The day progress pretty normally for Bilbo Baggins, except for his encounter with Gandalf. Now he was getting ready to sit down to a modest dinner, but a knock at the door interrupted him. There, standing in his doorway, was a dwarf. Bilbo was not expecting a visitor, especially one he didn't know, but he let him in none the less.

Shortly after the dwarf, Dwalin, had entered Bilbo's dining room, there was a second knock at the door. When he opened the door a second time, he was stunned. He had never seen such a beauty. Bilbo half-believed he was dreaming. This new character stood at his height. Her eyes were a light blue that seemed to pierce through Bilbo as they looked at each other. Her hair was a fiery shade of red and it was cut in the strangest way. There were two layers, one that rested just below her collar bone, and the other that barely reached past her jawline. She had parted it on the left side of her face and had the front part cut no longer than the tip of her nose. It was side swept. Her skin was fair and her cheekbones high. Both her nose and cheeks were spotted with light freckles. Her left ear poked out of her hair showing a dark metal cuff that connected to a dangling chain that a small feather hung from. The right ear was hidden completely behind her hair. Without thinking, Bilbo let her in.

"This is such a beautiful home," she turned to look at him. "Do all hobbits live in homes like these?"

"Yes."

"I wish I was a hobbit," she muttered as she looked around. Bilbo watched as she took a seat in his sitting room and pulled out a leather-bound book of parchment. He watched as she began to sketch the room around her. Another knock at the door had directed his attention away from the girl. A second dwarf appeared in his doorway. After letting him in, Bilbo turned back to the seat the girl had occupied only to find it empty.

"Where did she go?" Bilbo questioned quietly before trying to remove the two dwarves from his pantry.

Dwarves continued to appear at Bilbo's door, and soon, his house was swarming with them. They had eaten all the food and all but trashed the house. The girl was all but forgotten.

"Don't do that! You'll blunt them!" The mysterious girl appeared around the corner.

"You hear that laddies?" Bofur taunted, "He says we'll blunt the knives!"

"Blunt the knives." There it was. The voice of an angel. "Bend the forks." She starred at the dark haired dwarf. Had that wonderful sound come from those lips? Their eyes connected for a moment. Those brown eyes made her heart race and her face turn red. She quickly looked away and headed back to the seat she first occupied when she arrived. She tucked the sketchbook back into her bag and looked out the window at the stars, trying to forget about those eyes and that voice.

'The stars here are so much different than back home,' she thought as she found new constellations in the sky. The commotion immediately died down when there was a knock at the door over and hour later. Thorin had finally made it to The Shire.

The meeting commenced once Thorin was seated and had been given food.

"Speaking of members, who are you" Dwalin asked the small redheaded girl.

"They call me Camellia. Gandalf sent for me," she responded in a gentle voice. All eyes shifted to Gandalf, waiting for an explanation.

"She's a gifted archer and an accomplished healer. She'd be a wonderful addition to the company."

"I will not be responsible for her safety," Thorin told Gandalf.

"And I'm not asking you to," Camellia said, trying her best to keep her tone gentle. "If I wanted to be protected, I wouldn't have made the journey down here." Her eyes clearly showed the anger that was boiling inside her. A sigh escaped Thorin's lips as he motioned to Ori to present her with a contract. She signed it immediately without bothering to glance up at all the dangers.

"Don't you want to – " she cut Ori off.

"No. I know the risks." Bilbo was also presented with a contract. He began reading out loud the risks. The dwarves watched as he began to panic. Camellia stared at the wooden table, trying to avoid Kili's gaze on her. A loud thump caught their attention. Bilbo had passed out. Camellia left her seat and proceeded to the kitchen. She intended on making him a cup of tea for when he regained his senses.

All of the dwarves were gathered around the fireplace as Bilbo sat in his sitting room with the cup of tea Camellia had brewed. She kept her eyes low as they all waited for an answer from him. He was stalling and Gandalf noticed immediately.

The dwarves listened as Thorin sang in low bass tones. Bilbo was laying in his bed thinking and listening. The song the dwarves sung chilled Camellia to the bone.

'What sorrow…' she thought as she stared into her own cooling cup of tea. It was now apparent that the mission she had joined was no mere adventure; she signed up to risk her life to help them reclaim their stolen kingdom…

…she couldn't be happier with her decision.