A Middle Earth Quest

Chapter 9

Disclaimer- again, I do not own Lord of the Rings, and most likely never will. And Michael Crichton can keep his idea. It's a good one, but I don't own that one either. Sigh, why is all the good stuff already taken?

Suuki- I am so glad you liked it! Since there is absolutely no content in the last chapter at all I was afraid you were going to think it was crap. I'm trying to make there be a little something there, but you know, I've never actually been successful making couples in my stories. I'll try, and any tips you have would be greatly appreciated.

Aranel3- He he he. I guess the summary does lend itself to silly mental pictures, doesn't it? You're tight though, the elves do take the place of the Raptors. Though I don't think their elven pride would allow them to do the head bob thing. That would be pretty funny though; seeing Legolas holding his arms like that and bobbing up and down. I thought I put it somewhere in the authors note in chapter two, but yes, chapter two is set five years ahead of chapter one.

A/N- This chapter didn't go quite as planned. It seems that the characters aren't exactly on the same page as me, so they made it as difficult for me as characterly possible to finish the chapter. It came out in somewhat of an uneven compromise between what they wanted and what I thought I was writing. Well, tell me what you think. If you all like what the characters came up with better, tell me and maybe I'll give up authorial control to them. Maybe they'll do a better job.

And without further ado, here's chapter 9! Enjoy!!

Slowly the SUV's rolled through the open gate. Rolling hills sprawled out before them and Cale admired the view. You could almost come here to admire the scenery alone, he thought to himself. They came to a stop in a flat space near the gate and Mel turned off the engine.

"Well, here we are," she said, opening her door. Cale mimicked her action and got out of the car. A small breeze whipped through his hair, bringing with it the fresh scents of a nearby garden and the trees around them.

"As I told Liam a minute ago," Owen started, the three of them joining him and Mel, "this is primarily going to be a hands on, walking sort of tour. Life for the inhabitants will go on as normal, just with people walking around, poking into places, asking questions, and such. Of course, we'll ask people not to get in the way, or interfere with whatever the hobbits and such are doing. And there will be tour guides walking around with them, making sure no one starts a commotion and to give details about the park. It's all very fascinating. Shall we start?" He began walking along the path in front of them, which wound its way around the nearest hill.

The other side of the hill revealed smaller hills, all with little green round doors with handles in the center of them in each one. There were mini-white picket fences separating vegetable patches from flower gardens, and hobbits hard at work tending them. There seemed to be a lot of them, though he knew their to be only eleven here at the moment. From some hiding place in front of them scampered two little hobbit children, giggling and screaming, as a hobbit woman chased them around. Cale laughed. The simplicity of it strongly reminded him of the Amish communities, which sadly now were few and far between.

His sudden laughter had brought attention to their presence, and now all the hobbits ceased whatever job they were working at, and turned to stare at the group. Even the hobbit children stopped running and screaming to stare at the new comers, a bit frightened. Then they saw Mel and they screamed anew. They launched themselves at her and she had to take a step forward and get down on her knees so they wouldn't knock her into him. She gave them both huge hugs and kisses and tickled them a bit before standing back up, a tiny hobbit child resting on each hip.

"Mel, Mel, what'dja bring us this time?" they asked, the girl stuck her hands in Mel's pockets. She put them down.

"I'm sorry guys," she said. "But I don't have anything this time. I didn't have time to find anything for you. I've been really busy lately. But I promise I'll have something extra special next time I come." Their faces had fallen, but now they smiled again in anticipation. Mel turned to the hobbit woman, who was frowning slightly.

"Estella," she said warmly. "How is everything?"

Estella drew Mel aside. "Who are these people? Why are they here?" she asked quietly, though Cale could just hear her. Mel turned and looked back at the four of them standing there.

"Oh, Estella, I'm so sorry. I've been so busy these last few weeks that I completely forgot to tell you all. Owen, I know he doesn't come here often, but he has company for the next few days. And he wanted to show his guests around. I informed the dwarves and elves, and they didn't like it. But I completely forgot to tell you all. They mean no harm, and they won't interfere, I promise. They just want to walk around and talk to you all; they are quite interested in you," she whispered back earnestly.

Estella visibly relaxed. "Forgive me for asking, Mel. It's just that you've never brought others here before, and we did not know what to make of it. That and we do not like Owen; he makes us nervous, he's always poking into private matters," Estella turned to Cale and the rest and smiled.

"Good morning gentlemen. My name is Estella, and welcome to the Shire," she said.

Cale smiled back, "Thank you Estella. I am Cale Major, and this is a very lovely place." Liam introduced himself next, and Freddy and Owen bid her good morning politely; she already knew who they were.

From there, Owen and Freddy just wandered around talking to each other and mostly ignoring the hobbits who had, by now, gone back to work. Mel too went her own way; she headed up a hill toward a massive looking tree, where Cale could just make out a couple of figures. That left Cale and Liam to do as they pleased, as long as they didn't get in the way. The two of them looked at each other, and then shrugged.

Cale decided to just walk around and look for himself. He headed down the path, trying to see where it ended. It went on quite a ways, perhaps three-quarters of a mile, before it dead ended in another gate, similar to the one they had entered through. Having found the end of the path, he turned around, and went off to explore in a different direction, and mingle with the hobbits. He came back to his starting place and went in roughly the same direction Mel had gone.

He paused every time he came upon a hobbit at work and asked a few questions. He asked what they were doing, if they liked living here, if they were treated well, and other general niceties. It was interesting for while, but he received the same answers from every one he met, and they were all a bit hesitant to talk with him. He even asked for a brief tour through a hobbit hole, and though he was obliged, it was with deep reservations. It was as if the hobbits were not used to having outsiders walking among them.

He crested the top of a large hill to find a couple of middle aged hobbits sitting and smoking beneath the giant tree he had spied earlier. He made his way towards them, but it was a ways farther than he had thought. When he reached them, he was slightly short of breath.

"Eh-hem," he cleared his throat, trying to politely get the attention of the older hobbits. But they did not so much as glance his way, but kept on ignoring him completely as they blew smoke rings and took drags from their great pipes. Cale frowned. He leaned forward slightly and asked quietly, "Umm, sirs? Would you mind terribly if I joined you here on this marvelous hilltop for a moment?"

The hobbit sitting closest to him looked up and smiled. "Why sure, lad. We'd be happy to have you. What be your name?"

Cale sat down and leaned against the huge tree. "My name is Cale, sir. I'm here with Miss Cowan," he smiled at the middle aged hobbit and offered his hand in greeting. The hobbit looked at him funny, then blew another smoke ring. Cale put his hand down, then cast his gaze out across the landscape, admiring it. "Quite a beautiful place here. Very peaceful," he said, making small talk.

The hobbit next to him nodded. "Aye, that it is laddy. That it is. My name's Anson, by the way. And this here be Seredic." Cale murmured a quiet "nice to meet you" and then went back to his gazing. They sat there in peace and quiet for a good while, admiring the view, before Cale ventured a question and broke the silence.

"Sirs, would you mind terribly if I asked a few questions?" he asked quietly. Somewhere overhead in the boughs of the tree a songbird chirped a greeting to its mate. Anson smiled at him and said, "Why sure, go ahead and ask. We've no secrets here."

"Sir, I was wondering, how long have you all been here? The landscape seems very worn, almost broken in, and you all seem to have gotten yourselves into a very comfortable routine. It looks to me like you've been here a goodly amount of time," he said. Anson looked at him companion and quirked his eyebrow, thinking.

"What do you think, Seredic? 'Bout how long we been here?" The other hobbit took a drag on his pipe and furrowed his brow considering the question. Finally he came up with an answer. "Oh, neigh on thirty seven moons now." Then he blew another smoke ring and left the rest of the talking to Anson.

Anson nodded. "Aye, almost thirty-seven moons now. In that amount of time a body can get a good amount of work done. He can nearly shape the fields to what he wants. We're a hard working people, us hobbits. We like the simple life, no gallivantin' off on insane adventures for us. Just a quiet town, with good neighbors, and a good days work ahead of us is all we need."

Cale made a quick conversion in his head. Thirty-seven month's was three years and one month; that wasn't a very long time. "Anson, sir, are you all happy here? I mean, that's a long time for you, and your community hasn't grown much. Don't you get lonely, or wish there were more of you?" Cale asked them. It had to frustrating and lonely, only seeing about fifteen other people every day.

The hobbit looked at him thoughtfully before answering. "You know, Mel is the only other person who's asked us that." Anson took a long drag on his pipe and let Cale think what he wanted. He blew a particularly large smoke ring, then continued. "We're very happy here. Like I said, it's quiet here, and we're left mostly in peace. As to our community, it has grown, quite a bit actually. Every three to six moons we foster orphan hobbits from other villages around. Mel brings them to us and we welcome them as our own. We've seen babies grow to become successful adult hobbits, and we've seen old hobbits like myself pass on. There's enough stability here to keep things from seeming hectic, and there are enough new faces that it doesn't get boring or tense. And truth be told, I'd rather this place stay kind of small. The more people the less you get to know each other, and the more impersonal the community becomes. Here it's very friendly."

While he listened to Anson speak, Cale's mind raced. So they thought their young were fostered orphans? Cale was appalled that Mel would outright lie to these people. He could see Mr. Bridges, or even the geneticist concocting such a story, but he found it hard to believe that Mel would willingly go along with it. But maybe that was it, maybe she didn't want to lie to them but had to, for their sake or her job's sake. But, then again, given the simplicity of their natures, maybe Mel and the others had determined that telling them they were manufactured people would be too much for them to handle. Cale certainly wouldn't be comfortable around people he knew had created him from a test tube just to make money off him. That thought didn't sit well with him at all, for that was, in a nutshell, what all of the staff at the park were doing. But then, this dilemma also begged the question, how had they explained away the "native" hobbits inability to produce babies of their own. Cale decided that he was going to have a talk with at least Mel here soon.

Cale, who had only been half-listening to the hobbits impromptu speech, was about to ask another question, one he hoped had nothing to do with whatever Anson had said before, when he heard his name shouted. He looked up to Mel waving her arms at him from the top edge of the hill. She motioned him to follow her, and Cale stood up and dusted himself off.

"Well, sirs, I thank you very much for talking with me and sharing the shade of this magnificent tree," he said warmly. "I am afraid it's time to go. I hope I get the opportunity to speak with you again." He offered his hand, and they shook it. Then he nodded them a farewell and set off in the direction of Hobbiton proper. Outside, he hoped, he looked calm and quite content, but inside his anger was rising. He had his perfect opportunity to speak with Mel, and he had no intention of passing it up.

The end of the road found a lot of Cale's anger diminished. As he came around the bend, he found Mel, Owen, and Freddy all standing in front of the vehicle's laughing hard. What they were laughing at, he didn't see till a moment later. They were all laughing at the actor, who was sitting on the gravel, trying desperately to fend off the little hobbit children, who were wailing at him not to go and trying to attach themselves to his arms and legs like little burrs. Estella, their caretaker, just stood off to one side, a slight smile graced the corners of her mouth.

Cale nearly lost it, and had to kneel down himself before he fell over, laughing. When he had enough control over himself that he could speak, he shouted at Liam to stand up. The actor's face brightened, as though he had never thought of this, and he managed to push the children away just long enough to get himself to his feet. At this, Estella called the children off, and they reluctantly trudged over to her. Cale got up and made his way over to Mel and the group, shaking his head.

"Those two are going to be trouble when they get older," Mel said, as she watched Estella take them back into town. He nodded his agreement. Liam waved goodbye, and all of them started to pile back into the vehicles; it was time to move on. Mel pulled out her keys, and made her way around to the driver's side of the second SUV.

"So, what did you talk about with Anson and Seredic?" she asked as she unlocked the doors. Cale's anger came rushing back at the mention of t he old hobbit, though not with the intensity it had before. He climbed in and bucked up, then slammed his door shut.

"Oh, we talked about quite a bit," he said with a hard edge to his voice. "I have some questions for you."

A/N- Whew! I finally finished this chapter!!!!!!! Yea!!! Sorry it has taken soooooo long to get this up. But like I said, I had my german friend with me for all of August. It was so frustrating. I had half of this chapter written for the whole month of August, and I could never find the time to finish it. Yea!! Well, tell me what you think. Thanks!!!