There was chaos and noise erupting around me. Twelve dwarves were walking around me and I felt like my head was spinning as I tried to keep up with all the movement. The dwarves were going back and forth from the large pantry to the hall they had moved the dining-table into. There were plates of ham and chicken, pickled eggs, a salad, bacon, tomatoes, and various other foods, even a plate of cookies that was quickly receding.

Bilbo had left the party for a moment to get himself dress, after all he had only been in a robe since I met him. I caught a glimpse of him over the crowd as he passed next to a line of dwarves carting a pie, seedcakes, and a fat roast chicken into the dining-room. "Excuse me, excuse me!" Bilbo shouted, grabbing a dwarf by the shoulder and I froze as I realized the dwarf had the head of an axe imbedded in his forehead. The dwarf said something, possibly in the dwarf-tongue – either that or I was going crazy with all the noise – and pointed to the axe.

"He's got... and injury." A grey bearded dwarf said, holding a small brass hearing-trumpet in his left hand.

"What? You mean the axe in his head?" Bilbo replied sarcastically and the dwarf held the trumpet to his ear.

"Dead? No, only between his ears; his legs work fine." The dwarf walked away leaving Bilbo to fret over the food that was rapidly diminishing from within the pantry. I was backed up into a corner, starting at everything, when someone touched my arm. I jerked back and looked up at the one who had tapped me.

"Great blue ghosts Gandalf," I scolded with a loud exhale, "you startled me." I mumbled and Gandalf smiled down at me, blue eyes twinkling.

"You look as though you might faint with excitement, come sit with me." Gandalf chuckled, and I took his hand – he seemed to find this endearing but comical all at once – and he helped me through the chaos.

"Not the jam please... a tad excessive isn't it? Have you got a cheese knife?" Bilbo asked a rather... large dwarf who was balancing three wheels of cheese in his arms.

"Cheese knife? He eats it by the block." A dwarf with a floppy hat explained.

I sat down on a stool next to Gandalf who arranged plates of food while he leaned over the table, a little too tall for the ceiling. There was chatter and some dwarves had already sat down to eat, stuffing their faces with pickled eggs and sausages. I slouched with my arms resting on my thighs as I looked over the food in front of me. My eyes were fixed on a hunk of cold ham that smelled of honey glaze. My mouth was watering but I quickly swallowed my hunger and tried to reminisce over the chips I had at the pub and my hazelnut tea.

"Mr. Gandalf?" a dwarf asked Gandalf and I looked backwards over my shoulder at him. He was one of the shorter ones with a grey beard pulled into a braided net over his chin and jaw. Gandalf turned and the dwarf held up a teapot over a tray of cups he carried. "May I tempt you with a cup of Chamomile?" he asked.

"Oh, no thank you, Dori, a little red wine for me I think." Gandalf said with a brief nod towards me. "Just a second." He stood and stepped just outside the hall, bumping his head against a chandelier that creaked briefly.

"Anything for you miss?" I looked back at the dwarf who held up the teapot and I nodded with a small smile.

"Well, you are the first one here to get my gender right, how could I resist?" I said playfully and the dwarf smiled, pouring me a cup and I took it from him gratefully, pressing the cup to my chest while I waited for it to cool down a little, the steam tickling my neck.

"Bifur, Bofur, Bombur... Dori, Nori, Ori..." Gandalf was saying and I pieced together the fact that he was talking to himself, listing off the names of the group aloud. Maybe I should have paid more attention, I was dizzy seeing all these faces I could not pin to names. More and more dwarves began to sat down and I looked around at everyone, noticing everyone was at least one seat away from me, but I understood that. To them I was a stranger.

"What's your name, my lady?" I jerked up out of my thoughts and my eyes found their way to the other side of the table at the other end where a few dwarves were gathered, the large dwarf, a younger looking dwarf-lad with copper colored hair and clothes that looked like they had been knitted. Then there was Kili. All of them were looking at me.

"M-My name?" I asked and Kili gave me a nod with a playful smile on his lips. "I'm Valerie Everfell, nice to meet you." I said, standing up and reaching over the table with an outstretched hand. The copper haired lad stood up first and shook my hand.

"I'm Ori." He smiled timidly and I shook hands with Kili afterwards and then took the red-haired dwarf's hand in mine and he smiled at me with big rosy cheeks and big blue eyes.

"Bombur." He managed to mumble through his mouthful of sausage. It had been so long since I had sat down and gotten to know someone, not since I lived in Gondor the White city under Echelon's rule. I wondered if he was still steward over Gondor, but it was not something I could just ask someone... was it?

"Do any of you know – by chance – who is the current steward of Gondor?" I shut my mouth realizing it had been I who had spoken and I immediately regretted it and if no one was staring at me I would have pulled my hair out. "Sorry, that came out of nowhere." I felt my face go red. Stop talking, you are only making it worse!

"Heh, no its all good. I actually don't know." Kili spoke first and I smiled, looking down at my cup of tea in embarrassment.

"I just used to live there and I didn't keep up, no one here knows who it was so I might make it a point to ask anyone on our way east." I spoke.

After that no one spoke to me for a while and instead there was a lot of chewing and bits of food flying everywhere. Bombur caught a picked egg in his mouth that someone threw from across the table and Gandalf passed me a plate of cookies which I gladly accepted one and passed it down, using the cookie to cover my unfinished tea from the magical flying lettuce.

Fili got onto the table and stepped over and between plates, passing mugs of ale around asking, "who wants an ale? There you go". At one point I caught half a baked potato in the air to avoid getting to know the inside of it better with my nose, and passed it to Dwalin next to me who it had initially been for.

I finished my tea and cookie before Gandalf passed me a plate loaded up with various types of meet; ham and turkey, a piece of bacon and a small pile of chips on the side. I had forgotten how hungry I was until I realized that plate was for me and me alone. I had always eaten a lot of meat; grandma had insisted upon it. 'The animals were put on the earth for you' she had told me once when I felt bad for eating my first rack of lamb. Meet was important for us because it was consuming another living thing, something that had gone places seen things just like us. There was something about it that helped us with our metabolism after using magic. I won't lie, I liked it.

"Ale on the count of three!" the dwarf with the floppy hat shouted and they all leaned in to slammed their cups together, showering the food below with a decent amount of ale.

"Up!" Kili shouted and every mug went to thirsty lips. There was a lot of gulping and I watched uncomfortably as drink trickled down their beards and onto their laps. It was sickening, but not as bad as the belching competition after wards, and Ori was the loudest of them all.

"I knew you had it in you!" Someone on the other side of Kili said and clapped a hand on his back.

I looked away and saw Mr Baggins standing in front of the empty pantry. He looked shocked, even from behind and I felt guilty. I felt guilt for eating his food, guilt for coming into his home, and guilty with the knowledge that he had no supper at all...