While they Walked
Chapter 13: The Pleasures of the Pipe
A/N: I have ideas once more! And From here on, if I use your ideas, then I thank you for them in advance. And thanks to those whose ideas I will not use. But please excuse me, I must go to bed.
The fellowship was forced to stop walking earlier than usual. Legolas had scouted ahead and found no other suitable campsite for a few leagues. So the hobbits found themselves settling down to an early night, or day as it happened. But to their surprise, they were not a tired as they thought they would be and found themselves without anything to do while they waited for sleep to show itself in them or at least produce a yawn.
Pippin, being more prone to boredom than anyone else, was searching for something to do. Finding no subject he could think of to talk about for a good length of time, he got his pack out. It was so heavy, it may as well have something useful in it, he reasoned.
He dug down past a few changes of clothes, past a truant jar of pickled onions and gherkins, right to the bottom where his hand found something long, round and smooth. It intrigued him, for even though he had packed everything himself he couldn't remember packing anything like what he now had in his hand. He pulled it out as best he could without disturbing too much else and took it to the campfire to get a better look at it, for it wasn't too bright yet.
It was a pipe, not the kind you smoke with, Pippin would have recognised that the moment his hand brushed over it, but a musical one. It was very basic, carved out of wood by one of his uncles when he was young. He blew it to clear it out, it didn't give a bad sound.
"What do you have there Mister Pippin?" asked Sam, who happened to be sitting next to him.
"Just something I found in my pack, I've not played it for a while and I barely remember bringing it with me." Sam's eyes lit up at the prospect of some music. As much as Sam loved elves and as lovely as Legolas' voice was, not that lovely really covered it, he was excited at the prospect of hearing something truly hobbity.
"Play something! Go on!" Urged Sam.
"Yes yes," said Pippin distractedly as he placed his fingers over the holes, trying to remember a tune he could play. He decided to start with something easy.
The whole camp was woken out of its reverie. Any small conversations there were stopped as Pippin's jaunty little tune floated over them. Sam and Merry jumped up with a cheer and bowed to each other, as one does before one dances. Pippin had a hard time to stop himself from laughing as he had to keep playing. Frodo though, was free to laugh and soon began to clap in time with the music.
Sam and Merry began what seemed to be a well-practised piece of choreography. They were twisting and turning around each other, all thoughts of class and status forgotten. At times they would be swinging each other about and they'd side step around the campfire. Soon enough everyone was clapping Sam and Merry on, laughing with them if either one of the tripped or stumbled, even the fire danced merrily with them. But soon they collapsed in a heap next to Frodo.
"So soon?" said Frodo cheekily, playfully pushing a panting Merry. Pippin also looked a little out of breath and got himself a long drink. "Well, I don't think you two should be the only ones to dance." Frodo looked at the rest of the fellowship, challenging them all to have a go. Legolas hopped down from the tree he was sitting in, if a hobbit could dance like that, than an elf of far more practise should have no trouble. He volunteered himself. "Good, thank you Legolas!"
This prompted Gimli into accepting. Whatever an elf could do, a dwarf could do better and he was determined to prove it. The next to accept was Gandalf, already knowing a few hobbit dances. That left Aragorn and Boromir. Now they were outnumbered and felt obliged to join in.
"Good!" said Frodo, rubbing his hands together with glee and in anticipation of the fun to come. "Legolas, I think you should be partnered with... Gimli!" said Frodo, knowing full well how much they disliked each other. The two men gasped, but saw what fun it could be and chuckled. "Strider shall go with Gandalf and Boromir, you shall be my partner!" Boromir felt privileged to be the one dancing with the hobbit, or teacher would perhaps be a better way to describe him. "Right! Stand opposite your partners and hold hands, like so," Frodo took hold of both of Boromir's hands. "We're going to be short and simple so no fancy twiddly bits Pippin!" Boromir never realised Frodo could be quite so bossy.
"Oh Frodo, that's no fun!" complained Pippin.
"Very well then, no twiddly bits yet. Anyway, back to the dance. Everyone holding hands?"
"Gimli, Legolas can't hold your hands if you've got them clasped behind your back!" said Merry from where he was lying on the floor, recovering. Gimli grudgingly took Legolas' hands.
"Good," continued Frodo. "Now, you put your foot out to the side, toe up, that's right."
"Other foot Strider!" came the helpful comment from the three sitting on the floor. Strider righted himself.
"Now you point your toe to the floor. Yes. Heel on the floor again, then toe, heel, toe. That's right!" Frodo looked pleased with himself. "Now we gallop down to the other side of the camp. Come on Boromir." He and Boromir skipped sideways, "I can't go that fast Boromir! You'll have to do smaller gallops. Now, everyone else,"
"Legolas, take his hands again! You can't keep dropping them halfway through the dance!"
"Thank you Merry, now everyone else, gallop, gallop, gallop, gallop." Everyone 'galloped' so that they were level with Boromir and Frodo. "You do the heel toe move again and gallop back," Frodo, along with the rest of the dancer 'galloped' again. The three sitting on the floor were in hysterics. "Shut up you three!" said Frodo in annoyance. "Now, you take your right hand, no your right Boromir, not my right,"
"Other hand Strider!" shouted Merry with glee.
"And you clap them with your partner's hand three times." there was a small amount of out-of-time clapping. "So that's right right right. Now you do the same but with your other hand, left left left. And now you clap your hands on your knees three times, knees knees knees."
"Your knees Strider, not Gandalf's!" the three hobbits burst into more fits of giggles and Aragorn joined with them.
"Strider! Pay attention! Now, where was I?"
"Being a perfectionist?" offered Merry. Frodo glared at him.
"Ah yes, now we clap both hands with each other three times again."
"He said with each other Legolas, Gimli!" the two were obviously trying to reduce the amounts of possible physical contact, and failing miserably.
"So that's together together together," mumbled Frodo to himself. "So now we swing our partners round and round!" All three pairs grasped hands and swung each other around, Gimli and Legolas were being a little more vigorous than the others. "And then we start again!" said Frodo pointedly, "See? I said it was going to be short and simple." Everyone walked back to their original positions going over what they had just learned in their minds, there was quite a bit of mumbling and quiet clapping. "Pippin! Music!" said Frodo suddenly and the three pairs jumped into their starting positions.
They let Pippin play for a little while, getting the feel of the music. Sam and Merry began clapping.
"One, two, three, four" shouted Frodo, counting them in and he carried on shouting instructions. They all managed to gallop without any accidents but it came to the clapping and Frodo was the only one sure of what he was doing. Gandalf and Strider began prematurely swinging each other around and Gimli and Legolas managed to get into a mini-argument about which order the claps came in. The music ended with a painful squeak when Pippin was no longer able to keep his laughter bottled up.
"It's right, then left, then knees, then together!" said Frodo. Gimli grumbled something and Legolas gained an air of superiority. They went over that part a few more times. "Everyone got it now?" there was a murmur of agreement and they walked their way back to the beginning. Sam and Merry decided to join them.
They waited in silence for a moment before Pippin played his tune. There was a little foot tapping and Frodo counted them in once more. This time they managed to get through it once, and then once more. By the third time Gandalf, Aragorn, Merry and Sam were having small gallop-races wherever they could and by the sixth time through, Pippin was barely playing the same tuned, he had ornamented it and embellished it so much. This prompted everyone to just begin improvising and between them they came up with some very interesting moves.
Until Legolas tripped over Gimli. Frodo and Boromir were spinning too fast to stop and landed on top of them. The four of them started laughing and it spread to the rest of the fellowship until Pippin had to stop playing again and everyone was on the floor, some were even crying with laughter; something they had not done for far too long.
It took quite a while, but when they finally did calm down, the dancing had done its job and they were ready to go to bed. The hobbits climbed into their bedrolls and called to the rest of the fellowship,
"Good-day!" something they developed to say at bedtime when 'goodnight' became untruthful.
"Good-day!" replied the rest of the fellowship as they too retreated into their beds. All save Gandalf, whose turn it was to watch. He sat and lit his pipe, though the smile did not move from his lips for a good long while.
Chapter 13: The Pleasures of the Pipe
A/N: I have ideas once more! And From here on, if I use your ideas, then I thank you for them in advance. And thanks to those whose ideas I will not use. But please excuse me, I must go to bed.
The fellowship was forced to stop walking earlier than usual. Legolas had scouted ahead and found no other suitable campsite for a few leagues. So the hobbits found themselves settling down to an early night, or day as it happened. But to their surprise, they were not a tired as they thought they would be and found themselves without anything to do while they waited for sleep to show itself in them or at least produce a yawn.
Pippin, being more prone to boredom than anyone else, was searching for something to do. Finding no subject he could think of to talk about for a good length of time, he got his pack out. It was so heavy, it may as well have something useful in it, he reasoned.
He dug down past a few changes of clothes, past a truant jar of pickled onions and gherkins, right to the bottom where his hand found something long, round and smooth. It intrigued him, for even though he had packed everything himself he couldn't remember packing anything like what he now had in his hand. He pulled it out as best he could without disturbing too much else and took it to the campfire to get a better look at it, for it wasn't too bright yet.
It was a pipe, not the kind you smoke with, Pippin would have recognised that the moment his hand brushed over it, but a musical one. It was very basic, carved out of wood by one of his uncles when he was young. He blew it to clear it out, it didn't give a bad sound.
"What do you have there Mister Pippin?" asked Sam, who happened to be sitting next to him.
"Just something I found in my pack, I've not played it for a while and I barely remember bringing it with me." Sam's eyes lit up at the prospect of some music. As much as Sam loved elves and as lovely as Legolas' voice was, not that lovely really covered it, he was excited at the prospect of hearing something truly hobbity.
"Play something! Go on!" Urged Sam.
"Yes yes," said Pippin distractedly as he placed his fingers over the holes, trying to remember a tune he could play. He decided to start with something easy.
The whole camp was woken out of its reverie. Any small conversations there were stopped as Pippin's jaunty little tune floated over them. Sam and Merry jumped up with a cheer and bowed to each other, as one does before one dances. Pippin had a hard time to stop himself from laughing as he had to keep playing. Frodo though, was free to laugh and soon began to clap in time with the music.
Sam and Merry began what seemed to be a well-practised piece of choreography. They were twisting and turning around each other, all thoughts of class and status forgotten. At times they would be swinging each other about and they'd side step around the campfire. Soon enough everyone was clapping Sam and Merry on, laughing with them if either one of the tripped or stumbled, even the fire danced merrily with them. But soon they collapsed in a heap next to Frodo.
"So soon?" said Frodo cheekily, playfully pushing a panting Merry. Pippin also looked a little out of breath and got himself a long drink. "Well, I don't think you two should be the only ones to dance." Frodo looked at the rest of the fellowship, challenging them all to have a go. Legolas hopped down from the tree he was sitting in, if a hobbit could dance like that, than an elf of far more practise should have no trouble. He volunteered himself. "Good, thank you Legolas!"
This prompted Gimli into accepting. Whatever an elf could do, a dwarf could do better and he was determined to prove it. The next to accept was Gandalf, already knowing a few hobbit dances. That left Aragorn and Boromir. Now they were outnumbered and felt obliged to join in.
"Good!" said Frodo, rubbing his hands together with glee and in anticipation of the fun to come. "Legolas, I think you should be partnered with... Gimli!" said Frodo, knowing full well how much they disliked each other. The two men gasped, but saw what fun it could be and chuckled. "Strider shall go with Gandalf and Boromir, you shall be my partner!" Boromir felt privileged to be the one dancing with the hobbit, or teacher would perhaps be a better way to describe him. "Right! Stand opposite your partners and hold hands, like so," Frodo took hold of both of Boromir's hands. "We're going to be short and simple so no fancy twiddly bits Pippin!" Boromir never realised Frodo could be quite so bossy.
"Oh Frodo, that's no fun!" complained Pippin.
"Very well then, no twiddly bits yet. Anyway, back to the dance. Everyone holding hands?"
"Gimli, Legolas can't hold your hands if you've got them clasped behind your back!" said Merry from where he was lying on the floor, recovering. Gimli grudgingly took Legolas' hands.
"Good," continued Frodo. "Now, you put your foot out to the side, toe up, that's right."
"Other foot Strider!" came the helpful comment from the three sitting on the floor. Strider righted himself.
"Now you point your toe to the floor. Yes. Heel on the floor again, then toe, heel, toe. That's right!" Frodo looked pleased with himself. "Now we gallop down to the other side of the camp. Come on Boromir." He and Boromir skipped sideways, "I can't go that fast Boromir! You'll have to do smaller gallops. Now, everyone else,"
"Legolas, take his hands again! You can't keep dropping them halfway through the dance!"
"Thank you Merry, now everyone else, gallop, gallop, gallop, gallop." Everyone 'galloped' so that they were level with Boromir and Frodo. "You do the heel toe move again and gallop back," Frodo, along with the rest of the dancer 'galloped' again. The three sitting on the floor were in hysterics. "Shut up you three!" said Frodo in annoyance. "Now, you take your right hand, no your right Boromir, not my right,"
"Other hand Strider!" shouted Merry with glee.
"And you clap them with your partner's hand three times." there was a small amount of out-of-time clapping. "So that's right right right. Now you do the same but with your other hand, left left left. And now you clap your hands on your knees three times, knees knees knees."
"Your knees Strider, not Gandalf's!" the three hobbits burst into more fits of giggles and Aragorn joined with them.
"Strider! Pay attention! Now, where was I?"
"Being a perfectionist?" offered Merry. Frodo glared at him.
"Ah yes, now we clap both hands with each other three times again."
"He said with each other Legolas, Gimli!" the two were obviously trying to reduce the amounts of possible physical contact, and failing miserably.
"So that's together together together," mumbled Frodo to himself. "So now we swing our partners round and round!" All three pairs grasped hands and swung each other around, Gimli and Legolas were being a little more vigorous than the others. "And then we start again!" said Frodo pointedly, "See? I said it was going to be short and simple." Everyone walked back to their original positions going over what they had just learned in their minds, there was quite a bit of mumbling and quiet clapping. "Pippin! Music!" said Frodo suddenly and the three pairs jumped into their starting positions.
They let Pippin play for a little while, getting the feel of the music. Sam and Merry began clapping.
"One, two, three, four" shouted Frodo, counting them in and he carried on shouting instructions. They all managed to gallop without any accidents but it came to the clapping and Frodo was the only one sure of what he was doing. Gandalf and Strider began prematurely swinging each other around and Gimli and Legolas managed to get into a mini-argument about which order the claps came in. The music ended with a painful squeak when Pippin was no longer able to keep his laughter bottled up.
"It's right, then left, then knees, then together!" said Frodo. Gimli grumbled something and Legolas gained an air of superiority. They went over that part a few more times. "Everyone got it now?" there was a murmur of agreement and they walked their way back to the beginning. Sam and Merry decided to join them.
They waited in silence for a moment before Pippin played his tune. There was a little foot tapping and Frodo counted them in once more. This time they managed to get through it once, and then once more. By the third time Gandalf, Aragorn, Merry and Sam were having small gallop-races wherever they could and by the sixth time through, Pippin was barely playing the same tuned, he had ornamented it and embellished it so much. This prompted everyone to just begin improvising and between them they came up with some very interesting moves.
Until Legolas tripped over Gimli. Frodo and Boromir were spinning too fast to stop and landed on top of them. The four of them started laughing and it spread to the rest of the fellowship until Pippin had to stop playing again and everyone was on the floor, some were even crying with laughter; something they had not done for far too long.
It took quite a while, but when they finally did calm down, the dancing had done its job and they were ready to go to bed. The hobbits climbed into their bedrolls and called to the rest of the fellowship,
"Good-day!" something they developed to say at bedtime when 'goodnight' became untruthful.
"Good-day!" replied the rest of the fellowship as they too retreated into their beds. All save Gandalf, whose turn it was to watch. He sat and lit his pipe, though the smile did not move from his lips for a good long while.