Among the Stars

Chapter 8

It stops moving after a while and I sit in the small egg, cramped until I know that Bilbo Baggins will go on this quest. I sit, and wait, and sit some more with nothing to do so, I start breaking the shell, very very slowly.

When I cracked a small hole into the shell I saw many dwarfs with the weapons drawn, I looked at the weapons apprehensively. I looked around the room for a moment to realize we were still in Bilbo's little hobbit hole.

My small, not very human, eyes peer through but they only see one considering, my eyes are closer to the sides of my head, now it was easier to see them from the side rather than head on.

I had shape shifted into a dragon, a white dragon, matching my hair. No one could see that due to the egg shell covering my body, but my eyes were blood red, with black slit-pupils, the inside of my mouth was black, along with my gums.

I begin cracking at my shell some more before stopping and curling up once more and falling asleep. I just curl up and relax. The egg shifts and I'm being moved. I hear several voices, some louder than others but I remain still and silent, watching the whole situation from the grasp of one of the dwarfs.

A loud voice thunders over everyone else's. "Enough! Master Baggins, where did you find this egg?" The voice isn't the clearest but I can tell by the tone it's Thorin.

"I found it on a walk master dwarf. I'm not sure what else you'd like me to say. There's nothing else for me to say." A softer voice responds. Bilbo.

Several sighs are heard and I feel my egg return to its perch on the table, where I can see everything. Gandalf is sitting in the corner closest to the door, smirking at Bilbo.

"Oh Gandalf,.. what are you going on about?" I think silently before returning to the land of dreams and beyond, hopefully, I am not plagued with horrid dreams.

A few hours after that, everyone has gone to bed, most of the dwarfs have passed out, drunk on the floor. While Bilbo rises early to make breakfast and contemplate the aged paper that he must sign if he wishes to join.

"Bilbo, if you choose to accompany them, I will join you." I say, having shifted out of my dragon from and out of the egg back to a human

He jumps at the sound of my voice and smiles up at me before nodding and returning to his room, with me on his tail. He starts packing slowly, we both hear the loud dwarfs eat and pack up their things. I hear him sigh before shifting back into the dragon form I was previously in.

The egg comes next and I curl up and doze off into a blissful dream. I'm awoken yet again to the jostle of someone running and my eyes quickly widen when I feel the wind in my egg. I shuffle again, using said egg to protect my young, barely developed body.

"Wait! Wait! Wait for me! I signed it." Bilbo tries to regain oxygen from his running and he holds up the very much signed paper to Balin. Balin looks it over quickly with his little eye glass, and nods.

"Everything seems to be in order. Welcome, Bilbo Baggins, to the company of Thorin Oakenshield." Balin states proudly. I squeak quietly in my egg

"Mr. Boggins! What is that you have in the satchel across your chest?" Kili asks

Bilbo looks down at the carrier I'm in, going across his chest and he pulls out my egg, Gandalf's eyes widen in shock, which morphs into a curious expression. I shrug in my egg, making it shake.

"My egg. It's due to hatch any day now." Bilbo responds happily and I wiggle a bit more.

Some of the dwarfs are apprehensive about me, and my egg. Most likely because Gandalf is a tad bit concerned with my presence. Several dwarfs reach out to touch my black, teal speckled egg.

When Oin tried touching my egg I immediately felt the scales on the back of my neck raise a bit, my wings raise a bit, my body turns tense and I release a tiny growl, heard from inside the egg and the poor dwarf pulls his hand away quickly in fright.

"Your... creature doesn't seem to like Oin. Someone else try touching the egg." Thorin spoke, quite demandingly.

Many other dwarfs attempt to touch my egg but I get defensive. Bifur, bofur, Ori, and Nori. Eventually, Fili puts his hand up, reaching, trying to touch my egg without getting a reaction from me. But his scent and touch that I feel through the egg, calms my nerves, and helps ease my mind.

"It seems your friend likes me. Do you know what it is?" Fili asks with a small smirk on his face.

Bilbo shakes his head. Then look at a few of the dwarfs who haven't touched my egg.

"Would any of you like to touch it? You know, considering It likes Fili. Maybe it'll like more of you then just him." Bilbo states, a tad bit worried.

The rest of the dwarfs tried touching the egg while I reacted to each of them quite negatively except for one. Kili. The two brothers. I find their aura, calming, and exciting. Happy even.

"It appears you've made a friend, little creature." Gandalf says quietly into my egg.

"You should try touching it!" Dori all but shouts.

Gandalf chuckles and shakes his head before reaching out, and touching my egg. I let him but my reaction was a bit different from the two brothers which made me wonder.

Gandalf was quiet, but pulled his hand away. He must have felt something about the egg, because his hand pulled away, swiftly.

"We must continue... no more, trying to touch the halflings egg." Thorin states, rather grumpy. As usual.

We travel for many days. We stop eventually due to Gandalf and his theories. Apparently we had stopped at an old farmers house, it had been broken down and Gandalf had a bad feeling but Thorin decided it would be a lovely base of operation, so Gandalf ran off.

A few made camp while others cooked, some even slipped me some scraps. I was very pleased until Thorin told Kili and Fili to go watch the ponies and I heard them leave.

I had been growing rapidly so whenever I moved my egg cracked a bit. I turned once more and heard more cracking. I settled down and started falling asleep.

When I awoke once more, it was due to the rapid movement and sounds coming around me, yelling, shouting, weapons being drawn and footsteps leaving. I peer out of my egg and see the camp empty, beds sprawled out everywhere.

I finish cracking my egg and push the top off, revealing my white scales, my red eyes, my slim, small body and my leathery, red wings that were larger than my body, and I was maybe the size of a small house cat, or a large rat.

I run towards the smell of dwarf, hobbit, and troll?

"Crap, that's what everyone was screaming about. Lovely. I hate trolls."

I reach everyone and sigh when I see everyone on a spit or in potato-sack like bags. Three trolls argue about how they should cook and eat the dwarfs and the hobbit. I roll my eyes and trot over to the trolls, hiding in the trees next to them.

I bite at one of the troll's ankles then hide in the trees and bushes once more. He lets out a noise of pain because of my sharp teeth and looks around. I bite one of the others' ankles and hide again. By the time I've bitten all three of their ankles they're hopping around yelling at each other.

I run off and towards the camp again, settling in my egg shell before dozing off again.