Cheerio! 3

Megan was woken up by the prod of a stick in her side.

"Mmm, I'm getting up!" She complained.

"I should hope so, we must get moving if we're to make it to Hobbiton by late morning!"

Megan sat up in alarm. Everything that happened yesterday came back like a tidal wave, and she stared at the old man as his words sunk in.

"Where...am I?" She asked stupidly. The old man looked at her.

"Inside the borders of the Shire, almost as far west in Middle Earth as you can go. Why?"

"Because this is insane! I can't be in Middle Earth, it isn't real!" Megan jumped up and started pacing. Trying to think of an explanation that didn't involve fictionus characters talking and breathing and existing.

"If I'm not real, then tell me how you're still here. In this place, with an old wizard who was kind enough to keep watch as you slept. Look there, in the distance! That is smoke from someone's chimney, which means houses. If this were not real, could you not smell the food cooking on our own fire? Like it or not, we are where we are. And we are in Middle Earth. Where else would we be?"

"Then I guess you're really..." She paused as she tried to remember who he said he was. "Gandalf? Really? That-that's awesome! Thank you, for last night I mean."

"Not at all! Well eat up, we haven't got all day!" The food looked good, but she only ate a little. She still had trouble believing she was here, but 'Eliminate the improbable and whatever's left, however impossible, must be the truth.' So for now she'd at least pretend this was real.

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"Wow, this place is gorgeous!" Megan spun in place as they made their way down the path. Gandalf chuckled at her reaction.

"I must ask, are you a warrior of some kind?" He asked suddenly.

"Pardon?"

"Your clothes, I couldn't help but notice that you're on a 'response team' of some sort." He gestured at her t-shirt. It was black and said 'Zombie Response Team' in bright green. Along the bottom the words 'Decapitate, Incinerate, Obliterate' could be seen in bold white letters.

She'd forgotten all about her getup. "I-I guess you can say that..."

"Either I can say it or I can't, there will be no guesswork if I can help it!"

"Y-yes sir. Well, you can say it then." Internally she kicked herself. The last thing she needed was for everyone to think she was some kind of badass.

The further they went, the more people they came across. Small, big-footed people with cheery faces. "Hobbits." Megan whispered.

"And quite a decent lot, wouldn't you say?" Gandalf said as they started going uphill. "Just a little way up here lives a very respectable Hobbit. He's the one we're going to see."

At this Megan began to wonder when in M.E. she was. She was just about to ask the wizard when he stopped at the top of the hill. A young Hobbit was sitting on a little bench outside his hobbit-hole. His eyes were closed after blowing a big smoke ring from his pipe.

"The Hobbit it is then." Megan said to herself as Gandalf turned the smoke ring into a smoke butterfly, which then flew right into the Hobbits' face.

The Hobbit stared at her and Gandalf in confusion, then, "Good morning."

"What do you mean?" Asked the wizard. "Do you mean to wish me a good morning, or that it is good whether I want it or not? Or maybe you feel good on this paticular morning, or you're saying it is a morning to be good on?"

"All of them at once, I suppose. Can I help you?"

"That remains to be seen. I'm looking for someone to share an adventure."

Megan stopped listening, gazing in wonder at the Hobbit village. She wished Katie could see this. At the thought of her sister, she began to worry. She imagined Katie and her parents were frantically calling the police and putting up posters.

"...Think it'll be good for you, and most amusing for me. Oh! I forgot, Megan, please introduce yourself to Mr. Baggins."

Snapping back to the present, she smiled at the Hobbit. She bent down to shake his hand. "Megan Gardner. Hope we aren't disturbing anything Mr. Baggins." She said as politely as she knew how.

"Please, call me Bilbo. Are you traveling with him?" He asked, gesturing to Gandalf. Before she could answer, the wizard did it for her.

"No, I rescued her yesterday. And now my hands are full having to watch her! She doesn't know these parts, could she stay with you tonight while I tell the others?"

"T-the others?" Megan and Bilbo said at the same time. She didn't want to meet anyone else right now, it would mean this was real. And she wanted to pretend a little longer.

"No no, we don't want any adventures here!" Bilbo raised his voice to show he meant it. "Maybe you could try Over the Hill, or Across the Water...Good morning!" And with that he slammed his round little door shut.

Megan and the wizard were silent for a while, then she had to ask. "What about me? Since I'm such a handful and everything."

Gandalf went up to Bilbos' door and started to scratch a mark into it as he answered her. "Well, give him a moment, then knock and ask to come in. Even go so far as to say that you're starving, you hardly ate anything today!"

As if in answer to his statement, Megans' stomach growled so loud that Gandalf turned and looked at her a little too smug for her liking.

"Oh all right! I hope you know what you're getting me into!" She said a little too defensively. But the old wizard just laughed as he made his way back down they path they came.

Heaving a heavy sigh, she wondered what she could do while 'giving him a moment'. Suddenly she spotted a small group of young hobbits playing a game similar to soccer. She was feeling restless so she went up to them and asked, "Hey guys, can I play?"

m baaaack! Has anyone even been reading this? If so, you are awesome & PM me please so I can bounce ideas off you & vice versa if you like. It's a little (ok a lot) shorter than I wanted it to be, but be patient please, I'm slowing up. And trying to get out something as good as Magical Meg (see profile)