The Queen Under the Mountain (Thorin)

Where It All Began

NOT EDITED!

171 years later...

A Hobbit sat outside his hole, smoking his pipe, and looked relaxed. When suddenly, a moth shaped smoke hit him square in the nose. Surprised, he opened his eyes and looked up, meeting the eyes of an old, tall man with a white beard, dressed in dirty grey robes, accompanied with a wooden crooked staff and a pointy, blue-grey hat. Bilbo Baggins looked at the man curiously, furrowing his eyebrows and put his pipe back to his lips, puffing smoke.

"Good morning." Bilbo greeted the strange man. The old man looked at him under his bushy eyebrows.

"What do you mean?" The old man asked, "do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this particular morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?"

Bilbo stared and gaped at the man, holding his pipe.

"All of them at once I suppose." Bilbo stuttered.The wizard looks at Bilbo disapprovingly, Bilbo looking quite bewildered and confused.

"Can I help you?" Bilbo asked.

"That remains to be seen," Gandalf said deeply, "I am looking for someone to share in an adventure ." Gandalf told Bilbo.

"An adventure? Now, I don't imagine anyone West of Bree would have much interest in adventures. Nasty, disturbing, uncomfortable things. Make you late for dinner, hmm." Bilbo stood up, checking his mailbox, grabbing a few letters and clucking to himself. He looked quite uncomfortable seeing Gandalf still there when he looked up. Puffing his pipe in vexation, he begins heading back inside.

"Good morning." Bilbo turned around and began to head back to his hobbit hole, walking up the steps, he heard Gandalf.

"To think I should have lived to be good-morninged by Belladonna Took's son, as if I were selling buttons at the door!" Gandalf said in a loud voice, making Bilbo turn around and look at him."Beg your pardon?" Bilbo asked.

"You've changed, and not entirely for the better, Bilbo Baggins." Gandalf held his staff.

"I'm sorry, do I know you?" Bilbo blinked.

"Well, you know my name, although you don't remember I belong to it. I'm Gandalf. And Gandalf means... me."

"Gandalf...not Gandalf, the wandering Wizard, who made such excellent fireworks! Old Took used to have them on Midsummer's Eve. Ha! Hmm, I had no idea you were still in business." Bilbo said.

""And where else should I be?" Gandalf asked the hobbit.

"Ah, hmm.. hmm..." Bilbo puffs confusedly on his pipe.

"Well, I'm pleased to find your remember something about me, even if it's only my fireworks. Well that's decided. It will be very good for you, and most amusing for me. I shall inform the others." Gandalf said, already making up his mind.

"Inform the who? What? No. No. No! Wait. We do not want any adventures here, thank you. Not today, not-. I suggest you try over the Hill or across the Water. Good morning." Bilbo, in frustration, retreats into Bag End, gesturing at Gandalf with his pipe.

Once inside, he bolts the door and leans against it. Hearing a curious noise, he puts his ear close to the door. The noise is from Gandalf drawing a glowing symbol on Bilbo's door with his staff. Alarmed, Bilbo looks out his side window, only to find Gandalf's eye appear in front of him. He jumps back in fright and hides behind a wall; he looks out another window and sees Gandalf turning his back, hurrying away.

It is nighttime. In Bag End, Bilbo prepares a dinner of fish; he settles down at his table, tucks a napkin in his collar, and begins sprinkling salt on his fish. Unbeknownst to him, the symbol on the door glows, and the shadow of a person appears on the door. Bilbo, in the middle of squeezing lemon juice on his fish, looks up in surprise as the doorbell rings. He opens the door and finds a tall, bald dwarf on his doorstep. The dwarf greets him and bows slightly.