"And there you have it!" Pippin finished saying to Frodo, Sam, and Merry, "I can tell you guys the rest on the way to the party,"

Pippin bowed and Merry clapped. He had eaten the whole platter of buttered biscuits during the time Pippin spent telling their story.

"Incredible..." Sam murmured.

"I never realized you guys got captured!" said Frodo setting down his tea cup, "But wait, who healed you? You don't have scares,"

"Gandalf. Gandalf the White," Merry answered proudly, "I would probably be dead right now if it weren't for him. That orc would have brought me back to Isengard,"

"Did somebody say Gandalf?" said a crackly voice.

The hobbits all turned to one of the doorways and saw Bilbo standing in it.

"Bilbo is it time to go?" asked Frodo.

Bilbo looked a lot older now that the ring of power wasn't keeping him alive longer than he should.

"Indeed my boy. I just had a chat with the wizard out front. He said we best be going now. We don't want to be late,"

Frodo nodded and all the hobbits stood up and followed Bilbo to the front door. They all walked out the front door for the last time. Bilbo stopped and looked back at his house.

"I guess this is the last goodbye..." Bilbo said slowly placing his wrinkled hand on his green door.

Frodo went up to him and placed one of his hands on his shoulder.

"Indeed," he whispered.

After a long moment of silence they both turned around together and linking arms, Frodo helped Bilbo down the steps for the last time. All five hobbits walked through the gate and Sam closed it softly. Everybody gave one last glance at the beautiful house and started walking down the dirt path to the party.

"Now, on with the story!" Pippin said eagerly, "So the orc was coming at us quick and said 'I'm gonna rip out your filthy little innards!' Merry told me to climb a tree, so I obeyed. And that was when we met Treebeard..."

The End