Sam and his family sat on the banks of the river. Merry and Pippin
and thier families were there with them, and they were having a picnic on
the beautiful summer day.
They had just finished eating and the children
were running around with sticks, each taking turns being the 'orc' as the
other was pertending to be either Sam, Merry, Pippin, and even sometimes,
when the girls did not want to be 'Gollum' or an 'orc' they would bring Frodo
into thier games (though they did not all the time because it would make
thier fathers...especially Sam...sad and quiet). Diamond, Estella, and Rosie
were off across the river to the Hobbiton market to visit with other hobbit-lasses
or to get special treats for thier children. The three male hobbits watched
thier children(all except Merry of course, as he did not have any) run around
pretending to be them. Other little Hobbit lads and lasses joined them after
a while from other picknicking families. Sam's little daughter, Daisy, stayed
by her father, as she did not feel old enough to play with the bigger kids.
She played with a flower as she spoke to her dad.
"Papa? Tell me again what happened after you fought
all those bad orc guys and you went to..." she pause. She had never been
quite good at pronouncing 'Lothlorien'
Sam smiled. "Lothlorien?"
She grinned at him and nodded her head. "Yeah! tell me again!"
Once the other children had heard their father
say "Lothlorien" they came over and sat down. Frodo, Rose, Merry, Pippin,
Goldilocks, and young Hamfast (Elanor had gone with her mother as she was
older than the others) . Little Faramir Took came over quitely and asked
"Uncle Sam? Can I listen too?"
"Sure ya can my boy! Have a seat, lad and listen to my tale." And so Sam began as he had so many times before.
"We were devastated. Gandalf had fallen, right
in front of our eyes, and we were still trying to escape the nasty orcs.
We ran into this forest that seemed like any other forest we have here in
the shire, but soon we began to notice that it slowly changed. The trees
were silver and the leaves were golden. The sweet smells that were in Rivendell,
we also noticed here, only stronger. But we could not enjoy it. The whole
time, I had tears in my eyes and couldn't focus on anything. I didn't even
notice the Elves untill the tip of an arrow was right in the middle of my
nose." He pressed little Rosie's nose in. She giggled. "Though, I'm sure
there was some Elvish magic we couldn't see."
Thain Peregrin took (hehe...well doesn't that work
out nicely?) over for a while with the story. "We walked through sort of
in a daze, not noticing alot untill we reached a stopping point and Aragorn
and the Elf, Haldir started arguing in Elvish."
Sam nodded. "Well, I looked at Frodo and felt so
much sympathy for him. He must have thought everything was his fault, and
I just wanted to tell him that it wasn't, but I never have been good with
words, and Boromir seemed to handle it pretty well."
"Well, that night, we spoke with the Lady Galadriel,
who, was like the stars in the sky. She seemed to shine just like that! She
almost spoke to you, with out movin her lips, and it was only to you....no
one else could hear."
Sam had noticed that other hobbit children from
other families had come to listen. Merry started up with the story again.
It seemed like he especially enjoyed telling the story...using big arm movements,
and facial expressions that after a while scared the children...especially
when he got to the part of the story where Galadriel freaked out on them.
Sam stopped him short and started after he left off.
"Well, yes, she scared us pretty awfully. The
songs the elves sang were beautiful. Though I didn't know how to speak the
language, some how I understood. We slept so peacefully while in Lorien,
resting to sound of the elves and the wind whistling through the silver trees.
I wish we didn't have to go. I wish that we could have just stayed there,
in peace, and forget about our task."
"Why didn't you?" Little Pippin pipped up.
Sam sat for a second, wondering himself. Finally he said, "Because of you."
"Me? I wa'n't even born yet!"
"No, but you never would have been born if we didn't
finish the job. I wanted you to live, to breathe, and I wanted to be back
home, in the safe Shire, with your ma, and with my friends."
Young Rosie hugged her father. "Thank you Daddy. And Uncle Merry and Pippin."
The children ran off to go play again, with Rosie
pretending to be Galadriel, and the hobbit boys fighting over who was going
to be Frodo and Sam, Merry and Pippin. The older hobbits smiled and over
heard Faramir and Frodo talking.
"Our dads were really courageous, weren't they Frodo?"
"Yes, Faramir. The bravest of all Hobbits, and that's saying alot!"
"Your dad especially, Frodo. He should have a title, like 'Samwise the Brave'!"
Sam was stunned by what he heard. He felt a hand
lay on his shoulder and looked up at Pippin, then at Merry. They gave each
other a knowing look, then smiled. They continued to watch thier children
play by the banks of the river on the beautiful summer afternoon.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo.
The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And
sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy?....But
in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass.
A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer.......Because
they were holding on to something.
What are we holding onto Sam?
That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for."
