A/N: This chapter is dedicated to my Golden, because he gave me the idea! This chapter does have a bit of action to it, much to every ones delight I'm sure. And since it's new years eve, and I have nothing else to do, this story is getting updated a lot today, lol.
Rusta Iira
By: PTB
Chapter 5: Elen sila lumenn omentilmo
The grass was wet and springy under bare feet, and the air stilled smelled of rain. The storm had stopped as quickly as it had started, but it could be back at any time. The young hobbit was dressed all in black, and he was creeping as quietly as he could. Reaching up, the auburn haired child tapped lightly on the window.
"Psst, Pippin! Pippin!" A curly dark head peeked out the window, one little hand rubbing hazel eyes.
"Wha? What's going on?"
"Pippin, down here!"
"Merry?!" Pippin squeaked, staring down at the upturned face. "Merry what are you doing here! You're gonna' get in trouble!" Pippin's eyes were wide with anxiety, and he peered over his shoulder to make sure that no one was coming. "You have to go. I don't want you getting in trouble!"
"I had to see you, Pip." Merry explained, standing up to full height so that he was now face to face with his cousin in the low window. "I had to explain." Pippin was shaking his head.
"Merry, you can't. My Da' he'll catch you..." Pippin glanced over his shoulder again, obviously afraid of something. Merry would have none of it.
"Pippin, please, just listen to me. You've got to understand me Pip. It's important that you do!" With extreme hesitance, the child nodded his assent for Merry to continue.
"Okay Merry, but hurry. I don't want Da' to catch you." Merry smiled with relief.
"Do you still trust me Pip? After anything he might have said?" Merry's heart sank as Pippin hesitated, instead of answering instantly like he'd done the day before.
"I...I don't know anymore Merry! It's all so jumbled. Da' said you did some horrible things, and you said you were different. And...I don't know anymore." Merry reached up a hand, brushing the back of his hand over one smooth cheek to get rid of one wayward tear.
"There's a lot that people in the Shire don't understand about us." Merry whispered, more to himself than Pippin, "they don't know what they think they know. And please, Pippin, you have to believe me, anything he tells you most likely isn't true."
"But my Da' doesn't lie!" Pippin cried out in fury, and Merry winced.
"I didn't say he was lying to yuh, Pip."
"Yes you did! You just said it!"
"No. Pippin, listen to me. He doesn't know what he thinks he knows. People assume a lot of stuff about Brandybucks Pip, but most of it's not true."
"But I don't understand Merry. Why would everyone hate Brandybucks without reason?"
"I don't know Pip. I don't know a lot of things."
"But my Da' knows everything!" The nine year old stated, "So...so maybe you're wrong Merry. Maybe, you're different from most Brandybucks."
"Pippin," Merry said, trying desperately to keep the hurt of this accusation out of his voice, "I'm going to be in charge of the Brandybucks someday Pippers. So, I'd have to understand my own people wouldn't I?"
"Well then," the little hobbit said with a voice that said he was closer to tears then he would admit, "then maybe my da' is right about you. You don't know as much as I thought you did Merry, and my Da' knows everything. So, maybe he is right." A lump formed in Merry's throat, and he suddenly found it very difficult to breath.
"Come on Pip, you've been to Brandyhall a few times. You know we're not that different from you..."
"But I don't, Merry. Because you are different! You all live in the same house, and it's usually not clean. And you go into that forest sometimes Merry, I've seen you, and Da' said it's evil. And Da' said your Da' kidnapped Aunt Esmie and married her without telling him!"
"What? Pippin that's not..."
"I'm sorry Merry, I've got to go."
"No! Pippin! Pippin!" But the curly little head withdrew inside the window, shutting the pane behind him.
Struggling with the emotions that threatened to overwhelm him, Merry turned to go...and ran right into an older hobbit and fell over on his back.
"Meriadoc Brandybuck! I do believe I told you, that you were not allowed to see Pippin." Merry glared into the darkness, until he caught sight of the speaker. He closed his eyes in sudden gloom. None other than his Uncle Paladin had caught him.
"You did sir."
"And I see that still does not stop you." Suppressed anger welled up inside him, and he could feel himself beginning to tremble.
"No sir," he said, voice crisp with rage, "because I had to clear things up."
"Lie to him, you mean." Paladin sneered. "You Brandybucks are all alike. Lairs and thieves, taking things that are not yours, and breaking that which you cannot have. You have no concern for civilized hobbits. A bunch of savages you lot are. Not even decent enough to be considered hobbits! You know what I say to that?" The older hobbit spit at the seventeen year olds feet, and grinned at him through the darkness. "That's what I say to that."
Eyes glinting with hatred, Merry lifted his head up, threw his shoulders back, and looked the older hobbit with full defiance. This man had already taken away his Pippin, turned him against him, what more could he do? Nothing else would ever hurt as deeply as Pippin saying that his father was right.
"And you know what I have to say too that, Uncle Paladin?" His voice was cool as a knife in a midwinter night, and the older hobbit unconsciously recoiled slightly. "I say that if you knew half as much as you think you do, you'd be wiser than Gandalf himself. But you know nothing." Lighting flashed behind him, making his defiant features clear. "You Tooks brag about being so wise, yet you do not see what is right in front of your face! If watching young hobbits being beaten by lads much stronger than they are, and not so much as batting an eyelash, is considered civilized then I don't want to be! Never has a Brandybuck treated another such, and one never will. So you can keep your 'civilized ways' if you wish, but I won't! Not now, or ever!" The blow came so fast and out of the dark that Merry wasn't sure what had hit him until after he got back to Bag End. All he knew was that one minute he was standing up, and the next he was down on his face in the dirt, dazed and clutching the back of his head.
"Stay away from my family," Paladin Took growled, "and never step foot on my land again, or so help me Brandyhall will no longer have an heir." He gave the teenager a kick in the side, for good measure, and walked into the Smail, slamming the door with a crash. Merry half dragged himself to Bag End, dazed, hurt, and confused, but most of all feeling as if his heart had been torn out.
He left behind a small hobbit boy, sitting on his bed and crying his own heart out.
"Merry, I'm sorry," The boy repeated until finally, he had cried himself to sleep.
"He what!" Saradoc Brandybuck roared, pacing the area in Bag End's study in front of his son. Merry seemed to be inspecting his curly haired feet, as he wasn't watching his dad pace.
"He hit me with a broom stick." Merry repeated, almost whispering. He'd gotten back to Bag End, only to find his parents waiting for him. Obviously Bilbo had sent an urgent message to them, via the post, saying that Merry was in need of their comfort and they had left immediately.
Demanding to know where he'd been, Merry was forced to repeat the tale several times: once to Bilbo and his mother, once to Frodo, and finally (and most regretfully) to his father.
"Paladin's got some nerve! You just don't go around hitting children, especially when you're the one in the wrong!" Under normal circumstances, Merry would have resented being called a child but he knew this was neither the time nor the place to correct his father.
"Now Saradoc, do be reasonable. You know my brother he's...well he's very...he reacts before it's necessary to do so."
"Know him? Esmerelda I've never even met the man! He won't come see us in Brandyhall, and we've been all but banished from Tuckbraugh."
"I've been banished." Merry said miserably, and his mother put her arms around him. The only people he'd told what Pippin had said were his mother and Frodo. He knew that Bilbo would go off trying to make things better, but only making things worse, and his father would say that it was all for the better, even if Merry didn't know why then.
"This only means one thing Bilbo!" Saradoc said, drawing himself up his full three feet seven and a half inch stature. "Buckland must declare war on Tuckbraugh, if not the whole Shire." Everyone stared at the Buckland authority in shock, and Merry felt his stomach clench.
"Now Saradoc, be reasonable!" Bilbo sputtered, "You can't just go off declaring war over a misunderstanding like this! You're not even Thain yet, officially, because your father is still alive!"
"But I am Thain, now that my father can no longer handle everything. And it's not the misunderstanding Bilbo; it's the principal of the thing! The Shire must learn to respect Brandybuck's, even if it must be the hard way! Esmerelda, Meriadoc, come! We've got a long way to go, and preparations to make!" With that Saradoc swept out the door, followed by a very bewildered looking wife and son, and the door of Bag End slammed behind them.
The owner and soon to be heir of Bag End shared looks of ominous shock, and Bilbo sank into his favorite chair beside Frodo.
"Blundering Boliwags, what have we got ourselves into this time, Frodo-lad?"
End A/N: The plot gets even deeper ^_^. Hope this keeps you guys happy. And thanks ever so much for the fabulous reviews. I've read them all a million times, at least! I think that this is the last update for today, but I won't leave you in suspense for to long ^_^.
-PTB
PS: The title is in elvish. You can find the translation in the Fellowship of the Ring. Anyone that can translate it gets a chibi pippin plushie. If you can't, you will find out in the Authors Note of next chapter.
Rusta Iira
By: PTB
Chapter 5: Elen sila lumenn omentilmo
The grass was wet and springy under bare feet, and the air stilled smelled of rain. The storm had stopped as quickly as it had started, but it could be back at any time. The young hobbit was dressed all in black, and he was creeping as quietly as he could. Reaching up, the auburn haired child tapped lightly on the window.
"Psst, Pippin! Pippin!" A curly dark head peeked out the window, one little hand rubbing hazel eyes.
"Wha? What's going on?"
"Pippin, down here!"
"Merry?!" Pippin squeaked, staring down at the upturned face. "Merry what are you doing here! You're gonna' get in trouble!" Pippin's eyes were wide with anxiety, and he peered over his shoulder to make sure that no one was coming. "You have to go. I don't want you getting in trouble!"
"I had to see you, Pip." Merry explained, standing up to full height so that he was now face to face with his cousin in the low window. "I had to explain." Pippin was shaking his head.
"Merry, you can't. My Da' he'll catch you..." Pippin glanced over his shoulder again, obviously afraid of something. Merry would have none of it.
"Pippin, please, just listen to me. You've got to understand me Pip. It's important that you do!" With extreme hesitance, the child nodded his assent for Merry to continue.
"Okay Merry, but hurry. I don't want Da' to catch you." Merry smiled with relief.
"Do you still trust me Pip? After anything he might have said?" Merry's heart sank as Pippin hesitated, instead of answering instantly like he'd done the day before.
"I...I don't know anymore Merry! It's all so jumbled. Da' said you did some horrible things, and you said you were different. And...I don't know anymore." Merry reached up a hand, brushing the back of his hand over one smooth cheek to get rid of one wayward tear.
"There's a lot that people in the Shire don't understand about us." Merry whispered, more to himself than Pippin, "they don't know what they think they know. And please, Pippin, you have to believe me, anything he tells you most likely isn't true."
"But my Da' doesn't lie!" Pippin cried out in fury, and Merry winced.
"I didn't say he was lying to yuh, Pip."
"Yes you did! You just said it!"
"No. Pippin, listen to me. He doesn't know what he thinks he knows. People assume a lot of stuff about Brandybucks Pip, but most of it's not true."
"But I don't understand Merry. Why would everyone hate Brandybucks without reason?"
"I don't know Pip. I don't know a lot of things."
"But my Da' knows everything!" The nine year old stated, "So...so maybe you're wrong Merry. Maybe, you're different from most Brandybucks."
"Pippin," Merry said, trying desperately to keep the hurt of this accusation out of his voice, "I'm going to be in charge of the Brandybucks someday Pippers. So, I'd have to understand my own people wouldn't I?"
"Well then," the little hobbit said with a voice that said he was closer to tears then he would admit, "then maybe my da' is right about you. You don't know as much as I thought you did Merry, and my Da' knows everything. So, maybe he is right." A lump formed in Merry's throat, and he suddenly found it very difficult to breath.
"Come on Pip, you've been to Brandyhall a few times. You know we're not that different from you..."
"But I don't, Merry. Because you are different! You all live in the same house, and it's usually not clean. And you go into that forest sometimes Merry, I've seen you, and Da' said it's evil. And Da' said your Da' kidnapped Aunt Esmie and married her without telling him!"
"What? Pippin that's not..."
"I'm sorry Merry, I've got to go."
"No! Pippin! Pippin!" But the curly little head withdrew inside the window, shutting the pane behind him.
Struggling with the emotions that threatened to overwhelm him, Merry turned to go...and ran right into an older hobbit and fell over on his back.
"Meriadoc Brandybuck! I do believe I told you, that you were not allowed to see Pippin." Merry glared into the darkness, until he caught sight of the speaker. He closed his eyes in sudden gloom. None other than his Uncle Paladin had caught him.
"You did sir."
"And I see that still does not stop you." Suppressed anger welled up inside him, and he could feel himself beginning to tremble.
"No sir," he said, voice crisp with rage, "because I had to clear things up."
"Lie to him, you mean." Paladin sneered. "You Brandybucks are all alike. Lairs and thieves, taking things that are not yours, and breaking that which you cannot have. You have no concern for civilized hobbits. A bunch of savages you lot are. Not even decent enough to be considered hobbits! You know what I say to that?" The older hobbit spit at the seventeen year olds feet, and grinned at him through the darkness. "That's what I say to that."
Eyes glinting with hatred, Merry lifted his head up, threw his shoulders back, and looked the older hobbit with full defiance. This man had already taken away his Pippin, turned him against him, what more could he do? Nothing else would ever hurt as deeply as Pippin saying that his father was right.
"And you know what I have to say too that, Uncle Paladin?" His voice was cool as a knife in a midwinter night, and the older hobbit unconsciously recoiled slightly. "I say that if you knew half as much as you think you do, you'd be wiser than Gandalf himself. But you know nothing." Lighting flashed behind him, making his defiant features clear. "You Tooks brag about being so wise, yet you do not see what is right in front of your face! If watching young hobbits being beaten by lads much stronger than they are, and not so much as batting an eyelash, is considered civilized then I don't want to be! Never has a Brandybuck treated another such, and one never will. So you can keep your 'civilized ways' if you wish, but I won't! Not now, or ever!" The blow came so fast and out of the dark that Merry wasn't sure what had hit him until after he got back to Bag End. All he knew was that one minute he was standing up, and the next he was down on his face in the dirt, dazed and clutching the back of his head.
"Stay away from my family," Paladin Took growled, "and never step foot on my land again, or so help me Brandyhall will no longer have an heir." He gave the teenager a kick in the side, for good measure, and walked into the Smail, slamming the door with a crash. Merry half dragged himself to Bag End, dazed, hurt, and confused, but most of all feeling as if his heart had been torn out.
He left behind a small hobbit boy, sitting on his bed and crying his own heart out.
"Merry, I'm sorry," The boy repeated until finally, he had cried himself to sleep.
"He what!" Saradoc Brandybuck roared, pacing the area in Bag End's study in front of his son. Merry seemed to be inspecting his curly haired feet, as he wasn't watching his dad pace.
"He hit me with a broom stick." Merry repeated, almost whispering. He'd gotten back to Bag End, only to find his parents waiting for him. Obviously Bilbo had sent an urgent message to them, via the post, saying that Merry was in need of their comfort and they had left immediately.
Demanding to know where he'd been, Merry was forced to repeat the tale several times: once to Bilbo and his mother, once to Frodo, and finally (and most regretfully) to his father.
"Paladin's got some nerve! You just don't go around hitting children, especially when you're the one in the wrong!" Under normal circumstances, Merry would have resented being called a child but he knew this was neither the time nor the place to correct his father.
"Now Saradoc, do be reasonable. You know my brother he's...well he's very...he reacts before it's necessary to do so."
"Know him? Esmerelda I've never even met the man! He won't come see us in Brandyhall, and we've been all but banished from Tuckbraugh."
"I've been banished." Merry said miserably, and his mother put her arms around him. The only people he'd told what Pippin had said were his mother and Frodo. He knew that Bilbo would go off trying to make things better, but only making things worse, and his father would say that it was all for the better, even if Merry didn't know why then.
"This only means one thing Bilbo!" Saradoc said, drawing himself up his full three feet seven and a half inch stature. "Buckland must declare war on Tuckbraugh, if not the whole Shire." Everyone stared at the Buckland authority in shock, and Merry felt his stomach clench.
"Now Saradoc, be reasonable!" Bilbo sputtered, "You can't just go off declaring war over a misunderstanding like this! You're not even Thain yet, officially, because your father is still alive!"
"But I am Thain, now that my father can no longer handle everything. And it's not the misunderstanding Bilbo; it's the principal of the thing! The Shire must learn to respect Brandybuck's, even if it must be the hard way! Esmerelda, Meriadoc, come! We've got a long way to go, and preparations to make!" With that Saradoc swept out the door, followed by a very bewildered looking wife and son, and the door of Bag End slammed behind them.
The owner and soon to be heir of Bag End shared looks of ominous shock, and Bilbo sank into his favorite chair beside Frodo.
"Blundering Boliwags, what have we got ourselves into this time, Frodo-lad?"
End A/N: The plot gets even deeper ^_^. Hope this keeps you guys happy. And thanks ever so much for the fabulous reviews. I've read them all a million times, at least! I think that this is the last update for today, but I won't leave you in suspense for to long ^_^.
-PTB
PS: The title is in elvish. You can find the translation in the Fellowship of the Ring. Anyone that can translate it gets a chibi pippin plushie. If you can't, you will find out in the Authors Note of next chapter.