Really guys, really? I only have four chapters, we haven't even begun the real plot yet, and I already have 11 favorites, 3 reviews, and 13 follows! My Lordy, that`s more than I have gotten on my last one! *Has flashbacks* Yeah, let`s just forget about those things. Anywho, thank you guys so much! I`m just trying my best to tread lightly on Liesel`s character; you may or may not have any idea of how to incorporate a child into more adult conditions; and make the character "good". And if any of you want to tell me something, good or bad, please tell me; I`d much appreciate anything that I could fix, add, take away, etc.

"Lise, little Liesel, it`s time to wake up." A voice that added a hint of sweetness calmly spoke into her ear and shook her.

She groaned just a hint, and refused to open her eyes or to get up off the floor. The voice tried again, shaking her left shoulder.

The tiny hobbit moaned again, louder this time, and shoved his hand away "Go away," and showed her back to him.

The owner of the voice grinned, snatched the thin blanket covering her, and ripped the cover off her tiny form.

This caused her to shoot her eyes open, and instantly shove the person who distupted her.

He lightly chuckled at her attempt of attack and grabbed her wrists "Hey, if you`re going to come with us, you gotta wake up when awoken." He said, just with a bit more seriousness.

She stared at him, then sighed, and he let go of her wrists "Anything else?" She asked.

Kili could not tell by her tone of voice if she was sarcastic, or crucial about her question. But, he could not go against his morals.

He grinned at her again "Yes, remind me and Fili to teach you not to hit like a pansy."

Even in the pitch black, the dwarf knew the girl opened her mouth to give a snappy retort, so he instantly interrupted her. "No time little princess, we have to leave."

She sighed, and lifted herself off the ground, and reached her hands away from her to feel anything to guide her. "I can`t see anything."

Kili had also gotten up and moved without a worry of bumping into something or someone. "Here, I`ll open the curtains." He moved a few feet to a window, and swiftly pulled the curtains away.

No light entered the sitting room.

"You have got to be-." The girl whispered, until she had nearly tripped over a hunched figure.

"Watch it!" A dwarf, she believed to be Gloin, had hissed at her when her foot collided with his back as he was packing the bare necessities in his pack.

"Sorry," She whispered, and immediately filled with regret. She moved her foot away from the direction she was going to take, and treaded toward a different direction.

It hadn't been long after she almost stepped on poor Gloin, when she saw a light coming from the kitchen appear. Then one after another, more started appearing.

A small grin appeared on her face in relief as she made her way to the kitchen`s light.

Gandalf the Grey was doing something Liesel Hayward had never expected he would be doing in his life, as long as it is. The tall, wizard was trying his best at attempting not to break any of Bilbo`s appliances, as he, Bombur, and Bofur cooked breakfast for everyone.

She continued to gaze in utter wonder as the wizard she had slightly feared, was helping those shorter than him cook a meal with even tinier kitchen utensils.

Liesel suppressed a giggle as she remembered that she had not even lightly packed when she agreed to accompany the dwarves and Gandalf on the perilous quest. So, she quietly as best as she could, turned away from the cooks, and silently marched to the front door of the Baggins` Hobbit Hole.

"Ah, Ms. Hayward." Gandalf`s voice called to her from across the corridor when her hand was but an inch away from the handle.

The girl bit her tongue to not curse under her breath, and turned to see the dwarfs that helped Gandalf, and a few others slightly staring at her.

"Good morning," She remembered her manners and spoke up, not breaking eye contact with any of them.

"Where are you off to, lass?" Bofur asked, as he stopped stirring the dough in the bowl.

She thought quickly "Just need to clear my head,"

An almost invisible smile drew on Gandalf`s face. "My dear, lying isn't always going to help you escape. You must know that."

She froze for a split second. How could he have known? Then nodded. "I need to gather my belongings."

The wizard`s face fell, and just a few of the dwarves either silently sighed, or made small remarks to one another.

"My dear Liesel, if you are to accompany us on this journey, our expectations for you may be higher than you might think."

Not even thinking of saying a snappy comeback, she nodded her head "I know, sorry sir." That was also an etiquette rule her mother hammered into her mind; to call a person of higher authority a "ma`am" or "sir".

The wizard couldn't help but smile at her manners "Now run along, do not be astonished if we would leave without you." He slightly teased.

A shy smile was on her face when she pushed the door open and quietly sprinted to her Hobbit Hole.

…

She had luckily hopped into the bushes just in time her mother came out of the door. Liesel had never recalled that her mother was out of the house before light, even when the taxes on their home was but a week away.

It wouldn't have been 24 hours since Liesel ran out in tears, but the darkest of black was under Briar`s eyes, and she would stumble as she slowly walked away from her comfort of home. Liesel had the slightest idea why she was up at this hour, but dismissed it. If her mother really loved her, then why had she hit her?

When Briar was finally out of sight, the girl crawled out of the bushes, and instead of getting up and walking to the front door, she stayed on her knees and crept to the back of the hole, where her bedroom was.

This was one of her earlier moments of being a bright hobbit; she knew her mother hadn't locked the door, but she would not risk any of her neighbors spotting her; especially Mrs. Shaw.

She had gotten on her feet when she was 99% sure she was out of sight, and reached with all her might in her short arms to her window. She had successfully grabbed onto the base of the window, and pulled herself up.

While holding on, she carefully slid her fingers across the base and grabbed the bottom of the window; thank Valar that her mother gave her the room with the slid open window.

She carefully pulled the window open all the way up, it was just enough for her to crawl through. She went feet first and attempted to carefully pull herself through. Her outcome wasn't exactly… graceful, per say.

She had accidently pulled herself in to low, and ended up bruising her ribs on the base through her dirty blouse she had worn yesterday. She let out a gasp as she thought to have fallen on the hard floor, but was met with soft material. She had forgotten her window was directly place under her bed.

There were many things she had needed to improve on for the journey. She needed to have a better memory, learn how to fight, keeping her mouth shut, and keep her pain to herself; at one or perhaps two instances of her tale, she had been able to master all four of these. But often, there was always one she`d proceed to throw out the window.

The young hobbit let out a sigh of relief, then slightly pulled her blouse up to see the damage on her side. There was nothing there, but she knew that it would form into a dark bruise when she lightly touched it. She was not even a foot out of the Shire, and she had already injured herself; how was she going to handle thousands of miles of walking, not to mention a dragon at the end of the road?

She shook the thoughts out of her head, and dragged herself off the bed to her trunk in the corner to the door`s right.

Liesel took the lock into her tiny hand, and carefully unlatched the chest. She pulled the trunk open to reveal a few blouses, dresses, skirts, winter scarves, shawls, and other women`s clothing you can think of. Then there was only one of these pieces of clothing: a man`s green coat, a regular white shirt, a brown vest, and a pair of pants; all which she begged her mother to buy her.

Packing was also something she wasn't necessarily the best at. She had only decided to pack three of her blouses, two dresses, three skirts, one shawl, the green coat, the white shirt, and the pants. She had remembered one of the dwarves, Dwalin, had grumbled annoyingly along the lines of "pack lightly," but she had no idea how lite was too lite.

For her clothes, she stripped out of her dirty blouse and skirt, and put on a plain white blouse, and a spring green skirt that went to just about her ankles. She pulled the brown vest over her shoulders, deciding that she wouldn't put the green jacket on yet, since it was still fairly warm out.

She buttoned up her pack full of only clothes and the rest of the coins she had, and pulled it over her shoulder. She stared at the opened window, and shook her head. She stepped onto the bed, then closed the small window; it was best not to.

The girl hopped off the bed, and pulled her door open, carefully of course. She looked around the sitting room to see any signs of her mother being there. The door was still closed, and it didn't look like nothing moved from the place Liesel saw through the window as she moved to the back.

She treaded out of her room and calmly closed her bedroom door, knowing possibly the last time ever seeing it. Did she really want to do this? The only time she was ever away from home, was when it was the third year her father hadn't returned home, and she and her mother were determined to at least look for him in Bree. Briar was more hopeful and faithful back then.

Her worried facial turned into a scowl at the memories, she could not leave when others had their home taken away from them; she just had to suck it up, and leave. Besides, she signed the contract, she couldn't back out now, could she?

She didn't bother to think anymore, and tried her best to not storm out of her home and make a scene. Instead, she gripped the door`s handle, and pushed it open.

Thankfully, her mother or anyone else wasn't out and about, for it was still fairly dark out, but you could see hints of the sun awakening to the east.

Liesel hadn't forgotten about her mother at all as she was careful about heading back to Mr. Bilbo`s house, but she had chosen not to write just a small note; she had mostly forgotten about the hit, but there was still an unknown feeling of sticking it back to her mother.

…

She slowly opened Bilbo`s door and peeked inside to see half of the dwarves rushing themselves and each other to pack, and the other half sitting down to a merry breakfast. All of which was doing with little to no talking; who knew after dwarves ransacked Mr. Baggins` lovely home, they`d have the decency to not wake him up on purpose?

The thought made a sincere smile touch her face, and she set her bag down, and walked to the dining room where the other half of the dwarves were sitting, enjoying breakfast.

The first one to smile at her was Gandalf of course, who was sitting at the end of the table farthest away from her.

She gave a tiny smile back, and searched for Fili and Kili, the two dwarves she had had some knowing of. But alas, they were not at the table; it figured that they were with the other half that still needed to pack.

Feeling a bit out of place, she took one of the plates, and picked up four Johnnycakes and two hash browns. She would have preffered grape juice, but Bilbo seemed to not have a drop anywhere.

When she had gotten her food, she looked around the room for anywhere to possibly sit. She had looked from one side of the table to another about thirty times most likely, when a dwarf with maybe the funniest hat Liesel had ever seen finally noticed her hesitance.

"You can sit right here, lass." His beckoned her from her right, and looked to find him.

When she finally did, he waved his hand to her, and she smiled, walking to him, then sitting on his left.

"Is this your first time out of your home?" He instantly asked after she had taken a single bit of one of her Johnnycakes.

She swallowed first, then looked to him "Well no, but it`ll the first-time I`ll be far away from it."

He offered her a smile "You have any friends you`ll miss?"

She shrugged "I can`t really think of any at the moment, but yes, yes there will be."

"What about your mother and father?"

She set her fork down, and looked right to him. "How many questions do you ask in a day?" she asked, regretting it when she realized she sounded obviously annoyed.

Instead of scowling, he chuckled "You would pull all of your hair out if you even tried to count."

She smiled at this, and continued to eat from her plate.

"You didn't answer what I asked." He said, perhaps after four minutes of them eating in silence.

She looked at him, and didn't speak until she swallowed her second hash brown. "What did you ask again?"

"What about your ma and pa? It`d be a miracle for a burglar your age to come along." He tilted his head, almost causing his hat to fall.

She mentally wrote down another thing she needed to improve on that journey: quick thinking.

As she faced him, she stared at small things in the room; dust, small splinters from the table hanging, excetera.

"Lass?" the dwarf`s calm voice was what made her remember she was not alone.

"Oh? Sorry mister-." She tried desperately to remember the name that Gandalf used the other night, but could only remember his face from making poor Bilbo collapse, and seeing him making breakfast.

"Bofur," he said as she struggled to come up with the name.

"Huh?"

"Bofur, that is my name lassie. Always has been, and I don`t plan on changing it." He gave her a grin.

She returned the smile "Oh, I`m Liesel Hayward." She stuck her hand out for him to shake it, forgetting the better chance of him already knowing her name.

He did in fact remember her first and last name, who wouldn't though? She was the only female to ever even have the slightest possibility of joining. But, he kept the grin on his face, and shook her hand.

"Ah, it`s a pleasure to meet you Ms. Hayward." He spoke, almost letting out 'again' into the sentence.

To this she grinned again, and let go of his hand, returning back to her food; somehow unknow to these two, they were pretty much the only ones in the dining room still eating.

"You still didn't answer." He repeated again, after he let her get a few more bites of her second to last Johnnycake.

She looked back up to him again, but chewed slower, hoping that something would disrupt them.

At the moment, she hesitantly swallowed all of her food, a voice, belonging to Thorin, spoke up. "We move out."

In an instant, she gathered her plate up, and moved to the sink in the kitchen, and quickly turned on the water and scrubbed as much food off as possible. She then set the plate down, and dashed for the door, where about all of the company had gathered.

She shoved her way through several of the dwarves, and snatched up her small pack. From the sitting room, Gandalf appeared and placed his hand on the dwarves` heads one at a time.

"Oin, Gloin, Dwalin, Ori…" It went on like that for the other nine dwarves.

"Where`s Liesel?" He spoke when he tapped Nori`s head at the front.

She raised her hand up into the air for her to be seen. Thorin had rolled his eyes, still not believing it what Gandalf had explained to him the other night.

The old man smiled, and reached the bottom of his staff to carefully touch her palm "And Liesel."

She set her hand down, and put on a bright smile.

"We head for the Farmer Maggot." Thorin spoke sharply, and pushed the door open for the company to head out.

This was when her smile fell to a frown. Balin saw her face out of the corner of his left eye. "You alright, lassie?" He gently asked.

She slightly jumped his sudden voice, but calmed herself down and looked to him "Oh, I am, it`s just," She quickly tried to find her wording "The two of us haven't really seen eye to eye."

He gave her the smallest of smiles "I understand, there are a few dwarfs and other men I haven't gotten along with."

Liesel smiled at his kindness, and his morality to make it easier on her.

The whole company had walked out the door after that, and not even another hole away from Bilbo Baggins`, Gandalf spoke up. "Oh! Silly me, I have seemed to forgotten something." He said, and pushed himself through he dwarfs, ignoring their 'What could he have possibly forgotten?', 'Does it look like we have time to waste?' and my personal favorite, 'Will there be a day where the old man never forgets something?'

Maybe a minute or two later, the wizard came out of the home with nothing in his hand. Liesel and only few of the dwarves assumed he put it into his bag. "I am terribly sorry, I just could not simply leave without gathering it."

The girl thought Thorin would have demanded to know what he had forgotten, but with a roll of his eyes, turned back to the front "Move along."

So, they did. Not one word was said to Liesel, and not one word came out of her as they walked to the farmer`s land.

…

The sun was just halfway up when the company had made it to the Maggot`s Farm. Already, Liesel believed it had been the most she ever walked to get to one place to another.

The dwarves, wizard, and hobbit were directly in front of the farmhouse, which most people, including Liesel, had thought to be odd, and the stable when Gandalf knocks on the house door with his staff.

"Oh, for the love of Valar, who could be knocking right now?!" Gandalf, and every single being in the company, could here Mrs. Maggot, Cora, complaining on the other side.

"I don`t know, just stay back and keep quiet." He shushed her, and hesitantly pulled his door open.

"It is a pleasure to see you again, Dale Maggot." Gandalf spoke with a hint of cheerfulness.

The farmer pulled the door wide open "Gandalf the Grey, it is indeed a pleasure to see you too!"

The wizard laughed "Quite it is indeed. Now, the ponies?"

"Oh! Ah yes, the best I`ve got." He said, then walked down his front steps and lead them to the nearby stable, completely ignoring the dwarves.

He took the latch off the door "Fifteen, correct?" He asked as he pulled the doors open, and lead the company into the stable.

"Actually, we will need sixteen." Gandalf said, as he petted a nearby dark brown horse.

The farmer looked up from untangling another pony out of his reins and handing them to Bifur. "Sixteen?"

"Yes, it seems we`ve brought more luggage then we thought we had."

The farmer sighed, then walked to the back of the stables, Gandalf followed.

He opened the last door to a somewhat scrawny steed. "She doesn't look like much, but she may carry the smallest you have."

Gandalf looked back and at Liesel, who was attempting to hop onto a free pony, but was ultimately taken by Dwalin. The wizard smiled, then looked back. "She will do finely."

So, Gandalf payed for the scrawny pony, and took her to Liesel. "Alright my dear, this little one will be-,"

"Wait a minute," Farmer Maggot interrupted and practically threw another pony's reins to Fili, and walked right to Liesel "You`re Briar Hayward`s daughter?"

She nodded, and attempted to hide her slight fear of being recognized.

"Liesel, that`s your name?"

She nodded again.

"You`re the little brat years ago!" He suddenly rose his voice, causing many of the dwarves to stare.

"Dale Maggot, I believe it is not your place-." Gandalf began, but did not get quite far.

"You know, your momma screwed up a bunch of the work the past days!" He rose his voice louder, and moving just an inch closer.

This was the time Liesel could no longer stand silent "Well perhaps if you would do it yourself, then she wouldn't have!" Most of the company had been silenced by the little one`s retort; all except the youngest brothers, they had known she would have said something like they would have done to each other.

The wizard placed his hand onto Liesel`s small shoulder, promptly silencing her. "Come along, all of you." Gandalf spoke sharply to all the others, and they began to haul out of the stable.

"Hey, what about my money?" Dale Maggot asked, clearly not going to forget what Liesel said.

Without turning to look at him, Gandalf threw multiple coins behind him to the farmer, not taking his hand off of Liesel`s shoulder until he hoisted her up onto the pony.

"My dear child, you must learn to control your thoughts." He said to Liesel.

Instantly scolding her sudden 'shy to outspoken' phases, she avoided his eyes "Sorry sir,"

The wizard smiled at her again "You do not need call me that, nor anyone else, unless they prefer it." He reassured her.

She slightly looked to him, and gave a shy smile. If she had to be with someone she had only heard of but never met, she was thankful it was Gandalf.

With one last smile, he left her and went to the front to his horse.

"Ooo, who knew Liesel had that enough sass." She heard Fili`s voice tease her from behind, and heard a few giggles.

A wry smile appeared on her face, then turned "If you thought that was bad, believe me, you`ve seen nothing yet."

The same members chuckled. As they continued on, she had gotten more familiar with the dwarves that she thought were the easiest to talk to. She sang songs with them, played small games, and played a game of riddles. But, she hadn't quite forgotten about the contract she left at Bilbo`s home; and neither had Gandalf.

The morning sun was shining brightly through Bilbo`s bedroom window. Bilbo woke up on his bed, and suddenly realized that his house was very quiet. He walked all around his house expecting to run into the dwarves; however, there was no one there. The house had been cleaned up completely from the mess of the party last night, almost as if it had never happened.

"Hello?" He asked throughout the looked in all places, even the oddest. But to no avail, he found no one.

The hobbit peeked into his writing room near the front door, and saw no one. He seemed happy at first, then moved farther in. As he stopped, something had caught his eye; the contract and a small note placed right next to it.

He decided to read the note first.

"This will perhaps leave you ten minutes before we leave the Shire`s borders. You will have to run. No time for 'buts'. Off you go!" – Gandalf the Grey.

If his Tookish side wasn't begging for him to leave, now it was straight out screaming for him. In turn, after he found his home to be quite lonesome, and after reading Gandalf`s note, he was about to make his final decision, when he read the last line of the contract.

Burglar: Liesel Hayward and

He shot his glance up from the table. Liesel wasn't a regular child, believe me he had known that, but he never once expected her to drop everything and leave The Shire. His Tookish side was now physically pulling his hand onto a pen, and signed his name next to Liesel`s. Then it forced him to pack his bags in a flash, no money, nor walking stick like he usually carried anytime he went out.

But whence he stepped out his door, the rush of an adventure filled him, and told him to run, run as fast as he could.

So he did. He ran out of his garden and down the path, wearing a travelling pack and holding the contract. He ran through Hobbiton, jumping over fences and pumpkins in his haste like a little one. His neighbors shook their heads at him.

One of his neighbors he was the closets to, Mr. Gamgee shouted to him "Hey, mister Bilbo! Where you off to?"

With letting out a laugh, Bilbo responded "Can`t stop, I`m already late!"

"Late for what?!"

"I`m going on an adventure!" With that, he dashed further into the woods.

"He won`t be here, you two." Fili shook his head at his brother and Liesel.

"Yes he will!" They whined back, playfully.

He shook his head again, and opened his mouth to say something.

"Wait! Wait!" All of the company heard from behind.

Some dwarves called 'Woah!' and stopped their ponies. As Liesel did, she couldn't help but smile at him for coming, and not for her obvious reason.

Bilbo caught up with them and handed his contract to Balin. "I signed it,"

Balin took the contract and inspected it with a pocket-glass. He then smiled at Bilbo. "Everything appears to be in order. Welcome, Master Baggins, to the company of Thorin Oakenshield."

Bilbo smiled for a brief second, until he saw Liesel on a pony from the corner of his eye. "Oh uhm, she-she doesn't need to come, I-I`m taking her place." He stuttered.

Thorin rolled his eyes "Believe me, Master Burglar, if we could let her go, we would have done it by now." He eyed Gandalf, then back to Bilbo "Give him a pony."

He looked back to Thorin "No, no, no, no, that-that won't be necessary, thank you, but I-I'm sure I can keep up on foot. I- I-I've done my fair share of walking holidays, you know. I even got as far as Frogmorton once-WAGH!"

Bilbo's speech was cut off as Fili and Kili rode alongside him and picked him up from behind and set him on a pony.

He was soon greeted by a big smile from a small Liesel riding next to him. "Thank you,"

Bilbo looked to her "What?"

"Thank you for coming, now I won`t be alone."

A smile threatened to show on his lips, but his Baggins side for chivalry took over "W-well, you`re a child! I don`t see why they have to bring you along."

She furrowed her eyes at him, but then lightened them. "Then I guess I`m your responsibility."

He whipped his head around to look at her, mentally asking himself if he heard right.

She smirked at him "Good luck," she said, and with that, rode ahead to catch up with a few of the dwarves she met while riding.