While they Walked
Chapter 15: Footwear: Part II
A/N: I'm sorry to say I'll be gone for another week, but this is a nice long chapter to keep you going. I've also noticed that I have never before mentioned Bill the pony in this fic, I am ashamed and sorry, he has one mention in this chapter, he was only being led along quietly in previous chapters, by whoever it was convenient for him to be led by. Thank you all for your reviews and I'll be expecting lots more when I get back (From Dorset of all exciting places in the world, no offence if you're from Dorset).
"I'm sure there's something wrong with these things." said Merry for the umpteenth time. "Surely they're not meant to be this uncomfortable." He frowned at his feet.
"They're not meant for hobbit feet, that might be it." offered Boromir. The section of the fellowship not wearing the shoes, and Gandalf, had certainly got the best deal so far. They were walking over surprisingly soft grass without so much as a thistle.
"No there's something in my boot."
"Your foot?" said Pippin without quite as much humour as the comment required. He was annoyed with his boots because they were too big for him and he kept tripping over them.
"Something other than my foot." said Merry with even less humour. It seemed that hobbits were only so light of heart because they wore nothing on their feet. Frodo was having trouble with Gimli's overly heavy boots, as parts were reinforced with iron and even Sam seemed to be suffering from the lack of contact with the grass.
"You four look so gloomy! Cheer up or- OW!" The four hobbits looked up to find Boromir hopping around on one foot. They cheered up.
"What's the matter Boromir?" asked Merry. Boromir looked down at where he'd just trodden and then at his foot, it was bleeding. The hobbits also looked at where he'd just trodden.
"A bramble drew blood?" asked Frodo in amazement, indeed, it was a bramble shoot that had been sent away from the main plant and crawled along the ground.
"Almost as if the plant wanted to catch unwary walkers with no boots." observed Legolas.
"There IS something in my boot! Listen!" cried Merry and everyone stopped walking to listen as Merry shook his foot, the only noise was Boromir still trying to gain his balance. There was a lot of rattling, like something hard hitting leather.
"Ah," said Aragorn knowingly.
"What?" said Merry sharply. Aragorn smiled smugly. The four hobbits advanced towards him, they looked threatening but Aragorn couldn't think of anything they could possibly threaten him with and so still withheld his information.
"Aragorn?" pushed Merry, but he still said nothing. To the hobbits' credit though, they were succeeding in making Aragorn very uncomfortable, they looked like they had something Aragorn didn't know about, as though they could make him succumb to their will, and they were getting closer. Yes, he was definitely worried now, these were not the same hobbits as they had been a minute or two earlier. "What's wrong with my boot Aragorn?" said Merry and Aragorn seriously considered telling him, but then he remembered who he was. He'd lived in Rivendell for as long as he could remember and had learnt from the elves, what could four people half his size do? Though four people half his size did make two people the same size as him.
Too late, he had thought about it for too long and the hobbits unleashed upon him their most potent weapon. It needed no sword, no spear, no bow, just their fingers. They tickled his mercilessly, they brought him to the ground and no matter where he rolled there was another pair of hands to find the most ticklish spots that he didn't even know he had. Never had he been tickled like this before, he was laughing and laughing but oh how he wished they would stop and suddenly, they did. Merry's face poked into Aragorn's view, misted as it was with tears.
"Would you like to tell me what's gone wrong with my boots now?" Gimli, Legolas and Boromir looking on were quite glad they hadn't made any suggestion that they knew what was wrong.
"Just- just take your boot off and tip the stone out." said Aragorn through the remnants of the laughter.
"A stone? Is that it? Very well, but if I find that you're not telling the truth and are only doing this to annoy me, well then, our fingers aren't tired yet are they?" there was a general agreement from the rest of the hobbits. Merry took off his boot and tipped it up slowly, out rolled a small pebble. Not satisfied with that, Merry continued tipping it, out rolled another pebble, followed by another and another until at last a large, sharp stone fell out. Merry shook the boot out, just to check that there was no more.
"You had five stones in your boot?" cried Legolas in a rare moment of astonishment. "I'm surprised there was room for your foot!"
"No wonder it was uncomfortable!" added Gimli. Aragorn slowly staggered back to his feet, still grinning like a fool. Seeing as Boromir and Aragorn had both recovered, the company continued on their journey until:
"Oh confound and confusticate these boots!" said Pippin from his new position sprawled on the floor. "I can't stay upright for more than half a mile!"
"Confusticate?" said Frodo, "How long have you been saying confusticate for? That's one of Bilbo's phrases."
"Just a moment," said Pippin to give himself time to climb back to his feet, "I think I may have spent a little too much time around Bilbo while in Rivendell. I was only eleven when he left, I wanted to get to know him."
"So that's where you were all those times I couldn't find you! In Bilbo's room!" said Merry.
"Well, not really in Bilbo's room, mostly walking through the gardens, then sneaking off to the kitchens to get ourselves a little snack," said Pippin with a grin. "Speaking of gardens Sam, he said they never managed to get a flowerbed quite as homely as the ones at Bag E-"Pippin once again lost his balance when he failed to lift his foot high enough of the ground. "Blast these boots!" he yelled.
"Did Mister Bilbo really say that?" said Sam, blushing with pride, Pippin nodded, "Oh the Gaffer will be pleased when I tell him!" Pippin was pleased with his work, that was Sam in a good mood for a while, perhaps he would allow him some more rations next time they stopped.
"Is that water I hear ahead?" inquired Legolas.
"Certainly is," replied Gandalf, "Just a small stream, we will ford it when we meet it and then follow it as it turns southwards."
"We are fording a stream?" said Gimli, slightly worried.
"That is what I said."
"Will not the bed be stony?" said Gimli even more worried.
"Most likely."
"Our feet will be cut to shreds! We should have our boots back now, otherwise you shall have four injured walkers and we will be of no use."
"You shall not have your boots back, you have hardly experience the hardships that the hobbits have, this grass is soft and good for walking on in bare feet."
"How would you know? You're still wearing your boots." retorted Gimli in a moment of short temper.
"I have my reasons Gimli, for one, I did not partake in the argument." now Gimli had started down this road, he thought he may as well continue with it.
"Nor did Legolas!"
"Did I specifically ask any of you to volunteer your boots? As far as I remember – and I do believe my memory to be as good as any of yours – I merely suggested the idea, I pushed none of you into it, you chose of your own free will." Gimli grumbled an answer but no one either heard or understood, a few suspected that he wasn't speaking in the common tongue and he wasn't.
Pippin carefully sped up his walk so he could talk to Merry.
"Are your feet sweaty?" he asked quietly.
"Yes," replied Merry.
"Good, I thought I might be the only one." they had obviously not spoken quietly enough though, for Frodo came up behind them.
"You feet are sweaty?" he said with no little amount of disgust in his voice. The pair nodded ashamedly.
"Thank the heavens, I'm glad it's the same for you two."
"And what a horrid feeling it is!"
"What's a horrid feeling?" asked Sam as he caught up to them.
"Sweaty feet, do you have them?"
"Can't say that I do, but I think that's something to do with the type o' boot"
"Yes Sam, you're probably right." The other three hobbits looked longingly at Sam's boots.
"Sam," said Pippin in his silkiest voice. "You wouldn't mind swapping would y-"he stumbled again.
"No Mister Pippin, not if it means I'll be doing that every ten minutes."
"Oh well, it was worth a tr-"He stumbled again. "For the sake of all that is green and good in this world! STOP TRIPPING ME UP!" he yelled at his boots. Pippin decided to take his frustration out on an innocent stone and he kicked it as hard as he could. The stone went flying, along with his boot. Pippin stared at the boot as it reached the peak of its arc and began its decent back to the ground, but a tree interfered with its path on the way down. And so it was that one half of Pippin's pair of boots found itself hanging precariously on one of the top branches of a tree.
"Good kick Pippin." observed Merry. Aragorn sniggered and was rewarded with one of Pippin's fieriest glares. After a moment of gathering himself together, Pippin, with a forced calmness, began picking stones from the floor. He came to the tree in which his boot was stuck and began throwing the stones up at it, his intention being to knock it out but it only slid further onto the branch. He snorted like an enraged bull but managed to control himself enough to ask help from Frodo.
"Could you give me a leg-up into the tree please Frodo?" Pippin checked each and every word as it came out of his mouth, lest something less than polite made its way through.
"I could get it for you." offered Legolas.
"No!" said Pippin curtly, "Thankyou Legolas," he added as an afterthought. Frodo clasped his hands together and Pippin put his foot on them, they were both well practised with this procedure, as it was not the first thing Pippin had lost up a tree. Frodo boosted Pippin up to the first branch, which he scrambled on to, his booted foot being much less helpful than his other one. Then he began his climb up through the branches.
Around halfway up Pippin's remaining boot began to slip off, either because of sweat, or just because it was too big. Pippin chose not to pull it back on, but instead shook it off. It fell back down to earth, bouncing off branches on the way. A few moments later he heard an exclamation of pain and a muffled swear from one the men, he hoped it was Boromir, that would make him pay for having such ridiculously large boots.
He finally reached the top and pulled the boot off the branch, he decided not to let it fall because there were lots of other branches for it to catch on. He also didn't want to risk it landing on Gandalf's head.
In a short while he dropped back down to the ground with the boot firmly wedged under his arm. He was pleased to see that it was Boromir rubbing his head. The other three hobbits were still trying to fight down their laughter.
"Boots back on Pippin!" said Gandalf.
"Alright, alright! Give me a chance!" said Pippin; he was in no mood to be hurried along by Gandalf. Boromir threw the boot at him, a little harder than was required and Pippin slipped them back on.
They were walking again. Soon the sound of running water became apparent and it wasn't long before they came to the place the walkers without boots had been dreading. Sure enough, there was the stream, and the shallow crossing with many stones and pebbles, most looked smoothed by the water, but on the banks they looked sharp and unforgiving.
Gandalf strode across first, followed closely by the hobbits (Sam leading Bill the pony), who then turned to watch the other four make their way across.
"Come along, it's not that bad!" called Merry across the stream.
"Not that bad for you maybe," said Gimli.
Legolas was the first to cross, and just as he had walked over the mud, he walked lightly over the top of the stones, barely moving them.
"Good," said Gandalf as Legolas reached the grass, "You can have your boots back once your feet dry." At these words Sam tore the boots from his feet and handed them to Legolas, he sighed happily and wiggled his toes in the grass. Legolas looked a little off-put at Sam's eagerness to rid himself of the boots.
"Sorry Mister Legolas, it's not that your boots weren't comfortable, I just like the feel of the earth under my feet and between my toes." Legolas smiled.
"I understand Sam."
Upon seeing that the crossing of the rest of the fellowship meant they need never wear those boots again, the hobbits began encouraging the others across in earnest.
"Come on Gimli!" called Frodo, "Legolas just did it!" upon hearing that, the dwarf puffed out his chest and walked proudly across the stream, though his overall look wasn't so impressive as he was wincing quite often.
"Gimli doesn't even look in pain Aragorn! It can't hurt that much!" lied Merry, but it did the trick. Unfortunately for Pippin, Aragorn wasn't quite as good at hiding the pain as Gimli was and so Boromir started picking his way slowly across, studying the bed of the stream to find somewhere where the stones were all worn smooth by the flow of water. Pippin became inpatient, he was tired of his boots now and to him it seemed like Boromir was being so slow just to spite him, though he knew deep down that it wasn't true.
"If you don't hurry up Boromir," shouted Pippin. "I shall throw these boots at you where you stand! And I won't be nearly so gentle with them as I was in the tree." Boromir felt the small bump just above his hairline.
"Fine Pippin!" he said and made the rest of the stream in two leaps. Ignoring the pain, he sat down on the grassy bank and took his boots back.
"Thank you." said Pippin as he handed the boots back to their rightful owner.
The hobbits tended to their sore feet, some had blisters, some were just rubbed red, they hadn't noticed it earlier, but now their feet were out in the open air, they felt exactly what the boots had done to their feet.
"The boots even manage to leave their lasting, and painful mark on us!" said Frodo in dismay. "They are terrible things!"
"You can hardly call bare feet comfortable!" said Boromir. And the argument continued.
"Gandalf," said Aragorn quietly. "What exactly did that achieve? Other than your amusement of course,"
"Well I was hoping it would put an end to that argument, but that part of my plan seems to have failed," he paused as if in thought for a moment, "Tell me, Aragorn, what do you think of the hobbits now?"
"I wish I had feet like them for one thing, I can see the advantage to wearing no boots certainly, but other than that there's no change."
"Oh really?" said Gandalf and he directed Aragorn's attention back to the fellowship where Boromir was rolling on the ground in fits of laughter at the feet of the hobbits.
"I admit it! Boots are abominations! They are works of pure evil and should be thrown into the Cracks of Doom along with the Ring!" burst out Boromir. The hobbits smiled in satisfaction and helped Boromir to his feet while Legolas and Gimli stood next to each other laughing. Aragorn turned back to Gandalf, who was also smiling.
"Very clever."
Chapter 15: Footwear: Part II
A/N: I'm sorry to say I'll be gone for another week, but this is a nice long chapter to keep you going. I've also noticed that I have never before mentioned Bill the pony in this fic, I am ashamed and sorry, he has one mention in this chapter, he was only being led along quietly in previous chapters, by whoever it was convenient for him to be led by. Thank you all for your reviews and I'll be expecting lots more when I get back (From Dorset of all exciting places in the world, no offence if you're from Dorset).
"I'm sure there's something wrong with these things." said Merry for the umpteenth time. "Surely they're not meant to be this uncomfortable." He frowned at his feet.
"They're not meant for hobbit feet, that might be it." offered Boromir. The section of the fellowship not wearing the shoes, and Gandalf, had certainly got the best deal so far. They were walking over surprisingly soft grass without so much as a thistle.
"No there's something in my boot."
"Your foot?" said Pippin without quite as much humour as the comment required. He was annoyed with his boots because they were too big for him and he kept tripping over them.
"Something other than my foot." said Merry with even less humour. It seemed that hobbits were only so light of heart because they wore nothing on their feet. Frodo was having trouble with Gimli's overly heavy boots, as parts were reinforced with iron and even Sam seemed to be suffering from the lack of contact with the grass.
"You four look so gloomy! Cheer up or- OW!" The four hobbits looked up to find Boromir hopping around on one foot. They cheered up.
"What's the matter Boromir?" asked Merry. Boromir looked down at where he'd just trodden and then at his foot, it was bleeding. The hobbits also looked at where he'd just trodden.
"A bramble drew blood?" asked Frodo in amazement, indeed, it was a bramble shoot that had been sent away from the main plant and crawled along the ground.
"Almost as if the plant wanted to catch unwary walkers with no boots." observed Legolas.
"There IS something in my boot! Listen!" cried Merry and everyone stopped walking to listen as Merry shook his foot, the only noise was Boromir still trying to gain his balance. There was a lot of rattling, like something hard hitting leather.
"Ah," said Aragorn knowingly.
"What?" said Merry sharply. Aragorn smiled smugly. The four hobbits advanced towards him, they looked threatening but Aragorn couldn't think of anything they could possibly threaten him with and so still withheld his information.
"Aragorn?" pushed Merry, but he still said nothing. To the hobbits' credit though, they were succeeding in making Aragorn very uncomfortable, they looked like they had something Aragorn didn't know about, as though they could make him succumb to their will, and they were getting closer. Yes, he was definitely worried now, these were not the same hobbits as they had been a minute or two earlier. "What's wrong with my boot Aragorn?" said Merry and Aragorn seriously considered telling him, but then he remembered who he was. He'd lived in Rivendell for as long as he could remember and had learnt from the elves, what could four people half his size do? Though four people half his size did make two people the same size as him.
Too late, he had thought about it for too long and the hobbits unleashed upon him their most potent weapon. It needed no sword, no spear, no bow, just their fingers. They tickled his mercilessly, they brought him to the ground and no matter where he rolled there was another pair of hands to find the most ticklish spots that he didn't even know he had. Never had he been tickled like this before, he was laughing and laughing but oh how he wished they would stop and suddenly, they did. Merry's face poked into Aragorn's view, misted as it was with tears.
"Would you like to tell me what's gone wrong with my boots now?" Gimli, Legolas and Boromir looking on were quite glad they hadn't made any suggestion that they knew what was wrong.
"Just- just take your boot off and tip the stone out." said Aragorn through the remnants of the laughter.
"A stone? Is that it? Very well, but if I find that you're not telling the truth and are only doing this to annoy me, well then, our fingers aren't tired yet are they?" there was a general agreement from the rest of the hobbits. Merry took off his boot and tipped it up slowly, out rolled a small pebble. Not satisfied with that, Merry continued tipping it, out rolled another pebble, followed by another and another until at last a large, sharp stone fell out. Merry shook the boot out, just to check that there was no more.
"You had five stones in your boot?" cried Legolas in a rare moment of astonishment. "I'm surprised there was room for your foot!"
"No wonder it was uncomfortable!" added Gimli. Aragorn slowly staggered back to his feet, still grinning like a fool. Seeing as Boromir and Aragorn had both recovered, the company continued on their journey until:
"Oh confound and confusticate these boots!" said Pippin from his new position sprawled on the floor. "I can't stay upright for more than half a mile!"
"Confusticate?" said Frodo, "How long have you been saying confusticate for? That's one of Bilbo's phrases."
"Just a moment," said Pippin to give himself time to climb back to his feet, "I think I may have spent a little too much time around Bilbo while in Rivendell. I was only eleven when he left, I wanted to get to know him."
"So that's where you were all those times I couldn't find you! In Bilbo's room!" said Merry.
"Well, not really in Bilbo's room, mostly walking through the gardens, then sneaking off to the kitchens to get ourselves a little snack," said Pippin with a grin. "Speaking of gardens Sam, he said they never managed to get a flowerbed quite as homely as the ones at Bag E-"Pippin once again lost his balance when he failed to lift his foot high enough of the ground. "Blast these boots!" he yelled.
"Did Mister Bilbo really say that?" said Sam, blushing with pride, Pippin nodded, "Oh the Gaffer will be pleased when I tell him!" Pippin was pleased with his work, that was Sam in a good mood for a while, perhaps he would allow him some more rations next time they stopped.
"Is that water I hear ahead?" inquired Legolas.
"Certainly is," replied Gandalf, "Just a small stream, we will ford it when we meet it and then follow it as it turns southwards."
"We are fording a stream?" said Gimli, slightly worried.
"That is what I said."
"Will not the bed be stony?" said Gimli even more worried.
"Most likely."
"Our feet will be cut to shreds! We should have our boots back now, otherwise you shall have four injured walkers and we will be of no use."
"You shall not have your boots back, you have hardly experience the hardships that the hobbits have, this grass is soft and good for walking on in bare feet."
"How would you know? You're still wearing your boots." retorted Gimli in a moment of short temper.
"I have my reasons Gimli, for one, I did not partake in the argument." now Gimli had started down this road, he thought he may as well continue with it.
"Nor did Legolas!"
"Did I specifically ask any of you to volunteer your boots? As far as I remember – and I do believe my memory to be as good as any of yours – I merely suggested the idea, I pushed none of you into it, you chose of your own free will." Gimli grumbled an answer but no one either heard or understood, a few suspected that he wasn't speaking in the common tongue and he wasn't.
Pippin carefully sped up his walk so he could talk to Merry.
"Are your feet sweaty?" he asked quietly.
"Yes," replied Merry.
"Good, I thought I might be the only one." they had obviously not spoken quietly enough though, for Frodo came up behind them.
"You feet are sweaty?" he said with no little amount of disgust in his voice. The pair nodded ashamedly.
"Thank the heavens, I'm glad it's the same for you two."
"And what a horrid feeling it is!"
"What's a horrid feeling?" asked Sam as he caught up to them.
"Sweaty feet, do you have them?"
"Can't say that I do, but I think that's something to do with the type o' boot"
"Yes Sam, you're probably right." The other three hobbits looked longingly at Sam's boots.
"Sam," said Pippin in his silkiest voice. "You wouldn't mind swapping would y-"he stumbled again.
"No Mister Pippin, not if it means I'll be doing that every ten minutes."
"Oh well, it was worth a tr-"He stumbled again. "For the sake of all that is green and good in this world! STOP TRIPPING ME UP!" he yelled at his boots. Pippin decided to take his frustration out on an innocent stone and he kicked it as hard as he could. The stone went flying, along with his boot. Pippin stared at the boot as it reached the peak of its arc and began its decent back to the ground, but a tree interfered with its path on the way down. And so it was that one half of Pippin's pair of boots found itself hanging precariously on one of the top branches of a tree.
"Good kick Pippin." observed Merry. Aragorn sniggered and was rewarded with one of Pippin's fieriest glares. After a moment of gathering himself together, Pippin, with a forced calmness, began picking stones from the floor. He came to the tree in which his boot was stuck and began throwing the stones up at it, his intention being to knock it out but it only slid further onto the branch. He snorted like an enraged bull but managed to control himself enough to ask help from Frodo.
"Could you give me a leg-up into the tree please Frodo?" Pippin checked each and every word as it came out of his mouth, lest something less than polite made its way through.
"I could get it for you." offered Legolas.
"No!" said Pippin curtly, "Thankyou Legolas," he added as an afterthought. Frodo clasped his hands together and Pippin put his foot on them, they were both well practised with this procedure, as it was not the first thing Pippin had lost up a tree. Frodo boosted Pippin up to the first branch, which he scrambled on to, his booted foot being much less helpful than his other one. Then he began his climb up through the branches.
Around halfway up Pippin's remaining boot began to slip off, either because of sweat, or just because it was too big. Pippin chose not to pull it back on, but instead shook it off. It fell back down to earth, bouncing off branches on the way. A few moments later he heard an exclamation of pain and a muffled swear from one the men, he hoped it was Boromir, that would make him pay for having such ridiculously large boots.
He finally reached the top and pulled the boot off the branch, he decided not to let it fall because there were lots of other branches for it to catch on. He also didn't want to risk it landing on Gandalf's head.
In a short while he dropped back down to the ground with the boot firmly wedged under his arm. He was pleased to see that it was Boromir rubbing his head. The other three hobbits were still trying to fight down their laughter.
"Boots back on Pippin!" said Gandalf.
"Alright, alright! Give me a chance!" said Pippin; he was in no mood to be hurried along by Gandalf. Boromir threw the boot at him, a little harder than was required and Pippin slipped them back on.
They were walking again. Soon the sound of running water became apparent and it wasn't long before they came to the place the walkers without boots had been dreading. Sure enough, there was the stream, and the shallow crossing with many stones and pebbles, most looked smoothed by the water, but on the banks they looked sharp and unforgiving.
Gandalf strode across first, followed closely by the hobbits (Sam leading Bill the pony), who then turned to watch the other four make their way across.
"Come along, it's not that bad!" called Merry across the stream.
"Not that bad for you maybe," said Gimli.
Legolas was the first to cross, and just as he had walked over the mud, he walked lightly over the top of the stones, barely moving them.
"Good," said Gandalf as Legolas reached the grass, "You can have your boots back once your feet dry." At these words Sam tore the boots from his feet and handed them to Legolas, he sighed happily and wiggled his toes in the grass. Legolas looked a little off-put at Sam's eagerness to rid himself of the boots.
"Sorry Mister Legolas, it's not that your boots weren't comfortable, I just like the feel of the earth under my feet and between my toes." Legolas smiled.
"I understand Sam."
Upon seeing that the crossing of the rest of the fellowship meant they need never wear those boots again, the hobbits began encouraging the others across in earnest.
"Come on Gimli!" called Frodo, "Legolas just did it!" upon hearing that, the dwarf puffed out his chest and walked proudly across the stream, though his overall look wasn't so impressive as he was wincing quite often.
"Gimli doesn't even look in pain Aragorn! It can't hurt that much!" lied Merry, but it did the trick. Unfortunately for Pippin, Aragorn wasn't quite as good at hiding the pain as Gimli was and so Boromir started picking his way slowly across, studying the bed of the stream to find somewhere where the stones were all worn smooth by the flow of water. Pippin became inpatient, he was tired of his boots now and to him it seemed like Boromir was being so slow just to spite him, though he knew deep down that it wasn't true.
"If you don't hurry up Boromir," shouted Pippin. "I shall throw these boots at you where you stand! And I won't be nearly so gentle with them as I was in the tree." Boromir felt the small bump just above his hairline.
"Fine Pippin!" he said and made the rest of the stream in two leaps. Ignoring the pain, he sat down on the grassy bank and took his boots back.
"Thank you." said Pippin as he handed the boots back to their rightful owner.
The hobbits tended to their sore feet, some had blisters, some were just rubbed red, they hadn't noticed it earlier, but now their feet were out in the open air, they felt exactly what the boots had done to their feet.
"The boots even manage to leave their lasting, and painful mark on us!" said Frodo in dismay. "They are terrible things!"
"You can hardly call bare feet comfortable!" said Boromir. And the argument continued.
"Gandalf," said Aragorn quietly. "What exactly did that achieve? Other than your amusement of course,"
"Well I was hoping it would put an end to that argument, but that part of my plan seems to have failed," he paused as if in thought for a moment, "Tell me, Aragorn, what do you think of the hobbits now?"
"I wish I had feet like them for one thing, I can see the advantage to wearing no boots certainly, but other than that there's no change."
"Oh really?" said Gandalf and he directed Aragorn's attention back to the fellowship where Boromir was rolling on the ground in fits of laughter at the feet of the hobbits.
"I admit it! Boots are abominations! They are works of pure evil and should be thrown into the Cracks of Doom along with the Ring!" burst out Boromir. The hobbits smiled in satisfaction and helped Boromir to his feet while Legolas and Gimli stood next to each other laughing. Aragorn turned back to Gandalf, who was also smiling.
"Very clever."