Chapter 7

All the Tooks and Yew jumped at the sound of someone pounding on the front door.

Eglantine rose from her rocker. "I'll see to the door," she said as she left the room.

"I think we'll wait and see who is at the door," Paladin quickly said. Visions of irate farmhands storming the house to complain about there being a dragon in their midst curled in his mind like a dragon's smoke.

His wife returned to the parlor alone (much to her husband's great relief) holding a large envelope and an open card in her hand.

"It is an invitation to Cousin Bilbo and Frodo's birthday party. You remember, dear, when last we saw young Frodo he had said they were planning something particularly special this year seeing as he is coming of age and Bilbo, bless him, is turning eleventy-one."

"Cousin Bilbo and Frodo's birthday!" Pippin blurted out. "I wager that's where the Dwarves were headed, Da. The ones the hobbit in the tavern said lost the dragon's egg. That's why they were in The Shire! Cousin Bilbo often has Dwarves visit him. They might want their dragon back, Da. That would solve our problem."

Yew was getting perturbed. He ruffled his wings and blew a blast of fire . . . well, more a spurt of fire, which set a corner of the invitation smoldering, then spoke up.

"I am not a commodity to be traded back and forth. It was not their egg to begin with as I am sure they do not keep dragons about for pets, nor did some dragon kindly give her offspring away. Most likely I was stolen. Stolen by those wretched thieves! I am not their dragon any more than I am your dragon, and I shall not be given over to the likes of some wandering band of Dwarves!"

Lanti pinched out the singed corner of Bilbo's elegant invitation as she hurried to sit in her rocker.

"Now, now, Yew." Paladin held both hands up, palms out, motioning the dragon to calm down. "There's no need to go breathing fire at us. You've given me no chance to say what I think of all this."

Paladin took a deep breath. He wasn't sure he knew what he thought of it all, but at least he had bought himself a few moments to think about it.

"You are entirely correct, Yew." Paladin began. "There will be no further talk of giving you to anybody. I also doubt that the Dwarves stole you as I can't imagine any of them being able to get anywhere near a dragon's nest. I have met some of Bilbo's Dwarf friends and they are not at all quiet. I'm thinking it much more likely that, for some reason, the nest had been abandoned, or that somehow you - actually your egg - got rolled out of the nest and lost to then be found by the Dwarves."

He paused to sip his tepid tea and think some more. Yew was still glaring at him as small, clearly irritable, puffs of smoke huffed from his nostrils.

"I wouldn't give you to Dwarves anyway as there is no love lost between their kind and yours."

"Thank you," Yew said as his wings relaxed and his smoke stopped puffing.

"However," Paladin hastened on, "that still leaves this family with deciding what to do with you. As you just informed us, you are still too young to be set free into the wild. We will not do anything that might bring you to harm, so simply setting you back where Pippin found you is not a solution."

Yew nodded.

"You need, eventually, to be in a place with mountains so you may find a cave big enough to be a comfortable home. But Hobbits don't live near such mountains, nor do we travel to where they lie. None of which helps any of us."

Paladin sighed.

"Da?" Pearl spoke up.

"Yes?"

"When we saw Frodo during the summer, he mentioned to me that we really had to come to the Birthday Party as Gandalf is supposed to be there. He is to be doing fireworks as he used to in the Old Took's days. Mightn't Gandalf know what to do with a young dragon?"

"Gandalf?" Yew asked, looking from Paladin to his daughter and back.

"He's a wizard!" Pippin hopped off the sofa and over to his former pet. "He is frightfully clever and he knows everything about everything. He travels all about in Middle-earth and knows all sorts of interesting people and places."

He bounded over to kiss his oldest sister on her cheek. "A wonderful idea, Pearl! A perfect idea!" He ran over to his father. "Really, Da, it is perfect. Gandalf will know what to do."

Paladin was nodding his head.

"Yes. I do think you two have hit upon our solution, that is, if Yew agrees."

All eyes were on the little red dragon perched upon the stool in the middle of the parlor.

Yew's mind was now the one spinning. In the shadowy depths of his in-born wisdom a knowing stirred. Wizards? Wizards. Yes . . . wise beings that dragons never managed to entrap with their wiles. Not known to hunt dragons, but not known to be their friends either. Well, from what he had learned thus far from his own knowledge and from the stories Pippin had been reading to him all along, no one was actually friends with dragons. His kind didn't even seem to get along with each other, which had Yew wondering how they ever managed to have broods.

A deep longing stirred within him. He needed to see the mountains, to live among the peaks, to be master of his own realm. He saw himself lying resplendent on a magnificent hoard. The vision faded. He sighed with a puffing of smoke.

"Yes. I will go with a wizard. You may take me to this Gandalf person."

The Took family, in unison, sighed with relief then they all heard a loud rumble. Pippin blushed a deep pink.

"I'm hungry, Ma." He said with a smile.

Eglantine looked at the mantle clock. "My goodness! It is noon already. Where has the morning gone?" Setting her knitting aside, she got up and motioned to her daughters. "Come along, m'dears. We've a starving Pippin to feed and they are more ferocious than a dragon." She winked at Yew as she passed him.

"Indeed, Mistress Took. I have noticed that and make sure I stay out of his way at such times." Yew smiled his sly dragon smile and then turned to Pippin. "Come, young master Took. It is time for my lunch too. Have we any of those fat white grubs?"

With that, the meeting was at an end.

TBC