I Won't Let You Go (Bagginshield)

Journey's Beginning.

"I signed it!" I shouted, waving the contract in the air as I chased after the Dwarves. "I signed the contract!"

Not far away, I saw them, and Gandalf among them. I counted them mentally in my head--Balin, Dwalin, Kili, Fili, Bombur, Bofur, Ori, Dori, Oin, Gloin, and the others. And yes, there was Thorin. They were all there. I saw Thorin look back and raise his hand, and the company stopped.

I handed Thorin the contract. "I signed it," I said proudly.

"And I thought Hobbits belonged in the Shire," Balin reminded me.

"Not this Hobbit. I have decided I want to have some adventure."

All of the Dwarves rolled their eyes at me, but I ignored them. I pushed the contract into Thorin's face. He took it out of my hands, rolled it up, and stuffed it into one of his saddlebags. "Someone get the Hobbit a horse," He said, and rode on.

"A horse? No, no I can walk. I'm sure..."

Kili rode by and grabbed me, pulling me onto the horse with him. Well, fine then. I could handle a horse, I just didn't want to. so they could leave me alone.

The horse went on, and we seemed to never stop. I don't know where we were going, and I honestly didn't care, because I just wanted to stop somewhere and eat, since my dinner got ruined (thanks to SOME PEOPLE). All I hoped was that they didn't really eat moldy bread or drink just ale, like the stories said. I mean, ale was wonderful, but water was nice sometimes too.

We stopped at a small campsite and everyone took out food. Fili and Kili were told to watch the horses, which was fine with me. I just wanted food.

The meal was nice. It was some delicious chicken soup with ale, of course. But it actually was a very nice combination, and maybe I did get a little wired from having too much ale. Gandalf shouldn't have let me hold his cup. Dwarven ale tastes a bit like cinnamon and honey, something that is very addicting and yummy. I drank nearly all of his, but Gandalf was so preoccupied with something I don't think he even noticed. So I guess what happened later was my fault, a little bit, but then again not really. I mean, I didn't let the ponies loose, and I tried to get help...

Sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself. So anyways, after we had all eaten, Thorin handed me two big bowls full of stew and told me to take them to Fili and Kili. I did as I was asked, and we ended up finding out two of the ponies were missing. Fili and Kili instructed me to stand there and keep watch, and they'd go get help. I sat there waiting, and they never came back, so I took matters into my own hands. I went after the ponies on my own.