A Sort of Homecoming and Life is Back to Normal Once More…Sort of
3 May 3019, of the Third Age
13 Thrimidge 1419, Shire-Reckoning Time...
After much celebration and hugging and crying, Aragorn gave us hobbits rich velvet cloaks and led five beautiful ponies out to us.
"We'll see each other again," he said, after I had unhappily hugged him a last time.
"Will we?" I asked anxiously. And I unclenched my jaw to call, "Strider?"
"Of course," Aragorn smiled.
I wasn't so sure. I clutched the reins of my pony and feigned squinting in the bright sunlight, trying to smile, when really I was holding back the tears that threatened to flow. Finally I had to turn away, excusing myself to put my nameless pony in the stables, so Aragorn wouldn't be able to see me crying.
We set out from Minas Tirith two days later, leading our ponies down the seven levels of the city as young children followed us, throwing petals, dancing, and singing of our heroic deeds. Their parents watched and bowed in homage when we passed. I couldn't help smiling when the children announced our titles to the world.
"Ernil I Pheriannath, Aranel I Pheriannath, Greatest of the Halflings," a girl sang as she shook a tambourine, and another girl followed clutching shoots of ferns and holding them above her head. Little boys skipped and little girls threw petals over our heads, laying flowers down to show the way ahead.
When we reached the gate, we set out at a full gallop on our ponies, waving to the crowd behind us and hoping to reach home before the week's end.
Of course it was nothing of the sort, though on ponies it was only a 3 month trek to cross the lands it took nearly a year to pass before. It was like we were eagles flying over the lands we'd trod; from Minas Tirith past Helm's Deep and Edoras to the Gap of Rohan and Isengard (saying a hasty hello to Treebeard, who had done wonders with the scarred black pits), and past the Misty Mountains over the plains of Eriador until, at last, we found ourselves looking upon sights we'd not seen for over thirteen months. Barliman Butterbur welcomed us home and sent with us some of his best ale from The Pony, and we promised to return to enjoy its comforts, during a time when we were neither being pursued by Ringwraiths nor setting out finally for home.
30 October 3019, of the Third Age
9 Blotmath 1419, Shire-Reckoning Time...
My eyes narrowed as we rounded a few green hills, walking past Maggot's Farm and seeing the familiar sights of the Shire before us at last. Pippin choked as we passed a few bewildered hobbits, and I touched his arm gently, both of us dressed in our black and silver garb.
"Race you," I challenged, and we galloped off into the hills, Merry, Frodo and Sam laughing behind us.
As we approached Hobbiton, we stopped and let the others catch up so we could make an entrance together. Pippin and I rode first, nodding politely to Mr. Proudfoot and also many of our other comrades, as they stared in awe at our dress and swords and ponies. Things only acquired from worlds far away and given from peoples of different tongues and many long miles away.
"Protectors of the Shire," Merry said importantly, and we all burst out laughing.
When I saw Bag End, I leapt off my pony and sprinted to front stoop, looking out over the Shire and holding the reins. Pippin stood beside me, with an arm around my shoulders.
"We're back," he said quietly, beginning a song.
"Home is behind the world ahead
And there are many paths to tread.
Through shadow, to the edge of night, until the stars are all alight…"
Pippin's voice faded as I joined in, quietly, our tones complimenting each other.
"Then world behind and home ahead,
We'll wander back to home and bed.
Fire and lamp and meat and bread
Away to bed, away to bed.
Mist and shadow, cloud and shade, all shall fade…all shall fade…".
Pippin looked at me in surprise as I finished the song. "I've never heard you sing like that," he said.
I shrugged and looked out over the fields.
"You have a very pretty voice," he said matter-of-factly, and shyly turned away.
Later, after our ponies were tethered and our friends had stopped (politely) welcoming us back, we finally took our first steps back into Bag End. Everything was as it was thirteen months before; my scattered journals and pens, our unmade beds, our dishes washed but not yet put away, and Frodo's crumpled note, which I held to my heart, threw myself on the bed and sighed. My mixed emotions hurt my heart and my wound hurt my body.
Pippin sat beside me and handed me my journals as I unwound my scarf and held it in my hands. My Lórien cloak I hung on the door of the wardrobe, and my uniform from Minas Tirith I hung somewhere else where I could look at it, but not wear it. I was back in my comfortable dresses in the rich colors I liked wearing, back in my own bedroom, and sitting with Pippin in a very familiar hobbit hole.
"It's over," I breathed. "Somehow, I can't believe it."
Merry, Pippin, and I skipped out the door, our packs on our shoulders, alive as we hustled through Maggot's crops and found Sam and Frodo, hiding from a Ringwraith, on the road to Bree where Strider was waiting and the Ringwraiths attacked a second time, stabbing Frodo at Weathertop…
Pippin's voice jostled the thought. "I know," Pippin said quietly. He stared at the bedspread, tracing his fingers along the patterns as he began to talk of something very different. "I thought you'd died, there, at the Black Gate…" His mind must have been remembering the scene, for he was now looking off into the distance. "I took your helmet from your head and you were so pale. Your eyes were closed…Gandalf and the eagles flew from the Gate, looking for Frodo and Sam, and we took you back with us. You were hurt…bleeding; I wouldn't let you leave me. I took care of you myself, with help from the chambermaids. I bathed your face and cleaned your wound and bandaged you while you slept. You slept for three days…"
"I'm just happy to be home," I said, but didn't really mean it. I had jerked awake when I realized what Pippin had done for me, and blushed, thinking of myself unconscious, being cared for. I wrinkled my nose and cross-eyed at Pippin. "You gave me baths?" I said.
He blushed, and we giggled, then laughed. When the moment had passed, I sighed again, kicking my legs against the bed.
"It's hard to go back to an old life. We've been through a lot and learned a great many things." Pippin took my hand and looked at it. Then he picked up the book I'd begun a few moments before, and began reading.
"Just a few notes," I said, looking at the page with him.
Order of Events: Shire…Bilbo's Party, My Birthday, Leaving Shire, Black Riders, Bree, Strider, Leaving Bree, Weathertop, To Rivendell, Rivendell, Council of Elrond, Fellowship Leaves, Going South, Caradhras, Moria, Gandalf is Lost, Lothlórien, Amon Hen, Boromir is Lost, Prisoners of Uruk-Hai, Treebeard/Fangorn, Scouring Isengard, Saruman is Defeated, The Palantir, Minas Tirith, In Service of Denethor, Massacre at Osgiliath, Battle of Pelennor Fields, Saving Faramir, The Witch-King is Defeated, Battle at Black Gate, I am Hurt, Aragorn's Coronation, Homeward Bound.
Beneath that I'd written in careful script the beginning to all our adventures.
Home is Behind, The World Ahead
The Story of Adamanta Bolo, who travels on Many Adventures with Several Hobbits, a Ranger, an Elf, Men, and a Wizard
21 September 3018, of the Third Age...
30 Halimath 1418, Shire-Reckoning Time...
"You have everything?" Rosie asked, folding dresses and stowing them in my pack.
"Yes," I said, kneeling on the floor and rolling a blanket. A few hair ribbons lay on the floor. I picked them up, along with my cloak. Rosie handed the pack over and I put it over my shoulders, pulling the straps uncomfortably. We looked at each other.
Behind my head I'd heard a knock and Sam's quiet hello to Mrs. Cotton.
"Adamanta," she called.
Feeling woozy, I groaned quietly. Rosie followed me down the hall to Sam, wordless. Rosie's siblings stared curiously as Sam took my arm and nodded once.
"I'll see you all soon," I said, but I knew that wouldn't be true. Everything was changing now. Still, Rosie waved till Sam and I had left her threshold and rounded a corner of the road. I didn't speak to him, just followed quietly, shuffling my feet. My father's death was still in my mind and the last two months had been the closest thing to a family I knew I'd ever have, ever again. At least there was Bilbo's party to look forward to, if the day ever came. The Hill climbed in front of my eyes, closer than ever, more beautiful than any hobbit hole I'd ever chanced to meet. I'd only seen it from afar.
Pippin whistled. "That's a lot, Mandy," he said. "I didn't realize it, but that's a lot of things to have gone through. And over a year gone, too." He patted my shoulder comfortingly and, getting up, he left me and my books.
I fell asleep quickly, without even eating dinner first.
1 November 3019, of the Third Age
10 Blotmath 1419, Shire-Reckoning Time...
The next morning I awoke feeling very lonely, crying quietly in my sleep. I'd wanted to come home, didn't I? More than anything I just wanted it to be over, and now that we were home we could not live a normal life. I shook my head and got out of my bed, leaving Frodo asleep. The others were sleeping too, so I sat out on Bag End's front stoop, feeling the comfortable warm air around me. I held my journal in my lap and rested against the wide green door, looking down on Hobbiton, for that was a wonderful thing about Bag End; you could see the entire Shire practically open up at your feet. So, instead of writing for once, I felt very taken with the scenery and decided to draw it all, just once, at the back of my journal.
Feeling much better and remembering not with sorrow but happiness that we'd completed the "task" as Frodo had put it a year ago, I turned away from the green hillside and stepped back inside the hobbit hole.
I started breakfast for the boys and sat alone, unsure of what to do with myself. There were no more battles, no more orcs, and no more reason to run to a new destination. All was quiet and calm. And, though I missed our adventures immensely, I had to admit I liked it better that way, for all I and the others had thought of during the entire trip was going home and all being back to normal.
Except, now that we were in fact home, it could never be.
It was cloudy outside and began to rain a bit, so I started a fire in Bag End's fireplace and sat in a chair, holding my books forlornly. Making myself a cup of tea, I stood next to the windows and looked outside for a while at everything and everyone going about its business. How absurd to have changed so much, I thought. The Shire stayed quiet, sleepily enjoying the laziness of the day. How ever could I have wanted to return?
Merry joined me, sitting silently in a chair.
"How are you?" He asked, yawning. "I slept but couldn't…fall asleep. I dreamed I was a Rider of Rohan again." Merry's eyes gleamed and he blushed as he remembered Éomer and Éowyn and the fair horses of Rohan. He sipped a cup of tea after I poured it and sighed, tracing his finger around the rim.
Vaguely I remembered seeing five cups and a teapot sitting in Bag End's kitchen after walking in the first time. I know what I must do now, I thought. With Merry beside me, I opened up my journal to where I left off and began to write. Somewhere in the middle of the chapter I wondered why Merry and Pippin had never gone home to see their families, but selfishly I was glad. I wanted them here, with Sam and Frodo and me, where they belonged.
Later that day, after Frodo had read my first chapter and agreed I was just as bad as Bilbo ("I AM and have always been, a writer," I argued with a strained smile) and he offered us the chance to go to the Green Dragon. I threw on the plainest dress I had, feeling pretty uncomfortable after wearing pants for so long. I averted my eyes when I entered the pub, even though it was a familiar place. The five of us received many strange looks from hobbits who didn't approve of our sudden departure, and gold-haired Rosie Cotton from behind the bar looked at me with question. I ignored her. I didn't feel like answering questions at the moment. Dark-haired Diamond stood with Rosie, next to my once-was best friends Lily and Poppy. They eyed me with stone-cold stares, at my scars and pale face and newly formed muscles. I couldn't help but realize how beautiful and dainty they were, like flowers in their fitted gowns, and how strong I'd become. My hands felt stiff and leathery as I clutched my skirt, staring back at them. They'd grown, but so had I.
Sam threw himself in a stool and the rest of us seated ourselves with him while Frodo went off to get five mugs of ale. I swallowed, waiting for the "none for you, you're too young" that never came. I had forgotten that I now was eligible to drink and hold down ale. I rested my head in my hand, my bandages beneath my dress threatened to cause me pain, as the dim light and the laughing and the drinking made my mind spin. Looking around, I saw the others felt the same way—staring off in the distance, no longer a part of the liveliness that the non-disappearing hobbits could partake in. The hobbits in the bar laughed and the women began their gossip, of events we'd never know of. Mr. Ted Sandyman brought in a pumpkin, startling more laughs and excitement.
Whoo, I thought. Some part of me wished I could be Diamond or Estella, gossiping about the strange girl at the table, next to the dirty, scarred hobbits.
Frodo finally broke the awkward moment by raising his glass and toasting the Shire, something that we could all agree was worth remembering our adventures for.
Sam, drinking his ale, perked up when he succeeded in catching Rosie's eye. She smiled, wiping out a mug. It was evident how she was glad to see he was back. She waved to Sam and the rest of our table, attracting glances from other hobbits as well.
Sam looked utterly determined as he got to his feet and walked to her. Sweeping her off her feet he spun her and she laughed, until he stared her into the eyes and touched her cheek gently before kissing her softly and asking her to marry him! Now that was something I did not expect, not even when Rosie clasped her hands to her mouth and tears pricked her eyes, crying "Yes, oh Sam, yes!" And Sam held her to him and kissed her.
Pippin raised his eyebrows and Merry looked confused, but Frodo and I just laughed and laughed.