The Hobbit had spent two days barricaded in his house, afraid to come out after his little encounter with Gandalf.

On the third day, Bilbo had felt ridiculous for being held prisoner in his own home by a crotchety old Wizard, and had braced himself as he took a step out into the bright day light. Bilbo had half expected Gandalf to jump out of the shrubs in front of his mailbox and frighten him, but after another couple of jumpy days, the Halfling had more or less returned to his regular routine.

But now, a week later, sitting at the fire place cooking a nice fish for supper, Bilbo wondered idly about the Wizard.

Perhaps he had changed his mind about the whole adventure nonsense, or better yet, maybe he had found someone more agreeably suited for the journey.

Bilbo was still a fairly young Hobbit, but like many of his kind, he was very fond of food and found himself having to re-tailor his breeches a bit more often now than he liked to admit. What he was trying to say was that he was in no shape to go gallivanting off on a nit witted adventure like some bottle headed Took.

Bilbo stopped for a second, chuckled and mentally chided himself as he remembered his mother. Yes, she was a Took and he meant her no disrespect, but he was a Baggins.

And a Baggins was responsible, mature and sensible.

Besides, who would take care of his vegetable garden? Or feed the hens, or milk Lassie and Lidya?

"Utter nonsense." Bilbo said to himself.

But then in spite of himself, he looked around his comfy little hobbit hole; at all the maps and books he had read throughout the years scattered across the floor and thought that maybe, just maybe, a little change in routine once in a while might do him some good...

Bilbo abruptly shook his noggin to get the preposterous thoughts out of his head.

Then seeing as his fish was cooked just the way he liked it, nice and seared on both sides, Bilbo smiled and chuckled again suddenly. He was in a fine mood and was quite excited to sit down to supper as it had already been two full hours since his last meal.

He began to hum a little tune and went to grab a nice lemon he had picked up from the market yesterday.

As though sensing the proximity of the food, Bilbo's stomach began to rumble and without further hesitation he sat down, flicked out his napkin before tucking it into his collar and set out to eat.

Just as he went to stab the succulent fish with his fork though, his doorbell went off.

Bilbo froze and instead of wondering who would be disturbing him, he sat contemplating whether or not to just ignore the unexpected visitor and bite into his fish, which now seemed to be calling to him.

Just one bite, Bilbo thought, but before he could even make another attempt at skewering the fish, the bell rang once more.

"For the love of-" Bilbo muttered under his breath. He placed his silverware back on the table and ripped his napkin from his collar as he tore himself away from his lovely supper.

His good mood was evaporating quickly.

"You, don't go anywhere." Bilbo turned and said as he pointed sternly at his supper. "I will be right back."

The dead fish simply laid there.

Bilbo nodded to himself and tightened his robe around his waist before opening the circular green door, an excuse already on his tongue for anyone who wanted to visit tonight. He was simply not in the mood to entertain... or to share his food.

"Sorry, but I'm not –" Bilbo froze and felt as his words died in his throat.

It was a dwarf.

There was a dwarf standing in his doorway.

Whatever the Hobbit had been expecting, it had surely not been this.

"H-hi." Bilbo stammered uncertainly, completely forgetting where he was and what he was doing for a second.

"Dwalin, at your service." The dwarf said in a deep, gruff voice with an odd accent. He bowed deeply so Bilbo was at eye level with his shiny bald head.

Bilbo saw that although there was no hair on his head, there were some strange markings that stretched across the expanse of his leathery looking skull.

Dwalin the dwarf straightened and the Hobbit had a chance to properly see him for the first time, as his shock was slowly wearing off. Unfortunately for little Bilbo, shock had been replaced with fear, excitement, wonder and awe all at once; and it was making him feel a bit queasy.

The Hobbit was staring at the dwarf's arms now. Each strand of muscle was as big as his leg!

"Ahem." The short, loud noise Dwalin made clearing his throat made Bilbo snap out of his examination and he looked up to see the dwarf raise a thick furry eyebrow in impatience.

"Oh!" Bilbo said suddenly, his cheeks flushing as he remembered his manners. "Bilbo Baggins, at your service." The Hobbit tried to mimic the dwarf's bow but ended up stumbling and caught himself on Dwalin's belt instead.

"Get your hands away from my crotch." The Dwarf growled viciously as he stood glaring daggers at poor Master Baggins.

"Yes, yes sorry." Bilbo said hastily straightening himself up and brushing off his robe even though it was perfectly clean.

He could feel his cheeks grow scarlet again and he backed away as Dwalin made his way into Bag End.

"Um, excuse me!" piped up Bilbo sheepishly, still quite embarrassed. "But, do we know each other?"

"No." The dwarf said in a voice that made it seem as though he thought Bilbo was daft. "Where is it then, Laddie?" Dwalin said suddenly taking off his weather beaten cloak.

Bilbo still stood in his doorway with a look of utter confusion on his round face. "Where is what, exactly?"

The dwarf turned on him and Bilbo shrank up against the wall.

"Supper of course! He said there'd be food." With that Dwalin turned towards the kitchen and threw his cloak at Bilbo, who now had absolutely no trace of his previous good spirits left.

As the Hobbit went to hang up the musty smelling cloak he felt serious regret at not taking a bite out of his fish the first chance he got. He desperately hoped that somehow the strange dwarf had not seen it yet.

Scurrying as fast as his furry feet could take him, Bilbo burst into the kitchen only to find Dwalin biting the head clean off his supper.

"It's really good, this." The dwarf said examining the skeletal remains of the fish as though it were made of gold. "Got any more?"

Bilbo let out a weary sigh and looked at his raisin cakes in despair, wondering how this evening could possibly get any worse.