Return to Me (Kili)

Chapter One: A Good Morning

Priscilla Baggins was, on a good day, no more than three feet plus four and a half inches tall. She had curly brown hair on both her feet and her head, the latter of which she preferred to keep tied back in a ribbon, for she liked to cook and bake and garden and her hair liked to get in the way of such activities. Her pretty eyes matched the sky in the right light, and her smile was a contagious one that she loved to wear everywhere. She knew everyone in Hobbiton on a first-name basis, earning her living by trading her delicious pies and beautiful flowers for supplies and the occasional coin.

Now this was all very fine and well, for she liked the way she lived and had no intention of changing it, save if she found a cozy little home for herself, or else got married to one of the many suitors who sought her hand. She was however, not interested in either at the moment and was perfectly happy with her life the way it was. Though it did tend to get a bit dull every now and then, and she often wondered what it would be like if something different were to happen. These thoughts came from the Took blood in her, but nothing really ever changed in the Shire. Hobbits liked to keep things simple. She never gave it more than a passing mind.

Nothing ever changed, that is, until she walked up to her door after a morning stroll to find her brother Bilbo sitting on the front bench, smoking his pipe-weed, and speaking to a tall man in a pointy grey hat holding a knotted staff.

"Good morning!" She said as she went to stand at her brother's side, quite interested in who this man was and what he had to say.

"Good morning," Bilbo said, though less enthusiastically. The man eyed them both.

"What do you mean? Do you mean to wish me a good morning, or do you mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not? Or, perhaps you mean to say that you feel good on this particular morning. Or are you simply stating that this is a morning to be good on?" He said all of this rather quickly. Priscilla stood, opened mouthed, unsure of how exactly to respond.

"...All of them at once, I suppose." Bilbo finally replied.

The man looked disapprovingly at Bilbo, then glanced at Priscilla. 

"Would you like to come in for tea?" She began to ask, but Bilbo stepped on her foot and prevented her from finishing the question.

"Can I help you?" Bilbo interjected. 

"That remains to be seen. I'm looking for someone to share in an adventure," the man said. 

"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," Bilbo huffed. Priscilla opened her mouth to say that sounded very interesting, but only received a side eye look from Bilbo. Her brother got up from the bench, went to the mailbox, emptied it to rifle through the contents, then turned back to the man. "Good morning." Then, turned and walked away. 

"I really do apologize for him." Priscilla said. Just then, she looked closer at the man and his long, grey beard, his robes, his staff, and his pointy hat. She knew him! This was the wizard Gandalf, whose fireworks she had always loved as a child! "Bilbo, thi-"

"To think that I should have lived to be good­morninged by Belladonna Took's son, as if I were selling buttons at the door." Gandalf cut her off, giving her a knowing look. Bilbo had always been stubborn, and it seemed he knew this just as well as she. 

"Beg your pardon?" Bilbo paused.

"You've changed, and not entirely for the better, Bilbo Baggins." Gandalf said. Priscilla made a face at Bilbo, wide eyes, pointing at the wizard behind his back, trying to get Bilbo to recognize him.