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.