"ᴍᴀᴇᴛʜᴏʀ ꜱᴀɪᴅ ʏᴏᴜ'ᴅ ɢᴏɴᴇ ᴏꜰꜰ, ᴛʜᴀᴛ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴇʀᴇɴ'ᴛ ʟɪᴋᴇʟʏ ᴛᴏ ʀᴇᴛᴜʀɴ"
"ᴛʜᴀᴛ'ꜱ ɪɴᴄʀᴇᴅɪʙʟʏ ʀɪᴅɪᴄᴜʟᴏᴜꜱ. ɪ ᴡᴏᴜʟᴅ ᴀʟᴡᴀʏꜱ ᴄᴏᴍᴇ ʙᴀᴄᴋ ꜰᴏʀ ʏᴏᴜ"
•••
|| 𝐈𝐍 𝐖𝐇𝐈𝐂𝐇 . . . . Magauna Litercash the Half-Elf is dragged into a quest with a company of Dwarves to reta...
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The lights were low in the dining room as everyone gathered around the table. The cloaked figure stood in the back of the room, still smoking their pipe, and Bilbo had yet to see their face or hear their name. Thorin sat at the end of the table, eating the food that had been left over for him.
"What news from the meeting in Ered Luin?" The dward Balin asked him. "Did they all come?"
Thorin looked up at him. "Aye, envoys from all seven kingdoms."
"And what did the dwarves of the Iron Hill say? Is Dain with us?" The dwarf named Dwalin asked.
Thorin paused, before shaking his head slightly. "They will not come." The other dwarves all seemed visibly upset by his answer. "They say this quest is ours, and ours alone."
Before this point, Bilbo hadn't been paying attention, but at the mention of this, he perked up. "You're doing a quest?"
Gandalf looked back at him. "Bilbo, my dear fellow, let us have a little more light." Bilbo walked out of the room, and Gandalf took out a map from his robes, laying it on the table. "Far to the East, over ranges and rivers, beyond woodlands and wastelands, lies a single solitary peak."
Blibo returned with a candle, and leaned over to read from the map. "The Lonely Mountain."
The dwarf Gloin nodded. "Aye, Oin has read the portents and the portents say: it is time."
The dwarf Oin spoke. "Ravens have been seen flying back to the mountain as it was foretold. When the birds of the old return to Erebor, the reign of the beast will end."
"Uh...what beast?" Bilbo asked.
"Well that would be a reference to Smaug the Terrible, chiefest and greatest calamity of our age." Bofur told him. "Airborne firebreather, teeth like razors, claws like meat hooks, extremely fond of precious metals-"
"Yes,I know what a dragon is." Bilbo said, cutting Bofur short.
Ori suddenly shot up from his seat. "I'm not afraid, I'm up for it! I'll give him a taste of the dwarfish iron right up his jacksy!" The dwarves cheered him on, and the one named Dori shoved him back in his seat.
"The task would be difficult enough with an army behind us, but we number just thirteen, and not thirteen of the best, nor brightest." Balin said.
"Hey!" Ori called. "Who you calling dim?!" Everyone started talking and arguing at the same time.
"We may be few in number, but we're fighters. All of us!" Fili said once it was calmed down a bit.
Kili nodded enthusiastically. "And you forget we have a wizard in our company, Gandalf will have killed hundreds of dragons in his time!"
"Oh, well. No, uh, I wouldn't say..." Gandalf stuttered.
"How many then?" Dori asked. "What?"
"Well, how many dragons have you killed?" Gandalf didn't answer and instead just smoked is own pipe. "Go on, give us a number!" The dwarves started arguing at once again, angrier and louder than before.
