Author's Notes: Well so far everyone seems to be enjoying the fic more than I thought they would. Hopefully I can continue to keep your interest. This isn't really like anything I've written before, so it's challenging for me to approach, but I think with time I'll fall into this story and chapters will pop out faster! This Bilbo is much more outgoing than the Bilbo in Pressing Flowers, so it's going to be different. Also note that any translations that are used in dragon tongue are collected from Google translate. Pleased don't get offended by my lack of knowledge in the language I've chosen. I've never spoken a word of Swedish in my life, and I honestly won't claim I can speak it! I know GT sucks for the most part, but it's the only translator that I have access to. Translations will be at the bottom of each chapter! – CAS

Demons

Chapter One: Unexpected but not Unwelcome!

The last time Arandur had seen that Grey form walking through the Shire was when he had been the an old Thain known as Finn Took, apparently he had been the oldest Thain to date which was quite a feat for hobbits he assumed. He had been sitting in a wheeled chair in the garden of his large smial in the White Downs. The Wizard had approached him with a large smile on his face, addressing him as always in the language of the dragons, a simple greeting that varied by age. For this visit he simply said

"Hej, Guldhjärta. Du är vackrare än sist vi sågs!" The sentence caused the old dragon to snort with in good humor before waving him off, pretending not to notice the wizard who had taken to leaning cockily against his staff on the other side of the gate.

"Jag har alltid varit vacker jämfört med dig, trollkarl!" He replied with a wild smile spread across his wrinkled face. His hazel eyes seeming to shine with mischif at the wizard's snarky words. Their conversation had switched to an understandable language as to not cause suspission, but they always said their hellos and goodbyes in dragon tongue for to few spoke it, and it always seemed to make Arandur feel alive again.

It had been well over 159 years since the great dragon had laid eyes on Gandalf the Grey. Not that Bilbo could complain, he had known that Gandalf rarely showed his face in times of peace, even during the Fell Winter Bilbo had only heard that the wizard had fought for the Hobbits, even though help had never come. The hobbits in the Shire knew that there had been a dragon to protect them that day. It seems like the golden dragon who appeared at times of need since the forming of the Shire was there, and it seems like it always would be.

Stories of Arandur the Golden were always being spoken in the Shire, even if they couldn't stand abnormailties, they had come to accept the feral beasts that only appeared when they needed it most. Word of the beast never escaped the boarders of the shire, mostly because the Hobbits didn't want people to know of the abnormality that lingered in the area, and also because they feared that Arandur would leave. The great dragon never actually said he would leave if they spoke about him, but the hobbits had assumed it was implided, and honestly Bilbo liked that better.

As Bilbo Baggins, it only seemed right to live alone, for some reason he sensed it would be better for him if he lived alone. He had a feeling that being attatched to people in the Shire would now only bring pain, and both Bilbo Baggins and Arandur knew that pain very well. Something had simply told them that in this life, he needed to be recluse, and had he known the reason a few months ago, he might not have followed that feeling.

Yes it was a beautiful day in the Shire the next time Gandalf the Grey showed his face in Hobbiton. It had been a lovely day for Bilbo, he had made himself a wonderful first breakfast before popping off to the market for supplies for the next week or so. He had bought a mass amount of food and had been even more pleased when a few of the market boys had offered to help him carry it to Bag End in exchange for elevensies (as they had all seemed to miss second breakfast). Bilbo had agreed happily, it wasn't often that the fauntlings offered assistance to the recluse Bilbo Baggins, and honestly he wasn't about to argue with them.

After a rather pricy trip to the Green Dragon Bilbo Baggins found himself with a completely blank schedule it had only thaken him half an hour to unload his bounty of the day, and a little bit longer to set about cleaning his smial before he was completely out of this to do. This was something that happened often to Bilbo, he did so much in a morning and then was left with almost nothing to do for the next few days.

Hamfast had come through and weeded his garden while he was out, he had dropped off the ripe produce, and left a note saying that "once again Bilbo had won grand prize at the harvest festivle with his tomatoes, again." on a normal day he likely would have been extatic, but today he felt unsettled, he felt restless in his own skin. It was like his dragon knew that today was going to be different then all of the other days this lifetime.

It wasn't until it was nearing nightfall that he decided that if nothing else was planned he would bake, and bake he did. A tingle down his spine told him to do it, and thinking back on it he was more than glad he did. He spent hours baking pies, tarts, muffins, cupcakes, and many other different delights. He also spent quite an amount of time throwing together a large pot of stew filled with vegtables, beef, chicken, and also a bit of rice. He made a few different dishes for a main course that consisted of a rump roast, a number of roasted chickens, a large selection of meats and cheeses were chopped and aranged on a platter, and he rolled a large keg of ale out from his storage hull.

He couldn't name the countless other foods he had spent time preparing, but his mind simply wouldn't let him stop, Arandur wouldn't let him stop. His body had been itle for too long, it had been peaceful for too long, he needed to prepair for something, even if he hadn't a clue for the life of him what that something was.

He had just finished adding some ground red pepper to the soup for flavor when a loud knocking sounded at his door. It was a blunt yet polite knock, so Bilbo really didn't feel the need to ignore it as he normally would, though he likely wouldn't have been able to have ignored it even if someone had tied him down. He felt as if something had hooked his chest and was pulling him through the door. Though he did proceed with caution, gripping a small sword that he always kept on his person just in case. He peaked from his window to find the oddest of sights, six extremely burly looking creatures staring at his door, seeming to vibrate with energy. When this time a different hand knocked this time Bilbo remembered himself and slowly opened the door. The group of creatures were bathed in the light from his home were clearly male Dwarrows and he took note of all of them.

There were three that looked like they could possibly be related in one way or another, though the three looked equally as different. The childish looking strawberry blond had a haircut that looked much like their gardian had plopped a large bowl atop their head and cut what wasn't covered, the haircut was all around innocent which seemed to fit the young dwarrow very well. The chocolate haired dwarrow beside him had extremely complex braids that seemed to be everywhere, even his eyebrows (which made Bilbo cringe slightly). The third had silver hair braided in different basket weaves, looking all around regal (for a dwarf who had obviously been traveling) and clearly was the head of their small family.

The other three looked almost nothing alike. There was a wild looking one with salt and pepper hair (Oh himmel, was that an axe?) and a slightly crazed glint in his eye. He seemed to be the oldest out of the dwarrows standing in that trio, but if he actually was Bilbo wasn't sure. There was a pleasant looking Dwarrow with a gentle face and an odd hat that seemed to be resting well in place a top his head, he had long dark colored hair that was braided into two twisting braids at the base of his skull. The last Dwarf was a very large red haired dwarf bilbo honestly didn't think that even he plus the dwarf with the hat could hug him all the way around.

" Vilka är ni?" Bilbo blurted suddenly, causing a range of extremely confused "whats?" and "What language is that?!" – Ori – before he corrected himself with a very wide eyed, "Sorry, who are you?" He asked as politely as he possiply could. His hazel eyes seeming to flash a slight golden hue in annoyance when they all started speaking at once. "I'll ask once again, who are you?" He asked once they had gone silent, his brow was raised and he was obviously extremely confused with the situation.

"I'm Bofur!" The hatted Dwarf called with a large cheeky smile, he went about introducing the rest of the Dwarfs in a quick line that Bilbo was sure he wouldn't have remembered had he actually been a Hobbit. All at once the second he finished stating the last name they stated boldly "at your service!"

"B-Bilbo Baggins, at yours?" He said with wearing a very unsure expression over his mask of innocent indifference.

"Are we late?!" Ori said excitedly, looking as if he was seconds away from charging the door.

"Late? Late for what?" Bilbo said with a confused expression, his eyes crossing over the face of each Dwarrow before they returned to the Dwarf whom had spoken. "I wasn't even expecting visitors, what do you mean by late?" He questioned stepping out of his home and shutting the door behind him, taking in the odd expressions that crossed over each face before leaning against the beautifully painted (and unmarked) door.

"Did Gandalf not come?" the silver haired Dwarf questioned, he looked slightly panicked, so much so that Bilbo almost worried for his health.

"Gandalf hasn't visited Bag End for over 50 years, Master Dori," He paused, pleased to see that the fact that he had remembered the Dwarf's name seemed to cheer him up slightly. "Though even if he would have, I doubt he would have informed me of visitors, Wizards are like that you know." He said in a matter of fact tone that the Dwarrows seemed to take in a teasing manner.

"Well that's not good, " The first Dwarrow introduced by Bofur -Nori, Bilbo remembered- let out a bark of a laugh and scratched his head in an awkward manner.

"Aye, Wizards are odd folk indeed." He said, almost getting the whole thought, "But that's why we get along so well!" A nother bark of laughter escaped the small group before a loud rumble of a stomach, -from Bombur- seemed to cut out the entire conversation at an end.

"Well, take your boots off on the step and toss your cloaks over the fence." He said carefully, seeing the confusion crossing the face of the others he smiled slightly, "Your boots smell of pig filth, can't have that in my house, I spent the after noon on a stress cooking spree, I have some food to spare."

He barely got it out of his mouth before the Dwarrows were stripping out of their cloaks and boots and eagerly boncing from foot to foot, he shook his head slightly and let them in the door with instructions to hang their weapons on the hooks on the wall. Which they did at an extremely fast pace, obviously very pleased that they wouldn't be left out on the stoop with the stars.

He set four of the six (Bombur, Bifur, Bofur, and Nori) to fetch the party table he had out of his storage hull, and asked Dori and Ori to assist him with collecting chairs and drinks. This led to him dicovoring that the Ri brothers were extremely interesting yet very nurturing Dwarrows, Dori flustered about gathering enough drinks for the lot (13 Dwarrows in total, Bilbo almost fainted) while Ori enthusiastically talked about their perpose in meeting. Bilbo couldn't say he thought attempting a seemingly dangerous unknown adventure sounded like a good idea, but the group seemed almost overly confident in their unnamed leader.

He did have an interesting time trying to find out the family ethics of his current house guests, and those who would be arriving soon. Bofur and Bombur were brothes, as well as cousins to Bifur, who was distantly related to Nori's mother, though not to the others which led Bilbo to believe that they had the same father (given how similar they looked) but not the same mother (which made the noticible differences mace sense). Aparently somehow they were all distantly related, all but three who were related to eachother but not the main group. It was an odd group made up of friends, family relations that didn't quite make sense, adopted family, and obligations.

It was odd from a dragon's stand point, or even a hobbit stand point to think of gathering such a missmatched group to attempt any form of quest, let alone a quest that was as large as this with such a small group. Hobbits and Dragons both kept family of blood in their hoards, blood was more important than anything to the creatures, dragons infact could go thousands of years in hybernation just to avoid people who weren't blood while their blood kin were away. Hobbits were almost the same, while they enjoyed good food and drink, when it came to family they were extremely prideful, they would suffer to the grave with their blood kin to avoid asking help from other families. To them it wasn't good to owe anyone anything, who knew if they would use it against you.

Everyone had gathered around the table and was talking loudly with a mug of ale and a cup of tea while Bilbo set about the kitchen grabbing a bowl of stew for each of the Dwarrows at the table. He set aside all of the roasted chickens, ham, and the two extra rump roasts he had set to cook before retiring to sit and wait until his spring timer went off. He was busy pounding out some dough for biscuits when he thought he heard the a twin set of fists knocking on his front door. He poked his head into the dining room and looked about for a moment.

"Was that the door?" He asked loudly so he would be heard over the chatter.

"Ta, must be the twin girlies, can't even knock on the door themselves!" Bofur mocked with a playful sneer when Bilbo asked who he thought it was. Bilbo looked confused at the mention of girls when Bofur waved him off, "Fili and Kili, Thorin's nephews. They really are like girls, but they don' fuck nearly as well as 'em!" He said rudely causing everyone, to go quiet for a moment.

"Well at least they think they do." Was the statement that could barely be heard as a small mumble from Ori, which sent the entire group into a roaring fit of laughter. Bilbo honestly didn't know what to think of the not so innocent little statement that Ori had mumbled, but he decided it was useless to try to scold him. With a sigh and the shake of his golden curls he slowly moved toward the door, slightly dreading what could possibly be lingering on the other side. He hoped desperately that these Dwarrows wouldn't be worse than his current grouping.

If only he remembered that a Hobbit's wish unlike a dragon's rarely comes true…

TBC

Notes: Translations by Google translate (I apologize if the translations are bad; I just use what I get my hands on!)

Overtherisingstar was kind enough to give me correct translations! So this is the updated list, I'm going to give "Bing Translator" a try for the next chapter, we'll see how that goes!

"Hej, Guldhjärta. Du är vackrare än sist vi sågs!"- "Hello, gold heart. You are more beautiful than when we last met!"

"Jag har alltid varit vacker jämfört med dig, trollkarl!" – "I've always been beautiful compared to you, wizard!"

"Vilka är ni?" - ""Who are you?"

"himmel"- "Heaven"