His Little Shadow

The Life of a Took and Baggins

In one corner of the West, within the rolling hills and rivers of the Shire, was a place of peace, hope, and smiling little folk: Hobbiton. These little folk were called Hobbits, a full grown one being about the size of a child in the eyes of a full grown Man. With bright eyes, warm smiles and large feet with brown fluff over their toes, Hobbits were creatures of the earth, for they lived in Hobbit holes.

No, not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat. A Hobbit hole means good food, a warm hearth, and all the comforts of home. Which is what the Hobbit folk were all about... with a few exceptions.

There were many respectable families of Hobbits within the Shire, of farmers and tailors and butchers and the whole lot, even the owner of the local tavern, the Green Dragon. In this place, very few Hobbits ever felt excluded within society, and those who did had either done that to themselves for a good reason, or because they were seen as 'disturbers of the peace'.

One night within Hobbiton, a good century after the dragon attack far to the East, two young Hobbits were born to one family, who were originally of two different families: the Bagginses and the Tooks. A Baggins was a highly respected Hobbit, who never had any adventures or did anything unexpected, and stuck to the rules of life and society. A Tok, however, was adventurous and, while still fairly respected, were named as troublemakers and often went dashing off on crazy adventures into the Wild, what most other Hobbits would consider to be a suicide mission.

But it was on this night, when there two Hobbits were born - a boy and a girl - that the lives of not only their parents, but everyone within Hobbiton, changed in the blink of an eye. For there two were twins, Rebecca and Bilbo Baggins they were named, daughter and son of Bungo Baggins and Belladonna Took. And what a proud and curious mixture of a family there were, but a happy one.

It was a bright, sunny spring day. The rain showers weren't due for another few days, so the people of Hobbiton were making the best of the good weather while they could. Either tending to their crops, visiting friends or the marketplace, gardening in their homes, spring cleaning, or just enjoying the sunshine as only a Hobbit can. Hobbit children ran around the marketplace and through the fields, laughing joyously as they ran with their friends and played games of tag or hide and seek, living life to its fullest like all children should.

However, while other Hobbit children ran around and played games, there was one who was on a mission. Young Bilbo Baggins, in the prime of adolescence, was searching for his sister, Rebecca.

Bilbo and Rebecca Baggins, although with the same inheritance of Baggins and Took, were quite different from one another, despite being twins. At some points they were very much alike, and at others it was like looking at two different Hobbits. But no one in the Shire could guess incorrectly that the pair were indeed twins.

Twins were a very rare sight throughout Middle-earth, and considered like a blessing upon a family - even if there was an old folklore told on Midsummer's Eve that there was two sides to a set of twins: One would follow the rules and stick to what they have to so, while the other would be the most rebellious of the lot and get into trouble.

That was an almost accurate description of the Bagginses twins, if not a bit of an exaggeration; Rebecca and Bilbo never purposefully went looking for trouble, not when they were enjoying themselves within the borders of their home. When they were small children, all they talked about were far away lands and dragons and Trolls and creatures of the sort, of finding Elves within the forest and spotting Dwarves traveling though of their own free will. Their childhood games consisted of pretending to slay such fearsome beasts, or holding pleasant conversations with the Elves and perhaps learning come of the culture of the Dwarves. Often they would return home late at night, tramping in twigs and mud with huge grins on their childish faces while their parents scolded them for staying out so late.