(this is to catch my Hobbits up a little, so it's sorta long... 🙁 )
In the Shire...
Bilbo Baggins is packing, be it for another adventure or just to get away from the bothersome relative Bagginses of the Shire, when there comes a frantic knock upon his door.
Oh bother, it was only Jimbleberry Brandybuck and Sethilor Took... and where oh where was Cousin Londro Baggins? Bilbo wondered to himself.
"Master Bilbo? are you home?" the cries came from outside.
NO! Bilbo thought, GO AWAY! he stuffed food into pouches and strapped his sword Sting, to his backpack, pausing only to scan a scroll on the table next to his gear, nodding as he read.
"MMMMMAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSTTTTTTTTEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRR
BBBBIIIIIIIIIILLLLLLLLLLLLLBBBBBBBBBBOOOOOOOOOO
BBBBBAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGINNNNNNNSSSSSSS?!" the cries became incessant and quite annoying, even for Bilbo who could take quite a bit of bother from his clan.
"WHAT IS IT?!" the door swooshed inward, and in tumbled masters Jimbleberry and Sethilor, who were pressing ears against the door to hear any sounds from inside.
"Master Bilbo, you must come quick!" Jimbleberry jabbered, dusting himself off from the fall.
"It's Londro..." Sethilor continued. "He's gone and fallen in the river again, and got swept up in the current this time... he's a goner for certain!"
"Oh dear..." Bilbo was sincerely troubled; sure, he hated all the bothers and cousins and friends of bother of cousins, but they were all still family. Bilbo grabbed a length of rope, and ran out, following the other Hobbits toward the river.
Moments after the door closed, there came a clicking, ticking tinkering noise from outside, and another Hobbit's bulbous nose poked round the door. The Hobbit intruder tip-toed across the floor, to the table, and marveled at all the wondrous foodstuff laid out on display and tucked away in pouches for the taking. Firstly and mostly though, the thief admired the sheathed blade of Sting, swiping the sword from its place on top of the pile, and refilling the sheath with a practice sword crafted of wood.
"BAH HA HA!" the Hobbit roared a cheer. "I am Londro, King of Thieves! Orcs and Man will bow before me, or feel the sting of Sting! Ooo... muffins!!" he slipped the blade under his belt, and scooped up a muffin, along with a few (quite a few, in fact) other food pouches "For Jimbleberry and Sethilor, for their help in this caper... we shall feast like kings tonight... (for I shall most likely be thrashed and throttled and disowned again by morning...)!! HAHAHAHA!!!"
He noticed the scroll, and examined it. It was written in the finest handwriting he had ever seen, but he could not read it. "Elvish strokes, but Common words... blast that I never took to learning... but Seth can read it!" he tucked the scroll away inside his tunic, then made way from the house, heavy under the burden of his newly-claimed loot.
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It was dusk when Bilbo returned from the river, alone, and disheartened by the loss of another Baggins cousin to the dreadful river currents. Only as he entered the house did he recall his priority mission, the summons he had received, and he quickly shouldered his pack, strapped on all his food pouches, which, he found, were strangely lighter around his waist than he had first thought they would be, and made way from the Shire as darkness fell...
Meanwhile, Londro, Jimbleberry, and Sethilor spent the afternoon scouring the fields around the Shire, eating and hunting Orc and eating, and slaying dragon-kind, and eating and defeating evils left and right and center... and eating... they ate and played and fought each other until they were stuffed and exhausted, and the sun began to set.
"Oh what a day of adventure!" Jimbleberry cheered.
"And don't forget, drowning and death!" Londro added, falling to the ground, feigning death. "I do hope Master Bilbo is in a forgiving mood, come morning..."
"He will be glad to see you alive, I'm certain..." Seth soothed.
"Aye, so he can kill you with his own two hands, no doubt!" Jim jibed.
Unfortunately, they might never know what Bilbo might have done to them for their crimes of thievery, larceny and lying. As Bilbo wandered the road on approach to Rivendell, he fished and fumbled for the scroll of invitation, but could not find it.
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"Oh, Seth, can you read this?" Lodro asked, fishing the scroll from his shirt. Sethilor lit a lantern, and took the scroll, while Jimbleberry tackled Londro and a wrestling match ensued.
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Oh bother! I am Bilbo Baggins, of the Shire! The people of Rivendell shall welcome me with open arms! I need no invitation, even in days as dark and dire as those ahead... Bilbo decided. "And, if anyone questions me or crosses me, they shall taste the sting of my blade across their necks!" he brandished Sting for the first time this journey, as surprised by its heavy weight as he was by his food pouches lightness.
"Oh bother..." he huffed. If only the sword he held had been Sting, Bilbo might not have been so surprised by the dark forces of Orc-kind who swarmed from the shadows of the dark night, and surrounded him just then...
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"Oh bother..." Seth was feeling the same sense of dread. "We need to bring Londro back to life, and get this note and the sword back to Bilbo, and make haste about it!"
"Why?!" Jimbleberry asked.
"No time for questions, fool of a Brandybuck!" Sethilor shushed. "There is danger about! ORCS are on the move again!"
Londro drew Sting from his belt, and waved the blade through the dark, but the blade did not glow. "Orcs? Are you certain, Seth?" he asked.
"Not here, Londro... they move on Rivendell, and the holdings of Man and Elf.. but the Shire will be soon to fall too, if the Evil is not squelched... so says this scroll. Master Bilbo has been summoned to Rivendell, and so, we must return his sword and blade!"
It WAS the right thing to do, of course... just came hours too late...
"Master Bilbo?" Londro knocked at the front door to the home of Bilbo Baggins. The door creaked open under his knock, and he and his Hobbit fellows followed inside. Of course, Bilbo was gone...
"Now what do we do?" Seth sighed.
"Now, WE travel to Rivendell, and take our lumps as we get there!" Londro stood tall and responsible for whatever would befall Bilbo.
"All of us?" Jimbleberry gulped.
"ALL of us!" Londro nodded, hurriedly packing some few supplies that were left, before he and his fellowship of Hobbits hit the road to Rivendell...
and the Hobbit adventure began again!
((heh I just finished it... Cute little story made good reading 🙂 ))
Theomer saddled his horse, and packed a few provisions for the trip. He didn't take much, he liked to travel lightly. The elves had given him a long, spear-like weapon, an elven polearm, which he took with him. It was fully nine feet in length, and the tip was not so much a spearhead as a short sword. The shaft and the blade were made from a single piece of metal, so that there were no seams at all in its construction. It was a very admirable weapon, the kind that had been used by elves for millenia.
On the road into Rivendell, the Hobbit contingent came upon the place where Bilbo met his fate. In his place, they found only the broken wooden practice sword Londro had left in Sting's sheath, and a tooth broken from the mouth of an Uruk-Hai Orc...
"Ohhhhh.. Master Bilbo..." Londro sobbed, taking up the tooth, as Sting came to life, lighting up the road before them. "Orcs... they were here, on this road... and Bilbo..."
"We should get to the safety of Rivendell, and warn them!" Sethilor stuttered.
"With Orc-kind this close, I fear the folks of Rivendell might already know!" Londro explained. "Let's move on!"
The Hobbits moved on, down the trail to Rivendell, the blade of Sting lighting the way...