By: Camellia Foxburr of the Fair Downs

Chapter One: A Rude Awakening

Someone was screaming, noisily waking Diamond up. "Uh, what's going on?" she asked no one in particular. She then realized what woke her up. "Mother? Shouting? Music?" she questioned herself. There were only a few reasons for music being played in the Shire. Either it was someone's birthday or it was some sort of welcoming or going away party. She didn't really think that it could be any of the reasons, though. Ever since the bad people had come, all parties had been outlawed. Wait a minute, Diamond thought to herself, what if they are gone?

Suddenly she realized that it might have been over. But she had to be sure. She went downstairs to find out who her mother was screaming at and why, and also why there was music being played.

Diamond Took of Long Cleeve was a Hobbit. A Hobbit was a person, a very small person, whose average height was about 3'6". They weren't very tall creatures but they were certainly very interesting. They usually had hair ranging in color from light blonde to dark brown, which is untidily curly. One thing very interesting about their hair though, is that it grew on their feet. Yes, their feet! That is why they didn't wear shoes. They eat six meals a day with plenty of snacks in between. They live in the Shire, an out of the way part of Middle Earth, which was extremely agricultural and wholesome. But things had changed.

A war had started in the Shire. An evil man (wizard actually) convinced one of the hobbits that he was trustworthy and corrupted the Shire and the lands and lives that they loved. They lived in fear and terror because of this man. One of the hobbits dared to stand up to him and his goblin army. His name was Paladin Took and that's how the fighting began.

The one Hobbit who was corrupted the most was Lotho Baggins, who incidentally was the first Hobbit that he met in the Shire. Saruman (the wizard) took complete control of Lotho's mind and body, he was lost forever. He was made "Leader of the Shire," but it was not the Shire they once knew. In fact, to the hobbits it bore a closer resemblance to the fires of hell. Diamond knew all of this but she had to know more. For instance, why was her mother was shouting? She only shouted when someone was "disturbing the peace" or was getting into their vegetables, or if someone was just plain rude.

One reason she didn't know this is that everyone in her family ignored, yelled at, or felt pity for her. You see, she wasn't exactly the child her parents had hoped for. Her younger sister, Gabrielle, was such a Hobbit. She had lovely, fine, golden, curly hair, an angelic disposition and figure, blue eyes, and all of her parent's attention. Their entire family had wondered why Diamond was not as pretty as her sister. Do not misunderstand me, she had wavy, not curly, light-brown hair, emerald green eyes, and once had a pretty figure and cheery disposition. But one event altered her situation and disposition had changed all that.

She was about 11 years old and was playing with one of her very distant cousins, Peregrine Took (Paladin's only son). They were pretending to have an "adventure" and were climbing a huge oak tree. This tree was enormous, the young boys of the Shire had even thought of building a fort on it. They were climbing this titanic tree when all of a sudden, it started to rain. It was a cold rain, piercing through her clothes, it dripped and dropped with such a force that thunder started to boom, loudly repeating itself in Diamond's head. Then there was the lightning, it struck with such a monstrosity no matter where they turned. One of these lightning bolts hit the branch on which Diamond was on. She fell and did not know when she would stop until she felt a huge thud and realized that the fall and pain was over. Or not. The branch came falling right after she did and landed with a crack on Diamond's right leg. She screeched, moaned and howled with all of her might hoping that her young cousin might help her. But he had gone. He ran away from her screams, the tree and the mere memory of her.

Her family never forgave the Tooks or Pippin (as he was called) for that day. They blamed Diamond's sorrow, her melancholy disposition and her twisted leg on Pippin. Though they should have only blamed one of the reasons on him. Her sorrow and disposition should have been blamed on her father.

After the Incident, he kept himself happy by drinking at the Green Dragon Inn every few days. He thought that the ale might cure him of the emotional troubles he had been through with discovering that his oldest daughter was crippled and would never be able to walk without a cane or a limp. He beat Diamond and her mother because he thought that they had caused these problems. Constant shouts and drunken routs were a result of his visits to the bar. He was the person who caused his daughter's emotional troubles, bruises, and her melancholy disposition, not the Tooks. The entire Shire felt pity for her and tried to ignore her so that looking at her unhappy face might not ruin their cheerful days.

The one thing that Pippin was responsible for was her broken leg, and leaving her there to deal with it. The doctor, who wasn't able to do much for the wound, said that it would be there her entire life. She would have to use a cane for the first few months, just to hold herself up, and to avoid too much of a limp she would have to use it in everyday life. It wasn't as though the cane were "just a stick'", which is what most of the Shire thought. It was a lovely, wholesome, and nicely carved and polished walking stick, and a means of transportation for Diamond.

She didn't blame Pippin at all, not one bit. It was perfectly natural that he ran away from her screams, I mean, after all, they were almost deadly. She couldn't really blame him for the broken leg either. It wasn't as if he himself had broken her leg. It was the lightning-struck tree branch that did that. One other reason that she didn't blame Pippin is that he had always been one of her best friends up until that fateful day. The last reason that she could never blame Pippin is that over the past few years, though he ignored her, she had grown to admire and needless to say it, love him. Not that he would ever return the favor. I mean, Pippin was positively clueless when it came to the opposite sex. He barely paid attention to his mother, let alone his extremely distant cousin. So Diamond didn't have much hope in him, but she told herself that one day he would finally notice and appreciate her.

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One year prior to the night that Diamond woke up to the strange and unexpected music, Pippin left his house, which was his alone, and not his father's. This house was rarely used and it grew to be moldy, dirty and completely unorganized. Diamond had noticed this the few times that she passed his house (she had figured out a way of going to town where she could pass by his house).

She was very surprised at the sight of the mess and finally got so fed up with it that she felt she had to do something about it. She paid regular visits there and decided to spruce it up. She brought her supplies in her market basket so that no one would get conspicuous. Besides, it wasn't as though anyone cared about where she was. Her parents paid no attention to her or where she was going and neither did her sister. So Diamond was all alone in her obsessive renovations. She prayed that he would return from his journey and she prepared his house for his return, but the Shire acted as though he were already dead.

Or so they thought.