The Journey Alone: Chapter 10
May 18, 3002 (T.A.) 1402 (S.R.)
Frodo's POV
Gandalf insisted that Sam come with us as punishment for eavesdropping; however, Sam didn't seem to regard it as punishment. He was actually excited to go because he'd get to see elves. I was a bit nervous about Pearl coming with us since she had just barely recovered from losing the baby. She demanded to come, and Gandalf said it would be wise.
"Pearl, I don't think that you should come with us. You've only just recovered, and you're still pale from loss of blood," I said, looking at her and gesturing to Pearl's face. As if to prove me wrong, Pearl's face turned beat red with anger and embarrassment.
"Frodo Baggins! I'm coming with you whether you like or not!" she said angrily, crossing her arms. Suddenly Gandalf threw back his head and laughed.
"Well, Frodo! It's obvious you've married a Took!" Gandalf said. I felt my face turn red as well. But then Gandalf lost the mirth from his face and grew serious again.
"Pearl needs to go, whether she wanted to or not. I would fear for her life if she stayed here and the Ring wraiths found her, which they eventually would," Gandalf said. I looked at Gandalf, suddenly afraid.
"We should go," I said. Gandalf nodded. We all went out the door together and began walking to leave the Shire. We knew not when we would be returning, if ever. We were leaving danger to walk into danger, and drawing the peril after us. And the very thing that was causing it all was in my pocket, in as innocent a guise as a gold ring, unadorned and simple.
Sam led Gandalf's horse, since Gandalf walked beside Pearl and I, giving us last minute directions and instructions.
"Remember, keep it secret and keep it safe!" Gandalf said. He gave us one last look, and we were on our own, his horse quickly passing us and sending Gandalf out of our sight. I looked at Sam and Pearl and sighed. Then we started walking.
o0o
Pearl's POV
We walked for most of the night, since it was a beautiful night, and the stars were shining brightly in the sky. Crickets chirped, and a few other animals made some noise, but otherwise it was a quiet night. We took a route that few knew about so that we wouldn't run into anyone. Already, we knew that our disappearance would cause quite a stir in Hobbiton. The old rumors and stories about Bilbo and Frodo being "cracked" would resurface, and Frodo's already iffy reputation would suffer. Already, Frodo was sacrificing so much to take danger away from the Shire. I looked at Frodo walking beside me. His eyes were on the ground, brooding about something. He grimaced, and then seemed to notice that someone was watching him. He looked up at me and plastered a fake looking smile on his face for me. I saw through it, of course, and frowned at him.
"Frodo? What's the matter?" I asked him.
"Nothing," he said, too quickly. I rolled my eyes and looked at Sam, who gave me a sympathetic look. Frodo saw this exchange between us, and pulled his puppy dog look, making his eyes go huge and round and irresistible.
"Frodo Baggins! You are impossible!" I said, and lightly slapping his shoulder. He grinned at me. "And I intend on finding out what's troubling you before the day is out!" He continued to grin at me. I ignored him pointedly. I heard Sam snort with laughter behind us. I shot him a glare and stalked ahead of both of them.
I looked back at them, and sure enough, Frodo was grinning and barely containing his laughter. Suddenly he rushed up to me and kissed me hard on the lips. I pulled away, furious with him now, and started yelling at him.
"Frodo Baggins! Of all the things to do! And right in front of Sam, too! Honestly!" I said. I again walked ahead of them and fumed. I heard laughter behind me, and soon even I was laughing, even though I hid it. Soon I heard whispering between them, and then Frodo and Sam caught up to me. Sam looked at me in all seriousness and bowed.
"Mistress Pearl Baggins, Master Frodo Baggins wishes to make amends for his unseemly actions earlier," he said. I raised an eyebrow. Frodo came up to me and got down on one knee and took one of my hands, barely containing his laughter.
"Mistress Pearl, I apologize for my improper behavior and I implore your forgiveness,' he said, half-seriously and half-mockingly. He kissed my hand and stood up.
"I forgive you," I said.
"Good. Then you'll forgive me for this," Frodo said. And he kissed me again. He stopped for a second, and turned to Sam. "Watch and take lessons for you and Rosie," he said devilishly. Then he went back to kissing me. I would have stopped in, for propriety's sake if not my own, but Frodo had taken me by surprise, and I indulgently let myself enjoy the kiss.
Finally, he broke away and grinned like an imp at me.
"You are lucky I love you, Frodo Baggins. You would never have gotten away with that if I was anyone else," I said.
"Don't tell me you didn't enjoy that," Frodo said. "Because I know you did." I am pretty sure I blushed pink as a rose when he said that. I muttered something about him being an imp and continued walking.
o0o
The next day, Sam was preparing a bit of supper for us and Frodo had climbed up in a tree to smoke a pipe. I tried to help Sam, but he insisted on doing the cooking himself, so I was attempting to climb a tree myself. Frodo, being a typical Baggins, was laughing at my attempts to climb in a dress and remain modest.
The tree I was climbing was a bit higher than the one Frodo had climbed. I had almost made it safely onto the branch with the help of Frodo yelling out instructions in between whiffs of smoke. I reached for a branch that was jutting out of the tree trunk. I succeeded in grabbing it, but it broke under my weight, creating a loud crack. I was still clutching the branch as I fell to the ground. I gave out a short yelp, too surprised to scream even more. Frodo, however, was in a panic.
"PEARL!" he yelled from his perch in the other tree. There was no way that he could climb down fast enough to catch me, but he still jumped down and threw his still lit pipe on the floor. He ran towards me, by which point I was already flat on my back on the ground. The fall had only lasted about three seconds, but it seemed to last much longer than that.
Sam reached me first, kneeling beside me. "Pearl! Are you all right?" he said, looking me over for any visible injuries.
"I think so," I said. The shock of falling finally caught up with me. I started bawling. This set Sam at a loss: he didn't know what to do. Frodo had already reached my prone body and now seized my hand. This only made me scream out harder, as my arm had been injured in the fall, though I didn't know it until he held my hand. Frodo's eyes grew wide with concern.
"What is it, Pearl? Is it your arm?" he asked, touching it gingerly. I nodded, still crying, but less intensely. "All right, Sam, see if you can find a stick suitable to use as a splint. I want to bind her arm until we can get out of here and have it bound properly," he said. Sam went off to look for a stick.
Meanwhile, Frodo began tearing the end of his shirt into strips. I started to balk at this.
"What are you doing Frodo?! Your shirt will be ruined," I said.
"It doesn't matter. I have a spar shirt in my pack, and you need bandages. If I'm not mistaken, you have a few nasty cuts on your arms, legs, and face from the twigs," he explained. Finished, Frodo squeezed my hand on my uninjured arm and went off to fetch some water.
"Stay where you are," he said.
"It's my arm that's hurt, not my leg," I said, protesting.
"I don't want you to further hurt your arm, but here," he said. He took off his waistcoat and then his shirt and made a pillow for my head.
"Frodo! Get your other shirt on right away! What if somebody saw you without your shirt on! What would they think?" I said, horrified. I blushed, while Frodo grinned.
"They would scurry away, for fear of walking in on something," he said. I scoffed, but he put his other shirt on. He brought water from a nearby creek soon enough and started bathing my cuts. "I'll wait until I can tell Sam to avert his eyes before I see to your back," he said, causing me to blush again.
Sam came back soon and helped Frodo wrap my arm with the splint. It hurt unmercifully, but none of us thought that it was broken, as I could still move it. We figured that it had only been sprained. My back however, was severely bruised, mostly because of the nasty fall I had, landing hard against the ground. Sam prudently finished up the supper while Frodo gently tended my back.
With Sam far enough away so he wouldn't see, I tried to turn onto my stomach so that Frodo could tend my back. Using my uninjured arm, I tried to sit up partially, but the twinge of pain it caused almost caused me to fall against the ground again. Fortunately, Frodo caught me before I could get hurt again. It still hurt terribly, and I whimpered. As he lowered my body back onto the ground, I noticed his face crease with worry.
"Do you think you could turn if I helped?" he asked. I nodded, so he took hold of my arm and back. He tried to flip me as gently as he could but it still caused me great pain, and I lay on my stomach panting when it was done. I even broke a slight sweat. Frodo looked even more concerned at this, but he said nothing. I wearily closed my eyes while Frodo unbuttoned the tiny buttons on my dress and bodice. Suddenly he gasped. I opened my eyes.
"What is it, Frodo?" I asked.
o0o
Frodo's POV
When I opened Pearl's dress and bodice in back, I gasped at the color of her back. It was a rainbow of black, purple, green, and red bruises, although it didn't seem that any bones or Pearl's back was broken.
"Your back is just a bit bruised," I replied to Pearl's question. "I'm going to get some cold water, okay Pearl? I'll be right back," I said. I ran over to Sam.
"Pearl's back is badly bruised up. I'm going to get some fresh water from the creek, but can you see if we have any hawthorn leaves or rose hips in our pack or somewhere around here?" I whispered quickly so Pearl wouldn't be overly worried.
"Is it bad?" Sam asked quietly, his warm brown eyes concerned.
"Its ad, but she should be able to walk. She just won't be able to li on her back for a while," I said. Then I ran off back to the creek.
I returned to Pearl to find that she had fallen asleep. I got one of the torn strips from my shirt wet and began to tend her bruises. Pearl woke up immediately when I touched her back, and groaned. She tried to prevent herself from crying out by gritting her teeth, but occasionally she would gasp and grip the pillow I had made for her until her knuckles were white.
An hour later, after Pearl had drunk a tea of rose hips and hawthorn leaves, known to be good for bruising, Pearl was feeling much better. She was sitting up and enjoying the last of the food left from supper. I was again smoking my pipe in the tree, just relaxing.
Suddenly I heard some ethereal singing in the distance. I leaned over Sam and Pearl and smiled.
"Look Sam," I said, "Wood elves!" I climbed down from the tree and hurried over to where we heard the singing with Sam and Pearl close behind me. We knelt in some bushes to watch the elves unobserved.
"They are going to the grey Havens to sail away from Middle Earth," I explained.
"I don't know why," Sam said, "but it makes me sad." Suddenly, I sensed, rather than heard, someone or something behind us. I turned around very slowly, and was shocked at the sight.
o0o
TBC