What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
By RadcliffePotter
Frodo could not stop sneezing; his eyes burned, and his throat was itchy. Climbing down from his bed onto the cold stone floor, Frodo couldn't help but shudder. Retrieving his handkerchief from the bedside table, Frodo sat down and blew his nose. His nose was horribly stuffy yet annoyingly runny at the same time. He had barely gotten a wink of sleep the previous night. It seemed like any time he started to drift off, a monstrous sneeze would erupt, both completely waking him up and making his chest and nose sorer than they had previously been.
After several failed attempts at sleep, Frodo had made his way as quickly and quietly as possible to the kitchen in the home that the whole Fellowship, minus the King, shared in Minas Tirith. After retrieving some ginger candies, some oranges, and several tall glasses of lemonade, Frodo hurried back to his room. The ginger candies soothed his itching throat, but they soon ran out and that horrible tickle that preceded a fit of coughing had returned. Frodo had coughed, as quietly as possible, until he was nearly blue in the face. The last thing he wanted was for Aragorn to find out about this. The poor Man had just gotten over worrying about the last of his fading injuries from destroying the One Ring. And these days he was very busy – running a kingdom and whatnot – and disturbing him for a little tickle in the throat of a little Hobbit seemed like quite a foolish thing to Frodo.
Finally, his sheer weariness had allowed him to sleep. He woke up the next morning still tired – and annoyed. Blast this cough! Frodo thought angrily. Well, nothing to be done about it. He was a grown-up Hobbit and more than capable of getting through this without Aragorn's overly-watchful eagle eye or Sam's incessant babying. Honestly. Frodo thought in annoyance, The way they treat me, you would think I was still a lad!
Snorting in annoyance, Frodo set about washing his face, combing his hair and generally doing anything that would make him look presentable – and more importantly – healthy. Frodo had a sneaking suspicion however, that his voice wasn't in the best of conditions after spending half of the night coughing into his pillow. Speaking quietly in a soft voice, he heard only a strangled gurgle come out. He groaned inwardly. Surely Sam would realize something was amiss. But perhaps, if he was lucky, Frodo could put off Sam finding out until later. If he just acted like nothing was wrong…what was the worst that could happen?