Chapter 3

The day Annelise and her cousins received word to meet her father in Hobbiton seemed ages ago. She, Fili, and Kili had been travelling for three weeks from the Blue Mountains to the Shire. Annelise still had no idea why her father would want to meet them in the Shire. Fili and Kili seemed to know the reason, so she did not argue when they told her they were leaving for Hobbiton.

When they reached Hobbiton, Fili and Kili got off their ponies before looking around to see which direction to go. Annelise had chosen to walk instead of borrowing a horse, since she did not have one of her own. Her cousins were kind enough to allow her to ride one of their ponies when they wanted to stretch their legs or when she got tired of walking. Fili and Kili seemed to hesitate before taking a path that led up away from the main square.

"Do either of you actually know where we are supposed to be going?" Annelise said hesitantly, dreading what the answer might be.

"We just need to find a house with a strange marking on the door," Fili replied absentmindedly, looking from door to door as they walked by the small homes in the ground, leading their ponies behind them.

"These homes are so strange. They look like they are built right out of the hills," Annelise observed to herself.

"Minas Tirith was built out of the side of a mountain. And don't forget, we lived inside of a mountain before coming here," Kili said to her, laughing quietly to himself.

"This must be it. And it sounds as though some of the others have made it as well," Fili said, motioning to a Hobbit-hole just to their right. Annelise could see the marking on the door and heard the sound of dwarves talking and another voice that she assumed belonged to their host.

She was looking around at the hole so intently, she did not notice that Fili and Kili had tied their ponies next to two other ponies on a fence post and had already knocked on the door and were speaking to a small Hobbit, who seemed rather flustered.

"You must be Mr. Boggins," Annelise heard Kili say to the poor Hobbit.

"Nope! You can't come in. You've come to the wrong house," the hobbit exclaimed impatiently, closing the door on the brothers.

Fili and Kili quickly stepped in the way so he could not close the door. "What, has it been cancelled?" Kili said, looking back at the hobbit confused.

"No one told us," Fili said looking at his brother, before looking quickly back at Annelise.

"Canc- No nothing's been cancelled!"

"Well that's a relief," Kili replied to the hobbit before pushing his way through the door and into the house with Fili right behind him.

Fili and Kili then began to give Mr. Boggins their weapons while Kili wiped his shoes on some piece of furniture.

Annelise walked in behind them and shot them a look before Dwalin dragged them off over to where she could see Balin looking through the pantry. She ducked under a chandelier hanging in the entry before turning to the Hobbit.

"You will have to forgive my cousins' manners. They do not know how to behave themselves. My name is Annelise, by the way. It is nice to meet you Mr. Boggins"

"Actually it's Baggins. Bilbo Baggins," he replied rather distractedly while looking at the four dwarves that were currently occupying his dining room. He looked back at Annelise and noticed for the first time that she was not a dwarf.

"I hope you do not mind my asking, but you said those two were your cousins. You aren't a dwarf though."

"It's alright. I've had to answer that question frequently in my lifetime. Their uncle is my adoptive father. He found me when I was three years old," Annelise replied, looking down at Bilbo as he looked frantically at the dwarves before he turned to her in surprise after hearing her answer.

"Oh I'm sorry. I did not know," he said sheepishly, looking up at her.

"It's not your fault. You could not have known. Besides I am perfectly happy with the life I have now."

Just then, there was a noise that sounded like multiple knocks on the door.

"Oh no. No! No! There's nobody home! Go away and bother somebody else!" Bilbo said before opening the door. Soon there were eight dwarves laying piled on top of one another at the Hobbit's feet. Annelise could see a tall figure standing behind them looking through the door.

"Gandalf," Bilbo said to himself, sounding completely annoyed.

"Ah good everyone seems to be here but Thorin," said the wizard.

"Don't worry. He is late, that's all. He travelled North to a meeting with our kin. He will come," Dwalin said to Gandalf while he was walking by.

"I'm sorry, but how do you know my father?" Annelise asked the stranger cautiously.

"I am part of the reason he called this meeting, my dear. Now my name is Gandalf and who might you be, child?"

"My name is Annelise. Thorin is my father."

"You are Annelise. It is wonderful to meet you," Gandalf said mostly to himself a bit distractedly, looking as though there was something he was thinking about intently. Whatever he was thinking about seemed to make him very sad. Annelise felt as if she had seen this man before, but she knew that she hadn't met him before.

While the dwarves were getting food out of the pantry and Bilbo was going back and forth trying to get control of the entire situation, Annelise was sitting with Ori cleaning the dishes to set them around the table.

"Annelise, would you like a cup of tea?"

"Yes, thank you Dori. That would be wonderful."

Once the table was set, everyone tried to fit around it. Annelise was sitting just outside the dining room watching everyone eat while quietly eating some chicken. This scene was rather familiar to her but she still found it entertaining to sit and watch the dwarves interact with each other.

Bilbo was pacing back and forth in the hallway behind her.

She could understand why the poor Hobbit seemed so upset. From what she could tell, he had had no warning that they were going to be there that night. The dwarves behaviour got on her nerves sometimes but she was used to it. Bilbo had probably never met dwarves and having twelve dwarves just show up and practically take over one's house can be very upsetting.

Annelise knew as soon as Ori asked Bilbo what he should do with his plate, that something was about to happen that would make Bilbo even more upset. And then Fili started throwing the fine plates into the air to Kili. 'Oh no. Here it comes,' Annelise thought to herself.

'Blunt the knifes, bend the forks

Smash the bottles, and burn the corks

Chip the glasses and crack the plates

That's what Bilbo Baggins hates.'

After that, the dwarves began singing louder and throwing around the dishes faster, all while Bilbo looked on in horror. Annelise had seen them do this before and knew there was nothing to worry about, but Bilbo didn't know that.

Soon their song was done and all the dishes were stacked up nicely in front of Gandalf.

While everyone was still laughing, there was a loud knock on the door. Annelise knew that could only mean that her father was there at last.