The smell was terrible and Frodo wrinkled his nose up in disgust.
He didn't understand why they had to be present for this part of the trial, hadn't it been bad enough when Pippin was kidnapped and then seeing his blooded and broken body when he was rescued.
But to have to stand here and watch the branding, bile rose up in his throat and Frodo had to cling to Sam's hand as the room began to spin.
Neit whimpered as the red-hot iron in the rune shape from an r was branded against one cheek; tears threatened to spill out of his eyes and he bit his bottom lip to keep from screaming.
Frodo hated the man, hated him more than anyone but he wouldn't wish pain on him, not pain this bad.
He looked up at Adie thinking that at least one of them might be getting satisfaction from seeing Neit endure this agony, but Adie looked grim and kept muttering and shaking his head.
Frodo wondered vaguely what Adie was thinking.
Did he wish Roisin here to see this? Frodo doubted it.
Frodo's thoughts drifted back to the trial if you could call it that.
Neit was guilty and even he couldn't deny it but when he was called a rapist he'd wept and say'd he loved Pippin.
And Frodo had hated him.
"I want to go" he whispered tugging at Adie's sleeve, the man looked down and nodded half-heartedly.
Frodo turned and trudged away, hand in hand with Sam.
He wondered how Pippin was doing.
****************************************
Roisin woke to loud, depressing noises; she looked around blearily unsure of where she was and then remembering with a jolt.
She was in her makeshift bed on the floor besides the big bed in which Pippin was asleep.
She got up and pulled a hand through her tangled hair
She checked Pippin over, his temperature was normal and he didn't look in any pain so the noise must be coming from one of the other rooms in Bag-End.
She finally found the source of the noise coming from the kitchens.
"Couldn't you have just given her a glass of water?" Merry's voice was a whisper of anger.
"Begging my pardon sir but I'm only here to help look after the house till Mr. Frodo and Samewise come back from there trip, I'm not here to look after some fancy women you bring back" Rose Cotton said every bit as angry as Merry but she didn't bother to keep her voice down.
"I'm not asking you for the world Rosie, I'm just asking you to be nice to her" Merry spoke softly trying to be friendly.
"I wouldn't spit on any of you if you where on fire, don't think I don't know what perverse things you get up to Meriadoc Brandybuck so keep your filthy hands away from me or I'll tell the Mayor and then where would you be?"
Roisin had had enough and walked into the kitchen, she went to stand behind Merry and placed her hands on his shoulders, starring the hobbit lass down.
"I think you should go home Miss Cotton, we don't want people like you around when Mr. Peregrin is so sick"
Rose sniffed and stuck her nose in the air, she turned to go but Roisin caught her arm with cat like agility
"And if you so much as tell a soul about us being here I will hunt you down and rip out your throat, do we get that clear?" Rose's eyes widened and she nodded in fear; Roisin released her and went to fill up the little black kettle with water.
The door slammed and the sound of Rose's frightened tears echoed as she ran down the gravel path that lead to Bag-End and out into the road.
Merry collapsed in a chair and put his head in his hands.
"Why did you do that?" he asked, Roisin was busy adding rose hips to the boiling water, when she finally answered him her voice sounded shaky.
"She had no right to threaten you like that and to treat me and Pippin like dirt" Roisin viciously tore up some camomile and sprinkled it in to the water, Merry pulled a face.
"I hope I don't have to drink that"
"It's for Pippin and you know that" Roisin chided him softly, affection in her brown eyes even though she was frowning.
"Is he any better?" Merry asked concerned.
"He smiled at me this morning, he's got a divine smile has your Pippin, he's sleeping now" Roisin said pleasantly.
She smiled and then the kettle boiled and she found the cloth to wrap around the handle before pouring the tea in too two cups, one for Pippin and one for herself.
She put the kettle down on the stove and took a sip from her cup, pulling a face as she drank and wrinkling up her nose to try and stop the smell from making her retch.
"If you're going to make yourself sick why keep drinking that stuff?"
"It's good for me" but she shuddered as she swallowed.
Merry shook his head in disbelief and rubbed a finger in the dust that had settled on the tabletop, he traced out Pippin's name and then surrounded it with little hearts and flowers.
Roisin leaned over to inspect it and clucked her tongue in approval.
"Very nice"
"Sam's going to have a fit when he sees the mess this place is in, and Rose Cotton all horty saying she's cleaning up, more like spying or trying to pocket one of Frodo's elven ornaments or little dwarven toys" Merry said cynically sneezing as the dust got up his nose.
There was a whimpering cry from the master bedroom.
Roisin grabbed Pippin's cup of tea and ran to the cry; Merry trailed after her slowly.
Pippin was still ashamed to let Merry see him for some reason so whenever Merry was in the room he would pull the covers up over his head and cry till Merry went away.
At the moment Pippin was sitting up in the bed wide eyed and crying, Roisin put down the cup on the bedside table, sat down on the bed and grabbed Pippin by both shoulder, the hobbit looked up at her open mouthed and Roisin softened.
"Good day Pippin how are you today?"
"Can't complain" Pippin said face braking out into smiles then he spotted the cup on the bedside "or at least I couldn't, must I drink that?"
"Yes, it's good for you" she handed the cup to Pippin and he drunk begrudgingly, shuddering and spitting.
"Can't wait till I'm well and don't have to drink that stuff"
hiding as he was behind the door Merry couldn't help but smile, Pippin sounded so sweetly childish.
Roisin laughed and tousled Pippin's hair.
"Let's take a look at your scare then" Pippin sighed and lifted up his shirt, the scare running from the bottom of his ribs down to his hip on both side's of his body was healing quickly, the stitches would have to come out soon.
Roisin ran a finger down the one on Pippin's stomach and the hobbit giggled squirming away.
"Stop that it tickles" Roisin sighed in relief, Pippin was going to be fine if only he talked to Merry.
"So" she breached this topic carefully, trying to keep the mode light "do you want to see anyone else today apart from me, like maybe your loving, protective, completely insane from wanting to speak to you cousin Merry?"
outside Merry's breath hitched in his throat and he crossed his fingers.
Pippin shook his head and burrowed into Roisin's embrace.
"no" he said sulkily, Merry outside tried to stop the tears but failing slipped away into the cellar hoping Frodo had some very strong ale.
"Why not?" Roisin didn't want to get angry at Pippin but he was getting on her nerves.
"Because I'm a terrible ugly person and Merry doesn't want me after I've been with someone else"
"He loves you"
"I love I him"
"I know Pippin" Roisin rocked backward and forwards, Pippin snuggled in her arms as if he where her babe, she smoothed back his curls and kissed his forehead.
"Roisin?"
"Yes Pippin?"
"Tell me a story"
"I'm not a story teller Pippin"
"Please" Pippin looked up at her with such pleading eyes Roisin couldn't say no.
"If you'll promise you'll go back to sleep after"
"alright"
Roisin sat silent for a few moments trying to remember some of the stories her mother had told her or one of the stories the women told when they sowed.
She didn't like there stories all about they glory of money and so sad when it came to young lovers, she didn't think Pippin would like them but maybe she could twist the story give it a happy ending.
"Good, well once upon a time there was a princes who was beautiful, pixie like with bright green eyes and sandy brown curls"
"She's pretty"
"Yes she is and her name was Poppy, she lived in a big castle with her friend Flora"
"Was Flora pretty?"
"Yes, but not like Poppy, Poppy was enchanting. Anyway they where happy living in the big castle because they had everything they could want. Enough mushrooms to keep even you happy but Poppy was sad even with Flora"
"Why was she sad?" Pippin asked inquisitively
"because she was in love with a peasant and his name was Meri"
Pippin giggled suddenly understanding.
"Was he handsome?" he asked playing along.
"Oh yes he was very handsome, with russet curls and brown eyes that sparkled like the precious gems the dwarfs mine."
"Like Merry mine"
"mm, might be" Roisin agreed "but one day a big old scary dragon flow in to the castle caught yard and said" and here Roisin put on a grumpy angry voice that made Pippin giggle in glee "I demand the princess or I will burn down the village at noon tomorrow"
"Oh"
"Yes oh, well what could the village do? They loved there princess but they didn't want to get burned so the next morning the princes was tied to a stake in the village square and left completely deserted to wait for the dragon"
Pippin took a sharp intake of breath and snuggled closer.
"And then when it was almost time for the Dragon to come and gobble her up the princess heard whistling and looking over her shoulder saw her love Meri walking merrily up the town square hands in pockets happy as could be.
'Go away Meri" says Poppy 'the dragon will be here soon and I don't want him to hurt you'
'Well you ladyship' says he 'I can't right leave you here, wouldn't be right and I don't want you to be gobbled up'
' But what can you do?' asks she 'your only a peasant'
Meri leaned over and kissed her softly, and then the dragon arrives crashing down in front of them and he looked them over and growls at Meri
'What are you doing? That's my princess'
And Meri shakes his head like so and says
'This is my princess'"
Roisin stopped for a moment trying to remember what came next and Pippin prodded her in the stomach.
"Well?"
If this was the village story the dragon would burn the boy to a crisp and eat the princess and then they tell her don't go falling in love with someone above or below you, or don't try and be a hero or something to make you lose faith in the world.
But Roisin had a happy ending for this story.
"Well then the dragon was very angry, so angry that he jumped about and blow smoke and Poppy was very frightened but Meri held her hand and she didn't feel so frightened anymore, but the dragon kept hopping about cursing this and that and he got so angry that he just went 'puft' and disappeared in a cloud of smoke"
"And Meri and Poppy?" Pippin said catching him self because he'd almost said Merry and Pippin.
"Well the town was so happy that Meri had saved there princes that they allowed him to marry her because he obviously loved her a lot"
"That's nice" Pippin said, he felt sleepy after all that talking and Roisin was warm and friendly to cuddle.
Slowly he drifted off into dreams of dragons, princess and a boy named Merry.
******************************
Is that an okay first chapter?
I'm so happy GO ENGLAND 1-0!!!!!!!!!!!
And it's Kit's birthday tomorrow which means I most likely wont have anything new up until Sunday, Monday at the latest.
sure Rose Cotton is really going to keep her big mouth shut *sarcastic like hell *(sorry I don't like her, steal Sam away from his Frodo, bitch)
Anyway R&R or I will be pissed or get pissed which ever happens first. (PARTY!)