Thanks to the following reviewers: Joee, Andi-Black, and Kelly Kragen. Kelly, Legolas will think that Bilbo is a little odd and will wonder at it, but, no, he won't uncover the ring.
Beta Reader: Dragonfly
Chapter 45: Bad Apples
Hyge hunched over his bowl of porridge, casting uneasy sidelong glances at the strangers from the south, the seventh such party of foreigners to have descended upon his parents' cottage in the past month. The first group had been barely civil, arriving at the door as they did one evening and peremptorily demanding supper. As Aragorn had once discovered, Hyge's Mum always did cook enough to set one extra plate, but she could not serve all the strangers, not without stinting her own family. The Men, however, looked so threateningly at Hyge's Da, fingering their knife hilts as they did so, that the farmer gave off trying to protest and quietly forbore eating dinner that night, as did his wife. Hyge, too, did not have a hot meal that night, instead joining his Da and Mum later that evening for a light repast of cheese and apples. The children they fed first in the corner—the farmer and his wife insisted on that much—and then Hyge's Mum went round the table filling the strangers' plates with roasted pork. The Men belched and spoke rudely, uttering words that made even Hyge's Da blush, and as soon as she had served them all, Hyge's Mum quietly shepherded the children from the cottage and bedded them down in the apple shed, which, even if the accommodations were rough, at least smelled of the sweetness of fruit—more than could be said of the cottage, which reeked of the unwashed bodies of the unwelcome guests.
The next morning the leader of the Men tossed Hyge's Da a coin that scarce covered the cost of the food they had eaten, and without so much as a 'thank you' the group rode off, leaving behind dirty dishes, soiled linen and a muddy floor—you may be sure that they had not bothered to wipe their boots before forcing their way into the cottage! The children helped their Mum drag all the duvets and mattress covers into the yard while their Da chopped kindling and Hyge hauled water to fill their largest cauldron. "We are going to wash every scrap of cloth," Hyge's Mum declared firmly. Mum and the oldest girl, Marta by name, stood over the cauldron with wooden paddles stirring the boiling linen. Two younger girls were set to washing all the dishes in a smaller cauldron, and the other children, boys and girls alike, scrubbed and scoured both the table and floor. Even the youngest girl, Berta, took up brush and worked away at cleansing the cottage.
When Hyge had hauled all the water that would be needful, he wanted to follow the Men to see what they were up to. His Da, however, forbade him from doing so. "The more distance between you and those Men, the better," the older Dunlending had declared. But he did permit Hyge to backtrack along their trail to learn what he could of them, and Hyge set out with great determination.
After walking for an hour, the young Dunlending came to the burned-out shell of a homestead, the tendrils of smoke still spiraling up from the ruins. Beside the cottage, on his back, lay a Man, a farmer like Hyge's Da. His belly had been hacked open, and flies buzzed amongst his entrails. A few feet away from him lay his son, a boy whom Hyge had played with when he was younger. His throat had been cut. Hyge squeezed his eyes shut and willed the world to stop spinning. As he stood with his eyes closed, he realized that he smelled burnt meat, but of a kind he had never encountered before. He did not want to open his eyes, but at length he forced himself to. Reluctantly, he drew nearer the ravaged house and peered through the scorched frame of the door. From the size of the twisted, blackened carcass that lay within, he guessed that he had found the mother. Two smaller lumps lay by the stumps of her arms. Hyge remember that the woman, like his own mother, had had twins. He leaned against the doorframe. This time tears escaped from his tightly shut eyes. As he stood there, his breath coming in uneven gasps, his stomach churning, he imagined that he heard a child crying. The boy, the twins—what of the girl? Quickly Hyge opened his eyes and spun about. He tried to calm his breathing so that he could hear the better. Yes, that was a child crying. In the shed, the only structure left unburned? Anxiously he crossed to the shed and flung open the door. Someone shrieked and scrabbled about in the darkness of the shed. Hyge tried to speak soothingly.
"Malinka, 'tis that you? I'm Hyge, Berta's brother. Show yourself, child. I won't hurt you. By the Mother, I won't hurt you. I will take you to Berta. Wouldn't you like that, Malinka? Wouldn't you like to be with Berta right now?"
The crying had ceased. Whoever was in the shed was staying perfectly still. Hyge stepped further into the shed and began to grope about. At length he laid his hand on something warm—and the something bit him. Not wanting to frighten the child, he stifled the impulse to shout, got as firm a grip on her as he could, and carried her as gently as possible out of the shed, ducking around to the back of the building as he did so that she would not be confronted by the bodies of her father and brother. He suspected she had already seen them once and thought that was more than enough for such a little one—for she was no older than five.
Once behind the shed, he sat down upon the earth and drew Malinka on to his lap. She flailed and kicked, but he held her tight until she began to tire. At last she leaned back against him and cried so violently that Hyge wondered how she was able to draw breath. Then she fell silent. She was trembling and very cold. Hyge took off his tunic and wrapped her in it, being sure to pull the cloth over her face, for they were going to pass by the yard, where her father and brother lay.
"I am going to carry you to my Mum," he reassured the silent child. "She will look after you and then bundle you to bed with Berta."
The child still said nothing, but after awhile she trembled less. Hyge tried to walk as quickly as he could without jostling the little girl, and at length he felt her relax in his arms and from the evenness of her breathing knew that she had fallen asleep. He suspected that so exhausted was she from her ordeal that she would sleep until well into the next day, and he was glad of it.
The moon was rising as he quietly entered his parents' cottage. Both his Mum and his Da had waited up for him, and without a word his Mum lifted Malinka from his arms, laid her next to Berta, and then lay down beside her so that Malinka was nestled between mother and daughter. As for Hyge's Da, just as wordlessly he followed Hyge out to a shed and joined his son in picking up a shovel. Placing the tools over their shoulders, they silently hiked back to the ruined homestead, where they dug three graves, one for the son, one for the father, and one to be shared by mother and twins. They wrapped the bodies in sacks that they found in the shed. Hyge retched and cried as they gathered up the remains of the mother and her babies, and his Da did not rebuke him but instead laid a comforting hand upon his shoulder.
It was several days before Malinka could tell them anything at all about what had taken place at her parents' homestead. It was Berta to whom she told the story, as Hyge's Mum listened quietly nearby, giving no sign that she heard as she kneaded bread dough.
"The Man was shouting at my Mum," Malinka told Berta. She waved a stick in her hand. "And then my brother said, 'Don't you talk to my Mum that way!" She picked up another, smaller stick. "My brother was very, very angry at the Man. The Man hit him, and he fell down." Malinka struck the smaller stick with the larger one. The top of the smaller stick snapped off. "Then my Da was angry. He came running. But someone hit him and he fell down, too. His belly was bleeding. And then my Mum told me to hide quiet in the shed, and she picked up my little sisters and ran into the cottage, and then the Men ran into the cottage, and I heard my mother screaming and I heard my little sisters screaming. I covered my ears and hid under the sacks in the shed. When it was all quiet, I peeked out. The house was all gone. My brother was all bloody and he wouldn't talk to me, but his eyes were open. And my Da wouldn't talk to me, and his eyes were open, too. And I couldn't find my Mum. And I couldn't find my little sisters." Malinka dragged the end of the long stick through the dirt and then cast it aside. "I wish my Mum and my sisters had hid with me in the shed," she said unhappily. "The Men didn't look in the shed."
"The mother knew Malinka was the only one who had a chance of surviving," Hyge's Mum told Hyge and his Da later that day after the children had all gone to bed. "The babies would cry and be found, but Malinka was old enough to stay silent for at least a little while, perchance long enough to escape that murderous lot. So she carried the babies into the cottage, away from Malinka, and there they were slain with their mother."
Hyge's Da nodded.
"Aye. Here is how it must have been. Before they quartered themselves upon us, those Men stopped at that homestead and spoke to the folk there as rudely as they did to we folk here. The poor boy was ever a little hasty in his speech, and he took offense and spake bold. One of the strangers stabbed him, and when the father ran to his aid, they stabbed him as well. Then poor Malinka was set to hiding in the shed whilst her Mum went into the cottage to be slain with the others so that the wee one might live."
"Yes," agreed Hyge. "That is how it must have been."
"It is good," said Hyge's Mum, "that we gave over arguing with those strangers that night, lest we had suffered the same fate. They are not Men to be crossed. If any more like them come, we'd best give them what they want with no argument."
And more had come, each group at least as rude and uncivil as the first. After the second visitation of this scourge, Hyge's family again washed the linen, but this time they afterward set it aside in the apple shed, where the children now slept each night. Only threadbare, ragged, stained blankets were spread upon the mattresses in the cottage. "Good enough for the likes of them," Hyge's Mum had sniffed as she dragged the old bedclothes from a chest where they had been stored until such time as they might be torn into rags.
Hyge's mother also began to cook a great quantity of extra food each day, although never using first-rate ingredients. They had smoked and salted and dried a great quantity of meat from a steer they had slaughtered, and the best of it they hid away behind a false wall in one of the sheds. They also set aside the best of the cheeses and the apples and the potatoes.
"We'll feed them," said Hyge's Mum grimly, "but at as little cost to ourselves as possible."
Now the seventh band of Men from the south had descended upon them and was gobbling up the stew that Hyge's Mum had prepared that day, leaving nothing but porridge for the cottagers. This Hyge was able to bear patiently, for he thought with satisfaction of the cheese and apples that awaited the children. He himself had carefully picked out each apple that morning, and with equal care had selected a wheel of cheese and split it so that each child would have a generous wedge. They would not go to bed hungry!
A smile came to his face, but it did not remain there long. He caught sight of Malinka's pale and frightened face as she stared fearfully at the boisterous Men who lounged about the cottage spitting and picking their teeth. He made a small hand motion, gesturing at her to come to him. She began to cross the room. As she passed by one of the Men, he reached out a hand and grasped her hair.
"Hey, this one has black hair, but that farmer has brown hair, and so do his wife."
Raucous, mean-spirited laughter arose.
"Seems to me," shouted another of the Men, "that somebody else's bull has been plowing this farmer's field!"
"And he don't mind, I guess, seein' how he's kept this one that ain't of his breedin'."
Hyge was now as pale as Malinka, but when he spoke he kept his voice even.
"That child is an orphan. That is why her hair is different from my mother's and father's."
"Huh," scoffed one of the Men. "That's what they told you, boy, but I seen how that woman treats this brat like one of her own."
"Of course she does," said Hyge, still controlling his voice. "We have adopted Malinka, so now she is one of our own."
The Man who had seized Malinka's hair now let go of it and pushed her away from him so hard that she stumbled and nearly fell. Hyge held out his arms and she crawled into his lap and buried her head in his chest. Marta, the oldest of Hyge's sisters entered the cottage just then.
"Hey," shouted the Man who had mistreated Malinka, "here's a field what has never been ploughed, I'll warrant. What say we save the farmer the cost of hiring a bull!"
The Man leaped to his feet. Hyge, still holding Malinka, jumped up as well.
"You useless, slobbering half-wit," he shouted at his sister. "'Tis well past Malinka's bedtime. Take her at once and put her to bed. As for yourself, since you soiled the bed last night, you will sleep upon the bare ground this night. Aye, and that will keep any of the pus from your buttocks sores from getting onto the linen. The mistress is getting tired of the extra laundering you cause us, what with your drooling and puking and all. If you don't be more cleanly in the future, we'll sell you off to a band of Men like these here. See if we don't!"
Boldly he turned to the Men.
"What say you, gentlemen? Would you like a serving wench? If you explain things carefully to her, she can do most tasks after a fashion."
"What do you take us for, boy?" roared the leader. "We are no fools! Get that scurvy, leprous creature out of my sight!"
Fortunately, Hyge's sister had been so amazed at his speech that she did look as if she were addled in the brains. Her expression bespoke bewilderment, and her mouth hung slack. Hyge thrust Malinka into her arms and pushed her out the door.
"I am sorry, Marta," he said softly once they were well away from the house. "One of the Men wanted to use you as only a husband ought, and I spoke so for no other reason than to turn his stomach against you. I pray you, take Malinka into the apple shed, and both of you remain there until I come for you on the morrow."
Marta was now trembling, as was Malinka. Hyge kissed the forehead of first one, then the other.
"Sisters, do not be afraid. No one will trouble you further tonight, and tomorrow let us take counsel with Da and Mum about how to preserve you from danger in the future."
He walked Marta and Malinka to the shed and saw that they were settled comfortably. Then he took the axe from the woodpile and seated himself in the shadows. There he remained the entire night, keeping watch on the door to the shed. A few times during the night Men stumbled out to urinate in the yard—they would not even take the very slight trouble of walking around back to the outhouse!—but no one ventured near the apple shed.
The next morning, after eating again at the expense of the cottagers—the coin that was flung at the feet of Hyge's father once more came nowhere near covering the cost of the provisions they had devoured—these latest strangers rode off toward the north.
As soon as they were out of sight and hearing, Hyge went to the apple shed and told Marta and Malinka that they could come forth. Both crept out timidly, anxiously looking all about the yard as they did so.
"They are gone, sisters," Hyge assured them. "Come and eat. Mum has brought out several loaves of good bread that she had placed out of sight in the rafters. Aye, and she has pulled up from the well the crock in which she had hidden the sweet butter. Come!"
After they had eaten, Malinka was sent out to play with the other children, and Hyge and Marta took counsel with their Mum and Da.
"If these strangers keep descending upon us, it is all too likely that at last one of them will lay hold of Marta," declared Hyge fiercely. "That is, it is all too likely unless we do something to prevent it."
His Da ground his teeth.
"I have gone to the others hereabouts," he said in frustration, "and told them that we must join together and stop these Men from traversing our lands. They call me their chief and have listened to me in the past. But this time they are paralyzed with fear. They say that the chieftains to the south have given the strangers leave to cross the borders, and what can our one clan do if the other clans will do nothing."
Hyge nodded.
"Aye, they will do nothing as long as they think we stand alone."
"We do stand alone," said Hyge's Mum dejectedly.
"But we need not," rejoined Hyge. "There are those who would look upon these strangers with no more favor than we do."
"Who?" said Marta.
"The Elves. The Fair Folk would not be kindly disposed toward creatures as villainous as these Men have been. Now, mark you: the Men have always arrived from the south and journeyed on to the north. They must at least be skirting the territory of the Elves, if not entering it outright. I do not think the Elves are aware of this, else they would have already sent out scouting parties that would have back trailed the strangers. Moreover, since our household is known to Lord Elrond, surely any scouts would have stopped here in search of news. Yet we have seen no sign of such scouts."
"So," said Hyge's Mum, "you mean to carry word to Lord Elrond of these Men and their doings."
"Yes, and I will take Marta and Malinka with me. Even if the Elves do not chose to move against these strangers, they will not deny my sisters sanctuary. They turn aside no one in need of protection against evil."
"Yes," agreed Hyge's Da, "you should take Marta. But Malinka is too young for the Men to look upon her as they do Marta. Why would you take her as well? 'Twould be a hard thing for her if her second family is reived from her so soon after her first one was."
"True," said Hyge sadly. "It is a hard thing. But 'tis too fearful a thing for Malinka to continually see Men like unto the ones who slew her family. Until this land is clear of them, she should stay at Rivendell with Marta. Then we will have them both back again."
"Hyge is right," said his Mum. "Yesterday Malinka was speechless the whole day, so great was the fright she was thrown into by those Men."
"It is agreed then," said Hyge's Da. "Hyge, Marta, and Malinka will journey to Rivendell and seek out the Lord Elrond. He has been good to us in the past; may he be good to us once again."
All echoed his prayer, and then they arose to make preparations for the journey of Hyge and his sisters.