~Prologue~

Afterlithe-1390

“Sam, you’ll never guess what I found in Bag End,” Frodo said excitedly as he followed his best friend down the road towards the Gamgee smial for elevenses. Bilbo was out of town and the Gamgees had agreed to watch the lad for the three days he would be gone. Bilbo would be back the next day.

“What?” Sam asked, not even attempting to guess. He wanted to know what Frodo had found.

Frodo grew quiet, then looked both ways, as if checking to see f the coast was clear. “I found a secret stairway.” He had gone back to Bag End for a while to finish up some house work Bilbo had left him with, and had ended up exploring afterwards.

Sam glanced up at Frodo as if he had lost his mind. “Hobbit holes don’t have stairs, and that’s a fact.”

Frodo smiled. “My hole does. Bilbo told me his Mum wanted a secret stairway built into the smial and her husband built it for her. Not even the workers who dug the hole knew it was there.”

“Really?” Sam looked enchanted by the idea.

“Bilbo said if I found it, you and I could go exploring and see what’s hidden up there,” Frodo replied excitedly.

Sam beamed. “You know I like exploring, Mr. Frodo,” he said. “S’long as it’s close to home of course.”

“Well, then,” Frodo grinned. “Why don’t we explore after elevenses? It is a Saturday and your Da doesn’t need to work.”

“You can ask my Mum,” Sam replied. “She probably won’t let us if I ask.”

“All right,” Frodo said. “I’ll race you!”

~One~

“They go on very high, Mr. Frodo, are you sure it’s safe?” Sam asked when they stood just inside the secret passage, which opened from a wooden panel in a hallway near the back of the smial.

“Yes,” Frodo said. “I’ll go last, if that will make you feel safer, and I can catch you if you fall, all right, Sam?”

Sam nodded and started up the steep stairs. Frodo followed close behind, keeping a protective hand on Sam’s back to steady him.

The stairs curved and wound up in a circular pattern for about sixteen steps, then Sam stopped. “There’s a trap door, Mr. Frodo!”

He pushed it open above him and gazed around the room above in wonder, his brown eyes open wide.

“What’s there, Sam? What do you see?” Frodo asked from below.

“Looks like a lot of old mathoms, Mr. Frodo!”

“Head on up, Sam, my lad,” Frodo said, urging the boy forward. “I want to see.”

The two boys hurried up and stood there for a moment, awed that a room so large actually existed above their beloved smial.

“I always thought Bag End was dug a little deep,” Frodo murmured. “It had to be to make room for this.”

They wandered about the room, examining the old artifacts – books, random objects, musty old clothing, various pieces of furniture. There was a trunk in one corner all filled with strange hats, and they stop for a moment to pick one out to wear.

“Perhaps you could take this floppy top hat, or the strange knit one,” Frodo said, showing Sam a blue and red knit cap.

“I’ll take the knit one,” Sam said, slipping it on and grinning as Frodo put on the top hat. He giggled and Frodo mock-glared at him.

“What’s so funny, Sam?” he asked sarcastically.

“You should see yourself Mr. Frodo. You look hysterical in that!” Sam exclaimed, handing him a dirty hand mirror.

Frodo looked at himself, then laughed. “I do look rather odd, don’t I?” He handed the mirror back to Sam. “See what you look like.” He turned and began digging through a stack of old books.

Sam looked at his reflection and giggled again.

Suddenly Frodo froze. “Sam, come look!” he exclaimed.

Sam came and looked over Frodo’s shoulder at the old, weathered piece of paper. “What is it?”

“It’s a map, Sam!” Frodo said. “A treasure map! And it’s of Hobbiton!”

“Really? You mean there’s hid treasure and we can find it with this?”

Frodo nodded. “Are you up for a treasure hunt today Sam?”

“You’ll have to ask my Mum. She’s supposed to be watching out for you, remember?” Sam reminded him.

Frodo paused a moment. He smiled at Sam. “What would become of me without you, Sam?” he asked. He liked the fact that Sam meant to keep him accountable to some grown up so as not to get in trouble.

“You’d be in bug trouble without me, Mr. Frodo,” Sam replied, smiling at his friend.

The two lads hurried back down the stairs. Sam went more slowly and stayed safely behind Frodo so he wouldn’t fall.

“Perhaps we should get something to eat before we go treasure hunting,” Frodo suggested, hearing his stomach rumble.

They dashed out the door and headed back to Sam’s hole.

“Do you think your Mum has food ready for us?” Frodo asked as the two walked up the path to the smial.

“I hope so,” Sam said. “Treasure hunting makes me hungry!”

“Me too!” Frodo exclaimed.

Just at that moment the door to the smial opened and a small blur rushed out and leapt into Frodo’s arms.

“Frodo! I’ve missed you so much!” the hobbit lad exclaimed, his arms entwined around Frodo’s neck.

“Merry-lad! What are you doing here?” he questioned, stunned to see his cousin at the Gamgee house.

“Uncle Bilbo brought me.” The lad turned to look at Sam, and shrunk back a little. “Who’s he?” he asked Frodo.

“Where are your manners, Merry?” Frodo chided the boy. “This is my friend Sam Gamgee. He’s only two years older than you.”

“Is he nice?” the lad asked, again not speaking to Sam.

“Yes, he’s a lot nicer than you, my lad,” Frodo teased. Then he turned to Sam with a smile. “Sam, this incredibly rude rascal is my cousin Merry.”

“Hi, Sam,” Merry said, shyly. “Frodo’s told me lots about you in his letters. You’d better be taking care of him.” He looked at Sam with an expression his parents often displayed, which he pulled off quite well for an eight year old hobbit.

“Yes, Mr. Merry! I’m takin’ good care of him!” Sam assured him.

“Well, I see he found you!” Bilbo said, coming out of the hole. “I decided to come home early,” he said to Frodo’s confused look. “Come now! Luncheon is nearly ready!”

2~

“Does this mean I’m going back to Bag End today?” Frodo asked as they all sat down to luncheon with Sam’s family.

Bilbo saw the disappointed looks on Daisy and May’s faces and smiled. “No. I’ve got some extra business to attend to, and Mrs. Gamgee graciously said she’d be glad to have you and Merry spend the night with Sam. If you don’t mind, that is?”

Frodo grinned. “That would be great! How long is Merry staying? Sam and I found the stairs in Bag End and we found a treasure map. We wanted to go search for the treasure. Would you help us, Uncle?” Frodo said excitedly.

“Treasure, hmm? Sounds exciting. Maybe we can do that tomorrow, once I’m done with my work. How’s that?” Bilbo asked.

Frodo would have protested, but the mischievous gleam in his uncle’s eyes silenced him. “All right. We can go tomorrow.”

* * *

“Uncle Bilbo’s planning something,” Frodo said that night, pacing the floor in Sam’s room. “He meant for us to find that map and he’s planning something else.”

“What is he planning?” Sam asked from his perch on the bed. “What’s the ‘treasure’?”

“I don’t know,” Frodo sighed, flopping down on his back beside his friend. “But he’s working on it tonight, that much I know.”

“We can’t do anything tonight, though,” Sam said, straightening Frodo’s curls. “Mr. Merry’s already half asleep.” He indicated the hobbit-lad trying to force his eyes to stay open. He was lying quite contentedly on Sam’s pillows, his feet coming just to where Frodo was lying.

“M’not sleepy,” Merry exclaimed, yawning.

“You’ve had a long trip,” Frodo said, getting up and covering Merry with the blankets. “You are sleepy.” He glanced over at Sam. “So are you, Sam-lad. Hop in!” He pulled back the covers for Sam to climb into bed, then settled himself in between them.

Sam blew out the candle on the nightstand beside him, then all was silent. After a moment, Frodo heard Merry snoring beside him and he turned to look at Sam.

“Do you think we’ll find real treasure, like Uncle Bilbo did?” Frodo asked in a whisper.

Sam grinned and giggled. “I’m sure we will, if Mr. Bilbo’s got something to do with it.”

“I hope it’s gold,” Frodo said. “Gold’s worth more than silver, and if we find enough of it we could go buy our own ponies and go exploring with them.”

“Where would we explore, Frodo?” Sam asked. He only dropped the Mr. when no one else was around.

“Everywhere! We could go all across Middle-earth, just you and me. Then when Merry’s older, we’ll come back for him,” Frodo explained with a smile.

Sam grinned. “That sounds fun!”

“We could visit the elves, Sam,” Frodo whispered mysteriously, his blue eyes glowing in the dim moonlight.

Sam felt a shiver run down his spine, whether from the thought of seeing Elves, or at the look in Frodo’s eyes. “I’d like to see Elves, Frodo,” he said quietly.

“And Mirkwood. We could see the spiders like the one Uncle Bilbo killed. And we could see the Lonely Mountain, and the trolls, and all of the places Bilbo went.”

Sam smiled, excited now. “Someday, I hope we do get to go exploring together, Frodo,” he said. “But I need sleep to explore.”

“Sorry, Sam. You do look tired,” he said, rolling over and yawning. “Goodnight.”

* * *

Bilbo appeared at the Gamgee house early the next morning, just after second breakfast. Merry leapt into his arms to greet him and said, “Frodo says we’re going on a treasure hunt today.”

“Yes we are, Merry-lad,” Bilbo said. “And we’re leaving right after you finish your pancakes, all right?”

Merry nodded and scrambled back to the stack of half eaten pancakes that had been seven cakes high only a few moments earlier.

Sam and Frodo watched on in awe as Merry scarfed down the rest within seconds, and then they were all bustling about, grabbing backpacks and blankets preparing to leave.

“Now you boys be careful,” Bell Gamgee said, buttoning Sam’s shirt to the top and patting Frodo’s head gently.

Frodo smiled, lifting Merry into his arms. “We’ll be fine, Mrs. Gamgee,” he said. “We’ll be back this evening.”

“Can’t I go, Mum?” Daisy asked, glancing from her brother, to Frodo, then back to her mother.

“No, darling. Boys only,” Bell replied, smiling. “Run along and find your sister, please?” she ordered, and Daisy reluctantly walked off to find Marigold.

Bell exchanged a knowing glance with Bilbo, then said, “Why don’t you camp out while you’re at it? I’ve packed you enough food for two days, and I’m sure the boys would enjoy it.”

Frodo’s eyes brightened. “Can we, Uncle Bilbo?” he begged. “It’d be just like your adventures!”

“’cept no dwarves,” Sam said, wistfully.

“Or trolls,” Merry added.

“But we might see an Elf in the woods,” Frodo responded. “That would be exciting.”

“Don’t get your hopes up, lad. They usually wait until fall to come through the Shire. Like it better that way, for some reason,” Bilbo reminded the lad. “But you will find some treasure, I think.”

“Well, what are you lads waiting for? Get going before it’s too dark to see,” Bell exclaimed, shooing them out of the door as they laughed at her exaggeration.

3 ~

“Now, Frodo, it doesn’t appear you’ve paid much attention to my story telling,” Bilbo said as they headed down the road.

Frodo paused and glanced up at him, slightly confused. He knew his uncle’s stories front and back, the way everyone else heard them, and the true versions only few had heard. “What do you mean?” he asked.

Bilbo smiled, mischief playing through his blue eyes. “What must every treasure seeker have?” he questioned.

“A pocket-handkerchief?” Frodo suggested, smiling at Bilbo, who shook his head in exasperation.

“Yes, but no.” He let Frodo think a moment more before Sam suddenly gasped. “Directions, Mr. Bilbo? They can’t go nowhere without directions.”

Bilbo grinned. “You got it, Samwise!”

The light slowly dawned in Frodo’s eyes. He had overlooked that tiny necessity. “Oh! That’s it,” he said, pulling the map out of his waistcoat pocket. “But,” he asked, looking slightly confused. “You never used a map.”

“Ah,” Bilbo replied, with a twinkle in his eye. “We received our directions from Gandalf himself, and the only times we got lost was when we didn’t follow his instructions.”

“The map says to go that way,” Frodo said, pointing off to the right.

“You’ve got it sideways, lad,” Bilbo said with a grin. Frodo quickly righted the map and pointed off to the left.

“Can I see, Fro?” Merry begged, standing at Frodo’s elbow.

Frodo showed him the map, motioning for Sam to come closer. “We have to get to the ‘x’, see?” He indicated a big x on the left hand side of the map.

“Well, come lads, we want to get as close to the ‘x’ as we can before nightfall!” Bilbo exclaimed, and they all followed him down the road. He paused, causing them all to bump into him, and causing Sam at the end of the line fall backwards onto the grass. Frodo quickly rushed to help him up and make sure he wasn’t hurt.

“I’m fine, Mr. Frodo,” the boy said, assuring his friend he wasn’t hurt and that the grass had broken his fall quite nicely.

“What’d you stop for, Uncle?” Frodo asked a moment later.

“This is your quest, isn’t it?” he said. “One of you should be leading. And obviously none of you should be standing behind me.” He winked at Sam, who smiled, and rubbed the seat of his pants where a rather large grass stain had appeared.

“I say Mr. Frodo should lead,” Sam said.

“Yeah,” Merry agreed, nodding his head. “He’s the only one as can read the map anyhow.”

“All right then, lead the way, Frodo!” Bilbo gently pushed Frodo ahead of him, and they continued.

“Let’s sing somethin’,” Merry demanded a moment later, and soon they were all skipping down the road to the forest, singing a lively song Bilbo had written about Dwarves and walking.

By the time they reached the woods, they had gone through three songs, and were in the middle of teaching Sam a new one Bilbo had written for Merry and Frodo about two cousins at a birthday party.

* * *

They made camp shortly before nightfall, and Bilbo showed them how to gather wood and set up a fire.

“It’s not like a hearth-fire,” he explained. “You have to surround it with stones or you could be in danger of catching other things on fire.”

“Tell us about your first walking trip, Uncle,” Frodo said when they had successfully lit a fire and had eaten their dinner, a lovely assortment of food Mrs. Gamgee had sent with them.

The sun was now gone and their only light came from the fire. Bilbo sat back against the felled log near the fire, and Merry and Sam both settled themselves in Frodo’s lap as the old hobbit began his tale of going walking with Gandalf and the Dwarves.