elderberrywine (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
elderberrywine) wrote2003-09-09 11:28 pm
elderberrywine) wrote2003-09-09 11:28 pm
New fic 09/09/03
Planting Hope
Third and last part of the Sam series. Follows “Confessional” and “Endings and Beginnings”. Sam realizes his true task.
Rating: G
Title: Planting Hope
Author: Elderberry Wine
Summary: Pairing: F & S
Rating: G
Planting Hope
I never thought I could miss him so, but I surely did. For all he was a dumb animal, he’d been comfort to me when times had been mighty hard. And now I had to let him go, set about as we were with all manner of great beasts and snakes, and I never even got t’give him the comfort of an apple before he went. And even then, as we walked those dank tunnels, a’steppin’ on dwarf bones and Lady knows what else, I still couldn’t but think o’him. I’m still thinkin’ of you, Bill, and I’ll be lookin’ for you, whenever we get ourselves back to Rivendell, no mistake.
But I shouldn’t have been a-thinkin’ of Bill at a time like that, for there was a worse worry on my mind, and that was you, Mr. Frodo. I couldn’t hear you ahead of me, and I couldn’t see but the shape of you in front of me in that fearsome dark. The footing was that treacherous, trying to climb those crumbling stone steps as were meant for dwarf legs, and there was dark holes all about. I tried to stay close by, but you weren’t payin’ no mind to me, movin’ as if in a dream. And I knew why.
Not in the worst of my nightmares did I ever see the like of that thing in the pool outside. Quick as breath it grabbed you, and started pulling you under. But this time, leastways, I was ready. There had been something about that dark water that I hadn’t liked, no not at all, and Bill wouldn’t go near it noways. That pony had a lot of sense, he did, and Bill’s opinion was good enough for me.
When Mr. Pippin went skippin’ those stones across it, as if it were no more than Bywater Pond by night, that seemed like pure trouble. But you can never tell a Took naught, so I just kept a sharp look-out. And I knew, sure as anything, if there was danger in that pond, it’d be makin’ straightways for you.
I guess that’s why I had my knife out as soon as it touched you, and for a bit there, it seemed like the whole lot of them as were watchin’, were as still as stones. But then Mr. Boromir and Strider, they jumped in too, and we got you away from it. Not before it tried to swallow you alive though. And you didn’t say naught after we went inside and those great doors crashed around us.
And that was what as had me worried plenty. Mr. Merry now, or Mr. Pippin, wouldn’t they have been kickin’ up a fuss, if it had been them. But you just went along, as if it was the kind of thing you expected now, and that was what as had me right worried.
Ahead of us was the glow from Gandalf’s staff, and that’s all we had for a bit of light, and that would have suited me fine, for surely there was naught about to bear lookin’ at for long, if I could only have caught a good look at you first.
Mr. Gandalf finally let us have a halt for the night, though I guess there isn’t rightly no night or day inside this dark hole. Mr. Merry and Mr. Pippin were that tired they just dropped themselves like the sacks in Ted Sandyman’s mill, near the doorway of the little room that Mr. Gandalf found for us. I didn’t think to fix them a bite to eat at first, as I was keepin’ a close eye on you, Mr. Frodo. You were sittin’ towards a back corner of the room with arms around your knees and your face hidden, but I wagered you weren’t sleepin’, noways. Well, it didn’t hurt to make a bite for those as needed it, even though I knew it’d be a job to get you to eat anything, Mr. Frodo.
Soon, Mr. Gandalf dimmed the light, and Boromir and Strider took up the first watch in the doorway of our room. Mr. Gandalf seemed to be keepin’ the peace between the Elf and the Dwarf about the state of the front of this place, but at least they were tryin’ to keep it down. I could see Mr. Merry and Mr. Pippin, now one sack instead of two, snoring lightly together. That pair was going to be right hungry in the morning, they didn’t hardly stay awake to eat a bite. But it was you as concerned me right then, Mr. Frodo.
And when I drew near to you, to try to get you to eat, I could feel that you were a-tremblin’. You still wouldn’t lift your head, no, not even when I touched your shoulder and whispered your name. So I did what I could.
I sat down next to you and, leaning back against the wall myself, let my side rest against you, just so’s you’d know I was there in all this gloominess. There we sat for a bit. You were still shakin’ and I, I couldn’t think of anything as would help you any. The Elf and Dwarf had finished their argument seemingly, at least for the night, though I doubted that we had heard the end o’that. Gandalf dimmed the light even further, and all was dark around us.
Then I heard your whisper, so quiet that I thought I had only imagined it at first. “Sam,” you breathed in a unsteady voice, “talk to me, Sam.”
Now I knew you didn’t want to be talkin’ about what had happened, and I knew I never had the right words to cheer you, but then I felt the apple in my pocket that had rightly belonged to Bill, and the words just popped out o’my mouth. “I’ve been thinkin’ about the orchard, Mr. Frodo,” I heard myself say.
What in the name of all the stars ever put that in my head, I’ll never know, but you jumped onto that, Mr. Frodo, as if you’d been waitin’ all day especially to chat about that with me. “The orchard, Sam?” you asked, your voice already startin’ to steady a bit. “Tell me about it.”
“Well now, it’s that back row,” I explained, still feelin’ foolish, but hearin’ your breathing start to calm, “that row o’Winesaps. They’ve been there awhile, they have, and there ain’t so many apples from them nowadays.”
“Do you think they should be replaced, then?” you asked as if that was the most important matter as had been put to you in many a day.
“I hear tell that those golden apples, they’re mighty good for tarts and such,” I explained. “And since they take five years or so to be fruiting, mayhap we should be startin’ to replace those old ones with new.”
“That sounds like a good plan, Sam,” you said consideringly. You were beginning to lean against me now and I felt the tremblin’ was nearly gone.
“That apple wood makes fine kindling, too, and it was shapin’ up to be a right chilly winter when we left,” I added. And then I could have clouted myself for the greatest ninnyhammer as ever was. Hadn’t you just gone and sold Bag End to Lobelia and her lot afore we left? But if you weren’t going to mention it, no more was I.
“You’re right,” you answered slowly, and then I felt you sag against me, your breathing now steady and calm. You were finally asleep. I carefully laid my cloak over the both of us, and fell asleep too.
I suppose it was day, or as much as it ever is day in these parts, when Mr. Gandalf touched my shoulder to wake me. I could feel you lyin’ heavy against my side and that arm was right numb, too, but when I looked over to you in the light of Gandalf’s torch, your face was that peaceful, I just wished you could sleep a bit more. But Gandalf shook his head, although with a kindly look on his face, as if he knew what I was a’thinkin’. “We must get further away from the doors as quickly as we can, Sam,” he explained in a sympathetic sort of way, “and there are many days of travel still ahead in Moria.”
Well, the part about gettin’ as far away from those doors, and what was outside them, sounded about right to me, though I didn’t much like the sound of the rest of it. So I carefully brushed your cheek with my free hand and tried to sound as if we were back in Bag End, and I was rousin’ you for a late breakfast. “Not much sun this morning, Mr. Frodo, but I’m afraid it’ll have to do.”
You woke slowly, with a yawn, and still lay against me for a minute or two more, not that I minded. Then you gave a sudden start and sat straight up, and even in the gloom I could see you look about as if you didn’t recollect where we were. But then your shoulders slumped and your head bowed down, and I knew you had remembered it all.
It was a long and wearisome road we walked that day. There were great holes on either side of the way, and more than once I felt my heart drop as Mr. Pippin would lose his footing on a bit of loose rock and go sliding toward the edge. Mr. Merry and I would grab him to hold him back, but that Took would just keep watching each bit of rock fall as if he was that interested to see how long it would take them to hit bottom. I never did hear them hit.
The Elf and Dwarf were ahead of us, not talkin’ much. At first, the Elf was lookin’ about him as if he hadn’t heard much good about this place but it was even worse than he had thought. But after a bit, I think he started to feel somewhat sorry for the Dwarf, who was walkin’ besides him with his head down. This was supposed to be the great hall of his folk, but it was clear now that it was naught but wreck, and there was no sign of his folk noways. Not alive, at any rate. So the Elf kept his remarks to himself, and walked close by, for company’s sake.
Mr. Pippin and the Elf took the first watch that night, and I could hear that Tookborough lilt askin’ questions and makin’ remarks w’nary a breath between. The Elf is certainly a patient sort, I’ll give him that. The rest of us were spread out on a flat edge that Mr. Gandalf had found, back aways from the stairs, and I noticed how he made sure you were away to the back of it. Whatever creature was a’lurkin’ in these foul holes was going to have to get through the rest of us first.
At least you took a bite to eat that night, and after I had packed up the cooking gear, and sat down besides you, you gave a sigh, and settled right next to me. “I miss the stars, Sam,” you said quietly in the dark.
“Don’t I too, Mr. Frodo,” I whispered back, knowing suddenly how true that was. “But they don’t look nowheres as pretty as they do over Bag End.”
“I can just see them on a summer’s eve.” Your voice was still so soft, but a little dreamy now, it seemed to me. “Filling the sky. And if you’re lying on the grass, some nights, it just seems like they’re sparkling down on you.”
“Aye.” I could see them now likewise, and me just a’lyin’ there too, the grass still all warm. “Just like one of Mr. Gandalf’s special fireworks shows. But they’re there every night, whether you look for them or no.”
“You always do look for them, don’t you, Sam?” and your voice was gettin’ right sleepy now.
“Well, I can’t deny as I’ve always had an eye for pretty things,” I couldn’t help but laugh a bit. “Whether they be flowers or stars.”
“Mmmm,” you answered me back, and I knew I’d put a smile on your face as you nestled down against me. Both of us were asleep in no time that night.
It had been once again a long and toilsome walk when we at last settled ourselves down that next night. You had seemed uneasy all day, and kept lookin’ about you, as if you were seein’ something the rest of us weren’t. I noticed you made for Mr. Gandalf as soon as we had had our bit of a meal, and the both of you had a long quiet chat. Tired as I was, and surely you as well, you seemed no more in the mood for sleep as was I, when you came to seek me out for the night.
Seein’ in the faint bit o’light as how the old wizard was smoking his pipe, I figured we could do likewise, and took them out from our packs. “Smoke, Mr. Frodo?” I offered, and it felt good to see your smile at that.
“That would be lovely, Sam,” you said softly, and we settled down in a out-of-the-way corner to let our hearts be eased a bit by the scent of the Shire.
You were resting against me, the both of us fitting together in a way that had gotten to feel right comfortable in these hard and lonely places, when you suddenly asked me, “Could I ever had said no, Sam? Could I have said no to Gandalf back in Bag End? Or to Elrond in Rivendell? Or has this journey always been waiting to happen to me, all my life? After all, Bilbo picked It up before I was born. Was it always me that he was supposed to leave It to?”
You stopped at that, leaning more heavily against my shoulder, and I could feel you at my side, as tense and coiled as a young sapling bein’ held to the ground. Well, of course, I surely didn’t have the answers to that riddle, but you knew that as well as I, so I smoked a while longer and thought about it.
“Well, Mr. Frodo,” I said after a bit, “I don’t know much about the whys and the maybe should have beens of it all. But I’ve never seen you back down when you think it’s something as you ought to do, no matter how dirty the job, be it puttin’ Ted Sandyman in his place or facing up to that Lobelia Sackville-Baggins when she gets her vane in a top-wind.”
You laughed a bit at that, albeit a little shakily. “I suspect the worst terrors of the Shire will appear a trifle mild, if we ever get back.”
“Well, and why wouldn’t we?” I couldn’t help but huff a bit at the thought. “What with all these great Men, and an Elf and a Dwarf, as well as a Wizard to top it off, how could we not help but do what we mean to do?”
“I note that you did not mention my cousins.” I could hear the smile in your voice.
“Aye, that I did not.” And you definitely laughed at that.
“Ah, my dear Sam, I’d be lost without you,” you said softly as you put out your pipe and settled yourself down against my side. And the draught didn’t seem nearly as chill that night.
The second watch that night was Gimli‘s, along with Mr. Boromir, but the Wizard took the Man’s place, and motioned me out, instead of the Dwarf, into the great hallway. It was a cold and bitter night, and I missed the warmth of you next to me something fierce, but it don’t do to question a wizard. “So, Sam,” he said at last, once we’d settled down and I had wrapped my cloak and blanket around myself as tight as might be against the coldness of that grim hall. “For all that you were so fond of Bilbo’s tales, I suspect the great world has been more than you thought it to be.”
Well, I certainly couldn’t help agreeing to that. “More fair and foul than I ever knew,” I granted him. “And the fair as perilous as the rest.”
The wizard softly grunted in an approving sort of way, and pulled his pipe out from under his robes. “I suppose I need not ask you if you mean to remain with Frodo,” he mentioned as he carefully tamped the pipe in the dim light of his staff.
A fool question, of course, but I did not mention that to him. “Aye, there ought to be a bit I can do to help out in this great Company,” I informed him. “I’d not be turning back now, unless it be at his side.”
“And do you think he would, Sam?” the wizard’s gaze was suddenly on me, forceful from under those great eyebrows of his.
“Not Mr. Frodo,” I answered him back as confident as you please. “Not when there’s a job to be done first.”
“No, I suppose not,” he answered back softly and, it seemed to me, sadly as well. “Somehow it has come to be the task of your people, and no hobbit is better suited to it than Frodo.” He stared quietly at his pipe for a few minutes, and then, as if coming to a decision, added, “The Ring will change him, Sam.”
I stared at him foolishly, not understanding. “Change Mr. Frodo? But how?” I asked.
“I cannot tell you,” he replied, still staring at his pipe as if all the answers lay in the smoke that came from it. “But no-one holds onto the Ring without change. Our greatest hope is that hobbits, and Frodo in particular, can resist that change longer than other folk. But change he must.” He lay silent as I tried to understand what he was telling me. Then he added, still staring at that pipe, “That’s when he’ll need you the most, Sam. And no one but you.”
And then he fell silent, with nary a word more, and I didn’t dare ask naught. All the rest of that watch, long into the night, I tried to puzzle that one through. And by the time I returned to your side, I think I worked out what he meant.
You see, Mr. Frodo, there’s many who can protect you better than I. Those great Men can wield a sword in battle that I can scarcely pick up. And the Elf with his bow, and the Dwarf with his ax, why, they’re marvels indeed to watch. And your cousins, well, no hobbit need lack for talk and companionship when they’re around, and I do know they love you truly. And if counsel and guidance are needed, well, there is the great wizard himself right at hand.
So what can I do for you, Mr. Frodo? I think now I know. Those others, Mr. Frodo, they’ll see as you get the job done. But for me, Frodo me dear, I’ll bring you home. I swear I’ll bring you home.
Third and last part of the Sam series. Follows “Confessional” and “Endings and Beginnings”. Sam realizes his true task.
Rating: G
Title: Planting Hope
Author: Elderberry Wine
Summary: Pairing: F & S
Rating: G
Planting Hope
I never thought I could miss him so, but I surely did. For all he was a dumb animal, he’d been comfort to me when times had been mighty hard. And now I had to let him go, set about as we were with all manner of great beasts and snakes, and I never even got t’give him the comfort of an apple before he went. And even then, as we walked those dank tunnels, a’steppin’ on dwarf bones and Lady knows what else, I still couldn’t but think o’him. I’m still thinkin’ of you, Bill, and I’ll be lookin’ for you, whenever we get ourselves back to Rivendell, no mistake.
But I shouldn’t have been a-thinkin’ of Bill at a time like that, for there was a worse worry on my mind, and that was you, Mr. Frodo. I couldn’t hear you ahead of me, and I couldn’t see but the shape of you in front of me in that fearsome dark. The footing was that treacherous, trying to climb those crumbling stone steps as were meant for dwarf legs, and there was dark holes all about. I tried to stay close by, but you weren’t payin’ no mind to me, movin’ as if in a dream. And I knew why.
Not in the worst of my nightmares did I ever see the like of that thing in the pool outside. Quick as breath it grabbed you, and started pulling you under. But this time, leastways, I was ready. There had been something about that dark water that I hadn’t liked, no not at all, and Bill wouldn’t go near it noways. That pony had a lot of sense, he did, and Bill’s opinion was good enough for me.
When Mr. Pippin went skippin’ those stones across it, as if it were no more than Bywater Pond by night, that seemed like pure trouble. But you can never tell a Took naught, so I just kept a sharp look-out. And I knew, sure as anything, if there was danger in that pond, it’d be makin’ straightways for you.
I guess that’s why I had my knife out as soon as it touched you, and for a bit there, it seemed like the whole lot of them as were watchin’, were as still as stones. But then Mr. Boromir and Strider, they jumped in too, and we got you away from it. Not before it tried to swallow you alive though. And you didn’t say naught after we went inside and those great doors crashed around us.
And that was what as had me worried plenty. Mr. Merry now, or Mr. Pippin, wouldn’t they have been kickin’ up a fuss, if it had been them. But you just went along, as if it was the kind of thing you expected now, and that was what as had me right worried.
Ahead of us was the glow from Gandalf’s staff, and that’s all we had for a bit of light, and that would have suited me fine, for surely there was naught about to bear lookin’ at for long, if I could only have caught a good look at you first.
Mr. Gandalf finally let us have a halt for the night, though I guess there isn’t rightly no night or day inside this dark hole. Mr. Merry and Mr. Pippin were that tired they just dropped themselves like the sacks in Ted Sandyman’s mill, near the doorway of the little room that Mr. Gandalf found for us. I didn’t think to fix them a bite to eat at first, as I was keepin’ a close eye on you, Mr. Frodo. You were sittin’ towards a back corner of the room with arms around your knees and your face hidden, but I wagered you weren’t sleepin’, noways. Well, it didn’t hurt to make a bite for those as needed it, even though I knew it’d be a job to get you to eat anything, Mr. Frodo.
Soon, Mr. Gandalf dimmed the light, and Boromir and Strider took up the first watch in the doorway of our room. Mr. Gandalf seemed to be keepin’ the peace between the Elf and the Dwarf about the state of the front of this place, but at least they were tryin’ to keep it down. I could see Mr. Merry and Mr. Pippin, now one sack instead of two, snoring lightly together. That pair was going to be right hungry in the morning, they didn’t hardly stay awake to eat a bite. But it was you as concerned me right then, Mr. Frodo.
And when I drew near to you, to try to get you to eat, I could feel that you were a-tremblin’. You still wouldn’t lift your head, no, not even when I touched your shoulder and whispered your name. So I did what I could.
I sat down next to you and, leaning back against the wall myself, let my side rest against you, just so’s you’d know I was there in all this gloominess. There we sat for a bit. You were still shakin’ and I, I couldn’t think of anything as would help you any. The Elf and Dwarf had finished their argument seemingly, at least for the night, though I doubted that we had heard the end o’that. Gandalf dimmed the light even further, and all was dark around us.
Then I heard your whisper, so quiet that I thought I had only imagined it at first. “Sam,” you breathed in a unsteady voice, “talk to me, Sam.”
Now I knew you didn’t want to be talkin’ about what had happened, and I knew I never had the right words to cheer you, but then I felt the apple in my pocket that had rightly belonged to Bill, and the words just popped out o’my mouth. “I’ve been thinkin’ about the orchard, Mr. Frodo,” I heard myself say.
What in the name of all the stars ever put that in my head, I’ll never know, but you jumped onto that, Mr. Frodo, as if you’d been waitin’ all day especially to chat about that with me. “The orchard, Sam?” you asked, your voice already startin’ to steady a bit. “Tell me about it.”
“Well now, it’s that back row,” I explained, still feelin’ foolish, but hearin’ your breathing start to calm, “that row o’Winesaps. They’ve been there awhile, they have, and there ain’t so many apples from them nowadays.”
“Do you think they should be replaced, then?” you asked as if that was the most important matter as had been put to you in many a day.
“I hear tell that those golden apples, they’re mighty good for tarts and such,” I explained. “And since they take five years or so to be fruiting, mayhap we should be startin’ to replace those old ones with new.”
“That sounds like a good plan, Sam,” you said consideringly. You were beginning to lean against me now and I felt the tremblin’ was nearly gone.
“That apple wood makes fine kindling, too, and it was shapin’ up to be a right chilly winter when we left,” I added. And then I could have clouted myself for the greatest ninnyhammer as ever was. Hadn’t you just gone and sold Bag End to Lobelia and her lot afore we left? But if you weren’t going to mention it, no more was I.
“You’re right,” you answered slowly, and then I felt you sag against me, your breathing now steady and calm. You were finally asleep. I carefully laid my cloak over the both of us, and fell asleep too.
I suppose it was day, or as much as it ever is day in these parts, when Mr. Gandalf touched my shoulder to wake me. I could feel you lyin’ heavy against my side and that arm was right numb, too, but when I looked over to you in the light of Gandalf’s torch, your face was that peaceful, I just wished you could sleep a bit more. But Gandalf shook his head, although with a kindly look on his face, as if he knew what I was a’thinkin’. “We must get further away from the doors as quickly as we can, Sam,” he explained in a sympathetic sort of way, “and there are many days of travel still ahead in Moria.”
Well, the part about gettin’ as far away from those doors, and what was outside them, sounded about right to me, though I didn’t much like the sound of the rest of it. So I carefully brushed your cheek with my free hand and tried to sound as if we were back in Bag End, and I was rousin’ you for a late breakfast. “Not much sun this morning, Mr. Frodo, but I’m afraid it’ll have to do.”
You woke slowly, with a yawn, and still lay against me for a minute or two more, not that I minded. Then you gave a sudden start and sat straight up, and even in the gloom I could see you look about as if you didn’t recollect where we were. But then your shoulders slumped and your head bowed down, and I knew you had remembered it all.
It was a long and wearisome road we walked that day. There were great holes on either side of the way, and more than once I felt my heart drop as Mr. Pippin would lose his footing on a bit of loose rock and go sliding toward the edge. Mr. Merry and I would grab him to hold him back, but that Took would just keep watching each bit of rock fall as if he was that interested to see how long it would take them to hit bottom. I never did hear them hit.
The Elf and Dwarf were ahead of us, not talkin’ much. At first, the Elf was lookin’ about him as if he hadn’t heard much good about this place but it was even worse than he had thought. But after a bit, I think he started to feel somewhat sorry for the Dwarf, who was walkin’ besides him with his head down. This was supposed to be the great hall of his folk, but it was clear now that it was naught but wreck, and there was no sign of his folk noways. Not alive, at any rate. So the Elf kept his remarks to himself, and walked close by, for company’s sake.
Mr. Pippin and the Elf took the first watch that night, and I could hear that Tookborough lilt askin’ questions and makin’ remarks w’nary a breath between. The Elf is certainly a patient sort, I’ll give him that. The rest of us were spread out on a flat edge that Mr. Gandalf had found, back aways from the stairs, and I noticed how he made sure you were away to the back of it. Whatever creature was a’lurkin’ in these foul holes was going to have to get through the rest of us first.
At least you took a bite to eat that night, and after I had packed up the cooking gear, and sat down besides you, you gave a sigh, and settled right next to me. “I miss the stars, Sam,” you said quietly in the dark.
“Don’t I too, Mr. Frodo,” I whispered back, knowing suddenly how true that was. “But they don’t look nowheres as pretty as they do over Bag End.”
“I can just see them on a summer’s eve.” Your voice was still so soft, but a little dreamy now, it seemed to me. “Filling the sky. And if you’re lying on the grass, some nights, it just seems like they’re sparkling down on you.”
“Aye.” I could see them now likewise, and me just a’lyin’ there too, the grass still all warm. “Just like one of Mr. Gandalf’s special fireworks shows. But they’re there every night, whether you look for them or no.”
“You always do look for them, don’t you, Sam?” and your voice was gettin’ right sleepy now.
“Well, I can’t deny as I’ve always had an eye for pretty things,” I couldn’t help but laugh a bit. “Whether they be flowers or stars.”
“Mmmm,” you answered me back, and I knew I’d put a smile on your face as you nestled down against me. Both of us were asleep in no time that night.
It had been once again a long and toilsome walk when we at last settled ourselves down that next night. You had seemed uneasy all day, and kept lookin’ about you, as if you were seein’ something the rest of us weren’t. I noticed you made for Mr. Gandalf as soon as we had had our bit of a meal, and the both of you had a long quiet chat. Tired as I was, and surely you as well, you seemed no more in the mood for sleep as was I, when you came to seek me out for the night.
Seein’ in the faint bit o’light as how the old wizard was smoking his pipe, I figured we could do likewise, and took them out from our packs. “Smoke, Mr. Frodo?” I offered, and it felt good to see your smile at that.
“That would be lovely, Sam,” you said softly, and we settled down in a out-of-the-way corner to let our hearts be eased a bit by the scent of the Shire.
You were resting against me, the both of us fitting together in a way that had gotten to feel right comfortable in these hard and lonely places, when you suddenly asked me, “Could I ever had said no, Sam? Could I have said no to Gandalf back in Bag End? Or to Elrond in Rivendell? Or has this journey always been waiting to happen to me, all my life? After all, Bilbo picked It up before I was born. Was it always me that he was supposed to leave It to?”
You stopped at that, leaning more heavily against my shoulder, and I could feel you at my side, as tense and coiled as a young sapling bein’ held to the ground. Well, of course, I surely didn’t have the answers to that riddle, but you knew that as well as I, so I smoked a while longer and thought about it.
“Well, Mr. Frodo,” I said after a bit, “I don’t know much about the whys and the maybe should have beens of it all. But I’ve never seen you back down when you think it’s something as you ought to do, no matter how dirty the job, be it puttin’ Ted Sandyman in his place or facing up to that Lobelia Sackville-Baggins when she gets her vane in a top-wind.”
You laughed a bit at that, albeit a little shakily. “I suspect the worst terrors of the Shire will appear a trifle mild, if we ever get back.”
“Well, and why wouldn’t we?” I couldn’t help but huff a bit at the thought. “What with all these great Men, and an Elf and a Dwarf, as well as a Wizard to top it off, how could we not help but do what we mean to do?”
“I note that you did not mention my cousins.” I could hear the smile in your voice.
“Aye, that I did not.” And you definitely laughed at that.
“Ah, my dear Sam, I’d be lost without you,” you said softly as you put out your pipe and settled yourself down against my side. And the draught didn’t seem nearly as chill that night.
The second watch that night was Gimli‘s, along with Mr. Boromir, but the Wizard took the Man’s place, and motioned me out, instead of the Dwarf, into the great hallway. It was a cold and bitter night, and I missed the warmth of you next to me something fierce, but it don’t do to question a wizard. “So, Sam,” he said at last, once we’d settled down and I had wrapped my cloak and blanket around myself as tight as might be against the coldness of that grim hall. “For all that you were so fond of Bilbo’s tales, I suspect the great world has been more than you thought it to be.”
Well, I certainly couldn’t help agreeing to that. “More fair and foul than I ever knew,” I granted him. “And the fair as perilous as the rest.”
The wizard softly grunted in an approving sort of way, and pulled his pipe out from under his robes. “I suppose I need not ask you if you mean to remain with Frodo,” he mentioned as he carefully tamped the pipe in the dim light of his staff.
A fool question, of course, but I did not mention that to him. “Aye, there ought to be a bit I can do to help out in this great Company,” I informed him. “I’d not be turning back now, unless it be at his side.”
“And do you think he would, Sam?” the wizard’s gaze was suddenly on me, forceful from under those great eyebrows of his.
“Not Mr. Frodo,” I answered him back as confident as you please. “Not when there’s a job to be done first.”
“No, I suppose not,” he answered back softly and, it seemed to me, sadly as well. “Somehow it has come to be the task of your people, and no hobbit is better suited to it than Frodo.” He stared quietly at his pipe for a few minutes, and then, as if coming to a decision, added, “The Ring will change him, Sam.”
I stared at him foolishly, not understanding. “Change Mr. Frodo? But how?” I asked.
“I cannot tell you,” he replied, still staring at his pipe as if all the answers lay in the smoke that came from it. “But no-one holds onto the Ring without change. Our greatest hope is that hobbits, and Frodo in particular, can resist that change longer than other folk. But change he must.” He lay silent as I tried to understand what he was telling me. Then he added, still staring at that pipe, “That’s when he’ll need you the most, Sam. And no one but you.”
And then he fell silent, with nary a word more, and I didn’t dare ask naught. All the rest of that watch, long into the night, I tried to puzzle that one through. And by the time I returned to your side, I think I worked out what he meant.
You see, Mr. Frodo, there’s many who can protect you better than I. Those great Men can wield a sword in battle that I can scarcely pick up. And the Elf with his bow, and the Dwarf with his ax, why, they’re marvels indeed to watch. And your cousins, well, no hobbit need lack for talk and companionship when they’re around, and I do know they love you truly. And if counsel and guidance are needed, well, there is the great wizard himself right at hand.
So what can I do for you, Mr. Frodo? I think now I know. Those others, Mr. Frodo, they’ll see as you get the job done. But for me, Frodo me dear, I’ll bring you home. I swear I’ll bring you home.