Chapter 5 will be along shortly, I hope. I'm drawing things out a bit as I want to get in as much detail as possible. Review!!

The three hobbits picked up their pace and jogged towards the small crowd now gathered at the Gate. Merry's heart was beating hard, and not only from the exercise. He knew perfectly well that countless Brandybucks before him had gone into the Forest and come out again completely unharmed; but this would be the first time he had ever left the Shire, and who knew what awaited him on the other side of the hedge?

They slowed to a walk as they reached the Gate. Old Rory Brandybuck was standing at the front of the group, who parted to let Merry through and pushed him forward until he stood in a wide space at the front. Berry and Frodo watched from the front of the crowd, but though Merry could feel the eyes of every hobbit on him, he was at present being eyeballed from the front by Rory and didn't dare turn around. He felt very small and vulnerable, as if he was standing there in front of the crowd wearing nothing at all. This wouldn't do at all! He had to at least look the part and not let them think he was in any way unworthy of his own Adventuring! Merry stood up straight, trying to make the most of his two feet and ten inches.

Rory came forward slowly, holding a bundle of dark green material in his arms, and addressed the assembled hobbits.

"My fellow Brandybucks," he rumbled, "today we are here to carry out the First Adventuring of our young relative Meriadoc Brandybuck, son of Saradoc, in this his twelfth year of life. As hobbits of the Brandybuck family we know the importance of teaching our children to respect and acknowledge the wider world outside our Shire's borders. Though we inside the Shire are safe from harm, beyond it lie strange lands and wild creatures. If they should ever dare to invade our borders, the Brandybucks must be prepared! And it's for that reason, brothers and sisters, that we show our children a taste of what lies out yonder." He turned to Merry and presented him with the bundle. "Young Meriadoc, today you go forward for the first time into lands beyond our own. I now present to you three tokens of the good will of your family and mine. These will shelter you, defend you and call help to your side. Use them well."

Merry took the bundle and it unfurled as he held it up. It was a dark green cloak with a hood attached, trimmed at the edges with pale gold embroidery and made to fit Merry exactly. He remembered in a flash his father's words to him in the garden two nights ago. "Every Brandybuck whose Adventuring has passed will accompany us to the Hedge. You will be presented with a new cloak and a few things to help you if you ever need to defend yourself inside the Forest, although you should be perfectly safe." Merry had remembered the new and decorative cloak Berry had suddenly acquired two years before, and how mysterious he had been about its origins in spite of his younger cousin's many attempts to extract the information. The two cousins simultaneously glanced at each other and grinned.

Merry swirled the cloak behind him and put it on, trying not to fiddle with the clasp at the front. He hoped he looked as dashing as he meant to. Old Rory cleared his throat. There were still two objects in his hands, which he now held out to Merry. One was a horn made of bone, simple and unadorned except for some carvings around the rim. Merry hoped he would be able to blow it properly—how humiliating if all he could manage was a raspberry noise! He stowed the horn in a pocket of his cloak and looked to the last gift. His eyes widened and he caught his breath as he picked up a small knife in a black leather sheath. The hilt was also bound with strips of brown leather, and at the top was set a polished piece of amber. Turning the knife around to look at it more closely, Merry saw that inside the stone a tiny dragonfly had been imprisoned. Its wings still shimmered in the sunlight filtering through the clear stone.

"That was my knife when I was a lad," said Saradoc behind him. Merry jumped slightly and twisted around to see his father's face. "Before that it belonged to your grandfather, and to his father before him. It has been passed down to every eldest son since it was made, many years ago. It's a family heirloom." Merry looked at the knife in his hands with a new respect. His father bent down and helped him to attach it to his belt, before standing back and giving his son an approving look. He spoke two words.

"You're ready."

Immediately the crowd of hobbits formed two rows on either side of Merry and his father, revealing the end of the path: a dive underneath the hedge, with strong brick walls rising higher and higher and finally curving over to form an arched roof. At the end of the tunnel, directly beneath the hedge, the way was blocked by a gate of thickset iron bars. Merry walked steadily forward, his father's words ringing in his mind.

"Then the Gate will be opened, and you and I will go forward into the Forest. Remember to hold your head up high and always look forward, not to the side, whatever happens. I will be with you for one hour, and then I shall leave you—but remember, Merry, although it will seem as if you are alone, friendly eyes will be watching you, and any danger you manage to get yourself into, you'll not be in for long."

He kept walking.

A sudden handclap rang out. It repeated slowly, and kept repeating as more and more hands joined the beat, always keeping to the same steady rhythm. Clap. Clap.

Merry kept walking.

The clapping went on, on and on, and his heart skipped and joined the beat at double time. His nerves were tingling.

Merry kept walking.

Saradoc reached the gate, and drew out a key. He turned it in the lock. There was a click, and he beckoned Merry forward. Slowly, as if in a dream, the young hobbit reached out a hand and gave the gate a gentle push. It swung forwards. Beneath his feet the grass of the Shire was green and tame and healthy. Merry took a deep breath, lifted a foot, and set it down again in a foreign land.