Written By: Ciela Night
For: Jo
Bedtime Stories
It was a quiet summer's evening in the Shire. The sun was setting slowly, as if hesitant to say goodnight until the next morn, it's rays bathing the inside of Bag End with a golden light. Perhaps this is why, that evening, a frazzled hobbit mother had trouble getting her children to go to bed.
"Sam, dear," Rosie called from the doorway of the study, her voice tinged with exasperation.
"Yes, Rosie?" Sam looked up from the documents he was studying.
"The children are demanding another story. I have no more left to tell them so I said that their da would come and tell them one. They promised they would go to bed after that."
"Well, I suppose I had better go and tell them a story. Little hobbits need their sleep." Sam stood up and walked to where Rosie was standing, stopping in front of her and taking her hands. "Besides," he whispered as he lifted her hands and kissed them, "After they are asleep, you and I can have some time alone." His eyes twinkled as he looked back up at her.
Rosie let out a breathless giggle and she slipped her hands out of Sam's and cupped them up around his face. "I would say hurry up but you need to make sure that they're all asleep, so, whenever you're finished, come find me." She gave him a light kiss on the cheek, Sam giving her a big smile when she let go.
He slipped past her and she called to him, "The children are in Elanor and Rose's room. I already put Daisy, Hamfast and Goldilocks to bed and they should be asleep."
Sam nodded and went down to the girls' room. He stopped in front of the closed door where he could hear hiss of whisperings and the small echo of tiny hobbit feet moving around the room. A voice lifted from above the other noises was heard. "No, Frodo! You have to sneak up behind Rose, let out a horrible Orc cry and then you try to steal her ring. You don't just grab it and run!"
"Why not?" came the sulky voice of Frodo. "Why am I always the Orc? It was my namesake who carried the ring. I should get to be the Ringbearer!"
"I like being an Orc," said another voice which Sam recognized as Merry's.
"Me too," piped up Pippin's voice.
Sam decided to enter before the argument continued. He opened the door and announced, "I hear that a story is in order before you ragamuffins will go to bed."
The five hobbit children jumped up to greet Sam. He stifled a smile as he saw the costumes they had put on. Frodo, Merry and Pippin were clad in giant blankets and each had small sticks in their hands. Rose was wearing his elven cloak, which dwarfed her small body. Elanor, Sam noticed with a small pang of pain, was wearing the cloak that Mr. Frodo had bequeathed her before he left for the Grey Havens.
Sam sat down on Rose's bed and five year old Pippin immediately climbed into his lap. "You seemed to have been creating your own story before I walked in here, mind telling me how it went?"
Elanor took off the cloak gracefully and set it on the bed, taking a seat beside it. She shrugged. "We were just play-acting from some of the stories you told us of the Ringbearer and the War of the Ring."
"I was an Orc, Da!" said Pippin importantly, waving about his small stick. Sam stifled a laugh as he told Pippin seriously, "So I see! And a very frightening Orc at that."
"Merry, Pip, and I were the Orcs preparing to ambush Rose, who's the Ringbearer," added Frodo from where he and Merry sat on the floor.
"And Elanor was the Ringbearer's companion?" asked Sam.
Frodo snorted as he looked up at his older sister. Elanor studiously ignored his look. "No, Elanor was the beautiful elf-maid who came to rescue Rose from the ambush."
"Funny," said Sam thoughtfully. "I don't think I remember telling you that story."
Elanor blushed. "We may have changed a few details."
"It's your story so I suppose you're entitled to change it. Now, we better get on with me telling a story 'else your mum will get angry with me."
The children crowded around in a circle so they could better hear. Rose decided to snuggle up on the right of Sam and Merry did the same on the left. Pippin stayed in Sam's lap; Frodo and Elanor tugged blankets from the beds to make a nest on the floor.
"Which story d'you want to hear tonight?" asked Sam as the children finished settling.
"One about the War of the Ring!" said Frodo. The others nodded their heads eagerly in agreement. But then …
"Tell us about when you met the elves!" said Elanor, a dreamy note in her voice.
"No, a story with lots of battles!" said Frodo, his eyes shining with a far away look that imagined a battle where he could be a hero.
"I want a scary story!" said Merry as he curled up even closer to Sam.
Sam looked at his children in exasperation. "Perhaps we'll let Rosie chose tonight?" He glanced down at his quiet daughter, who, so far had said nothing.
She scrunched up her small face as she thought. "I want a story about after you and Mr. Frodo left the Fellowship at Amon Hen." She looked at him with all the gravity of her nine years. "We've heard what happened to Mr. Merry and Mr. Pippin and the adventures they had but you never tell us about what happened to you and Mr. Frodo. All you've said is you went into Mordor and destroyed the one ring."
Sam felt a swell of pride as he realized how well his children had listened to his rambling (in his opinion) stories about his and the other hobbits' experiences in the war. At the same time, he couldn't tell them about what happened to him and Frodo when they had traveled to Mordor with Gollum. It was too dark, too full of pain, loss and suffering for him to dare tell his children. He wanted to keep them innocent for as long as he could. He couldn't expose to that yet.
He had to tell them something though; they were looking at him expectantly. He searched his memories and then found one that stood out in his mind as a brighter spot in that time of horror. "All right," he said firmly. "I'll tell you about when Mr. Frodo and I first met Faramir, son of Denethor, the Steward of Gondor. And," he lowered his voice dramatically, "when your da saw with his very own eyes, an oliphaunt!"
"Really, Da?" said Rose, obviously delighted.
"Really." And Sam continued on with his story; although, he left out some parts, like when the Haradraic soldier had died in front of him. The children were entranced as they listened to him. Sam described being captured by Faramir, the battle between the Southrons and Faramir's men, and how the noble lord of Gondor finally let them free.
As he neared the end of his tale, Sam noticed that the weight had grown on his shoulders and lap. Merry, Pippin and Rose were asleep and Elanor and Frodo were yawning as they listened.
"I think that's the end of our story tonight," said Sam gently. Elanor and Frodo protested sleepily as Sam stood up carefully, Merry and Pippin in his arms.
"Come Frodo lad, time for bed." Sam shepherded the tired hobbit boy into the bedchamber across the hall. There, he lay the two younger boys in their beds, tucking them in quickly. He went over to Frodo's bed to tucked him in as well. "You were awfully brave Da," mumbled Frodo as Sam bent over him. "When I grow up I'm going to have adventures just like you."
"I'm sure you will," said Sam as he kissed Frodo's forehead. He left the room to check on the girls. When he was back in Rose's and Elanor's room he went to kiss both of them goodnight. They were both sound asleep.
Sam smiled as he closed the door quietly to his children's rooms. He went to go find Rosie.