The One Ring

Uanor felt a tremendous relief after he passed the borders of the Shire, far more than just sneaking past the Dunedain Rangers that patrolled the region, but for the greatly increased activity though the Eriador region all together.

The Belegaer never settled after the coming of his father to Middle Earth, terrible storms kicking up ship breaking swells across the entire sea. The Elves choosing to travel the Straight Road to Valinor began to spread through the region rather than bottle up in the Gray Havens, creating several increasingly permanent settlements throughout Eriador.

Decades of this emboldened human traders seeking to supply these new locations and take away some of the fabled craft of the Elves for themselves before the first children of Iluvatar depart these shores for good.

All this added up to him leaving his less stealthy kin behind the south bank of the Brandywine River and finishing the last leg of their cross country journey by himself, and despite the size of the first Black Elf, Uanor threaded the eye of the needle multiple times through the Ranger's self imposed defenses of the Shire.

He came to the eastern border of Westfarthing, the center of The Shire, to the village of Hobbiton. Just after the setting of the sun he trod Bagshot Row to its very end and came to a Hobbit Hole, a home built under a grassy hill.

It bore a round front door painted green with a number of round windows displaying for all with the wisdom to know what to look for the relative wealth of the family that built it. While not nearly as expansive as the Great Smials which housed the Tooks in Tuckborough, Bag End and its many windows and deep larders served as a more than spacious home for a Hobbit family, let alone a single aging Halfling.

Kneeling down at the green door, Uanor knocked quite firmly on it and waited. When no answer came despite the obvious glow of the fireplace in the windows, the Black Elf knocked again. This game of knocking and ignoring continued until the resident finally lost his patience, threw open the round door, and screamed, "WHAT?" at the top of his lungs before backing up in a fright at the sight of the bronze skinned elf. Bilbo never saw anyone of a dark skin tone during his travels through Middle Earth, having never reached as far east as Rhun nor as far south as Harad.

This obviously left the aging Halfling quite surprised.

"Excuse me Mr. Baggins for the late arrival, but I have come a long way to see you." The Black Elf smiled and his supernatural charm eased Bilbo's heart, "My father would send his regards - he is a great admirer of your adventure with Thorin's Company and Gandalf - but I came without alerting him to my leaving."

"Well…" Bilbo bought a little time to think of his response with that word and when he looked up from the floor to address his evening visitor he discovered the Elf gone.

He stuck his curly head of hair our the door and looked both left and right, not seeing the Elf at all and turned back into his home only to throw his hands up into the air as he screamed in fright.

The Elf was seated on his floor.

"My father quite enjoyed your great escape from both the spiders and Elves of Mirkwood. He feels Thranduil is too stuffy for his own good." the Elf smiled as the Halfling clutched his chest and wrestled his heartbeat back under control, "Oh and the song sung by the Goblins of Goblintown while they set alight the trees you and your companions retreated up. He loves that song. Did they truly sing it, those Goblins of Goblintown?"

"Ah… yes." Bilbo confirmed as he nodded his head, "I found the fire far less surprising than their sudden song."

"Oh lovely." the Black Elf intruder smiled even more widely, fully revealing the shining ivory teeth in his mouth, though Bilbo noticed a certain predatory sharpness to the teeth he may have missed in the infrequent smiles of other Elves.

"He will be most overjoyed that it wasn't an embellishment added after the fact." The Elf chuckled and clapped his hands in joy, "He always says that the capacity of those in Middle Earth to breakout in perfectly harmonious song is the greatest of this world's powers."

"I find that I quite agree with him on that." Bilbo anxiously smiled while thinking of how to convince this Elf to leave his home.

"But song was not the only power encountered in that leg of your famous journey…" the Elf trailed off and the Halfling's heart that once pounded so rapidly in his chest like the fluttering of a hummingbird's wings dropped into his stomach and each slow beat rang in his ears like a drum. A drum in the deep.

"I…I don't know what you are talking about." Bilbo stuttered while unconsciously reaching into his pocket for the comfort of that simple golden band.

A simple golden band so far from simple in truth.

"I think you do." the smiling Elf sent out his hand like a striking serpent and latched onto Bilbo's small wrist just before he intended to slip the ring onto his finger and give this terrifying Elf the slip.

"No." Bilbo moaned as the Elf took the ring from his pocket with the other hand.

"Yes." he continued to smile as he let the Hobbit go and put the simple gold band on his finger.

Shock cut through Bilbo's despair as instead of vanish, the Elf never felt more real as an unseen weight settled around him and fiery script glowed on the ring's surface.

"ash nazg thrakatulûk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul" the Black Elf spoke reverently as he stared at the ring and the words felt like knives scraping the ears and mind of the Halfling.

The Elf turned his never more frightening glowing golden eyes upon the stricken Hobbit once more and he translated, "One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them."