Disclaimer: Don't own Lord of the Rings. But I do very much enjoy running around in it. = : )
Author's Note: Thank you so much to all of you who have been reviewing! I could never keep writing without your support!
Chapter # 3
First there was silence. Nothing moved…nothing made a single sound save the crickets in the trees outside. Peregrin just sat before her parents, hands clenched in her lap afraid to say any more before her parents reacted.
Mere seconds later, Peregrin was sure that everyone from Hobbiton to Buckland would be thinking that a massive explosion was taking place in the Took home. And they wouldn't have been far off either.
Pippin was positively livid. He was beginning to turn red as he struggled to yell louder than his wife who, surprisingly, seemed to object even more that her husband despite her side on their recent argument.
"You are still my little girl, and if I say that you are not to go outside the Shire then you are NOT to go outside the Shire. Did I not make myself clear when you asked me last month to take you?" Pippin was shouting.
"No Daddy, you made things quite clear, I just –."
"What makes you think you can just announce things of this nature to us. You are not yet of age, so you must therefore still live by our rules." Diamond said over Pippin. "I have been very tolerant of your wishes; don't tell me that my faith has been misled."
"Mommy, that's not what I meant, I –."
"Don't talk back to your mother." Pippin interrupted.
"I'm not trying to –."
"Don't take that kind of attitude with your father." Diamond snapped.
Peregrin slumped back in her seat. Her parents continued to shout at her, and occasionally she'd try and get a word in edgewise, but to no avail. So she decided to just sit and eat her dinner in silence while they shouted themselves out.
After a little while, Pippin and Diamond began to direct the shouting to each other, saying that it was the other's fault she was the way she was.
"It's your trouble making nature and disregard for rules that made her this way!" Diamond said.
"Yeah, well it's your leniency and your promptings to go ahead and explore which brought about this whole situation."
Peregrin got up from the table with her dishes, rolling her eyes as her parents tried to rationalize the fear and uncertainty she'd managed to stir up within them. She wasn't stupid. She knew that she had probably interrupted an argument when she'd come in, and she was pretty sure that it had dealt with how she'd been so desperate to explore. And more likely than not, her mother had stuck up for her thinking that no real threat would come of it. She'd probably never expected her daughter to actually leave.
She giggled to herself. They weren't even paying attention to her anymore; they were still deeply entrenched in their verbal warfare.
Normally her mother supported her in the arguments that were held with her father; but Peregrin suspected that her mother was always just envisioning her moving out to live by her brother or some such like that, not actually leaving the Shire (since that was so un-Hobbit like and surely her daughter would not like to strengthen the other Hobbit's views of her.)
Turning her back on the loud couple she headed down the hall to her room, pulling open the round door and shutting it behind herself. She wouldn't have much time. She went to her wardrobe and began pulling out cloths and a couple cloaks. Then, reaching over to grab her satchel, she began to cram them into the bag while rummaging around for the food she'd begun storing for just such a case. She'd always known that she had a tendency to make rash decisions, so she then also tried to prepare for them.
Stopping for moment, she listened. Yup, her parents were still going at it.
Running to the other side of her room, still holding her bag, Peregrin began rummaging through the mess of stuff on her desk. After grabbing her map and a couple letters from her friends she then headed over to her window.
As she slung her spare cloak around her and shouldered her bag, she swung the window open. She took a deep breath of the evening air as she stood for a moment…thinking about what it was she was about to do. Her heart pounded, and her hands shook; whether from fear or excitement she couldn't tell.
"Well…"she said to herself, "It's now or never."
After stuffing the map and letters into the pocket of her tunic, Peregrin swung one leg up to and out the window, pivoted and brought the other one out as well then hopped down into the garden outside.
Quickly she ran over to the apple tree and began shifting through the leaves that were bunched up at its base. Aha, she mentally exclaimed as her fingers closed around her walking stick. She liked to keep it out of her parent's sight just because it bothered them to see it and think that she might actually use it for a long journey.
Taking it in hand and standing up straight. She took one more glance back to her home with its round window and doors nestled gently into a large hill. She would miss it, but she had to do this before she melted away into nothing and became someone like the Sacksville Bagginses. Then, turning to face the long road before her, she took a deep breath, letting it out slowly to let her determination thicken. She couldn't go far tonight, but she could still get away from here.
Then, without any further hesitation, Peregrin Took the 2nd, Daughter to the Thain: Pippin Took the 1st began her journey to the places of her dreams.
