♕ CHAPTER THREE ♕
THE DISAPPEARING IS NOT CLEVER

"BILBO?" A VOCIE CALLS AND Bilbo turns to Frodo, and suddenly Tatsuo comes up to them. "Sackville-Bagginses! Quickly! Hide!" Bilbo exclaims in a panicked voice, and they all quickly hide behind the wall of a tent. Otho and Lobula Sackville-Baggins ... an older, grumpy-looking pair with sharp eyes ... emerge and look about the party like vultures searching for prey. Whose they do not find their mark, they walk away, and Bilbo breathes a massive relief.

"Thank you, both of you," he says and smiles at Tatsuo, who nods and walks away, leaving the two to them alone to talk out. Frodo looks after her, then looks back at his uncle. "You're a good lad, Frodo." This co-fused Frodo, and he stared at his uncle, perturbed by the change of
tone. "I'm very selfish, you know. Yes, I am... very selfish. I don't know why I  took you in after your mother and father died, but it wasn't out of charity. I think ... it was because, of  all my numerous relations ... you were the one Baggins that showed real  spirit." He says, and Frodo snorts.

" Bilbo, have you been at the Gaffer's
homebrew?" He says, and Bilbo looks offended for a moment. "No. Well, yes. But that's not the point. The point is, Frodo ... you'll be all right." He says and lifts his mug and takes a drink ... probably of the Gaffer's homebrew.

♡

Merry is holding out the big rocket ... he looks aghast at the fizzing fuse Pippin has just lit. "You're supposed to stick it in the ground!" He whispered worriedly and fearfully, tossing the rocket to pippin, who rosses it back. "It is in the ground." He hissed, and the fuse sizzled angrily. "Outside!" Merry yells at Pippin, answering him fearfully and accusing, "This was your idea." Suddenly The two hobbits are blown off their feet in a shower of sparks as the rocket blasts off with frightening power.

The rocket zooms over the party ... it suddenly bursts apart, forming the shape of a tremendous red-golden dragon! Fire gushes from its nostrils as it turns back and flies towards the
startled crowd. Tatsuo watches in amusement, smiling as the shape reminds her of Smaug. She sees Frodo watch the firework dragon with alarm ... but Bilbo is oblivious to the panicked crowd and impending danger. "Bilbo! Watch out for the dragon!!" Frodo calls but his uncle scofsss, "Dragon? Nonsense ... hasn't been a dragon in these parts for thousand years!" Does Tatsuo snort? Have you forgotten me, master Baggins? How... disappointing, she says.

Bilbo hasn't the time to answer as Frodo hurriedly pulls his uncle to the ground, just
as the dragon roars a few feet above their heads like a flaming express train. Tatsuo smiles and waves her hand, so the dragon doesn't go in a straight line but takes a somersault in the air before it explodes over the hills with a loud bang. This gets the biggest cheer of the
night.

♡
Merry and Pippin are leaning over a barrel, washing dishes in soapy water ... with Gandalf and Tatsuo sitting nearby. Cries of "SPEECH! SPEECH!" erupt from the party. Tatsuo looks up, seeing Bilbo step on a stool ... he bows in gratitude at the applause. "Speech!" She hears Frodo calls and smiles as her old friend begins his speech. "My dear Bagginses and Boffins, Tooks and Brandybucks ... Grubbs, Chubbs, Burrowses, Hornblowers, Bolgers, Bracegirdles, Goodbodies, Brockhouses, and Proudfoots..." he says, and suddenly a hobbit with partial large feet calls out "Proudfeet!" Bilbo waves him off.

"Also, the good Sackville-Bagginses that I welcome back at last to Bag End." He says, and the said family of hobbits scowl at him. He doesn't care. "Today is my one hundred and eleventh birthday. I am eleventy-one today! Yes,  and alas ... Eleventy-one years is far    too short a time to live among such        excellent and admirable Hobbits!" He says, and Tatsuo smiles warmly as the outburst of approval meets the hobbit. " I don't know half of you half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve!" He finals, and there's scattered clapping as the guests try to work out if that was a compliment or not.

Gandalf and Tatsuo look at each other, smiling. Suddenly Tatsuo hears a strange hum and sees that Bilbo hears it too as a bead of sweat rolls down his brow. The young she-dragon grows worried as Bilbo says, "I have ... things to do, and I have put this off for far too long." Tatsuo frowns, and suddenly a familiar voice fills her head and comes to me. I will grant you and your kin absolute power. Tatsuo shakes her head, and the voice disappears.

She's trained for this kind of conversation. She is trained that bulging up walls in her mind so none can enter únanles she lets them. "I regret to announce this is the end. I      am going now. I bid you all a very fond     farewell!" Bilbo's words make Tatsuo look at him, and he looks across to her, and Frodo hesitates... then... "Goodbye," he whispers and suddenly vanishes. The party explodes into an uproar ... the crowd leaps to its feet.

Gandalf and Tatsuo look at each other and nod, standing up and walking away quietly.

♡

The party is still in an excited uproar ... some 50 yards away across a moonlit lane to the front door of Bag End. A door opens, pulled by an invisible hand. The door quietly closes ... Bilbo materializes as he pulls a plain gold ring off his finger. The hobbits laugh as he tosses the
ring in the air, then places it in his pocket. He then emerges from the passage, carrying a walking stick. Suddenly he sees Tatsuo's cobalt eye staring back at him and a giant shape of a wolf comes into view.

"I suppose you think that was clever?" Gandalf aks and the wolf lifts her head, yawning softly, showing white sharp and deadly teeth. Over here, the brow is two splotches of white. She bears a pedant that she'd gotten from Thranduil all those years ago as she gave him the gems of lasgalen on the slips of Erebor. Bilbo turns to Gandalf, chuckling, hiding his fear. "Come on, Gandalf. Did you see their faces?" The wolf snorts and stands up, walking over to Bilbo, and he sees how big it is.

It towers over him like a father to his son or daughter. "There are many magic rings in this
world, Bilbo Baggins, and none of them should be used lightly," Tatsuo says and sits down, curling her fluffy tail over her front paws. "It was just a bit of fun. Oh, you're probably right, as usual." Bilbo whines and sighs as he starts packing "you two will keep an eye on Frodo, won't you?" He asks Tatsuo and Gandalf. "Yes," Tatsuo says, "as often as we can spare them." Gandalf finishes.

♡
"Yes, it's in an envelope ... over there on the mantelpiece," Bilbo says, and the grey wizard looks but sees nothing and frowns at the empty mantelpiece. Tatsuo hisses at Bilbo softly, but he doesn't hear her as he feels his waistcoat with a look of guilty surprise. "No, wait. It's here in my pocket. Isn't that ... isn't that odd, now? Yet,       after all, why not? Why shouldn't I    keep it?" He says, his eyes growing darker in malice.

The she-wolf growls now, but still, it doesn't make Bilbo look at her. "I think you should leave the Ring behind, Bilbo. Is that so hard?" Gandalf says, and the elderly hobbit glances at the wizard, then the wolf, and then back at the ring. "Well, no ... and yes. Now it comes to it; I don't feel like parting with it.      It's mine. I found it. It came to me!" He hissed, and Tatsuo rolled her eyes and stood up, nudging Bilbo fondly. "There's no need to get angry." She says, and Bilbo softens his glare.

"But I can't part with it. Irs mine, my precious." He says, and Gandalf looks at Tatsuo, who sighs.

♡
"Bilbo, just let it go. It'll be the best for you," Tatsuo said softly as Bilbo sighed sadly. "You're right, both of you. The Ring must go  to Frodo." He says and lifts his knapsack and heads for the front door. " It's late; the road is long ... yes, it is time." He smiles at the world outside, then you and Gandalf creep up behind him, smiling. "The Ring is still in your pocket," Gandalf says softly, and Bilbo smiles, hesitates ... reaches into his pocket. He then pulls out the ring ... he stares at it in his palm. With all his willpower, Bilbo allows the crew to slide off his palm and drop to the floor slowly.

The tiny ring lands with a heavy thud on the wooden floor. Bilbo staggers out of Bag end... he braces himself in the night air, pale and trembling as if his loss of the ring has weakened him. Gandalf and Tatsuo step up behind. "I've thought up an ending for my book... "And he lived happily ever after to the end of his days," Bilbo says, and Tatsuo smiles, letting her human form come forth, and she lays a hand on Bilbo's shoulder, crouching down. "I'm sure you will, my dear friend." Bilbo smiled at her, then Gandalf said, "goodbye, you two" they both dipped their heads.

"Goodbye, master Baggins" Bilbo then walks away from Bag end, disappearing into the night,
softly singing: "The Road goes on and on." Gandalf and Tatsuo look at each other and smile. "Until our next meeting." They say in unison.

❤︎