The Hobbits by Gilthalion

[Mithadan]

THE HOBBITS

by Gilthalion


Chapter I

A SURPRISED PARTY

In a field on a hill there grew a tree. Not a scraggly bent tree, with twisted branches and crusty growths, nor yet a thin, sickly, overcrowded tree, with few leaves and fewer branches for birds to perch on or for squirrels to play in: it was a mallorn-tree, and that means beauty.

It was a mighty tree, taller than any tree in the Shire or in all the lands west of the Misty Mountains. Its great trunk was grey and smooth as silk. Up it towered and opened its branches high above the top of the Hill nearby and gave cool shade to everything under its canopy, like a cloud of living green. Its leaves were verdant in the summer of the Shire and from almost anywhere around you could see the top of the Tree. The Tree, as all the hobbits for many miles round called it, had been planted long ago in the golden year of 1420 S.R. by Samwise Gamgee, the old Hero of the Shire. It was said that the Tree had been magically enchanted by an Elvish Queen to grow faster and taller than any tree before or since. The old gaffers and gammers told that in just a year's time it was as big as the full-grown Party Tree that had stood there before. Some even claimed to have actually watched it growing! But that was long ago and now it was grown fantastically immense. It had been long since any children had dared to climb in its branches, and it was so tall that no one ever seriously anymore thought of trying to climb The Tree.

Faramir Took, son of the Thain and leader of the archers of Tookland, had been the last hobbit to try, but that was at least forty years ago. Even then, he didn't make it all the way up to the lowest branch and he almost came down the hard way! (Some jesters said that the only thing hard about getting out of the Tree would be the Ground.) Hobbits, by and large, did not go much for climbing trees and other adventures of that sort, and most especially wouldn't be caught climbing up into anything like The Tree!

What's that? You don't know what a hobbit is? Well really, I thought everybody knew by now, and we haven't time to catch you all the way up, so you will just have to catch on as we go. For now, hobbits are just like you and me, only much smaller, no bigger than half your height and a quarter your weight. They are almost never as large as that these days (they are now usually much smaller) and are never seen much anyway. They don't like lots of noise, and big moving things, and high places. They can hide from you very quickly, and if you ever walked out in the country far from the Cities they may have watched you go by, having heard you come crashing and snapping and shuffling along with your great big feet! Hobbits can move absolutely quietly in the woods and can get out of sight faster than you can say 'stick.' They are very close to Nature, perhaps even more so these days. They live in holes for the most part, hidden in places far from the Big Folk, as they call you and me. They can throw a stone or anything else exactly where they want it and are good at all sorts of games. They have fur on the top of their bare feet as thick as the hair on your head and they have never taken to wearing shoes. Other than that, perhaps they like to eat more, and drink more, and sleep more, and laugh more, and sing more, and dance more, and tell stories more than the Big People, who don't have as much time for that sort of thing, being much too busy with the bigger matters of Business, and Government, and War.

That ought to be plenty to get you started. Now, on this particular Mid-Year's Day, Master Samwise had gone down to the Party Field under The Tree for the celebration. Hobbits didn't need much reason to have a party and Mid-Year's Day seemed as good a reason as any. Old Sam's wife, Mistress Rose, had a few more things to do in the kitchen at Bag End and would be along shortly. The old hobbit whistled as he walked briskly to the field and he saw many hobbits gathered under The Tree. He thought back on all the many celebrations his old eyes had seen under the mallorn-tree of Galadriel.

Of course, Bilbo's Eleventy-first Birthday Party had been long before the Tree, but there were still the old gaffers and gammers who remembered that day, and especially the wizardly fireworks and the disappearance of Mad Baggins, as Bilbo was remembered in hobbit legend. As far as they were concerned, there would never be another party like it! Sam thought so himself. Then there were other parties and celebrations through the long years and folks started forgetting Sam's old master, Frodo Baggins, who had lived in Bag End before him. These days, fewer and fewer outside of the family knew or remembered that Frodo of the Shire had carried the greatest burden in the War of the Ring. It pained him to think, that try as he might, and with all his might, to set things straight, the hobbits of the Shire had enshrined old Master Merry and Master Pippin and himself as Heroes and Frodo remained a footnote for those who could read.

And Samwise had indeed tried very hard! Just three years before, back in 1479, a few years after retirement from his sixth and final term as Mayor, Samwise announced that he would hold a Three Hundred Mark Feast to celebrate the Birthday of Bilbo and Frodo and this was the talk of the Shire. The day of September 22nd, throughout all the years of good old Sam's service as Mayor, had been observed, even though participation had fallen off from its first days. Still, the Three Hundred Mark Feast had been extra-special, and made extra-specially so because Peregrin Took, right Thain of the Shire, and Meriadoc Brandybuck, Master of Buckland had come. There had been fireworks from Dale and food and drink enough to satisfy the Shire. The old hobbits held forth and gave tribute to Frodo, perhaps living still, far away in the true West on the Straight Road under the Star of Eärendil, but this was too elvish and outlandish for the hobbits to really grasp, and rather hard to believe anyway. They listened politely to the old heroes and raised their glasses and mugs to Frodo of the Nine Fingers, listened to minstrels from Gondor (there by special permission!) sing his praises, wearing their outlandish garb, and speaking with grandiloquent phrases and unusual accents. The hobbits just didn't understand a lot of it, but it was mighty entertaining. After that day they did not much think on Frodo again.

The new mayor, Ed Sandyman, the old miller's son, had not bothered with the occasion officially in either the years before or after the Three Hundred Mark Feast. And so the event, Baggins Day, as the faithful called it, was marked by fewer and fewer hobbits outside of immediate family and friends, but it was lively enough still, for hobbits did not need much excuse for a party, especially if it meant a feast! Old Samwise Gardner himself was still held in high regard by the old gaffers and gammers (who still remembered when he was called Gamgee like old Hamfast before him), but fewer and fewer young hobbits knew why folks thought so much of him and the old stories were not regarded as highly as they might have been.

This too, bothered the venerable old hobbit, but being a sensible fellow and knowing there wasn't much he could do, he never really let on about it. There were plenty of grandchildren and grandnieces and grandnephews and the like who would come up to the famous hole on The Hill and listen to his stories and his poetry as he gardened.

Samwise Gardner was a century old himself, but still sturdy and hale, and he worked in his own garden (almost) every day. That was how folk started calling the family Gardner in the first place, following after his tremendous labours in the years after the Scouring. They started by calling him "The Gardener" and this became "Master Gard'ner" and finally the whole lot of them in Bag End were called The Gardners. Young Frodo, Sam's son, at last insisted that they just go ahead and make legal what was already the fact and be done with the confustication that ensued if a Gardner insisted his name was Gamgee.

But Sam was not gardening today! It was Mid-Year's Day, and he was looking forward to the party, not expected to be as grand as the Three Hundred Mark Feast had been, but a party is a party and all hobbits simply loved parties. Master Samwise and Mistress Rose just loved to have family members over, especially the youngsters and the tweens. Lots of them had come for the celebration and the table at Bag End! Elanor, their daughter was there with her husband Fastred. She was still a breathtaking beauty and called Elanor the Fair; though over sixty, she still looked as if she were not long out of her tweens. The ladies of Bag End would come down momentarily to great acclamation for they were bringing the Blackberry Pies for which the Mistress Rose was herself famous. Her pies would have won the Shire Fair every year even if Sam had not been the Mayor for so long!

Master Samwise sat down with a sigh and a smile and watched all the young people. It is only fair to say that just a few of them noticed the old hero, but they were all polite enough when they did. And of course there were those young ones who came from time to time to visit him in his garden, such as Faramir's sons, the Took Twins, and that young Miss Elediriel Cotton (who listened to her great-granduncle so earnestly that Elanor herself noticed and hired her to work in the library at the Undertowers), and of course, the pretty and audacious Miss Madrigal Brandybuck (known variously as either the Beauty or the Terror of the Shire!). These, and a few others, did not hesitate to come to talk (and to listen!) to the old hobbit.

Many other hobbits were there under the Tree and there was already music and dancing and talking, and of course, eating and drinking. Every kind of little appetizer and meat and vegetable was laid out for them as well as good beer for all and fine wine for the head table. Quite a merry time was being had, for the Shire was prosperous and peaceful, and there had been no greater troubles for many years than the usual homely disputes over games of chance and romance.

After a while, the sun began to set and the sky became a warm red and lit the clouds with glowing light. The leaves of the Tree glinted as if their living green had been overlaid with rich gold. It was at last time for the desert! At the head table Mayor Sandyman had stood and was speaking. The loud talking and singing faded to whispers and subdued speech here and there as certain hobbits more quietly continued with their own very important things to say to one another.

"My fellow hobbits and most estimable citizens of the Shire! I need not speak long!"

They cheered and clapped for old Ed at this, for they knew that he, indeed, would not speak long. The Mayor was often asked to give speeches for various occasions, owing to his reputation for getting squarely to the point and not using many words to do it. Not that he often actually answered a question. He could come down on both sides of an issue with the fewest possible number of words. A very clever and businesslike hobbit was Ed Sandyman, miller's son and prosperous merchant in his own right, and he was standing again for Mayor. He would especially not risk any lengthy speeches this close to an election and they all knew it well!

"We have gathered here on this Day to observe the end of the beginning of the year and the beginning of the end of the year. Today is Mid-Year's Day!"

They applauded and cheered and blew horns and rang bells and beat drums and Eglantine Goodbodie even began playing her harp so that it was difficult for Mayor Sandyman to continue, but, of course, continue he did as soon as he could make himself heard.

"What better way... what better way... I say, what better way to mark the occasion than with the delicious first fruits of the Shire, prepared for this Party under the direction of Hobbiton's very own Mistress Rose Gardner!" The Mayor waited for more applause and was not disappointed. Everyone loved the dear old lady. Sam looked around for her. So did everyone else. She and Elanor and the ladies should have been laying out the pies. He looked up the Hill. The Mayor continued, oblivious to the fact that neither the ladies nor the desert had arrived. He had already perhaps had a glass too many from the heady vintage imported from Dorwinion.

"Gentlehobbits one and all, it is my honor to present, the Blackberry Pie!" The crowd was silent. Was this his idea of a joke? If so, it was highly inappropriate! Old Sandyman turned around and saw for the first time that the dessert table was bare. His face turned as red and as shiny as a tomato! Some of the younger and the more stuffed hobbits laughed at the Mayor of Hobbiton. Many more were seriously concerned about the pie, especially those who had saved some room for it with great anticipation! There was now little left for filling up the corners if the Pie was not to be had and they began to worry a little.

Sam himself was suddenly worried a lot. Something wasn't right. He continued looking back up the path, as the hobbitry began to talk loudly, and as the Mayor came straight over to Sam with a red sweating face and an angry expression indeed. Old Master Samwise got up to his feet and walked away, as if he did not hear the embarrassed official or the frustrated partygoers. Elanor had flung open the round green front door of Bag End and was actually running down the Hill toward the party field.

If only someone could have painted a picture of the lovely Elanor, dressed in a fair silk dress given to her by the Queen, her hair streaming golden behind her in the breeze as she ran to her elderly father. The weathered old hobbit walked slowly, his sturdy frame now bent with the weight of what his heart already knew. That painting would have been both beautiful and sad. For a moment they lingered thus, and then without a word, they walked into Bag End together and did not come back down again that night.

Fortunately for the Mayor, because there were not a few angry hobbits and concerned hobbits and suddenly hungry hobbits, some of the ladies of the Gardner household soon came down with the much-anticipated desert on a cart. Without any fanfare, the blackberry pies were dispensed and everyone agreed that this year's pies were the best that Mistress Rose had ever made and therefore, no doubt, the Finest Blackberry Pies that had ever been. Mayor Sandyman was pleased to say that he would issue a Proclamation the very next day to say so and all of the hobbits who paid him any attention whatsoever agreed that it should be done.

A few wondered why Mistress Rose had not come down. Some of the old folk seemed rather sad, as if they guessed what none of the youngsters had considered. The guess became a question and the question became a rumour and the rumour passed through the entire gathering. They looked down at their empty pie plates and some of them actually burst into tears. The sad ladies of Bag End confirmed what the crowd had now realized. Mistress Rose would never cook another pie again. And they all mournfully agreed that as much as they would miss the Best Blackberry Pies that ever there were, they would miss their dear, sweet Miss Rosie still more.

Sam had found the weeping ladies clustered around Mistress Rose where she had passed out on the kitchen floor just as the pies were cooled and loaded on the cart. Sam quietly told the ladies to take the pies down to the party and let folks enjoy them the way Rosie wanted them to, and as they did just that, he carried his unconscious wife to her room. He was old, and not the strong young hobbit he had been, but Rosie was small and very thin in her old age. She hardly seemed to weigh anything at all. Elanor turned down the covers and they tried to make her comfortable. She stirred a little and opened her eyes and looked up at Samwise.

"Hullo, Sam!" she said weakly. "Where have you been? You haven't hurried have you?"

"Oh, Rosie!" he said thickly, holding back tears. "What will I do without you?"

She smiled up at him and whispered to him so that he had to bend low to hear her. "You have one last journey. I fancy you'll find Mister Frodo is waiting for you."

This was too much for Sam and the old hobbit could hold back his emotion no longer. Elanor was already weeping quietly. "Rosie," was all he could manage to say through the sadness that blurred his vision and gripped his throat.

"It won't be too long, Sam," she continued even more weakly. "I'll just wait for you... again..."

And she sighed and breathed her last breath in the Shire.

Sam fell across her bed and his body heaved with hard wracking sobs. Elanor stayed with him, still quietly weeping herself, softly stroking her father's snow-crowned head. She left him late in the night but Sam did not leave Rosie until after the sun had set the next day.

***

Master Samwise was never the same after Rosie died. She was laid to rest beneath a small green mound on the Cotton Farm where she was born, and that was the last that most of the hobbits of the Shire saw of old Sam Gardner, son of Hamfast Gamgee. Family members came to visit, and he would put on a cheerful face for the children but everyone knew he was just not the same. He neglected his little garden, still considered the best in the Shire, but as the summer became autumn, it became overgrown, still beautiful, but now untended and becoming wild.

Sam himself seemed to shrink, and started to look more like a hobbit of over a hundred. He no longer walked with a straight back and uplifted head, meeting the local hobbitry with a cheerful eye and a happy smile. Now the poor old fellow hardly stirred out of Bag End at all, except late at night when he would go to sit by himself in his garden to look up at the stars as they set into the West.

September came around and folk had almost forgotten about the elderly hobbit when word went out that he was planning a family party on Baggins Day. He let it be known that anyone who wanted to attend would be welcome, but he really only expected the usual small crowd. He was planning to make an Announcement and other than that, was all too happy to let Elanor handle the arrangements.

Many of the Hobbiton folk and some others from Buckland and from West March had come especially to please old Sam, knowing how the passing of Mistress Rose had grieved him so. Oddly enough, Elanor and Fastred of Westmarch were missed, but everyone else who really knew him was there. The kind hearts of the little people had overflowed for their old hero and they welcomed him happily into the throng that had gathered for him under the Tree he had planted for them so long ago.

Its leaves were turning a resplendent golden colour and they caught the light of the setting sun, reflecting it with such a rich glow upon the gathering that it reminded Sam much of the elvish land of Lothlorien. That memory in turn took him back to the great days of his adventures and the companions of his youth. He choked back tears and thanked each one of them as they took turns shaking his horny old hand and slapping him (gently) on the back. Last of all, two of the companions of his youth were indeed there, Merry and Pippin, or as the hobbits round about knew them, Meriadoc the Magnificent, Master of Buckland, and Master Peregrin Took, Right Thain of the Shire, the great Heroes of the War of 1419.

And great and magnificent they still looked. The two of them together each stood head and shoulders above all the hobbits of the land, and though they too were old, they stood tall and straight and walked with the firm confidence of youth, rather than the careful steps of the elderly. They could still ride ponies, and did so with almost the speed and recklessness of hobbits in their tweens. They wore finery of gold and silk, and carried on their belts, swords of ancient lineage in fine embroidered scabbards. The curly hair on their heads was streaked and flecked with gray and their faces were lined with years of smiles and cares, but their eyes were bright and their hands were strong. Well, perhaps they were a little stiffer and a little slower, and perhaps Master Meriadoc's belt was rather broad, and perhaps Thain Peregrin's memory wasn't what it used to be, but if anyone ever saw fit to notice it, few bothered to mention it.

It snowed food and it rained drink under the Tree on the Hill in the Shire that night. The stars glimmered brightly in the sky and the Evenstar tarried late behind the sun. A bonfire was lit and its light was caught in the mallorn leaves high above and the hobbits seemed to dine and talk and dance and sing under a glowing cloud of gold. Sam talked long and earnestly with his old friends and seemed more his old self than he had since before his Rosie had died. Finally, Master Samwise stood to his feet and in an unusual show of respect, the hobbits all became quiet before he spoke.

"You're all family and friends here, and since I ain't never been good at speechifying..." this brought forth from the hobbits a little laughter. "I'll just come right out and say what I mean to say. I have lived a good long life, and I reckon I'm blessed to have known so many good hobbits and great people as I have. Today, we are met to celebrate Baggins Day, and I'm glad to see a few Bagginses here tonight. This is really about Bilbo and Frodo and what all they've done for hobbits and a whole world of people who had no idea we were even here. I've tried to live my life so they would be proud of me, just as if they were still here in the Shire. And much as I love the Shire..." The old hobbit looked up at the outstretched branches of the Tree he had planted so long ago. He choked back a sob, thinking of all the trees he had planted after the Shadow and of all his labours through the years and of all the hobbits he had loved. He swallowed hard and steadfastly continued, "...and as much as I love all of you, now that Rosie has gone, if I'm to live, I need to be there..." he said, pointing west, "...with Mr. Frodo. I'll be leaving tonight, under the stars. So now it's time for me to say to you all, as Mr. Bilbo once did many years ago--this is the end. I am going. I am leaving now. Good-bye!" And with that, the old hobbit simply walked out of the lights under the Tree, leaving the surprised hobbits with nothing to say for several minutes. They just looked at one another dumbfounded, and then all began talking at once. Some of the tweens would have run off to follow, but the Thain was firm that none but Merry and himself were to accompany Master Samwise on his last journey. Music was struck up, wine was poured, a new course of dinner was laid, and the conversation turned to the great adventures of the past and to the absorbing doings of the present.

At the garden, the old hobbit was helped by Master Meriadoc up onto a pony and then the three old Companions set off with a couple of dwarves and a spare pony with some baggage. They did not stop until they reached the Tower Hills, where Merry and Pippin said goodbye to him for the last time. He slept and rested there at the home of Elanor, for he was very old and wearied easily these days. But he did not stay long.

Sam gave Elanor a thick book of the finest parchment, bound in red leather. It was the Red Book that Bilbo had begun so long ago with his stories and poems, that Frodo had continued with his own account of the War of the Ring. Sam himself had finished it, with history and ancient legends copied from scrolls and records and books of lore still kept in Rivendell and Gondor. There were only a few copies in all the Shire, one for each of Sam's children and for some of their close friends and relations (and of course for the libraries at the Great Smials and in Brandy Hall). Elanor had been charged with having this work done, and now the Red Book itself was hers.

Elanor's fair face seemed more care-lined now as if the enchantment of youth was leaving with the old hobbit. Her tears fell freely as she and Fastred bid her father a final farewell. As soon as the sun began to set the next day, Sam set out west again with the dwarves for the Grey Havens of the Elves and was never seen again by any hobbit in Middle-earth.




Chapter II

INCIDENT AT THE GREEN DRAGON

It was the very next night, on the evening of September 23nd, 1482 S.R., at the Green Dragon, when Elediriel Cotton read her first poem in public. She had been working for Master Samwise making fair copies of the Red Book for nearly the last year. Being one of the few hobbits who could both read and write, she was hired for the painstaking task of writing and writing and writing again and again and again every word that had been set down in the old book by Bilbo and Frodo and Samwise. The hobbit lass was steeped in the legends and poems and stories and lore perhaps more than anyone else in the entire Shire. It was tedious work, but she was paid well enough and it helped her take care of her poor old mother. Her father had long since passed away and she was their only daughter, born late in life. Perhaps through taking on life's cares and burdens at a young age, she was more mature in some ways than most hobbits in their tweens, but far less experienced in social life. She found that out, when she shared in the Common Room of the Green Dragon on that Baggins Day, a poem she that she had written on her very own. She became very nervous when it was her turn and she almost sat back down, but she made herself go on and chanted before the room in a soft voice that the hobbitry had to strain to hear.

When Shadow to the Shire had come
he too, came home from far away,
from land of dread and mount of Doom,
a land where evil had its day.

From home and hearth he heard the call
and knew at last he must return
from fountain, river, pool and fall,
to stop the ones who kill and burn.

He never faltered, never tired,
and stayed he true the long road there
and back again, the Hamfast sired,
who never shirked a single care.

How he could sing a laughter song
and cheer a heart that's sorrowing;
how he would try to right a wrong
and never trouble borrowing.

With will of iron, he foe assailed,
and faced the monster in her lair
and took the Quest when master failed
and humbled Pride and Darkness there.

O could we ever live to see,
if like the Elves we lived till End,
more blessed folk than you and me
and all who called Good Samwise, friend?

The hobbits applauded politely, some more enthusiastically than others. A couple of old gaffers, with backs bent over their mugs from the weight of years of toil, wiped their eyes with bowed heads beneath their gray hoods, and made then a great fuss over lighting their pipes (as if that covered their heartfelt emotion). Some said the poem was good enough to be a song. Others said it was too strange and sad seeming for that.

And then there were still others who had no appreciation for it at all, at all. These were the hangers on, admirers, and followers of young Ned Sandyman, the Mayor's son. They also happened to be his employees, since these were the only sort of hobbits who would work for him. Ever since his father had turned Sandyman's Mercantile Store over to Ned, a braggadocious hobbit not long out of his tweens, he had been insufferable. And since his father had narrowly won reelection as Mayor of Hobbiton, he had been intolerable. He cruelly jeered at the young hobbit lass.

"What was all of that?" he asked, and then proceeded to answer himself. "Elves, and pools, and quests, and a lot of rhyming nonsense!" said Ned Sandyman. "That's what comes of learning girls their letters!" His followers and a few other hobbits laughed as if he had said something clever. Little Elediriel was stunned and looked as if she might just screw up and start bawling. Turgon and Fingon, the Took Twins, grandsons of Thain Peregrin and of Master Samwise alike, stood as one and walked right up to the sneering shopkeeper.

"Our grandfather..." began Turgon.

"...was a hero..." continued Fingon.

"...and you will take those words back!" finished Turgon.

"Or what?" taunted Ned, who had never liked Turry or Furry, as most of the Shire called them. He had been quite jealous of them growing up and for some reason, his entire family never much cared for these hobbits who thought they were so high and lordly. The Twins began to get boiling bad now.

"Or we'll flatten your face, that's what!" shouted Turry. The hobbits in the room started shouting, hoping for a fight. More than half the room wanted to see the Tooks mop up the floor with Sandyman. Some waited to see their Boss humiliate the uppity hobbits. Almost all of them anticipated a great fight. It looked about even: the big Tooks against all of Sandyman's boys, for no one doubted that was how it was about to turn out. Money almost immediately started changing hands, and Gaffer Brockhouse was giving odds in favor of the Twins. Turgon, or Turry, looked grim. Fingon, or Furry, just looked furious. Ned had a number of sturdy hobbits around him. So he laughed in their faces, though he was a thin wiry hobbit and they were uncommonly large and strong. Ned had a sharp mind and a sharper tongue and had already thought of what he would say to the glowering Took Twins.

"Well, the old gardener might have been a hero, but then, those might just be stories the lot of them told to explain how they came by what they got. We only have their word for it. And the word of folks who believe in such fairy tales. It's a Man's world now, and any Hobbit's that's smart enough to be a part of it. But even if there were heroes, and even if old Samwise was one himself, we can all see that you're not! Look at you, trying to take on little old me two to one. All right then, one at a time," he licked his lips and grinned wickedly. "Which one takes his lickin' first?"

Right away both of the Took Twins stepped forward. But Turry, who was older by a few minutes wanted to be first, and so did the furious Furry, and the clever Sandyman knew, as did all the Shire, how competitive the brothers were. Soon they fell to pushing and pulling and holding one another back and many of the hobbits in the Green Dragon had to laugh. The sly shopkeeper egged it on.

"Look at them! They're so afraid that they can't decide who gets to be last!"

At that, the tavern was filled with laughter, and rude catcalls from Sandyman's hobbits. That was almost more than he had bargained for. Now the Tooks were ready to beat him into the floor whether anyone thought it was fair or not. But they collided into each other and fell sprawling across a table. The hobbitry roared with loud shouts of laughter and a genuine barroom brawl might have started right there in the Green Dragon if Madrigal Brandybuck had not put a stop to it. As Ned exulted in his glee at the expense of the Took Twins, he heard Maddie's sweet voice behind him. He turned to look at the lass, for she was pretty, in a wild dryad fashion, with a long untamable mane of tight brown curls. Quite a few in the room stopped what they were doing and paid attention, ignoring the Took Twins struggling up from the tavern floor.

"Ned," she said sweetly, "this is for my grandfather and for all the heroes everywhere." And with that, and with no other fanfare, would you believe the pretty hobbit lass knotted up her little fist and punched him hard and square, straight in the nose?

The roof of the tavern rattled on the rafters and would have raised right off if the hobbits had laughed any louder or longer! Sandyman lay on the floor with a bleeding nose, his hobbits fumbling and bumping into each other to see what they could do for him. Elediriel just stood there with her leather-bound manuscripts in her arms and a shy grin spreading across her delighted face. Maddie grabbed her by the hand and led her out the door, still looking back, and the Took Twins grinned and followed the girls into the night. Some of the older hobbits decided that this was a good time for them to leave as well, since nothing would top that, and they filtered out of the Green Dragon. This would be the talk of the Shire in the morning!

The boys were quite cheerful now that all had turned out well enough. Maddie was still furious. She might have been happier to know that with her punch, she had not only broken Sandyman's nose, but had given him two black eyes that were already starting to darken. Those black eyes stayed with Ned for a long time, and folk took to calling him "Bandit" Sandyman. The name stuck for the rest of his mean little life, being all the funnier not only as a joke about his appearance, but as an apt description of his well-known business practices.

But Maddie did not know this at the time and so an angry storm of words surged through her lips as they walked down the Road and up the Hill to sit under the Tree. As the hobbits marched up the Hill, Turry and Furry began to sing a little song that the two of them made up on the spot. They did not notice the gray shadows that followed them.

Turry sang first,

"Ned came into the Dragon's den
And slurred and slandered our kith and kin
For many a year he'd made it clear:
He did not like those heroes!
Up Nose! Weirdoes!
He did not like those heroes!"

Then it was Furry's turn:

"Then Madrigal, our dear old pal,
Stood right up, the prettiest gal,
She looked so sweet, on her velvet feet,
That Ned just stood there gawking!
Talking! Squawking!
She looked so sweet, on her velvet feet,
That Ned just stood there gawking!"

Not to be outdone, Turry finished:

"She laid Ned low with a single blow
So everyone in the Shire would know
Though Maddie's nice, you'd best think twice
Of talking down her Heroes!
Trash those? Smash nose!
Though Maddie's nice, you'd best think twice
And don't down talk her Heroes!"

They sang it through thrice, louder each time, and, by the time they got to the Tree, Maddie's fury had passed and she was laughing merrily with Elediriel at the silly boys. They all lay down in the grass and looked up at the stars and talked and laughed some more. The Moon was bright, but hidden above the high branches of the Tree. The golden mallorn-leaves glimmered with silver moonshine. Elediriel sighed and was ever so happy to be there with her new found friends. She had never had many before that night and lay there keenly realizing what she had been missing.

Turry lifted up on an elbow and looked over at the bookish hobbit girl, gazing up into the boughs above. She had fine golden hair and a pretty face, but she was no stunning beauty like Madrigal. Still, she had a sweet shy smile, and he thought her poetry fine. They were all young hobbits in their tweens and as tweenagers will, they thought often, though in hobbit fashion, not seriously, about the opposite gender. As you may have noticed from their rhyming, Furry was quite smitten with Maddie, and Turry was not far behind his brother in that regard. He looked at the Brandybuck lass and with a little annoyance saw Furry doing the same. As for Maddie, she thought the two of them quite amusing and did not know which one she liked better, and being unable to tell them apart anyway, kept both the Twins on a string, along with half the tweenaged boys in the Shire. But her attention was on the glowing leaves of gold high above, as they gleamed with silver and rippled in the breezes that gently stirred through the mighty limbs of the enchanted tree.

They themselves were all being watched from the shadows. Two shapes had moved quietly behind them and now blended unseen into the hedge bordering the Party field. Even if you had been on the lookout, straining your ears to hear and your eyes to see, I doubt you would have noticed the figures, for they seemed to be little more than gray shadows, a part of the grass and the rocks and the foliage that they passed near. You would have rubbed your eyes and thought maybe you only imagined a trick of the shadows in the moonlight. As for the hobbits under the Tree in the heart of the Shire, they never even thought to look and never imagined that they were the objects of such stealthy scrutiny.

The young hobbits fell to talking of the olden stories and were amazed at how much Elediriel knew about them. In that magical way that seems as right as rain, they all became inseparable friends that very night under the Tree. Soon, the Twins had nicknamed their new friend Ellie, since Elediriel was too fine a name for casual use, as Turry pointed out. Many of their generation had been given Elvish names, or names that the hobbits thought sounded Elvish. They begged her and she gladly promised she would bring her manuscripts and, if they were ever so careful and only touched them with clean dry hands, she would let them read for themselves the words she had transcribed herself right out of the Red Book.

"It's too bad we can't see the Red Book itself," lamented Furry.

"Maybe Mistress Elanor will let us look at it one day. Master Samwise always said that he would leave it to her. I only got to see it long enough myself to make the first copy," Ellie said. "But he checked it himself to make sure it was absolutely perfect and then locked the Red Book safely away. Then, I made my own copy from the copy! But I am oh-so-careful with even with the copies, for the parchments are costly."

They talked a little more and then thought it time for sleep. The Twins and Maddie each had rooms they had long before rented for the little private holiday. They escorted Ellie first to her mother's humble little hole and then went back down the Road to the Green Dragon, the Twins singing their song again for Maddie. Ellie watched them until they were out of sight and listened until they were out of hearing. She thought she saw shadows cross the Road after them, but looked again and saw nothing. She went in the little round front door and found her mother waiting up for her.

"Hullo, child! Did you have a nice reading?"

"Oh Mother! I had the most wonderful time!"

"It sounded like it! Who were those boys singing that song?" her mother asked. She looked fondly at her daughter and saw a brightness on her face that she had not seen there since before Odo had died. Her husband had been a fine hobbit and a good father, and his passing had left its mark on the hobbit lass. She had done all she could to make her little girl happy, even encouraging her when she wanted to learn her letters, something that relatively few hobbits lads and fewer hobbit lasses ever learned well, and something her mother hoped would not come to trouble. But now the lonely widow took joy from the sight of her daughter's happiness, glad to see she had at last found some friends.

They talked for a long time into the night, over cups of tea and butter cookies. Her old mother had to hear everything that had happened and Ellie could not have held back from telling her. The fire died low in the hearth that Odo Cotton had built and they went to bed and slept deeply and contentedly, the aged widow and her happy daughter. Had anyone been there to tuck them in, they would have seen identical smiles on their sleepy faces.

[Mithadan]

Chapter III

A SUMMONS FROM THE THAIN

The next morning, Elediriel awoke to the bright sunshine streaming in her deep-set bedroom window. There were only a few rooms in the little hole, but it had been built with care and was still snug and dry. Her bed was comfortable and she just lay there awhile, listening to the singing of the robin just outside and the sound of her old mother, humming and singing to herself over the stove. Bacon was sizzling and Ellie could smell it along with her mother's mushrooms stuffed with sweet herb butter. Fresh bread was in the oven and coffee was in the kettle. She threw off her covers and hurried to wash up so that she would be ready for breakfast while it was still fresh and hot!

The dear old girl always cooked too much, trying to feed up her pale, thin daughter. Ellie would sometimes forget all about food, if she had a new book she had borrowed, or one she had borrowed again after a long while. Still, this particular morning, it was a good thing that Mrs. Cotton had cooked so much because just as they had poured the coffee, and before they sat down to eat, there came a sharp knocking on the door. It was an Official Four Knocks such as the Sheriffs might use!

Sure enough, it was a Sheriff, Caractacus Boffin, or Cracky as everyone called him. He was a decent old fellow from the Southfarthing and was always as helpful as could be and his word was trustworthy. In fact, if word of some happening was said to have come "by Cracky," it was accepted as a fact. Now, here he was himself, rapping Officially on their door at Breakfast Time!

Mrs. Cotton opened the little round door and there the old sheriff stood, looking a little uncertain. He asked to come in and have a word, especially with Miss Elediriel. The mother hobbit kindly invited Cracky to have some breakfast with them and he lost his uncertainty and sat to the delicious meal heartily.

"Mrs. Cotton, I won't deny I'm a hungry hobbit!" he said between big mouthfuls of bacon and mushroom. "Do you know that I was rousted out of bed in the wee hours of the morning by the Thain himself! I've walked a long way on a slack stomach and this is sure a blessing!"

"The Thain!" mother and daughter exclaimed together. "What does he want with me?" Ellie squeaked.

"Let him be, child," Mrs. Cotton said. "We can finish breakfast first!"

"That's all right Mrs. Cotton," said the Sheriff, putting down his fork. "I shouldn't have sat down without getting to it right away, but your cooking smelled so good and I was so hungry! Anyway, I was sent all the way here by Thain Peregrin to bring Miss Elediriel back to the Great Smials with me."

"Goodness gracious!" cried Mrs. Cotton. "Whatever for?"

"Don't take on so!" said old Cracky. "I'm sure it's nothing too serious. He said it had to do with the incident last night in the Green Dragon. He said she was to come with me first thing and I've only just got here. I don't know any more than that, but he didn't seem angry or out of sorts. Rather like it was some game. Now, that ain't official, but I shouldn't worry. He seemed right pleased he did." The grey-headed sheriff took another bite and said, "but you didn't hear that from me! These are mighty good, Mrs. Cotton!"

They finished breakfast pleasantly and Mrs. Cotton insisted on doing the washing up and shooed the old sheriff and her daughter out of the hole and down the road. Elediriel carried her manuscripts, for she thought in the back of her mind, or she hoped, that this would have something to do with her poem! Her last memory of her father was of him reading poems to her when she was just a tiny wee lassie on his knee. She always wanted her poems to be special to someone. But she was a sensible hobbit girl and told herself that it probably had nothing really to do with her except as a witness to a fight. She sighed as they tramped along the beaten path into the rolling hills and pleasant lands of the Tooks.

They finally walked over the last hill and saw it, the Great Smials. What met their view was a long broad hill, massive, though not very tall, its surface regularly marked with round openings for windows and doors, its rounded top covered with pleasant gardens and lanes of trees.

Centuries ago, nearly the entire hill had been excavated and refilled to cover the series of connecting tunnels, rooms, and halls that had housed the great families of the Took clans, particularly the central Took family itself. It had served them as a stronghold in the War and was the heart of freedom in the Shire. The Thain always held a position of respect, and now that the King had returned, was reinvested with authority and responsibility for maintaining the peace and the roads and the liberty of the Shire.

Thain Peregrin was a personal friend of Good King Strider and one of the three living heroes of the Shire, leading the Tooks into battle to free the Shire back in 1419. He was old and venerable now, but still tall and strong with the same irrepressible nature tempered with the wisdom of many years. Ellie said goodbye to old Cracky at the great front door and went inside. She was expected. A middle-aged hobbit lady looked down her nose at the lass and asked her name. Upon hearing it, she only said, "Follow me" with a disapproving tone and led her down a long high tunnel to the very end on the other side of the hill. Behind a great round door was the Hall of the Tooks.

Seated on a chair behind a desk, with a rather large open window behind him, was Peregrin Took, Right Thain of the Shire, bending low over the desk, arm wrestling both of his grandsons, Turry and Furry, at the same time, one on each hand. Madrigal caught Ellie's eye and they smiled the smile that girls will smile when boys are being boys. The hobbit matron who led Ellie to the chamber officiously cleared her throat and announced, "Miss Elediriel Cotton is here." Having done this, she turned on her stout heel and stumped back down the hall.

"Miss Cotton! I'll... be... just a moment," said the old Thain, straining with great exertion. The two boys were more than he had bargained for. The old hobbit had clenched his eyes shut with the strain and was turning a bright red. The twins looked at one another and reached a silent agreement. All at once, the Thain began to overcome them and then with all his might, drove their arms to the desk. "Ha HA!" cried old Pippin in triumph.

He was puffing and blowing and mopping his face. The boys just grinned and praised the old fellow for his amazing strength. Maddie rolled her eyes and Ellie smiled despite herself. When he had settled down and had a glass of water, the old grandfather put aside merriment and as if pulling on a jacket, changed his demeanour, and was suddenly the Thain of the Shire.

"Now!" he said. The tweens grew serious as he looked hard at them. "I want an explanation for what happened last night." Many long silent moments passed. "Turgon," he said, "you are, I believe, the eldest in this room, save myself. Speak up!"

"Are you asking about The Green Dragon?" Turry asked in response.

"Didn't Faramir teach you not to answer the questions of your elders with questions? Of course I'm talking about The Green Dragon! Everyone is talking about The Green Dragon! I've already heard from Mayor Sandyman down in Hobbiton. He says the four of you attacked young Ned and battered him senseless! What have you got to say for yourselves?"

"He was senseless before he ever walked in!" cried Furry. The Thain stifled a smile and sternly continued.

"I'll have none of your sauce young hobbit! Since the two of you are unresponsive, I'll deal with you later. Miss Brandybuck! What part did you play in all of this?"

The pretty hobbit lass turned a pretty pink, but looked the Thain in the eye and said, "I gave Ned Sandyman what he was asking for, that's all."

The Thain scowled at her and turned his glare upon Ellie, who shrank before him. "And you, Miss Cotton! I hear this is all your fault! Perhaps you would care to explain yourself?"

Ellie felt as if everything was caving in. But she saw her friends sneaking smiles and winks at her, and she was reminded that the Thain was certainly a Good Person if ever there was one, or nothing else she had learned was true. She set aside her doubts and fears and found courage somewhere deep within. The shy girl said to him then, "I wrote a poem for Master Samwise. Mr. Sandyman didn't like it. Turgon and Fingon told him to take his words back. Then..." Ellie noticed the boys looking a little anxious. She didn't want to embarrass them by telling how they had fallen all over themselves!

"Then," she continued, "he turned around and Madrigal let him have it!"

"Let him have what?" the Thain asked impatiently.

"What he was asking for!" she answered impertinently, perhaps for the first time in her life! All the tweens began laughing but stopped short when Peregrin slammed his big gnarly fist down on the desk, making them all jump.

"QUIET! I see no other choice! I find that you are all guilty of disturbing the peace and of assaulting a merchant in a public gathering. It is my solemn duty now as Thain of the Shire to pronounce sentence."

The twins began to protest. They had done nothing wrong! Maddie chimed in that Sandyman had it coming, everyone saw it, and Ellie even piped up that Ned had no right saying the things he had said and that...

"QUIET! QUIET!" roared the Thain fiercely, smashing the desk twice with his big right hand, making all the knickknacks, brickabrack, and dust catchers jump and rattle. Had the old hobbit lost his senses? Would he throw them in the old Lockholes, reserved only for the most incorrigible? He continued now in an official tone as a judge condemns the most heinously guilty criminal.

"Your sentence, Elediriel Cotton, as instigator of the incident at the Green Dragon Inn, in Bywater, the evening of September 22nd, 1483, is exile for an indefinite term from the Shire until the payment of your debt to society be deemed by me to be paid in full.

"Your sentences, Turgon and Fingon Took, as aiders and abettors of general mayhem, disrupters of the peace, and destroyers of private property, is to accompany Elediriel Cotton in exile until her sentence is served.

"Your sentence, Madrigal Brandybuck, as perpetrator of the act of assault, shall likewise be exile with Elediriel Cotton for as long as I shall deem."

The young hobbits for once sat utterly stunned and for the first time actually believed that the addled old hobbit was serious and that a severe and unjust punishment had been decreed. From behind them came the sound of hearty laughter. There stood another tall old hobbit, as tall as the Thain himself, if not taller. His big hands gripped his broad (and rather extensive) belt as he stood there in his amusement.

"Grandfather!" cried Maddie, with great surprise and relief, and ran and threw her arms around old Meriadoc Brandybuck, Master of Buckland and friend of the Thain.

"You're late, Merry! Sleeping in?" asked old Pippin.

"And what if I was?" old Merry retorted. "It was a late night. It's still early in the day for terrorizing young tweens, isn't it, Pippin?"

"Duty calls. But, now it's the call of second breakfast I hear! Let's go down to the dining hall and see what we can find!" Merry and Pippin started off and each of the four young hobbits cried out with some variation on the question, "what about us?"

"What about you?" asked old Pippin. "You're exiles now! I expect you will want to go to Rivendell."

"Rivendell!" cried Turry and Furry at once.

"Should we really let them go by themselves?" asked Merry.

"You're right. They would be sure to cause all kinds of havoc and the King would hold us responsible," Pippin agreed.

"Well, if we're responsible, we'd best go with them," Merry observed.

"Yes, I guess you're right again, Merry. Old responsible hobbits do not shirk their duty," Pippin pronounced solemnly as the two old war-horses walked out the door. "The four of you had best come along so we can discuss what to do with you," he called back, offhandedly. They rushed as one through the broad door and followed the old hobbits, pelting them with questions, until the aging gallants had to laugh and decided not to drag it out any longer.

They found coffee and apple juice and hot honey cakes and tubs of butter and bottles with different fruit syrups set out for them and so they all sat around the table, digging in. Still, even the fine products of the little bakery in the Great Smials did not keep the tweens' mouths so occupied that they could not continue their questioning.

"Now you've had your fun, Grandfather," said Madrigal, starting to get a little cross. "What's going on? Are we really going to Rivendell? Why?"

"Yes, you ARE going to Rivendell," Merry answered, around a buttered bite of honey cake dripping with blueberry syrup. "And to many other places besides, I expect."

"But why?" cried Turry and Furry together.

"Because the King has sent word asking that a Delegation of Hobbits be chosen to serve as Emissaries to deliver an Important Message to the Master of the Beornings, to King Bain, to King Thorin, and to King Thranduil. He shall tell us all 'Why' when we reach Rivendell!" said Pippin. "And that's really all we know." And as if he were merely discussing a new secret fishing hole in the Northfarthing, he popped another bite of honey cake in his mouth and reached for his coffee.

"But why me?" asked Ellie. She could understand Turgon and Fingon being chosen, for they were the old Took's grandsons, and Sam's too, and Madrigal was a granddaughter of Meriadoc. Ellie was only one of many great-grandnieces of the famous families and considered herself the least among them.

Pippin put down his fork and looked kindly at her. "Master Samwise thought very highly of you. A year and a day ago he told me, 'Look after young Miss Elediriel when I'm gone. Someone needs to take care of the old stories and tales and make sure they're remembered.' That's what he said, and after I heard that poem of yours last night, I was sure old Sam had it right. And perhaps you'll take even better care of them if you get to meet some of the great folk Mistress Elanor has put you to work writing about. And don't worry about your mother, Mrs. Cotton. I've already made certain she'll lack for nothing, while you're gone. Now let me finish eating," the old fellow said, and gave his plate serious attention before he teared up in front of the tweens. Pippin really was a very sentimental hobbit.

"How did you hear that poem? We didn't see you there," cried Turry.

"But we saw you!" said Merry. "And a word of advice to the two of you," he said to the boys, "mind you don't let Maddie do ALL your fighting for you! But you might let Ellie do your rhyming!"

They all laughed at this, but Ellie started thinking. "It was the elven cloaks of Lothlorien! You were the grey shadows I thought I saw!"

"We leave Brandy Hall in three days," said Merry, ignoring the girl's speculation.

"I expect you'll want to pack and let your folks see you off!" said Pippin.

The young hobbits started excitedly talking to one another, planning what they would take and what they would need, and occasionally even asking the old campaigners for their advice. Soon enough, their second breakfast was done and the elder hobbits bid the tweens farewell until they met at Brandy Hall. The girls said goodbye to the twins and left for Ellie's hole. Maddie had her own little yellow pony; a small mare named Cider. In fact, Maddie was the only girl in the Shire who rode a pony and she did much else besides that other hobbit lasses, as a rule, did not. She could shoot a bow and use a sling as well as any hobbit lad, though she had never killed anything with it. Maddie was a proficient rider on her spirited little pony, but this was first time in her life that Ellie was going to ride on the back of one of the beasts!

Maddie laughed, and told her she would have to get used to that, if they were going all the way to the Lonely Mountain and back! Cider was a sweet-tempered pony, gorgeous with her dark mane and spotless shining yellow coat: sturdy and strong and spirited she was! She made no fuss at all about carrying the two young hobbit lasses on her broad little back, for Maddie often rode with a friend this way. Cider proudly wore a fine wool blanket and a polished, brown leather saddle and reins that jingled with several tiny silver bells, a gift from the Master of Buckland, himself! She was the best little pony in all the hobbit lands, and well she knew it! (Why, Maddie told her so everyday!) Ellie sighed and thought of how magnificent life must be as a Brandybuck.

Then away they went! How the wind blew past! Ellie tightly clutched Maddie to keep from falling off and she just laughed and urged Cider to greater speed. She neighed proudly and showed Ellie what she could do! They tore off down the lane as if late for supper! The wind of their passing mingled Elediriel's fine blonde hair in a stream with Madrigal's long brown curls. The long walk to the Great Smials that morning, became a ride that was over too soon for Ellie, when they stopped in a cloud of dust before the humble hole she called home.

The girls alit from the pony's back and stroked her and petted her and told her what a fine pony she was. They took off her saddle and reins, got her some water (not too much, too quickly!) and let her graze in the lush grass near Ellie's hole. They went in and found Mrs. Cotton starting to fix lunch and Ellie introduced her mother to her new friend. Mrs. Cotton continued cutting vegetables and listened as Ellie and Maddie excitedly told the old widow the happy news.

But Mrs. Cotton started weeping. Just then, Ellie really realized that going also meant leaving! She burst into tears herself at the thought of leaving her old mother all alone and she started to promise her that she didn't have to go anywhere and would never leave her. But before Ellie could say more, the old widow put down her knife and vegetables and hugged her daughter close. Madrigal had to turn and wipe a tear away herself.

Mrs. Cotton told the weeping girl to dry her tears and told her that this was the happiest day of her life and told her that she always knew Elediriel was meant for more a poor little hole in the Shire. She stroked her daughter's straight blonde hair and told her that she loved her and that she had plenty to do to keep her days busy and that she would just wait for Ellie to return. Maybe with a husband!

The three hobbit women, young and old together, all laughed at this and their tears were the dew of happiness.




Chapter IV

WHERE MANY PATHS AND ERRANDS MEET

Maddie stayed with Ellie and Mrs. Cotton for a night and a day and with the next dawn the two girls set out together on Cider for Maddie's home in Buckland. They laughed and talked merrily as the yellow pony trotted east. Ellie's mother stood there long, watching them until they were out of sight. Then the old widow broke down and wept again as she had not since Odo had died, though she did not weep with bitterness. The dear old thing would miss her daughter terribly, but in her unselfish way, was also happy to see her ride off into the sunrise of a better life than she had known. Finally, she smiled, sighed sadly and went back to the routines of her gardening, and her sewing, and the many little things she did for the neighbouring hobbits that made them love her so.

It was a lovely autumn day among those happiest of days in the memory in the Shire. The girls rode past the cultivated fields, the hedge-lined roads, the flower gardens, the fruited orchards, the teeming fishponds, the rich pastures, and of course, the merry people of the land themselves. Since the days of their grandfolks, the little crossings had become villages through the years, and what were villages became towns, but still the burgeoning population of hobbitry had carefully planned and consulted with one another as their numbers grew. No hasty ugly structures had been permitted. The little cottage industries of the hobbit families were run with care, so that there was little waste, and uses were found for everything. The hobbits lived in a remarkable harmony with the land of the Shire.

After the Battle of 1419, the folk of the Shire were determined not to let their little country ever become what Sharkey and his Men had tried to make it. Only recently had some folk like Ned Sandyman started talking of expanded trade with the Big People out there. Most folk appreciated a wee bit of this, but were determined that they would not be ruled by it nor have their Shire changed because of it.

In the days when their grandparents were young, there had been something of a revival of hole building in the Shire. Some said it was due to disgust with the buildings Sharkey had built, but for whatever the reason, holes were in and houses were out, especially as a populous new generation of hobbits came of age and discovered the efficiency of the old ways. Even if there weren't a hillside, they would dig down just a little ways into a field and then use the excavated soil to raise small mounds of grass-covered earth over a snug little single family hole. These green mounds were planted with little gardens of flowers and herbs and shrubs. The holes had become numerous, in fact, few new ones were allowed to be dug, and folks were encouraged to go west to the new lands King Elessar had granted from the west of the Shire all the way to the Tower Hills (one of the reasons he was called "Good King Strider" by much of the hobbitry). Still, it was very pleasant to look upon the cultivations and habitations of the Shire as Cider trotted easily by.

Though Maddie and Ellie started early, they arrived late at the bridge over the Brandywine River. Turry and Furry were already there waiting for them. On their backs were the slender bows of the Tooks, fashioned it was said, like the great bows of the elves. Ellie thought they looked fine and handsome on two black ponies that looked as much alike as the Twins! No one but the Twins remembered what they had originally named their little steeds, for soon enough they were called Lightning and Thunder respectively, if only for the speed and the sound of their hoofs as they galloped together through the countryside. They were the fastest and grandest ponies in the Shire and well they knew it! (Why, Turry and Furry told them so everyday! But Cider was not impressed. Thunder and Lightning might be fast, but she had just run all day carrying TWO of her friends and she wasn't tired a bit. She nickered proudly to let them know just that.) Soon they were all off at a merry trot for Brandy Hall, ancestral home of the Brandybuck clan.

The tweens made sure that the ponies were well stabled and watered and fed for the night and then went off themselves to find hot baths and hot suppers. And they didn't care which they got first! Madrigal's mother made sure it was the baths.

Brandy Hall was a very large collection of tunnels and passages, older even than the Great Smials of the Tooks. Hot water was ready and baths were had by all in various places. There were rooms for baths, and rooms for kitchens, and rooms for dining, and rooms for sleeping, and rooms for teaching, and rooms for washing, and rooms for storage, and rooms for work and play of all sorts. It had been enlarged and improved through the years, and was almost like a small village by itself.

Here, the Master of Buckland lived, Meriadoc the Magnificent. He was the head of the clan and he looked it! When he had a mind to, he could do prodigious deeds with plate and cup, and none had ever out-drank him. He had a loud and hearty laugh that could set folks around him laughing almost in spite of themselves. The old fellow was taller (and broader) and stronger than every other hobbit in the Hall, but for all his size and girth, was still nimble and light on his feet and loved wrestling and martial sports of all kinds, as long as they were strenuous and challenging. This would be amazing enough in itself, but the fellow was a century old if he was a day and did not look over seventy! For all that, he had a keen mind and was one of the best masters Brandy Hall had had since it's first excavation long, long ago.

He was in the great hall of Brandy Hall, at his table, smoking a pipe and pouring himself another large cup from a great flagon of wine, and he was watching for them. He called from across the room for them to join him. The room was large for a hobbit hole, but trunks of trees rose from the floor and their branches met and were joined in arches to support the timbers that held the heavy roof of soil and sod high overhead. It was now common for orchards of shaped timbers to be grown for support structures in smaller holes. But these massive old trees were actually found by the original builders of Brandy Hall, and brought from diverse places in the Old Forest, chosen for their size and for the shape and placement of their limbs, not for convenience in harvesting and transporting. The bark had been removed and the great trunks and limbs were carved with wooden leaves and flowers and they were richly coloured with long age. It was magnificent! Ellie had never seen anything like it, though she had heard others tell of it.

Thain Peregrin, Old Pippin, was already there; indeed, he had arrived the day before, setting out the day before that and spending the previous night at the Golden Perch.

The tweenagers hurried over to the head-table where Master Meriadoc held forth. Old Merry was living up to his nickname that night and all were merry with him. Ellie caught herself nodding off and looked up sheepishly to see if anyone had noticed. Maddie had, and with a reassuring smile and wink for her shy new friend, all was well with the world.

Maddie's mother finally insisted they all be off to their beds since the day would start early, and some hobbits had already had more cheer than was good for them. She was looking sternly at Turry and Furry when she said this. Thain Peregrin had already bid them all a good night.

"Not at all!" cried old Merry. "Why, strapping young hobbits like this turning in early? It's the shank of the evening!"

"It's after midnight," said Mrs. Brandybuck, his daughter-in-law. "And if I may say so, you've had as much as is good for a hobbit your age as well!"

"Then as much more will be all the better!" he roared, laughing. "What d'you say, boys?"

The twins, of course, could hardly refuse to stay up at least a little later, but Maddie knew better than to thwart her mother's good advice. She and Ellie bid the twins and old Master Merry a good night and were asleep almost before their heads hit their respective pillows.

Madrigal's mother was a wise hobbit and certainly knew what she was talking about. The next morning, the Sun seemed to have raced with extra speed through the Night. She took a special delight in beaming her rays down hard and bright as she rose steadily in her course across the sky. The birds in the trees and bushes must have also found this irritating, since they chattered and cried with especially loud chirps.

At least, that is how it seemed to Turry and Furry, stumbling in the morning light just after dawn. Merry had left them identically sleeping in their own drool at the table, and awakened them none too gently with his hearty laughter the next morning.

The servants of Brandybuck Hall had their horses and provisions ready and the party was waiting for the twins. Ellie and Maddie were already seated on Cider. Thunder and Lightning champed impatiently, waiting to get underway. Thain Peregrin was seated on his fine pony and Master Meriadoc was laughing loudly at the boys, as they clumsily took saddle.

"Why doesn't he feel like this?" asked Furry, miserably.

"My head, my head," was the only answer that Turry could give.

Madrigal whispered to Ellie, "This is going to be a fun ride!"

Ellie giggled.

And with that they were off. Merry and Pippin took the lead, followed by Maddie and Ellie riding Cider. They had the leads of the packhorse tied to their saddle and all their baggages were placed upon it. Turry and Furry rode Lightning and Thunder, and they felt like it with each step of their hooves on the hard-packed road.

Old Pippin at least seemed sleepy, but roused as they made their way up the road, passing the orderly homes and shops that clustered along the Brandywine in the Buckland. It was still early, and few folks were out, but those who were never failed to call out a cheerful, "Good Morning, Master Merry!" Peregrin and Meriadoc had often been seen riding together through the long years, and none seemed to have forgotten that day long ago when they rode together (with some other hobbits) to the rescue of the Shire long ago.

At last they reached the bounds of Buckland and the gate that was maintained across the road to Bree. They were greeted by the gatekeepers, two hobbits, one young and one old, whose jobs it was to maintain what passed for a guard into hobbit lands.

"Master Merry! Thain Pippin!" said old Tubby Burrows, with a high cracking voice. "What brings you out this morning?"

"We're off to Bree, and then to Rivendell, and then who knows!" cried Merry. "Keep the gate well until we return, my good hobbits!"

"That we will!" said young Digger Hardbottle, who took his work seriously. "Come back safe now!"

"One last thing!" said Pippin. "Mark well these young rascals, for we are conducting them into exile and they may not return until I have deemed that they are worthy to return!" This earned the old Thain a strange look from the tweens, but he enjoyed his little jest all the same.

And so the young hobbits passed with their elders out into the great lands that lay beyond the Shire, were there were few hobbits other than in Bree. Ellie suddenly felt butterflies in her stomach, both hoping and fearing that something adventurous might happen.

They stopped soon after leaving the inhabited lands, which were much more extensive than in the days of their youth, Merry and Pippin agreed. But there was still plenty of wilderness before they would reach Bree. The twins were glad of the stop, and sucked greedily at the water skins.

"If you'll wait a bit, we can start a fire and I'll make you some tea or coffee," Ellie volunteered helpfully.

"Ugh," said Turry.

"Ulp," said Furry. They both looked a little ill at the thought.

"No time for that!" cried Pippin. "Just time enough for a quick second breakfast and then off again!"

"Second breakfast!" moaned Turry and Furry together.

"We didn't get the first one!" added Furry.

"I'm not sure I want the second one," observed Turry.

"Well, you'd better eat something," said Maddie. "If you'd come to bed at a reasonable hour, and weren't trying to out-drink Grandfather, you could have been better rested and better fed."

"You sound like your mother," grumbled Furry.

"And what's wrong with that?" said Maddie, menacingly.

"Uh... Nothing," said Furry. "Nothing at all. You're right, of course, but you don't have to rub it in just now."

"Well, I guess you feel bad enough," Maddie relented. "Are you sure you won't have some salt-cured bacon and some nice eggs? I can cook 'em anyway you like 'em! Scrambled, once-over-lightly, sunny side up..."

Furry's mind turned on thoughts of fried eggs swimming in bacon grease, mumbled something and fled for the shrubbery. Turry was fast behind him. Maddie grinned wickedly. Merry and Pippin laughed as they had been laughing at the twins all morning. Ellie felt bad for the boys despite the humour the others found in their distress.

Even so, they felt somewhat better when they returned and had another pull at the water skins. They even felt good enough to nibble some biscuits as Ellie and Maddie cleaned up.

Soon they were all on their way again. By lunchtime, the boys were more themselves and though they did not offer to help the girls with the cleanup, they did dig into the cold chicken, cheese, and bread Maddie's mother had packed.

The morning had been bright and beautiful, and the afternoon was just as fine. A decent lunch, and more long draughts of water, had the boys feeling well enough to enjoy the travel songs the girls and the old hobbits sang, though they did not feel quite good enough to join in. Their eyes were drawn to the dark place on the land, where the sun seemed to withhold her rays. The Old Forest. Merry and Pippin were just telling the girls of jolly old Tom Bombadil and their rescue at his hands from Old Man Willow.

It seemed a fine story, and not at all frightening in the afternoon sun. As the day drew on, they saw on their right, in the distance, dim green hills beyond a darker green line.

"Are those the Barrow-Downs?" Elediriel asked, pointing at the hills.

Merry's face grew grim and he did not answer.

Pippin also seemed to lose his normal cheer, but he said, "They are. That is where is buried the valiant people who lived here an age ago. Afterwards, evil spirits in thrall to Darkness came and occupied the mounds of the dead." He shuddered despite the warmth of the day.

"What happened there?" asked Maddie, who knew somewhat of the story, but had never heard it told in whole. But the old gallants who rode ahead made no answer.

"I know what happened," said Ellie. "They were caught by the Barrow-Wights!"

"How?" demanded the twins together.

"Well..." Merry started.

"...let Ellie tell it," Pippin urged.

So she did. And she made a good story of it as their ponies walked along. Less and less willingly, the eyes of all the party were drawn south to the source of their unease. She told of how old Bombadil had sent them on their way with words of warning, and of how the sunshine and a fine picnic, and perhaps the evil spells of the wights, had put the hobbits to sleep. They slept until the sun went down, the fog rolled in, and confusion was upon them. They lost one another and one by one were taken alive into the burial mound of an evil wight, who sought perhaps to sacrifice them to the great malicious spirit of the dark void, where all evil things were consigned until the End. If it had not been for Frodo, summoning his courage and calling on Bombadil, the Ring and all else would have been lost, and they would have only been the first hobbits to lose their lives to a rising and invincible Darkness.

"Yes. It was Frodo who saved us," said Merry sadly.

"And old Bombadil," added Pippin.

"Yes. Good old jolly Tom!" Merry said more brightly. "I wonder how he and Goldberry are getting on? I haven't seen them since those days!"

"Do you suppose they are still there, Grandfather?" asked Maddie.

"I'm sure they are," Merry answered.

"We ought to go see!" exclaimed Furry. It was the most lively he had been all day.

"No thank you!" said Ellie. "Not if we have to go through the Old Forest or the Barrow-Downs to get there!"

"I'm not afraid," said Turry.

"You should be," said Pippin.

[Mithadan]

Chapter V

MEAT PIES AND WIZARD'S BREW

Despite more cheerful tales around a crackling fire, and a mighty good supper, Elediriel Cotton slept fitfully, when she could sleep at all. Merry and Pippin slept like the old campaigners they were, hale and healthy enough even at their age to enjoy a night out of doors. Maddie breathed softly in her blankets beside her. The twins snored noisily, used as they were to camping, and glad to turn in after a day's ride made hard by their excesses of the night before.

Ellie had never slept outside of a snug little hobbit hole ever before in her life. The wind, breathing chill across the Downs, seemed laden with the threat of fear. The occasional movement of some night-beast would send her shivering into her blankets, though the night was not chill and the fire still burned. By its flickering light, she could sometimes see pairs of eyes not far away, green or red or yellow, glowing as they stared directly at her! She felt as if she had not slept at all, but she must have been dozing some, for the moon had now ridden high in his course and was heading towards morning. The cool air became misty, and a low layer of fog formed like a cloud just above the ground over the Downs in the moonlight. She dozed again, despite her fears of the night and began to dream.

She seemed to be alone in the mists, walking, and then running she knew not where or why. She felt that there was something following her, something looking for her, and she was mortally afraid that this something would find her and eat her, and this thought horrified her. She wildly looked about her for a hiding place as she heard snarling and growling from behind. She opened her mouth to scream and tightly clutched something to her breast but was too frightened to make a sound. Suddenly, a bell rang musically and the bestial noises stopped.

Turry was banging on a small pan most unmusically. "Wake up or you'll get none of our delicious breakfast!"

Turry and Furry had let the girls sleep in, while the elder hobbits had a smoke. The Twins, as if to make up for the day before, had themselves rebuilt the fire and cooked up a nice breakfast of bacon, toasted biscuits and jelly, and hard-boiled eggs (of course, as you probably knew very well, Maddie had only been joking about cooking up fresh eggs, because you shouldn't pack a bunch of raw eggs on an excursion on horseback). A pot of coffee was smelling fine as well.

Ellie and Maddie got up from their blankets and made sure to get their share. In the bright sun, with the Twins laughing and joking like their old selves, as she and Maddie ate a breakfast they didn't have to cook, while old Merry and Pippin already began talking about getting to Bree that night, Ellie almost forgot the dream of the night before. It at least did not seem so terrifying, though at the time it seemed more than real.

Furry and Turry insisted on cleaning up breakfast themselves (each making sure that Maddie noticed) while the girls packed all the gear, Ellie learning from Maddie how such things were done. Soon, they were off again, with Merry and Pippin on their horses in the lead, Turry and Furry riding behind, and the girls on Cider, leading the packhorse.

"Does he have a name?" asked Ellie.

"Does who have a name?" asked Maddie.

"The packhorse, of course," Ellie said, laughing.

"Oh! His name is Bill," said Maddie. Ellie laughed again and said that was wonderful.

"That's a pretty plain name if you ask me," said Turry.

"No one asked you," growled Pippin.

And that was the worst moment of the whole day. They rode for quite a while without meeting another soul on the road to Bree. Not long after they had stopped for lunch and were on their way again, they began here and there to see a farmhouse or two where Men had begun to settle. This happened more and more frequently until they reached the outskirts of Bree.

Once a sleepy forgotten village at the crossroads of the ancient kingdom of Arnor, the town had once again risen to prominence and was a vibrant bustling community. Elediriel had never seen Men before, Merry and Pippin were the biggest folk she had ever seen (other than the occasional Dwarf). But the Big Folk were very big! Even their horses were big, much bigger than the steeds that Merry and Pippin rode, and these were the biggest in the Shire or Buckland (though I must say that there were no finer horses in Bree). And there were all sorts of people. Short (at least shorter) men and women with dark hair and stout bodies, tall lean quiet folk with gray eyes and pale complexions, loud boisterous men in armour with blond hair singing in a rich tongue as they rode the most magnificent horses, and here and there, Little Folk just like themselves, going about their business as if they saw such things every day (which they did). The Bree Folk had grown numerous, with many additions to their population in recent years.

Pippin remarked that things had changed quite a bit from when he had first laid eyes on the town. Merry agreed. They led their small party straight into the oldest part of the town, past the new buildings that towered frighteningly over the narrow streets, to where the older buildings still stood. Ellie would have recognized the tallest of these old buildings, even if the painted sign hanging out over the street did not announce that they had found The Prancing Pony, by Heather Butterbur.

They found the stables for their ponies and horses, where a young hobbit named Cob promised to treat them well, and then went back around to enter the Common Room and to inquire for their night's lodgings. Walking in, Merry and Pippin found that, here at least, Bree was just as they remembered it. There were Dwarves, whose habits changed slowly, if ever, who still stopped at the Prancing Pony as they had since the days when it was one of the few inns to be found between the Shire and the Misty Mountains. There were a few of the local Big Folk, of the shorter darker variety. A couple of tall grey-eyed men talked softly together at a table in the back of the room. And there were plenty of hobbits here.

Indeed, one of the local hobbits actually recognized Merry and Pippin and made the traveller’s identity known to the whole room in short order. While not as highly esteemed in Bree as in the Shire, they were well thought of, if not as Heroes, at least as the leaders of the prosperous hobbit communities on the road to the West. Nothing would do but for them to have a round of drinks and for old Heather, the proprietor of the Prancing Pony to come out and meet the Shire-folk.

"Lands of wonder! Why it's been a long time, far too long since you've been guests here at the Prancing Pony, no mistake! Just look at the two of you! You haven't aged a day since last I laid eyes on you and I was only a thin young lass working as a barmaid!"

Heather Butterbur was no longer young, and was certainly no longer thin. And though related only by marriage, she seemed well able to keep up the endless stream of talk that most Butterburs were famous for. Her hair was more gray than black these days, and her round face was creased with the lines of a countenance in constant movement. Her fat, sturdy hands were buried in a towel attached to her apron, as she had just come from the kitchen.

"I've just been putting some meat pies in the ovens and I'll have those out shortly, if you'll pardon the expression. You will have to try our Wizard's Brew, the very best beer in Bree, if I may say so, and if you'll walk this way..."

Turry began an exaggerated waddle behind her, which made the hobbitry, and not a few of the other folk laugh, stopping just in time as she turned in her tracks.

"...I want you to sit here at this table. It was here, Master Merry, Master Pippin, as you may recall, that your friend Mr. Underhill did his disappearing dance right on this very table! Of course you recall better than me since I wasn't yet born, myself. But anyway, here it is and no doubt you'll find it to your liking. I'll have your old rooms made up in the hobbit wing and get that beer out to you right away. Well, I've got more to do than I can handle so if you will excuse me I'll be off to handle it." And with that, she indeed was off, waddling away breathlessly, still chattering to each person she passed, taking fresh orders from her customers, and calling out orders to her staff until she had vanished again into the kitchens. Ellie wondered how she could keep track of anything.

But keep track of things she did, and soon they were enjoying what was not only the finest beer in Bree, but Ellie thought it was the very best she had ever tasted. The boys agreed, sampling at first with some trepidation, remembering the results of two nights before, but soon draining their mugs and feeling much the better for it. Merry and Pippin enjoyed theirs as well and they all four gave the tasty meat pies the kind of attention that only hungry hobbits can muster after a day or two of riding and camping.

There was a natural rhythm to events in the Prancing Pony most evenings, and the travellers fell right in. In the corner of the Common Room where the hobbitry gathered most nights, the conversations fell to almost nothing as they fell to their suppers. This didn't stop them all from listening to such talk as they could hear from the other folk in the hall. Their time to talk and sing came later in the evening after the other folk's conversations had fallen off in their turn. Elediriel's quick ears pricked up at some talk nearby.

"I tell 'ee," said a squinty-eyed dark-haired young man to some of his friends. "If I could only get that piece of land just outside Bree, right there on the road to Fornost, and build a tavern like this, I'd be a rich man."

"But you got to be rich before yer can buy it," said a big nosed fellow. "Now what one can't do, two or three might do together."

"But someone's got to be Boss, like old Heather here," said an older man with a bald head. "If you can't brew beer and bake a meat pie like what this here is..."

"...then you can't have no inn whether yer can buy the land or not!" finished the man with the large nose.

"What one can't do, one can pays ter have done!" retorted Squinty Eyes (as Ellie named him in her thinking).

"That's your solution to everything. More money what none of us has got," replied Big Nose. "So I reckon we keep growing taters an' carrots for them what has got money. An' as long as I'm paying for someone else ter brew beer, I might as well pay them what knows how ter brew it!" He took a giant swig of his mug of Wizard's Brew.

The others laughed, but Squinty Eyes glowered and said, "That's the way of it I reckon. Some has no money, an' some has more than what's good for 'em." He was looking jealously at the visiting hobbits in their fine clothing as he said this.

Ellie quickly looked away and seemed to be paying attention to her meat pie with renewed interest, but she kept her hearing focused on what the men were saying.

Old Baldy was talking. "...but I keep telling yer lads, come on back with me. The King needs men what can work hard an' do what's wanted. And he pays generously too, what's more. A man could work a few years a'buildin' the new castle up at Fornost, an' have money enough ter buy land for a farm, or a tavern, or a family."

"Ee's right!" agreed Big Nose. "Times is a changin' what with the return of the King ter these lands. By the time our grandbabies has grandbabies, there'll be people all over the place. It'd be good ter leave them a little something, you know, before it gets bought up. We Bree folk have been here since before there was Kings. They come, had their Wars, went away, and have come back again. I says, if we want Bree-folk ter stay Bree-folk like what we always has, we has got ter change with the times!"

The other men generally agreed that this made sense. Elediriel smiled to herself, thinking there was something amusing about the last thing Big Nose said. But she caught the gist of it and thought that Big Nose may not have expressed himself well, but he was probably on the right track.

But Squinty Eyes was not satisfied and began talking about how Old Baldy and Big Nose were "selling out" the Bree-folk by taking up outlandish trades and trying to cozy up to the King's men.

"And what's more, them Dunlenders," Squinty Eyes almost spat. "Them Dunlenders, is all over that Fornost and what's the King going to do with them when the building's done, I wonder. Sell 'em land what ought to belong to us Bree-folk, I figure, soze 'ee can get back all them high wages what he paid 'em."

"Here now!" cried Old Baldy, with an eye on the tall grey-eyed men in the back of the tavern. "Bree-folk never lived that aways anyway, and the King's done right well by us. To the King!"

Old Baldy raised a mug and the other Bree-folk did the same. Squinty Eyes left the Prancing Pony in disgust and did not seem to be much missed by the other local men. Ellie turned to watch some Dwarves at the other end of the hall. She could not hear their low conversation, but she looked at them all the same. Dwarves she had seen before, but she never could help but look when she saw them, so different seeming they were, smaller than Men, larger than Hobbits, but built differently somehow. They were a little taller and much sturdier and broader, but not really fat at all (at least most of them weren't, although one rather famous dwarf was as fat as any hobbit that you ever saw). Rather, they seemed harder, craggier, as if they were quarried rather than born. She wondered then that she had never seen a lady-dwarf.

Maddie was pulling at Ellie's sleeve and directing her attention to the quiet men watching the room from the back wall. There were two of them, perhaps related, for they looked much alike. They were taller than everyone else in the room, and also leaner, as if they were a people who led very active lives and never over-indulged themselves at the table, as you or I might. They walked out without a glance to the right or the left, striding away on their long legs. But they stopped and nodded to Merry and Pippin, said a few words to the elder hobbits that Ellie could not make out, and were quickly on their way. The local hobbits took note, but said nothing.

Merry and Pippin both let their gaze linger on the door after the tall men left.

"Grandfather..." Maddie said.

"....hmmmm. What? Oh, I was woolgathering, my dear. What is it?" Merry said.

"Those were Rangers, weren't they?"

"Yes. Yes they were. In fact, they shall escort us all the way to Rivendell," Merry answered.

"How marvelous!" Maddie exclaimed, clapping her hands with delight. Turry and Furry looked at one another, but said nothing. Most hobbits did not know that the Rangers of Arnor had maintained a guard around the boundaries of the Shire, for it was against the King's Law for Big Folk to enter the Shire. This was the first time that the young hobbits had seen the tall rangers and they seemed to carry with them an air of mystery and adventure.

The rest of the evening was uneventful. Merry and Pippin did much of the talking, and some of the singing. Many more hobbits crowded into the Common Room, having heard that both the Thain of the Shire and the Master of Buckland were traveling through Bree.

There were no uncanny disappearances on this occasion. After many songs, and many stories, much laughter (and much Wizard's Brew), the travelers bid the good folk of Bree, Big and Little alike, a good night.

Ellie slept well that night in a comfortable bed and knew nothing more until morning.




Chapter VI

THE ROAD TO RIVENDELL

The next morning began with a fine breakfast before dawn in the Prancing Pony. Turry and Furry marveled that they felt none the worse for all the beer of the night before. Ellie said that it might still have carried some lingering enchantment given by the wizard Gandalf. Merry and Pippin agreed that this was likely so and nothing would do, but for Ellie to tell the Took Twins, not to mention the rangers (who likely had heard the tale as told locally), the story as they rode along. She delighted to tell of how the blessing of Gandalf had enchanted the beer of the Prancing Pony in thanks to old Barliman Butterbur for his worthy service, though the honest innkeeper had made a mess of things in some ways. The beer had always been good there, but was especially so ever since. The morning sun broke over the horizon and their journey that day began in earnest.

That day and the next day were much the same as they rode their horses and ponies at a leisurely pace on the Road east, stopping often to rest themselves and their steeds. There was plenty to eat and to drink, lovely weather to enjoy, and a road that the tweenaged hobbits had never seen before, and that Merry and Pippin were glad to see again.

In more ways than one, the high-point of their journey to Rivendell, was a visit to the watch tower at Weathertop. The servants of the King had been busy in the years since Merry and Pippin had last been on the road. Atop the great hill, really a small steep mountain, where once had been a jagged crown of broken stone-works, was now erected a tall, slender tower that gleamed golden in the slanting rays of the sun as she started down toward day's ending.

Though it was a beautiful sight, the hobbits at first were not overly impressed, especially the Took Twins. But as the afternoon drew toward evening, and they themselves drew closer, the hill became a mountain to the hobbits' eyes, and the tower at its crown became more and more imposing.

Aradhel and Cairduin, the rangers, told them that the tower on Weathertop had taken ten years to build. Now, the construction crews were at Fornost, where the King was overseeing the rebuilding of his castle there. Elessar, King of Arnor and Gondor, intended to fortify the northern reaches of his united kingdom against such enemies as there still were in the world, or might be in the age to come. This tower had a marvelous view of all the countryside. It was said that from it's highest place the King had vision to see all that transpired in his northern realm.

Merry looked at Pippin knowingly, but neither of the elder hobbits said a word.

"Are we going up there?" Madrigal asked breathlessly of Aradhel, the ranger she rode nearest to. Turry and Furry looked on jealously, then noticed one another looking on, and guiltily turned their attention back to the tower.

"Yes, if you like, little Mistress. We are staying at the ranger post at the foot of Weathertop, on the north side. If you fancy the climb, we will ascend to the observation platform and you can see what the moon is kind enough to show."

"How wonderful!" Maddie exclaimed.

"It looks awfully tall," Ellie observed.

And it was awfully tall, indeed! The hobbits were glad enough for the end of the day's ride, and for a cheery fire and the company of the rangers. The rangers accorded Merry, and especially Pippin, the greatest respect and deference. As was their custom, they stood silently, regarding the setting of the sun as she returned to the sacred West.

The food was simple, but good, and plentiful enough even for the hungry hobbits. The wine was excellent and soon the hearts of the hobbits were as high as the tower and they treated the grey-eyed rangers with songs of the Shire. This was the merriest meeting that there had been for some time in that post! It would not be fair to say that the rangers were grim or dour exactly, but they seemed to be all of deep and serious minds. Nevertheless, they all laughed earnestly enough as Elediriel told the story of the Incident at the Green Dragon, and as the Took Twins sang the song they had made up for Madrigal.

The pretty young hobbit was in her glory! The rangers raised their glasses to the Terror of the Shire. Then, one of them, Cairduin, insisted on hearing the poem that started the Incident. Elediriel blushed, for she was much better at telling the stories of others, than at putting herself forward.

She became suddenly embarrassed, and lost her composure and timidly stammered and found herself forgetting the verses! Turry came to her rescue, and in his strong clear voice, recited from memory the entire poem. The rangers were silent, nodding their heads at parts, smiling grimly at the tale of the heroism of Samwise Gamgee. Ellie looked at Turry with bright eyes and a beaming smile. He smiled back, suddenly shy himself.

"That's as good as Frodo of the Nine Fingers!," said Cairduin. "Poetry is not the gift of the Elves alone! And as this poem reminds us, it was not for naught that good king Elessar had our fathers' labour to preserve and defend the lands of the halflings. Though we praise often enough the produce of their fields and the work of their kitchens, let it never be forgotten among us that valour also is grown in the Shire." And the rangers all said "Aye!" and raised their glasses again to the poetry of Elediriel and to the memory of Sam.

Merry and Pippin wiped their eyes, and drained their glasses. Then Merry called for a song from the rangers. "After all, we are your guests, and yet we have done all the labour this night!"

"Well then, Little Master!" cried Aradhel. "Let it not be said that the Rangers of Weathertop made their guests work over hard for their suppers! Bruin here can sing a rare song. Let's have one tonight for our honored guests and their young kin!"

A young ranger at one of the other tables stood to his feet and said, "I shall sing a song such as may not be heard in the Shire, a song of the days when King Elessar was only the Chieftain of the Dunedain, and not yet crowned our King."

Bruin sang this song, in his ringing young voice, to an old riding melody that made Elediriel think of horses galloping into war.

Rode the Rangers through the day
And through the night as well
Rode the Rangers, come what may,
Into the darks of hell.

The son of Arathorn was there
At need of kith and kin
And so they rode through places bare
Where fire and war had been.

They came in answer to a call
From the Lady of the Wood
And rode they hard and rode they tall
To do what deeds they could.

They found him in the fields of green
As Darkness gathered might
And rode with him where few had been
Among the Shades of Night.

The sons of elves and sons of men
And a son of dwarves they say
Left the world of sunlight then
And took a darker way.

The son of Arathorn gave cry
And called the Damned to him
He called the ones who could not die;
His need was fell and grim.

"The Oath you broke you must redeem!"
Commanded he that day,
And held aloft Anduril's gleam:
Their Oath he made them pay.

Rode the Rangers through the night
With Elves and Dwarf and Ghosts
To drive away the Dark Lord's might
And battle evil hosts.

The son of Arathorn did save
The City of the Guard
He came upon the river wave
With Rangers bold and hard.

Rode the Rangers home again
To Arnor as of old
Through blood and toil and mortal pain
For winged crown of gold.

The son of Arathorn is king,
Isildur's long lost heir,
Gone his Bane, the golden Ring,
But not the Ranger's care.

Ride the Rangers still today,
Lest Darkness should return,
We'll ever keep our Oath and Way!
May Anduril always burn!

The rangers and the hobbits all cheered and stood as one to hold their glasses high in salute to their King and Queen.

After dinner, Maddie insisted that they make the climb to the tower on the high hilltop. And so, Aradhel and Cairduin led them up a broad path paved with flagstones up to the summit of Weathertop. There, the Tower of the Western Guard rose high in a single straight thrust high into the starry night.

When Elediriel thought she could not lift her legs another step, Aradhel opened a door at the top of the winding tower stairs and the hobbits and Rangers stood at last on the observation platform high above all the lands about them.

Ellie looked out. The moon was ringed with a crown of colors and lit the landscape with his silvery glow. Cairduin looked at the moon and muttered that the weather was changing. The hobbits looked about them in wonder: even Merry and Pippin had not seen this sight. Far to the west were their own lands, lost in the far mists of great distance. The Old Forest could be seen somewhat nearer, a dark brooding patch that the moon seemed ashamed to give light. Closer still, were the Barrow-Downs, shrouded in a low fog with the occasional top of a rounded hill rising from the mysterious veil. Happier were the hobbits to see Bree Hill on the long line of the Road. Following the sight of the Road they looked upon it as it wound in great curves, over one gleaming river, and then another, lost to view in hidden valleys, found again rising across the rolling hills, until lost again altogether in the Misty Mountains, which stood hard and cold and snow-capped against the starry eastern sky.

"We shall ride almost to those mountains," said Cairduin. "In that region," he pointed with a long finger, "we shall guide you off the Road, and on the hidden path to Rivendell."

The wind had indeed changed, and blew chill from the north upon the heights of Weathertop and its tall tower. They finally left the breathtaking view, and though Elediriel was cold, she was not glad of the long climb back down. But it was much easier than the climb up had been, and soon enough, they all said their good nights and were sleeping deeply in warmth and comfort.

The next morning, they were off again with the sun as she rose. The sleepy hobbits had to take the rangers word for that. The weather had turned wet, as Cairduin foresaw, and though the rangers rode erect on their gray steeds, the hobbits and their own mounts did not enjoy this part of the trip at all.

There is not much to tell of the remainder of their journey to Rivendell. It was mostly following the green clad rangers on their gray steeds under the gray skies and a cold rain that belonged more to a rude autumn than to a kindly summer. The hobbits did not have the heart even to sing as they endured the dullest part of their journey.

There was one further event that was of interest to the weary hobbits. One afternoon, as the weather finally broke, and the sun gave light from the west, the rangers took them off the Road onto a worn trail, where they said that they would camp for the night. Merry spurred his mount even with the rangers, and had a quiet word. Aradhel smiled grimly and even Cairduin had a flicker of a smile cross his lips. Merry checked his steed and then whispered something to Pippin, which made the old Thain laugh but they said nothing more. The younger hobbits were just glad of the first sunlight they had seen in days and of a chance to stop and rest.

Elediriel asked if this were at last the path to Rivendell. Pippin only smiled and shook his gray head.

They rode along the path into a wood in the hills. Suddenly, they came around a bend of the path and were among three misshapen trolls crouching in threatening postures, ready to pounce upon them! I can tell you that it was the most frightening moment of the young hobbits' lives. Elediriel cut loose with a high piercing shriek, joined in a harmony of horror as Madrigal also screamed and Cider neighed and reared on high.

Turry and Furry cried aloud, but as one their hands moved almost faster than the eye and fitted arrows to their slender bows and the Took Twins launched their arrows together. The speeding missiles bounced back broken and a second flight shattered upon the stony trolls before the young hobbits realized that Merry and Pippin were laughing their heads off!

Madrigal was most definitely not amused. She heaped abuse upon her poor old grandfather until Merry was genuinely sorry for the joke. But Pippin and the Took Twins, and the Rangers themselves began to laugh at the sight of the angry hobbit maid, dressing down the dignified old hobbit as if he were a naughty little boy, and soon they were all laughing at what was, after all, an awfully funny situation.

After examining the old stone trolls, and recalling the story of how they had been turned to stone by the cleverness of the wizard Gandalf, the party remounted and rode a short distance to a small cavern that the rangers had made into a checkpoint and outpost. Two other rangers were on duty, and had come down the path to meet them, hearing the outcry, and then the laughter of the hobbits in the woods below.

They took to the Road again the next morning. The weather was a little better, and if there was not much light from the sun, at least the clouds withheld their rain. This was fine with the hobbits, for it was not too hot, and yet not miserably wet. But still, the day seemed to drag on forever. That afternoon, they left the Road, but if there were any paths here, they were invisible to the hobbits' eyes.

At last, late that evening, as the moon shed his light from high above them, they came unexpectedly to a hidden valley that seemed to open up suddenly where the traveler had only seen ever-larger hills ascending to the mountains beyond. It was Rivendell, where Elladan and Elrohir, the sons of Elrond, and Celeborn, Lord of the Elves west of the Misty Mountains, still dwelt in the Last Homely House. Many Elves still lingered before sailing the Straight Sea to Elvenhome in the eternal West.

I must say, excepting Elediriel, such lofty matters did not cross the minds of the hobbits, who were tired of the trail and looked forward to table, bottle, bath, and bed in that fabled mansion of the Elves, rather than musing over the strange paths and destinies of the Elder Race.

The scent of the warm piney woods was rich and deep and made the hobbits even sleepier. They were nodding on their ponies as they heard the singing of young elvish voices in the forest around them. None of the younger hobbits had ever heard elvish singing in the moonlight, and they looked in vain about them for the source of the enchanting voices. The voices called back and forth to one another from hidden places in the forest, and seemed to come from many different and changing directions.

"Hobbit children! How lovely!" said one, from behind.

"Most wondrous!" another agreed.

"How fearsome!" observed another, laughing.

"Mind that Turgon doesn't shoot the statuary!" called still another.

"Don't let Fingon put arrows through the paintings!" returned yet another.

"Quickly! Let Elediriel's tongue be found so we may hear a hobbit's poem!" cried the first voice, but from ahead this time.

"Hide the victuals! The hobbits are come!" shouted the second voice.

"Hide the wine! The Master of Buckland is upon us!" laughed another.

"Oy! Oy! Peace, good Elves!" cried Pippin. "We are weary from our journey, and you guess rightly that it is food and drink we ride for now! Lead us to Rivendell!"

"As you wish, Thain Peregrin," said a tall slender elf, stepping out into the path. "Indeed, the rangers have guided you well, for you are here!"

The silver-haired elf led the party across a narrow bridge, one by one, and around a turn in the path and they finally saw the Last Homely House.

[Mithadan]

Chapter VII

HERALDS OF THE KING

The hobbits were all quite tired, and stumbled wearily to rooms that were prepared for them, gladly taking supper left there for them, enjoying the hot baths poured for them by beautiful, laughing elf maidens, and falling softly into the most comfortable beds any of them could remember. After the most delicious and restful sleep, Elediriel awoke quite early, and nudged Maddie to grudgingly awake as well to see through their window, the most beautiful sunrise over the Misty Mountains.

They watched it wordlessly, listening to the musical birds that sang in the shrubbery beside their window. Mingled with their morning song, the voices of elves, hardly less musical, could be heard as groups of them walked by on the path below.

At the same time, the girls both smelled bread freshly baking. And what a smell! One could almost be satisfied with the aroma alone. But not the hungry hobbit lasses! They jumped together out of the bed, washed their faces and hands, threw on their finest clothes (Maddie lent Ellie a pretty blue dress, and both girls were glad of the change from dirty riding clothes), combed and brushed their hair, and set out in search of breakfast.

They were met in the corridor by Furry and Turry, also looking their best and looking for something to eat.

The Took Twins stood there for a moment with mouths agape, staring at the hobbit lasses. Madrigal's mother had fashioned beautiful garments from the finest fabrics of the shire, linen and lace, and the loving embroidery of a few old gammers, who delighted in such needlework. Madrigal wore a green dress of the same shade as her big bright eyes, and her curling brown mane was barely tamed, looking lovely and a little wild as it cascaded around her shoulders. The Beauty of Buckland (or the Terror of the Shire as some might unkindly say) was radiantly beaming.

Even so, the Twins almost did not recognize Elediriel. Maddie had done something with her long blonde tresses that left it piled high in delicate twists upon her shapely head, revealing her slender neck and dainty ears. The sky blue dress she wore had been made for Maddie, but Mrs. Brandybuck and the gammers had worked through the night to take it in and pretty it up for Ellie.

Though it was long before he admitted it, there among the wonders of Rivendell, Turgon realized that he was in love with the shy and (previously) plain hobbit girl. Ridiculous thoughts for tweenagers, as I'm sure you'll agree! Hobbits in their twenties, though full grown, were still children at heart, and rather irresponsible. But hobbits will be hobbits and, though it was customary for hobbits to wait until they came of age before marriage, it was not unheard of for long engagements to be made (and shortened) if love came early.

But Ellie did not see the look in Turgon's eye, for she and Maddie were staring down the corridor at the great hall that opened out wide at the other end. There were elves gathered there. Elves were eating and elves were drinking and elves were talking merrily. They greeted the young hobbits with many voices and delighted laughter.

These were the elves of Rivendell, of the House of Elrond, where his sons Elladan and Elrohir dwelt between their errantries, and though Elrond himself had departed, the Last Homely House was still a place much as it ever was, where life seemed unhurried and could be timelessly enjoyed. There were also a few elves of the House of Celeborn, the new master of Rivendell, come after Elrond's departure to take up residence and Lordship of the Elves west of the Misty Mountains.

There were, of course, many more elves living throughout the valley in delightful buildings that blended into wood and rock. The elves who came with Celeborn from Lothlorien lived mainly in the trees on the other side of the valley. And there were Men, too, kin of the rangers who lived in houses built all round the river forest on the lush green slopes beneath the long valley's riven sides. There, they tended flocks and herds and traded with the Elves as they had for many, many lives of men.

I wish that there was time to tell you of all the marvelous folk and of all the enchanting sights the hobbits saw in Rivendell. Merry and Pippin, of course, had been there before, but their sense of wonder was not diminished by the years. As for Turry and Furry and Maddie and Ellie, they each remembered their very first days at Rivendell among the most wonderful days of their long and wonderful lives.

There were pools and fountains and quiet gardens exquisitely nurtured along the walks and paths in this hidden valley of the elves. Trees and flowers and plants of every sort were grown, and every kind of herb and fruit. Birds and wildlife seemed almost tame and lived around the Last Homely House and throughout the long deep valley as if in a forest vale never trodden by the two-footed.

The elves taking their breakfast in the hall served the Elf Lords and their kin who lived in the great mansion. These were happy folk, whose labour was done with pride and gladness, and who insisted that they wait upon the young hobbits, placing before them delightful fruity drinks, bread better than the finest cakes from the bakeries of the Tooks, butter sweet and creamy, and much else besides.

As the tweens were unashamedly filling up the corners after a protracted meal, Merry and Pippin joined them, stretching and yawning as they entered the hall, to a similar acclaim from the delighted elves. Merry called for coffee, and the elder hobbits set to a breakfast every bit as fine as their charges had enjoyed. They stayed and shared some of the coffee, though Ellie chose instead a cup of breakfast tea. Both coffee and tea were satisfying and somehow more invigorating than what they could get in the Shire.

But all good things must come to an end, even a breakfast among the laughter and the questions and the merry jests of the elves. The rangers Aradhel and Cairduin were standing in the door, patiently waiting for a few minutes in quiet amusement for the hobbits to take notice.

The hobbits were to come, as soon as could be after their breakfast. They were summoned to the Council chamber.

"Who? Who?" cried Turry and Furry together, "Who wants to see us?"

"The Queen of all Arnor and Gondor and her grandfather the Lord of Rivendell, of course," answered Cairduin.

"What! Is that all?" jested Madrigal. "What of the King? Is there no other royalty around who would treat with us as well?"

This brought a round of uproarious laughter to the elves, and even grim Cairduin had to grin.

"There will be royalty enough, I daresay, even for the noblest perianath of the halflings," said Aradhel, bowing low. "If her majesty and her friends would deign to let us lead her there..."

"You please me Ranger of Arnor," said Madrigal, not to be outdone, "I grant thee leave to do as thou dost plead."

More laughter from the elves all round.

"You do us great kindness, Little Mistress," replied Aradhel. "Let us depart."

The hobbits rose straightway from the table and followed the tall rangers to the Council Garden of Rivendell. Aradhel waited with the hobbits, as Cairduin went inside a wing of the Last Homely House to inform the servants of the Queen that the hobbits had come. Ellie looked about the area, paved with fine stones and bordered with a low sculptured wall that was nearly covered with green-leafed vines. The view of the rushing falls of the riven valley was unimpeded and the sky above was blue and brilliant.

Nothing had prepared the young hobbits for the natural unpretentious nobility they now found. Seated at the head of the dais, was a tall elf, the tallest they had yet seen in Rivendell. He had hair and eyes of silver and was crowned with leaves of silver. Ellie could not tell if they were wrought by nature or by elvish art. The clothes he wore were simply cut, but of a shimmering fabric bordered with silvery threads. His face was young and strong, and his eyes were old and wise. His was the last living memory of the Elder Days for this was Celeborn of Lothlorien, Lord of Rivendell.

Beside him, on his right hand, was seated the most beautiful creature the hobbits had ever seen. The hobbits looked upon the tall woman, beholding her dark bejeweled hair, like the pure night sky filled with the stars of old, the regal filet of silver on her fair brow, her dark deep knowing eyes filled with wisdom and kindness. They knew her for their Queen, the most beautiful woman in all of Middle-earth. From that day forward, the young hobbits loved and served with all their hearts, Arwen Halfelven, Undomiel, Lady of Rivendell, Queen of Arnor and Gondor, and wife of King Elessar Telcontar.

Lord Celeborn and Queen Arwen stood in greeting.

"Hail, and well met, noble halflings," said Celeborn. "I bid you welcome to this land. May you stay long and return often. Meriadoc Brandybuck, Master of Buckland, greetings! May you wind the Horn of Eorl ever at need and may you wind it again among the sons of Eorl ere long."

Merry stood taller and his hand went involuntarily to the ornate horn that hung ever at his side. His eyes grew bright with emotion but he said nothing.

Celeborn continued, "Peregrin Took, Thain of the Shire, greetings! Faramir, Steward of Gondor, would gladly see the eldest and most famous of the King's servants, ere the years of his life are ended."

Pippin made no secret of his feelings and wiped copious tears that flowed suddenly from his eyes.

"Madrigal Brandybuck, greetings. May your beauty never fade from the memory of your people."

Maddie blushed, and curtsied in the simple fashion of lady hobbits.

"Turgon and Fingon, sons of Faramir Took, greetings. May you follow illustriously in the footsteps of your grandsire."

The Twins bowed deeply, in hobbit fashion, proud of their grandfather and of this moment.

"Elediriel Cotton, greetings. May your words be remembered as long as songs are sung."

Ellie was quite overcome, and clumsily curtsied. She was immediately ashamed of her lack of refinement and blushed in her embarrassment. But when she looked up into the eyes of Queen Arwen, she did not see the haughty disdain she feared, but instead, kindness, compassion, and a love and acceptance for all her subjects no matter their birth or customs. Ellie found herself smiling with sudden joy and the queen smiled back with grace and beauty.

Madrigal, who had been so proud of the dresses her mother had made ready for Ellie and herself, suddenly felt very rustic, looking on the graceful lines and gossamer fabrics and elvish needlework that adorned the forms of the queen and her handmaidens. But she too, found only love in the eyes of Queen Arwen and was no longer conscious that her garments were not as finely made. Rather, she suddenly saw, as if through Arwen's eyes, the simple beauty of the country-folk in the land of her birth, and she was happy to find that her Queen found the hobbit clothing fitting and comely.

"Indeed," Queen Arwen said, in a voice rich with the music of water and of wind. "You are all most welcome, and I will count it a happy day to see you as often as you may come to visit, whether we meet here in Rivendell, at the new castle in Fornost, or in Minas Tirith. On behalf of the King, I greet you and welcome you."

The hobbits all bowed or curtsied again (Ellie did somewhat better this time). The queen then told them the reason for their summons.

"You have been brought here for a Purpose," she said. "The King and I desire that you four young halflings serve as our Heralds, to announce to the Kings of Middle-earth, that on Mid-Year's Day, there shall be an heir to the line of Isildur." And then she smiled, as proudly as any hobbit maid, "We soon shall have a son!"

The hobbits, young and old, cried aloud with applause and happy shouts.

"Had I known this news would bring such joy, we might have brought such news sooner," said a dry baritone voice from behind the hobbits.

"Strider!" cried Merry and Pippin with greater joy in their hearts than they would have thought possible even a moment before.

"The King!" cried Turry and Furry, and knelt with their short swords on the ground before him. Maddie and Ellie curtsied deeply and the rangers also knelt.

"Arise! Arise! It has been too long, my merry hobbits! Too long indeed!" said the tall king.

Ellie looked up to see old Merry and Pippin, rushing the King like the old friends they were, letting him fondly slap their backs and tousle their curly heads. He was a tall man, as tall as Celeborn, lean and weathered, dressed little differently than the rangers, except that he customarily wore a silver filet with a green jewel on his brow, and the silver-starred brooch of the rangers clasped a grey cloak like unto the ones worn by Merry and Pippin.

The greater difference was in the sense of power and majesty Ellie beheld when looking upon him. King Elessar was older than the oldest gaffers of the Shire, but hale and strong, with iron grey eyes and hair, flecked with streaks of silver. Unlike the other rangers, the King wore a beard that ennobled the hard lines of his face so that he looked as a king should look. In those days a king of men was a leader in war, a man among men and the countenance of such a king was likely graven with the hardships of bitter loss, and the joys of dearly purchased victory, and the wisdom earned by noble thoughts and deeds. King Elessar was such a man, perhaps the greatest king ever sired of men and if there was a greater, then I have not heard of him.

But to the old hobbits, he was Strider, their old friend and guide through bitterness and joy, and they loved him more as a brother than a king. Their affection was genuinely returned and soon even the younger hobbits felt at ease around His Majesty, Elessar Telcontar, King of Arnor and Gondor.

"Hold! Enough my old friends! You put me in danger of ignoring both my Queen and my revered host!"

"Nay," said Celeborn. "I would prefer to be a giver of gifts, rather than a taker of the joy of well met friends."

"As would I," Queen Arwen said, "I could not deny others the joy I feel myself, to see you returned unlooked for!"

"My Queen," said the King softly, striding with long steps that put the chamber to his back, kneeling at her feet, and taking her hand in his and kissing it gently, "I shall not leave your side again until the blessed day."

"Estel!" she cried in joy. "But what of the work at Fornost?"

"It is well in hand, and my usefulness there is done. It shall be ready when Eldarion is old enough for the journey. So I thought I should ride back to be with you, and of course, to send off our young heralds."

"Eldarion!" Pippin repeated. "Then you have already named him!"

"But, how do you know he's a... a he?" blurted Ellie.

The wise eyes of Queen Arwen turned kindly upon her, and Elediriel saw the ancient knowledge of elvenkind mingled with her ageless youth, and heard her say, "I simply know. He will be born on Mid-Year's Day."

"Which means you young hobbits must soon be on your way, if you are to return in time for his birth!" said the King. "I have ridden fast through the night and am famished. What do you hobbits say to breakfast?"

As you can imagine, they readily agreed to have a second breakfast with the King and Queen and I must say that not a single one of the hobbits felt guilty about it at all!




Chapter VIII

REMEMBRANCES

The young hobbits stayed only a few days (too few!) in Rivendell, and then they were on their way. Autumn drew on towards winter, as they passed south through old Eregion and then through the Gap of Rohan, south of the Misty Mountains. As they rode past the Tree Garth of Orthanc, the hobbits looked with disquiet on the sharp pinnacles of the dark tower, brooding over the trees below, and did not care to stop. Ellie felt only a little regret as they left the forbidding old tower behind, for there were many relics and records there that might have been fascinating to see and to study.

The rangers guided them surely and at a steady pace so that the leagues were left behind them. Just as the hobbits were beginning to think that the camping and riding would never stop, and that they would never reach any destination worth reaching, they stopped at the great fortress of Helm's Deep to see an old friend of their grandsires.

Not only were the golden-haired folk of Rohan to be found here, there were also dwarves, and one dwarf in particular, who seemed as glad to see the hobbits as the hobbits were to be reaching habitable regions.

"Welcome! Welcome!" the great dwarf cried, his deep booming voice echoing through the caverns behind him. "I thrice bid you welcome to Aglarond! Gimli, son of Gloin, at your service!" he said, sweeping off his mithril tasseled hood and bowing low. Gimli was master over the dwarves who had laboured for a generation of men (and hobbits) in the Glittering Caves.

"As we are at yours and your family's," said Turry, as the Took Twins bowed as deeply as the dwarf, and the hobbit lasses curtsied prettily. (Ellie had been practicing!) They had stopped at the fabled caverns at Helm's Deep on their way to bring the Official Proclamation to King Eomer of Rohan.

"Yes! And you remind me of Merry and Pippin. You do! How thoughtful of Aragorn to send hobbits with word of the new heir-to-be! I am so pleased you thought to visit me here," said Gimli. It is fair to say that he was as Merry and Pippin had described him, though perhaps his red beard was now long and streaked with silver that was not from any mine. "Let me show you around my own little hole," he joked. "Perhaps it is not as comfortable as your own, but I can show you things never seen in any hobbit's hole!"

And show them he did. Though Rivendell was enchanting at the beginning of Autumn, the Glittering Caves of Aglarond were magnificent (not to mention comfortably warm) at the beginning of Winter. Gimli took the young hobbits through one opening after another that led into sometimes small, and sometimes vast caverns of magnificent crystalline formations, lit with the lamps of the Dwarves so that light was cast shimmering upon pools of water that gleamed with a rainbow of light.

In the last of these, there were dwarves working in an unfinished area of no less beauty, but of obviously greater utility. In all of the caverns and chambers, the dwarves had erected structures and had carved areas for living or working, but this last was to be a grand hall for great gatherings. In the ceiling, a long narrow shaft had been cut through the stone to light a dark column at the far end of the hall.

"Come! Come! Now, I will show you the greatest wonder of all!" the dwarf urged. Truth to tell, Elediriel's feet were beginning to tire, so extensive was the tour. She looked up through the shaft at a small patch of cold winter blue. The sides of the shaft were lined with gleaming polished metal that caught the sunshine at the opening and reflected it back down all the way to the dais, no matter the time of day or season of the year.

"It's so bright!" she exclaimed, involuntarily.

"Yes, it is!" the old dwarf chuckled. "I lined the shaft's surfaces straight and true with silver, and overlaid it with the thinnest coating of polished mithril, lest it should tarnish. The shaft catches the light of the moon as well, and the changing starlight, too. The light is directed with the most clever of mechanisms through the shaft to light just that spot. I designed it myself! When this, the Hall of Remembrance, is finished, we will douse all lights except the Sun and Moon and Stars."

"But why?" asked Turry.

"Let me show you! The lights!" he cried to the busily working dwarves as he himself opened a dark case that the hobbits did not see before, hidden in the top of the column. Each of the working dwarves stopped what he was doing and blew out his lamp. The great chamber fell to darkness, except the small patch of reflected sunshine on the dais. It fell full upon the top of a short dark column, upon which Ellie now saw a small display case of crystal and gold, risen by secret mechanism to the top of the column.

"The Remembrance of Galadriel," the old dwarf breathed.

The Remembrance was a small work that required great attention to appreciate. It looked to be merely fine lines of gold enmeshed in delicate patterns in layered crystal and bound with ornate gold and mithril. Upon closer examination, the hobbits saw the patterns are made all of a single line, or not more than two or three lines, as slender as a fine hair. The color of the golden hair (for hair it was) caught the eye, for it was more than color, it was light itself, a golden light altogether beautiful to the eye. And whatever light it caught was made beautiful as well. The eye felt soothed and relaxed and the mind untroubled and the heart gladdened as if living in a day when the light itself had been young and glad. The Remembrance seemed subtly different with every hour, for the sun cast a different light from dawn to noon and from noon to dusk and different still with the change of the seasons. The moon gave more or less light night by night. The wheeling stars above shifted their soft colors and brilliance as they passed from season to season. Gazing into its ever-changing radiance always brought a calm and pure reflection upon how beautifully the world was made.

"Whether by light of Sun or Moon or Star, I cannot gaze upon it enough," said Gimli.

Now I must say, that many dwarves objected to the great expense and trouble that Gimli insisted upon. In Erebor, the Lonely Mountain, he fiercely fought many battles by eloquence in the deep councils of the Dwarves to convince King Thorin Stonehelm of the worthiness of his plan, and finally, with a single viewing of the hair in its crystal case, he prevailed. Many dwarves grumbled still, but obeyed the King Under the Mountain and Gimli, Lord of Aglarond. But as each objector viewed the Remembrance, their objections were forgotten, and their eager hands were set to work as well. They carved the walls with statuary in the living rock amidst the most lifelike carvings of trees, which the hobbits recognized as like unto The Tree in the Shire. As their eyes adjusted to the darkness, the memorial carvings of the hall could seen in the light reflected from the Remembrance, and so were endued with some of the enchantment of the living light. This was Gimli's commemoration of all the long history of what friendship there had been amid the periods of strife or alliance between the Dwarves and the Elves.

"Was she really so very beautiful, herself?" Madrigal asked the old dwarf. "Why is there no carving of the Lady?"

"None have the skill to carve such loveliness, and the attempt would mar the memory. The Lady of the Wood has beauty that surpasses this Remembrance more greatly than the Sun surpasses a candle. And yet, I cherish this Remembrance more dearly than all else, save for a hope that I do not speak."

The dwarf would say no more, and they lingered long at the Remembrance of Galadriel.

As they left the hall, and returned to the halls where the dwarves lived when they did not work, Gimli asked of the Tooks, "There is something you can say that would make my heart glad and this day complete. May I ask it?"

Of course, the Twins readily told the old dwarf to ask anything he might. The dwarf looked at them and said, "It has been long, and I might have sent off for it myself at any time, but somehow there was always something else to do. Tell me, my young hobbits, have you any pipeweed from the Shire?"

Gimli's joy was indeed complete that day, and he cast himself at the hobbit's service for as long as he should live and they had a fine smoke together both before and after an excellent supper which delighted the hobbits with the excellent malt beer of the Dwarves and fine meats roasted in firepits of stone.

Early the next morning, the hobbits, and the three rangers who guarded and guided them, set out for Edoras to bring their Proclamation to King Eomer. Gimli the Dwarf joined them.

"The work will proceed without me! Fond as I am of it, I have toiled in Aglarond for many years now. To be on the road again with hobbits makes me feel young!"

Not when he was young, nor now that he was older, would Gimli ride a horse (except under the most unusual circumstances), so instead, he rode upon the wagon with Elediriel. After the journey to Rivendell, the hobbit girls realized that, though Cider would gladly carry them both, it was more comfortable all the way around for her to ride with the wagon that carried their supplies and equipment. A very young man (in his tweens himself, though the Big Folk did not use the convenient term), Cairdur the son of Cairduin, who had but lately enlisted in his father's company of Rangers, drove the wagon pulled by Bill, the hobbit's packhorse.

This arrangement may have worked out for the best, since the voluble dwarf found an eager listener in Ellie Cotton. He was absurdly pleased that she wrote down so much of what he had to say in a thick leather book of bound pages that Queen Arwen had given her for just such purposes.

The winter sun was kindly, and the meadows and fields of Rohan smelled earthy and green despite the season. Certainly, Cider and Thunder and Lightning and the grey horses of the rangers seemed to have a taste for its grasses, grazing with relish whenever the party stopped for a rest or a meal. On the road to Edoras, the hobbits could see many flocks and herds, tended by folk who lived in quaint cottages roofed with thatch or sod. Madrigal found it all as Merry had described it, and fell in love with this green land of horse and meadow.

Only a couple of days later, as the sun was falling toward the end of day, the party arrived at Edoras and beheld golden Meduseld, Hall of the Kings of Rohan, shining upon a high hill. There were green mounds raised on either side of the golden hall, and a broad stair and a crystal stream at its entrance. Standing like statues on either side of the great door, were gold-helmed guards who moved suddenly to bar their way with spears crossing together in a loud clash.

A swordsman stepped between the guards as they brought their spears together, and the close precision of their combined movement left the hobbits startled and marveling that the swordsman remained unscathed. His clear blue eyes looked sternly at them from under his golden helm, and in a richly accented voice, he cried aloud commandingly in the Common Tongue, "Halt, friend or foe, and declare who ascends the steps of Meduseld!"

Aradhel stepped forward to meet the door warden and declared, "We are Rangers of Arnor, Aradhel, Cairduin, and Cairdur, escorting Gimli the Dwarf, son of Gloin, Lord of Aglarond, who is known to you, and the Heralds of the King and Queen of Gondor and Arnor, the Halflings Turgon and Fingon Took, grandsons of Peregrin, Right Thain of the Shire, who was known by your King, Elediriel Cotton, daughter of Odo, and Scribe to Queen Arwen Undomiel, and Madrigal Brandybuck, granddaughter of Meriadoc, Master of Buckland, who was also known to the King of the Rohirrim."

"Hail and well met, Heralds of Elessar and Arwen, your coming is known to us and you are welcome! Hail Gimli, friend Dwarf, Lord of the Caverns of Helm's Deep! Hail Rangers of Arno! Too seldom do we see our distant kindred of the West. It is a glad day that sees you on the steps of Meduseld. King Eomer awaits, and bids you enter!"

The swordsman turned smartly on his heel, and the guards returned to their frozen stance with a ringing snap and single smack of the butts of their spears on their stony stands. The great doors of the hall swung open and the party walked into the foyer. Gimli began to remove his axe from his back to lean it against the wall.

"Nay, Friend Dwarf! Eomer King, bids that you bear your axe with honor in his halls and that you all may bring your weapons as token of the trust and friendship he bears you all, and the peoples of your lands."

Gimli bowed low, and grimly smiling, replaced the battle-axe.

They walked then into the great hall, lit with the clear golden light of the setting winter sun, where a tall kingly man sat upon a throne. His beard and hair were white as snow, and a golden circlet crowned his noble brow. His blue eyes were keen and bright, and his back was straight and his shoulders broad. But Ellie saw that he was frail and that his hand trembled slightly as it held a smooth black cane. Nevertheless, he stood to his feet like a man but lately grown old, rather than a venerable king of many winters.

Eomer, greeted them with the clear ringing voice of a much younger man. "Hail, Heralds of Elessar! I bid you welcome to Rohan. What news?"

As earlier agreed, Madrigal stepped forward with a sealed scroll, broke the seal, unrolled the parchment, and proclaimed, "The King and Queen of Gondor and Arnor send greetings to Eomer, King of Rohan. We desire that Our esteemed friend and ally share in Our joy at the announcement that Eldarion, Heir of Elendil, shall be born upon next Mid-Year's Day. As this blessed event would surely not transpire, were it not for the valour of the King and the People of Rohan, We wish to renew again Our perpetual gratitude, undying alliance, and eternal love, both now and forever. So declares Elessar Telcontar and Arwen Undomiel, King and Queen of Gondor and Arnor. By the hands of the King and Queen."

She stepped forward and carefully placed the proclamation in the trembling hand of the aged king. He thanked her gravely and handed the document to a nearby servant who stepped forward to receive it. Then he turned to the hobbits and said, "You and your companions will share my table tonight, and you..." he said, turning again to Madrigal. "...you will tell me about your grandsire, Master Holdwine, and all his doings in your country!" His smile was no longer the expression of a venerable monarch but of a kindly old man who desired to hear news of an old friend.

Many were the tales that were told that night, and many were the songs that were sung. Maddie found Eomer was interested in everything, asking many questions and stopping her often with his gentle laugh, and ever urging her to say more. The knights of Rohan were quite amused at the braggadocious Took Twins, who claimed that hobbits were the finest archers of mortal kind, and that they were the finest archers in the Shire. Nothing would do, but that a tournament should be held the next day.

King Eomer stood at the head of the table, taking a sudden interest. "Let it be done! And the winner shall receive a Golden Arrow from my own hand."

The knights and ladies of the hall cheered and raised high their golden cups. One of the knights slapped a companion of his on the back, Guthwine of East Emmet, the victor of the last archery tournament. He stood, and looking meaningfully at Guthwine, raised his cup again and cried, "A drink! May the best man win!"

"...or hobbit!" cried Madrigal, looking at the Twins. The hall was merry indeed with the good-natured fun.

The tournament was a simple affair, not like the great festival and competitions the Riders of Rohan and the Shieldmaidens held annually. But all the folk of Edoras came, as much for the promise of fun and food and drink as for the sight of the halfling heralds of the King and Queen of Gondor.

There was a variety of games and entertainments and of delicious things to eat and drink. The hobbits enjoyed the latter as much as the former, finding the homely dishes and roasted meats as much to their liking and as homelike seeming as anything they had eaten since leaving Bree. At the games, Madrigal demonstrated herself to be a fair rider, goading Cider through the courses almost as well as the larger steeds of Rohan, despite the smaller size of the Buckland mare. The Riders and the people especially marked the pony's spirit and heart and did not fail to notice the beauty of his small mistress.

But it was Turry and Furry who most amazed the martial people. Whether on the backs of Thunder and Lightning, or standing stock still, whether shooting at still targets, or at moving ones, the Took Twins, with their slender bows, remained in the Archery Tournament until only the two of them, and Guthwine, and a Rider named Dirhelm remained.

When the target was set farther away, Dirhelm shot outside the bullseye. It was set farther back, and three arrows struck the center of the target. It was set still farther away, and as they shot, a gust of wind chanced across the field, and Turry's arrow strayed just outside the red. It was down to Furry for the Shire and Guthwine for the Mark.

"It's up to you now, Furry," Turry said, and slapped his brother on the back.

The crowd was silent and still. Guthwine looked down at his small competitor and said, "Fingon, archer of the Shire, you are a passing good shot.

"Guthwine, archer of the Mark, you are are a passing good judge of archers!" cried Furry.

Guthwine laughed out loud and all that heard laughed with him. "We shall see who is the finest, Little Bowman! You shoot well enough up close, but how will your little bow fare if we double the distance?"

"Let the target be moved and we shall see," Furry said.

The target was moved until it looked quite small in the eyes of the folk of Edoras. Ellie squinted in the sun to make it out the better. The bows of the archers of Rohan were much larger than the slender bows of the Tooks. Ellie consoled herself to think that Turry and Furry at least did not do badly. Not badly at all!

Guthwine and Fingon waited for the signal, and they both aimed their arrows high. The crowd held its breath together as the missiles flew steeply into the blue sky, and just as steeply fell together toward the distant target, striking with a doubled tap that carried to the crowd a breathless heartbeat later.

The runners retrieved the target and brought it forward for Eomer to see. Everyone pressed in that could and Ellie nervously waited to hear whose arrow was closest to dead center. The king of the Rohirrim held his hand aloft and trumpets cried aloud. In a voice that carried clear and strong, Eomer cried, "The Golden Arrow I give to Fingon, son of Faramir, of the Shire!"

Guthwine and Dirhelm grabbed Furry and hoisted the proud little hobbit high on their tall shoulders and brought him to their king. The target was left for all to see, and sure enough, the shorter Took-fashioned arrow was just the smallest mite closer to the center than Guthwine's. The hobbits, and Gimli, and even the rangers shouted and cheered. No one was prouder of his brother than Turry. Furry said, "If that gust had blown the other way, the Arrow would be yours!"

Gimli said, "Ah, but luck is a fine thing to have, as well as skill! Accept your brother's praise today, so that you may freely give him praise tomorrow!"

"And this is mine to give right now!" Maddie said and gave Furry a good sweet kiss right in front of King Eomer and everybody. I must tell you that this was even more wonderful to Furry's point of view than besting the finest archers in Rohan! Ellie, thinking of the Twins' rivalry for Madrigal, looked at Turry to see his expression and was surprised to find the young hobbit was not looking at Furry and Maddie, but at her with strangest smile on his handsome face.

The feast that night was wonderful, the company was excellent, and the golden mead of Rohan flowed like a deep spring. Guthwine, Dirhelm, and others of the Riders of Rohan insisted upon examining the bows of the Tooks and questioned them intently about their design and make.

"We used to use bows much like the ones you Riders use, and if the Tooks had kept to this style I would never have let you move that target!" said Furry. "But I can't claim Tooks invented this bow. We copied it from the elves." Some of the riders backed away, suspiciously. There was a muttered remark or two that the contest had not been fair.

"There's nothing magic about it!" cried Turry, ready to hotly defend his brother's victory. "We can't string the bows with elf-hair, and we didn't cast any spells, not that we could. But the pattern is good and if you made your bows like them, then Guthwine and Dirhelm here could outshoot anyone in Middle-earth! Maybe even us!"

At this, the Riders laughed and pressed forward again to handle the bows themselves, even calling Dorwain, an old bowmaker to see if he thought he could fashion a man-sized bow in the same manner. Maddie and Ellie left the conversation of the Riders and the Twins, turning to see Gimli speaking with King Eomer.

"I do remember," Eomer was saying in response to a question from the dwarf. "Legolas used a bow very much the same, it seems to my old eyes. I never thought, nor did any of us, that our own bows might be improved by copying its fashion. I confess, I thought the fanciful curves were merely the needless ornamentation of Elves, and that his skill was only Elvish magic. It seems there are still things to be learned under the Sun."

"You were ever one to mistrust the Elves, Eomer," said Gimli, shaking his head.

"Hah! Now I have lived to be lectured by a Dwarf on the merits of the Elves!" the king laughed. He then noticed Maddie and Ellie listening in. "Come, my little Mistresses! I would hear still more of the deeds of Master Holdwine and what you think of the faerie folk of Imladris. We have all the night before us!"

[Mithadan]

Chapter IX

FANGORN FOREST

The hobbits and the rangers and the dwarf left Edoras the next day. All enjoyed the days of travel that followed, riding at ease over the rolling meadows north to where the River Entwash left the ancient trees of Fangorn Forest. The horses loved the grassy fields and looked even more regretful than the hobbits to leave behind the beautiful country of the Rohirrim.

But leave it behind they did, riding north the shortest distance to the North Undeep, where Anduin could be forded to the north of the River Limlight. From there, they would travel past the site of Dol Goldur, on roads the Dark Lord had made in the days of his dominion. These would meet the new paths that led to the Eastern Bight of Greenwood the Great. To ride the east bank of the Anduin to the Old Forest Road and then through the widest part of Greenwood to the River Running would take more than four or five days longer.

Looking at the grey woods of Fangorn Forest made Elediriel shiver to think of the still gloomier prospect of looking upon the ruins of Dol Goldur. Turry and Furry, on the other hand, seemed delighted at the prospect of not only riding past the gloomy forest, but using some of the time they were saving to take a detour to the hill where so long ago Merry and Pippin had met Treebeard, the Old Ent of the Forest. Gimli disliked the idea even more than Ellie.

"I have never liked the look of these woods! What if we stray? We should be at the mercy of the wild trees of that wood. The sooner it is behind us, the happier I will be," said the old dwarf.

"It won't take long," said Turry. "We'll be back in no time. We won't stray!"

"That's right," said Furry. "We'll just stick to the west bank of the Entwash here. The hill can't be far. You've been there yourself!"

"So take my word for it, you impertinent hobbits! There are trees and more trees and still more trees! There is nothing to see."

"What if Treebeard is there?" asked Turry.

"What if Quickbeam is there?" asked Furry.

"And what if the wild huorns from the black heart of the forest are there?" cried the dwarf. "Nothing can persuade me to go in there again! I have returned twice to tell the tale. That is enough!"

And at that moment, as they debated whether to cross the Entwash at the ford or to follow it into the forest, silvery laughter carried from the trees and a grey clad Wood Elf stepped out and called out lightly to greet them.

"Legolas!" cried Gimli. He leaped down in great excitement from the wagon. Legolas ran forward to meet him.

"After all these years, I finally see you again, and my ears hear that you still fear these woods!" laughed the elf. "What of your word to return, Master Dwarf? I have new things to show you!"

"And what of yours, Master Elf?" replied Gimli, happy to see the elf despite his previous words. "I have not seen you again in the Halls of Aglarond! Our work is done, and you must see the labour of the Dwarves. When I see you under the ground, you shall see me among the trees."

"When I see you among the trees, you shall see me underground!" retorted Legolas.

"A plague on the stiff necks of Elves!" cried the dwarf.

"A calamity on the stiffer necks of Dwarves!" cried the elf as they laughed and embraced one another.

"What's he doing here?" Furry asked Turry, who had no clearer idea than his twin brother. Ellie said nothing, but looked on, struck dumb to see the dwarf and the elf together, come to life right out of the Redbook. Maddie looked on dreamily at the handsome wood elf and fortunately Furry did not notice! Soon, they were all introduced one to another.

Legolas looked then keenly upon the hobbits and said, "I can see your grandsires in you! I should have thought so even if I had not seen you in the bad company of a dwarf! In fact, I was on my way to remind Master Gimli of his promise. Sixty-four years ago, he promised to return to these woods with me, and here he is! What could be better? You are fated to keep your bargain today, it seems." He said this last, looking meaningfully at the old dwarf.

"Another year, perhaps. And before I venture into that fearsome forest, I would have first have you come to Aglarond, and see how the dwarves have tended the glades of stone and crystal in the vaults of the earth. But now, time is pressing and we have far to journey ere we reach your father's kingdom and the Lonely Mountain beyond," said Gimli.

"Then all the more the reason to come with me through the wood. I have learned much of Fangorn Forest and its ways. I can guide you safely through. You will save almost a day on your journey and redeem your word in the bargain. Then I shall be in your debt and perforce must endure your dank caves," said Legolas.

"I will endure your watching trees again only after you have gazed upon the glory of Aglarond, though you receive the better bargain," said the dwarf, a little sternly.

"In all of Middle-earth, we are met again here this day, as if by chance, and it is on your way! We are meant to journey together again! So come! Forget your darksome hole for a time, and look upon a forest that has lived unmolested for ages upon ages," said the elf, with the slightest edge to his voice.

"Perhaps the Glittering Caverns are beneath the lofty notice of an elf!" cried Gimli, with a keener edge to his voice, as he thought of his years of labour and of the magnificent Hall of Remembrance, which the elf had never seen.

"And perhaps the living beauty of the forest is too simple for the proud interest of a dwarf!" cried Legolas, growing hot in his turn, thinking on the decades of timeless wonder and new discovery he had enjoyed in this most ancient of forests.

Ellie wondered how it was possible that these two old friends could suddenly be fighting when just meeting again after so many years, when Maddie stepped forward suddenly and pulled on the sleeve of the angry dwarf. He turned sharply and the pretty hobbit said only, "You would do it for Lady Galadriel."

The change in the dwarf was immediate and profound. His proud eyes were cast down, and his reddened face turned pale. He took a deep breath, and thanked the hobbit lass. He turned back to Legolas, whose deep elvish eyes were also suddenly remorseful.

"Legolas, my old friend. I have wronged you and the Lady. All my work in Aglarond will mean nothing if you do not share the sight of it. I shall endure your trees again," said the dwarf.

"I ask your pardon, Master Dwarf," said the elf, with his humour returning. "I should have taken more seriously your labours. I do not insist that we see the woods first. Come, we shall journey round them, though you lose a day thereby."

"No, I must insist that you guide us through these old woods of yours. I think I shall enjoy having you in my debt, Master Elf! The sooner the better!"

"Then if your friends do not mind?" Legolas asked, with a winning look at the hobbits.

"Of course not!" said Maddie brightly, and Turry and Furry agreed. Ellie still did not think much of the woods, but could hardly say anything of the sort. But the quick eyes of the elf caught hers and she felt an immediate reassurance that all would be well. The rangers, of course, had no objections, and truth to tell, were keenly interested to see the hill where the old dwarf, the wood elf and Aragorn, their king, had first encountered the wizard Gandalf, returned as if from the dead.

"I believe it was the turning point of the War of the Ring," said Aradhel, when they had come to the hill in the woods.

"Perhaps you are right, but who among us can say what was the turning point, with so many events, both great and small, that had such unforeseeable outcomes. The past is not as clear as the present and is little more clear than the future," said Legolas, as they climbed the hill. Madrigal was following fast behind him; having left Cider tied with the other horses at the base of the hill.

"I thought elves could remember the past as clearly as the present," said Maddie.

"As clearly as a dream, perhaps, which can be both very clear and very obscure. I can cast my mind back to a day when Master Gimli here did not breathe hard climbing this hill. I see it clearly. But seeing is not the same as understanding, though no doubt Aradhel is right," Legolas replied.

"It seems to me that it is as the ranger says," said the old dwarf, trying hard not to sound as if he needed to catch his breath. "Here it was that Merry and Pippin, your grandfathers, met the old Ent. And here it was that we, with Aragorn, met Gandalf again, beyond all hope. I shall count that always as the day when the days of darkness were numbered."

"Here we are," said Legolas.

They stood upon the crown of a low hill that looked through an area of the forest that was not quite as close and grey. Sunlight filtered between the interwoven branches in radiant streams through the thick forest air, casting a golden glow in the glen surrounding the hill. The Took Twins looked closely at every tree (and so did Ellie and Maddie and Gimli!) to see if any of them might be looking back at them. But there was no movement and there was no sound. The air was thick and still. There were no birds singing or squirrels playing. Even the wind did not disturb the ancient contemplation of the living forest.

"Your debt grows greater with every long moment," muttered the dwarf to the elf.

"You will appreciate this wood ere we reach its end. Come! Let us be on our way!"

They descended from the small hill and followed the elf up a narrow trail barely wide enough for the small wagon. It made its way along the banks of a stream that became the Entwash further south. They went on for sometime, until the sun sank low beyond the peaks of the Misty Mountains, hidden by the boughs and limbs of the forest.

Before they made camp, Legolas bade them wait while he ran ahead to check the site he had in mind. After a short time, which seemed long to Gimli and Ellie, the elf returned and said that the perfect spot was just ahead. He guided them farther up the path, Maddie and the Twins right behind him, Gimli and Ellie in the wagon driven by Cairdur, and Aradhel and Cairduin riding their horses behind...

At last, they came to a clearing where the River Entwash had dwindled from a stream to a small brook, which came from what seemed a hall of trees overshadowing a spring and a rocky place beyond. The hobbits had listened intently to the stories the elf told of times past when both he and the world were somewhat younger. Gimli and Ellie had shared more than one weak smile at how carefree the others seemed in the old forbidding woods. The rangers remained watchful. Despite what they knew of Fangorn Forest, none but Legolas were prepared for what happened next.

"Hooom. Hoom. Hom hooom rooom tooom hooomty toom. '...hungry as hunters, the Hobbit children, the laughing folk, the little people...' Let me have a look at you."

The voice was as deep as a sound from a hollow log, and the words were slow and measured and thoughtful. One of the trees stepped forth from the rest and only then did they see that the tree was not a tree, but another kind of creature altogether.

I'm quite sure that you yourself have heard the tales of this remarkable and ancient forest, and of the treeherds, the Ents, who tended the trees and looked after them. No doubt, in your comfortable chair, with a beverage at your elbow and references at your fingertips, you guessed before any of the travelers the surprise that Legolas had set for them. Perhaps you would have smugly expected exactly what happened and would have taken a more casual notice of the Ent as he strode forward like a walking tree. This Ent was of course, Treebeard, or Fangorn, for whom the forest was named. Legolas had made his acquaintance seven decades before, and since then, by Treebeard's leave, had explored the great forest and came back at times to talk with the ancient Ent about the things he had seen. He had gone ahead to see if the old treeherd would welcome guests.

I wish there were time to tell you even a quarter of the stories that were shared that night. Treebeard told his share, but he seemed more interested in what the hobbits had to say, as well as the dwarf and the men. He listened to them talk far into the night about the news of the lands. At last the old ent had finished asking questions for the night, and then he moved for the first time, the hobbits realized, since they had made their camp outside his home.

"Hooom," he said finally. "In my long years, there have been few times that my eyes have seen a gathering such as this. Rooom tooom hooomty tooom. From the eldest race to the youngest we are all here together in this forest. Such a thing has not happened here in this wood ever before and perhaps shall not ever happen again. But it is late and we should rest now until the morning. Then I shall send you on your way through the forest."

***

The next morning, Ellie awoke to see the old ent standing over them. The rangers were rebuilding the fire. Gimli, for some reason, did not want to be involved with it, though he normally delighted in the labour. Legolas and the dwarf were standing away from the others and quietly discussing some subject. Treebeard's deep and ancient eyes thoughtfully pondered the sleeping hobbits and Ellie felt that the ent was considering her with something like a mingled attitude of humour and sadness.

"Hmm, hoo, rumty, tumm, humm..." the ent intoned. To Ellie, he said, "You are so young. Looking upon you hobbit children reminds me of my own youth long ago, and of my great age, and of how there shall be no Entings ever again." He sighed a great sigh and murmured deep words in his long sonorous language that she did not understand. But in his eyes she saw ages of longing and of resignation. "I had hoped," he said, after a time had passed, "that you had brought word of the Entwives. I begin to despair that any of us shall ever meet again. I do not anymore hope that I shall live to see such a day myself. I now fear that none of us ever shall."

"But it is a wide world," Ellie heard herself saying. "Since the War, men have been rebuilding, and moving about through all the old lands. Even the folk of the Shire have started a new land on the Westmarch. Perhaps soon, folk will move out into new lands, East and West. Maybe they will find the Entwives. Maybe they will even find your own wife, Fimbrethil."

The old ent looked with sudden joy at the young hobbit maiden. "Hooom! Perhaps you are right. Hooo. I have been hasty, perhaps. How did you come to know the lovely name of Fembrethil?"

Ellie told him them of how she had copied the stories of the hobbits and of how the sad song of the Ents and the Entwives was recorded in the tales of the War of the Ring. The other hobbits had awakened quietly, and rather uncustomarily, did not leap up ready for their breakfast, but lay still, looking and listening to Ellie and Treebeard. The old ent was really quite touched and pleased that the hobbits had recorded these things, and had not forgotten the Ents and the search for their Entwives.

"Perhaps now you should go look for them!" said Maddie, impulsively.

"Hooom. No. It is enough to learn that you have not forgotten and that the peoples are spreading. If the Entwives still live, they will be found one day, and so time will tell. It is enough. Hooom. If one day you carry word to them, that we are here, they will find us. If we leave to find them, we may miss them and they miss us. And we have our duties here. There are not enough of us to tend the forest and search the wide lands, too. We cannot afford to be hasty. Hooom. It is enough. Now, what say you to something to drink?"

Turry and Furry enthusiastically agreed to this, and no one in the camp could refuse the hospitality of the old ent. His hands were spread with twig-like fingers over the great earthen jars, and each of them had a taste of the luminescent ent draught. Turry and Furry drank deeply, and even asked for more!

They were off again soon enough, with Legolas taking them along a forest path, trodden previously only by the ents and himself. Though the others rode, the light-footed elf had no trouble leading them up the woodland trail at the fastest pace they could maintain. The trail was sometimes ragged, and the wagon hard to pull. After the first check, Aradhel and Cairduin hitched their horses to the wagon. This made Bill mighty glad, I can tell you, for now he only had to carry Cairdur on his broad back.

They made fair time, though Gimli had already calculated that Legolas was falling further into his debt, since it very much looked as if the extra day the elf had promised might be lost. The dwarf called back to Aradhel again.

"Ranger! How far have we come since lunch?"

"We have come one league and half a league, as the crow flies," answered the ranger surely.

"Then as the crow flies, we have at least sixty leagues before us to reach the ford of the Limlight. The day Legolas promised is a difference of eight or nine leagues, am I right?"

"That depends on the road," Aradhel observed.

"Nonsense," said the hale old dwarf. "Billing is by the mile. Differences in terrain even out in diversified business ventures. Now, where was I? Oh yes, call it nine leagues if you make good time..."

"That depends on the road," said Cairduin. "And what you meet upon it."

"I'm talking about mileage in this debt appraisal," said the dwarf cheerfully. "Additional costs will be figured on his account separately. Now, where was I? Oh yes, making good time! Which we are not. I believe Legolas has already lost us at least half a league today. At the present rate, Legolas shall owe me half a day, in addition to enduring the glories of Aglarond."

The wood elf laughed, "And how shall I pay you Master Dwarf? In minutes or in hours? Not even Elves can give you Time."

"We shall see about that, Master Elf," and this was as much as the dwarf would say; though he said it often enough on the journey as he continually recalculated what he called the debt of the elf when they bantered back and forth.

As amusing as this was to Elediriel, she did not lose sight of the forest around her. Slowly, her anxiousness about the ancient woods gave way to a growing appreciation for its strange beauties. Though it was winter, and the forest was thick and old and grey, many of the trees still had their brown leaves. Ellie, and the other hobbits, felt as if the forest was the most quiet wood they had ever known. Whenever they stopped, and the horses weren't walking and the wagon wasn't creaking, there was no sound to be heard. The rangers gave no sign that they were disturbed in any way.

Gimli's anxiety did not pass. The dwarf was nervously loud, and kept up a steady chatter with the hobbits, with the rangers, and with Legolas through the day and late into the night until he was too tired to stay awake. He did not want to lie awake feeling the gaze of the watching trees. As for Legolas, the elf enthusiastically pointed out various plants large and small, trees and bushes and growths of odd kinds that were uniquely beautiful, though they would have surely gone unnoticed if the party had not had such a guide. Even Gimli took an interest, and asked many questions of the elf.

The days passed easily, though the path was no less difficult. The trail went up a ridge that gently ascended until it was high enough for the evergreens to grow. Here, the forest was less close, and the trees were even more immense. Ellie's neck grew tired from looking up as they rolled along. Though the climb was not steep, their going was somewhat slower, which delighted Gimli no end.

As they made camp, Gimli asked again of Aradhel, "Ranger, how far have we come?"

"Thirty leagues, by the crow. Half of the distance," said the ranger.

"Half the distance in half a day's more time!" exclaimed the dwarf. "Why, this elf will soon owe me an entire day!"

"But if we had not come here, then you would have missed this!" Legolas pointed west.

From the top of the ridge, among the giant evergreens, above the ancient hardwood trees, they could now see across a great valley of uncharted streams and ancient forest, to the distant peaks of the Misty Mountains, where the setting sun shone a golden red against the blue winter ice. The high clouds were a fiery golden orange against the deepening clear blue of a sky on the edge of night. The winter forest below them seemed to change hue as if in a strange harmony with the changing light. A single brilliant star of piercing blue shone through the fading sunlight long before any other. The party was soon casting still shadows from its solitary radiance, for they all stood as if rooted like the trees behind them. They were the only breathing things that watched with the trees, as day gave way to glorious night across the silent expanse of Fangorn Forest.

"You see," said Legolas at last. "The forest watches all things. You are only one thing among them, Master Dwarf. Without the trees so close about you, what do you think of the forest now?"

The dwarf could find no words, but looked long over the forest under the gathering stars as something of the understanding of the elves kindled in his ready heart.




Chapter X

DOL GOLDUR

Soon after the rising of the sun, the hobbits, the dwarf, the elf, and the rangers were once again on their way through the forest. The dwarf no longer chattered nervously, but rode along in the wagon looking upon the woods with a new appreciation.

In fact, the trail was soon leading them down again into the forest and the going seemed much easier in the days of their travel through the trees of Fangorn Forest. Cairduin the Ranger remarked that they were fast making up the time lost in the first half of their woodland shortcut.

"And what of it?" asked the dwarf. "I view the matter differently now. The elf owes me nothing."

"A dwarf who has forsaken his accounts!" cried the elf. "The world is changing indeed!"

"Nay!" cried the happy dwarf. "The accounts must still be balanced! It is I who owe you Master Elf, and I only hope that the new sights of Aglarond will sufficiently repay you!"

"Is that how it is?" laughed the elf. "Then I shall collect payment in your glittering caverns as soon as can be arranged! I shall not have it said that any dwarf escaped a debt to Legolas son of Thranduil!"

"In fact," said the dwarf with a sidelong look at the wood elf. "So great is my indebtedness, Elf, that I must give you as many heartbeats in the Hall of Remembrance as days you have given me in these woods, ere you are paid in full!"

This cheerful banter was the stuff of the conversations between the elf and the dwarf, as they made ever better and better time on the downward slopes to the Limlight at the forest edge. As they arrived at the shallow fording, Aradhel said to Gimli, "Well, Master Dwarf! Master Elf has saved us the day he promised. What say you to that?"

"That is well. But now that I no longer dread the wood behind us, I have little love of the road ahead," replied the old dwarf.

"Mirkwood is Mirkwood no longer, but is now called Greenwood the Great, as it was of old," said Legolas.

"And the dark fortress of Dol Goldur lies in scattered ruins. There is naught to fear," said Aradhel.

"Did I speak of fear?" asked the dwarf. "My eyes have seen the Black Gates of the Morannon and the iron fortress of Baradur that were cast down in the fall of the Dark Lord. I do not fear these lesser ruins. Yet, nothing good has ever come from that place, only evil. Even fallen and abandoned, I shall have no love of the sight, save for leaving it behind."

Elediriel felt a sudden chill, but said nothing, thinking the others would only say she felt the cold breeze under the winter sky. Indeed, the kindly weather had begun to turn more seasonably cold, and they all, except perhaps Legolas, seemed to feel it as the sun turned a watery yellow above the gathering clouds. Beyond the sheltering trees, the winds blew freely and they felt its keen edge.

They pulled their warmer cloaks from the wagon and rode for the fords of the Anduin at the northern Undeep of the great water. The Undeeps, as they were called, were broad shallow expanses of the mighty river where a crossing could be made even by wagon in times of less rain or when water was bound in snow and ice. Many centuries ago, the Wainriders had come that way, and it was here that the hosts assembled at Dol Goldur intended to cross the Anduin, had the War of the Ring gone differently.

The rangers led them across the broad waters to an old road leading to the northeast, made long years ago by the servants of Sauron, or the Necromancer as he was known in the days of his secret rebuilding. Their camp that night was cold and the hobbits shivered around the fire with the old dwarf and wore almost every stitch of clothing they had.

The grey edge of the forest drew closer as the leagues dropped behind them. All too soon, they had left the open fields behind and made camp under the boughs and limbs of Greenwood the Great.

"Mirkwood, still, I say," said the dwarf. So close were they now to the evil ruins of Dol Goldur, that not even Legolas disagreed with him. The woods indeed had grown less wholesome as the path lead deeper into the forest, as if the forest here had still not recovered from the darkness that had long brooded nearby. The trees strove against one another grasping for precious light. Scrub and brush leaned in upon the hard-packed road, but nothing grew upon the road itself, as if some lingering poison applied in ages past still prevented even the life of weeds and briers. Cairduin dourly thought it the work of Sauron ere his demise.

Legolas sniffed at the dust of the road and declared Cairduin's guess correct. "The dust is unwholesome, perhaps it has even been brought from Mordor. Time is not so precious that I will ever take this path again."

"Then we will start all the earlier tomorrow, pick up the pace, and camp all the later," said Aradhel. "The next day, too, and the days after that, the better to leave this road and the ruins behind us, as Master Dwarf also wishes. It were perhaps better we had taken the longer way. Even so, we still have far to go before our steps turn back to Rivendell."

***

The next morning came early indeed. Before the grey dawn the hobbits were rousted from where they lay near the fire. Turry and Furry tried to follow the example of the rangers, and made no complaints. Ellie figured that no one cared to hear her grumble and gripe, and she was thankful of the hot breakfast that young Cairdur brought her. Maddie, however, was never one to be shy of giving others the full benefit of her thoughts and feelings.

"What a horrid, horrid place!" she muttered. "Why did we have to come this way? We should have gone first to the Beornings, then to the dwarves, then the elves and the Rohirrim last!"

"That would have been a hard road indeed, Mistress Madrigal," said Cairdur. "Weather such as this would be harder to bear in the wastes of Eregion. Better to travel through inhabited lands at the end of our journey, as spring awakens the land, rather than save the loneliest leg for the end. This way, we have wood for the fire and can look forward to the rest of the trip. Cheer up! The worst is soon behind us!"

"I will be cheerful when I can have a hot bath and wash my hair!" the pretty hobbit grumbled. Ellie agreed, but said nothing, warming her hands around her mug and eating her breakfast while it was hot.

True to Aradhel's word their pace was indeed faster that day. The sun had risen high in the sky, though they could not see it, when the woods suddenly thinned out and stopped altogether, revealing a great field surrounding a tall hill. That hill was crowned with a cruel ragged jumble of dark stones. It was all that remained of Dol Goldur, whose evil name still brought disquiet to even the boldest heart. The fortress had been a residence for the Necromancer as his power grew, before he revealed himself to be Sauron, the Dark Lord. But the stronghold held nothing now unless the broken stones themselves remembered the terror of the Ringwraith that once commanded in Sauron's name or held memories of the horror of the prisoners in the dungeons that lay below.

Not even dour Cairduin would look upon it long, and though the hobbits had been growing hungry before they left the wood, none of them wanted to stop or had any appetite for food within sight of the ghastly ruins. But even as they cast their gaze aside, Legolas saw something in the corner of his keen eye.

"There is someone there," the elf said. "An old man wearing a blue cloak. He walks with a staff."

The rangers looked hard, and Aradhel thought he could see him just leaving the ruins of the gate.

"You are right," confirmed Legolas. "He has seen us, and is coming this way."

"Then let us make camp and wait for him," said Aradhel. "Perhaps he will be hungry, and seeks to purchase luncheon with tales of what he has seen."

"What tales would a picker of dry bones have for us, I wonder," said Cairduin.

With surprising speed, the old man crossed the great field and by the time the fire was made and lunch had been prepared, he was upon them. His cloak could only be called blue by charity, for it was ragged and faded to a dirty grey. He wore no hat or hood upon his head, and his long tangled white hair and beard were blown by the wind all about his heedless head. His brows were dark and bristling, his nose was long and sharp. His lips were thin and chapped, hard to make out in the tangle of his mustache and beard. His cheeks were raw and red and his eyes deep, haggard, and confused.

"Hail, old father!" cried Aradhel. "Will you not come warm yourself by our fire and break bread with us? This is a cold and a lonely place, and we would be glad of the company!"

Gimli muttered in his beard. The other rangers and Legolas said nothing. The hobbits looked on with growing anxiety, and wondered if they had not encountered a madman. Elediriel felt chills again when the old man's wild gaze chanced across her. The old man's deep dark eyes seemed to her to have a hidden cunning under his confusion. She quickly lowered her own eyes.

"I say, old father," said Aradhel, stepping forward when the old man had drawn closer, "come share our meal and our fire."

"Eeee?" the old man said with a question in his voice, stepping back a pace from the tall ranger. There were more words, or gibberish, that Ellie could not make out.

"Food, water, fire," said Aradhel, speaking slowly and calmly. He then walked deliberately to the fire, squatting down and taking up the pot, and motioning as if to eat. He motioned for the wild man to draw nearer. The old man slowly did so, and trembling, settled down by the fire and let the ranger ladle him a bowl of steaming stew. He ate this and motioned for more before even the reassured hobbits were finished with their first bowls! Soon enough, they were all eating quietly, letting the rangers try different tongues to see if the old man would communicate. Legolas then tried an ancient elven tongue that Ellie had not heard in Rivendell, and the old man looked up at that. A halting conversation began between the elf and the wild old man.

"What is he saying?" asked Gimli. The dwarf was interested despite his apprehensions.

"It is hard for me to say. This is an old tongue, never spoken by my own people, and it is not well known to me. My father knows it better. I have asked him to come with us."

"What! We do not know who he is! Where he is from! What was he doing over there in... over there?" the old dwarf demanded, pointing vaguely at the evil ruins.

"I would like to know that, too," said Cairduin. "And how he came to speak such a tongue."

Legolas haltingly asked the old man. As the old man stammered out a reply, the elf's bright eyes grew wide with wonder.

"He says he was looking for a sign of his friends, his friends who came with him from across the Sea," said the astonished elf.

"What, he claims to be an elf?" cried the dwarf. "He looks like no elf my eyes have seen!"

"No! He claims to be a wizard," replied Legolas.

***

Ellie made a place for the old man on the wagon and chose to ride with Maddie on the back of Cider. She was warmer that way, and really did not relish the thought of riding so close to Pallando, the name he gave them to call him. Gimli soon overcame his own distrust, for the old fellow seemed bewildered and fearful, startling with every bump of the wagon or call of a bird.

They rode along this way for several days, until they came to the Eastern Bight of Greenwood, a great sweeping arc of the plains that seemed on the map to take a great bite out of the wood. The rangers guided them ever north and east, planning to reach the River Running where Greenwood drew near to its western banks.

In this time, Turry and Furry made good use of their Tookish bows. So, their suppers each night were all the better for fresh game, since the provisions of the wagon were beginning to run low, and the dried and salted meats and fruits and nuts and cram grew tiresome after a time.

"Imagine nothing but a light pack of travel food to last day after day," said Gimli, "running your feet off chasing hobbits held hostage by goblins! You would be glad enough of it, if you could stay awake to eat it when you stopped!"

Turry laughed, "And our grandmothers are glad that you did run on such fare!"

Furry laughed with him, "But we have heard you had somewhat more than that!"

"That we did," admitted Legolas. "Lembas, the waybread of Lothlorien. I doubt that Master Gimli could have run so far or so fast on salted meat and dried apples."

"Ah! You are no doubt right about that, Master Legolas!" agreed the dwarf. "But I have never tasted such fair fare in all my years since. Waybread you call it, but I would give all our provisions for a taste of it today!"

"Then you may have somewhat of it, and better still, when we reach my father's kingdom, for many of the elves of Lothlorien reside in Greenwood now, and they have brought their arts with them."

Pallando listened intently. He had begun to lose his fearfulness, and had also begun to learn somewhat of the Common Tongue they all spoke together.

"Elves...gone...Loth...Lothlorien?" he asked.

"Yes," answered Legolas, who had taken onto himself the task of teaching the old man. "When the Lady of the Wood passed over the Seas, many of them came to live with their kindred in Greenwood."

"Umm," said the old man, thoughtfully.

***

There were more days of travel after they reached the River Running. In that time, Pallando learned much, and was soon speaking as if he had spoken the common language all along. If he was not a wizard, then he certainly seemed to have a wizard's intelligence.

Elediriel was somewhat frustrated, for though she asked no questions, and indeed had spoken very little with the old man, he rarely spoke of himself, and all questions the others asked were somehow turned to other subjects. Only the ranger Cairduin seemed to share Ellie's reserve. The others soon accepted Pallando, whose quick wit and flattering tongue made them laugh and think him a fine fellow, even if a little cracked.

"He reminds me of Gandalf, somewhat," said Gimli. "How I miss him! Like and yet unlike. What has happened to cloud his wits, I cannot say, but he seems to be recovering. Even so, it is good to travel with a wizard again, such as he is."

The days of travel were left behind them and it was at last time to stop for a while in the halls of Thranduil, the father of Legolas. They were greeted on the trail by green-clad wood elves who were standing watch for them, and who somehow were alert to their coming. These silvan elves were happy to see Legolas and they led the party swiftly to the waiting king. The hobbits looked with great wonder at the sights that were so familiar to them from the stories of Bilbo and his great adventure. The forest river was just as they imagined it, as was the narrow bridge that led to the caverns that was the dwelling and strong place of Thranduil. Even though Ellie was expecting it, she let out a frightened squeal when the great gates magically slammed shut behind her.

Thranduil, King of the Elves of Greenwood, stood to greet them as they were ushered in before his rustic throne. He looked much the same as Legolas, save for his eyes, which seemed deeper and wiser perhaps, and his countenance, which was both graver and merrier somehow. Also, unlike Legolas, he wore a crown woven of the stuff of the forest in winter. A necklace of dazzling jewels graced his warrior's frame and his brow was adorned with a jewel of green.

After he graciously accepted the Proclamation heralding the Birth of Eldarion, Ellie saw that he was also more reserved in his judgment than Legolas, and did not let the self-professed wizard change the subject of his skilled questions.

"Tell me of yourself Pallando. I would know of what you have been doing in all these long years," said the elven king.

"The tale is one that would be as hard to hear as to tell, for it is as long as the age and as bitter as winter. How warm and cheerful your cavern is! I indeed am glad of your hospitality and to warm my old bones away from the cold without," said the old man.

"I have heard tales both long and hard and would gladly hear yours, Pallando the Blue. Was there not another wizard of Blue, as there were of Grey, and Brown, and White?" asked Thranduil.

"Yes! Yes there was, oh learned king. I remember now as your words recall them to my mind. I have been long seeking word of them. What news is there in the land of their doings?" asked Pallando.

"Do you not know? Have you not heard? Long ago the Five Wizards passed from Middle-earth, or so I thought until today. The Dark Lord is dead, or so diminished that he shall never take form again. The work of the wizards is done, as I understood it. Gandalf the White, once the Grey, has sailed the Sea to the West, which ever calls to my son and to my kindred. Radagast the Brown, after lingering some years, himself has taken ship to the West. Saruman the Traitor, has met the fate of the Dark Lord he served. I have heard little report of the Blue Wizards, who passed East and South and never returned. Words that did come to my ears were not good. What say you to that?" asked Thranduil, more sternly.

"That all is better than once I had hoped and in some ways as bad as I had feared," said the old man. "Your ears have heard aright it seems, at least in part. Saruman, you called him. He was the White and also fell into service to Sauron? That is bad. Would that Alatar had met his fate!"

"Speak more plainly, then, and tell me in whole what I have heard in part," Thranduil commanded.

Elediriel wondered that the elven king would dare to speak so to a wizard, but her quick hobbit eyes saw the elven guards that stood around the throne room in the shadows. She noticed then that their bows were strung. She looked at Legolas, and saw that he looked somewhat ashamed that he had not sought this information himself more persistently.

"Forgive me, King Thranduil," said the old man. "I am not what I once was. I too, seek the Straight Sea to the West, where I hope to find healing and forgiveness. Even now, with the kindness of your son and these others, I have found some healing and health, and my memories return. They are grim and dark, but I will tell you now as much as I can remember. May you find profit in it, O King, for my tale does not bode well for the peace of Middle-earth..."

[Mithadan]

Chapter XI

BLUE AND BLACK

Pallando stood to his full height and drew a deep breath. Elediriel tensed, worrying for the first time that he might actually be a wizard, for he had done nothing wizardly up to this time, and this did not seem a like a very good time for him to begin! King Thranduil stood as still as a quiet pool and waited with seeming calm.

Perhaps it would be good for me to tell you here that the king of the wood elves was a very ancient and wise elf, though he looked rather more like an elder brother than the father of Legolas, who had seen the passing of many centuries himself. But, as I say, he was both ancient and wise, and knew much of what happened in the lands around him, as any wise king would. It is fair to say that he had said as much as he knew about the history of the Five Wizards in his questioning of this old man who stood before him. It is also fair to say that there were few folk in all of Middle-earth who knew much more than King Thranduil about such lofty matters. He hoped to learn more to better judge the situation rightly. He was a king who took no chances with the safety of his good people.

Gimli had said before that the old man reminded him of the beloved wizard Gandalf, and Ellie now thought that this may have seemed so to Legolas as well. Perhaps that is enough to explain why the elf had brought Pallando into his father's kingdom and had taken no trouble to learn more about him. Seeing by comparison how sternly and carefully Thranduil dealt with the self-proclaimed wizard, the little hobbit girl wondered nervously why they had not been more guarded themselves and, whether he was a wizard or not, if they had not been too free with their words and with their trust. How much had they said? Should they have said anything before him at all?

Pallando no longer spoke as he did when they first found him at the ruins of Dol Goldur. With each day of travel, his strength of mind and personality grew greater. Now, standing tall in the cavern hall of the wood elves, lit by the glow of bright elven torches, he looked wizardly indeed, if not outright kingly. In fact, he no longer at all seemed the crazed and starved old man they discovered picking through the evil ruins. His majesty and regal countenance now made even Thranduil seem rather ordinary and of lesser account. The dark bristling brows of the old man drew together, creasing his noble forehead, as he strove to remember the long events of an age of tumult.

"I am not as once I was, O King," he said, his aged voice filling the cavern and reaching every ear. "I set out with strength in my hand and a mission before me. An age has passed and I know little of what has passed with it. My story seems to me like an unending nightmare, yet end it did and here I am.

"As you know, an age ago I did pass into the East, with Alatar, my friend. Cloaked in blue, we set forth to check the might of wicked men and to foil the subtle schemes of Sauron. Alatar went to the South, where the stars are strange, and through the long years, we met infrequently and ever less often as the strength of the Dark Lord regathered and the range of our duties grew. At each meeting, my friend seemed ever more worried and burdened. At the last, it was a lifetime and more before I heard from him and I thought perhaps we would not meet until the forces of the gathering storm hurled us together again."

The old man looked about him in the cave and saw that every eye was upon him and every ear was attending.

"But meet again we did. And this was what Sauron had awaited. He was ever aware of us, thwarting his efforts when we could and diminishing the effectiveness of his plans when we could not thwart them entirely. He wanted revenge and he wanted to turn his attention to the lands of the West.

"You have heard of the Nine Nazgul, O King?"

Thranduil nodded, saying nothing.

"I know not what they did in these lands in the days after the Dark Lord returned to Mordor, but they came to do much in the days beforehand, in the lands to the South and to the East.

"Alatar sent for me and I came to meet him in the wilderness east of Mordor. The Nazgul came to meet me and I could not withstand them. I was besieged in a desert place and had a choice of death or captivity. Would that I had chosen death! But the Nazgul King, potent in the spells of darkness and armed with a ring of terror, humbled me that day, for I could not withstand the Nine Ringwraiths together. I will not say more, though their horror was not the greatest I came to know.

"My staff was taken, and I was bound and led, not west to Mordor as I expected, but south to Harad. I was weary and near powerless, and my captors were terrible and cruel. My timid hopes of escape died quickly. Without pause and without rest, they drove me before them terrified, wizard though I was, until we reached the Tower of Harad. All fled at our coming and none dared remain in sight as we passed.

"There, at the inland crossroads of an ancient empire of slavery, the savage king of that bestial land had made his fortress, inhabiting foundations and walls laid by greater men than he, though no less evil in their days of high pride and arrogance. Tall it stood, crowned in cruel strength, a castle of despair for the slaves who laboured in the lands about it, a prison of torment for those who dared raise their heads. I thought of how Alatar must have worked in vain to prevent the effective use of this stronghold. Even in my misery and horror, I wondered what had happened to my friend of old. Soon enough, I found out."

His voice had gradually filled with something of the terror that he must have known in that time so long ago. He paused to draw breath and seemed to be gathering resolve to continue. Elediriel could hardly imagine what could be worse than what he had already said, and found that she was drawing the short, fast, shallow breaths of fear. But she could not take her gaze from the wizardly old man. Gimli's eyes were cast down and Legolas was still. Ellie could not turn to see the other hobbits or the three rangers. Pallando's dark and haunted eyes peered at them all from beneath his dark and bristling brow.

"I was taken down to the dungeons of the fortress, built by the kings of men in their days of vanity and arrogance. The black stone of my cell seemed to lend further darkness to the still air itself in my unlit prison. How long I was kept there I cannot say, but the time seemed endless to me then. I found later that this was as nothing compared to the toment I was later to endure.

"They came to me late one night or early one day. I did not know which. I knew hunger and thirst and could not resist as strong men bound me in cold iron to the cold black stone. I had despaired of life, but hoped I might be freed in death. How little I knew of what they had planned for me.

"When at last they came, I had vowed to resist them unto death. I did not expect to look up, blinking in the glow of a staff, to see in the open door of my cell, my old friend Alatar, dressed in a cloak of black. At first my heart surged to think he had come to free me. But then I learned the bitter truth.

"'Pallando, my brother,' said he softly. I can still remember the words. 'I am sorry for all of this, and would see you freed,' said he.

"'What do you mean?' asked I, not daring, not wanting, to guess.

"'I mean that this was the only way that was at hand to save you, grim and hard though it may seem. Yet I hope, when you have heard me, you will understand that all of this has happened so that you might be saved and that we might be together again, as of old.'

"'I do not call any plan that employs the Nazgul as one that leads to salvation,' said I.

"'That was beyond my power. But by my counsel, you were not slain,' said he.

"'A counselor of some importance,' I said with building wrath, for I grew angry as I came indeed to understand. 'You have risen in the world, Alatar. Once you were a problem for the Dark Lord. Now you are his problem solver?'

"'Believe me, I feel your pain. And your anger. But for the sake of our friendship of old, hear me," said he, and his voice softened as he thought to win me.

"'Sauron the Great would have had you tortured and slain, had I not entreated him to give you this chance. I set the choice before you, Pallando: the chance to continue our work together, as best we can, thinking of the ages, rather than merely of the day at hand.'

'"You mean join him in his wickedness, adopt his ways and his goals, hoping in time to overcome him by treachery?' I asked. 'And what shall remain of Middle-earth in that day, if it ever comes? Whatsoever remained of goodness and beauty would have utterly fled. And what could not flee and did not die would be ground under in subjugation, poisoned and twisted. What will you save in that day? And for whom?' I asked, knowing his answer, seeing the bent of his mind as ever I had. How it both grieved and terrified me to see what he had become.

'"And what shall remain if we do not?' he whispered to me fearfully, as if the Dark Lord far away could hear us if we spoke too loudly. 'Our mission has failed. Strength does not exist in Middle-earth to resist him. We cannot inspire it. We cannot create it. We should bring such strength as we ourselves have against him when we can, whenever that may be. If it takes an age, then so be it. If we resist him we will be slain, or worse. Sauron will never again be defeated by arms. Surely you see that! But he is not beyond defeat. Not even when he wielded the Ring of Power, and not even if he should ever find it again. Still, the chance may come in the passing ages when a bold stroke may end his terror. Then, whatever he has done to the land can be undone. The slaves can be freed, and peace under a more benevolent rule will last until the ages are ended.'

"'That is not a hope,' said I. 'That is a lie that you tell yourself to assuage whatever decency you have left. Even if this plan of yours had hope, and the only chance I see for it is if I helped you, it would only mean a second Dark Lord after the first. Why not a third after the second? Would that be my black ambition during your rule? Or would you let me live to entertain it? I choose death now.'

"'I did not say that was your second choice,' said he. 'You do not see the wisdom of my hope?'

"'I see the wickedness of your desire,' said I. 'Kill me now and have done.'

"'I think not. Pallando, you are a fool. You have always followed me, yet you choose otherwise at this last. You should not have broken that habit.' he hissed. 'If I kill you now, perhaps your spirit will find its way home. Not yet, my friend, not yet.'

"He raised his staff. I saw then that it was black in his fist, and that there was a ring upon his finger. What dark powers he called upon I despair to think. He uttered an incantation in the hated speech of Mordor;

"'In this darkness let him stay
here forever and a day,
until the Sun has shown her last,
hold him here and hold him fast.

"'Blackest night shall cast its pall
over sky and over all;
the world itself shall one day fail,
yet keep him here in endless jail.'"

With these words, though spoken in the Common Tongue, the bright elven torches seemed to dim and a chill filled the air of the cavern. Elediriel shivered in horror and with a cold that came without a draft. Pallando continued his story.

"Then at last I began to understand, too late, that there was a fate worse than death. Those words in that foul tongue were graven into my being and I remembered them when I could think of nothing else. I felt myself stiffen and I cried out in the rigour of my sudden pain. And so I was transfixed, mid-cry, alive, and yet unmoving, aware, and yet speechless, able to feel an unendurable pain of cold, yet unable to grow numb.

"'I truly am sorry, Pallando,' said he. 'I shall be lonely without you. Yet not so lonely as you.' And then he turned, closed the door to my cell, and left me in utter blackness.

"I cannot describe the agony I felt in mind and body and spirit. My best friend betrayed me. I was frozen in darkness with no relief from excruciating cold beyond the coldest winter on the highest mountain. And there was no end. I do not know how long a time or how short a time I held on to my sanity. I tried to recall all that I ever knew, and to think over all that I had ever seen. How many times I did this, I cannot say, but the cold would not let me hold a thought for long, though I tried and tried again. At last, in the dark alone, tormented beyond despair, after years or decades, I went mad.

"And so I stayed it seems, until a cataclysm came and I was free. O King, I knew not how or why, until your son and these his friends came upon me, but the Dark Lord was defeated. Indeed, I wonder if Alatar would have done as he did, and chosen as he had, had he known that one day, Olorin, Gandalf you called him, would bring about the fall of Sauron.

"But with the passing of the Dark Lord, so too did pass the spells that were woven about his strongholds and they came crashing down. From the Barad-dur to the Tower of Harad, all were cast down to rubble and ruin. The staff of Alatar was broken and so too was the transfixion which held me frozen through an age.

"Alatar had been made the lieutenant of Sauron over the lands of the South and the East, and as such, escaped the rout of the Dark Lord's forces at the end of the War of the Ring. Had he been closeted in the tower when it failed, perhaps he would have met his fate then. He was in the courtyard, and lived to see his fortress become a ruin all about him as his blackened staff burst asunder in his hand. Even so, though his staff was broken, still his mind turned with thoughts of dark ambition. He thought to turn his position into that of ruler where before he had merely been overseer.

"There was only one difficulty. And that was me. He encamped himself near the ruins and already was begun ordering things as he would have it, sending messages to the important places and maintaining the fiction of empire, hoping to soon make it reality again, before the enslaved peoples knew better.

"But I was awakened. The merest shaft of light filtered down into the darkness of my cell at highest noon, so broken and destroyed was the fortress above me. I lay in the darkness, cold beyond cold, frozen and unmoving, but I remember the beauty of the light, frail and thin, indirect and fleeting. I do not know how many times the daily radiance of the Sun chanced into my cell. It seems to me that I saw it several times before I knew it for what it was.

"Gradually, I became aware again of myself. I was miserably cold and afraid. I cannot say that I thought or that I truly knew much of anything, except that I was miserable and alone. I must have cried out, for I remember wailing in my pain and despair.

"This must have been heard by some who worked nearby, for it was brought to Alatar's attention. They cleared away enough of the stone and the rubble to open the dungeon entrance. When he opened my cell, he stood there long, looking upon me. He grasped my hands, for the chains had rusted to pieces and had fallen away in the ages. I was held no more by shackles, but only by the memory of a broken spell.

"But that memory was still strong upon me, though I remembered nothing else. I knew he who cast it and I recognized him, though he was saying words and claiming to be my rescuer. I grasped Alatar by the throat with freezing hands and felt the warmth drain from him as I uttered the same words that had entombed me alive for an age of men. I was aware as he struggled to escape me of the precarious stones piled high above, now falling in the tumult of our struggle. Soon, the cold and the blackness reclaimed us both and we were buried alive, he for the first time, and I once again.

"I perceived him in the darkness, conquered by my hate and his own folly, frozen and fearful and full of despair. And I knew nothing more. Many more years passed in the cold painful blackness, until I did not know if what I had done was real or a dream. In my madness, I did not care.

"It was long before men came again, taking the stones of the old fortress, hauling them away for some new construction. After the war, eventually there was trade again, and with trade came wealth to those who ruled Umbar. And with wealth came the ambitions of nobility, or what tried to pass as such. The stones were needed for a new palace for the latest of their kings.

"When the stones were cleared away, we were discovered at last, locked in a death grip, colder than ice, stronger than steel. The ruler ordered us brought into the light, and so we were. By the time he arrived, our grip on one another had been broken apart and we were lying under blankets and watchful eyes. I awoke first, I think. I was still as mad as could be, but I did not see Alatar or my cell about me. I drew the warm blankets close, and became frightened of the men. I soon felt strong enough to move, and move I did! I sprang up and ran, clinging still to the blankets, and bolted into the night.

"It was long before I had any idea of what had happened. I only remember long travel on foot, drinking out of pools, eating such herbs and fruits, berries, or nuts as I could find. There were great stretches of wilderness where there was nothing, and I hungered. But how wonderful this was compared to my torment! I was free! How I came to love the warmth and the wind! I kept moving. I suppose I feared pursuit, but I cannot say. I walked, ever wandering west when I could, looking for I knew not what. That is how I was when I was found. And now, now I am here. That is all that I can tell you, O King. I know nothing else to say about Pallando the Blue and Alatar the Black."

Elediriel felt herself breathe again. The cavern no longer seemed dim and cold, but was once again filled with warmth and light. She looked at Madrigal and saw the pretty hobbit's green eyes open wide in pity and glistening with tears. Turgon and Fingon looked with new and earnest respect at the wizard. The three rangers seemed to share this feeling, as did all who stood there before the throne of Thranduil. The elf king sat now and pronounced his judgment. It was only then that Ellie realized that by bringing him to the secret halls, Legolas had placed the life of the wizard into the king's hands.

"I deem that you are indeed one of the wizards who passed beyond these lands an age ago to fight the Dark Lord in such ways as you could. There is much that I would ask you, but you say you know nothing more. Then let this be so. Legolas, who brought you hither, will conduct you thither, with his eyes open and his hand ready. He shall be responsible if you prove false or if you prove mad indeed, though you seem neither this day. He shall go about with you for one year, and if he is satisfied that you are all that you seem, he shall return and your return shall be welcome too. Elsewise, neither the one nor the other shall return alive to this land. Let it be so!"

"Let it be so," said Legolas grimly.

The wizard nodded his head and bowed before the king. He and the company were led back out into the open air and silently taken to the camp prepared for them. No one quite knew what to say, and even the merry wood elves seemed somber and quiet as they stood guard around the subdued camp until all had fallen asleep.




Chapter XII

MESSENGERS AND KINGS

The next morning came early and when Elediriel woke, she felt as if she had not rested at all. She could not remember the strange and disquieting dreams of the trailing night, but knew they had not been pleasant. Madrigal and the Took Twins also were not their cheerful selves on that chill gray morning. Legolas was speaking to the elder rangers with quiet urgency. The hobbits were all curious and the four of them drew closer to hear, while Cairdur and Gimli tended the fire. Several elves stood about the camp, waiting for Ellie knew not what. Pallando sat off to himself, looking at the sky through the limbs of the trees of Greenwood and listening intently to the birds in the boughs.

"...so my father commands, and I must obey him in this," Legolas was saying.

"And yet our own mission is clear, that the Proclamation be delivered by the Heralds of our King and Queen to King Thorin at Erebor," said Cairduin. "We are not bound by Thranduil's commands, as you are, and though we will not gainsay the good king in his own kingdom, we must obey our own."

"And I would not counsel you otherwise," said Legolas. "Yet these circumstances were not anticipated ere you set out."

"What are you talking about?" asked Maddie. "And shouldn't the Heralds have something to say about it?"

"Our pardon, Little Mistress," said Aradhel, bowing gravely. "We sought to learn more ere we advised you. We are charged with your safety and your mission. But we have other charges to keep as well. Though we deemed it light labour, and only a pleasant journey with pleasant company, yon wizard has presented us with a dilemma."

"It will be better, I think, to keep him occupied with these small doings," said Legolas. "If he is still recovering from unimaginable torture, then let him do so among us, with whom he is now familiar. Invite him along."

"Perhaps you are correct, Master Elf," said Cairduin. "But what will Master Wizard have to say, I wonder? And how shall we prevent him from doing as he pleases? Methinks now I do not like his tale. His part was not all sweetness and light, it seems to me."

"I think he's been hurt enough!" said Maddie to the grim ranger. She turned then on her bare heel to the tall green-clad elf. "He needs our help. I think your father is mean not to help him. And the way he treated you, Legolas!"

"He treated me justly," said Legolas, sadly. "I do not know what I was thinking to bring him to the secret places of my father's kingdom as I did. And that gives me cause for concern. Besides, it may be that I was fated to have looked upon Greenwood the last time no matter what decisions or errors I have made along the way. I have seen enough even of Fangorn Forest, the greatest woods of Middle-earth, and there is little that now holds me here."

"There is more to all of this than yon wizard alone," said Aradhel. "There is the other wizard to consider as well. How long has it been since Alatar the Black was also released from captivity? What may he be doing even now? I think that our duty to make certain that King Elessar knows of these matters outweighs our mission to herald the birth of the Heir."

"And I say otherwise," said the elf. "Thranduil, my father, has already sent word on its way to Rivendell, to Gondor, and to Dale and Erebor as you slept, and his messengers will arrive more swiftly than we, whatever our path. If we take Pallando the long way with us, then it will be that much longer that he is kept from harm or from doing harm as you dour men seem to suspect. I will go with Pallando whatever his choice. Let us see if he will come to Erebor with you, and then to Rivendell."

"If Rivendell will have him," muttered Cairduin.

"Well, I hope he does go with us!" said Maddie. "But we still must go to King Thorin, mustn't we?"

"Yes," said Aradhel. "So we must. And for my part, I will be vigilant, but I suspect the wizard of nothing. He was honest, it seems, to have told us of how he called upon a spell of the shadows in his sorcerous duel with Alatar. Surely, if he wished to conceal dark designs, he would have made no mention of such a thing. Is even the mind of a wizard as subtle as that? He did not sound proud of the deed. Though I will watch him with one eye, I shall think no ill of him until he gives cause. So, let us follow the advice of Legolas, by your leave, Heralds of my King and Queen. But it does ease my mind, Legolas, to hear that Thranduil's messengers are on their way. Now, let us ask the wizard his mind, since it is so improved."

Gimli was speaking to the wizard near the warming fire. Pallando was listening with interest as the dwarf told of the increasing fortunes of the Dwarves.

"...aye! Since the fall of the Dragon, the winds of fortune have blown to favour the Dwarves! Even the designs of the Dark Lord did not stem the advance of our industry and prosperity. Our artisans are the greatest in the world, in the entire world mind you! We trade with all the realms of the West and all lands clamor for our goods! If I may say so, my own house has seen great profit in these golden years and though I have spent great wealth in Aglarond, I have greater wealth still in Erebor. But what is the good of wealth, if not to create things of use and beauty in the present, to inspire the future, and to memorialize the past? It has not harmed my fortunes to so spend it!"

"But wealth must also be conserved against days of dearth and destruction," said the wizard. "You cannot eat memorials, nor can fountains defend you against other dragons or other enemies."

"That is true," said the old dwarf, stroking his red and silver beard. "And in right measure, it is prudent indeed. But to hoard the labour of a lifetime against fear is to live without the joy your labour should bring. Eh, Legolas?"

"You speak rightly, Gimli," said Legolas, as the elf drew near.

"This dwarf speaks almost with the tongue of an elf!" Pallando laughed. "Times have indeed changed since I last walked freely in the world. I would dearly love to see this Kingdom under the Mountain."

"How wonderful!" exclaimed Madrigal. "We were just about to ask if you would come with us!"

"Too late!" cried Gimli. "I already have and it is settled! Shall we be off?"

The tall rangers looked at one another but said no word. Soon, the party had their breakfast and made ready for their journey to the Lonely Mountain. The wood elves conducted them to a place in the forest where a couple of rather large rafts awaited them on a small river. They all got aboard, horses, ponies, wagon, hobbits, rangers, dwarf, wizard, and the elves, who polled the flat crafts down the forest river until it joined the Long Lake and they were on their way to Esgaroth.

There is not much to tell of this part of their journey. Elediriel thought on how much more comfortable this was than when Bilbo Baggins had ridden a barrel down the chill waters to Lake Town. The wizard happily chatted with any that would listen or talk with him. He even talked to the birds of the air in their own languages as they flew overhead, so glad he said he was to have any conversation at all, after his long imprisonment. Ellie thought this a little irritating at times, since some of the birds were crows, whose language, though she did not understand it, was obviously not always drawing-room fashion.

They floated past, but not over the ruins of a town, where the elves said that the gigantic bones of the dragon Smaug could be seen amongst the rotten pilings of the old town. A new town had been built on the Long Lake and they made for this. Erebor, the Lonely Mountain, could be seen in the distance and it grew taller and more majestic with each passing day and with every passing league. Before setting out again for Dale, they stayed briefly at the new Lake Town, which it was still called by some, though no one who lived there was old enough to actually remember the old Lake Town. The wood elves stayed with them this whole way, and on a word from Legolas, remained on the northern shores of the lake to await their return.

The weather was now cold and the sky was grey. It looked very much as if it might snow. They proceeded on horse and pony and wagon north to Dale, stopping for a day and a night, graciously received by the King Bain of Dale, who took a keen interest in the hobbits and in the wizard who traveled with them. He warned them not to expect as warm a reception from the Dwarves, who were aware of their coming. He gave them small gifts and promised the undying alliance of the men of Dale with the men of Gondor and Arnor.

The hobbits marveled at the largest city and kingdom of men that they had yet seen. Gimli chuckled that the beautiful buildings and pools and fountains of Dale were largely the plans and constructions of Dwarves, and that to really see something, they must be patient. The next day, thanking King Bain for his hospitality, the party went on its way to Erebor and the Kingdom under the Mountain.

They followed the fast, cold, mountain river from Dale up the narrowing valley to a great carved, cavernous opening at the base of the great mountain. Gimli thought it unusual that there was no traffic upon the road. The snow began to fall in flurries of big flakes. When they arrived at the great opening, they saw that a vast iron portcullis had been lowered across the paths on either side and into the water itself. Before the iron gate stood many dwarves clad in shining helms and gleaming mail, clutching large axes in the iron grips of mailed gauntlets. Their faces were hard and grim.

Among them was another dwarf, whose long beard was gold and silver as Gimli's was red and silver and was plaited and thrust into his belt in the fashion of dwarves girt for war. His helm was tall and golden, though sturdy and built upon a foundation of iron. His eyes were cold and blue and he called out in a loud voice that stopped the party in their tracks and startled a squeal out of poor little Ellie!

"Halt, ye who are come to the Kingdom of Erebor, and state your business!"

Despite the warning of the King of Dale, this was not at all what the party expected, I can tell you! King Thorin II, called Stonehelm for reasons that are legendary among the Dwarves, was, by all accounts, a fine and just king, if a little gruff, as dwarves are apt to be. But not even Gimli thought they would be received in this fashion!

The old dwarf stood forward and bowed low before the mighty dwarf and said, "I am Gimli, son of Gloin, whom Your Majesty knows well. With me is my friend Legolas, son of Thranduil, and Rangers of the West, Aradhel, Cairduin, and Cairdur. And these are hobbits of the Shire, Fingon and Turgon Took, of the line of Peregrin, relations of Bilbo Baggins, whose name is well known to the King under the Mountain. Also I present Madrigal Brandybuck and Elediriel Cotton also of the Shire. These hobbits are here as heralds of King Elessar and Queen Arwen, come to deliver you a proclamation of great joy."

"And this other, whom you carefully fail to name?" demanded the kingly dwarf.

"He is Pallando the Blue, a wizard who after great hardship in the east in long years past, has found his way again to these western lands, and seeks healing and a return to whence he came," answered Gimli. A sudden west wind, especially cold and especially fierce, laden with thick snow, blew hard against the dwarves and the company as Thorin Stonehelm, King under the Mountain, looked upon the old man. At last, he spoke.

"He shall find neither healing here nor ships of elves," said King Thorin. "Nor is my hospitality open to him or to those who travel with him. I liked not the news I received from Thranduil. Once before this kingdom was lost for lack of vigilance. You have grown too trusting, Gimli, son of Gloin. I would not be inhospitable in these easy times, but I will not risk all that has been gained, until this wizard has proven himself through years of deeds and service. Not all who have called themselves wizards have meant well, and a King cannot take chances. The rest of you are welcome here, and more than welcome. But not the wizard. Let him find healing among elves or men, for we are not masters of such arts here. Let him find his way home on the road west, for it does not lie within these gates. Let him forgive us our mistrust, and understand our misgivings, and perhaps in later years find us more hospitable. But let him go."

"I shall go with him," said Legolas.

"And I," said Gimli, hotly.

"Then go with my blessing. And how much more will I bless your return. Without the wizard called Pallando the Blue," said Thorin, King under the Mountain.

The wizard himself then stepped forward. He looked to be only a tired and kindly old man, dressed in a plain blue cloak given him by the wood elves and heavy boots and warm clothes from Dale. The cold wind of the mountain whipped the cloak about his bent frame and the long whitened hair about his noble head.

"Thorin Stonehelm. You are a wise king, and I do not fault you for your suspicions or for your regard for the safety of your realm. Little do you know of me, or of my long struggles against the Enemy of old. To you, I am a relic of a more dangerous age, a memory of dread. And so, like a memory, I shall fade away and trouble you no more. But will you not receive these who have come a long way with glad news?"

Madrigal looked thankfully at the wizard and then stepped forward and curtsied prettily before the dwarven king. His hard visage softened and he nodded his iron and gold-helmed head.

The pretty hobbit girl broke the seal and read aloud the proclamation in her high clear voice and the King under the Mountain took the scroll from her and gravely thanked her.

"Would that I had received you in other circumstances," he said. "There is a special place in the hearts of the dwarves of my kingdom for you hobbits and your land of the Shire. Well did Elessar choose his heralds. I will not have it said that you were sent away from these cold gates with empty hands, and bereft of all hospitality."

He snapped his sturdy fingers in the cold air and four stout dwarves came forward carrying four small but strong boxes, carved of black stone, bound with iron, and inlaid with gold. Each dwarf opened his box so that the hobbits and all there could see the contents within.

"Ooooh, how beautiful," said Elediriel involuntarily. Within the boxes were small mirrors of exceptional quality, with brushes and combs for the girls, and there were small daggers and shining arrowheads for the Twins.

The hobbits thanked the king of the dwarves with many thanks, bowing and promising their service and the service of their families. The gruff old king then smiled and made them promise to return when they could.

The party left, feeling not unkindly to the dwarven king, but still somewhat disappointed. None more so than Gimli, who had looked forward to many a night of feasting and to showing the hobbits the many wonders of the Kingdom under the Mountain. The winds had ceased and the snow fell so lightly as to be scarcely noticeable. The sun peeked down through the clouds, and if she could not warm the cold air of the valley of Dale, then she at least made the day brighter and not as bitter.

I must say that Maddie (and Ellie too, if truth be told) was not at all concerned about the winter weather. She was more than satisfied with the fine mirror she had received, and gazed at her pretty face long in its flawless and captivating reflection. The Tooks, too, were quite happy with the daggers, testing their hard keen edges and marveling at the workmanship. It did cheer the old dwarf somewhat to brag on the craftsmanship and to answer the many questions of the hobbits (who knew full well that Gimli would be all too happy to answer!).

"Those mirrors are made of the hardest stone, polished as smoothly as our craft allows, and painted with a thin coat of silver overlaid with mithril and finely polished again at every step. They are kingly gifts indeed! And those arrowheads are forged of hardest steel, holding inset blades of mithril point and edge. Do not lose them! Do not use them! Save them for greatest need and recover them always!"

Cairduin laughed (for once) and frankly observed that it was perhaps better that things worked out as they had, at the gates of Erebor.

"No doubt Master Dwarf would have kept us there until next winter, boasting of the craftsmanship of generations of his relations!" said the ranger.

"No doubt, Master Ranger!" Gimli laughed in agreement. "But you undervalue dwarven skill! It would take me almost as long to show you and to tell you all there is to see as it did to craft it! And here I thought to hold a grudge against my King! Perhaps he well knew that his kingdom should be seen by these hobbits at greater leisure than you hard rangers would spare!"

"No doubt!" laughed Aradhel.

"Well," said the wizard. "It is a long road from Dale to the land of the Beornings. There shall be time enough perhaps even for our dwarven friend to tell us what we may have seen. I feel badly that you young hobbits were denied sight of the wonders. It is my own fault I fear. I would gladly have waited for you in Dale."

"I think it may be for the best," said Turry. "Now, we have an excuse to come back! Eh, Furry?"

"You are right, brother!" Furry said. "And we shall come back! What about you Maddie? Maddie?"

But Madrigal was still observing herself in the enchanting dwarvish mirror held in one hand, with Cider's reins held lightly in the other.