Disclaimer I don't own the songs, the characters or the location. I own nothing that Tolkien does. This must be distinctly understood so that you cannot sue me. With that said, I hope you enjoy this.
Chapter 4 Sing, Sing, Everybody Sing!
"Did Legolas go deaf!?" Pippin shrieked in horror. This got no response from the elf. The hobbit glanced at his cousin and both of them ran in circles around Legolas, screaming indecipherably. Aragorn came up, dodging the youngest hobbits, beside his friend and examined Legolas' ears, the elf giving him a confused look the entire time.
"The deafness is only temporary," the Ranger concluded.
"Good. Then I can sing and be completely tone deaf," Pippin declared. Before Gandalf could object, the young hobbit began to sing very loudly, but surprisingly in tune. "When the cold of winter comes, starless night will cover day . . ." In a moment, Merry joined in, and then so did the Frodo, Sam, and Boromir. Aragorn looked at Gandalf's disapproving face, shrugged his shoulders, and joined in. At the beginning of the second verse, Gimli joined in, and everyone except Legolas and Gandalf covered their ears and cried out in pain.
"That is your payment for allerting the armies of Mordor to our presence here!" he shouted. Gimli, still drunk, raised his axe, but Legolas promptly took it away from him despite a wave of dwarvish curses and threats. The fellowship began walking again, with Legolas using Gimli's axe as a walking stick. For a while, evverything was quiet, save the whispers between Pippin and Merry.
"Pippin, what was that song?" Boromir wondered. Pippin thought a second, looked at Merry, who shrugged, and thought again. "Well . . ." Boromir pressed.
"I don't know," Pippin admitted. "It just kind of came to me."
"You halflings are a strange people," the human laughed. Pippin just shrugged.
"Merry, where's the ale? I need some more."
"Coming right up, Pip."
"Rum break!" Pippin shrieked. Gandalf raced back from his position in the lead at the cry. Aragorn sighed, but trudged back to the others, tripping over Legolas, who was lying down, playing with a caterpillar. Aragorn cursed at his friend, who just looked at him curiously, like a newborn kitten.
"Hey, ho, to the bottle I go . . ." the Hobbits sang and danced. Gimli and Boromir, not knowing what else to sing, repeated ho, ho, ho. Gandalf joined in with "the road goes ever on," and Aragorn, unsure what to do, began "The lay of Leithein" at an unusually rapid tempo.
"There is an inn, a merry old in . . ." Frodo hollered out, dancing on Boromir's shoulders, The human galloped around the rest of the group, the drunken ringbearer secure on his shoulders. This feat was met with thunderous applause as well as Sam's shrieks for his master to get down from there before he broke his neck.
"Samwise, lighten up before I put a spell on you. You sound like an overprotective mother," Gandalf interrupted his singing for a brief moment. Sam's eyes bulged in fear and he dashed past the wizard to hide behind Gimli.
"Don't worry, lad. I'll protect you, but you did sound like a mother." Sam blushed as red as a rose and vowed to himself to be silent for the remainder of the quest. Then Gimli hit an extremely high note and the Hobbit flinched. No one else seemed to notice, though. Legolas raised his head and stood up. He gestured for silence and, surprisingly, he received it.
"Thank you, master dwarf. Your disgusting imitation of a soprano seems to have restored my hearing. It seems as if we now can continue our journey and stop this insanity. What do you say, Frodo?"
"The man in the moon took another mug. . ." Frodo started and each singer jumped in with their respected song, with the Ringbearer still perched on Boromir's shoulders.
"Heave ho, splash, pump. Rolling down the bump," Legolas joined in with a song from Mirkwood. After a while Boromir had an idea.
"Duh duh, dd duh. (the Fellowship theme)" he began. Everyone looked at him for a second and then joined in. "Dd dah dadidah dudidah didahdaaaah." Gandalf collected their things and off they marched, singing as they went.
