In the Shadow of Mountain Kings

The Strange Inhabitants of Bag End

Bilbo Baggins peered curiously out the window by the round front door of his cozy hobbit hole. Having just had a rather interesting, and unsettling encounter, Bilbo was so intent on making sure his earlier conversation partner had left him, that he was not aware of the presence behind him.

"Uncle, what are you doing?"

"Oh!"

Bilbo nearly leapt through the ceiling, knocking over the bin of finely made umbrellas by the round door. He reeled on the owner of that voice with a well-practiced "serious face".

"Firiel-May Brandybuck!" he admonished her, "You nearly caused me to have a heart attack!"

It was hardly difficult for anyone who looked to see the relation between Bilbo Baggins and Firiel-May Brandybuck. The child of Bilbo's much older sister, Myrtle Baggins-Brandybuck, Firiel was often joked to be his child rather than his sister's. As much as this was thankfully untrue (not to say Bilbo did not love her as his own, for he loved her dearly), Bilbo could easily see why such jokes were made.

The two hobbits were most similar in colouring, only shades apart due to Firiel's fierce love for the light of the sun and the fresh green fields of their equally beloved Shire. Even their eyes were the same colour at a glance; an outwardly dark mixture of blue-green much in likeness to the Brandywine river. There were, of course, some fairly obvious differences between the two.

Firiel stood very near to Bilbo in height. So close in fact that there could not have been more than an inch between them. While Bilbo had a rounder face and a long, sort of fattish nose, Firiel had ever so slightly sharper yet feminine features, with a squared but soft jaw and a straight, pointed nose, shorter and slightly wide at the base. Her fine, messy curls grew down past her shoulder blades, parting this way and that at their own whims. Her mouth was small, and her soft lips a rather typical shade of cool pink. While Bilbo's hair was the colour of soft caramels, Firiel's light brown curls were toned with hints of both copper and honey. Her eyes, coloured like lake water, were often described as the most beautiful thing about her. Though their colour matched Bilbo's at first glance, closer examination revealed a golden brown ring surrounding each pupil, like a small island surrounded by a rush-bottomed deep. Her eyes were greener than his, flecked grey to mimic water in the sunlight.

Her body curved like the river as well. She was not round-bellied like most hobbits, but had a small waist and broad yet thin shoulders. Between those two points lay her soft, plump bosom. Her well-defined waist fanned gracefully into wide, long hips, which then became large muscular thighs, down to toned, curving calves and graceful ankles. Her pointed ears were sweet and well-rounded, though her feet were small for a hobbit's, especially given her height.

"My apologies, Uncle Bilbo," Firiel laughed, "But you were behaving rather oddly.

"Though I do suppose that shouldn't really cause me any concern," she added, a mischievous twinkle lighting up her entire face.

Bilbo had almost forgotten that his younger niece from Buckland was his houseguest at the moment. She had been for nearly several weeks now; most of the confections that stocked Bag-End's great pantry had been made by her tiny, delicate hands. Though, her stay with her uncle was more than just a friendly visit, to keep the family's eternal bachelor company.

At age of twenty-eight, Firiel had yet to technically come of age for another two years, but she was on the verge of being unceremoniously thrust into adulthood. Despite her lacking in years, her parents, brother and sister-in-law to the current Thane of Buckland, had decided it would be beneficial to the entirety of Hobbit-dom if Firiel were to be married to a young merchant in Bree. Her father was of the same profession, and had met the young man while trading for some dwarven tools, to sell to local farmers at ridiculous prices. The young man had mentioned he was in the market for a wife, and Firiel's father had sold her like common cattle. Though it was often thought that hobbits had no need for gold and overwhelmingly rich possessions, there were a great number of exceptions to that rule.