Finally, I'm getting back to this one. Haven't updated for a while. School will do that to a hob- I mean, person. Yes, that's right. You know, it's amazing the weird thoughts that we come up with right before we go to bed. STRAAAAANGE thoughts. I just got this idea… and well, it should be amusing. I've forgotten if this story is under humorous, but if it isn't, after this chapter… IT WILL BE! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Uhh… yeah… shifty eyes

Merry and Estella made their way to Estella's house. When they got there, the young hobbits hopped off Stybba (Merry's horse) and entered the dwelling.

"Hullo Fatty." Estella said, sighting her brother. He nodded towards Merry questioningly. "Oh, we're just here to pick up some food for luncheon."

"Okay, just remember to clean up after yourselves."

"Right." She turned to Merry. "What would you like to eat?"

"Uhh, I don't know. Anything's fine with me."

Estella rummaged through the cupboards. "It looks like we have some leftovers from breakfast. There are some tomatoes, a bit of bacon, and some sausages."

"That sounds wonderful."

"If we bring some flint, we could heat them up out there."

"I have a little," He said, pulling a piece out of one of his coat pockets.

Essie gathered the provisions into a basket and turned to Merry. "We don't kneed anything else, do we?" She blushed a little, realizing that not only was she having a decent… or sort of decent conversation with Merry, but he was actually inside her house. She mentally kicked herself. 'Don't think like that, Estella!' she thought. 'He's a friend, just a friend. Nothing more. At least… not yet.' Her face reddened again.

"No, I don't think so."

"Right." Estella glanced at Merry. He was putting back the flint. 'I really hope he didn't notice me blushing back there.' "Well, uhh… I guess we should go now."

"Okay." The pair set off, each one thinking their own separate, but similar thoughts about the other. Arriving at their destination, they tied up Stybba, unloaded the food, and began to scavenge for some firewood.

"This is too damp," the hobbit lass said, looking at a few fallen branches beneath a tree. "But maybe I could use a few of these." She took a limb from the ground by another tree. Where the branch had been, Estella spotted a few mushrooms. "Hmm… these might be tasty." She gathered them up along with the branches and heading back to their camp. When she arrived, she saw that Merry had already started to light the wood. Looking up from the cooking fire, he suddenly smiled. "What?" Estella asked.

"Oh, nothing. This just reminded me of when Frodo, Sam, Pip and I had started our adventure." Estella smiled and sat down next to him. "We'd just met up with Aragorn, and were at Weathertop. Frodo had gotten mad at us because we had started cooking up some food. Those wraiths were still after us and we hadn't thought about them noticing the small fire we had made. And you know what we were cooking? Tomatoes, sausages, and 'nice crispy bacon', as I called it."

Estella smiled. Taking the mushrooms out of her bag, she showed them to him. "I saw these in the woods and figured that they would be good with the other food. We can eat them raw or cooked."

"How 'bout we try a bit of both?" Merry placed a flat rock over a portion of the fire and laid out the wares. The two young hobbits took the time while the food cooked to notice the beautiful trees and vegitation surrounding them. "It's nice out here." Merry broke the silence.

"I know. I found it one day while wandering through the woodlands." Estella leaned back against a tall old oak tree. "This forest is so beautiful. I feel like I could just live out here."

"Aye," Merry chimmed in. "You could be like the elves and make little flets in the treetops."

"What's a flet?"

"They're a kind of… tree house thing. When we were traveling to Lothlorien, we stayed with Haldir and his troup of elves in their flets to escape the uruk hai that were after us."

Estella sighed. "I'd love to go there."

"Lothlorien?"

"Lothlorien, Rivendell, Gondor, Rohan… all the places you went to on your adventure."

"Maybe we could, someday." Merry glanced at her. "Perhaps after Pip and Diamond's wedding we could arange for a visite. Though I think Rivendell and Lothlorien might be a bit empty." Estella looked at him questioningly. "Most of the elves have left to go to Valinor."

"Is that where Frodo and Bilbo went to?"

"Aye, and Gandalf as well."

"Why did they leave?"

Merry pondered this. "Well… I think the elves needed to go there if they were to stay mortal; to live forever."

" I don't know that I'd want to live forever."

"What do you mean?"

"You'd live out all the joys in life- but I'd think that eventually, you'd have done everything. There'd be nothing left to do."

"Hmm…"

"But of course, it'd be nice to live to a ripe old age, experiance all there is to experience, and pass on to the next world."

"Pippin told me that Gandalf once talked to him about that. They were waiting for the enemy to break through into Minas Tirith. Poor Pip was afraid he was going to die that day."

"I wish I could have been there." Estella smiled. "Not in thinking I was about to die, but…"

"Yes?"

"My life has been fairly boring."

"What d'you mean by that?"

"Ahh…" she fidgeted around for a bit. "I want to go on an adventure! To see the world outside of our little home. Meet people and see places you could never imagine! I'm tired of being cooped up all the time."

Merry smiled at her. "I used to be that way. Well… I still am. But, you know, your life hasn't exactly been right peachy. When we came back, you were trapped in the lockholes with your brother."

"But I'd only just gotten in a couple of days before."

"What did you do?"

"It's rather silly, really." Estella giggled. "They got me for stealing carrots from the big men."

"Carrots?"

"I like carrots! And besides, we were hungry. It was good that I did it anyway; they didn't get all the carrots away from me, so when I arrived at the lockholes, I gave every hobbit there some food. They were rather gratefull."

"See! You have had a little adventure!"

"Bloody hell, Merry! I would not call stealing carrots and getting thrown in prison, an adventure!"

Merry sighed. "There's just no pleasing some people!" He grinned at her. A few whisps of smoke arose from the fire. Merry looked down. "I think the vittles might be done."

"Looks like it. The mushrooms look a little funny." Peeking downwards, the two hobbits could see what remained of the mushrooms. While they had been talking, the little toadstools had burned to a weird blueish brown hue. "I think we may have burned them."

Merry took one and popped it into his mouth. Making a face, he spat it back out. "I'm not sure if these are very eddible. I think you may have gotten the wrong type of mushrooms. Maybe we shouldn't eat the raw ones either… Estella?"

"Umm… Might be a bit late for that." She blushed slightly. "I ate a few when we were talking."

"Uh oh." Merry looked at Estella's face. He realized that at first, what he had thought was a blush, wasn't going away. "Estella? Are you feeling alright?" He put his hand to her forhead. "Your face is warm!"

Estella giggled. "Aren't you making a bit of a fuss? They aren't bad, these mushrooms." She giggled again, grabbing his wrist and playing with his fingertips.

"Uhh…" Merry pulled away. "When you say you ate a few… how many do you mean?"

"Oh, I dunno. Three or four, maybe." More giggling. "Tomatoes, sausages, and nice crispy bacon!" she said in a singsongy voice. Merry looked at her sternly and she started giggling even more madly. The eyes of the young hobbit lass were beginning to glaze over. She shoved Merry lightly.

"What are you doing?" he asked, a little worried.

She shoved him again. "Don't you want to play?" Estella reached over to shove him once more, but he blocked her, grabbing her arm. Giggling all the while, she leaned in closer and kissed his nose. Merry blushed.

"Wha-what are you doing?" he asked for a second time.

"Merry, Merry, Merry!" she said in a singsongy voice. "Hehehe!" She rubbed against his chest, cuddling him.

"Essie…"

"Shh…" She silenced him with a small kiss.

Merry turned an even deeper shade of red. "Estella, we shouldn't—we shouldn't be doing this." He pulled away once more, standing up.

"Why not?" She started towards him. He backed away.

"Because… because…" Merry backed into Stybba. Reaching behind him into the haversack atached to her bridal, he found a length of rope. "I'm not ready yet. First, we have to play a little game."

"I like games!" Estella continued her giggling and Merry brought out the rope.

"See this?" he said, showing it to her. "I'm going to use it to tie you up."

"But I don't want to be tied up!"

Merry nervously fingered the rope. "But, it's part of the game, see? I'm going to pretend to kidnap you… then I can… take you to the castle to be rescued. Don't you like pretending?"

"Uh huh!" Merry quickley bound the rope about her. "Where's the castle?" He pulled the strings tight—but not too tight.

"You've been there before. Here, I'm going to put you on the horse now, Estella. Then we'll go to the castle."

"What about the food? Do ya wanna take it with us?"

Merry mentally slapped himself. 'Of course! Don't leave the fire unatended!' He placed Estella on the horse and went to douse the flames. "We'll take it with us."

"Tomatoes, sausages, and nice crispy bacon! Hehehe!" Merry swiftly packed up the food. He needed to get Estella to Brandyhall as soon as possible. Maybe there someone would know what to do. Merry hopped on Stybba, holding the reigns in one hand and Estella, still madly giggling, in the other. Traveling swiftly, they were there within fifteen minutes.

Esmeralda Brandybuck was a sensible hobbit; she was not prone to silly behavior, though the former Took had a sense of humor. However, when her son turned up at her doorstep with a pretty, young, and rather giggly hobbit lass tied up and slung over his shoulder, she was reddily confused and very concerned.

"Meriadoc Brandybuck!" she exlaimed. "What's the meaning of this?"

Merry faltered for the words to say to explain his odd predicament. "Uhh… You see… Estella and I, we were in the woods today…" His mother gave him a reproving glare. "Not—not doing anything bad… But… We were eating elevensies, and she had picked up a few mushrooms… But see, they were the wrong type of mushrooms, and… Well… She just—"

Esmeralda interupted him. "I think I understand what you're trying to tell me. Bring her inside. She needs medical attention."

Merry nodded gratefully. "Where should I put her?"

"The couch in the living room should do."

Merry walked in and laid Estella gently on the sofa. "Essie? Essie, are you alright?" Estella's face had a pale, ashy white palor to it and she had broken out into a sweat. Merry's mother came in with some damp towels which he used to gently wipe Estella's forehead. Ten minutes passed. Only a few quiet giggles escaped her and she fainted. "Estella?" Merry began to get extremelly worried. What if these were poisonous mushrooms that she had eaten? That would be far worse than just being in a rather giggly, silly mood for a little bit.

"Merry?" came a voice. He looked up. Diamond rushed into the room. "How is she?" she asked.

"She's… she's just passed out. How did you know we were here?"

"I sent for her." Esmeralda stood in the doorway. "I assumed that young Diamond would like to know if her friend was ill."

"Pip's gone to get Sam." Diamond told Merry, as if reading his mind. "Sam really knows his plants. Maybe he could help."

"I hadn't thought about that." Merry admitted. He stroked Estella's forehead again and looked back up. "I hope they get here soon." It wasn't long before they did arrive. Sam came hurriedly over to Estella.

"Pippin said something about mushrooms…?"

"Yes." Merry started explaining to him. "We were out in the woods for elevensies and she had picked some mushrooms to eat. Apparently they weren't the type for eating, though. When she ate some, she started acting really strangley."

"Strangley, how?"

"Well…" Merry blushed. He would NOT tell them about the kiss. "She got all giggly and just… strange."

"Okay, then. Do you have any of the mushrooms she ate?"

"Uhh… I might." Merry rummaged through the haversack. Sure enough, he had packed a couple of the toadstools in his hurry to get Estella home.

"Yup," Sam said, examining the red with white spotted mushroom. "These are fly agaric mushrooms." (A/N I looked up the name off of google)

"Will she be okay?" Merry asked.

"Yes, they've already worn off, she just needs a good night's rest."

Esmeralda called to Merry. "We can keep her here with us tonight if Rosamunda and Odovacar (her parents) don't mind."

"I'm sure they won't." Diamond told her. "In the meanwhile, I think we'd best just give poor Essie a little rest."

"Aye." Pippin agreed. "We'd best be off then. Wish Estella well for us when she wakes up, Merry."

"I will."

Yay. Another chapter completed… over about three months. Jolly spiffin', wot! It didn't end up being quite as silly as I had originally intended… but that's okay. I'm still putting this story under humour. It needs to be. I can't write things completely serious. The only stuff I have written with nothing comical in it were really bad… and very boring.

REVIEW! REVIEW! REVIEW! REVIEW!