Old Toby ( Open )

[Gandalf the Grey]

Gandalf was no stranger to The Shire, nor to its different cultures. There were the Tooks over in Tuckborough and there were the Baggins in Hobbit, and many more to list of course. It was a culture and race that was nearly forgotten by everyone, except Gandalf of course. He had some strange feeling about this place. There was something about a Hobbit that other folks just simply did not have. Perhaps it was a care free attitude, or perhaps it was such a love for life and everyone that was around them. There was no evil inside The Shire, it was as if it was some sort of safe haven that the outside world could not touch. It was an oasis around a world of chaos that seemed to be growing and growing with every moment. That is something that concerned Gandalf, it was ever so close on his mind. Perhaps that is what brought him to The Shire. He needed a moment, a moment to relax and take in some good pipe weed.

Gandalf came to The Shire by foot on this occasion. He had been wandering for quiet some time. He had been observing and and seeing things change in the world all around him. It was concerning and he was ever so bothered by it. He was in Hobbiton now, a few of the Hobbits that saw him would throw him an Odd glance or two. Some knew who he was and others just viewed him as one of the big folk. Either way, he was seemed to be considered a disturber of the peace. This did not bother him as he walked along. His gray hat ducked down low over his bushy eyebrows as he leaned upon his wooden staff. It was better for him that most did not recognize him. It gave him more time to think.


As he strolled along the well worn paths of Hobbiton, he heard a sound of many Hobbits at play. In a few more moments he had come upon a small clearing where a few Hobbits, big and small were enjoying their daily care free lives. He smiled, although they hardly saw it, and took a breath and took a seat with his back to a tree and took out his pipe and lit it. In a moment he seemed to be surrounded by colorful puffs of smoke as he closed his eyes and relaxed, but always deep in his thoughts, much as a wizard should always be.

[Taiatelm]

Taiatelm was quite engrossed in the small horse-like figure he was busy shaping from a branch of the tree he lounged upon when a big folk in grey robes swished on past the young Hobbit, effectively giving him quite the fright. He started to his feet, the wooden horse falling forgotten into the dirt below his feet and he scurried forward to catch a glimpse of the tall figure in it's grey robes and hat, pulled low over its face. Using his Hobbit skills the boy snuck along behind the figure, darting behind trees with his brow furrowed. He was curious as to who this was, and why such a big folk could be found in The Shire. It was a new experience for sure and Taiatelm needed to know exactly why he was here. He passed many other Hobbits as he followed, and most of those cast the same curious odd glance at the man as Taiatelm himself held.

The man came across one of the main clearings and Taiatelm saw the hint of a smile on the side of the robed man's face, intriguing the Hobbit all the more. He took out a pipe, lighting its end and soon becoming surrounded in colorful pufflets of smoke that danced about his form and floated straight at the Hobbit. Not quite used to such a show Taiatelm ducked as if expecting a nasty blow from the clouds, yet instead they floated on past his ducked form to hang around the trees that surrounded them. Taiatelm circled around so he stood in the center of the clearing, facing the man before he crouched and approached to find the eyes under the hat were closed. Taiatelm crouched still for a moment before waving his hand experimentally in front of the mans face before poking his tongue out and pulling many queer faces. He was quite certain the big folk was asleep, and therefore his fun and games were all his own, he thought as he crossed his eyes and rolled his tongue at the man in grey robes.

[Gandalf the Grey]

Gandalf's mind was of course full of a host of deep and dark things. He normally came to the Shire after having done some sort of errand that taxed him physically as well as mentally. It was a time where he could figure out exactly what it was that had just happened. It was a peaceful time, it was a calming time, but even worse so it was a time that was often short lived. He was never here in the Shire for very long. He never really was afforded the chance to be. More than often not his thoughts were only open up ideas and new thoughts that would set him upon new quests that would follow up answers from the old quests and on and on it would go. Either way, he was here now and that was good enough for him. He was puffing his pipe and blowing his smoke rings as best he knew how and he was relaxed.


" If you keep on doing that with your face young master Taiatelm your face is likely to stay that way. Or, of course i could always turn you into a creature that makes those faces all the time and then you shall be right at home with them..." Gandalf said without of course opening his eyes...well, opening to where the child could actually see them. He had noticed the youngster a little while back and of course did not mind that he was being followed. It often happened now and again. Children were always curious, and even more so Hobbit children. Gandalf blew out another puff of smoke that turned into a face and repeated the same faces the little boy had just made at him. Gandalf smiled a little bit inside but never let his lips crack to show it to the child..

[Taiatelm]

Taiatelm was quite enjoying himself, making his silly faces at the man was much more amusing than he would ever have guessed. Just as he pulled the silliest face he could manage, the man spoke, his voice deep and booming. Taiatelm was not sure which was more alarming, the threat the words held or the fact that the man knew his name. Whichever it was, it sent the poor young hobbit flailing backwards onto his behind in the dirt in his surprise. After a mere moment's pause Taiatelm scrambled back to his feet and into the same crouching position before pleading. "Oh please no, sir! I have no wish to be anything other than a Hobbit. I swear I meant no harm! I would very much prefer to stay the way I am" The words came out as quick as his tongue would allow and he moved his body back slightly, as if afraid of the man. And indeed he was, if the man could indeed turn him into some fantastical creature then he did not want to be on the big folk's bad side!

After a few seconds, there was no change in the face of the man and Taiatelm became increasingly curious, though he tried to hold his tongue. He figured questions may anger the man, as he seemed like one that did not favor useless questions. But as time passed Taiatelm found he could no longer control the muscle in his mouth and so the questions came out jumbled up in a string of words. "What is your name? Where are you from? How did you know my name? Have you met a dragon? Do they really breathe fire? Why are you in The Shire?" With chocolate eyes opened wide Taiatelm spewed out his many questions, his heart eagerly awaiting any answers he may receive, though he shook lightly from the fear of being turned into some unimaginable creature.

[Gandalf the Grey]

Gandalf had gone back to his smoking for a moment. He wasn't sure whether his comments or not would actually scare the hobbit away. Every once and a while he would have that affect on the hobbits. However, after a short pause this hobbit seemed to ask about a hundred questions all at once. Now Gandalf was an old man. Hell, no one, except himself really actually knew how old he was. That wasn't the problem but he hardly understood or heard all the questions that were asked in such a hurry. In truth he was a little surprised by this youngsters bravery in speaking and even more surprised by his interest in perhaps going on an adventure.


Gandalf tilted his head upwards and opened his eyes underneath those bushy eyebrows and took a moment to respond to the young lad. He knew the lad was more than likely going to be simply beside himself to know the answer to some of his questions..

" My name is Gandalf....and Gandalf means me." He said with a little nod of his head as he eyed the hobbit curiously. Perhaps...perhaps he would do. Hobbits had more uses than people gave them credit for and Gandalf knew it. " I know everyones name my good lad. " He said with a little bit of a smile as he knew he was avoiding the questions that had really been asked. He wasn't going to mention the dragons for a moment, or, well, at least he wasn't going to answer these questions right away. " Why do you want to know about dragons? Most hobbits your age would quiver at the sound..." Gandalf asked in a rather inquiring type of voice.

[Taiatelm]

Taiatelm waited through those few seconds eagerly, at one stage wondering if the man was even alive anymore until he tilted his head back and opened his eyes, sending the Hobbit back a few more steps. And then the sentence that came out of the man's mouth had the young Hobbit frowning as he tried to piece it together. When finally the puzzle was pieced he thought it was quite a neat name, to refer to oneself by name, and yet still mean 'me' would be quite great. Oh how Taiatelm wished in that moment that his name meant 'me' and then he would not be bothered for referring to himself in first person.

There was a nod, and a moment of staring as the Hobbit held his breath waiting for the answer he craved over the rest of them. Were dragons real? He was quite eager to see one for himself, yet he did not fancy roasting himself for the chance, hence his second question as to the nature of a dragon's breath. He didn't fancy himself tasty, whether cooked or raw. He knew everyone's name? Taiatelm raised an eyebrow sceptically, barely holding back the scoff that threatened to reply to Gandalf's statement. And then the old fool answered Taiatelm's own questions with a question, quite infuriating the young Hobbit though he hastened to hide his dissatisfaction.
"I am Taiatelm Nisaybur. I do not quiver at the sound of the name of a scaled cowardly lizard!" He cried in quite the dignified way. "I wish to meet one of these cowards, just to see if these rumors are true. Doubtful that fire can come crackling from it's jaws, why it takes some work for us Hobbits to start a satisfying fire. It makes no sense whatsoever." Taiatelm reasoned, crossing his short arms in front of his chest and lifting his nose. He thought he sounded rather intelligent with this point, but it was yet to be seen how the man named Gandalf should take it.

[Gandalf the Grey]

Gandalf listened to the boy with interest. It was seldom that you found someone that wanted to go and meet a dragon. No doubt it was simply the fact that the boy was young and did not know what he was really saying. Either way however, that did not bother him really. He knew that he couldn't simply just march a hobbit up to a dragon and say hello. The dragon may actually laugh a small bit before he tore them limb from limb in the defense of his personal treasure...No, that did not sound like a very good idea...Gandalf took a deep breath and took another puff of his pipe and blew out a few more smoke rings, each a different color, his eyes watching them as they floated up and around the tree, behaving as if he had quiet forgotten about the little boy in front of him, who, by nature was becoming more and more impatient by the minute.


After another few minutes the boy had not seemed to loose his desire to know what he asked. Very well then... " I do not know very many people, and a lot of people i do know, that would wish to stand before a dragon.." He said in just a little bit of a scoffing manner, but not in any sort of anger for the small hafling. " However, if dragons existed, and if, You.." Gandalf said this while dragging out the word you... " Wanted to go and find one, you will have to prove useful enough to be able to do so.. I can not just simply go off on adventures with young hobbits and hope for the best now can I? " He asked with a little bit of a smile, but in a very serious tone.

[Taiatelm]

Taiatelm waited. And he waited some more as the wizard blew his colored smoke rings into the air for a while longer, watching them quite intently, as if choosing to ignore the Hobbit that crouched by his front. Although he tried his best, his eyes wandered with the smoke against his will. When he noticed his attention wavering he averted it back to the old man who still lounged against the tree as if there was nothing in the world that could bother him at this moment in time. And yet, everything about this man was beginning to bother the young Hobbit until at last new words came from that covered mouth.

Taiatelm kept quiet long enough to hear the full sentence before more words blurted from his mouth, quite out of his own control.

"Well I am one person you do not know, and therefore am one willing to stand in front of a dragon." And though it infuriated the boy that the man would not tell of the existence of the cowardly scaled creatures, he was intrigued by the possibility of a small adventure, in which he may just get the chance to meet a dragon all for himself. Again Taiatelm drew himself up quite haughtily and spoke in a self-confident tone. "I figure I am useful for many things, Gandalf sir. How can I prove useful? And besides. I am not just some young Hobbit you would find yourself taking chances with." Taiatelm spoke, not sure if he might offend the man by claiming his own use. If the man really held promise for an adventure, Taiatelm was pretty sure he would drop to his knees and beg for a chance, he also figured his confidence couldn't hurt too much.

[Gandalf the Grey]

Gandalf knew the boy was curious. Curious was probably not even the right word to describe the boy at the moment. Gandalf, having lived as long as he had, knew how to read people instantly. It was just one of those things. Children were even easier obviously. Gandalf finally cracked a little smile as he lowered his arm that was holding his pipe and looked the youngster over another time before taking a deep breath, as if he was considering what the lad was actually capable of doing. Not much more than likely, however, that was alright. He could still prove useful for a few things. Often times it was the ones that you did not credit that were the most useful after all. He took a breath before he spoke..

" Well this is what i need, for you to prove your worth.." He said as he sat his pipe in his lab and reached into his cloak and pulled out a small leather pouch. It was empty. He gestured for the boy to hold out his hand before he placed it in the youngsters hand. " Now, this is the bad in which i keep my pipe weed, and as you can see i am very much so out of leaf. What i need you to do is simple. There is a Tavern not far from here. The White Horse, there is a man there, Hamfast Gamgee. Tell him who sent you and he shall get you what you need.." Gandalf watched the youngsters reaction to see how he would take the quest and whether or not he would simply accept it or not or have some sort of protest.

[Taiatelm]

Taiatelm waited on bated breath for the old man to tell him exactly how he could prove he could meet a dragon. His eyes were wide and staring as the the old man cracked a smile. A small leather pouch was pulled from the cloak and offered toward the young boy along with a hint to hold out his hands, and that he did though after a moment's hesitation. Taiatelm took the bag and looked in it almost immediately, noticing that it was indeed empty, the weed the man said it should hold was clearly not there. A small pink tongue emerged from Taiatelm's lips to lick them nervously before he nodded, one small question popping into his curious mind.

"Well if this task is simple, how can I expect this to prove my worth in meeting a dragon? Surely a dragon will not require his pipe weed, why he smokes without a pipe after all -if the stories I hear are true enough. All the same I will do it." Taiatelm said, his eyebrows raising as he asked the question. The young Hobbit tied the leather pouch to his belt and fished a small piece of cloth from his back pocket, which he fastened about his chin, the folds draping over his shoulders and he pulled at the curls of hair on his head.
"Very well then. In order to meet this dragon, I shall first meet this Hamfast Gamgee from the White Horse Tavern in order to refill your pipe weed. Where shall I find you when I am done?" Taiatelm queried, though his tone almost sounded as if he spoke to himself. And so now, with his black scarf tied about his chin, and the pouch secured to his belt he turned to set off in the direction the old man pointed him. "Farewell for now, Gandalf and you." He nodded before taking the first steps into his very first adventure, though a short one it may be.

[Gandalf the Grey]

Gandalf listened and watched the small hobbit as the boy tried to figure out what exactly he was going to do. He seemed to be doubting the importance of the 'quest' that Gandalf was sending him on. Of course Gandalf knew it was more of an errand and that it wasn't all the difficult to accomplish of course, however, he had to make sure the boy was going to be willing to listen before he could really take him anywhere. Gandalf had a job that he thought the youngster would be able to handle. It wasn't something that was really going to put the boy into any danger. Of course, he would never want to do that.

" I shall be right here when you return.." Gandalf answered the boy in the same deep voice that he always used and made a hand gesture for the boy to run along and carry on with the mission. As soon as the boy went scurrying along Gandalf had himself a little laugh and took a few deep breath and closed his eyes once again and began to rest. He had to work out how exactly he was going to work a young little Hobbit into his plans. They had plenty of uses of course, each and every race seemed to have their own. Dwarfs were excellent in a blacksmith, elves for their knowledge, men for their bravery and valor, and hobbits, well, hobbits seemed to cover just about everything else. And Gandalf knew it!

[Taiatelm]

And so the small Hobbit took off as quickly as his hairy little feet would carry home, the leather pouch tied securely to his belt, bouncing merrily against his thigh as he ran up the path that led in the direction of the White Horse, and therefore onto Hamfast Gamgee, whom Taiatelm expected to receive pipe weed from.

Before long Taiatelm was looking up at the building called the White Horse and he hesitated by the door, not entirely sure how to proceed with this 'quest' and how exactly to bring up the fact of his business in a place he had barely ever been to. With a light sigh the hobbit pushed through to door to enter the place and approached the bar carefully, his small eyes observing the place in quick flits, the pouch now clasped and wrung desperately in his fists.

"Err I am here to inquire about a Hamfast Gamgee. I am on business for err... Gandalf." The hobbit stuttered at the man behind the counter. Taiatelm swallowed loudly and waited until an old man appeared from a table to his right.

"You require me young hobbit?" The older hobbit smiled softly.
Taiatelm took a moment before he could find his tongue, but when he did, he managed to ask about the pipe weed and to mention Gandalf's name. The old man smiled, taking the pouch and walking back to the table he occupied moments before, filling the bag with what Taiatelm believed to be the weed he had been sent for. Thanking the hobbit, Taiatelm turned tail back to the clearing in which he had met the strange Big Folk to hand back his bag of weed and to hopefully hear some kind of story of the dragons he so wished to know more about.

His little feet carried him quickly back to the wizard and he crouched, offering the open and full bag toward the cloaked man, his face pulled up in a broad and proud grin, his eyes almost completely closed, his lips stretched seemingly from ear to ear. "Here you are. Now please, please can I meet a dragon? Do they breath fire like they say?" Taiatelm was thoroughly out of breath by this point, but there was always breath in the young hobbit for such important questions.

[Gandalf the Grey]

Gandalf had been resting for what only seemed a few moments until he heard the voice of the young hobbit once again. This is normally how it went for Gandalf. He hardly ever had any time to rest his weary eyes. He seemed to only run and go about his business with never any regard for his own health and his own needs. If he had a wife she would have been a nervous wreck and probably would have left him a long time ago. Yes, it was probably a good thing that Gandalf was not in any sort of relationship. It was actually forbidden, but that wasn’t the point.

Gandalf opened his eyes slowly and looked at the hobbit that seemed to almost be bouncing around in front of him from excitement. Gandalf took a deep breath and looked at the leather pouch in the lad’s hand. He extended his hand and took the pouch from the young lad and inspected it. He smiled just a little bit and took a bit of pipe weed from the pouch and stuffed it in his pipe. The pipe seemed to light by itself and Gandalf took a good whiff and closed his eyes again and blew a few rings of smoke. He did all of this of course without saying a single word to the little boy in front of him. Of course Gandalf knew this drove the poor lad absolutely crazy and that was slightly amusing for Gandalf because young folk really had no perception of time. Young people wanted everything right away, right that moment and never really wanted to wait for anything. Gandalf had been around a long time….A very long time. He knew that patience was the single most important part of life. Certainly there was time for haste but you could not be hasty all the time, otherwise you would not end up living long.

Finally he took a final breath and spoke to the young hobbit before him. “ So you want to see Dragons then…” He said with another breath. “ Well, I don’t know about all of that, going to see dragons and all. It is a nasty business really. However, I do have a quest that you might be interested in. You might be gone from the Shire for a week or so. Is that going to present a problem?” Gandalf asked. At the same time he wondered what this halflings parents would thing about this whole situation…They would probably not look at this with fondness. O well.

[Taiatelm]

The hobbit felt like he had to wait an age just for the old man to open his eyes, but once he did, his lips cracked into a small smile, leaving the boy to sigh in relief. Taiatelm watched in almost-patience as the man stuffed the weed into his pipe, blowing more smoke rings into the air around the hobbit, who watched them with renewed interest. For the moment, the man himself seemed boring as since the smile, he had not moved much more. Stationary things did not much amuse the hobbit, and it was for this reason that eager brown eyes chased the multi colored smoke rings across the grass, his head occasionally tilting as he became quite engrossed in the sight.

The breath the man took startled the hobbit back to attention, only to hear a bit of disappointing news. Even though he had succeeded in acquiring the pipe weed, he was still not allowed to see dragons! Taiatelm puffed out his cheeks irritably, but in truth he may have been quite glad. The way this old man spoke made dragons sound much scarier then what Taiatelm had imagined. Indeed, if they were only lizards with a great fire in their belly then shouldn't they prove quite useful? The boy's ears perked up at the end of his train of thought at a few words. Adventure? Week? Taiatelm stared intensely at the man for a few moments, as if he could not quite believe his small ears but then his head shook violently from side to side. "Not a problem at all Gandalf sir! What kind of a quest is it? do I get a sword? Can I kill a dragon?" Again the questions tumbled from his excitable mouth and he found himself leaning forwards on his hands, his behind lifted into the air from his crouched position.