Bilbo just cocked his curly head to the side and opened his mouth to say something but a knock at the door interrupted them. "That must be Gandalf," Bilbo said as he rose from the table.

"Who?" Ali asked, not being able to help but follow him.

"Gandalf the Gray," Bilbo repeated as if somehow that would answer her question. Then the second man from before flashed across her mind. It was only briefly though, everything had happened so quickly that she had not actually looked at him.

The only thing she was one hundred percent sure about though, was that as Bilbo swung open that door, the man on the other side was not the large gray man.

As he entered the house Ali just backed into the kitchen. This man was the epitome of not to be messed with, everything from his steely gaze to his forearms that looked like he spent his free time arm wrestling bears. Of course the axes he dropped in the hall were also a dead giveaway.

It was super awkward as both Ali and Bilbo sat in the room as he consumed their food. It was hard to watch, cause if there was one thing Ali enjoyed more than sleeping it was eating, but she just reminded herself of wrestling bears and didn't protest. Glancing up quickly she did a double take when she noticed they were both staring at her. Bilbo was sharply shaking his head, Dwalin (as he had introduced himself earlier) had stopped his chewing.

"What about bear's lass?" Dwalin asked glaring at her.

Thankfully a knock at the door interrupted before she could speak. "I got it!" Ali jumped up and darted out of the room. Pulling the door open quickly there was yet another man not dressed in gray.

"Pardon me Miss," The white haired man bent into a modest bow, "Balin at your service."

Ali returned the bow without really meaning to, and the man tottered around her, only to greet Dwalin. It was a strange greeting, caught somewhere between happy and violent. Together they moved back into the kitchen, talking loudly about food and what they had been up to. Bilbo followed protesting lightly, Ali on the other hand abandoned him. Slowly she backed into what she assumed was the living room and sank into one of the chairs.

This was beginning to be a bit much. Sure she could take one potentially crazy man, claiming to be a hobbit, but he was a kind hobbit. These new men didn't seem too kind, carrying weapons she had seen at a renaissance fair once. Plus where were all these crazies coming from? Ali stopped herself right there, renaissance fair, "that's it!" These were all just people dressed up and living at one of those year round fairs, she had heard that they take their jobs seriously.

Ali pushed the fact that it didn't explain HOW she had landed herself in the middle of all this. "One thing at a time," Ali whispered to herself as she moved back to the kitchen. Through the door she saw new people had entered while she had sat musing to herself. They were younger, one blonde one brunette.

"Blasted dwarves," Bilbo muttered as he entered the hallway pulling on a pair of suspenders. At the same moment there was another knock at the door next to her. Out of instinct she pulled the handle as Bilbo was shouting at the others.

Literally the door flung open, knocking Ali back as a whole group of men spilled through.

"Careful there," someone said as she fell back into a pair of strong arms. Glancing up she came face to face with the blonde man. Despite the warm smile Ali spun out of his arms and skipped across the chaos in the hallway to come to a halt behind Bilbo.

From the distance she felt more comfortable glancing back over and taking a full look. He was handsome, maybe that was under kill, he was hot. As if he had just walked off the cover of a fantasy romance novel. Ali took in what she could, long blonde hair, smiling blue eyes, mischievous half grin, unfortunately his heavy coat left the rest to the imagination.

"Well if it isn't our little guest," an old voice boomed from the doorway.

Glancing over she finally saw him, the gray man. As he stepped into the doorway he was forced to hunch over in the hall, it was only then that she realized. Everything in here was her size, or to be fair it was Bilbo sized. In fact even all of the men that had come through so far weren't too far off her height.

"What's going on?!" Ali blurted out, raising only the smallest glance from the nearest man.

"All in time my dear," Gandalf chuckled following one of the tiny men into the kitchen.

"Wait Gandalf," Bilbo protested, he tapped a stern hand on Ali's. She hadn't realized that she had grabbed onto his shirt, snapping her hands down she dropped her head.

"Sorry, do you have a restroom?" Ali asked before he could slip into the chaos that was apparently dwarves.

"Yes yes, that way," Bilbo waved to the hallway.

It only took a moment for Ali to find and pull the door close behind her. Sighing Ali leaned against the wall closing her eyes for a moment. How had everything gotten so turned around so fast?

Ali opened her eyes after a moment only to be met with her own reflection. To be honest if anyone around here looked weird it was her. Her clothing was bulky, worn, and ripped. It had been cold when she fell asleep so she was wearing everything she owned. Thermal leggings under baggy jeans under heavily worn carhart pants, three shirts under a plaid button up, under a ripped hoodie, under a bright yellow jacket. The only thing she was still missing was her boots. Her long dark hair was pulled back into a no nonsense pony tail.

If she was being honest though, Ali looked like a hobo, "or hipster," she giggled. "Na, you don't have an iphone, all hipsters have to have an iphone." Leaning forward Ali examined herself, touching the light rings that were threatening to form under her blue eyes. "It's a good thing you're young or you might look like poo."

"That's not very nice to say," Ali reprimanded herself, as she smoothed out her ponytail. "As it is I have bigger things to worry about."

Ali gave herself a resolute nod, she was going to tackle things one at a time. Hell she was homeless and jobless, literally no one was waiting for her to show up anywhere. Opening the door Ali gasped in surprise at one of the men standing in the hallway.

"Who were you talking to lass?" the man asked, he was a strange looking man, hat flipped up on either side, he was about her height.

"J…just my reflection, you know how rude they can be right?" Ali laughed nervously and edged around him, kicking herself at the same time. That's why you don't have any friends, she thought as she shrugged her jacket off and dropped it on the bed she had occupied before.

If she was going to get anything figured out she had to go back out there and get one of them to break character and point her home. It only took a moment after she stepped back into the hallway to get swept up in all the motion though. It was increasingly difficult to try and maneuver the crowd without getting in anyone's way as she tried to get their attention.

"Um sir…" she started to ask an older man with red hair, but he yelled suddenly making her jump and tottered off to an even older man.

"Okay then, sir could…" this time a younger man with a bowl cut noticed her but was grabbed by a man with the most interestingly gray braided beard and drug off.

Everyone was moving fast as she ducked and moved through them, trying not to break the rhythm. That was right up until the table was set. At which time a pair of hands rested on her back, pushing her into the room. Again it was the blonde man, as they entered the other young man with brunette hair basically scooped her up with her chair and they took seats on either side.

Then there was food flying between plates, yelling, laughing, drinks sloshing. Somewhere in all that commotion Ali's plate had been filled, unfortunately she wasn't given any silverware. Narrowly ducking some flying potatoes Ali wanted to slip under the table, try and regain some posture. Although when one was at a table full of men, being under the table was rarely where a girl could regain face.

"Why aren't you eating?" The brunette bumped Ali's shoulder, knocking her into the blonde man.

"Kili, you can't just ask someone that!" The blonde man nudged her with a playful grin pushing her back into Kili.

"It was innocent enough Fili," Kili winked down at her with a smile that edged on sinful.

"Here," Fili said, whipping a knife from his sleeve making Ali jump, "pardon." Gently he laid it down, exaggeratedly so which caused Ali's ears to heat up. They both went back to paying attention to the others.

Old habits die hard perhaps, Ali thought as she examined Fili a bit closer. There was a glint of hilt peaking from one boot, another suspicious bulge in his far sleeve, another two down his back.

Gingerly she picked up the knife he had offered and picked at her food, eating slowly as she glanced to the others. They were all carrying one or two weapons, which struck her as odd actually. Weren't all the fair weapons supposed to be pretend?

Then suddenly they were singing, throwing dishes, generally making poor Bilbo panic. Even Gandalf was smiling, nodding along to them singing about not breaking Bilbo's dishes. Instead of joining in Ali ducked down, doing her best to stay out of any projectiles path.

When she finally looked back up everything was gone, even her plate. Ali made a note to eat faster next time.

Yay for chapter 2!

I'm still a bit new to uploading chapters and such so I didn't get to put this on the last chapter

Better late than never right?

Anyhoo, Thanks for reading this far, comments and critics are very much welcome!

Thank You!