Usually I would've had a fish for each of us, and some more potatoes. I just didn't have time to prepare enough," Bilbo says.
"Oh, it's no problem, Bilbo. This is more than enough," Steve says.
The three Earth natives dive into their dinner. T'Challa and Bucky are particularly hungry, while Steve isn't too hungry, and just slowly eats his potatoes and cake.
"It's been a while since I hosted guests for dinner. Usually, I have guests over for lunch, and take the evenings to myself," Bilbo comments as he seasons his fish.
"Well, we're sorry for taking up your evening. Really, your hospitality exceeds the hospitality of many I knew from my home," Steve says.
"Indeed. We could ask no more," T'Challa says politely. Bilbo smiles, clearly flattered by such praise from T'Challa. It's slightly amused the three how much he's tried to impress or make sure T'Challa's needs were met. Knowing what they do about the Shire and Hobbits, they know visits from other races are rather rare, and royalty from other races visiting the Shire is unheard of.
Before Steve can ask Bilbo another question about himself, the doorbell suddenly rings. Everyone turns to look towards the door. Bilbo stands up and walks over to answer the door.
When he opens the door, he finds a dwarf, with a massive beard and bald head, and two axes on his back. He turns to Bilbo as the door opens, then bows a little. "Dwalin, at your service," the dwarf says.
"Umm…Bilbo Baggins…at yours," Bilbo replies.
Dwalin steps inside as Bilbo asks, "Umm, do we know each other," wondering if Dwalin is some old acquaintance he's forgotten.
"No," Dwalin says bluntly. He then looks around and asks, "Which way, laddie? Where is it?"
"Where is what?" Bilbo asks.
"Supper. He said there'd be food, and lots of it," Dwalin says.
"He said? Who said?" Bilbo asks, feeling extremely confused.
It's right then that Dwalin notices Bilbo's three guests. He looks at them for a moment before he says, "Ahh. You must be the three Men he mentioned."
They all nod. "Captain Steve Rogers." "Bucky Barnes." "King T'Challa of Wakanda."
Dwalin bows his head respectfully. He then asks, "Do you all know where the food is?"
Steve steps away and gestures to his plate. "You can have my dinner. I haven't been very hungry anyway," Steve says.
Dwalin stomps forward and quickly starts devouring the food. Bilbo feels appalled that a guest felt compelled to give up his food. But, Steve doesn't seem bothered by the fact.
"You're very generous, Captain," Dwalin says as he devours the fish whole.
Suddenly, there's another ring of the doorbell. Bucky steps towards it and says, "Don't worry, Bilbo. I'll get it for you."
"You don't need to, Bucky," Bilbo says, feeling he is starting to fail as a host. But Bucky smiles and says, "No worries, Bilbo. Least I can do for your hospitality."
Bucky opens the door, revealing a white haired and bearded dwarf, who looks to be older than Dwalin. He cheerfully smiles and says, "Balin, at your service."
Bucky returns the smile and says, "Nice to meet you, Balin."
Balin nods and says, "I guess you must be Bucky."
Bucky grins, realizing what's going on. "I'm guessing Gandalf told you and your friend about me and my friends," he says.
"Friend?" Balin asks, before noticing Dwalin. He chuckles as he walks into Bag End and says, "Evening, brother."
Dwalin looks at Balin and laughs a bit. "Ha. By my beard. You're shorter and wider than last we met," he says.
Balin chuckles before saying, "Wider. Not shorter. Sharp enough for both of us."
The two brothers chuckle before grasping each other's shoulders. Then, they slam their foreheads together. Bucky flinches a bit, feeling that that can't be pleasant.
Bilbo is feeling more confused than ever. He pipes up and asks, "Are you sure you've come to the right place?"
Balin and Dwalin somewhat ignore his question as they head towards the pantry. Bilbo stands by the entrance to the pantry as they start searching through his food, launching into a bit of a monologue about his objections to the two Dwarves just showing up.
Steve, Bucky, and T'Challa stand off to the side, watching in amusement at the unfolding situation. Bucky leans over to Steve and whispers, "I'm pretty sure this is all Gandalf's doing."
"I was thinking the exact same thing," Steve says with a grin, right as Bilbo reaches the end of his monologue and says, "I'm sorry."
Dwalin and Balin turn to Bilbo. Balin, not having heard Bilbo prior to his apology, just smiles and says, "Apology accepted." He then then urns to Dwalin and hands him a mug to fill with ale, saying, "Come on. Fill it up, brother, don't stint."
Bilbo, feeling annoyed that the Dwarves didn't listen at all, is about to speak up again. That is, until the doorbell rings again. Annoyed, he stomps off to answer it.
"Do you know a bigger room where all of us can eat?" Balin asks.
"Yeah. It's right around the corner here," Bucky says, motioning towards the entrance of the large dining room.
"Perfect. That is just perfect," Balin says.
Balin and Bucky start working to clear some extra furniture out of the dining room. Steve and T'Challa hang back as they watch the goings on with amusement.
"Excuse me." The two turn around to see a handsome dwarf with dark hair, and a short beard, standing before them, with another dwarf right behind him, with a bigger beard, and blondish hair.
"Are you Captain Rogers and King T'Challa?" the first dwarf asks.
Steve and T'Challa both nod. "Yes, we are," T'Challa responds.
The two dwarves. "Kili," the first dwarf says. "And Fili," the second says, and the two bow low as they say in sync, "At your service."
"Good to meet you, Kili and Fili," Steve says.
The two dwarves smile. Then, Dwalin comes stomping over and grabs Kili as he says, "Fili. Kili. Come on, give us a hand."
"Mister Dwalin," Kili says with a big grin as Dwalin leads him to the dining room.
"Let's move this out of here. Otherwise we'll never get everyone in," Balin says.
Bilbo stumbles up, his arms filled with weapons that Fili had him take for him. "Everyone? How many more are there?" he demands.
"Here, Bilbo let me take those for you," Steve says as he takes the weapons out of his arms, moving to set them down in another room.
Bilbo gives Steve a grateful look. Then, the doorbell rings again, and Bilbo looks seriously irritated as he stomps towards the door, shouting, "No! No! There's nobody home! Go away and bother somebody else! There's far too many dwarves in my dining room as it is! If this is some clothead's idea of a joke…Ha ha…I can only say, it is in very poor taste."
As he finishes his rant, he opens the door, only for eight dwarves to fall through the open door in a large pile.
Biblo just stands there, stunned, looking down at the eight dwarves, who are clambering over each other, trying to get up, and groaning. Then, behind them, Gandalf leans down to look into Bag End. Bilbo sighs as he looks at Gandalf, knowing who the culprit is now.
"Gandalf…" he says in exasperation.
Within minutes, Bag End had become a hive of movement. Dwarves were bustling back and forth between the pantry and the kitchen, and fetching chairs from other rooms. Steve, Bucky, and T'Challa just kind of watched in amusement as Bilbo protested against various things being taken out of his pantry or antique pieces of furniture being brought to the dining room.
Bucky and Steve were helping to set the table for the dwarves, wanting to be helpful. T'Challa, after a moment of looking around, assisted the dwarves in bringing in some barrels of ale into the dining room.
"Excuse me. Captain Rogers? Mr. Bucky? Mr. Gandalf?" The two Americans and the wizard turn to see one of the dwarves, Dori, with a tray in his arms.
"May I tempt you with a cup of chamomile?" he politely offers.
"Oh, no, Dori. A little red wine, for me, I think," Gandalf replies.
"That sounds good. I'd like some," Bucky says.
"I'll have the same," Steve says.
Dori nods and turns away. Gandalf takes the opportunity to step out of the dining room, accidently bumping into the chandelier in the process. After straightening the chandelier, he proceeds to count all the dwarves by name, making sure everyone was present.
As he finished, one of the dwarves, Bifur, who Steve and the others have found interesting because of the axe head stuck in his forehead, steps in and speaks in some unknown language, with several body motions to accompany it.
"Yes, you're quite right Bifur," Gandalf says, before turning around and saying, "We appear to be one Dwarf short."
"He is late is all. He travelled north to a meeting of our kin. He will come," Dwalin says.
"Who is this you're talking about?" Steve asks.
"Who you would call the 'man in charge'," Gandalf says cryptically.
A moment later, Dori comes up, bearing four small glasses, only about the size of shot glasses, and says, "Mister Gandalf, Bucky, and Rogers. A little glass of red wine, as requested. It's got a fruity bouquet."
"Oh, cheers," Gandalf says as he takes his glass. Steve and Bucky take theirs, and the three down the wine in one gulp.
Gandalf looks almost in disappointment at the glass. Steve chuckles and says, "Hey, you worded your request 'a little red wine'. I say that's what you got." He and Gandalf and Bucky all chuckle.
Soon, the table is set, and the dwarves' rowdy dinner begins. Some food is thrown acorss the dining room as Gandalf, Steve, T'Challa, and Bucky sit in the two corners near the entrance.
The three Earth natives don't eat too much, as they are all pretty filled from the food they were able to eat before Dwalin's arrival. However, when the Dwarves all make a toast with their ale, the three decide to join in and each down a mug of ale themselves.
Once the drinking is done, several dwarves let out some belches. There are several good ones before Ori lets out a very long and drawn out one, drawing many laughs from the other dwarves.
Once the dwarves had finished eating, they began to clear away some of the rubbish left behind. Steve and T'Challa walked out into the main hall, while Bucky helped to return the furniture commandeered for dinner to their rightful places in Bag End.
As Steve and T'Challa talked, out of the corner of their eyes, they saw Bilbo come stalking out of another room, fuming, with Gandalf behind him.
"They've pillaged the pantry. I'm not even gonna tell you what they've done in the bathroom. They've all but destroyed the plumbing. I don't understand what they're doing in my house," Bilbo says angrily as he stalks past Steve and T'Challa.
Suddenly, Ori comes walking up and asks, "Excuse me. I'm sorry to interrupt, but what should I do with my plate?"
Fili walks up out of nowhere and says, "Here you go Ori, give it to me." He then throws it to Kili, who whips around and throws it to Bifur at the sink. Another plate quickly follows, and soon multiple dishes and pieces of cutlery are flying around. Steve and T'Challa stand there, quietly impressed with the reflexes and skill being displayed right now.
Bilbo is not of the same mind. He worriedly shouts, "Excuse me! That's my mother's West Farthing pottery! It's over a hundred years old."
In the dining room, four of the dwarves start rhythmically stamping their feet and thumping their fists against the tables as they tap knives against each other.
"Can you not do that? You'll blunt them!" Bilbo demands.
"Oh, you here that, lads? He says we'll blunt the knives," Bofur says in a voice of mock worry.
Then, to the amazement of Steve, T'Challa, and Bucky, the dwarves suddenly start to sing.
"Blunt the knives, bend the forks
Smash the bottles and burn the corks
Chip the glasses and crack the plates
That's what Bilbo Baggins hates!
Cut the cloth, tread the fat
Leave the bones on the bedroom mat
Pour the milk on the pantry floor
Splash the wine on every door
Dump the crocks in a boiling bowl
Pound them up with a thumping pole
When you're finished, if they are whole
Send them down the hall to roll
That's what Bilbo Baggins hates!"
Throughout this song, the dwarves continue throwing dishes and cutlery through Bag End. Bilbo is fuming a bit at their seeming insensitivity. But, at the end of the song, he hurries into the dining room to find all the dishes stacked neatly, all of them clean. At this point, Steve, Bucky, and T'Challa can't help but chuckle to themselves at Bilbo's reaction, and just at how funny the whole scene before them seems.
The merriment is cut short when three loud knocks are heard upon the door.
Everyone turns to look at the door. After a moment, Gandalf looks around at everyone and says softly, "He is here."
I'm actually gonna end there. I know, we're getting to the good part. But I don't want this chapter to be too long.
Next chapter will finish up the scene at Bag End. Then, we get into the journey to Erebor.
Well, I have nothing more to say, other than to please, please review, and stay tuned!
