This is an episode that should not have happened at the end of the Third Era. During this period, the treacherous Demon Lord Sauron was restoring strength and cultivating power in Dol Guldur; the great snitch Mr. Bilbo Baggins was living a good life of six or seven meals a day in Bag End; and the tragic "King under the Mountain" Thorin Oakenshield was leading his people on a quest in the Blue Mountains. A better life; Thranduil, the king of the forest elves, is getting more and more homely wearing the wreath of the four seasons; the wise gray-robed wizard Gandalf is aware of the danger in Middle-earth, and the resurgence of dark power is warning everyone everywhere that his "protection" will soon come to the Durin clan; and our protagonist begins his own story in a meteor.
