A/N:  In this story and in my main story “The Heir Apparent” about Estel growing up, he met Gandalf when he was five and living in Rivendell.

2941 TA  Imladris

Estel skipped along the path to the stables to see Naredir, the master of horse and visit his own horse, Gilgilath.  Last month he had to go every morning for a whole week as part of his punishment for trying to ride Carannin, his Adar's big strawberry roan and had given the place a wide berth since then.  But he had been neglecting his horse and that was wrong.  He walked up the path and as he climbed the slight incline he thought he caught sight of one of his favorite people walking with his Adar. 

"Gandalf!" Estel shouted excitedly. He broke into a run and caught up to the crinkly wizard and his Adar just before they were to enter one of the outer chambers.  His Adar looked a little startled but Gandalf looked delighted to see him, "Estel, my dear boy!" he knelt down to talk with the child, "I see that wing of yours has healed up nicely!"

Estel nodded, and looked up at Elrond, "Ada made it all better!" 

Elrond looked pointedly at Estel, "Aye, it is all better and though we have had a few more mishaps since then we have learned our lesson haven't we, ion nin!" But Elrond then softened the admonishment with a smile and a smoothing back of Estel's plaits.  

Estel was no longer paying attention.  He was trying to looking past the wizard and his Adar to see into the outer chambers, could just see a dwarf or two. They were a rare enough occurrence in Rivendell but sitting with them was a personage he had never seen before.  "What is happening, Ada?  Who are are all these people?" the boy asked excitedly.  Elrond looked down his nose and gave him his special stern look, "They are merely visiting.  Were not you enroute to visit Giligath this morning?  Naredir tells me you have not been since your punishment ended.  'Tis not right to ignore him this way!"

Estel sighed.  When his Adar took that tone and looked down his nose in just that way he knew that there was to be no more discussion.  He looked a little frustrated but to make further argument would just cause Elrond to become even more stern.  He would wait and ask Elladan and Elrohir later. "Aye, Ada." He said obediently. With a last look inside he smiled at Gandalf, "Later can I show you my leaf collection!?"

Gandalf twinkled, "Of course, dear boy!" 

Estel smiled and continued to the stables.  Elrond looked after his charge wondering why he had given up so easily.  He sighed, he would have watch his inquisitive and overly curious son a little more closely over the next few days.  He turned to Gandalf who was looking at him with a knowing smile, "Estel is a bright inquisitive boy."

Elrond nodded, "Aye, that he is."

Gandalf eyed the Lord of Imladris keenly, "And you love him dearly."

"As my own son," Elrond admitted, looking after the child skipping to the stables, "but to business."

They continued on into the outdoor chamber.

Gandalf continued, “Kind of you to invite us, not really dressed for dinner."

"You never are." the Lord of Imladris replied with a smile in his voice.**

~*~*~*~*~

Estel skipped down the path for a little way and paused until he saw his Adar and Gandalf go under the archway to be seated for midday meal.  Then he stole off the path and ducked around some bushes that lead back around to the outer chambers and there he could spy onto the dais where they were seated so he could see a little more of who these people were.  He sat quite still and listened.  They were a raucous bunch.  That much was certain.  He watched his Adar as he handled a sword that a rather regal-looking Dwarf had handed him.  "Orcrist" he had named it and he saw his Adar hand it back to the regal dwarf.  Then he looked over Gandalf's blade.  That Gandalf had a blade was new.  He had only ever seen Gandalf with his staff before.  He would ask Gandalf to show him that blade later.  It was very impressive, Elrond named it "Glamdring" and said they were both forged in the First Age in the long-ago kingdom of Gondolin.  Estel's ears picked up because he remembered what Glorfindel had taught him about the Elven realm that had fallen in such tragic circumstances. These swords were even older than Narsil, the famed blade that cut the Ring from Sauron's hand all those centuries ago. Narsil's handle and shards were kept here in Imladris and vaguely called to him but he did not understand why.  Elrond had told him of the tragic story of the shards just recently.  These blades were even older than that.  His imagination was on fire with possibilities. He watched the scene before him with even more fascination.

Naneth would most certainly not approve of the Dwarfs' table manners but Estel rather liked their high spirits.  A few times he almost burst out laughing but he stifled it just in time. The look on Elmiran's face when the food started to fly was priceless.  When one of the Dwarfs with a funny hat got up on the table and started singing he had to bite his tongue to keep from laughing.  The look on Adar's face would have been enough to stop him in his tracks but apparently these Dwarfs did not know enough about that look to realize they should have stopped.  Near to Adar there sat that personage that he glimpsed earlier.  He did not think he was a dwarf.  Or if he was, he was a very short, very well-behaved dwarf with no beard.  Estel was fascinated, but more table servers began crossing the path and he had to vacate his spy point or he would get caught. 

~*~*~*~*~

Later that afternoon...

Bilbo sat in one of the terraced gardens on one of the higher levels in Imladris.  He gazed about him and simply let the beauty and serenity of the place move through his soul.  He heard a slight rustle of a bush to his left.  He looked and saw a pair of grey eyes looking back at him.  "Hullo?" he queried, unafraid in this sanctuary of Imladris.  "Who is there?  Let me see you?"

An elven child of ten or eleven years (considered in Mannish years) stepped out from behind the bush.  Bilbo thought he was Elven but when he had a closer look he realised that though the child was dressed like an Elf and held himself as such, Bilbo realised his ears were decided not pointed.  Bilbo was intrigued.  The Mannish child stared at him with wide, intelligent grey eyes that were curious and not a bit scared or wary.  "Why were you hiding? What is your name?" Bilbo asked.

The child walked closer, "My name is Estel.  And I was only hiding because Adar said that you were not to be disturbed.  But I have never seen anyone like you before! I was fascinated so I thought maybe if I was quiet then I could just watch you and maybe assuage my curiosity that way, but then an insect started crawling down my neck and it tickled."  Estel wrinkled his nose in dissatisfaction, "My brothers would not have let that bother them." he ended, clearly chagrined. 

Bilbo watched and listened to this precocious Mannish child speak and he was intrigued to say the least. "Your Adar you say…"

Estel sat down next to him and pulled out a spiced berry cake wrapped in some cheesecloth.  He broke off a bit and then offered some to Bilbo.  Bilbo, being a hobbit, could not resist berry cake and took a small bit. Estel smiled, and encouraged him to take more as he broke off another bit and crammed it in his mouth.  Bilbo, not wishing to be impolite of course took a little bit more.  Estel swallowed and then said, "Lord Elrond, well he isn't really my Adar but my real Adar died, so my Naneth says.” At that the child grew a little sad, “She doesn’t talk about it much.  It makes her sad.” And in a mercurial shift of mood worthy of any Imladris elf the boy continued, "So Lord Elrond is my Adar and my Naneth and I have lived here for as long as I can remember."

Bilbo was charmed by this well-spoken, more Elven than Mannish child who was sharing his spiced berry cake with him.  Estel looked at Bilbo, “What are you?” he blurted out then, “I mean you are clearly not a Dwarf, you’ve got no beard and your table manners are what Naneth is always trying to drill into me!”

Bilbo chuckled at Estel’s implied description of dwarfs. It was so very true. “Well, I am a hobbit of the Shire.  My name is Bilbo Baggins.  We hobbits have been farming the four farthings of the Shire since time out of mind.”

“The Shire? Where is that?”  Estel thought about all that Lord Glorfindel had been teaching him and he did not remember any mention of The Shire before.  He would have to ask him about it.

“Where it is? Where it is?”  Bilbo seemed a little flustered that someone would not know where the Shire was.  He fumbled about and found his pipe, pulled it out and began to light it.

Estel watched as the strange but friendly hobbit started blowing smoke through a small tube that he inserted in his mouth; the smell was earthy, smoky with a touch of cherry, not an unpleasant scent.  “What are you doing?”

Bilbo looked at the child who seemed utterly spellbound by his pipe-smoking.  “What. This?” He motioned to his pipe.  Estel nodded, all wide-eyed interest.  "This is pipe smoking.  It is a very common practice among Hobbits of The Shire.”

“But why?” Estel asked in all earnest inquiry.   He had never seen his Adar or his brothers or any Elf do such a thing or anything close to it.

“Why?” Bilbo opened and shut his mouth quickly.  He did not really have an explanation or reason.  “Why.” He pondered. “Well I can’t rightly say.   It is just something we do.” He had truthfully never thought about why.  Most hobbit men just did. “I guess we do it to relax or to think.  Yes.  I think that’s it.  Would you like to try?”

Estel thought about it.  The practice or at least the smell of it enticed him, but somehow he did not think that Adar would approve and he was certain his Naneth would not.  He was not by nature a rebellious child, more inquisitive and curious than rebellious and this did intrigue him.  He nodded.

“Well then, Good Lad!” Bilbo chirped.  “Well let’s see.  I will demonstrate first.  Yes, I think that will be the way!  Okay, watch!”  he said to the curious child. “I put it my mouth, in one corner,  I clench it gently with my teeth, close my mouth around it and just, and this is important, you just pull the smoke into your mouth but you do not inhale it.  The smoke just stays in your mouth.” Bilbo demonstrated.  Estel was enthralled.

“Now you try,” Bilbo dried off the end and then showed Estel how to hold the pipe and place it in his mouth.  “Now draw the smoke into your mouth, but very important. Do not inhale.” Estel drew smoke into his mouth and started coughing almost immediately.  Bilbo admonished his pupil, “I told you ‘do not inhale.’ “

Estel’s eyes were watering he had coughed so hard, but he immediately placed the pipe in the requisite position and drew smoke into his mouth and this time he did not cough, well not much.  The smoke tasted good, much to his astonishment.  He held his breath until he had to let it go and then he started coughing again.  Bilbo patted the boy on the back saying, “Perhaps smoking isn’t for you.”  But Estel once again placed the pipe in his mouth and drew the smoke in.  Bilbo smiled at the boy’s determination. “And now let out the smoke…” Estel blew out the smoke.  He tried another puff.  Bilbo watched as delight flittered across young features.  “Do you like?”  Estel nodded and promptly forgot to not inhale; another coughing fit ensued.  At that, Bilbo took his pipe saying, “Yes, well it does take some practice at first. Best not overdo.”

Estel, whose eyes were still watering a bit nodded and then managed to say, “That was fun!” in a slightly croaky voice.  But still the thought lingered that Elrond might not approve.

Bilbo smiled at the boy, “Yes, well. Best we keep this little adventure to ourselves.”  

Estel nodded and tested his voice, “You are probably right.” He agreed with a less croaky voice.  He noticed the sundial just off to left of the bench and how the shadow fell, “I’m due at lessons with Lord Glorfindel!  Can we see each other later?”

“Of course, we can.  I shall look forward to it!” Bilbo stated.

Estel ran off and Bilbo thought “What a delightful child!  I do wonder what has brought him here?” He placed that thought at the back of his mind and resumed his pipe-smoking and sun-soaking.

Estel ran into the smaller study used as a classroom and found Glorfindel already there.  “There you are, my late charge!” He sniffed the air, the aroma of cherry, peet and another light smell he could not quite place, but he did not ponder it further.  He suddenly felt a sense of well-being, a sense of coming home.  He looked down at Estel, “We were speaking yesterday of Gondolin…  Let us start there.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

**  Quoted lines from “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.” Also I am describing the scene in the same film that follows those lines as seen as by Estel.