Elanor

You are starting in the Bree-Land, Staddle, to be exact, at a small, formally prosperous Inn. Business is bad, your paycheck has been cut to a few rocks. Just your luck .

I get up to work in the kitchen as usual, put on my apron, and start cutting vegetables. I am a good worker, and so "stealthy" as to be almost unnoticeable--unless I want to be. I find satisfaction in a well-cooked and healthy meal, but lately there have been few customers to appreciate my wonderful cooking. The innkeeper is my second cousin Nick Underhill, and I am Elena Underhill, the undiscovered genius of Staddle. My dream is to someday cook for the King in Minas Tirith, as I have heard from my friend Shara that her father told her that Barliman Butterbur says that the King appreciates good beer and food. My food is always good, and I have always wanted to see the faraway places in tales and legends. But the Underhills of Staddle have never been very adventurous, and my health hasn't been good for the last while--I'm not very strong at all. Still, I dream that someday I will find a way to the great cities of the South, and see the towers shining in the sun, and know that my cooking will be eaten by the great lords and princes of Gondor...

"Elena!" It's Cousin May, Cousin Nick's wife. She runs the inn, and doesn't like to see me daydreaming. A plump middle-aged hobbit, May is a good woman, but very busy running and inn and raising 5 young hobbits. I am 29 years old, have not yet reached my coming-of-age, and have not been married, so she feels free to boss me around. My parents died a few years ago from a fever, so I have no other place to live. I'm not the rebellious type, so I mostly do what she tells me, but I do the cooking my own way. She knows better than to interfere, because the customers complain when the food isn't its best. In a small out-of-the-way town, most of the customers do come here just for the food, and I'm the one who cooks it.

But lately things have been in a rut, so I decide to make up a new dish to see if it will draw more visitors. Experimenting with food is one of my only sources of fun, so I look through my spices and get to work.

The Mayor of Staddle is coming tonight. He has heard of you meals, and obviously do to his large waistline, plans to enjoy the stay immensly.

Better get to work on that recipe!

After several attempts, I come up with a mouthwatering meat dish and a delicate vegetable pastry for the mayor, and the other kitchen lass, young Daisy Sandheaver, helps me with a thick rabbit stew for the rest of the customers. Cousin Nick opens the windows to make sure the whole town knows that something good is cooking. For an extra penny, the townspeople can get a piece of my special Holecake--a cake in the shape of a hill with a hobbit hole in it, decorated with green and brown icing. The round door is made of a smooth iced biscuit, and actually opens to reveal the fruit-studded inside of the cake. The hobbits and Men living in Staddle are always excited when I make a special cake, and Nick enjoys the customers.

By the time the Mayor arrives at the Stalking Cat Inn, the table is set and the townspeople are waiting in anticipation. Nick brings out the Holecake and they all cheer, having paid their pennies long in advance. Some of the women give me a few compliments as I serve the cake, but at one of the tables, a large Man wildly and exuberantly swings his mug and hits me on the back of the head. I fall underneath the table and lie there unnoticed.

I wake up to find water being splashed on my face and look up into the face of a tall worn-looking stranger. Something in the Man's eyes makes me think he might not just be the ragged traveler he looks.

He helps you up, then sits down and continues dinner.

Later you see him in front of the fireplace telling stories of Goblins, Dragons, immense wealth, ships, jewels, mountains, fires, demons, and many things that you heard when you were younger. You were taught they were fairy tales, but the way this traveler tells them makes it seem......so realistic that it must be true. Soon you find yourself drawn in with the large crowd around him.

"Barg! You be a' lyin'. Thar ain't no such tings as hobgoblins and dragons stealing gold, and what about this nonsense about a wretched beaten old guy marrying a beautiful maiden over losing a hand?!? It never was true, nor it never be!" shouted Ed Gasterosous

Instead of getting up and easily crushing the half-witted hobbit, the stranger simply stood up, and left for his room.

Amazed, I sit down in a corner to think. Could this stranger know of the Kings of the South? Could he somehow help me achieve my dream? I know my luck, and there is no way the stranger will help me unless I make it happen. So I follow him, and while I peer through the keyhole of his room (which is completely dark inside), Cousin Nick catches me! Now I never spy on customers usually, and I know that May does, but Nick is angry and sends me to wait on drunken partyers in the common room. Something about the stranger must have upset him, for him to act this nervous...

During the night, I creep out of my room. I had planned to get up early to catch the stranger on his way out of the inn, but I don't know what outlandish hour he might decide to get up, so I decide to sleep outside his door. Surely then (my logic tells me), I'll know when he goes out! So I curl up with my blanket and go to sleep...

I wake up with a bump to find my blanket missing, a knife at my throat, and the stranger's dark eyes glaring into mine. Oops! I think. "Um, sir?" I stammer.

"Silence, halfling!" his harsh voice whispers in my ear, "We are not safe here!" Safe? I think, If we're not safe in a boring little inn in Staddle, where are we safe? But I don't get a chance to ask this question. The Man picks me up by the scruff of my neck and stuffs me into a bag! A very humiliating experience for a hobbit!

After only half-an-hour (Which seemed like an eternity) You finally are able to look outside of the bag and breath fresh air. It is daylight, and you are on a wagon, being pulled by an ordinary horse, with the not-so-ordinary driver. Very confused at all that has happend (Not to mention hungry) you decide to move closer and talk to the stranger...