Sunlight, Afterglow, Nightsky and Snowfield

Chapter 1 - Unwelcome guests

By the time I arrived at The Shire and found that very significant door the colour of the skies changed from blue to red to black and many stars appeared on the sky. Gandalf's sign was glowing brightly on a round, wooden door. The door was very small, even for an already tiny young girl like myself. I rang the doorbell and expected Gandalf to open the door only to find a little man before me, approximately a head smaller than me.

Surprised, I raised my eyebrows and asked: "Who are you?"

The little man was as much astounded as me: "I'm ... Bilbo Baggins and ... you?"

I breathed out in relief. "Great, then this is the right place! I am Aurora Pearl-Light and I heard about a meeting here?"

Bilbo Baggins looked at me with round eyes: "Meeting? Sorry, I don't understand!"

I sighed. Was it Gandalf's payback for the day I set his beard on fire? What now?

"Well, maybe it's best we solve this mystery inside. May I come in?"

Bilbo Baggins beckoned me to enter his house and I noticed he tried his best to be polite and not to be irritated by a unknown sorceress in his house.

The house was beautiful, round, with wooden arches all around. Bilbo offered me a seat in his kitchen and as soon as I settled down the bell rang again. Shortly afterwards, a brown-haired, grumpy looking dwarf came in. I raised my eyebrows again. Who was that?

He eyed me suspiciously until he muttered: "Dwalin!"

The moment I realised it was neither a curse nor a swearword I realized it was his name. "I ... I am Aurora, nice to –"

"Oh, so you are this healer Gandalf spoke about!" He settled himself in front of a plate with fish and vegetables and tuck in.

Before I could even point out that I assumed it was Bilbo Baggins' dinner he ate, the latter came in and frowned at this sight. I supposed he was lost for words because it was hard to take in that a dwarf came into his house and ate his dinner.

Dwalin the dwarf ate the food in a sweep and asked for more. Bilbo Baggins passed him a basket full of buns. I noticed he pocketed one, so that he would have at least something left for dinner. This is when the doorbell rang again.

"That will be the door!" munched Dwalin. Now slightly irritated Bilbo left the kitchen and in came another dwarf with a big white beard. He greeted Dwalin the dwarf very enthusiastically and from what I took off their conversation they seemed to be brothers. Afterwards, he turned his head in my direction.

"Oh, and you might be?", he smiled and I was relieved to find he was not as grumpy as his brother.

"I am Aurora Pearl-" I began and the dwarf with the white beard shouted out delightedly: "Ah, so you are the healer! I guess now we don't have to fear anything, do we? I'm Balin!"

"Nice to meet you!"

A moment later Balin joined his brother in a little room in which Bilbo Baggins kept all his food supplied for, as I guessed, a few months in advance. And then – I had to rub my eyes and to open them again just to be sure that I saw what I saw – they started to grab all the food within reach and even throwing it away, like the mold cheese – the dwarves assumed it got rotten.

Slowly, I stood up, walked around them and watched them out of the entrance hall and suddenly I was aware that I stared at them with my mouth wide open.

If this really was a prank, it was a good one, I thought. I've never expected the old, grey pointy-hat coming up with this!

Mr. Baggins had just expressed his concern about accepting unknown visitors in his house when the doorbell rang again.