A deep solid blackness enveloped him as fear coursed through his veins and pounded wildly in his heart. With eyes the size of saucers that could not penetrate the total darkness around him, he peered trying to find the faintest hit of light. Bone-chilling cold sent shivers in waves through his small little body and he clutched the woolen blanket tightly about his shoulders as he leaned up against the earthen wall. A spattering of dirt lightly dust him from the shifting of his shoulders and he jumped in fear as he brought both his hands up together to brush it away. He thought of cobwebs and spiders that only increased his sense of fear within him and perhaps they were on him and crawling over him.
Thick tears formed in his eyes and his bottom lip trembled while he curled his knees closer about him. Waking up to his worse fear and not knowing how he had arrived to being here scared him the most. He knew that the mean, ugly hobbit must have taken him during the night, but sensed that he was not with him in this darkness, at least he did not think so. As the minutes ticked on by, Faramir began to whimper and cry. He even began to wish that the hobbit would return so he was not so alone. Anything would have been better than sitting in this complete darkness.
His whimpers were halted suddenly as he heard fast approaching feet in the darkness and his head jerked up to see a light in the hand of the hobbit he most feared running towards him. Faramir pulled up the blanket with both his hands to cover his face trying to hide from him.
It did him no good as Faradom stopped in front of him and bent down upon his heels to peer at the small little lad and waited until the lad lowered his blanket. Faramir could feel his evil eyes upon him and he shouted out from behind his blanket. "Take me back to my Da, you mean, ugly hobbit! I want to go home!"
He heard a loud chuckle and he slowly lowered his blanket to peer into the evil eyes before him. The light of the torch rested in Faradom's hand and he watched the lad momentarily before he stood up and placed the torch into the metal mount attached to the cured timber that held this section of the tunnel. When his eye adjusted to the light from the torch, Faramir looked around him and he could see a small distance of tunnel on both sides of him. There where timbers that boxed off the roundness of the walls and placed every few yards. Just beyond the timber in the lit area that stood towards the farthest left from the circle of light cast by the torch, he noticed another tunnel going in a different direction. Looking on either side of him, he noticed that there were three trunks opened and emptied. Upon the floor he could see a field of debris of papers, journals and folded bolts of cloth tossed in all directions. Faramir instantly recognized those things when his father presented them to Merry and Estella just before their wedding. But now they were reduced to trash from the dirt from being treaded upon. He would have never known these things to be here, waking up in total darkness.
His small eyes watched his captor intensely as he worked in carving holes into the side of one of the trunks and then moving to the other side to do the same. The curls of wood shavings fell to the dirt floor, one after another making small piles. He ran his finger across the holes that he made and judged the size. Faramir watched him intently and wondered why he was doing this.
When he finally stood up and placed his knife back into his belt, Faramir thought of something that might help him. "I have to go to the bathroom." His small little voice quivered.
Faradom snarled at him and pointed over to the tunnel's wall. "You can go over there against that wall.
Slowly he walked a few paces and turned to look over his shoulder to see if he would follow him. When Faradom did not move, but kept a watchful eye upon him, he walked over to the wall and stood just within the border of the light.
Feeling his eyes upon him made him very nervous as he tried to relieve himself, but nothing was happening. "I can't go with you watching me!" he snapped at his captor. Faramir looked over his shoulder to see Faradom turning around to look at the trunks. Again he tried, but still nothing happened.
"Will ya hurry yerself?" Yelled the mean, ugly hobbit from over his shoulder waiting for the sound to come from the lad.
"I can't go if you're listening. Hum something or it wouldn't work!" pleaded little Faramir.
"I'm not goin' ta hum a thing! Ya just get it over with, will ya!"
"I'm trying, but it won't work if you're listening! Just hum something!" He insisted a bit loud and firmer.
After a small pause, Faramir heard the hobbit begin to hum a song loud enough to drown out any noise he could make. With a bolt of speed, his little feet ran head long into the darkness not knowing where he was going or if he'd run into something and fall. He just kept running. Wildly his heart pounded in fear and his hands flung out in front of him to feel for the wall.
Giving him just a moment, he stopped his humming and turned around to see if the lad had finished. Not seeing him, Faradom knew the lad had tricked him and that he had under estimated him. He rushed to the torch and pulled it out from the mount on the cured timber and held it high enough to see a short distance into the tunnel. Holding it out in front of him, he gave chase to the lad.
XXX
His feet padded heavily upon the floor and it was an effort to lift each one. Wearily he strolled through the empty corridor in the hopes of reaching his room and finally being able to rest his head upon the soft feathery pillows.
Pippin's eyelid blinked with the need of sleep and he rubbed his full stomach as he made the first turn in the corridor heading to the guestrooms of Brandy Hall. Faint sounds slowly drifted into the corridor the closer he got and he wonder who could be up so late at night. He picked up the pace when he thought he heard the sound of his wife's voice and then an echo of his mothers.
Quickly he turned the last corner in the hallway and caught his first glimpse of a small group of hobbits surrounding his wife and mother. He could tell that they were very upset as the others did their best to comfort them. Seeing his father knocking on the door of a guest's room and then questioning the occupant, Pippin ran the rest of the way fearing the worst of news.
Diamond raced to her husband's side and quickly told him that Faramir had been taken from his bed. They found a strange straw hat siting on the table next to their opened door and knew that the hobbit they had been searching for had taken their son.
Paladin had questioned the guards and guests in the hopes that they heard something or seen the one who had taken his grandson and in which direction they headed. However, they knew nothing that could help them.
Pippin embraced his wife and held her tightly to comfort her while he listened to his father as he rallied the men folk to his aid and told them to gather their swords and bows.
"Merry must be told what has happened, Da!" said Pippin as he handed his hysterical wife back to his mother. "Diamond, I promise I'll get him back, no matter what it takes!"
Together, both Paladin and his son raced down the corridor to find Merry's room to awaken him.
Turning the corner of the hallway, they almost ran directly into Sheffield and Tom as they made their way back to their room. Pippin quickly told them what had happened and they followed them to find Merry.
Within moments after awaking Merry and telling him what had happened, Merry dressed quickly and grabbed his sword. Leading the small group to the guard's quarters to gather his Bucklanders together, they began to organized the groups to search the tunnels immediately.
Groups of hobbit filed into the doorways that lead into the tunnels, some taking the Master of Buckland's secret study door while others raced to the farthest door in the oldest section of Brandy Hall.
Other guards raced outside to begin their search of the grounds, corals and stables.
Once in the tunnels, torches were lit and Merry gave orders to each group to take a section to search the maze of tunnels under Brandy Hall, while Merry and his group would searched where they left off just before nightfall.
XXX
Faramir could easily see Faradom directly behind him and closing fast upon him when he took a moment to look over his shoulder. Knowing he would be upon him within moments, he quickly ducked behind cured timber and crouched down close to the ground. His feet felt the sharp stones that he knelt upon and quickly picked up one into his hand. Tossing it a few yards further down the tunnel to make a noise so the hobbit would follow it, he quickly ducked down in time as the light went over him. Holding his breath and peaking out from in between his fingers, he saw that Faradom's attention was given to that noise and he followed it not noticing that he was curled up, hiding at his feet.
The second the light had passed him and he was in the darkness again, Faramir turned and ran back to where he had started. Knowing that the tunnel he saw when he sat next to the trunks went into a different direction, he ran his hand across the wall in hopes of finding that before the mean, ugly hobbit figured out that he had backtracked. Silently his small little feet made their way down the dark tunnel and his fingers guided him against the wall. Around the timber he traced his fingers and counted each one. When his foot touched and crackled upon a piece of paper, Faramir knew he was getting close to the tunnel that he sought. Running his fingers down further and around another timber, his fingers met open air and he made the turn. Taking in a deep breath, he felt safe enough to pause a moment to settle the beating of his racing heart.
Hearing footsteps coming closer, he knew Faradom was on to him that he had turned back and tricked the hobbit again. His hand touched the timber and ducked around it and crouched down into a ball to hide just when the light of the torch came into view.
He listened carefully as the hobbit cursed and swore knowing that he had lost the little lad, again. Faramir cupped is hand over is mouth to keep a giggle from being heard. He felt safe enough just being a few yards away from the hobbit and still well hidden in the protection of the darkness. He had Faradom's light that he placed back into the mount on the timber to comfort him and he could watch the hobbit closely.
Faradom paced and kicked the debris in his anger, but soon froze in his place when he heard a noise and a small flicker of light coming from the farthest tunnel. Quickly he grabbed his torch and tossed it to the ground putting the fire out. Darkness enveloped him and Faramir was again frightened being lost in complete darkness. Now not knowing where Faradom was and what he was going to do next sent his heart racing and he curled himself up tighter against the timber. He heard the padding of feet coming close to him and then a whiff if air that touched his cheek. He knew that Faradom had just passed him as he sucked in his breath, holding it in. He could sense the hobbit groping the length of the tunnel wall making his way from him. Sitting perfectly still, Faramir waited and hoped that the mean, ugly hobbit was now distanced away from him. His eyes returned back to the area of the trunks too fearful to move from the spot.
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A/N: The story is slowly winding down and getting close to the end, and just a couple more chapters to go......sobbing......
ShireElf :
I was in a very silly place when I wrote that last chapter of Pippin
stealing food off of every ones plate....I must of be so tired that
morning when I wrote it. I love hobbits, they just put you is such a
fun place when you write about them! Hobbity cuteness............
I
sure hope Faradom doesn't sneak up behind little Faramir and catch
him again! Where's the hero when you need one!!!!
Looking at the next chapter and playing with all the weapons in front of me. Oh, Faradom, you time has come to an end!
You are awesome ShireElf and you make me smile every time I read your review!
BedTimeMonster: Thank you so much for your review, it is greatly appreciated! Loveofthering puts all the weapons back into the box and smiles when finding the right one.....evil laughter follows...
Thinking about who to give the weapon to and making the hero of this story complete.....thinking....thinking, who will it be?