Merry woke up, his heart thumping so fast and hard that he thought the sound of it could be heard echoing through all the chambers of…where was he? Recollections of reality came back at him: Rivendell. They were in Rivendell again, on their way back home, to the Shire, together. The Ring has been destroyed, the war was over, the Enemy defeated. So why was he having those dreams again? Last time he had vivid and terrifying nightmares as such, it was during his recovering at the Houses of Healing, when everything was still so dark and uncertain. Thanks to the Valar, he had forgotten the details of those nightmares. He could only remember vague images, of him standing by Frodo at the top of Mount Doom, and then even more confusing bits, but one part was still so upsetting that he thought he could never get rid of it: in these dreams, he had tried to take the Ring from Frodo, there at the edge of the abyss of fire. But it was not something he wanted to try and remember after all. Frodo was safe now, he and Sam had succeeded in throwing the Ring into the fire and came back to them, no matter how horrifying and despairing those dreams had been.
Everybody was asleep in the House of Elrond now, and all was silence. Not wishing to go back to sleep, maybe back to another nightmare, Merry decided to get up and go outside, to let the cool air of the night refresh his spirit and his mind.
Rivendell was somehow different now, than the way he remembered it last time they were there, almost one year ago. Peace, light and hope had been brought back to Middle Earth with the destruction of the ring, but a strange atmosphere of sadness and emptiness seemed to linger still in Rivendell. It was Winterfilth, almost, if his keeping track of time was correct, but it seemed that this time autumn was going to stay longer there.
Or maybe it all was just in his mind.
Lost in his thoughts, he didn't notice that someone had joined him in the columned patio, until Pippin spoke. "What are you doing outside, at this time of night, Merry?" Merry smiled. There had been other times, when he was staying at the Great Smials in Tuckborough, or when Pippin was staying at Brandy Hall, or when they were both visiting Frodo at Bag End, that he would get up in the middle of the night to get some water, or some food, or to do something else that needed be done, and more often than not his younger cousin would wake up too, and followed him to ask what he was doing.
But as he turned, Merry didn't see the usual young hobbit rubbing his still sleepy eyes, but a grown-up, wide awake, with a shadow of worry on his face. "Hullo Pip! I was hungry. I am going to the kitchens to get myself some warm milk and a couple of scones, maybe. Join me?" He cheered, for he was sure that the nightmare would be completely forgotten the morning after. He still remembered now that it had something to do with his father, something awful, but he also knew that it was just a dream, that Saradoc didn't have anything to do with the horrors they had experienced. He knew that the Shire was safe, untouched, and that the four of them would soon be there. Of that nightmare would maybe remain only a trace, some very thin and broken threads of a cobweb, in some hidden corner of his mind.
TBC