(A/N - Wow. School's out, and I'm so busy. Outr Steeler's football team's quaterback Ben Roethlisberger got into a serious motorcycle accident yesterday, and he's supposedly okay, but from the football standpoint, we know nothing yet. My sister spilt boilg water all over her hand today which wasn't pretty, and i've been getting an earful from my parents for something or the other. Technically, I shouldn't even be on my computer right now, but I feel like being defiant and updating for you guys, LoL.)
. Reviewers .
x) Elwing-Evenstar - Wait no longer! LoL. You shall find out hat Pippin received in the bottom half of the story of course! Glad you liked that last chapter, and I hope that this one starts to stir things up a bit for everyone, including you! Thanks for the review, and enjoy it!
x) SouthernCharm83 - Well, this chapter is where they discover the Ring, so I think that's a good start so far, LoL. In chapter sixteen I've got them fighting the Nazgul at Weathertop, so I hope I'm not going too slow. Everything will flow, trust me. I'm in the making of seventeen now, so let me know what you think of the pace. I'll try to update more frequently from now on since it's summer, but no promises. Sorry, haha... I make promises and they usually backfire... But! I'm glad you liked the last chapter and I hope that you will very much be pleased with this one! Enjoy!
x) ArwenEvenstar83 - It's really cool how when I read your reviews I feel like I'm reading the story with you sitting next to me pointing out and commenting after all your favorite parts, LoL. Thank you very much for another totally awesome review, and here's another chapter for ya! Love it! LoL..
x) Dragon-Slayer-of-the-4th-Realm - I am so honored by that! LoL. you know, I did some research on my stats a few motnhs ago when I first posted this, and it was part of a C2 group here that was called something like 'The Worst of the Worst LOTR FanFiction,' and I wrote an email and they did nothing. I think C2 groups need to get permission to use others' stories before putting them in a group. It was just rude. But I haven't gotten and flames yet, only love, so I'm thankful for that. Thanks so much for finding the time to review! I hope you keep on enjoying with us!
.: Wow, I need piano lessons... :.
- Dis/Claimer -
. Chapter Six .
.. The Ring ..
Spring was now melting into the months of summer. The rain had passed a few days after Samwise had shown up soaked to the bone on Bilbo's doorstep. Sam had caught an awful cold being out in that horrid downpour, but Merry, Pippin, Frodo, and Angie still came to visit him day in and day out.
It was really early one morning when they had visited him bearing some of Bilbo's special soup and a basket of Angie's delectable strawberries. Merry had tried to swipe one right in front of her while they stood at Sam's bedside, but she had slapped his hand and made him and Pippin sit and watch Sam eat all the ones he could. Torture that was for those poor fools. But after they had left, not much communication was had between them for several days. That was very odd considering the sun was shining and they were all for the most part in good health.
Angie hadn't heard from any of them in a few days. She became quite bored with the wait and began to take up reading the small blue book Frodo had given her between the chores her mother had forced upon her since she was suddenly at the hobbit hole on a daily basis for three consecutive days. Yes, big news for Angie's mother. Probably the longest Angie had remained in that terrible place since she had met Merry and Pippin.
She was finally done with sweeping out her room when her mother suddenly yelled, "And don't forget to weed that eyesore excuse of a garden of yours!"
Angie rolled her eyes and closed her door, abandoning the broom to the nearby corner. Her eyes wandered around her room now that she had finished it after a long morning's work. She really wished her friends would come back. She'd rather get Maggot's rake on her back than a daily workload from her mother.
She flopped on her bed with a sigh of exhaustion. She'd had enough for one day, even if it was just morning. If her friends weren't going to show up anytime soon, Angie mind as well do the second best thing: get out of that stuffy room and go read.
She took up the blue book in her hand and made her escape out the window. Then she stopped to examine her strawberry patch. It was not all weedy! How dare she. It was perfect! Angie had weeded it two days ago! She just shook her head and took off into the grassy fields finally feeling free again, a feeling she hadn't felt in what felt an eternity.
She came to her favorite glen where the trees where perfect for climbing and where she could have the most alone time in the Shire. Her comfort spot. That's what you could call it. Well, this and Bag End; they both were too close to compare.
She had not been here in a while, and oh, how she had missed it. She climbed the limbs of her favorite tree and went to a particularly long branch that parted halfway up into two other branches. Angie crawled along it when she reached it and slowly let her stomach lay on the branch as she sat her book in the crook of the branch and began reading. She was careful not to fall having not been in the tree for some time.
"Angie?"
She looked up, wondering how she had been interrupted in her spot. Then she looked down, and there stood Frodo.
Her eyes must be playing tricks.
Frodo?
"Frodo! What are you doing here?" she asked.
"I always come here to read at this tree. What about you?" Frodo asked.
"I've been coming here to read since I was able to," Angie replied. "Before you, before Sam, even before Merry and Pippin."
"Well then, I guess I've stumbled onto your territory," Frodo said, smiling.
"Hmm... What should we do with you, you little trespasser?" Angie teased.
"Throw me away into the River and never speak of me again?" Frodo suggested.
"Nah, I'm too tired."
"Well, since you're too tired to persecute me or anything at the moment, would you mind if I had a seat and enjoyed my last hours?"
"Not at all," Angie said with a smile.
"Thank you."
He took a seat at the base of the tree and opened up his book. Angie returned to her reading as well with a big smile across her face. She was sharing her reading tree with Frodo. What a delight.
And she got to push him into the River later.
What an even bigger delight.
x x x
Hours went by as they sat in silence lost in their reading. Frodo, however, was brought back to reality by the rumbling of his stomach. He frowned.
"Just as it was getting good," he muttered. Then he stood and looked up in the tree at Angie.
"Angie?"
She looked up.
"Yes?"
"I'm hungry. Would you maybe want to see if we can have something to eat back at Bag End or the Fortress or something?"
"Sure," Angie said, and her stomach agreed as well. "Maybe we can eat at the Fortress after we get the others? I haven't seen Merry, Pippin, or Sam in days."
"Well, I'm not sure if Sam's well yet or not, but if he is, he should be at Bag End with the gardens," Frodo said. "I'll go get him and some food from Bilbo, and you can get Merry and Pippin. We'll meet at the Fortress for noon. How does that sound?"
"Sounds good, and so does lunch. Let's hurry," Angie said. "I'm famished! We missed second breakfast and elevensies!"
x x x
"Don't tell me they're gone already!"
"Well, Angie, we told you to hurry and get some while they were there," Pippin said. "Your strawberries, for the thousandth time, are irresistible."
"But I brought those for Sam!" she said. "He's been sick for a while now."
"I'm fine, Miss Angie!" Sam said. "I had my share. But these two don't eat 'em, they inhale 'em," he said with a sideways scowl towards Merry and Pippin.
"Again, our life support," Merry said.
Angie rolled her eyes as she ate the last of her roll. Frodo laughed as he took in the scene in front of him. It was going to stay this way if Angie didn't stop bringing those strawberries to their get-togethers or didn't destroy the strawberry patch altogether.
"Yes well, again, I'll cut off your life support with one more night visit under my window," Angie threatened.
No, that wasn't a threat, Frodo told himself. That was a promise.
Lunch went by with ease and light chat between them all. Eventually their talk led them out into the shade the Fortress so graciously provided for them, and the warm breeze of the summer coming was relaxing yet invigorating.
"Ah, lazy days," Merry moaned as he stretched and walked slowly into the sunlit meadow. "Good to be a hobbit, it is."
"Yes, so fun," Angie said sarcastically. She looked out over Hobbiton and sighed. "I'm bored."
"Want to go bug Farmer Maggot?" Pippin asked lazily.
"Nah, did that twice last week," Merry said, dejecting his idea. "How about Bilbo and the Dragon?"
"I'm the dragon!" Pippin shouted.
"No," Angie said. "Did that four times last week."
"Well, geez Ang!" Pippin said. "We haven't seen each other in five days and you're already bored with us that easily?"
"No," Angie said. "I just-"
Then she saw Frodo talking to Sam. They had wondered down by the riverbank... Angie smiled slyly as she ran over and whispered furiously in her best friends' ears. Merry and Pippin smiled as she leaned away very eager to carry out the plan now. She loved her little mischievous streak.
"On three?" Merry asked.
"On three," Pippin confirmed.
"One..."
"Two..."
"THREE!"
The three of them went flying down the hill at Frodo and Sam. Frodo had turned around just in time to see them pummel him and Sam into the grass, dirt, clay, mud, and then the water. The water luckily was not all that swift when the bunch of them had tumbled in with a loud splash, but it was very chilly. Soon, they each reached a rock; Merry took up Angie on his, and Sam, Frodo, and Pippin were forced onto one together.
"You idiots!" Frodo shouted, sputtering water out of his mouth as water dripped freely from his dark hair and drenched clothes. He threw water off of his sleeves and onto Pippin angrily.
"Hey! I didn't do it!" Pippin said defensively. "It was Angie's bright idea!"
Then Frodo looked over at Angie as she wringed her hair out and Merry shook his hair out like a wet mutt. Angie looked back but started to laugh; he looked ridiculous with his wet hair and angry eyes.
"It's not funny!" he argued.
"It's hilarious!" Angie said. "Besides, I owed you for stumbling onto my territory earlier, remember?"
Frodo wiped the hair away from his eyes and plopped down on the rock still blowing water out of his face. She had gotten him. Darn. But now there was a different problem. How on earth were they to get back to land?
"Well, now what?" Sam asked, voicing Frodo's thoughts. "We certainly can't swim to shore... lucky at all to have clung to these conveniently place rocks if you asked me."
"Well, nobody asked you, Sam," Pippin said as he let his hair shake about.
Frodo laughed to himself; Merry and Pippin never cease to push Sam's buttons. It wouldn't seem right if they didn't. Frodo also knew that Sam himself didn't really think much of them from all the mischief they caused and got themselves and him into. Relentless it was; sheer, relentless behavior on behalf of Meriadoc Brandybuck and Peregrin Took.
"Would you two stop it?" Angie asked. "It's just one more thing to bicker over, isn't it?"
"I want off this bloody rock!" Sam said.
Pippin went to push him in, but Sam held up his fists defensively. Those two started getting into the name calling and nitpicking until Frodo exploded.
"Stop!" he yelled. "You two aren't helping." Then, letting himself take a deep breath, he calmed and spoke again. "Now, can we jump from rock to rock?"
"You chance a slip, a fall, and a plunge in doing so," Angie said.
"Well it's better than sitting on a rock all day with no food and these two driving you to jump in and drown yourself," Frodo replied, getting to his feet.
.. x x x ..
The dealings of Bilbo's will drove all five of the hobbits up a wall over the course of the next few days. Pippin was indeed mentioned and left a nice pouch of Bilbo's finest weed. He relished this great surprise and thanked Bilbo a thousand times over as he pulled out his pipe and began smoking it on the spot.
They were all mentioned; Angie, Merry, Sam, the lot of them. But as the hobbits and hobbit lasses in Bilbo's will came and went from all ends of the Shire, Frodo grew weary and would be glad to have it done it over with so he could sleep comfortably when time would finally allow.
And now Angie was talking about something Bilbo had said to her about making a living of canning delicious jams for the hobbits of the Shire. She was talking about it here and there, saying she was going to get different kinds of berries to make her jams, and that she would someday have a whole plot of land behind a shop so that they would always be fresh. Frodo smiled at her big ideas. It seemed to be the perfect thing for her to do. She had a natural green thumb just like Sam.
"I wonder where I would put the shop?" Angie said as she sat down at the table in Bag End where everyone else was sipping tea after the last of the hobbits in Bilbo's will had left. "Somewhere easy access, of course."
"What kind of berries do you plan to have?" Sam asked.
"Oh, all kinds, Sam," she said. "And you know what? I'll make you my first assistant in growing them."
Sam smiled, straightening himself in his chair proudly. "Thank you, Miss Angie. It'd be a pleasure to work with you."
"It'd be a pleasure to have you," Angie said. "And of course there's my little rotten thieves here," she said, motioning to Merry and Pippin. "You two can have a jar a day each if you promise not to eat my berries off the bush."
"But the berries are the best part!" Pippin said.
"Okay, one jar of berries then," Angie compromised. "And Frodo, of course, you're welcome to whatever I have as well."
"It'd be great if this would happen," Frodo said.
"It will," Angie said. "Someday..."
x x x
Years passed after Bilbo's stunt. Yet Bilbo was somewhat forgotten to many and still others would say 'good riddance' in thinking about him and his leaving them high, dry, and confused the night of his disappearance. And some still did not know what had become of him. Frodo was suspected of being in on it somehow, but he would wave them off and just wallow in the company of his friends had these rumors and accusations arose again.
Angie's ideas were still brilliant as ever, but they hadn't made much headway since she hadn't the funds to put them into action. Frodo had offered to help with paying for the land and materials, but Angie absolutely refused unless she had enough to do most of it herself. And so, not much was done in the way of the jam shop, though Angie's ideas got better whenever she voiced them every so often.
But for now, everything ceased to arouse them. Lazy days and relaxation were more than welcome over the past few weeks. Frodo had gotten more sleep than usual, and it was great at how peaceful everything had been.
It was a warm summer evening nearing the autumn run when Frodo received a series of knocks on his door. He sighed and reluctantly left his chair in the study to answer it. When he opened it, he smiled; it was only Sam.
"I'm done with your gardens, Mr. Frodo," he said, motioning outwards towards the freshly weeded flowers around the large green door. "Thought you'd outta know."
Frodo smiled. Then he had a pleasant idea to relax both him and Sam.
"You up for a drink, Sam?" Frodo asked. "You can leave your things at the end of the road there and pick them up on our way back from the Green Dragon later."
Sam looked very honored.
"Well, why not?" he asked, taking up his gardening tools. "I guess I could use an ale after a long day's work. That'd be nice. Thank you, Mr. Frodo."
"No trouble, Sam," Frodo replied with a smile. "Come on."
Once they had reached the Green Dragon, they made for their usual table. To their delight, Merry, Pippin, and Angie were there having a drink as well. Angie had pulled up her usual chair to the table and Merry and Pippin sat on either side of her.
"Oi! Frodo and Sam are here," Pippin said raising his glass to them.
"Ah, the drink's good tonight," Merry, said. "Get it while it lasts!"
"All right," Frodo said. "I'll be right back, Sam."
x x x
Maybe Merry had taken his own expression a bit too seriously. He had had at least half a dozen drinks before him and Pippin were up on the table dancing and singing with a full blown crowd to go along with it.
"Hey ho, to the bottle I go!
To heal my heart and drown my woe.
Rain may fall and wind may blow.
But there still be –
many miles to go!
Sweet is the sound of the pouring rain,
and the stream that falls from hill to plain.
Better than rain or rippling brook –"
"-Is a mug of beer inside this Took!" Pippin finished with a loud cheer from everyone.
Frodo and Sam had managed to get out before the crowd got too thick, but Angie wasn't so successful. No, Merry and Pippin had eventually dragged her up on the table with them. She gave a shrug in Frodo and Sam's direction, and then she began to dance along with them as they began to sing another song.
"Well, guess that's the last we'll be seeing of them tonight," Frodo said with a laugh. "Ready to go, Sam?"
"Surely," Sam responded as they walked through the door to leave.
"Wait for me! Frodo! Sam!"
They turned to see Angie running after them with a laughing smile spread across her face. Frodo and Sam stopped and waited for her until she reached their sides.
"I finally got away from those two, and you are not leaving me here with them," she said breathlessly. "I don't think I've ever danced that fast in my life!"
"And on a table, too," Sam added.
Angie laughed. "Well, I think that's enough tabletop dancing for me tonight," she decided.
"All right, then," Frodo said. "May we walk you home?"
"That'd be fine," Angie replied with a warm, polite smile.
Then they proceeded to leave through the exit where Rose Cotton, the barmaid of Sam's fancy for sometime now, was seeing everyone out with her lovely smile. Sam straightened up a bit as they approached.
"Goodnight," Sam heard Rosie say.
He spun around to meet the hobbit lass's face, and smiled.
"Goodnight," he said back to her sheepishly. Angie and Frodo smiled to one another.
As they walked further out the door, the three of them heard behind them a loud drunken hobbit overly flattering Rosie. They looked back, Sam himself going green with envy.
"Mind who you're sweet talkin'," Sam said angrily as he kept walking. Frodo and Angie exchanged smiles once again.
"Don't worry, Sam," Frodo said, clapping his hand on Sam's back. "Rosie knows an idiot when she sees one." Sam stopped for a moment as Angie and Frodo kept walking.
"Does she?" he asked skeptically.
Frodo and Angie shook their heads with a smile as they began to head towards Bag End. Frodo suddenly felt more drunk than he should have, though. He, Sam, and Angie all began to stagger and sway up the path. When they reached Bag End, Sam threw his things on his back but fell down. Frodo and Angie laughed, and she bent down to help him up.
"Goodnight," Sam said to Frodo once on his feet again.
"Goodnight, Sam," Frodo laughed. "Goodnight, Angie."
"Goodnight, Frodo."
With that beautiful smile gracing her lips, Frodo watched as he walked up the path she and Sam walk in the other direction. Oh, how her hated/ loved her. He was so preoccupied with watching Angie and smiling about her that he had yet to realize that he had just walked into Bag End without opening the door. Then he stopped two paces in.
The door was open?
Frodo looked around. The place looked like it had been shuffled around a bit. But he had just tidied up before sitting in his chair and leaving with Sam. It made no sense. Suddenly, a huge hand fell upon his shoulder, and he gasped in fear and surprise, spinning around. The frantic face of Gandalf leapt out of the darkness at him whispering very quickly, "Is it secret? Is it safe?"
Outside, Angie and Sam were making there way past Bag End when the entire hobbit hole suddenly was alight. They looked up at it in amazement as they saw more than one figure passing by the window.
"Sam," - she grabbed his arm and he stopped - "Frodo's not alone up there," Angie said quietly.
"It would appear so," Sam responded, dropping his things on the road. "But he doesn't look like he's a stranger to Mr. Frodo."
Then an enlightening thought passed through both Angie and Sam's minds. They looked at one another and smiled. Bilbo. Bilbo must have returned to visit after all this time! With great hope alive in them, they snuck through the gardens and up to the window in the main room.
"It doesn't sound like Bilbo at all," Sam whispered to Angie.
"Who then?" she asked.
As the conversation in the room continued, Angie and Sam's hope was dimmed to nothing, especially when they heard that it was Gandalf speaking of Mordor and a ring of power. They listened on at the story as they moved under the kitchen window with Frodo and Gandalf's voices until mention of Bilbo was heard.
"That's the ring Bilbo always mentioned in his stories," Sam whispered somewhat excited. "They have it. The folk from the East. It's... it's an evil ring."
"Evil?" Angie queered.
"Anything from Mordor I can guarantee you is evil, Miss Angie," Sam said. "I'm not that bright, but even I know that."
"Come on, Sam!" Angie said. "They're goin' back in the other room."
With more crouching beneath the windows and stumbling their knobby knees across the rocky earth, Angie and Sam once again were under the window in the main room.
Suddenly, mention of the Gollum creature was brought up. Angie and Sam were amazed at to how much Bilbo's stories were true (Why shouldn't they be? They had met Gandlaf after all, hadn't they?). Frodo began yelling at Gandalf to take the Ring immediately, but Gandalf only roared before speaking softly again.
"But it cannot stay in the Shire!" they heard Frodo's shaken voice say.
"No! No it can't," Gandalf said solemnly.
Suddenly it was silent. Angie and Sam looked at each other with heavy looks. This was a very serious and dangerous task from the sounds of things. What was going to happen next?
"What must I do?" Angie heard Frodo say, realizing her most terrible fear.
Frodo was going to Mordor? Why him? Couldn't it be any other hobbit in Middle Earth besides him? Well, Angie had decided on one thing and it looked as if Sam had to - If Frodo had to go to places unknown with an evil ring, he wasn't going anywhere without them by their sides to protect him and help him. Mordor's a long and deadly road; who knows what could possibly happen along the way?
"Wait, Angie, listen," Sam, said suddenly. "He's only going to Bree! He'll be meetin' Gandalf there."
"Bree or Mordor makes no difference," Angie said. "I'm going with him and so are you."
Sam nodded, and Angie then turned to listen again. But, her head collided painfully with the windowsill, and she doubled over to the ground.
"Miss Angie? Miss Angie, are you all right?" Sam asked, pushing back the leaves to get to her.
He was oblivious to the fact that all had gone quiet in the room trying to make sure Angie was all right, but then Samwise was hit over the head with a great force and doubled over himself. Then, he was tugged threw the window and slammed onto a table with the loud voice of Gandalf bellowing over him, "Confound it all, Samwise Gamgee! Have you been eavesdropping?"
Sam didn't know what to do but plead his innocence with a little white lie.
"I have been droppin' no eves sir, honest!" Sam said, thinking fast. "I was just cutting the grass under the window there, if you follow me."
"A little late for trimming the verge don't you think?" Gandalf asked as another rustle of leaves caught their attention. All eyes turned to the window as Angie arose from the ground brushing herself off. She gave a sigh and a smile for them all.
"Good evening, Frodo," she said, nodding at him. "Gandalf," she said, doing the same.
"Had Miss Ridell help you with that grass, did you?" Gandalf asked, rounding Sam again.
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