Diamond was smiling.
"I had a dream, well, more a vision" Diamond told him.
Pippin's eye brows raised slightly.
"A vision?" he asked.
"Yes, I saw that when I got home, I had set up an orphanage!" she answered.
Diamond's face lit up. Pippin could see that she had planned it all already.
"An orphanage?" he asked.
Diamond nodded.
"We can house hobbits, humans and dwarfs if necessary" she told him.
"The dwarves can live under the ground, the hobbits can live on the first floor and the human children can live on the first and second" she said.
The hobbit took a deep breath and sighed.
"I would love to open one" she said happily.
But, as always, Pippin was having his doubts. He took a deep breath and looked away. He thought about the idea of building the orphanage and housing all of the children.
"Well, lets think about it after Yule"
Diamond suddenly gasped.
"Oh no!" she said.
"I should have started my Yule clean!" she told them.
Dolly shook her head.
"There wont be any Yule clean this year. You've been though enough already and there's still the journey back yet" Dolly told her.
But Diamond wasn't listening.
"What day is it?" she asked.
Pippin took a deep breath.
"It's the 18th day of Foreyule" he answered.
Diamond looked shocked.
"That means I only have twelve days left till Yule!" she said.
"I should have started cleaning three days ago!"
Diamond looked worried. She had a lot of work to do. Her friends were coming around for dinner and a turkey had been left in her cellar.
"But, I have to clean the cooker and then the kitchen, the whole house needs doing!"
Pippin took a deep breath.
"I think we're going to have Yule on the road this year" he told his wife.
Diamond looked worried. She hated having a dirty house. Nearly every day she would have to clean a room. It was what she did and she liked it. She would look forward to guests coming to visit. Diamond and Pippin would try and put on the most Yule feasts. Last year it was five. But this year, they planned to have six.
But now that they were in Rivendell, their plans had been ruined.
"Do you think we can get back before Yule?" Diamond asked.
Elrohir looked at the hobbit.
"No, I do not" he answered.
Diamond's heart sank. She was going to miss the one time of year that she has waited for.
"And what about the presents?" she asked.
"Diamond, you've been though a lot. Please will you just not think about it this year?" Pippin asked.
Diamond looked down. She knew that the Shire was too far away at this moment. It would be days before they get back home. Her reputation was on the line. But she had to let it go. She thought that she put on the best Yule feasts in the whole of the Shire. But this year, it was going to go to someone else.
"Come on Diamond, lets go and have a look around" Pippin told her.
He extended his hand. Diamond smiled and took it.
"I'll stay here with the baby" Dolly said.
"Just in case he wakes up"
Diamond nodded and smiled.
So, the two of them walked out of the room. The light from the sun was now going down and it was about six o'clock. The wind blew around them. Diamond's eyes were taking everything in. There were old looking trees anchored to the million year old rock.
The river below ran down the valley. Lots of water falls fell like white ribbons down the rock face. Over millions of years, the river had carved out a winding valley. Plants and trees had made their home in the split rocks.
Pippin and Diamond walked down a path. It wound ever downwards. The path opened up to revile a secret cove. The river ran by. Neither Pippin or Diamond had ever been down this small path before.
"Oh wow!" said Diamond.
The clear water rushed by them. It lapped against the smaller stones and rocks. The stones and rocks were all different colours. There were deep red ones and light green ones. The rock face that made up the small cove towered above them. The face of the rock was untamed. Diamond could sense that the rock had a power beyond hers.
Pippin was looking around as well. The large faces of rock reminded him of Moria. The sound of water running past filled the hobbit's ears. The cold spray touched their faces as they stood there.
"So, do you like it then?" asked Pippin.
Diamond looked over at him.
"I love it Pip" she answered.
The two of the smiled. Diamond then cuddled him and rested her head on Pippin shoulder. Pippin looked down and smiled.
On top of the large cliff, a building to could be seen. Torches had been lit to show the way. The bridge connecting the two sides of the valley together.
A figure walked along it, stopping every few feet to light the candles. The small flames flickered as they sprung to life. They stood there like small guards. They gave a small bit of light, but it would soon grow as the sun lost it's light that day.
"We should get back, I'm getting a bit hungry" Pippin said.
Diamond lifted her head.
"I thought you were always hungry" said Diamond.
She smiled. Pippin smiled as well.
"Good point, come on" he said.
So, the two hobbits took one last look and turned around. The two of them continued to hold hands as they walked back up the path. There were candles lighting their way. They seemed to be positioned in random places. But, each of them would spill their light onto the path. The wind whistled though their branches.
The two hobbits walked back over the bridge. The candles lit the way in the ever growing darkness. Pippin and Diamond got to the room where they were staying. There was a small baby crying.
"Oh, is he up?" asked Diamond.
Dolly smiled.
"I think he wants his mummy or daddy" Dolly said.
Pippin smiled as Diamond let go of his hand and walked over to her son. She took him off of Dolly and held him. Dolly moved out of the way. The baby started to stop crying. Diamond walked around the room as Pippin walked over to Dolly.
"He looks like you" Dolly said.
Pippin smiled.
"Do you think so?" he asked.
Dolly nodded.
"He'll grow up to be a stunner, just like his father" Dolly said.
Pippin smiled. He knew that Faramir would grow up to be good looking. The baby had now fallen quiet again.
"So, I guess his name is Faramir then" said Diamond.
Pippin nodded.
"Yes, after one of my good friends" he answered.
Pippin could see Faramir of Gondor smiling and looking over him. Pip wished that he could go back to Gondor one more time. The white city, Minas Tirith, came back to him. He could see the mountain range beyond Osgiliath.
The mountain range was that of Mordor. Mordor was the one place that Pippin never wanted to see or hear of that place. Mordor had a large volcano in the middle.
This volcano was known as Mount Doom. Ever since the end of the war of the ring, the mountain had been spewing out molten rock. Rock that was so hot that it had been turned to liquid. There was a constant river of red lava flowed down the outside of the mountain.
Pippin suddenly snapped out of his small day dream. Faramir Took now sucking his tiny thumb and looking around. His eyes were blue and his hair was a fine sandy colour. The blanket that he was wrapped in covered his whole body.
"I think we should show him around" Pippin said.
Diamond was yawning.
"I don't think that's a good idea just yet Pip" answered Diamond.
She was feeling tired again.
"I think it's time for Diamond to get more sleep" Dolly said.
Diamond had walked over to the cot and had now placed Faramir back in it. The hobbit smiled as she stood up again.
"She's right Pip, I need my sleep if I am to recover my strength. Maybe we could show him around tomorrow" Diamond told him.
Pippin took a deep breath. The light of the sun had been long since past over, yet the light was a few hours from converting to darkness. But candles had already been lit. there was a stand near by Diamond bed. There were a few candles flickering in their stands. In certain places in the room, the candles could be seen reflected in the floor.
"Alright then, but at least have something to eat first" Pippin told her.
Diamond gave a big yawn. At the same time, she shook her head.
"I'm alright for now darling" she told him.
Pippin nodded as Diamond got back onto her bed. Pippin walked over and hugged his wife.
"I'll see you when you wake up, OK?" he asked.
Diamond nodded.
"Love you Pip" she said, hugging him.
"Love you too" Pippin said.
They smiled at one another. Pippin turned around and started to walk away as Diamond put the duvet over her. Her head rested on the fluffy pillows. The wind blew around her, yet she could feel it. She moved her head and saw the cot standing there.
Diamond smiled and looked up at the ceiling. The ceiling was decorated in a floral design. It seemed that the flowers all intertwine with another. There were many vines running all over the ceiling. Every now and again, a bunch of flowers would seem to sprout out of the mass of vines.
Diamond's eyes followed each vine, trying to find where one ended and another started.
The walls of the room were plain. They seemed to keep the vines of the ceiling at bay. The window areas had no sharp edges. All their corners had been filed down.
There was no door where it should have been. Just a large open space. The darkness continued to fall around the hobbit. The wind seemed to die down with the darkness.
There were no birds present at Rivendell. They had all gone to warmer climates. Yet, a few birds remained. Robins mostly. They perched on the leafless branches. They sung their song to who ever would hear it.
Diamond's eyes slowly started to close. The noise of everything around her suddenly seemed to vanish. It was only when she was asleep that she realised she had done so. Yet, Diamond did not wake.
A dream swept over her eyes. Her house came into view. Diamond seemed to be floating as she went up to the door.
The hobbit got nearer to the door, she thought she was going to bump right into it. Luckily, she didn't. The hobbit seemed to just float though like the door wasn't there.
What met Diamond's eyes shocked her. Instead of her normal, lovely home, it was dusty and untidy. Diamond's eyes couldn't take it in.
Dirt was everywhere she looked. She looked at the door. Diamond quickly started to float, the dust moved as she floated past. Everything was dirty and dusty. Diamond stopped. She could see every inch of her beautiful house had been turned into a sea of grey dust. The light from the windows hit the floating dust. Diamond could see particles whizzing in front of her. Spiders webs could be seen in the corners of the windows.
Diamond needed to clean up. she couldn't let her neighbours see the house like this. So, she floated quickly beck down the hall. There was a small cupboard near the front door. It housed a broom and a bucket. There were small squares of cloth.
Diamond quickly got them out. The bucket was placed on the floor of the hall way. Or so Diamond thought. The bucket started to float away. it floated gently up beyond the point where Diamond could reach.
The hobbit stood up and went to grab the bucket.
But it wasn't there.
Diamond looked around, yet the bucket was nowhere to be seen. Her eyes darted around. A white object caught her eye. But it was above her. Her eyes slowly raised upwards.
The bucket was there, floating in midair. Diamond suddenly dropped the broom and the cloths. But they did not fall to the floor. They too floated. Diamond looked down at them. She caught then again, just in time.
Meanwhile, Pippin was sitting at a table. Elladan and his brother were there as well. Dolly and the boy had gone to bed.
"You seemed troubled, Master Peregrin" said Elladan.
Pippin was sitting the his seat again, a small mug of beer stood before him. Pippin took a deep breath and looked away. The hobbit didn't talk.
"You are having dreams, are you not?" asked Elladan.
Pippin slowly sat up. His hands were gripped around the mug.
"Yes" Pippin answered.
Pip took a deep breath.
"It's always of Minas Tirith" he told them.
"I hear loud bangs and screams. But the dream is almost always black. I know its Minas Tirith because I can hear Gan… Gandalf" Pippin answered.
The hobbit looked over at the two brother sitting at the opposite side of the table. The were looking at Pippin.
"What is he saying?" asked Elladan.
Pippin's memory went back to the dreams that he had been having. He could hear Gandalf.
"He's saying to get back, get back to…"
The blackness of the dream. There were a lot of sounds now filling Pippin's ears. His eyes had glazed over, the elves continued to look at him.
"Fall back!" came the voice of Gandalf.
"To the second level!"
Pippin wondered what this meant. A loud bang came. Then a new sound met Pippin's ears. This had not been heard in his dream. A large bang, then a roar. The sound of flames crackling as they flew past him.
"I think it's when Mordor attack Minus Tirith. I can hear Gandalf, flames and people screaming" Pippin told them.
Elladan and Elrohir had been at the Battle of Pelennor Fields. They had arrived with Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli. The two elves knew exactly what Pippin was talking about. For they knew what Pippin had seen and been though.
"You do not have to worry, Master Peregrin" Elrohir told him.
Pippin gave a small smile.
"When will we be able to go home?" he asked.
There was a moment of silence.
"Tomorrow, Diamond is doing well. I will take you back in your cart" said Elladan.
Pippin looked more alert at that point.
"You'll take us home?" he asked, not sure that he heard it right.
Elladan gave a small nod. His expression did not change. Pippin's spirits were lifted ever so slightly. He picked up his mug, there was still a quarter left. He picked it up and drained it in one gulp.
The hobbit placed the mug down. Pippin looked tired.
"When will we…"
Pippin hiccupped in the middle of his sentence, but carried on afterwards.
"Leave tomorrow?" he asked.
"At first light" Elladan answered.
Pippin's eyes started to droop. He sank lower in his chair.
"I believe that we should get you into your bed, Master Peregrin" Elladan said, getting up.
His brother did the same. They walked around the table and helped Pippin off of his seat. The brothers helped Pippin out of the room.
The three of them walked down the small path. The two elves walked past the room where Diamond was sleeping. Yet, there was another room behind that of Diamond. The hobbit was steered the hobbit towards it.
The room looked exactly like Diamond, apart from there was a cot missing.
Pippin was now extremely tired. The hobbit could not keep walking. So, Elladan and Elrohir walked Pip over to the bed and sat him on the edge. Pip slowly laid down, putting his feet up on the bed so that he was laying flat. Elrohir put the covers over the hobbit and stood right. There was a stand with burning candles in it.
The stand looked a bit like a twisted tree. The candles flickered, giving off a small bit of light. Elladan gracefully moved over and started to blow them out. Each candles made the room darker and darker.
A couple of seconds past and all the candles had been blown out. But, by that time, Pippin had fallen asleep. The two elves walked away quietly.
Only Pippin's head was visible, the rest of him was under the large duvet. Both Diamond and Pippin were now asleep. But they were to have very different dreams.
Diamond was already in hers. A very dusty room stood before her. They dust floated around ever where she looked. Some landed and stuck to her hair. A broom and cloth were clutched in her hand. She held onto them tightly, not wanting to let go of them.
She had found out that this flew or floated away. gravity was playing tricks on her.
"I need to clean this up, Yule is in a few days" she told herself.
The wooden bucket bounced off of the ceiling in the hall behind her. She looked around and took a deep breath. Dust had settled in her hair, making it look white. Cobwebs and tables alike were covered in a layer of fine dust.
So, Diamond got to work. She walked over to the fire place. The fire had long since been put out. The small cuckoo clock was showing the time as five minutes to six.
Diamond walked out and took the cloth in one hand. She was determined to clean the entire house that day. The hobbit let go of the broom. The broom fell slowly and silently to the once tiled floor. The broom hit the floor and bounced slowly off.
Diamond knelt down and took the cloth. She then started to scrub the fireplace. The dust started to come off. After a minute, she stopped. There was an area that had no dust on it.
Diamond looked at the dust that had gathered in the cloth. Sure enough, there was a pile of dust was piled in the cloth. The hobbit's eyes ran back to the area that she had just cleaned.
But the dust had come back. Diamond took a deep breath and covered her mouth.
"How…?" she asked.
She rushed over and placed her hand on the surface. Diamond rubbed her hand over a bit of the dust. She watched the dust instantly come back.
She stood up quickly.
Just then, the clock started to chime. Diamond's heart jumped. Her eyes darted over to the clock.
The small wooden bird come out of it's small home.
Cuckoo
It retracted back into its home.
It did this another five times before falling silent. Diamond's heart rate started to slow down.
Meanwhile, Pippin was having a dream as well. His was a lot different from his wife's. There was a large city. The city had a large field before it. Two roads crossed in the middle of the massive field.
The city was called Minas Tirith. The city had been built on levels. There were gates connecting each level. They were large and had their own locking systems.
But, in Pippin's dream, everything was on fire.
"Fall back!" shouted a voice.
It was of an old man. He was sitting on a white horse. The horse was called Shadowfax. Gandalf the white was shouting orders at his soldiers.
Orcs had infested the city. Pippin's heart rate was racing.
"Where is Gandalf?" he asked, running though the injured soldiers.
Pippin was smaller then all of the men around him. He struggled to get though the crowd that was rushing towards him. Small fires burned in the buildings on either side.
Darkness had fallen around the city. A big black figure soared over head. The deafening screech of the Nazgûl was embedded in Pippin's mind for the rest of time.
Every now and again, pip could see lifeless bodies on the floor. Some had dried blood on their faces. Large rocks had been tossed into the city by Sauron's army. They had long since stopped.
The door had been forced open and now, a flood of orcs was streaming into the city.
"Fall back to the second level!" shouted the wizard.
All hope in middle-earth now lay on Rohan and their army. The hope of thousands of people lay of Theoden.
But what if he had not come?
What if Theoden had chosen the wrong path?
For one, Pippin would never have seen Merry again. Minas Tirith would have been overrun by orcs. Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli would have stayed at Edoras. No call for horse lords would have go out.
This would mean that Frodo and Sam would never have had a clear path to the mountain of fire.
There were a lot of paths that Theoden had opened and closed without knowing it. Some paths required sacrifices, others required help from others.
Origo was being helped along his journey. He was still in the arms of a strange girl. She was not an elf, she wasn't tall enough. She was not a dwarf or a hobbit.
In fact, she was only one of two left in her species. Yet, she had found the other half.
Origo had been sleeping for most of the day. but, now that it was night, he had woken up. Ori was still very hungry and weak.
"It'll be much easier when you can remember how to do it" said the girl.
Origo constantly whimpered. He missed Diamond, she had gone to Rivendell. The girl and Ori were a few miles away from the river Horewell. It would be the next day before Origo reached Rivendell.
The girl continued to walk down the path. She showed no signs of hunger or of tiredness yet. Light had fallen into the darkness. All the creatures of the day had roosted or retreated back to their burrows.
A small shower of snow had come and gone. There was more of the horizon.
The girl kept on walking. Mile upon mile when past. A black ribbon was winding its way though the land. The last bridge was a few hundred meters ahead of them.
Upon seeing it, the girl's heart started to sink. Origo's eyes were closed.
"Origo?" the girl asked.
Origo's little eyes slowly started to open.
"I have to leave you now" she said.
The puppy she was holding whimpered.
"Oh, don't do that. I'll see you really soon"
The girl slowly placed the puppy on the ground. Origo shook himself and looked up at the girl. The girl smiled and turned around. Origo watched her walk into the darkness. The girl was now just a faint figure.
The girl stopped. A second later, she walked towards the forest. Origo couldn't see her any more.
Origo was now on his own. An owl hooted miles away. The wind blew around him, moving his fur.
"What do I do now?" he whimpered, looking around.
The puppy looked around. Behind him, there was bridge. Origo looked at it for a few seconds and started to walk towards it.
His was shivering as he ascended the small bump. There was nothing stopping the pup from accidently walking off of the edge. The puppy got to the top. In front of him, the road ran away. The darkness hid the path of the road.
Origo then walked to the edge and looked over the side. Below, a cold, dark river ran. Large rocks were sitting in the cold water. They had been there for thousands of years.
Leaves and twigs had been carried for mile upon mile. Origo's eyes followed the leaves as they made their way down stream.
The pup's eyes prised away from the river. Ori knew that Rivendell was still a long way away for him. He then looked down the deep, dark road. He stood there for a while, looking down the road.
There were no lights where he was looking.
Without warning, Origo started to walk. He wasn't scared of what was out there. He needed to get to his Diamond and that's all that mattered to him.
Origo walked down the other side of the bridge and away. his ears were sharp, picking up any sounds that came his way and his eyes were clear, seeing small shadows and the stars above.
It would be a long night for Origo.