[Nurumaiel]

Nurumaiel noticed there was some dancing going on. She blushed and ducked her head, dreading the moment when Bilbo would ask her to sing a song in Elvish. When she looked up again, she saw a very familiar face.

"Frodo Baggins?" she said. "I didn't see you!" She was tempted to say something teasing to him, as she had always done in the old days, but she didn't tease him anymore. Not now.

"Go on..." said Frodo, looking at her half defiantly.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"I know what you wanted to say. Say it." He grinned wickedly at her. "Go on... I'll start for you... 'Have you...'" He stopped and waited for her to finish.

"Have you joined the side of the orcs and eaten up Hobbiton yet?" asked Nuru, blushing the whole way.

"No, I haven't," he said with a grin. "More importantly... have you?"

They laughed together, and suddenly Frodo felt someone tapping him on the shoulder. He turned and found himself face to face with a little hobbit girl standing on a chair so she could be level with him. "You Frodo?" she asked.

"Yes," said Frodo, looking rather startled.

"Well, maybe I should introduce myself. I'm Don-" she thought it safer not to tell him her real name, for he might call her 'Donnamira' or 'Donna' "-and I'm Bilbo's best friend!"

"Ah really," said Frodo with an amused smile.

"Yes!" said Don defiantly. Of course she knew she wasn't Bilbo's best friend, but she wanted to startle everyone. Unfortunately she had failed, so she tried again. "I bet you're his worst friend."

Frodo didn't look anything but amused, so she gave up, sitting down and sighing. "Everybody's dancing, you know," she said. "I want to dance with someone, but there are no other children."

"What about Sam's?" asked Frodo.

"Well, I don't know if I like them..." said Don hesitantly. "They didn't talk to me."

Just then the door to the party room flew open and two hobbit lasses came running in. Primrose Tussock was the name of one, and she grinned at Bilbo hurriedly and then threw her arms around Cami. They had met each other when Cami was very young.

The second was Robin Brandybuck, who immediately went up to Frodo and demanded, "Have you joined the side of the orcs and eaten up Hobbiton yet?"

"Eaten Hobbiton?" Don asked, startled. She turned to Frodo and looked at him closely. "Your mouth doesn't look big enough to do that."

"Just a joke we have."

"Oh." Don jumped off the chair. "I have to go find Rie now," she said. "I told her I'd only be gone for a little while. I just wanted to meet you. Bye!"

"Dinodas is coming later," said Robin hurriedly. "We weren't going to come at all, seeing as we weren't invited, but Primrose was invited and she invited us. So I came, and Dinodas is on the way. He's trying to convince his sister Ann to come. But she was feeling sick earlier today so she's not sure that she will." Having told all there was to tell, Robin hurried off to get some food.

Primrose walked over to Frodo. "Hello, Frodo," she said. "How do you like the party?"

"It's wonderful."

"Better than the surprise party we had for you?"

Frodo smiled softly at the recollection. "In all truth, Prim, I'd have to say it was about the same. The same people are making it wonderful... you, Cami..."

Primrose smiled hugely at him and then introduced herself to Nuru. At last she skipped off, saying she was going to see if she could get a dance.

"Well," said Nuru, standing up. "I'd better get out of the way. There are many people anxious to meet you and I wouldn't want to prevent them. But, Frodo, if they start crowding you too much (you are a famous hobbit, after all) just call Robin and she'll take care of it."

And that was quite true. Robin could really be... evil... if she wanted to. But at the moment she was also trying to find a dance.