I got many of the ideas for scenery and emotions that I used from the book, The Fellowship of the Ring. Everything else I invented myself, because obviously, this did not happen in the book... I wrote it because, in my mind, Pippin and Merry could not sit long in a boat without causing some sort of good, comical fun... poor Boromir, having to share a boat with them! ;)

Hobbits bring fun with them where ever they go. *happy sigh*

An Unexpected Trip

Rated G

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On either side of the boats, the broad river stretched and rolled out from underneath them, silky ripples floating across the surface as the paddles dipped beneath the cool water and the boats slid through it. An uneasy silence had developed between the trio of boats; troubled thoughts were on the mind of all eight remaining Fellowship members, and the presence of laughter or even a smile was as bare as the shore that slipped by them.

In the center boat, Pippin wallowed in torment. The quiet was unbearable. His eyes habitually strayed to the banks and desperately searched the long, desiccated grasses, as though afraid that the enemy may explode from the brush at any given second. He felt exposed on the water. To his ears, the placid lapping of the river against the side of the boat and the soft splashing that the paddles caused seemed deafening enough for any creature to hear for quite a distance.

The two he shared the boat with did not help much. Merry said nothing. Boromir would occasionally mutter underneath his breath, though his ramblings were so hushed and jumbled that they went incoherent to both hobbits. Tetchily, Pippin watched the back of Frodo's head in the boat quite a ways before them. His dark curls gleamed as the sun landed upon them and gave them the appearance of movement, though the hobbit himself sat still as stone. Sam was out of sight, and Pippin knew the boat ride did not agree with him much. Aragorn's fluid paddling quickly grew uninteresting.

A soundless sigh left his lips. Desperate for any form of interest, Pippin turned around in order to see behind him, and the sudden movement rocked the boat to and fro.

"Pippin," Merry hissed the first real words Pippin had heard spoken in hours. "Be still; I don't wish to end up wet as well as nervous and ailing."

Pippin made a foul expression at his cousin, though moved much more slowly and carefully after this. He now found himself facing backwards and staring directly at Boromir. The man's eyes were outlying and had an odd spark to them, and he stared straight ahead (though Pippin wasn't sure if he was truly seeing anything). His paddling consisted of routine, sinuous movements. He paid no attention to the hobbit before him.

Pippin peered behind Boromir warily. The third boat was not far off from them. Gimli sat near the front seeming positively disgruntled, and vaguely pale and ill-looking (or so Pippin thought). It appeared everyone, after the long journey by boat, seemed somewhat under the weather and Pippin was certain that all of them longed to feel firm ground beneath them once more.

As Pippin's eyes traveled to Legolas, however, he wasn't quite as sure any longer. The elf looked indifferent; his smooth, creaseless face held as little emotion as it did dirt and grime. What was he thinking, feeling? His face, devoid of feeling, made it impossible to tell. Dismayed, Pippin gradually withdrew from his current position and turned back to face front. When would this boat ride end? When he would be free to stretch his legs and escape this agonizing silence?

Not soon, it appeared, and he felt his restlessness bubble up inside of him, irrepressible. I'm like a pot of boiling water, he mused, entertained for a mere moment. His amusement quickly slipped away again, like water would if cupped in his hands. He leaned over cautiously and dipped his fingers in the water. It was frigid and made him recoil, yet somehow refreshing at the same time.

"Pippin, don't," Merry said with a sigh, startling the younger hobbit so that he swiftly extracted his fingers from the water. "Can't you just behave yourself?"

"I have been, Merry," Pippin replied, words escorted with a scowl. "I fear I can't any longer."

"Try," Merry instructed with a sympathetic smile for his younger cousin. Pippin folded his arms and wrinkled his nose, but didn't protest to any further extent.

Minutes past like hours. With every breath he took Pippin felt himself getting closer to igniting with restiveness. He found himself staring at the banks again. He almost wished the enemy would find them... at least it would involve something other than sitting here... immediately after thinking this he felt a rush of guilt and sorrow. How could he think such a thing? He glowered at the river indignantly for a time.

A clump of fluff-like seeds drifted past on the lazy wind, and Pippin's stare now followed it with a vigilant eye as it drew closer and closer. A window opened into his past briefly, and a sudden sensation of homesickness and reminiscence overtook him, so amazingly strong it made his stomach churn and the lembas he had consumed want to resurface. He and Merry used to chase these seeds all over the Shire as they danced past on the wind, before catching and whispering a wish to them. They would then let them free on the wind once more, letting the seeds carry their wish away with it... Of course, they were very young then...

This is either luck, or someone wishes to taunt me, Pippin thought as the wind brought the seed right to him. He inhaled sharply. With a practiced hand he was able to snatch it on his first try (frequently they proved hard to get a grasp on, tending to slip from the fist that attempted to clutch them). He decided it was luck and brought his hand which held the seed close to his face.

"I wish we were off this dreadful boat," he whispered. He opened his fist. The wind caught the seed and carried it away.

Pippin watched it go without a word, before he came to realize that Merry's eyes were locked on him. Pippin was mildly surprised to see a small smile on his face. "I wished we were off the boat," Pippin repeated his wish to his cousin sheepishly.

"I know," Merry said. "I heard." He watched Pippin thoughtfully for a few moments. "You remember our wishes?"

Pippin nodded. "Of course," he said quietly. How could he forget? Some of the happiest times of his life were the ones spent alongside his elder cousin.

"You were so young, Pip," Merry said tenderly. "Look," he held his own fist forward and Pippin glanced down into it, before a hefty smile erupted on his face. In his fist Merry held a seed of his own.

Merry smiled mischievously at Pippin. He brought the seed to his mouth. "I wish that Boromir would stop muttering to himself, as it's frightening both of us," he told the seed, and then threw it in the wind. Pippin laughed appreciatively. Leave it to Merry! Both hobbits looked back at the man behind them. If he had heard, he gave no knowledge of it.

"Look, Pip," Merry said, pointing. Another seed wafted nearby. Both hobbits grabbed for it simultaneously. Pippin's fist closed around it while Merry seized nothing more than air; the boat teetered dangerously in the process.

"Careful!" Boromir barked suddenly, seeming to come out of his silent trance at last as he steadied himself, both hands grasping either side of the boat until his knuckles turned white. "Do you want us to all end up in the river?"

Pippin was delighted to hear his voice other than in the form of a garbled whisper, and was equally pleased that the three of them were participating in spoken interaction, however edgy it was. "Perhaps we do," he said slyly, a tiny grin upon his lips.

"It would be a welcome change from this awful boat," Merry supplied.

"Make a wish, Boromir," Pippin ordered, holding his hand out. Boromir pushed it aside impatiently. The seed was lost to the wind.

"Boromir!" Pippin yelped.

"You just wasted a perfectly decent wish!"

Boromir raised his eyebrows questioningly, appearing to contemplate the two hobbits before him charily. "I wasted a wish?" he asked at last; slowly, as though his own words made little sense to him.

"Yes," Pippin said, eager to keep the conversation going as long as possible. "It's entirely your fault."

"I do not understand."

"If you tell your wish to a seed and then give it to the wind, it shall come true," Pippin explained impatiently, sighing with exasperation.

Boromir hesitated, forehead wrinkled by contemplation. "That makes little sense," he said at last. "A seed cannot fulfill a wish."

"Can't it?" Merry asked, smiling benignly. "I notice you are no longer muttering ceaselessly."

Boromir opened his mouth to respond, looking downright baffled. "Watch," Pippin said as he spotted another seed, interrupting Boromir before the man even began. "I wish Boromir would smile," he told the new seed, and then tossed it into the wind.

Boromir could not help it. The hobbits seemed to have a warming affect on him. There was something about their good-humored nature... A small smile materialized on his lips.

"See!" Pippin cried. "It works!"

"Surely Boromir has a wish he wants fulfilled," Merry prodded teasingly. He nodded in the direction of a seed that floated nearby.

"It's worth one good wish," Pippin piped up.

The man was silent a moment, looking intently at his hobbit companions. They grinned back at him gaily, and he was struck by the fact that although they all were in such peril, they managed to still have such genial fun... "I shall not waste it this time," Boromir decided with a bewildering playful grin. Pippin laughed with glee.

Boromir reached out his hand to grab the seed, and his fingertips just barely brushed it. "A little further," Merry said, and at the exact same time Pippin chimed, "Your arms are far long enough to reach it; stretch!" Without much thought Boromir bent forward... just as the wind took the seed even further away, and all of the Fellowship thus learned a valuable lesson: two hobbits may not be able to tip a boat, but a grown man most certainly can.

Indeed, the boat lurched and teetered precariously; however for a moment, Pippin felt sure they had regained control of it. His thoughts were soon shattered. In an instant he, Merry, and Boromir were dumped into the water.

The river was ice-cold. It engulfed Pippin wholly and his saturated garments at once dragged him downwards; still quite surprised and disorientated he opened his eyes. Blurred scenery of deep blues and murky greens swam before his vision and his senses suddenly kicked in. Luckily, Merry had taught his cousin to swim when they were younger, and Pippin kicked hard, thrusting himself upwards.

His head broke free off the water and he coughed and sputtered before gulping fresh air into his lungs, wiping his dripping curls from his face. It abruptly occurred to him that current, however weak as it was at this particular part of the river, still pulled him slowly along. Nearby, he spotted a sodden Boromir, desperately trying to turn their boat right-side up. Merry bobbed beside him. Pippin fought the current and swam towards them to help.

In the end, Legolas and Gimli had to help them right the boat, and by the time the three soaked companions had hauled themselves back into it and scooped the water from the bottom, Aragorn, Frodo and Sam had just figured out what had happened and were attempting to slow to wait for the other two boats to catch up again. They managed to do so superbly, taking the current into consideration.

It took a few minutes to set off once more as they were before, secure again in their boat and moving in a line with the other two boats. Gimli had a grand laugh over his fellow travelers unfortunate jaunt, and even Legolas grew a minute smile. Though their faces were out of sight, Merry, Pippin and Boromir wordlessly came to the conclusion that Frodo, Sam, and Aragorn also found it dreadfully amusing.

The story was a bit different inside the center boat with two of its members; at least at first. Wringing out his cloak, Merry was scowling heavily. Boromir returned to muttering under his breath, presumably about their unintended bath in the river. Pippin, on the other hand, vibrant jade eyes animate and sparkling with mirth, unexpectedly burst into loud laughter, running a hand through his wet and tangled curls. The other two looked at him in surprise.

"I got my wish!" he enlightened them between chuckles. "We got out of the boat, after all! Didn't we tell you, Boromir? Our wishes do come true!"

It took a moment for his words to sink in, and to his satisfaction, Boromir let out a hearty laugh that lasted much longer than any mirth Pippin had ever heard. Merry joined him, and soon Pippin had forgotten that not long before he had actually wished to leave this boat. At the moment, he found he couldn't have thought of a place he would rather be than surrounded by two admirable friends.

"You do realize," Pippin informed Boromir through his laughter. "that was entirely your fault?"

"I think a swimming lesson is permissible," Merry chimed in.

"Yes," Pippin agreed. "Especially if you are going to dump us into the river. For a man, you don't swim very well at all."

Boromir chuckled. "And you two count yourselves better swimmers than myself, I assume?"

"Of course!" Pippin said.

"No doubt in my mind," Merry said in unison with his cousin. "I spent many summer days in the water back in the Shire, and taught Pippin to swim myself."

Boromir grinned. "Then I trust you two will give me a lesson?"

"Someday," Pippin decided.

"I believe the river grows rough and coarse ahead!" Gimli called swiftly from behind them. "Legolas and I have no time to be fishing companions from the rapids; be sure that you do not move around in the boat! They tend to tip."

Pippin looked at Merry thoughtfully. "Do you think Gimli knows about making wishes...?"

"I think the better question is if he knows how to swim!"

"As long as Boromir isn't in the boat, I think he shall be fine," Pippin said wisely, ignoring Boromir's hasty protests.

Merry smirked, glancing back wickedly at the dwarf. "I think a wish is in order..."

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That story was so much fun to write, and I can only hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed creating it. I love Boromir and Merry and Pippin... especially all three together =)