The Finest of Dwarves {Thilbo Bagginshield Fanfic}

Broken Dishes

Gandalf sat, smoking his pipe. He watched the door, with an air of anticipation. The Green Dragon Inn was quite popular in the late of night, but he was looking for a specific person. Suddenly, the door opened with a whisper and a figure in a hood stepped inside. The figure's good faced Gandalf, and it walked to his table. When they sat, the figure spoke. "I apologize for keeping you waiting, Gandalf the Grey. I know you have many arrangements."

Gandalf smiled slyly. "It is always a pleasure to make time for you, dwarf."

The figure's hood turned to look around. No one was watching, so it continued. "Now, what is it you wanted to speak about? You sounded very urgent in your letter."

Gandalf nodded. "Yes, yes. I have found one."

The figure stilled. "You have?"

The wizard nodded again. The figure sat up straight. "Well, tell me about them."

"It is only one, and he lives in the Shire." said Gandalf.

The figure scoffed. "You are sending a hobbit with me? You must wish us to fail."

Gandalf laughed. "I do not wish you to fail. Hobbits can be useful, if you use their talents wisely. And about this one in particular, there is much more to him than meets the eye."

The figure's hood turned away. "There better be, or we are sure to never accomplish our goal."

Gandalf smiled. "Dwarves and your intolerance for others."

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Bilbo was just beginning to forget his meeting with Gandalf earlier in the morning. He started to make himself a bit of supper to help ease his mind. In a few moments, his food was ready and his tea was steeping. Bilbo sniffed and smiled. With food and drink like this, he could forget nearly anything. He sat down to eat and drink, but before he could have more than one bite of his mutton accompanied by three delicious sides and a sip of his earl gray tea, he heard a knock at the door.

Bilbo sighed. It was probably Gandalf taking his invitation for tea literally. For an old wizard, he wasn't very wise. He got up and went to the door. But when he opened it, there stood the last figure he expected to see. A dwarf. "At your service!" it greeted.

Bilbo nearly forgot his manners. "Oh, Bilbo Baggins at yours!" The dwarf smiled and walked in as if he had been invited. He walked back to the pantry to get food, the hobbit asking the whole way, "What are you doing? Who are you?" He couldn't get very far, because there was another knock at the door. Bilbo sighed as he left the hungry dwarf to open the door to even more dwarves.

The first two were younger than the rest. "Fili and Kili at your service!" they bowed. Bilbo just waved. However, his arms were suddenly filled with ten pounds of coffee. "Thank you for inviting us!" they said.

The twins shoved past Bilbo, who was trying to explain that he didn't invite anyone but Gandalf, and they made their way to the pantry also. The rest of the dwarves bowed and hung their cloaks on the rack and followed them. Bilbo ran in after them to see all his food gone and being eaten by this dwarf of dwarves. He was about to rip his hair out when Gandalf stepped in beside him.

The hobbit nearly fainted by the wizard's sudden appearance, but Gandalf didn't stay there for long. He walked and sat at the table, nibbling some of the food that was there. The dwarves and Gandalf were yelling and singing amongst themselves and were nearly dropping plates off the table.

"Don't let those drop! Those dishes are antique!" Bilbo yelped, hands shaking. The dwarves all looked at each other and laughed. They began to toss all of the dishes around, cleaning and stacking them as they went. Bilbo was utterly amazed at how none of the dishes fell. He was in awe at their stack of dishes when there was a final knock at the door. Everyone froze and turned to look at the door.