Ruby's Adventure
Chapter 6
Timidly four young hobbits, walking single-file, approached the door to Brandy Hall. The lights at most of the many windows were extinguished, but on the ground floor a warm glow came from a kitchen fire, which had been left to burn through the night. Gathering up all her courage, Ruby quickly stepped forward and knocked on the great wooden door. The sound of the heavy knocker hitting the massive door echoed both through Brandy Hall and through Ruby's mind, already racing with apprehension. Her heart began to beat all the faster to think that someone would come, or even worse that no one would come.
Ruby was not left waiting - and thinking - long. Quite soon (although it seemed an age and a half to four wet, frightened, yet determined hobbits) the door opened with a creak to reveal a friendly and familiar face. The female hobbit's eyes were brown and sparkling, framed by her curly auburn hair and surrounded by the creases borne of a lifetime of both laughter and tears. The four young hobbits - unaware that they had been holding their breath - released it.
"Well, well," Estella said in her warm voice, smiling, "What would four young Shire-hobbits be doing out, all alone, on such a chilly night as this?"
"Good mornin' Mistress Estella ma'am," Faramir replied, for indeed the pale light of day not quite born now sparkled on the surface of the Brandywine, where so much had happened before. "We would like to speak with Mister Merry - erm, I mean, the Master of Buckland, please." The Gamgee girls nodded, and Estella opened the doors wider, inviting them into the cheerful hall.
"What do you four want to speak with Merry about?" Estella asked, pleased to pretend she did not know the children as well as she did.
"Well, um, uh, Father wanted to give a message to him." Daisy began, not expecting to be asked this.
"Yes, yes!" Primrose agreed vehemently, nodding so hard that her golden curls bobbed up and down as she spoke. "A message, from Father, and it says. says that. that there is new things goin' on in Hobbiton." Primrose trailed off, for once at a loss for what to say.
".And it's for the Master of Buckland's ears only!" Ruby improvised, trying to look and sound very serious and grim, thus adding the most helpful bit of information of the lot. Estella disguised her chuckles with her handkerchief. As if she didn't know what those young rogues were up to an adventure of some sorts. Regardless, using her common (or rather, uncommon) sense, Estella agreed to bring the young hobbits before the Master of Buckland immediately.
They found themselves being led through the extensive and often confusing tunnels of Brandy Hall by Estella, who knew every inch of the way as an artist would know by heart every loving brushstroke and every careful tint that went into making a masterpiece. After quite a while of following Estella down sloping smials and around crooked corners, she brought them to an ordinary-looking door, upon which she rapped smartly. Estella's knocking was answered by a voice that all five hobbits waiting in the hallway knew perfectly well.
"What's the time?" the Master of Buckland yawned, opening the door. He stepped into the hall, rubbing the sleep from his eyes and looking, with a rather surprised and dazed expression on his face, at his wife and young friends. "Isn't it much too early to be up, Estella dear?" Estella laughed.
"It is if you're Merry," she replied, "but not for the Master of Buckland." She indicated the waiting youngsters, "These brave and noble messengers"- Faramir, Ruby, Daisy, and Primrose puffed up with pride -"have been sent by the Mayor of Michel Delving from Hobbiton all the way to Brandy Hall to deliver a message to you, darling." Merry smiled sleepily.
"Well, honey," he said (to Estella, of course), "I'd better get dressed first if I want to receive any messengers." He indicated - rather sheepishly - the striped pajamas he was wearing. "I can't very well hold a council - as I may very well have to - in my jammies, now can I?" Estella laughed.
"Of course not, sweetie, but do hurry. I'm sure your visitors have very important information." She turned to the 'visitors', "I'm sure you're all hungry. What do you say to breakfast while you wait?" The young hobbits nodded, seeing as how they had had nothing to eat since the previous night. "Then wait here," she added. Merry retreated into his room and Estella began to walk off in the direction of the kitchen. Daisy shook her head.
"What's the matter?" Faramir asked Daisy, seeing her shake her head, deep in thought.
"It's just- just, well, if you have to put up with all that darling and dear and honey and sugar nonsense when you get married, then I'm not getting married at all!"
"Amen to that," Faramir muttered. He and Daisy hooked eyes and burst into laughter. But they were not the only ones..
"What are you on about? What's so funny?" an irritated Primrose asked Ruby, who was doubled over with laughter.
"M-m-mister M-m-m-merry c-ca-calls h-his p-pa-pajamas j-jammies!" Ruby replied, wiping a tear out of her eye. And as all people (or at least, all hobbits) know, this sort of laughter is extremely contagious, and sometimes even a worse sickness - that is, being uppity, stuck up, and nosy - cannot stop it. In Primrose's case, she couldn't hold out very long before she cracked a smile. By the time Estella returned and Merry was dressed, they were surprised to see four hobbits sitting on the floor, utterly exhausted from having laughed themselves silly.
"My, they are more tired than I thought at first," Merry whispered, in a sideways manner, to Estella, "Mayhap they should sleep first, before the news?"
"I don't think so, dear," Estella returned rather seriously, "something tells me their news is more important than we think." Merry smiled.
"You always did know best." He replied, giving his wife a kiss on the cheek. This movement which did not go unnoted by the four younger hobbits, who began to giggle anew. Nothing beats a young hobbit for laughing, you know, especially if their joke is considered especially funny.
Ten minutes later, six hobbits were sitting down to a mammoth banquet- breakfast, a meal fit for Good King Strider, as Merry was wont to say of his wife's cooking, which was, even by hobbit-standards, exceptionally wondrous. Gleefully the hobbits set to with a vengeance. Merry did credit to his title as Master of Buckland by consuming just as much as two Faramirs, although the younger hobbits did their best to out-eat him. When every last eatable scrap had been devoured, which didn't take long, Merry sat back, folded his napkin, and pronounced himself ready to hear the news. Soon he was listening with fascination and intrigue, as the Gamgee girls and Faramir told the entire story of everything they had heard and done in the past day - had it been but a day?
"Well," Merry said when his young friends were finished, "what do you propose we do?"
"Well," Faramir gulped, "shouldn't we send some archers after that Orc?"
"Good," Merry agreed, "What else?"
"We should do what we set out to do," Ruby said fiercely, "go to Moria, find the cause of all this, and nip it in the bud." This suggestion was met with cheers from the young hobbits. Merry looked thoughtful.
"Who do you think should go?" he asked them. The young hobbits fell silent, each wishing to conceal that they thought that they should be the ones to go. Merry smiled, knowing their thoughts better than they themselves knew them. He continued. "What you need is, first of all, a small group who are willing, no more than four or five volunteers. Among them should be an archer, a cook, a mapmaker, a tracker and one who knows how to handle a boat. They should all be quick-witted, strong, sensible, loyal to each other and the Shire, and have a taste for this sort of thing - for an adventure." Merry surveyed the four downcast hobbits, who were each assured that they were not bold or brave or good enough to go. "Who do you know who fits such a description?" Estella spoke up.
"I know several young hobbits," she replied. "Firstly, there's one who is loyal, strong, and can handle a boat better than any I've ever seen. Secondly, there's a one who is clever, yet cautious, a good tracker, and steadfast as her father." Estella smiled, remembering some long ago tale in which the people she most loved had played a part. The four young hobbits were still completely in the dark. "Third, there's an archer, who can hit his mark from three leagues away and never miss, someone who's hungry for something to do, some way in which she could help the Shire. Fourth, a cook, who is full of uncommon good sense, and will never shy away from duty. And fifth, a mapmaker, a quiet little hobbit who will stand up for his mates and never let his land down if he can help it." Estella turned from the moping tweens - and one thirty-two-year-old - to Merry. "Do you know who I'm talking about, darling?"
"Let's see," Merry began, "the first is a pleasant fellow by name of Faramir Took, who captains the "Undomiel"" Faramir started, staring at Merry with disbelief. "The second is without a doubt, a certain Daisy Gamgee." Daisy gaped. "The third and fourth are, respectively, Ruby Gamgee and Primrose Gamgee." Now, all four hobbits were filled with shock. Ruby was actually crying; her joy was so great. "The fifth is none other than my own son, Theoden Brandybuck."
"Then it's settled!" Estella cried, much to the joy of her audience, "those five will, if willing, go, and may all the luck in the world go with them." She paused, thinking. "Well, not all the luck." She added. "We'll need some here."
"Shouldn't we find Theoden, then?" Primrose asked, glad that her old friend was coming along. Well, she thought, if she had to go, at least she'd have another sane hobbit with her.
"No need!" Merry cried, opening a cupboard to reveal a brown-haired, green-eyed, red-faced Theoden, who was undoubtedly eavesdropping. Theoden popped out of the cupboard, and looked up at his father.
"Did you really know I was there the whole time, Da?" he asked, smiling. Merry nodded.
"Well, since you obviously heard your - ahem - recommendation, would you like to join Misses Daisy, Primrose, and Ruby Gamgee and Master Faramir Took on a journey to save the Shire?"
"Would I ever!" Theoden grabbed a huge book of parchment paper and a box containing ink and pen with his ink-stained hands. "I could get enough information for a dozen maps!"
Most hobbit-folk smiled benevolently to hear of Theoden's fascination with maps of all kinds. He looked at maps others before him had made, and wondered what was beyond them. He had therefore devoted long hours and days running around the countryside making new maps. This had led him to be chosen, for he would want to go and knew the country from the Shire to Bree and back as well as Estella knew Brandy Hall.
The assembled hobbits - now seven, all told - sat at the table and raised their glasses to their adventure, to the Shire, and to the future ahead of them. For who knows or can even presume to know everything that was, everything that is, and everything that will be?
Chapter 6
Timidly four young hobbits, walking single-file, approached the door to Brandy Hall. The lights at most of the many windows were extinguished, but on the ground floor a warm glow came from a kitchen fire, which had been left to burn through the night. Gathering up all her courage, Ruby quickly stepped forward and knocked on the great wooden door. The sound of the heavy knocker hitting the massive door echoed both through Brandy Hall and through Ruby's mind, already racing with apprehension. Her heart began to beat all the faster to think that someone would come, or even worse that no one would come.
Ruby was not left waiting - and thinking - long. Quite soon (although it seemed an age and a half to four wet, frightened, yet determined hobbits) the door opened with a creak to reveal a friendly and familiar face. The female hobbit's eyes were brown and sparkling, framed by her curly auburn hair and surrounded by the creases borne of a lifetime of both laughter and tears. The four young hobbits - unaware that they had been holding their breath - released it.
"Well, well," Estella said in her warm voice, smiling, "What would four young Shire-hobbits be doing out, all alone, on such a chilly night as this?"
"Good mornin' Mistress Estella ma'am," Faramir replied, for indeed the pale light of day not quite born now sparkled on the surface of the Brandywine, where so much had happened before. "We would like to speak with Mister Merry - erm, I mean, the Master of Buckland, please." The Gamgee girls nodded, and Estella opened the doors wider, inviting them into the cheerful hall.
"What do you four want to speak with Merry about?" Estella asked, pleased to pretend she did not know the children as well as she did.
"Well, um, uh, Father wanted to give a message to him." Daisy began, not expecting to be asked this.
"Yes, yes!" Primrose agreed vehemently, nodding so hard that her golden curls bobbed up and down as she spoke. "A message, from Father, and it says. says that. that there is new things goin' on in Hobbiton." Primrose trailed off, for once at a loss for what to say.
".And it's for the Master of Buckland's ears only!" Ruby improvised, trying to look and sound very serious and grim, thus adding the most helpful bit of information of the lot. Estella disguised her chuckles with her handkerchief. As if she didn't know what those young rogues were up to an adventure of some sorts. Regardless, using her common (or rather, uncommon) sense, Estella agreed to bring the young hobbits before the Master of Buckland immediately.
They found themselves being led through the extensive and often confusing tunnels of Brandy Hall by Estella, who knew every inch of the way as an artist would know by heart every loving brushstroke and every careful tint that went into making a masterpiece. After quite a while of following Estella down sloping smials and around crooked corners, she brought them to an ordinary-looking door, upon which she rapped smartly. Estella's knocking was answered by a voice that all five hobbits waiting in the hallway knew perfectly well.
"What's the time?" the Master of Buckland yawned, opening the door. He stepped into the hall, rubbing the sleep from his eyes and looking, with a rather surprised and dazed expression on his face, at his wife and young friends. "Isn't it much too early to be up, Estella dear?" Estella laughed.
"It is if you're Merry," she replied, "but not for the Master of Buckland." She indicated the waiting youngsters, "These brave and noble messengers"- Faramir, Ruby, Daisy, and Primrose puffed up with pride -"have been sent by the Mayor of Michel Delving from Hobbiton all the way to Brandy Hall to deliver a message to you, darling." Merry smiled sleepily.
"Well, honey," he said (to Estella, of course), "I'd better get dressed first if I want to receive any messengers." He indicated - rather sheepishly - the striped pajamas he was wearing. "I can't very well hold a council - as I may very well have to - in my jammies, now can I?" Estella laughed.
"Of course not, sweetie, but do hurry. I'm sure your visitors have very important information." She turned to the 'visitors', "I'm sure you're all hungry. What do you say to breakfast while you wait?" The young hobbits nodded, seeing as how they had had nothing to eat since the previous night. "Then wait here," she added. Merry retreated into his room and Estella began to walk off in the direction of the kitchen. Daisy shook her head.
"What's the matter?" Faramir asked Daisy, seeing her shake her head, deep in thought.
"It's just- just, well, if you have to put up with all that darling and dear and honey and sugar nonsense when you get married, then I'm not getting married at all!"
"Amen to that," Faramir muttered. He and Daisy hooked eyes and burst into laughter. But they were not the only ones..
"What are you on about? What's so funny?" an irritated Primrose asked Ruby, who was doubled over with laughter.
"M-m-mister M-m-m-merry c-ca-calls h-his p-pa-pajamas j-jammies!" Ruby replied, wiping a tear out of her eye. And as all people (or at least, all hobbits) know, this sort of laughter is extremely contagious, and sometimes even a worse sickness - that is, being uppity, stuck up, and nosy - cannot stop it. In Primrose's case, she couldn't hold out very long before she cracked a smile. By the time Estella returned and Merry was dressed, they were surprised to see four hobbits sitting on the floor, utterly exhausted from having laughed themselves silly.
"My, they are more tired than I thought at first," Merry whispered, in a sideways manner, to Estella, "Mayhap they should sleep first, before the news?"
"I don't think so, dear," Estella returned rather seriously, "something tells me their news is more important than we think." Merry smiled.
"You always did know best." He replied, giving his wife a kiss on the cheek. This movement which did not go unnoted by the four younger hobbits, who began to giggle anew. Nothing beats a young hobbit for laughing, you know, especially if their joke is considered especially funny.
Ten minutes later, six hobbits were sitting down to a mammoth banquet- breakfast, a meal fit for Good King Strider, as Merry was wont to say of his wife's cooking, which was, even by hobbit-standards, exceptionally wondrous. Gleefully the hobbits set to with a vengeance. Merry did credit to his title as Master of Buckland by consuming just as much as two Faramirs, although the younger hobbits did their best to out-eat him. When every last eatable scrap had been devoured, which didn't take long, Merry sat back, folded his napkin, and pronounced himself ready to hear the news. Soon he was listening with fascination and intrigue, as the Gamgee girls and Faramir told the entire story of everything they had heard and done in the past day - had it been but a day?
"Well," Merry said when his young friends were finished, "what do you propose we do?"
"Well," Faramir gulped, "shouldn't we send some archers after that Orc?"
"Good," Merry agreed, "What else?"
"We should do what we set out to do," Ruby said fiercely, "go to Moria, find the cause of all this, and nip it in the bud." This suggestion was met with cheers from the young hobbits. Merry looked thoughtful.
"Who do you think should go?" he asked them. The young hobbits fell silent, each wishing to conceal that they thought that they should be the ones to go. Merry smiled, knowing their thoughts better than they themselves knew them. He continued. "What you need is, first of all, a small group who are willing, no more than four or five volunteers. Among them should be an archer, a cook, a mapmaker, a tracker and one who knows how to handle a boat. They should all be quick-witted, strong, sensible, loyal to each other and the Shire, and have a taste for this sort of thing - for an adventure." Merry surveyed the four downcast hobbits, who were each assured that they were not bold or brave or good enough to go. "Who do you know who fits such a description?" Estella spoke up.
"I know several young hobbits," she replied. "Firstly, there's one who is loyal, strong, and can handle a boat better than any I've ever seen. Secondly, there's a one who is clever, yet cautious, a good tracker, and steadfast as her father." Estella smiled, remembering some long ago tale in which the people she most loved had played a part. The four young hobbits were still completely in the dark. "Third, there's an archer, who can hit his mark from three leagues away and never miss, someone who's hungry for something to do, some way in which she could help the Shire. Fourth, a cook, who is full of uncommon good sense, and will never shy away from duty. And fifth, a mapmaker, a quiet little hobbit who will stand up for his mates and never let his land down if he can help it." Estella turned from the moping tweens - and one thirty-two-year-old - to Merry. "Do you know who I'm talking about, darling?"
"Let's see," Merry began, "the first is a pleasant fellow by name of Faramir Took, who captains the "Undomiel"" Faramir started, staring at Merry with disbelief. "The second is without a doubt, a certain Daisy Gamgee." Daisy gaped. "The third and fourth are, respectively, Ruby Gamgee and Primrose Gamgee." Now, all four hobbits were filled with shock. Ruby was actually crying; her joy was so great. "The fifth is none other than my own son, Theoden Brandybuck."
"Then it's settled!" Estella cried, much to the joy of her audience, "those five will, if willing, go, and may all the luck in the world go with them." She paused, thinking. "Well, not all the luck." She added. "We'll need some here."
"Shouldn't we find Theoden, then?" Primrose asked, glad that her old friend was coming along. Well, she thought, if she had to go, at least she'd have another sane hobbit with her.
"No need!" Merry cried, opening a cupboard to reveal a brown-haired, green-eyed, red-faced Theoden, who was undoubtedly eavesdropping. Theoden popped out of the cupboard, and looked up at his father.
"Did you really know I was there the whole time, Da?" he asked, smiling. Merry nodded.
"Well, since you obviously heard your - ahem - recommendation, would you like to join Misses Daisy, Primrose, and Ruby Gamgee and Master Faramir Took on a journey to save the Shire?"
"Would I ever!" Theoden grabbed a huge book of parchment paper and a box containing ink and pen with his ink-stained hands. "I could get enough information for a dozen maps!"
Most hobbit-folk smiled benevolently to hear of Theoden's fascination with maps of all kinds. He looked at maps others before him had made, and wondered what was beyond them. He had therefore devoted long hours and days running around the countryside making new maps. This had led him to be chosen, for he would want to go and knew the country from the Shire to Bree and back as well as Estella knew Brandy Hall.
The assembled hobbits - now seven, all told - sat at the table and raised their glasses to their adventure, to the Shire, and to the future ahead of them. For who knows or can even presume to know everything that was, everything that is, and everything that will be?