Welcome to A Birthday of Sorts it's a very brief prequel to my far more in depth story An Adventure of Sorts. As this is a prequel it isn't necessary for you to have read that one, you could probably read them either way and it (hopefully) wouldn't affect the story too drastically. enjoy!
Just a warning this is very very short, it was originally only going to be one chapter but somehow ended up being two, I'll upload the second one in a couple of days.
Nineteen year old Tania Knotwise sucked on her bleeding thumb whilst reading a letter that arrived outside her hole that morning. She had managed to cut herself with the letter opener which she was sure her older brother Togo would laugh about, so she had been very careful to hide it from him, luckily he had busied himself with eating pretty much all the bread at luncheon and hasn't paid Tania's thumb a second glance. The letter had been addressed to the entire Knotwise family, not just Tania herself but since Belba Knotwise was out at work (and Togo was nothing but a stick in the mud) Tania elected to open it herself. She sat by the window, the sunlight cascading in as her blue eyes studied the letter.
The young hobbit made a noise of surprise. The letter had been delivered by the Took family, they certainly weren't a group who had much to do with the Knotwise's very often, Tania absentmindedly ran a hand through her unruly brown locks, they'd been invited to a party. How wonderful! She was rarely invited to anything. Evidentially it was the birthday of one of the younger Took children, the letter read he was turning twenty.
That would explain the invitation, Tania thought to herself, he was just beginning his Tweens and probably invited the whole Shire. She was rather unfamiliar with the Took's, but they seemed like a nice enough bunch, despite the rumours. The Baggins' had the same sort of stories told about them; unsavoury ones, but Tania had actually met Bilbo Baggins himself once or twice. He was nothing short of lovely.
"Evening, Tiny!" A voice called and Tania looked up to see Togo gazing down at her, she grimaced.
"To what do I owe the pleasure of your company, Togo?"
Togo smirked and ruffled Tania's hair, "I popped over to the market this afternoon and I'm sure Ivy Gamwich was eyeing me." His eyebrows wiggled and Tania snorted.
"I highly doubt that, Togo. You're about as appealing as a dead fish."
"But dead fish can be very tasty, Tiny." Togo said with a grin and quickly took a nearby apple to the face.
"So can apples!"
That evening, after supper, Tania found her mother sitting in her armchair. With the invitation in hand Tania sat in front of the fire place at Belba's feet.
"Mother, we've been invited to a party!" Tania said with an excited grin.
Belba smiled back, "Have we, Pumpkin?"
Tania nodded, "I opened the invitation this morning, and it's from the Tooks! One of their kin is having their 20th birthday party in the glade and we've been invited!"
Tania passed the letter over and Belba read with a giddy expression, "it's only tomorrow evening, dear. You can wear that nice green dress I made you last week."
Tania groaned, "Do I have to?"
"No" Belba said, "but I would be very disheartened if you didn't"
Tania knew what that meant, that meant she had to wear it. She was worried, that dress was lovely, but she always felt she was asking for attention in it. The dress was too lovely, Tania was sure they're wouldn't be any lads worth attempting to impress at that party. How wrong she was. You see, this party wasn't any party, this is the party where Tania would -for the first time- meet one Peregrin Took, who at this point wasn't even a thought lurking in the very recesses of Tania's funny little hobbit mind. She had no idea just how important this moment would be to her or how drastically it would affect the next few years of her life. With a sigh, the young unknowing hobbit stood from the floor and padded to her room.
"Goodnight, Tania!" Her mother called as Tania closed her rounded door and collapsed on her patchwork quilt.
"Tomorrow", she whispered to herself, "I am going to a party, an important party." After a few minutes of silence she sat up straight in bed.
"I should bake blueberry muffins before Togo gets to the ingredients tomorrow morning."
And she did, she grabbed her nightgown from the hook on her door and tiptoed into the kitchen. Belba had already gone to her room for the night, good. With expert skill, Tania managed to open the pantry door with nary a creak and pick up all the ingredients she needed. The blueberries were hard to find, Togo had obviously hidden them and been eating them without anyone knowing, as they were located in a biscuit jar. Tania rolled her eyes and placed the ingredients on the kitchen table, silently gasping as one of the eggs escaped her grip and tried to roll off the edge. The young hobbit felt her heart stop as she literally leaped through the air and caught the egg before it could fall to the floor. Tania quickly realized she hadn't thought this over properly when she herself fell to the floor.
There was a deafening bang and Tania lay flat on her back with an egg in her hand, just listening to creaking floorboards getting near.
"What'cha doin' on the floor, Tania?" A small voice whispered. It wasn't Togo or her mother, Tania smiled.
"Hey, Posco." She replied to her youngest brother, Posco was but eight years old and a very light sleeper, "I'm cooking blueberry muffins, or at least, I am planning to."
Posco yawned, "why're you on the floor though...?"
"Well, I fell, Posco. Simple as that, you should be heading back to bed." Tania said while pulling herself off the floor.
Posco nodded, his long blond hair flopping over his bright green eyes. Tania ushered him back to his room and gently closed the door.
She made sure to cook quietly from then on.