Two Sides of a Coin: Chapter 1: Sapphire

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters of the Hobbit nor the cannon storyline. I merely borrow them for play dates without charging for babysitting.

With a dozen dwarves running around Bag End, eating all of his food and touching everything in sight, Bilbo could feel his blood pressure rise.

Fili and Kili were currently tossing Bilbo's last block of cheese between them in an attempt to keep it away from Bombour who was sitting in the middle of the recently decimated pantry.

Balin and Ori were taking everything off of the mantle in the living room to settle a bet. They were attempting to figure out the doilies' purpose. Did it indeed need to be tied down by the vase and trinkets on top of it like Ori thought? Or was it in fact ensnaring the items in place like a vicious vine, as Balin assumed?

Boisterous laughter and all manner of sounds were coming from the kitchen where the rest of the dwarves were still eating.

There was no calmness. The little Master of the house could feel "The Other" start to wake up.

"No! No, no, no." Bilbo thought with his eyes closed.

He was leaning against the wall in the hallway, gasping for air. He knew that if something did not change soon, he would not be able to find the calmness again.

"Please, go back to sleep. Nothing is wrong. I have got this. They will not hurt us." Bilbo muttered repeatedly to himself.

He began swaying forwards and back on the balls of his feet, as if he were trying to rock a baby to sleep.

A large hand settled on his shoulder, startling Bilbo quite badly. He turned quickly to see Gandalf standing there, or as tall as a human could stand in a Hobbit's hallway. He looked slightly guilty but mostly worried.

"Alright there, my dear friend?" Gandalf asked quietly, so as to not be overheard by any dwarven ears.

Bilbo looked around at the dwarves with a growing sense of panic and terror. He was not afraid of the dwarves. They were kind-hearted in gruff sort of way. Oh, no, he was afraid for them.

"Please, calm them down, Gandalf. "He" is waking." Bilbo whispered to his old friend.

Bilbo could feel The Other starting to take over his mind. The world around him was starting to disappear into blackness, like he was falling asleep. It had not happened for years. He lived alone, away from other Hobbits in order to prevent it.

Through the encroaching darkness, Bilbo tried to focus on his friend, begging silently for help. He could tell by the growing alarm on Gandalf's face that his eyes were starting to glow.

A knock at the door startled everyone inside of Bag End. It was a loud sound, seemingly made by someone who wanted the door answered yesterday.

The suddenness of the sound made the glow disappear from Bilbo's eyes. He could actually feel himself beginning to calm down and The Other went back to sleep.

Gandalf sighed in relief to see the glow disappear from Bilbo's brown eyes and silently vowed to keep the dwarves from causing Bilbo too much trouble.

"It was unwise to upset him", the wizard thought grimly.

After making sure that Bilbo was back, he moved to greet Thorin at the door. He knew that the dwarves were just being dwarves- curious, loud, and glad for the rare chance to relax together in a safe place.

The fools were underestimating Bilbo Baggins, but that did not mean they deserved to face The Other Master of Bag End.

"His fate will be in your hands, Gandalf. The Halfling is useless to me" Thorin growled. The King under the Mountain still sat at Bilbo's kitchen table surrounded by his company.

He was not impressed by the Burglar that Gandalf had promised lived here in the Shire. The Hobbit was too soft, too innocent, and too much of a liability on the difficult quest to take back Erebor.

Did the human take him for a fool? Bilbo Baggins was more of a child's doll than a warrior or burglar.

Thorin could just picture having to travel with the little creature: whining about dirt, traveling, or how the dwarves should act more like respectable Hobbits.

At the first temper tantrum about missing second breakfast, Thorin vowed to send the kid back to the Shire with a smacked bottom for wasting their precious time.

Lost in his musings, the dwarf king did not see that Bilbo was not only behind him, but had overheard. Thorin would not have cared that Bilbo heard his cruel words, but Gandalf did.

It was the eerie quiet around the table of dwarves that alerted Thorin that something was wrong. This lot, especially his nephews, were never this quiet or motionless.

The entire company was staring at something behind him with growing looks of horror and fascination on their faces.

All of Thorin's instincts were screaming at him to turn around and face whatever danger was causing these battle-hardened warriors in front of him to show fear.

The wizard closed his eyes in defeat as he saw that Bilbo's eyes had changed from brown to a glowing black. It was not a natural black color, but a haunting hue like staring straight into the abyss.

The light would not be contained by his eyes, however. There were cracks appearing all over Bilbo's skin which began leaking out the glowing light. It shined around the Hobbit like the rarest of sapphires.

It was not the light that bothered Gandalf, for he had only moments before produced a similar glow when being bombarded with questions about dragon-slaying. The reason behind its appearance is what caused a shiver of fear to travel down his spine. Bilbo was gone; and The Other was awake.