J.M.J.

Chapter Four: Ordinarily Heroic

Diamond moodily poked at her knitting with a needle. She never could knit properly. "What's the matter Di', you're usually so enthusiastic about knitting." Her brother Ferbenas said jollily. "Oh I don't know. It's just that . . . well, to put it in two words, let's just say Peregrin Took." Diamond answered, tossing her "scarf" onto the rug, "I think he hates me, Ben."

"Hmmm, let's think about it. You haven't really been on good terms with the lad ever. He tried to make up with you when he got back, but you wouldn't have any of it. So yes, he probably hates you." Ben summed up. "But I've decided he isn't so bad after all! I mean, he knows quite a bit for a hobbit, and that's something I admire in him." Diamond said as if to herself."

"Well," her brother said with a mild-mannered tone. ", it seems to be a bit too late for that, eh Di'?" Diamond picked at a thread in her bodice. "I suppose." She mumbled, "He is only a spoiled Thain's boy after all." Ben grinned. "I guess." Diamond said, heaving a sigh. "What?! You mean you're not going to start bashing him and not stopping until I just leave the room? I dare say something odd has happened to you." Ben exclaimed, taking his pipe out of his mouth.

"Now Ferbenas. . . don't go and start assuming things!"

"I dare say you've come to. . ." Ben started.

"No! Don't you dare say it; it's blasphemy, that's what is!"

"Melda heri, melinyes. Alámenë. Tenna enta lúmë, Namàrië." Ben spoke in High Elvish, twirling his pipe in his fingers. "Ben! Please, that's very incorrect. Beloved lady indeed! Anyways, speaking Quenya is what got him really riled up, like I was too plain to know such things!" Diamond cried out. "Well, I'm assuming you are taking back the "he isn't so bad after all" bit?" Ben questioned. "Possibly." Diamond fired back, eyes flashing. "Please don't start being as blunt and peculiar as Estella Bolger!" Ben pleaded. "You mean Estella Brandybuck, Ferbenas! She's Maragmba's wife now." Ben choked on the smoke in this pipe when Diamond said that.

"Let him hear you call him that in his face, and then you won't be so cocky!"

"He is a wan norsa!" Di' exclaimed. "Giant, yes. Goose, no. I really wish you'd stop talking about those two with so much contempt! I've herd those stories about them, really heroic. It makes a fellow wish that he'd gone and done something worth doing, too." Ben dreamily murmured, spewing smoke out of his mouth in a stream. "Now don't you go and start getting that wander-lust!" Diamond said with a soft, yet firm tone, "If you would've gone, if you'd have even known about it, you'd have been sorely missed here. You did the Shire a great service, Ben. The way you protected all of those families. . ."

"No, Di'. Meriadoc and Peregrin were the real ones that were sorely missed. I mean, when they returned, they set things to rights again. Don't go worrying about me hitting the road, I would be too cowardly. I'm just ordinary." Ferbenas sighed with longing. "Yes, Ben! You are ordinary, ordinary in a simple, perfect and heroic way. Some people are called to bravery in some ways, some people, in others. And I would choose the quiet way over the pomp and show of being heroic! Just like those big braggers Pippin and Merry! I'll never kiss-up to those geese who think they're something else." Diamond vented with an outburst of emotion.

Ben looked at his feet and shuffled them shyly. "Your right, Di'. I should not have been wishful about such things. But as you said yourself, everyone's called to a different path, some more glamorous than others. Alas, they really all amount to the same thing in the end. We both saved lives. Just remember this: A person is a person, no matter how small. A great heart can live inside the littlest somebody, and the smallest in the largest." Diamond swallowed hard. She had never thought about it that way. To her, hobbits were useless and ignorant, and she hated being one of them, which is why she took it upon herself to learn the language of the elves, and teach it to Ben while she was at it. Doubt still lingered in her heart, though.

"But Ben! Hobbits are made of the stuff of the earth, nothing more, and perhaps less."

Ferbenas stood up and squared his shoulders, reminding her much of an angry Pippin. "Yes Diamond Took! We are made of the stuff of the earth, and proud of it! Hobbits now have higher reckoning than you think, for we have great hearts!" He said empathetically, grabbing her by the shoulders, "We are hard to break, and that's what Big People envy. Even Elves admire our wills of iron."

"How do you know this, you have never left the Shire borders." Diamond questioned with for once in her life, a broken spirit. "You can tell," Ben whispered with a gleam in his eye, ", just by listening. The way Merry's spirit soars when he tells about his travels. The way Pippin's eyes sparkle when he relates to somebody the King's coronation on the Cormallen Fields. Then there's Sam. What a look he'll give you if you ask at all! Pip and Merry have cut a great dash in the Shire, but he remains hidden from the public eye. And he has the greatest heart of them all! Just to hear him tell. . ." Diamond coldly interrupted, "I have. Peregrin told me all about it. I saw no soaring spirit, no sparkling eyes, no beautiful look, just a silly boy WHO HAS LIED TO YOU ALL!"

With that, she tearfully went to get a breath of fresh air. I wish I had seen what Ben had. . . something believable to hold on to. But no matter how hard I try, I can't believe Pippin Took! It's in my very blood to not like the lad. Diamond thought as the wind tussled her hair around her cheeks. Her hole was positioned on top of a great hill, over looking the pleasant scene of Tuckborough, the chief village of the Tooks. She let a smile creep across her face as a hobbit down below wailed away on a set of bagpipes, walking in step with the beat. As a girl, her father taught her to play on them, and she used to do lively reels with all sixteen brothers. They were the best of Tooks, and all Tooks played the pipes.

Alas, the sweet memory lasted but a second, for the day she and Peregrin met had bagpipes involved quite a lot. Not a day worth thinking about; that was the day that had started their rivalry, and she had been only five and he, ten! Diamond looked down at the piper, memories popping up in her head. She stayed long in that spot on the threshold until the night intermingled with day, casting long and deep shadows over the rolling landscape. Ben eventually came and got her. "Di'," he said, touching her shoulder with the tips of his fingers, ", you had better come in and eat your supper, it's getting a wee bit cold." Diamond stirred out of her daze with a start. "Oh, quite right you are Ben. I guess I've guiltily been indulging in old Thenno's evening piping."

She turned to turn the doorknob. "Diamond, is all well between us?" Ben unsurely asked. Diamond turned around with a bright smile that told that there were no hard feelings between she and he, and his warm nod said he was of like mind. Diamond and Ferbenas ended the night on a pleasant note. So it was over. All's well that ends well, but not quite. .