Notes - My starter for this story was:

S - Pippin fighting

I - Oliphaunt

L - Ithilien

V - Hamfast (Old Gaffer)

This story sprang almost fully made into my head. It seemed right to write it, which is a good thing really, because the idea only came to me the morning of the 24th of July, lol. The order is not the same, but I wasn't told to have them in order, just to make sure each was in the story.

I hope you enjoy reading this tale.

SilverWolf

Hobbit Tales

The fire had been made and the rabbits skinned and put to stew in a matter of minutes. Sam had always, besides when he had first learnt to do so of course, been able to do this faster than most Hobbits. 'Twas a good thing he enjoyed cooking so much, truly it was the only way to do this with the annoying, gangly creature Gollum moaning that the rabbits were now ruined.

He refused to listen to someone who would go about eating raw meat. Especially in front of Mister Frodo. He didn't want his friend to get sick the way he would have done if he had been the one woken to such a sight. So, naturally, he had snatched the brace of conies from Gollum and begun to prepare them for a proper meal.

There were not very many vegetables about and what he could find, while it added some taste, would still make the stew rather bland, but at least there would be meat that day. A nice change from the small bites of Lembas he and Frodo were getting sick of. He was still wishing that a stack of big potatoes would suddenly be found so he could make some chips, though.

Shaking his head as he stated this out loud, watching as Gollum made rude sounds and gestures, stating rather profusely that he had ruined the meat already by cooking it. He turned around after a small argument had started, only to see that Frodo had wondered off somewhere.

"Frodo? Frodo!" he shouted, before leaving the cooking stew behind to search for the bearer of the Ring. He should have never turned his back on him! How could he have lost him, especially after promicing Gandalf he wouldn't let him out of his sight.

"Sam, shhhh," he heard coming a bit further ahead of him. Racing to the spot he heard that voice, he spotted his friend lying on the ground looking intently at something. Dropping to the ground, he crawled forwards so he could see what had his Master's attention so fully.

He gasped at what he saw. Oliphaunts! Never in all his life did he ever believe he would see such a thing in his lifetime. He had lived his life believing them to just be tall tales to frighten small children to bed at night. But, of course, the same had been said of other things they had seen. Orcs, Trolls, Balrogs! He would never disbelieve another tale told by Bilbo Baggins again, they were probably all true. At least dragons were deciding to stay away. Too bad about the Balrog and poor Gandalf though.

"There were lots of them, and some people from far off lands were riding them as if it were perfectly natural. Biggest creatures I had ever seen! Bigger even than the fire demon!"

Hamfast Gamgee, the Old Gaffer as he was known as by everyone, stared at his youngest son with a calculating expression on his face. "You were right, Samwise, I don't believe a word you just said. I know you not to be a liar though and you have never been one for telling tall tales before."

Sam smiled brightly. He knew he told the truth of the Oliphaunts, and people could believe him or not as they wanted, but he knew that Merry would not go about telling his tale involving the gargantuan creatures, so he would tell a more pleasant one.

It was a tale worth telling anyhow. He now knew why Bilbo loved to speak of his adventures outside the Shire. There was so much more out there to see!

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He was to be guarding the citadel, the grand place atop Minas Tirith, but the fighting was all downstairs. He never knew how much he longed for helping Gandalf, to keep his friends safe and to fight, until he was there, at the stairs and wishing to go down and kill a couple of Orcs.

He had spent days in his new uniform just trying to think of ways to stay out of the war and keep himself safe, but now that the moment was upon the fair city of Minas Tirith...he wanted, no needed, to fight.

Merry would be down there somewhere, he could feel it. If he wasn't now, he would be soon. And his cousin and dearest friend would be in the middle of it all, on the other side of the thick walls.

He spotted Denethor, Steward of Gondor and he suspected as mad as they come, with a guard making their way into the burial chamber for the Stewards...and possibly Kings of old? Dragged behind them on a platter was Faramir, whom he knew not to be dead, only badly wounded and in need of a Healer.

He raced after them, trying to make Denethor see reason in all the madness. He managed to make his way inside with no problem, even saw Faramir trying to wake as he was laid on the ground by a funeral pyre.

"He's not dead!" he shouted over and over again, his voice trying to be heard by the mad Man, trying to wake Faramir up.

Denethor didn't hear him, or was pretending he wasn't there as he held a decanter of oil over his head while he stood on the pyre, spilling the viscous liquid over himself and to spread on the wood pile at his feet.

As a torch was grabbed, ready to set fire to the wood, Denethor stepped down and got the guards to put Faramir's waking body onto the drenched sticks of wood.

He ran. He had to find Gandalf and fast! Faramir was his friend and he would not see him burn while still alive. He would save him.

The fighting was stronger down here and he found himself running the opposite way of the citizens who were not fighting. The Orcs and Trolls must have busted through the gates! The fighting was now inside the city walls.

"Gandalf!" he cried out, asking all passerbys that would answer him if they had seen the wizard. Finally he got an answer and ran to where the white robed old man was.

"Gandalf, they're going to burn Faramir alive!" he screamed. Gandalf, on Shadowfax his mnagnificent horse friend and King of horses, picked him up and they raced as fast as possible to where he stated they were.

They were just in time to save Faramir, but Pippin had, he realised belatedly, been demoted from knight. He didn't care! Jumping onto the burning pyre, he managed to roll Faramir to the ground and batted away what fire his clothes were on.

The Man he thought of as friend fiinally managed to wake then, staring up at his father who, upon seeing his second son alive, seemed joyous. Then his clothes set on fire and he screamed. Burnt flesh rent his nostrils as the scent became too sharp to ignore, and the entire time all Faramir could do was watch as his father burnt.

He tried to get Faramir's attention, but failed. Finally, it was over and Pippin realised, though he may not have been fighting Orcs or Trolls like the others below him and around him, he had fought another battle that seemed just as important to him right here.

He had just saved Faramir's life from the same horrible fate as his father. He knew it would be very important later on in the fight...if Faramir survived his wounds.

"Of course, Faramir did survive his wounds and bacame Steward to Aragorn, who is now King. I rode behind him to the Black Gate itself and thought nothing but hoping to see the ruin of Sauron's keep. The dark Lord's black tower, his fiery eye on top looking at all below. We thought it a good day to die. I am glad most of us were wrong...though I did get a bit squashed somewhere in the fight by a Troll."

"Peregrin please! No more, my son. That sounds like a tale of Heroes, but I cannot imagine you doing all those things," Eglantine, Pippin's mother stated. She looked shaken and it was only then that he took into consideration that the tale he had just told may have made her worry overly much for thhe welfare of her son.

"Everything worked out! I didn't die, either did Merry, or Frodo, or Sam. Faramir lived to become Steward, Aragorn to become the King and the world is now safe to live in once more. None of this would have been possible without us four Hobbits alongside everything...except for perhaps Frodo and Sam who did the hard bit. Though they had a lot less fighting to do...well real combat fighting that is. Frodo's fight was more a mental thing, Sam's to keep Frodo with him in mind as well as body. Those two had it harder than we did. Although there was that time that Merry and I were capture by Uruk-Hai to be taken to Saruman..."

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Sam had not been able to come, as Rose was too big and ready to birth another child, and naturally Frodo had sailed West, but he and Pippin had been quite blessed to be invited to Ithilien by Faramir and Legolas.

With a wide smile, Merry slid from his large pony and gave Legolas a hug, before relinquishing his hold on the Elf and going over to Faramir, whom had been clutched at by Pippin a few seconds ago. They changed larger folk and hugged the other close.

"It is good to see you both. Though we are a little lost as to why we have been invited here in the first place. Why could we not meet in Minas Tirith like we normally do?" Merry asked, looking up, first at the Man, then the Elf, before turning his gaze to somewhere in the middle of the two.

"We have finished rebuilding Ithilien! Come, we shall take you to the village that has grown," Legolas stated, before bounding off ahead of them with all his Elven energy.

"There is my village and then there is his. He has brought Elves to these fair woods and everything grows the better for it," Faramir stated, waving his hand and walking at a pace the two Hobbits could keep up with.

It was not that long a walk, before they reached the place that Faramir now called his in the woods. They were met there by Éowyn, who had come to greet her husband.

"Hello, my dear Hobbits," she stated, bending down to give them both a light kiss, before doing the same to Faramir in a more than friendly manner.

"Hello, my Lady," Merry stated, bowing slightly to the woman who had fought beside him during the great Ring War they had been involved in.

"Where did Legolas go?" asked Pippin, looking about himself.

"He disappears and shows up late all the time. He had been stopping that for a while. It gets...worse sometimes though. Distracted easily by certain sounds, smells...it is the Sea Longing."

Merry's face fell and, looking over to Pippin, he saw the same expression on his friends face. "Will he sail or stay?" he asked, not really sure he wanted an answer. He had already lost one friend to the Sea, he wasn't thrilled about the thought of losing another.

"He is not going to sail, as he has promised an old friend to stay until the end of his life," came a musical voice that they all recognised. Legolas dropped to the ground in front of the small group and laughed. "Fear not. I thought I had invited you along to my colony first, I realised I had moved too fast for you a little too late. I apologise."

Merry noted that Legolas did seem more like himself. Last time he had come to Gondor, with Sam and Rose that time, the Elf had seemed...different.

"Lets not talk about the vanity of Elves shall we not," Faramir stated, hugging his wife close.

"Of course, lets talk about the greed of Men instead!" Legolas replied, thumping, in a friendly manner of all things, Faramir's shoulder.

Both laughed and Merry noticed that Legolas' friendship with other races in itself had changed him. Especially that of his deep friendship with Gimli the Dwarf.

"So...when's dinner?" Pippin asked, spurring on more laughter before being ushered into the biggest of the houses, obviously for Faramir and Éowyn.

They had talked long into the night of this going on in their separate lives before talk ultimately stopped for a brief comfortable silence. "I managed to tell my mother about what happened during the War not long ago," Pippin stated, with a slight smile to his face, "She didn't believe a word of it."

"I heard that Sam told his Gaffer about the Oliphaunts he and Frodo saw. I tnink that the Gaffer didn't believe him either. Ai! But what tales, eh? Even if no one does believe them, we all know them to be true."

The room once again fell into silence, this time one that held many words, none of which needed to be spoken. They had come through a lot together and had all changed because of this. It was this silence, filled with unspoken words that was most comfortable to Merry. He was with friends, he knew that they believed him and that was all that truly mattered.

A/N - Well, again I hope you enjoyed the tale. All things included that are meant to be, a few different characters that I have barely written (Faramir, Legolas, Gandalf and Éowyn) and tales that Hobbits have told. Again, this could be classed as AU, for the ending I just made up, while the other two seem to be some kind of strange mixture between book and movie, but is mainly movieverse...I cannot recall the order things happened in in either book or movie, so I hope this one turns out alright.

I had more fun with this challenge than any other I have done for Marigold. Thanks for the great challenges!

SilverWolf