54 Blood and Water

"Can I go to the water and wash myself?"

"What trick are you up to?" Wormtongue had reached the conclusion that the halfling's appearance of innocence was as deceptive as he himself was – especially this particular specimen. "You have no need to wash – not where you are going."

"My eyes hurt and my leg." Merry lied "I thought the water might soothe them a little and I'm very dirty besides."

"All right." Wormtongue begrudgingly agreed. He did not want undue harm to come to the halfling, not before he had handed it over, but he was very suspicious of its motives all the same. "But I'll be keeping a tight hold on you – so no tricks."

Merry climbed to his feet and Wormtongue tied the long length of rope around Merry's waist and led him forward by that to the water's edge. Merry stooped down, feeling carefully with his hands for the cool rushing stream. "Is it a big river?" he asked in a conversational way.

"No just a little stream." Wormtongue frowned. He could not see the trick but he suspected one all the same.

Merry dangled his fingers for a few moments before scooping up some water and sluicing it onto his face and eyes, drinking a little at the same time. Then he sat on the bank and dangled his legs in the fast moving current, lifting his face up to the early morning sun.

'legolas?'

'Merry?'

'got foots in wet… water go moves fast…'

'Good. Do you know which way it's running?'

'got sun in face… water go right foot… left foot…'

'Are you sure…'

'am…'

"Is it a big river or just a stream?'

'not big… is 'team… s'team… you sayed…'

'That's very good Merry. Do you know anything else?'

'got trees…'

'Éowyn may know the stream, I will ask her. That's very good work Merry. Now try to delay as much as you can."

****

"Merry is by some trees, sitting with his feet in the water of a stream." Legolas reported to Éowyn. "The sun is in his face, so he is looking East and the water is running right to left."

"Which means South to North then," Éowyn completed. "That sounds to me as though he is on the banks of the Mering Stream on the North side of Firen Wood. They are probably following the Great West Road."

'I have asked him to delay as much as possible." Legolas explained. "How far away are we from that point do you think, My Lady?"

"Half a day's ride if we make haste." Éowyn looked with concern at Legolas. "How does your wound feel now? You do not complain and yet I feel sure it must pain you."

"It is nothing compared to the pain of knowing my little friends are in such dire trouble." Legolas lightened the grim thought with a fond smile. "Yet they do not complain, so how may I?"

"Come then," Éowyn urged Windfola forward. "We will make all haste to at least spare Meriadoc more trouble."

They rode in silence for several miles until Legolas pulled up with a sudden halt, putting his hand to his head. He groaned slightly, rocking forward on to Arod's mane.

"What is it, Legolas?" Éowyn reined Windfola in and turned back. "Is it one of the halflings?"

"Merry…" Legolas took his hand away from his temple and looked at his fingers. They were stained with blood. "I don't feel him now."

****

"Hurry up!" Wormtongue pulled on the rope. "We can't sit here all day."

"I'm very hungry," Merry complained. "Aren't you going to feed me at all. You know hobbits, I mean halflings, have to eat several times a day."

"No – I'm not planning on feeding you – you little wretch." Wormtongue tugged on the rope again. "You give me enough trouble without that – you can go without. Now come on!"

Merry was in the middle of surreptitiously tying some reeds together at the water's edge when Wormtongue snapped the rope tight, nearly squashing the breath out of the hobbit. "All right, I'm coming."

He scrambled up backwards from the water's edge, not letting the man see what he had been doing. Merry had already tied knots in the grasses under the tree but he wanted to give Legolas and Éowyn as much help as possible.

Wormtongue went to his horse, leading Merry along by the rope, and mounted the tall beast. "Give me your hands," he demanded, "I need to pull you up."

Merry lifted his hands up and Wormtongue caught hold of the rope that bound the chafed wrists and tried to haul the little hobbit up onto the horse. But Merry was dragging back, making himself a dead weight and, after a while, the man realised he could not lift his prisoner up.

"You'll have to go on foot until I find something for you to stand on." Wormtongue snarled angrily. He dismounted and took the rope from Merry's waist and retied it around the rope on the hobbit's wrists "Now get a move on and don't dawdle." The man climbed back onto his steed and fastened the rope around his saddle.

He kicked his horse to a trot making the little hobbit run quite fast to keep up. It was doubly difficult for Merry, as he could not see where he was going and only had the rope for guidance. Several times he stumbled and was dragged along by his wrists, forcing Wormtongue to stop until the little one could scramble back to his feet. The one consolation to this treatment in the hobbit's mind was that it was effectively slowing their progress, giving the followers a better chance to catch up.

But eventually Merry took a bad tumble and was dragged along the ground for several yards. As Wormtongue pulled back hard on the horse's reins, the confused beast shied and then kicked to the rear, catching Merry a blow to the temple. The little hobbit jerked from the impact, but did not cry out, he lay very still, blood pouring from his head.

****

Smagnu picked Pippin up, holding him at arm's length and shaking his head at the state of the mucky little hobbit. It was just about dawn and Smagnu would have preferred to get some sleep, but he decided that little Pip was too smelly even for him to put up with and he had tolerated some pretty bad stinks in his time.

He set him down again and, leading Pippin along, they went through the dark corridor and, much to Pippin's dismay, through the big mess hall without stopping until they reached an enclosed courtyard, a place the hobbit had not seen before.

Smagnu led Pippin over to a large water butt and unceremoniously picked the struggling hobbit up and dunked him headfirst, clothes and all into the cold, but clean water, holding him by one foot.

The Uruk submerged his little charge into the water several times, almost like a child dipping a piece of toast into an egg and eventually hauled him out and sat him on the stone flags. Pippin looked a picture of misery. His teeth chattered and his wet curls were starting to freeze in the cold. He hugged his knees, too wet and cold and half drowned to actually move.

Smagnu was quite sorry for having been so rough, but he found little Pip's hurt expression amusing too. He picked the hobbit up and, shaking some of the wet off him first, tucked him under his arm and pulled his big cloak tightly around him.

Pippin was carried back to the little room again but Smagnu would not let him on the bed until he took all his wet clothes off. Then he was allowed to crawl under the blankets and shivered himself back to warmth. The Uruk fed him a little bread soaked in whisky with sugar sprinkled on the top. Pippin found the addition of the sweetness to the strong liquor made it quite palatable and happily accepted a second helping, making a mental note to steal more sugar next time he was in the store.

Smagnu hung Pippin's wet clothes on the back of a chair, then said something the deaf hobbit could not possibly make out, although the Uruk looked quite happy and patted little Pip's head affectionately.

The Uruk left the room and went in search of food, before his day's sleep and Pippin curled up under the blankets, glad to be relatively clean again and very glad to be warm and dry.

Suddenly he shot up in the bed, the covers still over his head. He fought his way out wondering what had hit him. Looking frantically round the room, Pippin was surprised to find he was all alone, although he was sure someone or something had cracked him across his temple.

Smagnu returned at that moment, a bowl of porridge and bread for little Pip in his hand. He had even managed to find the little one a spoon to eat with and was planning to put some sugar on the food, as Pip seemed to like that.

Catching sight of Pippin, sitting up in the middle of the big bed – his hand clutched to his head, the Uruk nearly dropped the bowl in anger. His little Pip had a bloody bruise across his forehead.

"I'll kill that fugging Grutfley, when I get hold of him." He snarled.

****

TBC

Original Reviews

Reviewer

Date

Chapter

Type

Floria Tosca

2002-08-10

54

Signed

Yeah, I liked that bit too. Rather subtle, but it pointed out his change in character. Smagnu really isn't so bad, for an uruk- I wonder why? If more orcs were like him, there would be fewer Traumatized! Frodo stories out there. Although I can't say he's being a very responsible hobbit keeper- beer, opium, and now sugar! I call the whiskey-soaked bread with sugar on it "Mordor Toast," like French toast.

perigrin&meriadoc_fan

2002-05-13

54

Anonymous

This story is so.....COOL!! that is all my brain can think of at the moment. I absolutely love it! Oh, and a late happy birthday to ya! Question: Will Merry and Pippin ever get their sight(for merry), hearing and speech(for pippin) back? I'm not sure if someone's already asked that. sorry for repeating if they did! Write more! the suspense is killing me!

kittycat delia

2002-05-12

54

Anonymous

I'll bet some silly person will pose the question, "Why doesn't Pip realize that his head injury is Merry-inflicted?"

Easy - Llinos has worked it in. Pip just had a double helping of that whisky-soaked bread and his brain's a tad off. urp!

BellaMonte

2002-05-12

54

Anonymous

Poooooor Merry :( Poooooor Pippin :( I'm seriousely going to begin to take a count as to which one suffers more throughout this story.  Let's see, both are now physically impaired, both have been raped, both are now in the clutches of enemies.....i don't know which one's worse!! But keep going, I'm sure there's a happy ending just round the corner, somewhere :)

Dindae

2002-05-12

54

Anonymous

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Did you get any hobbits? How about cake? Did you get both? Oh, that's a good combination, I like cake, especially chocolate fudge with strawberry jam between the layers. What's your favorite, hm?  Can I help Fiction Hobbit eliminate Wormtongue, please? There're so many ways of killing him; it would be fun and educational. Of course, he latches on to an idea so very quickly (Note the sarcasm). Wow! 54 chapters already (okay, so you've been at this for months. So sue me, all you'll get is a Jolly Roger flag, some books, my various LotR pictures, fan fics, CD.... (continues on in this vein for quite some time), but nothing that I don't not need to survive (double negative, go figure)). Fab work, keep it up. But I'm also a bit confused (as usual). What's the difference between a narcotic and a drug? I knew I should have stayed a wake in class!

FictionHobbit

2002-05-12

54

Signed

Wormtongue is a sick sadistic bastard. you're good

Mistoffelees

2002-05-12

54

Signed

Okay, so you're not 37. I give up. I liked this chapter (more than some of the others). I hope Legolas can catch up..And Merry can't be dead! You just can't do that to us, Llinos. I liked the line: "It is nothing compared to the pain of knowing my little friends are in such dire trouble."..You captured the entire persona of Legolas in that one line. And at the end of the chapter, when Smagnu '...nearly dropped the bowl in anger.'..Aww, he does care. "I'll kill that fugging Grutfley, when I get hold of him."...Awwww! P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Go here fer your Birthday Present and such: http://www.geocities.com/liatius_took/Llinos.html

tt.turtle

2002-05-12

54

Anonymous

Hi there! You can really entice a reader!! I have been reading this story all day!! And have unfortunately reached as far as you have written. I am really enjoying all of it!  Happy Birthday by the way!! I did have one question....sorry if someone else has already asked it....why can't Sauron undo the spell cast on Pippin and Merry?? I would think he was more powerful that Saruman, and should be able to give Pippin back his ability to speak and hear!  Quite like the idea of the optional slash chapters too. Then people who don't like them can just skip them (bet most people don't though LOL) Am very curious as to what this three-way contack between Merry, Pippin and Legolas will lead to in the further development of the story....can't wait!!!

Roz Morgan and Race skylark

2002-05-12

54

Signed

great chapter, my english teacher read the print out and told me I had STRANGE TASTES, i think she has strange tastes.

Aiwendil Greenleaf

2002-05-11

54

Signed

*Alarm Buzz* Angry Smagnu, take cover. Especially you Grutfley....... It's not very nice to 'dip' Pippin like that. But at least now he's a little more clean. I can't stand smelly stuff, it's all... Smelly.

Poor Merry, and not to mention Pippin and Legolas !!! I know how a headache feels....... Danm that wormtongue, bad guy. Evil, dosn't he have ANY feelings??

And, I saw some of your Q&A just before (I read those, all of them). I bet there's plenty of people who would like to be in the story with a semi-automatic.... (Not only to kill WT, some of us *Points to self* would also like to have a word with Saruman. Or Sauron, but that might be aiming a little over my liege... Dark lord and all, what about the Witch King then ?? Oh, what the hell, blow all the bad guys up....) "All who would like to volunteer, raise your hands!!!" *All the people in the room raises their hands* Okay.... We might need more then one wormtongue, could we have, like 200 ??? And guns for all of us ?? Or some Arnold Schwarzenegger lasers?? Maybe we could get some sort of support, from a weapon factory ?? Like, *Speaker voice* Buy 200 semi-automatics, and get the 25 of them for free, AND a laser. Call now on 1-800-badassweapons !!! I should make their commercials......

And then (because the best way to suck up to people is to compliment them about their age) I don't think you could be as old as 37.... Maybe 20-30 *Sweet smile* ?? This is going fine.

I have to go, my *Sweet* parents are dragging me to a catshow. Well, I can do alot of homework (we're having essay this week, about Europe), and maybe write some.

And before I forget, thank you for the present. We (me and my ego) are very grateful.

Bye again *Bows, leaves*

Pause

*Head back in* Nice chapter!! *Gone again*

pippinsgerbil

2002-05-11

54

Signed

I love this story! It's coming out soooo well! Is Pippin ever going to be able to see Merry again, and be able to hear and speak? Will Merry ever be able to see again? Well, i gotta go now. Bye! :)

Nova (novapony@lycos.com)

2002-05-11

54

Anonymous

Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday dear Llinos-whom-I-love-forever-because-she-writes-such-an-additive-hobbit-smut-fic-with-plot! Happy birthday to you!

love you lots. Turning me into a pervy-hobbit fancier. Now read all M/P fics, smut or other, that I can get my hands on. Shame on me! Trust me, some of them aren't worth the time it takes to decipher the cryptic grammar and spelling mistakes. I read them anyway. *blush* Ahem, moving on.

Things I like about this chapter:  *Horse (even if it IS kicking Merry in the head. I like horses pretty much in all shapes and sizes.) *Standard hobbit cleverness (so cute) *sensitivity of slimy guy *injury absorption *Elf (no particular reason for this bit over the others, just standard Elf liking- intelligent, tall, pointy-eared, polite, sensitive, long-haired, and presumably hot. He is a prince, after all. All make-believe princes are either hot, or frogs. Since frogs don't have flowing locks, he must be hot. Nice logic, eh?) *Grima "kick me hard, kick me repeatedly, kick me soon" wormtongue. Such a smarmy git. OK, don't really like him, but like the way you have written him, as fits perfectly with his nastier-than-thou personality.  *Sauron's just going to *love* getting damaged goods, isn't he? This really will put a kink (not THAT kind of kink- shame on you!) in the tracking, as now, can't tie knots OR tell Legolas where he is. How will weaker-than-newborn-kitten Grima get him up on the horse? Or will he be forced to camp to spare the hobbit's life? (Look! I haven't completely forgotten how to write in full sentences! I just like it better the other way. *grin*)

P.P.S. I made a shop-a-holic, LotR fanatic friend a VSD shirt with Arwen and "Went to Gap of Rohan, only to find there IS no Gap in Rohan. False advertising!" She loved it! I got permission from Lar (the artist) first, then downloaded picture and had a photo-shop literate friend change the words. Top reason I love photo-shop literate friends and nifty iron-on transfer paper stuff. I am considering making an "Indistinguishable back-up Hobbits" shirt for myself, as have become quite the rabid hobbit fan- due to your story, of course! Either that, or Merry's "Have decided to invest in nametag" shirt. Possibly apron with Wraith #5's comment about Scrabble for my mother, as my mother LOVES scrabble, and likes LotR- not enough for my tastes, but then *I* wanted to decorate table with picturesque movie props. I still don't see the problem in it, but for some reason, she didn't agree. "I will NOT have a teaset, a loaf of bread, a large wheel of cheese, and various other items sitting on my table for days on end just so you can re-enact scenes from that stupid movie (this was before she had seen it. And yes, I really did recreate scenes from it. I had a video-camera, several willing friends, and plenty of time on my hands. A good weekend was had by all.) And if I catch you trying to pull any of your friends through the window, I'll make you dust the whole house, top to bottom!" (Three stories high. Lots of nicknacks. Very bad punishment... ) I decided to play at someone else's house instead.

Windfola

2002-05-11

54

Anonymous

All right, where's my machete? *goes in search of Grima* grrrr... Ow! poor Merry! That hurts, (I've been kicked by a horse in the head, I know) I hope we get a Smagnu/Grutfley celebrity death match soon, though I think Grutfley's cheering section might be a little thin... Anyway, I loved this chapter, (what am I saying, I love all of the chapters) I love Smagnu, and I hate Grima. Yeah, that about sums it up!:D

Melanie

2002-05-11

54

Signed

Seeing as I don't have time at all to leave a sufficient review I'm just going to get a point of mine across very quickly. Please, please, please, post the next chapter before you leave for Bradford. I have got to know if Merry will be okay. And Wormtongue's, Legolas' and Pippin's reaction to this. I have finals all next week, and if there is not another new post before then, I'm going to have a hard time passing, seeing as my mind will be on other things.

Original A/N

I thought I deserved a day off today – as it's my birthday (and no I'm not saying how old I am) but I decided to celebrate hobbit style and give you guys a pressie instead – so you got a new chapter – ha ha!

The reason I've been lazy (ha!) is that I just got a DVD player for my birthday and so had to play with it. I got it in readiness for the DVD release in August of you know what!

One thing I wanted to mention – since no one else did. My personal favourite bit of chapter 53 (am I allowed to have a personal favourite bit – it's like reviewing your own work?) is the way Smagnu bends down to look at the coins in Pip's hand rather than snatching them from him. The vision of him doing that just popped unbidden into my head – it seems a very gentle thing to do and I rather liked it.

Oh and I guess I have to do Q&A as well.

Dindae I got to go to Disneyland, yeah!
Llinos Well done!
Dindae. Pipeweed: Tobacco or drug? You decide. (And tell, please?)
Llinos: Tobacco – which of course is a drug.

Adas Isn't Pippin going to get really really sick from that poppy juice soon?
Llinos: Yes – now Dindae – that isn't just a drug – it's a narcotic – bad nasty stuff – naughty hobbit!

Bean:: Concerning Hobbits
Llinos: Cool! Maybe I should write to music?

Aiwendel Greenleaf: How was Bath ??
Llinos: Dry

MarigoldG: Too bad it's dark so Merry can't tell where sun is...
Llinos: Hey! I was about to do that – just waiting for the sun to come up. :-)
BTW Thanks for the additional ideas – you're putting a lot of effort into this story.

Nova: Have you read Cassie Claire's Very Secret Diarys?
Llinos: Yes V. Funny. First thing I read in LotR fic. Especially like Arwen being peeved that, after going all the way to Rohan for retail therapy, there is no bloody Gap there.

Nova: Is there an accessible palantir in Barad-dur? Another thing Pippin could get in trouble with....
Llinos: No – don't you think he has enough problems? :-)

Shirebound: (not paid, just honored)
Llinos: I'd prefer paid!

Fiction hobbit: somebody needs to kill wormtongue. I volunteer
Llinos: So should I write you into the story and give you a semi-automatic?

Pip Morgan: so I had my print out taken away!
Llinos: Jeez – who got to read it? Now I'm worried.

Roadkill Writer: Do you have any big long term plans for Eowyn in the future.
Llinos: Yes

Roadkill Writer: Is Pip actually going to get hurt by the Opium? He's not gonna get poisoned and die or anything? I would cry! Oh wait...I do that anyway. I just need some reassurance about the little hobbit!
Llinos: No

Roadkill Writer: Has Merry still got his flute?
Llinos: Yes.

Mistoffolees: I think you're 37.
Llinos: No.

Windfola: was that little cameo role in reward for the salsa con queso, or had you planned it? ;)
Llinos: No it was just time for Éowyn to get on her horse.

Windfola also asked if Smagnu and Grutfley were an anagrams and pointed out that Smagnu is an anagram of Magnus. Well the answer is no – that's just a co-incidence.

If your question appears before the above and I haven't answered and you still want an answer can you ask me again, because I can't go back too far – my brain will explode.

Bradford next week – will be away 4 nights! So a lean chapter week coming up – sorry!

Keep reviewing - Love you lots

Llinos