Chapter 38 Unexpected visitors
After they had been back a little over a month, a group of visitors came to the valley of Imladris. Normally, this was no ordinary thing. Numerous visitors came to The Last Homely House all the time. What made these so different was they were the first dwarves to have entered the valley in many, many years. Estel had been down by the river visiting some of his friends when the new comers showed up.
Estel and Fingol ran outside when they heard the commotion. All of the elves that lived around the river were throwing taunts at the company of travelers.
"Don't dip your beard in the foam father!"
"Mind Bilbo doesn't eat all the cakes, he is too fat yet to go through key-holes."
One traveler who stood taller than the others quickly silenced the merry tongues of the elves. Estel had seen a couple of dwarves every now and then, but they were not frequent visitors to Imladris for obvious reasons. So he knew what they were and he figured the man with grey hat was a wizard, so that left only one.
He quietly whispered to Fingol, "What is that?" he said pointing down at the company passing over the bridge. "A dwarf."
"I know that! What is that?"
"Oh, that is a perian, or halfling."
"A what?"
"A perian."
Estel gave up; he would have to find out from Elrond what the mysterious creature with furry feet was.
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He would not find out until the next day who or what the strange creature was. That night, there was a grand fest for the guests that Elrond's entire household had been invited to. Estel ended up sitting next to the strange creature and one of the younger dwarves, who he found out, was Kili. During the course of the meal, he enjoyed hearing of their trip so far from a place he had never heard of called The Shire.
Finally, towards the end of the evening, he struck up the courage to ask Mr. Baggins what he was. For indeed the strange creature was none other than Mr. Bilbo Baggins of The Shire who was recruited by the wizard Gandalf to accompany the dwarves on their trek to recover their stolen treasure from a dragon called Smaug.
Estel asked timidly, "Mr. Baggins, sir, what are you?"
Bilbo laughed. He had always been fond of children and Estel was the first human he had ever met. "Why I am a hobbit, my dear boy. I can see you have never heard of us and for good reason. We mainly keep to ourselves and very rarely travel nor openly accept 'strangers.' We are mainly a people of farmers and growers. We live holes in the ground sometimes called smials. We crave peace and comfort which is why all this business with the dwarves has had me in knots."
Estel nodded. That would make sense as to why he had never seen a hobbit, but he would have to ask Elrond more about them. Estel was looking forward to The Hall of Fire this night. He had never heard dwarven music before.
In the Hall, the Dwarves pulled out their flutes and drums and were eventually joined by some of the Elven musicians. This surprised many of the household, but Estel was transported in his mind by Elven ships to the halls of the dwarves and had dreams of this all through the night.