When first Frodo awoke in the back garden of Bagend, he heard singing. Loud, boisterous singing coming from inside the smial, paired with a small voice rising above it, shouting for another, or many others, to "put that down!" or "stop that!" In the young hobbit's opinion, it sounded like his Uncle Bilbo. Though it was certainly impossible, the voice was too young to be-

"That's what Bilbo Baggins hates!" The song wrapped up, and the hobbit in the garden felt himself freeze, Though he wasn't moving. It couldn't have been Uncle Bilbo, that was certain, he was too old. Bravely, the hobbit made his way to the door and slightly opened it. From where he stood, he could see the dwarves at the table, twelve of them, and Gandalf, not yet the White, laughing at an angry, golden-haired hobbit, who's arms were crossed.

Then came a pounding knock at the door and the dwarves grew silent, standing. Gandalf looked at each of them.

"He's here..." He announced, ominously in Frodo's opinion, and Frodo slipped into the smial completely. Gandalf and the dwarves moved to the door, Bilbo shuffling after, and Frodo hanging curiously behind. He could swear that he remembered this part from Bilbo's many tales. The 'he'. That was Thorin. Frodo was always heartbroken by the dwarf's fate in the tale, and he wondered if, somehow, he could fix it. Make it so Thorin and Fili and Kili and Balin and Ori and Oin didn't die the ways they did. A spark flared in his eyes as he cowered in the shadows. They wouldn't die.

The door opened at the epiphany and finally Gandalf spoke again.

"Ah," he said, "Thorin, nice of you to join us. We thought you would never make it." The dwarf was much larger than Bilbo ever described, but from this distance, it appeared as though his Uncle had exaggerated the intensity of his blue eyes.

"Yes. It seems I got lost on the way..." The dwarf paused and seemed to look over the crowd, gaze freezing on Bilbo. "Twice."

Frodo could see his Uncle shake under the intensity of the gaze. Because that was the only way to describe it.

Frodo now understood what his Uncle had meant when he said the dwarf was intense.