Tear Me Apart- A Middle Earth Story

A Burglar?

"Bilbo and Abigail Baggins, allow me to introduce the leader of our company: Thorin Oakenshield." Gandalf said to the very confused Abigail and her father. The dwarves made space for Abbie to come through, and she went to stand beside her father. She had not liked what this Thorin had said at all. Something exciting was finally happening in her life, and suddenly she didn't get to take a part of it? What a load of crap.

"So... This is the hobbit." Thorin defied, stepping forward to Bilbo. Abbie defensively moved closer to her father, earning an amused look from the dwarf in front of them.

"You didn't tell me he had a daughter, Gandalf." He said, beginning to circle around the hobbit and the halfling.

"Tell me Mr Baggins, have you done much fighting?"

"Pardon me?" Bilbo said, clearly surprised. Fighting, my Dad?, Abbie thought. She knew that Bilbo had never held a sword in his entire life.

"Axe or sword? What's your weapon of choice?" Thorin said, walking around Abigail and her father. Bow and arrows, she answered to herself. Very few knew this, but Abbie had known how to shoot arrows ever since she was the age of ten, when she had found an old rusty bow in the forest. Her father would be shocked if he knew how many times Abbie had come home rabbits and deers and told him that she had bought them, when she had actually hunted them herself.

Abigail thought often of telling him, but she knew that he wouldn't approve of it. She decided that it was best to keep it a secret, but her opportunity to finally live an adventure was here now.

"Well I do have some skills at conkers if you must know, but I fail to see how that's relevant." Bilbo said, and Abbie rolled her eyes. Oh yes, she had heard all about her father's skills at conkers.

"I thought as much. He looks more like a grocer than a burglar." Thorin mocked, and the dwarves all laughed before leaving Bilbo and his daughter with confused expressions to return to the dining room. Well, Abigail had more of an angry face going on. She did not like how this arrogant dwarf mocked her father. Only she had the right to do so. Abbie sighed and moved to the table, standing by the entrance to the dining room. The dwarves were speaking of some other dwarves when something caught her attention.

"They say this quest is ours, and ours alone." Thorin had said, and she exchanged a look with her father.

"You're going on a quest?" He said, with a tinge of irritation. Abbie knew that her father hated not knowing what they were all speaking about, and what the heck the dwarves were doing in their house. Abigail disliked it even more since she felt completely left out from this adventure, or whatever the dwarves were there for.

"Bilbo, my dear fellow, let us have a little more light." Gandalf said gravely, and Bilbo got a bit worried, but he went to get another candle for the wizard.

"Far to the East, over ranges and rivers, beyond woodlands and wastelands, lies a single solitary peak." Gandalf said as the hobbit returns, and he spread out a map on the table. The halfling girl moved closer to her father, peeking over his shoulder. She caught Thorin looking at her with a raised eyebrow and she gave him a defying look. His whole presence was so mighty that she felt as if she was pressed into a corner without any air. She did not like it.

"The lonely mountain." Bilbo said pensively. He thought he had heard the name before, but could not remember where.

"Aye. Oin has read the portents, and the portents say it is time." Gloin, the red-headed dwarf with a scar across his forehead said. Abbie was still a bit confused about what all of this was about, but she was smart enough to realize that they were going on a quest somewhere, and it was obviously dangerous since Thorin had asked her father about fighting. Her fingertips were itching with desire to shoot some arrows, there had been a while since she had gone out to the forest and practiced with her bow.

"Ravens have been seen flying back to the mountain as it was foretold: When the birds of yore return to Erebor, the reign of the beast will end." Oin said, and Abigail felt Bilbo tense up beneath her hand that was placed on his shoulder.

"What beast?" She asked curiously, and Fíli exchanged a grin with his brother. They hadn't expected a girl of her being and age to be so curious, and not scared. Most girls and women at their home would never dream to fight a beast.

"Well that would be a reference to Smaug the Terrible, chiefest and greatest calamity of our age. Airborne fire-breather, teeth like razors, claws like meathooks, extremely fond of precious metals--" Bofur mocked with a smirk, and Bilbo rolled his eyes, feeling irritated.

"Yes, we know what a Dragon is." He said, eyeing his daughter, who was standing beside him. She had that gleam in her eyes that he often associated with trouble, but he also admired her for her sense of adventure, even if he didn't often say that. Now however, this was not one of those times he admired it. He saw her hope as if it was written across her forehead, and he suspected that she thought that she was coming with the dwarves on their journey.

The dwarves all started cheering and speaking about killing the atrocious dragon when Thorin suddenly barked.

"Shazara! If we have read these signs, do you not think others will have read them too? Rumours have begun to spread. The dragon Smaug has not been seen for 60 years. Eyes look east to the Mountain, assessing, wondering, weighing the risk. Perhaps the vast wealth of our people now lies unprotected. Do we sit back while others claim what is rightfully ours? Or do we seize this chance to take back Erebor? Du Bekâr! Du Bekâr!" He roared, and Abigail could not help but being drawn in by the forceful way he was talking, however arrogant he might have been.

"You forget: the front gate is sealed. There is no way into the mountain." Balin said, touching his beard with a worried face. Oh, so they are going on a quest to a mountain which they have no way in to now, Abbie thought.

"That, my dear Balin, is not entirely true." Gandalf then said, and all of the dwarves looked at the wizard with hope in their eyes. Abigail was getting more impatient by the second, wanting to know what this was really about. What on earth did they want with her father? Gandalf then showed a dwarfish key, and the dwarves looked at it in wonder, especially Thorin, Abbie noted.

"How came you by this?" He asked, and the half human thought she heard some disbelief in his voice. Thorin himself could not believe that Gandalf would have the key to Erebor and not he. He might be a wizard, but he was not the prince and future king of Erebor.

"It was given to me by your father, by Thrain, for safekeeping. It is yours now." Gandalf said, and Thorin took the key without hesitating. It belonged to him, and no one else. He felt pride in his chest as he held the key in his hand. He would soon be king. King over the mighty kingdom of which he dreamt of every night.

"If there is a key, there must be a door." Fíli said, his blue eyes full of hope. Thorin had always admired both of his nephews' hope, and the way they always seemed to make the best of a situation.

"These runes speak of a hidden passage to the lower halls." The wizard continued, pointing at the scribbled runes on the map, Abigail saw as she reached over her father's shoulder once more to get a peek of the map. Thorin gave her an annoyed look and she returned it with a glare, crossing her arms like a child.

"There's another way in!" Kíli said, and Abbie smiled. The hope in his voice was enough to make her happy, he looked like a gleeful child.

"Well, if we can find it, but dwarf doors are invisible when closed. The answer lies hidden somewhere in this map and I do not have the skill to find it. But there are others in Middle-earth who can. The task I have in mind will require a great deal of stealth, and no small amount of courage. But, if we are careful and clever, I believe that it can be done." Gandalf said, ignoring the happy outbursts amongst the dwarves. This sounded like a journey for Abigail ,she already knew in her heart that she wanted to go with these dwarves.

"That's why we need a burglar." Ori said with a smile. Abigail felt Bilbo chuckle beside her, and smiled at him.

"Hm, A good one, too. An expert, I'd imagine." He said, and the dwarves looked at him with a strange look.

"And are you?" Gloin asked, and both Bilbo and Abbie returned the strange look. They had no idea what was going on.

"Am I what?" Bilbo replied with a suspicious look. He was beginning to suspect something. As the dwarves grinned, both he and his daughter realized what they were saying. Then Abigail suddenly burst out in laughter, and couldn't stop.