The Hobbit (A Retelling of a Great Work, Now Ruined By Me)

Chapter 3

It was Gandalf who took the liberty of answering the door. Belle was planted where she stood in the dining room, but she eventually came over to the entryway foyer to see the dwarf who silenced the whole lot. The door was opened, and a dwarf with long dark hair that went down his back and a finely groomed beard stepped inside.

"Master Gandalf, I thought you said this place would be easy to find?" The dwarf said while stepping into the hobbit's home. "I lost my way, twice." He began to unclasp the cloak that he was wearing. "I would not have found it all if it wasn't for the mark made on the door."

The dwarf looked around the room they all were standing in. He seemed to be surveying it and Belle began to feel quite vulnerable with the gaze he held looking at her home. He seemed to almost say something but was interrupted by Wizard Gandalf.

"Thorin Oakensheild, allow me to introduce you to our hostess Belladonna Baggins," Gandalf said pulling Belle farther into the foyer.

The dwarf, now named Thorin, turned his gaze to the small hobbit in front of him. With his eyes now on Belle, she could see the details of his face. He had a pointed nose and thick eyebrows and his eyes were a brilliant icy blue. Belle couldn't combat the heat that flushed her cheeks from his gaze on her. He regarded her closely and he knew that she would not last one day out on the journey ahead of them. She had a look of fragile innocence to her. Something he only saw in dwarf children. But she was not a dwarf nor a child. Perhaps all hobbits were fragile beings. His eyes softened at the idea that the young hobbit did not know what she was getting herself into but that quickly vanished and he whipped his head over to Gandalf.

"This is the hobbit, the burglar, that you have chosen?" He asked Gandalf in frustration. "She will not do, we will go on without a 'burglar'"

Thorin Oakensheild spoke in a venomous way that Belle had never heard someone do. She would not stand it, and for the first time in Belle's life, she stood up for once.

"N-now w-wait just a minute, sir, it was not Gandalf who chose me. I volunteered to go. And I will go." Belle said as firmly as she could and then blushed in embarrassment at such a display. "If you will have me." She added softly.

She was frightened by how this dwarf would react to her unmannerly behavior. Her eyes were stuck to the floor but she fought to look up and face the dwarf in front of her head on. That was a mistake. Instead of anger, she saw amusement in the dwarf's eyes. And she knew that was much worse. The amusing look was soon lost when he turned his gaze back to Gandalf.

"Still, I think it best if we leave this hobbit out of our affairs." Thorin Oakensheild said to Gandalf in a calmer tone than before.

The Wizard Gandalf shook his head. "You heard her yourself, King Under the Mountain, she will go." The wizard turned to the rest of the party, "Let us meet in the dining room it is quite a large space to accommodate this size of company."

They all followed the wizard into the dining room, one did so begrudgingly. As they all made their way into the room all the dwarves and wizard took a seat to discuss. Belle stood off to the side unsure of her involvement in the discussion.

Gandalf spoke first when they were all seated. "The task I have in mind will take a great deal of stealth and no small amount of courage." the wizard's eyes wandered to the young hobbit's. "But, if you are careful and clever I believe it can be done."

Belle thought back to what Gandalf told her when they sat together in the other room just hours ago. "There is a certain dwarf who is looking to reclaim his homeland." He had said then. "His people were driven out of their kingdom by a dragon named Smaug who now resides within the mountain they wish to reclaim."