Time flies, and several years after the legendary gray robe wizard Gandalf, who "bewitched" Bilbo to leave home in the eyes of many hobbit relatives, disappeared, Frodo, as the legal heir to Bilbo's property, thoroughly enjoyed it.

Such a peaceful hobbit pastoral life began.

If you don’t know how many years ago Bilbo lived in Bag End, his life before his adventure was the same. Bilbo, who inherited a rich fortune, often enjoyed 4-5 square meals a day, and would often enjoy a meal in his free time in the afternoon.

Exquisite afternoon tea with fennel cake and delicious black tea.

As for ordinary daily tasks, these do not exist. Generally speaking, Bilbo's greatest pleasure is walking in the forest, tracing some traces of Bilbo's exploration of the mysteries of the forest, and thoroughly understanding the main features of the terrain of the Observation Shire.

The area is dominated by hills, surrounded by dense forests and other landforms related to various terrains such as dense forests and steep mountains.

In addition to the usual happy moments of talking and playing with his hobbit friends, Frodo soon learned to appreciate the beautiful garden in front of his door as immersed as Bilbo.

Soon, under the diligent care of his kind-hearted gardener neighbor next to Bag End, the front of Frodo's house became more and more beautiful. The sky was often filled with flowers during busy seasons such as spring and summer solstice, and the beautiful garden with colorful flowers even...

It has the tendency to become a great beauty in the town.

Just from the fact that many young Hobbit children who love beautiful things like flowers pretend to pass by Frodo's house from time to time just to take a look at those wonderful flowers, we can see that these perfect flowers have a great impact on people.

of temptation.

This rare peace lasted for nearly 12 years. For Hobbits whose average life span is generally around 90-100 years old, these 12 years can almost be regarded as a long time.

After so many years, even if spring comes and spring comes, the beautiful flowers planted in the garden in front of Bag End bloom and fade, fade and bloom again, and the scenery changes constantly, but the only thing that remains unchanged is Frodo's appearance.

.

Even though 12 years have passed and Frodo has turned 50 this year, he has already reached adulthood. Nearly 13 years have passed and Frodo still looks so young. Even his temperament is still the same as it was many years ago.

The unique youthful temperament of youth.

As for the fact that time seems to have left no obvious traces on Frodo, at first many neighbors were surprised by this.

It was not until Frodo turned 50 that the suspicion that his appearance had not changed over the years had completely spread among the neighborhood circle of relatives and friends.

In response to this extremely special strange phenomenon that even left the neighbors half-dead puzzled, many people quickly thought of the long-lost former owner of Bag End, Bilbo Baggins, who was said to have traveled to distant places.

.

I still remember that in those days, the old hobbit, who was kind-hearted, generous, but a bit lonely and eccentric, also lived so long and had good looks, and his hair didn't even turn gray until he was almost a hundred years old.

These doubts and speculations about Frodo's unchanged appearance eventually caused some changes in the attitudes of the neighbors towards him. Sometimes, these simple and kind-hearted hobbit merchants or farmers talked to Frodo.

At times, he unconsciously adopted a respectful and fearful tone and eyes.

Frankly speaking, Frodo, who was simple-minded, did not realize this at first. But soon, he knew this due to the loyal advice of other good friends.

However, even after knowing all this happened, Frodo had no idea how to solve the problem.

After all, he himself was a little worried about the fact that his appearance had not changed. What was the reason? If given a choice, who would want to be 50 years old and still have the face of a young hobbit who looks like a minor?

Woolen cloth?

After his 33-year-old coming-of-age ceremony, Frodo only worried for a while about his appearance which had not changed since his coming-of-age ceremony and then returned to his normal state of mind.

For a long time, he enjoyed the happy life in Bag End as before.

In the past few years, he would often feel an unknown irritability and loneliness while drinking tea and admiring the delicious gardening in the garden. These were familiar activities he had done with Bilbo in the past, and they all made him unconsciously miss him.

Let's live together with Bilbo in Bag End and live a beautiful life together.

As Bilbo traveled far away from home for four more years, Frodo sometimes even had some strange thoughts as he walked along the paths in the dense forests of the Shire. I really wish he and Bilbo had been there.

Bo left the Shire together to travel and see with his own eyes the high mountains, dark forests and rushing rivers that only appeared in Bilbo's personal biography and Frodo's dreams.

However, often as soon as these strange thoughts appeared, the voice in the back of Frodo's mind would tell him: The time has not come yet!

Frodo was convinced of this point. He himself felt that it was too risky to imitate Bilbo and leave his hometown to go on an adventurous journey at this time. If possible, deep down in his heart, he might want to participate

The day of adventure can be later.

In the blink of an eye, Frodo's fiftieth birthday is approaching.

Regarding the arrival of his fiftieth birthday, it seemed that the number 50 disturbed his usually calm and old-dog mood. For a moment, Frodo felt a little restless. There was a new birthday coming soon, and he couldn't help but

It sparked the hobbit's thinking.

Perhaps it is not a good idea to stay in the Shire for so many years without ever setting foot in the outside world! After all, in terms of life experience and experience, he who is about to turn 50 looks the same as when he arrived in the Shire 12 years ago.

There is no qualitative difference between Bitman’s 33rd coming-of-age celebration and himself!

Thoughts and anxieties about life seem to have opened a new door to life for Frodo.

Since then, he would often look through some of the maps left by Bilbo, thinking and guessing what was beyond the edges of the map.

Most of the maps drawn in the Shire area left blank outside the borders. His walks became wider and wider, and he often ran around without any purpose.

Perhaps seeing his seemingly strange behavior, Merry and other friends were worried about him. They often saw him walking energetically, or chatting with strange travelers who began to appear in the Shire at this time.

.....

By asking and chatting with travelers who passed through the Shire as much as possible, Frodo still took the opportunity to learn a lot of information about the outside world.

The outside world seems to be slightly different from the peaceful and beautiful impression in his memory. Many racial creatures who have been unable to escape from the world are walking around the world after many years as if they have encountered some disaster.

Even Frodo, the wise gray wizard Gandalf who promised Bilbo that he would take time to take care of him, had not heard from him for many years.

The elves who rarely set foot in the Shire now pass by this place in the evening, walking westward along the forest without looking back. They are preparing to leave Middle-earth and never interfere in mortal disputes again.

Not only that, but the dwarves who rarely knew the Shire in Frodo's memory were more and more likely to appear on the streets of the Shire these days. Obviously, there must be some terrible threat that forced these dwarves to leave Instead of taking the convenient underground tunnels, he went above ground and borrowed the Shire to go to the mines in the blue mountains in the distance.

No matter what other neighbors thought of the arrival of these travelers of different races, Frodo was very happy.

It can be said without shame that these travelers from all directions are almost Frodo’s best source of information about the outside world.

With his friendly attitude and selfless help to travelers, this clever hobbit learned a lot of great news in the process. He received many dwarves who came from distant lands. These people are all mountain residents who are preparing to take refuge in the west.

These dwarves, who were nervous all day long, often came up with words like Return of the Devil and the terrible Mordor, which surprised and frightened Frodo.

These names were all the names of the top evildoers in the terrifying dark legends in the past countless days. These ominous news made Frodo instinctively feel hesitant.

The dwarves also said that the evil black tower that was rumored to have been destroyed long ago has been rebuilt. War and fear are spreading to the capital of all intelligent creatures all the time. Orcs and trolls, who have always played evil servants in legends, have also separated for a long time. They have reappeared in the world after many years and appear in large numbers in front of people again. Every time they appear, they always bring terrible news that many villages and towns have been plundered and destroyed.

In fact, even in the Shire, a remote place with beautiful scenery and far away from disputes, it is not as poorly informed as residents imagined.

As evil spreads, even the most reclusive hobbits begin to hear or see signs of evil.

Terrifying legends are once again circulating among the residents of the Shire. Of course, most hobbits still disdain these news. Obviously, unless they see it with their own eyes, they will definitely not believe it. It's as ridiculous and absurd as a dark myth.

Of course, not all hobbits sneered at the rumors. The conversation in a tavern called the Green Dragon in the Shire happened by chance against this background.

Hobbit Sam Gamgee was sitting in the seat by the fire. Opposite him was Ted Sandiman, the son of the mill owner. There were many idle hobbit listeners sitting in other seats to join in the fun.

"These days have been really uneventful! Have you heard about it? Strange things are happening everywhere." Sam said.

"Ah," said Ted, "if you're smart, there are a lot of rumors out there. I just want to hear some solid, true stories, not some weird bedtime story."

"What a bedtime story, I tell you things that I am very sure of." Sam said disdainfully, "I bet there are more facts in it than you understand. Let me use dragons as an example.

Already."

"Dragon? You'd better forget it," Ted said. "I heard the story of dragons when I was a child, and I thought it was ridiculous. There is only one dragon in the waterfront area, and it's the Green Dragon Hotel."

Hearing this, all the spectators laughed loudly together.

"Well," Sam also laughed heartily with the others. "What about these tree people, or the giants you call them? A relative of mine who lives nearby, Hal said that they are in the north.

On the other side of the wasteland, I saw a group of figures that looked like the legendary tree men. What he saw was as tall as an elm tree, and the sound it made when walking was like the roar of thunder!"

"Wake up, there are no elm trees near the wasteland in the north. Let alone tree people!" Ted said.

The onlookers immediately applauded Ted: they thought Ted had the upper hand this time.

"Whatever," said Sam, "you can't deny that besides my relative Hal, there are other people who have also seen many strange characters crossing the Shire to go to other places. Why are these travelers coming from the same way?

Do you have to choose this time to come? Don’t you think it’s weird!”

"I also heard that the elves have begun to migrate to the west. They said that they are going to the port, and are not ready to go outside the White Tower yet." Sam waved his arms in an awkward manner, which obviously revealed that he had no idea what was going on.

Known truth.

"After they left the harbor, they set sail and kept heading west, leaving us here," Sam recited with dreamy eyes, shaking his head with a sad expression. But Ted laughed instead.

"If you believe in ancient legends, this is nothing new. I don't see what this has to do with you and me. Just let them sail away! I guarantee that neither you nor anyone else in the Shire will see this.

situation."

"I'm not so sure," Sam said thoughtfully. He had once seen the handsome figure of an elf passing by from a distance in the forest.

It was from then on that he became extremely curious and yearning for elves and other magical creatures. "Even here, there are people who know those noble races. My boss Baggins is an example. He told me personally.

Few interesting elf stories.”

"Old Bilbo Baggins? Hum, the two people you mentioned almost have some brain problems." Ted said. "Anyway, the missing old Bilbo must be too crazy, and his heir Frodo's condition is not better either."

How much. If your source of information is these two guys, then nothing strange will happen. Well, friends, I am going home. I wish you good health!"

With that said, the harsh-tongued hobbit drank the drink in his glass in one gulp and walked out of the door triumphantly.

Sam sat in silence and said no more. Perhaps he felt in his heart that his worries about the appearance of unknown creatures were somewhat unreliable. After pondering for a moment, he sighed softly and quietly went home.

Today is only the beginning of April, and the sky looks particularly clear after the heavy rain.

The sun was about to set, and the cool twilight was slowly being replaced by night. He walked through the Shire area under the bright starlight and walked to the hill, whistling and thinking.
Chapter completed!