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As Bilbo walked away from the council, Gloín wondered what he had missed. When had Thorin II Oakenshield grown to trust the advice of a greengrocer?
"See?" Gandalf said. "He is an excellent asset on this journey, even more so than I initially thought."
Gloín scoffed, unconvinced. Children's stories of living trees...
"Aye, he can be helpful." Balin agreed, but the diplomatic dwarrow always agreed at first, then stated his demands later. "Though I still wonder how he learned the language of elves."
Gloín nodded sagely, arms crossed, eyes closed.
"It would seem he is of a scholarly family." Thorin, King-in-Exile, and one of the curmudgeoniest of all dwarrowkind, said, calmly. Gloín’s eyes flew wide, then narrowed. Something was very strange.
"Oh, yes." the old wizard agreed. "The Bagginses are quite comfortable with books and reading them, and the Tooks can well afford them."
"I seem to have heard of Tooks before." Balin pondered. "Are they a family of some importance, perhaps?"
"Oh, I suppose, as such things go." Gandalf agreed, ponderingly. "They are a rather wealthy clan of hobbits, living in the largest den of all; a place called Tooksborough. From there, they have governed half the Shire as Thains, since the 2300's of the Third Age. For a long time, it was Bilbo’s grandfather who held the seat."
The dwarves fell quiet.
"...and now?" Balin asked.
"...did we bring another prince on this quest?!" Gloín sputtered, unbelieving of the nerve of old wizards. And they had brought the young prince -- and young he must be, walking around without a beard -- along as their burglar?! Of all things!
"Now... I believe one of his uncles have taken the seat... No... Wait... the Old Took sat for so long, his sons were already quite old... Perhaps Bilbo’s cousin, Fortinbras, has taken the seat now..."
"And how many old hobbits are left between Bilbo and the Thainship?" Gloín asked, darkly. A prince was bad enough, but curse the wizard if they had brought the next in line, at that.
"Oh, another... fifteen cousins and uncles, I believe. Bilbo is the son of the Gerontius' ninth child, and his uncle Isembold has quite the brood."
"All that is all and well." Thorin interrupted. "But we have a journey to make, and a road to travel. Now, most of... the master burglar's advice matched with what Beorn told us before he returned. The question is: Do we follow the hobbit’s suggestions or have we better ideas?"
It was a conversation of agreements from then on, but as they tied themselves into the line the next morning, Gloín still felt like he had missed something... something big...