Disclaimer:

I own nothing, everything belongs to mister Tolkien, who had created the wonderful fantasy story 'the Lord of the Rings'.

Chapter 12: Letters

Elanor was talking with Éowyn about horses. Not the most enjoyable subject for the hobbit for she had not really enjoyed riding to Gondor. She had had a wonderful time, that's true, but still her body ached. "I really can't believe that you love it so much, I mean it is nice, but doesn't it hurt?" Elanor said in the middle of their conversation and Éowyn smiled, "That's because you don't ride as often as the Rohirrim do."

The conversation went on and on and finally Elanor gave up; Éowyn would not change her point of view and perhaps the hobbit had it all wrong. So Elanor turned to Aragorn, "I was wondering if you received a letter from the Shire..." Elanor had been pondering this for a long time, for she was anxious to know how everybody was doing in her homeland. The King nodded, " We have, just a moment." he turned to a servant who stood near the door (Elanor had not even noticed the man before) and asked him to fetch the letters from his office.

Now the hobbit lass remembered that she had some letters for these people as well. So she got up and walked to the little table where she had put them. "Éowyn, Faramir?" the couple looked to her and Elanor handed the letters to Éowyn, "I believe these are for you, they're from Pippin, Merry and my father." – "Oh thank you Elanor!" Faramir said, obviously happy to have some news from the Shire. Rarely letters were received from the Shire for it took such a long time.

"I believe there is one letter for you as well, Imrahil," it was strange for Elanor to adress this man with his first name, but she did it none the less, " I believe it's from all three of them." And so Aragorn and Arwen had three letters as well. A moment later the room was quiet, for they were all reading their letters. Elanor smiled and her smile widened even further when the servant returned, "Your letter, Misses Gamgee." – "Oh thank you!"

There were three letters for her. Two had been written by her father, but the other handwriting she did not recognise. That must be the letter from Fastred of Greenholm. Yet Elanor first opened the first letter that her father had written. It was the one that Sam had written about her family.

Dear Elly,

We hope that your stay in Edoras was a pleasant one and that you safely arrived in Minas Tirith. Everything here is fine and yes Primrose is already feeling better. Everybody tells me to send you love. So here it is. We really miss you Elanor, it is hard not to think about you. But we are hoping that you are having a good time, which is really important.

So what do you think about Éomer? He's a nice man is he not? The last time that I've had contact with him he was just married. The couple seemed happy. And I deem that they still are. I hope you had a pleasant stay there.

Your mother is concerned about the roads. She has heard some rumors from Bree. People there say that there are orcs on the road, but I don't believe them. Aragorn is now there to stop them, so I know that you have arrived safely in Minas Tirith.

A beautiful city don't you think? If you are there, don't forget to visit the houses of healing, when we were there that was the most beautiful place in the city because of the trees. Only that house had a garden, which I found hard to understand. But back to the news from the Shire.

Rose, your sister seems to enjoy the Green Dragon just as much as you do. She spends a lot of her time there, even though we don't really agree with it. She still is 22 and it is a bit strange. Yet she seems to have fun... Frodo-lad spends a lot time in the Green Dragon as well and he always comes home completely drunk. As you can imagine that is not something of which we are so happy.

And so her father continued. Every Gamgee child wanted to say something to Elanor or let her know about certain things. Daisy had found little kittens so now Bag End was filled with the little furry balls driving Rosie crazy. Elanor had a happy smile on her face the whole time as she was reading the letter, except for the part where Sam mentioned the orcs. She would have to tell her family about that. When she finally finished reading Sam' letter she opened the letter that her father had written for her friends.

Yet she was surprised when only Lissy stood at the bottom of the letter, with a slight frown she started reading. "What!" she whispered, not believing that Lily and May would think like that. Well it only showed her who her real friends were. The letter was quickly read and Elanor sat down to open the last one.

Dear misses Gamgee,

Your letter arrived just now and I could not resist sending one to Gondor. Imladris seems beautiful, perhaps I should visit it, but I think that I don't have enough courage for that.

The crops and everything else is out of the fields now, it is going to be a cold winter I'm sure. Thank you for your interest. I don't think I have told you that I have a little brother, his name is Hamfast, he's extremely curious to whom I'm sending this letter, but I won't let him read it.

I would love to have a map from Middle Earth, we don't have one at home and I would love to follow your journey. You have to tell me more about Imladris, for it really sounded interesting.

I just noticed that my writing is not making much sense, I'm jumping from one subject to the other; I hope you don't mind, Elanor.

The whine, I think I've heard of it before yet I'm not so sure about that. I hope they have some ale in the city where you are staying? No hobbit should miss out on Ale.


I trust you had a good journey? From… Rivendell to Rohan to Gondor. Some rumors have reached us about ruffians. Though I thought that they were gone the day that the four travelers returned. Anyway…

The letter of Fastred went on and on, about hobbit business in Greenholm, about his family, about how bad he would like to see the places where Elanor was going to now and more. Elanor had a smile on her face; surely Fastred was the first hobbit apart from her friend and family that had shown interest. This was going to be a lovely correspondence friend.

Only when she had finished Elanor looked up, she had tears in her eyes. It had been good to read something from the Shire. To how everybody was doing but only now she noticed how much she would miss. Lissy had written about the fact that one of the little hobbit children had almost drowned in the lake. That had shocked Elanor; nobody in Hobbiton knew how to swim. The child had been so lucky that Peregrin Took was in the neighborhood. He was a Took he could swim.

Faramir walked over to the hobbit, "Are you alright, Elanor?" he asked. Elanor noticed that he had a kind voice and he was obviously worried. "Yes… yes I am," she said with a faint smile on her face. The steward placed a hand on her shoulder as the hobbit fell silent. She was looking to the letters in her hands. "I've forgotten the gifts!" Elanor exclaimed, not wanting the mood to be so sad. So she got up and ran to the little table. There she got 7 little bags and she gave on to each of the humans, elves and dwarf in the room. "Now open them!"

She said gleefully, already knowing what was in there. "Sand?" Gimli said, his eyebrows raised, he surely must remember what Elanor had given the King of Rohan. "Well thank you Elanor!" the dwarf said, Elanor could not see it clearly but it seemed that the dwarf had tears in his eyes. Legolas smiled to the hobbit, "Doila lle, Elanor, I will keep it with me for ever." Elanor grinned to him.

Éowyn, Faramir and Imrahil had no idea what it meant. It surprised Elanor that the King and the Queen did. Strider looked seriously to her as he kneeled down, "This sure is a great gift, I will treasure it." – "And so will I," Arwen said with a pleasant smile on her face. Now the three other humans had absolutely no idea about what they were talking.

"Uh, Elanor, we really like your gift, but we have no idea what it means," Imrahil said. The little leather bag he held in his hand as he looked to Elanor who grinned, "That, Imrahil, is sand from the Shire. The best soil in Middle Earth. And it is seen as a great honor at home if one not from the Shire. Or outlanders as we call them, receive it. It's only given to people who hold a special place in a heart of a hobbit."

Dear readers,

A quick update this time for I don't think that I will update much when I have to go to school. (Meaning that I probably will only be able to update in the weekends, I apologize for that).

Review… please? I want to know what you think about it. It encourages me to write further. Please?

Greets

Maikie